Image source: Daniel, Creative Commons
I had to chuckle when I heard this latest marketing campaign from Toyota.
Nothing against Toyota, I’ve owned a few and had good experiences. But it just seemed ironic to say, “Be bold! Buy the most mass produced car from the largest auto manufacturer in the world!”
I work for companies that have over 30,000 employees, over 100,000 and over 200,000. And when I’m at those companies I will hear and see slogans like:
- Be bold
- Take risk
- Fail Frequently
- Be innovative
- We thrive on creativity
And that makes me chuckle as well.
Some well documented studies suggest that once organizations cross the 150 employee line, they become, by nature, more risk adverse as they seek and require more reliability and predictability. They achieve this through standardization which is the opposite of messy risk taking innovation and creativity. An organization of thirty, fifty, or one hundred thousand has a lot of people at lots of layers with veto power.
Build it and they will come
I’ve had the opportunity to work with at least four companies who were the largest in the world in their industry, and I’ve noticed one constant phenomenon regardless of the overall culture of the company: You can always find pockets of excellence. Somewhere a leader and team are building a great culture within their sphere of influence that is bold, innovative, growth oriented, respectful, fast failing—all the aspects that make a great and productive place to work.
Another observation is that good people are always scrambling to get into these teams, divisions, or groups. When you build a great culture, you’ll never be short on talent.
Be bold. Build that great team. Be that great leader. Create that great culture. It’s fun! It’s rewarding.