Seth Godin defines sheepwalking as "the outcome of hiring people who have been raised to be obedient and giving them brain-dead jobs and enough fear to keep them in line." These are the people who don't question their purpose at work, who color inside the lines, and are compliant with managers who lead by fear.

"The fault doesn't lie with the employee, at least not at first," says Godin in his book Tribes.

But what happens when you instead build or work for an organization that treats people with respect and trust? Simply put, "when you hire amazing people and give them freedom, they do amazing stuff," explains Godin.

A simple test for sheepwalking
Godin says that a thermostat is far more valuable than a thermometer. Here's the difference:

• A thermometer points out when something is broken. "They criticize or point out or just whine," says Godin.
• A thermostat, on the other hand, changes the environment based on the outside world. "Every organization needs at least one...

A restaurant I used to work at was run by seemingly brainwashed people who all thought along the same line. If you disagreed with them, they either fired you on the spot or they made life difficult. A lot of people quit.

Most of the staff (except the select) were miserable at work:

• One employee was fired on a rumor that she said something unflattering about the owner.
• Meanwhile one male employee failed to show up for a shift but he kept his job. When the female employee did the same thing (she had a flat tire), she was fired on the spot.
• One employee was fired for making a mistake with a credit card. (This was one month after the brand new restaurant opened).
• One employee was threatened with termination because she came in late when her daughter’s dental appointment ran late.
• A rumor was started that two employees were sleeping together, and the female only was reprimanded.
• Another rumor started that an employee was huffing hairspray. A raid of her belongings turned up...