#davesdailychallenge (150): Culture Series Part 7. I want you to imagine a ladder. This ladder represents the past, present, and future of your team or organization. In addition to a linear progression of time it also represents the impact and success that your team or organization experiences. The higher on the ladder the more successful and “later-stage” your team is. The lower on the ladder the less impactful and “earlier-stage” your team is. Can you picture it? Good. Now imagine a tough-as-nails, scrappy, young person with lean features and an obvious hunger climbing up this ladder. They’re wearing wooden sandals on their feet. Above them, slowly climbing down the ladder, is a perfectly groomed, portly older man dressed in a fine suit that barely fits his voluminous girth. On his bloated feet are a pair of beautiful silk slippers. Do you have it in your mind’s eye? This is the cultural challenge that so many organizations have faced, and continue to face, throughout history. This metaphor of the wooden sandals climbing up the ladder of success as the silken slippers climb down was originally penned by Voltaire and recently discussed by Dan Carlin on his Hardcore History podcast when speaking on the rise and fall of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. 

You might be wondering about now whether or not I’m completely changing the theme of my daily challenge series to talk about footwear and long dead ancient empires. As much as I’d love to the answer is no. The story that I painted for you above relates to our discussion of team culture more than you can possibly know. Many organizations build amazing cultures when they are relatively small, young, lean, and able to react to obstacles in a nimble manner not to mention the ability to quickly and authentically serve their people. In any positive, rewarding, and successful culture the members of the team take center stage in some way. It looks different for many companies but that is a shared trait. These young and high-performing cultures are the scrappy new-comer wearing the wooden sandals on their way up the ladder. Cultures of organizations that have had time to mature can look very different. This is by no means an absolute certainty across every large team but with the passing of time, increased success both personal and financial, and all of the consequences of this success it is only natural that some of the fight is lost that may have been displayed in spades when the team was new. This scrappiness might have been the very thing that led to their success. Wooden sandals are traded in for silk slippers. Many large and older team cultures rest on their laurels and revel in the successes of the past. It becomes harder and harder for leadership, and all team members for that matter, to make the desired culture thrive. Communication becomes more complex. It grows increasingly hard to make relationships personal, authentic, and rewarding. It’s much easier for hiring to go wrong where toxic team members are brought in. The ship grows larger and larger and larger and increasingly more difficult to steer as time goes on. There comes a point when the two archetypes meet on the ladder and the wooden sandals supplant the silk slippers. A new leader is crowned and this cycle starts all over again. 

This should tell you a few very important things. First of all, you should realize how hard it is to design, implement, and nourish the high-performing and successful culture mentioned above. That is a full time job often performed by a team of extraordinary professionals and even then it’s extremely hard. This is one of things I love to do most in this world and I’ll be the first to tell you that it’s tough. Some times the best thing people like me can do is to create the environment where this culture can grow and then get the hell out of the way thereby allowing it to grow organically. Second, if you see an organization that is mature, large, financially successful, and still has an outstanding culture that is a rare and beautiful thing. While no team is perfect I would challenge you to learn as much as you can from organizations that fit this mold. Some of the most financially successful businesses have truly toxic cultures that burn through their people like kindling. They might make money in the short term as they chase quarterly goals but it is usually a matter of time before they meet the competition with the wooden sandals on their way down the ladder. I promise you it is possible to drive outstanding business results while nurturing a rewarding and supportive culture. In fact, they are reliant on each other. Third, now that you see that this story of ascent and descent is a cycle you can actively be a part of the solution on your respective teams. If you see team members wearing their metaphorical silk slippers then show how much you care about the team by making the change you see a reality. Make it your personal responsibility to keep your edge. I encourage you to do that by supporting each other not by punishment or ridicule as I see too often. Lastly, look down. What do you have on your feet?

In the end, what matters most is that this dynamic affects us all. Every team, empire, or business ever created in our history started with wooden sandals. As their success grew they traded them out for silk slippers and ceased to be what they once were. The ability to refuse the silk slippers is why certain cultures have continued to thrive for years and sometimes even centuries. If you see it happening within your team then stop it now. It can be very hard to take off those comfy slippers once you’ve put them on. Stay scrappy.