You are not playing Contra. You don’t get 30 extra men.

That fact established, do you really want to die on that hill today? Is the outworking of whatever it is a dealbreaker? A vortex of inexorable woe? The end of all you hold dear? If not, let it go.

Fight for something that matters. Don’t die on stupid hills.

Big failure (the kind that levels companies, complex systems, longstanding relationships) has its origins in a contradiction: it happens gradually, then suddenly.

Big failure happens over time, all at once. Unless you catch it now.

I shouldn’t be surprised that a product/service I’m brand loyal to is born and maintained out of a company culture that runs counter to typical corporate structure, but I am. It’s fascinating any time I see stuff like this articulated so well:

Instead of adding rules as we grow, our solution is to increase talent density faster than we increase business complexity. Great people make great judgment calls and few errors, despite ambiguity…We have found that by avoiding rules we can better attract the creative mavericks that drive innovation…We are mitigating the big risk technology companies face (obsolescence), by taking on small risks (running without rules).
— Netflix, excerpted from 7 Great Reasons to Work at Netflix (emphasis mine)

The whole thing reads like a manifesto for Doing Amazing Things, but the specific ability for a company to grow in size and complexity without an avalanche of bureaucratic muck is rare.

If you, as a leader, create and nurture a culture where employees must continually fall on their swords to prove their loyalty to the mission, the cause, the vision, the organization, your leadership, etc., eventually you won’t have anyone left. Your people will either burnout or simply leave. And when they fail or exit, the delusional self-fulfilling prophet in you will quietly say, “See, I told you they weren’t loyal.”

And maybe they weren’t. Or maybe all employees are not longterm relationship material. Or maybe your mission and direction sucks and they got tired of it. Or maybe they were so bloodied from all the sword hugging that they didn’t have anything left to give.

Don’t let a misplaced need for leadership affirmation confuse the loyal people with the folks just passing through. In the trenches, we all want to know our people have our back. But if the way we expect them to prove their loyalty kills them in the process, don’t blame the dead. You’re the one calling the shots.

I know, I know. You’re probably thinking we already covered this, you weirdo. But no, again I go with the job titles thing. Call it a pet project; I thirst for complete knowledge of the topic. It is my white whale, and I am its Ahab.

Let me throw a situation out at you. A few years ago I was in one type of work environment, mainly agency-type places with a very set structure and clear hierarchy. Everyone knew the top, the bottom, and all the clearly labeled rungs in between. Then I transitioned into a different work environment, one more wide than tall, more collaborative than creatively authoritative. There aren’t many rungs, and a proclivity for climbing isn’t part of the DNA (or mine for that matter).

On paper, I’m the Creative Director at NewSpring Church. But here’s the rub: NewSpring doesn’t really have a Creative Director. And the more I think about it, I don’t think we ever have, despite the fact that I’ve held that title for half of our existence. Let me explain…

In agency world, a Creative Director usually has a design or writing background and interacts with the client to create ideas, approaches and treatments that are typically implemented by designers and copywriters on their team. They’re the filter, and often the initiator of the idea. It’s fairly clear, and intensely hierarchical. But at NewSpring, no one person does that. Or to put it better, a lot of people do that. There’s tension. There are often (much to my dismay) minor lacks of cohesion. But ultimately we share the process and burden of creative direction across a lot of roles on our team. Which is cool, especially considering we’re the “client,” too.

That brings me squarely back to the job title thing (“from hell’s heart I stab at thee!”) and my situation. At NewSpring I handle overall design, branding, some copywriting, and web design/strategy. But I’m admitting the traditional Creative Director role doesn’t exist in our environment, so what* am I?

*I have an idea of what I am, but I want to hear your feedback.

Too many cooks can raise the price of dinner.
— author unknown

There’s no way around it, design-by-committee will cost you in the long run. So will decision-by-committee. Or anything-by-committee. It’s simple math. You’re going to pay the overhead. It might not be in cash (though it probably will be), but you’ll potentially bleed time and missed opportunities and your sanity in the process. Too many cooks COSTS.

So the buck stops where? Who’s calling the shots? Who’s the filter?

The war for talent is still ongoing. There is and will be for some time, a shortage of leadership talent as a result of the baby boomers leaving the workforce. There will be plenty of “bodies” available, but that doesn’t equate to talent. Cutting back on development efforts to grow your own leaders will leave you at the mercy of the market when the economy picks back up. You will end up paying more for outside talent instead of developing your bench strength now.
— Tom Peters, excerpted from this blog post

There’s a time for bringing in outside talent. A time when you need a franchise player who will shake things up and be pivotal. Someone to build teams around. And there’s a time when you have to suck it up, realize there’s no easy button to fix your internal woes, and you need to develop the people you have in expectation that they’ll be the ones to see you through.

Your job may very well be to know which time it is right now.

We don’t have a huge marketing budget. But there’s always money to be found, so long as every dollar we spend brings back something more valuable in return.

We’re don’t have the ability to hire tons of people. But there are always vacancies for talent. Talent pays for itself, or it isn’t talent. Period.

We don’t have time to invest in HR. But the time invested in team building and picking the right people to be in the trenches with will come back tenfold in execution and productivity.

There is always margin for amazing.