I am reading Jim Collins's
Built to Last.. It talks about great companies having a set of core principles beyond making profit. It suggests we all think about what our core principles would be. The core principles for my company would be:
The most effective consultancy in the world at helping organisations to be Agile.
Agile companies are innovative AND efficient.
Agile companies embrace change AND control.
(Notice the Genius of the AND rather than the tyranny of the OR O'R or OVER.)
The entire company will take responsibility for every engagement.
The company would charge a fair price for its services based on its results.
The company would be a family of equals based on trust and respect.
Employees would be treated in the same way as we would treat a member of our own family. The company would be supportive and caring.
The company would employ the best in the world at helping others to be agile. It will respect specialists and generalists and prize those renaissance individuals who are both a generalist and a specialist.
The company would be open about everything.
Company employees would be the best learners and coaches around.
The company would respect employees that wanted to put the company before their personnal life and those who wanted to put their family before the company.
The company would be a force for good within the community.
The company would help the community to be Agile.
I would like to reflect on these points.
Agile companies are innovative and efficient.
The opposite of Agility is stagnation and inefficiency. We also know inefficiency as "muda" or waste.
Agile companies embrace change AND control.
Whilst Agile Software methodologies embrace change, they also embrace control. They just place the control in the hands of the sponsor rather than a plan.
The entire company will take responsibility for every engagement.
The company fails or the company succeeds. The company will ensure that the project is properly staffed and bring the appropriate experience to bear on every assignment. There will be no hourly rates or bums on seats.
The company would charge a fair price for its services based on its results.
Mr 10% would pay the bills. It is likely that the consultancy would have one of the highest fee rates in the world based on performance fees. If 4 consultants help a client saves $100 Million, then $10 Million is not a high price to pay.
The company would be a family of equals based on trust and respect.
Families are about support. No single member of a family fails alone. Any member of the family that needs assistance will receive it.
Respect would ensure that employees do not take up time of other people unnecessarily. Trust would mean that employees are allowed the freedom to pursue their tasks without unnecessary interference. Employees would respect the trust placed in them and ensure that they never fail because they did not ask for help. All employees would trust a request for help and respond accordingly.
This would be a single generation of a family without any heirarchy. People would be respected for their ability to perform a role rather than for having authority.
The company would self organise around the tasks that need to be performed rather than any fixed authority.
Like all families, new members to the family would be taught the principles and practices of the family by an older member. In return, they may help the elder member when they have trouble looking after themselves.
Unfortunately there will always be "divorces". Whenever these occur, the family would be supportive of the person leaving the family and would try to maintain a healthy friendship with the person leaving.
Employees would be treated in the same way as we would treat a member of our own family. The company would be supportive and caring.
When someone needs help, the company would be as supportive as another member of that persons real family.
The company would be open about everything
Their would be no secrets within the company. Everything including salary would be open to all family members. There would be no skeletons in the cupboard. A healthy environment that celebrates failures and learns from its mistakes would be promoted.
The company would employ the best in the world at helping others to be agile.
Nuff said.
The company will respect specialists and generalists and prize those renaissance individuals who are both a generalist and a specialist.
Certain situations will need generalists and others will need specialists. The company will deploy the people needed to achieve its results rather than place bums on seats. Trust and respect will ensure that the right people are in the right place at the right time. A generalist will not try to do a specialists role without the support of the specialist.
Company employees would be the best learners and coaches around.
It is my observation that the best coaches I have come across are also the people that are most passionate about learning new things. They are both learners and coaches. They help the company and the community learn through their experience. Their knowledge is bounded within a circle. Outside the circle is that which they do not know and the circumference of the circle represents those think they know they do not know. The more they learn, the greater the the circumference of the circle and the more they realise they do not know. (Idea stolen from Plato.... I think). Excellent Coaches rarely say "I've learnt enough now, from now on I'll teach others but will not learn anything myself."
Everyone would be a pupil about some subject.
Employees will not be forced to learn things they are not interested in. Nor will they be forced to coach.
The company would respect employees that wanted to put the company before their personnal life and those who wanted to put their family before the company.
The company will allow employees to work long hours. It will also allow employees to reduce their hours below a traditional week to recognise that there are people at different stages of their career. It recognises that the more experienced members of the community can achieve more in a small amount of time than those who have more to learn. It also acknowledges that those with the most experience may also have other commitments such as children that need more of their time.
The company would be a force for good within the community.
The company will not take any assignment that results in damage to the environment or society.
The company would help the community to be Agile.
Nuff said.
Posted by chrismatts at May 11, 2004 6:28 PMNow that's a company I'd like to work for! I wonder how close ThoughtWorks is to these values? I related closely with many of these values, particularly "learners and coaches": learning has become something of an addiction for me.
I thought the "family of equals" to be an interesting idea, though I don't see how there could be any divorces if we were all equal. A family of equals sounds like a family of siblings: some older, some younger. Siblings don't divorce, they fight, they move away, they drift apart, but they're always siblings.
Posted by: Dave Hoover at May 14, 2004 7:22 AM