Begin by Unlearning

Build "For Love of Team" When You Unlearn First

As we build our businesses, we all spend much of our time learning new skills, growing personally and professionally, and trying to figure out what we don’t know we don’t know.

But this journey towards entrepreneurship and leadership must begin with unlearning.

Historically much of what we know about management was created during the Industrial Age and those concepts, philosophies, and beliefs are still being taught today. However, if we didn’t learn anything else in 2020, we now recognize that many of the lessons about teamwork that were developed in the last century no longer are relevant today.

And, for many first-time founders, we don’t even recognize the beliefs we hold and that we bring into our businesses. 

The concepts like delegation, upper and lower management, command and control or phrases like “businesses built as well-oiled machines” or business that “runs like clockwork,” etc. These ideas were important when business was focused on factory work and the roles and responsibilities needed to be clearly defined and separated. You couldn’t have collaboration when everything was based on each individual worker doing their exact job in the exact same way every time. And the accepted practice was that the manager knew more than the worker.

But we’re now living in the Information Age. This means that team members bring different skills and knowledge to the organization. The worker doesn’t just turn a screwdriver over and over again. Those jobs can be performed better, and faster, by a machine. 

And I propose that Cultural Fit is another concept that was relevant in the past but isn’t as of today. Having everyone in the organization do the same things the same way was useful when everyone was on an assembly line and any variances threw off the schedule and might cause delays, or even defective or rejected parts. 

But in today’s organizations when everyone thinks the same, synergy and creativity are stifled. When you hire for “cultural add” you gain all the benefits of imagination, different viewpoints, and more ways to solve problems and overcome challenges. 

Look for ways you can hire for the cultural add. And check out this podcast episode where For Love of Team takes a deeper dive into the best practices for hiring and getting the benefits of the cultural add.