Wrinkles are our footprints of time. Where we place these wrinkles is what matters. If we place, those on sand then the wind shall blow them away. If we leave them engraved on solidified rocks wrinkles shall stay for long times.
The quality of wrinkles is what matters. If you inspect the wrinkles on old faces, they may reveal part of the story of their lives.
Some wrinkles around the eyes have the shape of crow’s feet. People who spread joy have them. Vertical frown lines that appear between the eyes are indicative of stressed and logical-thinking people. Twinkle lines extending from the nose towards the mouth are signs of people who led life purposefully.
Scientific reasoning of wrinkles
The questions that we need to answer are:
Do wrinkles tell us who we are? What our organizations are?
Humans start to show wrinkles as early as the age of 25 and become apparent at the surface of the skin.
Aging is a natural process. However, other several factors can cause the skin to age prematurely. These factors are the footprints of our lifestyles. Small, shallow wrinkles known as laughter lines or crow´s feet tend to become noticeable at the outer corners of the eyes. Wrinkles on the forehead follow. At first, these are only visible when our skin moves as we change our facial expressions and they are known as dynamic wrinkles.
Our lifestyles link directly to the formation of wrinkles. For example, stress causes inflammation and impairs the body’s ability to repair itself. Severe stress hampers elasticity in skin tissue — and may cause wrinkles to form earlier than expected. Smoking and drinking alcohol limit the flow of blood flow to the skin. This in turn deprives the skin of the nutrients needed by the skin to self-renew.
Not only humans develop wrinkles as they age. You see wrinkles on vegetables and plants’ leaves, barks, and roots. We see wrinkles on animals. It is a common feature.
You shall see early and visible wrinkles on humans who suffer from “The Smiling Depression”. This depression refers to people who pretend happy to others while internally suffering depressive symptoms. Frowning twinkles become visible much earlier than we expect them to.
Wrinkles of Organizations
The same factors that cause people to age and show early wrinkles are extensible for organizations. Information flow is the blood-equivalent in humans. The less flow of information, the earlier signs of aging wrinkles the organizations shall show.
Lack of trust in workmates, of information, of leaders, or management, or whatever reduces the flow of information. This expedites the formation of frowning wrinkles. Lack of collaboration reduces the amount of “nutrient information” and the skin of the organization loses its ability to renew itself.
We have many indicators to reflect on the performance of organizations. I believe it is due time to think of new key performance parameters that show the rapidity of the formation of wrinkles in an organization. Stressed workers, for example, realize that they are aging prematurely. Deep wrinkles result in a high turnover of employees, higher ratios of resignations, declining creativity, and engagement of the workforce.
Wrinkles are the signs of how good we manage organizations before they get wrinkled.
