Strategy

On purposeful, calm companies

After my post during the first weeks of the confinement, there are still many questions without answers. But the observed behaviors of people, businesses and governments make me think that we need to work even harder to make change possible (not to say that I’m less optimistic than during the confinement).

I keep asking myself how might we redefine success?

I think that question is key as answering it could totally change how we all behave. We are stuck in the past and what most people, companies, governments want for the “new normal” is to be as similar to the past as possible. That is insane.

After talking to many of friends and contacts around the world, my guess is that very few changes happened. Some companies “quickly adapted” to remote work, but what they actually did was just moving all the vices of the offline world to the online world. Same endless, full of people meetings that end up in planning the next meeting. Same sales goals and pressure. Just moving everything online and expecting “normal” results in these ”everything but normal” times.

I still have hope. But to be honest, I see that “putting people in the center” has become popular among many teams just because this way they can advance in their business/area goals, and not because of an honest intention to care about customers, employees, or the environment we live in.

But even if they try, we are locked in a system that is focused on growth and optimizing gains and minimizing costs. Commercial teams are incentivized to focus on selling more, no matter what; HR, IT, Finance, Procurement teams are incentivized to focus on savings, no matter what. And when we push back, we are always told “this is how the real world is” or “you don’t understand life”. But despite that, some of us still want companies to become more purposeful and to consider benefits beyond financial ones. But how could companies be more purposeful and think beyond financial benefits if they are focused on short-term results and increasing “shareholder” value?

I was about to give up, but thanks to a book recommendation by the good Pablo, I’ve found "It Doesn't have to be crazy at work" the idea of a “calm company” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hanson founders of Basecamp. And seems there’s hope. So here are a few questions that might lead us to more calm and perhaps purposeful company:

If we want to start a change revolution, what if we consider companies as a product? do you know how to use it? does it have bugs? is it useful? usable? is it simple or complex?

What if we stop pursuing goals, but clear outcomes that matter instead? Goals tend to be fake numbers for the sake of setting targets. Plus as we know, pursuing “ambitious” goals might lead to the “no matter what” actions that go against our own interests of becoming people-centered: Have you tried leaving your telephone company when the customer service reps have customer retention targets? Or have you seen a project that is scoped to meet the financial targets but implies exhausting all the team? - As Jason and David say, goals could be as simple as staying in business, or serving your customers well, or having a delightful place to work. Just because “goals that matter are hard to quantify doesn't mean they are not important”

What if we stop considering “commitment” as the amount of hours and part of your personal time you dedicate to work? We need to stop those “work ethics” that celebrate presence, few hours of sleep, etc. What if commitment is being able to have a proper work-life balance?

What if instead of requiring more hours of work, we focus on having less waste of time? Many of the people I speak to end up working longer hours because they can’t work at work hours. Meetings, interruptions, calls, continuous updates, you tell me!

What if we remove all incentives and reward systems that lead to a toxic and exhausting environment?

A former boss told me once, “Do the right things right and results will follow”.

And, as a usual, these are just thoughts to provoke conversations. And I have a couple of questions for you:

  • Do you know any company that focuses equally in their customers, their employees and the environment? Which one is that? (besides Patagonia!)

  • Could a company like these thrive sustainably? If so, why do you think there are not many of them?

  • What would your company have to do to become a purposeful, calm company?

Hope to hear back from you,

Luis

@luiseduardodejo