More Thoughts About Building a Strong Organization

After being at a few large companies and a few start ups, I’ve given some more thoughts about building strong organizations, based on my observation and experience on what works and what doesn’t. Here are my thoughts.

1. Start from the top. They all say to lead by example and that a great organization is built from the top. It’s 200% true. When the leaders are strong and inspiring, the team follows. When the leaders say one thing but do different things, every one realizes that hypocrisy has taken over. The leaders at the top matters and they can make or break the company. A good culture always starts from the top, so does a bad one.
2. Tolerate no weak players. A chain is as strong as the weakest link. In Chinese, we say how much water can a bucket hold depends on its shortest piece of wood. When you tolerate weak players in your team, not only you demotivate the strong players, you are also transmitting a signal that being weak is ok. Mediocracy should not be tolerated, otherwise you bring down the whole team to a mediocre level.
3. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. There are many interpretations for this sentence. In this context, what I mean is you’ve got to build and maintain the culture to have a strong team. When you have a small team, it’s hard but it’s still relatively easy. When you triple or quadruple the size of the team, it becomes increasingly more difficult. Culture is not built over night. Culture is not build over one iteration. It takes a lot of time, patience and practice to build and maintain a strong culture. Don’t take it for granted and be intentional about it.
4. Only have leaders who can walk the walk. Always have leaders who can and are willing to roll up the sleeves and do the work. They don’t have to nor should they do it all the time, but they should know to do it, and if not, be eager to learn it. Have a mid tier management who can only “manage” is the worst. They imagine the problems and cannot really trouble shoot. Knowing the walk and walking the walk are two very different things. Only keep leaders who can do everything the team does, and better.
5. Focus on the mission and the brand. An organization that has no brand or mission is weak at best. When an organization cannot articulate its brand or mission, the team is just doing busy work, without putting in much thoughts into the why. Always have values, create a brand that reflect the values, and fit the values and the brand into the mission. I don’t want to repeat the story about the three workers who are stacking stones vs. building a house. Let’s all believe that we are building God’s temple.