Why Wait?

I was intrigued by a post on the Signals v. Noise blog today. Someone had asked them a question about how they resolved stalemates during their design process. Jason replied that they rarely have them because for most design decisions or changes, they simply do them. Once they are real, they can look to see how it works or doesn't, so they can make an informed decision. This reminds me of Jeff Cobb's post about "Just Do It (Strategically)." They also ask people who want to do something new to be responsible for the results. For them, that means dealing with support issues, and as they look at what that might entail, they may decide not to make the change. And they stress that all decisions are temporary. Knowing that you can revisit it later makes it easier to pull the trigger (or decide to do nothing for the time being, which is still a decision).

What really interested me, however, were the comments. So many of them pushed back (with some bitterness, I might add) at the "Utopian" nature of Jason's post. This was my favorite:

This advice sounds great in the heavenly utopia where team members like and respect each other. In non 37Signals environments, where blamestorming is common and and people have fiefdoms to defend and resources to hoard, “owning” the decision is not as clear-cut as “I’ll take on the fallout if it turns out to be the wrong decision.” Options? Work for 37S, start your own shop, or suck it up and pray for a better tomorrow.

Those are the only three options? Why do we so often sit back and wait, hoping for things to get better tomorrow? You might not be able to completely transform your organization's culture in the next week or so, but what are you going to do differently tomorrow to at least model the kind of behavior that will make your organization a better place to work? There is an implicit assumption there that your behavior will not have an impact, and I don't think that is true.

Think very carefully about what you really stand for and what makes the best organization and why, and then act consistently with that position as much as you can. You may not be able to instantly create the perfect organization, but consistently acting based on clear and explicit values and ideals is much more powerful than most people recognize.

Comments

[Maddie Grant]

Great post. Even in my tiny sphere, I have been very clear to everyone about my own (mission driven) goals for growing our membership, improving our services, alliance building etc., and not only that, but how I feel that I have a personal stake in that process and am taking personal responsibility for making it happen. I heard great feedback at a meeting last night that members have a real sense of the organization having changed for the better, just based on a few small things. If I can do that, in a VERY "old-school" professional association, anyone can do it! Enthusiasm and creativity has to start within ourselves.