Musings at Altitude

I made a comparison on October 23rd of “Babies vs. Startups”, and I talked about how fascinating it was for me to watch my only months old granddaughter get more focused and more stable and how much it reminded me of the startups that I’ve been so fortunate to be part of.

Today, for no real reason I can think of, I began thinking about my 14 year old and my two others that have graduated from their teenage years, and I started comparing how I treated them to the treatment that is given to companies as they also move through the various stages of growth.  

For my teenagers, as they got old enough to make decisions, we provided some basic rules to live by (kept peace in the house) and then as they demonstrated that they could live within the rules, then we increased our trust and thus further empowered them to make more and more decisions on their own.  By trusting and empowering, I’m sure they “spread their wings” a bit more than they might have otherwise, but I also believe it allowed them to experience the reality of their own decisions a lot earlier than they may have otherwise.  I’ve known other parents who took a very different approach, and the older the kids got, the tighter the rules became.  Rather than trust and empower, some parents prefer to reduce the chance of errors by creating an environment of compliance and control.  Many of those parents hope that they can get their kids through those years at home without the adversity that may come from them making their own and often times bad decisions.

Amazingly, in business the exact same views exist.  For some soon to be mid size companies (or even growing lines of business within a very large company), the rules begin changing as the perception of risk grows as the business evolves.  For the lucky companies, as they get bigger and show clear understanding of the important rules that they must operate within, they experience increased trust and empowerment as their authorities increase and the expectations continue to grow.  For other companies not nearly as fortunate, with success comes greater process, increased risk aversion, and even more rules to contain growth to a level that allows comfort for those in critical overseeing roles. 

In both teenagers and growing businesses, substantial challenges exist as growth leads to greater opportunity and greater opportunity leads naturally to greater risk.  The decisions of a 14 year old are very different than the decisions of an 8 year old, and the consequences of those decisions can be much more dire if the wrong decision is made.  In a similar vein, the decisions of a mid size business are very different than the decisions of a start up (because of more capital, greater geographies, more people making those decisions), and thus the consequences can also be much more dire if the wrong decision is made.

But in both cases, we know the tendencies and the maturities of both (the teenager and the mid size company), and based on those tendencies and their history of decision making, we can trust and empower to a level that is appropriate.  If a teenager or a company have shown great maturity in their relatively short lives, then greater trust and empowerment is warranted, and the freedom to stretch and to achieve at a level that otherwise may not have been possible seems very appropriate.  If for any reason they then give us reasons to doubt, only then do we tighten up the rules and increase the compliance and reporting processes.

Ultimately, I’m a trust and empower type of guy and I bristle at senseless process and demands for compliance that ties the hands of those that are working so hard to win on this battlefield of business.  I’m grateful for the upbringing I had at home and then the early experience I had in business that made me this way.