Dozens of ways I could start this one, and I debated a few, but I think in general people will understand the concept I’m going for. I don’t always love this Modern Wisdom podcast, but I listened a few days ago at The YMCA to some interview with a neuroscientist. It was pretty good, some basic shit in there, but he talked about how organizations ultimately take on the personality of their founder. Think the current Republican party and Trump — not a founder, but “the face.” Or think Zuck and Facebook, who is a founder. Think Tesla and Elon, or even Amazon and Bezos, or Widgets Inc. in Leavenworth, Kansas and its founder, KPI Kevin. Organizations become emotional and linguistic mirrors of the guy/gal who started the ball rolling, and often the guy/gal at the top now.
I worked at a joint called Virtuoso in Fort Worth in 2014-2015. The CEO was the son of the founder; his name (current CEO) was Matthew. Dude was a narcissistic sociopath on his best day, but he was revered by dozens to hundreds in the company. Most people, if they needed work out of you, would come to you and say “This is Matthew’s No. 1 priority,” as if the assertion of that lie would spring you into action. Obviously we all want to please upward and be seen as good, successful, and productive, but at some point it was so much bullshit. Thankfully I got fired from that job after 18 months. At the time, that was stressful; long-term it’s been pretty good, tho.
The only “strategy” at Virtuoso was to respond to the latest thing Matthew was discussing, which was often based on the last conversation he had, so “strategy” was pivoting hourly some weeks. We were a XYZ type of company, and then a ABC type of company, and silo heads constantly had to change policies, processes, and workflows. The veterans there guffawed and kept doing their main stuff, knowing it would change again in three hours, and the newbies raced from new initiative to new project to new ass-kiss to make sure they were in good stead.
In sum, chaos.
Now, somewhat sadly, I’ve worked at 5-6 places like this — the only “strategy” is to keep the highest person, be that the CEO or the founder (typically), happy. If you keep him/her happy but do nothing of real productivity, you are a mini-God in that organization, and you may even set yourself up for advancement. In some ways, the “product” you are offering becomes, well, the CEO/founder. He/she will constantly send you articles they were mentioned in back in 2004, and say something vague like “Do something with this. Make it relevant to now.” He/she will pivot everyone’s goals and initiatives on a dime, often turning 6pm out-times into 12am out-times, and not really care. The strategy is placating that person. That’s how you set yourself up internally, and that’s honestly the broad strategy of the company.
I worked at a place once where the CEO went to Denmark/Finland for two weeks to get off the grid. It was one of those places where no work could advance without this guy seeing it, right? So for two weeks, everyone ran in circles and had meetings where nothing could ultimately be decided or accomplished. Fun. As the end of the two weeks is nearing, this guy’s admin is getting crushed, because everyone and their mother is making an appointment with him for when he’s back — to discuss all their important, urgent initiatives.
So all these meetings get set, and over that weekend, he sends an email announcing that he’s staying two more weeks. It was like, a three-line email. All these middle managers and project managers had their hopes, dreams, and road maps dashed against the rocks for another two weeks.
You think that dude cared? No way. He was enjoying Copenhagen.
This is the sheer reality of lots of organizations. They exist in service of the ego of the person/people at the top, and not much more than that.
Takes?
