Discipline makes Daring possible. – Page 125 – Musings from The Disappearing Boss on People, Process and Responsible Autonomy for small-business employers.

March 8, 2019

When you make a company, you make a utopia.

“When you make a company, you make a utopia. Its where you design your perfect world.” Derek Sivers.

As Derek Sivers pointed out – building a business is a creative act, and like imagining a building, or hearing a symphony in your head, or visualising a ballet, you can make it behave however you want it to.

You make the rules.

You don’t have to do what everyone else does. You don’t have to do what most people expect. You don’t have to do the same-old, same-old. You don’t even have to get big.

You can build a business that creates value in a way that matters to you an the people you serve. That gives people the physical, mental and spiritual nourishment they need; that husbands resources; that grows everyone it touches; that empowers everyone to lead. That enables everyone to be fully human.

For millennia people have used new and innovative technologies to do this. And sometimes, like New Dawn Traders they re-discover ancient ways of doing it too.

What does your perfect world look like?

You can build it if you dare.

March 7, 2019

Inheritance. The power of DNA.

The power of DNA is that it allows for more than simply copying.

If it’s DNA is embedded deeply enough, a business can embody the values and vision of its founders, yet still evolve to meet the demands and opportunities of its current environment.

And that means it can become a legacy that delivers value for generations.

“If ten of thine ten times refigured thee:
Then what could death do if thou shouldst depart,
Leaving thee living in posterity? “

(Shakespeare, Sonnet V1)

March 6, 2019

Replicating

As Ray Kroc understood, recreating the look is not enough to make your new outlet convincing, no matter how faithfully you do it.

What matters is what happens inside.

Replicate that and you’ve got an asset you can scale.

It’s difficult, especially where ‘clockwork’ isn’t the feel you’re after, but it is possible.

The trick is to think up a level or two from the obvious.

March 5, 2019

Taking a cut

Some things we used to do for free, without the need for a middle-person:

Talk to each other on the way home from school
Eat dinner together
Drink water
Pay for stuff
Enjoy a view of the Thames from the Festival Hall
Hail a cab
Go on a date

In some cases a middle-person can add tremendous value – mediating a dispute instead of going to court for example.

All too often though, that new thing we’re all dying to try is just a mechanism for taking a cut of the value others have created.

March 4, 2019

Disintermediation

Getting rid of the middle-man. It sounds great.

Except it doesn’t happen that way. What actually happens is that dozens, hundreds or even thousands of middle-people are replaced by a single ‘middle-platform’.

In other words, with what is hoped will become a monopoly. The only place to buy.

And if you achieve monopoly or near-monopoly, you will also eventually achieve monopsony or near-monopsony, the only place to sell to.

That’s every investor’s dream. I’m not sure it should be the consumer’s.

The most benevolent dictator is still a dictator.

March 1, 2019

Rules

How far can you take the idea of a guitar, and still end up with something recognisable as a guitar? … Read More “Rules”

February 28, 2019

Roundabouts

Roundabouts depend on self-government. Drivers just need to follow a few simple rules: give way to traffic coming from the right; don’t get on the roundabout unless you can get off; signal left or right before you get on; signal left before you come off.

If the rules are followed, roundabouts prevent gridlock at busy times, without slowing down traffic the rest of the time.

Lately though, people seem to have forgotten how to use roundabouts. Maybe they weren’t told the rules; maybe they are used to different rules; maybe they don’t think the rules apply to them, or at least not right now, when they are in a hurry.

The problem is that if roundabout culture continues to change in this way, we will lose self-governance. Roundabouts will be replaced by traffic lights, and make things worse for everyone.

This is how culture changes. Gradually, almost imperceptibly, through daily usage, until the system has to be re-shaped around it.

For good or bad, we should at least do this with awareness, and perhaps even on purpose.

February 27, 2019

Self-Orchestration

Orpheus is an orchestra without a conductor.

That doesn’t mean they are directionless, they have a score that tells them what to play.

That doesn’t mean they are mechanical, a core group guides the interpretation for every piece they play, and that core group changes every time.

That doesn’t mean they are homogenous, many players dip in and out, although a minimum number of experienced players ensure the Orpheus promise is kept for every performance.

Being conductorless doesn’t mean they are leaderless, it means everyone has to step up and take their turn at leading.

There’s always another way of succeeding. It just needs to be thought through.

Orpheus (the orchestra) has been doing this for more than 40 years.

February 26, 2019

Adjustments

In a complex evolving system, the impulse to change often comes from outside. Something is felt at the edges and creates a kind of tension that can only be relieved by making some sort of adjustment.

It pays to make your edges sensitive to these tensions and to make the process of adjustment as quick and as easy as possible.

In a murmuration of starlings this happens through a small number of simple rules that each bird follows.

It ought to be possible to come up with something similar for a business.

It would probably look different for every business, but I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t involve waiting for instructions from the top.

February 25, 2019

Feedback

A complex evolving system, such as a planet, an ecosystem or a business, learns through feedback. That means at least … Read More “Feedback”