PRINCIPLE 1 - SHIELD THEM
When my friend got invited to run this corporate startup, the company saw it as a potential ticket to the future. But ironically, as soon as papers were signed, the music changed and it was seen as just another money drainer and became a target for internal politics.
To keep his startup away from infectious influence, he rented space outside of the corporate office in one of the co-working buildings in Amsterdam and started collecting his non-corporate champions.
She came through a recruitment agency for a temporary six-months-contract to design and run the Space - a creative environment for digital ideation and prototyping where they would bring the corporate employees and external makers to disrupt their own corporation from within - while my friend was busy fighting the corporate battles. In her interview she described all the great things she can do, so nobody questioned whether she had enough experience and maturity to fulfil her task.
Any startup founder knows that at the beginning you do as much as you can with the people and resources you have in-house otherwise you will run out of money. So in reality given the carpeted floors, ceiling, walls and light, the rest can be done very economically using some simple basics and your own creativity.
She was neither a startup founder nor ever worked in a real startup. But she was well trained at delegating all the tasks that came her way. Which is why her first step was to hire an expensive building agency to do the design and another trainee to do the manning of the Space.
As my friend was fully occupied trying to protect the existence of the startup itself from corporates, he hardly had time to visit the Space or to track Wanna-be’s progress. In less than three months she managed to completely drain the budget assigned for the design of the Space.
It would have been absolutely fine if she had accomplished the task. But in reality, all she got was a very expensive drawing of how it could be done (which anyway didn’t suit the purpose of the Space) and a calculation for double the money to build it. With that, she left for a month-long vacation.
Here went down my friend’s first principle: don’t constrain them with the budget or expose to corporate politics. The money was gone, the place looked the same as three months ago, there was an extra trainee on payroll not knowing what to do. There was no result to show back to the company providing the budget and expecting the gain. And Wanna-be who was trusted in making it happen with no worry or sorry was on holidays.
PRINCIPLE 2 - GIVE A SECOND CHANCE
When Wanna-be came back a month later, whatever she previously initiated was fully demolished, all projects stopped and the trainee re-assigned. My friend had a conversation with her helping her to analyze the mistakes she could have avoided. Her contract was ending and seemingly he could have just let her go.
But my friend is a believer. He trusts that people have the drive to be better and if they are given an opportunity they will be. So he gave Wanna-be a second chance - a new one-year contract. During her first assignment, he paid for training her as a facilitator. So for the second term, he redirected her activity into facilitation. He explained to her the new task and offered his support.
Ironically, in less than a week after starting her new position, Wanna-be orchestrated herself a “nervous breakdown” because of “unbearable pressure at work”. It had all the necessary elements: crying on the phone, getting her boyfriend to notify her boss about it, complaining to the company doctor, and some more crying. In the end, she managed to get an 8-month medical leave fully paid by my friend’s budget which already suffered from her previous activities and corporate politics.
In the course of those months, I ran into her several times in various coffee places enjoying life and “doing some thinking”. Well… so much for second chances.
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