Different cultures refer to the “Black Crab” syndrome in different ways.  Some call it “Crabs in a Bucket” others call it “Crabs in a Barrel”.   No matter what it is called, the definition of the term is consistent.  

When you observe a large number of crabs in an upright receptacle, typically none of them can escape.  The reason is that each crab tries to escape the bucket by doing whatever it can to elevate itself out of the bucket.  This includes using other crabs that are closer to the top as leverage.  The trouble with this approach is that if all the crabs are using the same tactic, none of them can escape.

In researching this phenomenon, one writer asserted that when the Africans were taken from Africa to North America, the Caribbean and South America, various tribes were thrust together and slowly the displaced Africans stopped working as a family or part of a group.  It was asserted that their mindset was eventually influenced by their captors who forced survival of the fittest versus collective survival.

Eventually the old values of lifting each other up or “standing on the shoulders of ancestors” were replaced by divisive philosophies that lead people to depend on the “dog eat dog” way of being or activities that diminish some so that others can raise themselves up.

As a result of these philosophies in our present day, cultural context, we adopt an approach in business where we never let the “left hand know what the right hand is doing”.   This is an obvious trait that perpetuates mistrust, caution and individual survival as opposed to support, trust, openness and collaboration.

One way the “Black Crab” syndrome manifests itself in business is through the lack of mentoring and coaching.  Managers and supervisors constantly complain about employees being too dependent and not making decisions.  These managers are not realizing that they are creating the situation.  For instance, a manager has a deadline and an employee is taking longer than appropriate so instead of using this as a developmental opportunity, the manager takes the work and completes it himself. 

The manager then gets overwhelmed with the added responsibility of work that was originally delegated and appears to be unproductive, always complaining about employees and the volume of work.   In these circumstances, employees are not developed because they are not given the opportunity to try or even understand the delegated work request.  When this happens, no-one wins. 

Other “Black Crab” situations are clearly evident where employees point out the errors of other employees or they complain about each other to their bosses.  If they all do this to each other, no-one wins unless you have discerning leaders.

In both of these examples, individual survival outweighs the need for the survival of the collective.

Building a System of Support

Building a system of support can start at an individual level.  If you perceive someone to be in a better position than you and this evokes an unproductive emotion within you, it is time to make a paradigm shift so that other people’s success won’t negatively affect you.  

If you fall within this category, you perceive things from a place of limitation and lack and these thoughts lead to unproductive thoughts of impossibility, hopelessness, resentment of yourself and jealousy of others.  On the other end of the spectrum, there are some of you who witness success in others and this inspires you, teaching you that you can achieve your goals. 

Emotional Intelligence skills of emotional literacy, navigating your emotions and optimism can help you to make your internal adjustment.  Emotional literacy helps you to identify your emotions and emotional navigation helps you to move around these emotions so that you can respond in a way that helps build collaboration.  Optimism is a skill that moves you from a place of powerlessness to empowerment with the ability to perceive opportunities.

From a team building perspective, “black crab” work environments tend to be devoid of trust and mutual support and rife with office politics.   In these environments, leaders are not effective at picking up the leadership mantle so the, “Every man for himself” value system pervades the work place.   

Another one of the first steps in building collaboration is to identify if the leaders are the right people to take the team forward.  If so, they should be developed, if not, the right team leaders should be appointed.  In addition to performance, one of the leaders’ primary objectives should be to hold members of the team accountable to supportive behaviour through coaching, aligned reward and recognition and if necessary, corrective action which could lead to termination or reassignment.

One of the underlying assumptions in creating a high performing, mutually supportive team environment is that the decision makers are not afraid to make the tough calls.  Many decision makers are very aware of who is obstructing the flow of collaboration but they are unwilling to make the tough decision, rationalizing their hesitance by putting significant weight on the positive contributions of the persons creating barriers.  This decision making process focuses on individual, short term results as opposed to collective, synergistic, long term results and rewards.

The “Black Crab” phenomenon can be transformed through the right leadership competencies.  Most leaders already know the “Black Crab” way when they see it so they need to take a stand by developing a focus on collective performance enhancement, introducing the right accountabilities, facing resistance to change and making tough decisions designed to consciously transform the culture of the work place.

Yvette Bethel is CEO of Organizational Soul, an HR Consulting and Leadership Development company.  If you are interested in exploring how you can create higher performing team leaders, you contact her at www.orgsoul.com