Life is theatre and people are the actors, said Shakespeare. In this story, life is an experiment and people are the observed species.
Have you ever thought what happens if a brilliant man with an ever-curious brain and faith in people gets a real-life playground in the form of his own corporate startup?
A year and a half ago a friend of mine, a very accomplished and unique expert, got invited to build and run an innovation centre. He interviewed the “gods” of the company, came up with the vision and the plan for it, and embarked on his journey.
Among many other adventures, which can become part of the next story, the main one is connected to the people he brought in to be the “champions” of this startup. He’s been in charge of people almost all his professional life and he had the time to test a lot of different ways of working with them. This time his aspiration was to be a servant leader with simple guiding principles:
shield them - don’t constrain them with the budget or expose to corporate politics;
give a second chance - trust that people have the drive to be better and if they are given an opportunity they will be;
trust in abilities, not words - it doesn’t matter what is written in CV or said in an interview as long as people can show what they do;
be their equal - don’t exhibit hierarchy but show unlimited support;
encourage creativity - don’t be strict in instructions or demanding discipline;
be open-minded - let them take the initiative even if it’s not fitting with your plans or startup strategy;
be patient - let them go through their learning journey even if it takes a long time.
It sounds great on paper, and I’m sure it sounded even better in his head. But as with all great undertakings, there was only one thing that messed this perfect plan up - the Human Factor. The Murphy’s law really got its justice here “Everything that can go wrong will go wrong”. And every single one of the principles my friend had set for himself - backfired at him.
Read on the Evolution Series
EVOLUTION 01. A STORY OF WANNA-BE
EVOLUTION 01. A STORY OF WANNA-BE
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