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I love the sentiment and there is clearly a nugget of truth in it, but I can point to companies that successfully build ships by drumming up people and assignin

I love the sentiment and there is clearly a nugget of truth in it, but I can point to companies that successfully build ships by drumming up people and assigning them tasks and work. Can you point to any that build ships through the teaching of longing?

thethimble 7y ago
I think Elon Musk's companies are great examples. "Make humans an interplanetary species" "Accelerate the adoption of sustainable energy" These tag lines are much more aspirational than the actual things the companies are currently building (rockets and cars).
- kybernetikos 7y ago
  And yet they are well known as companies that do a lot of drumming up and assigning.
xtiansimon 7y ago
It goes to the heart of a CEO’s job—leadership. Keeping all the of the company engaged in shares objectives, values, goals. You delegate the collection of wood. And if it’s the 15th century, you inspire sailors to risk the unknown and help them cope with the fear of falling of the edge of the world.
Enginerrrd 7y ago
I think this happens at the middle management level. Most the upper management exercises of corporate mottos, vision, mission statements, etc. is an abstraction too far removed from day to day work to be useful to lower level employees. Maybe it helps them with their planning, but even on that I'm skeptical. Those things have worked for some Japanese companies with a very different culture around collective work, but they don't really work as well applied in the West, IMO. Now at the middle management to immediate supervisor level, there's a huge boost to morale, and I believe ultimately productivity & innovation that happens when you include employees in your own thinking and motivations. It's a lot easier to please someone when you know how they think and why they want certain aspects of a project to go the way they want, and allows you to better predict when it might be appropriate to go off script a little or make a perpendicular suggestion. Otherwise, when you treat a human like a machine, and dissuade them from any bigger picture thinking, you can get all sorts of problems. Micromanagement, malicious compliance, and most importantly: you are isolating them from the natural group dynamics and teamwork that humans do well under.
austincheney 7y ago
US Army. We call this communicating intent. The idea is to allow subordinate commanders freedom to accomplish the goals of their boss. The strength of this approach is that things can change between the issue of tasks and the completion of those tasks. Instead of having the subordinate leader wait for additional guidance or confirmation they are allowed to adjust their approach immediately without permission to meet the demands of the changing environment.

thethimble 7y ago

I think Elon Musk's companies are great examples. "Make humans an interplanetary species" "Accelerate the adoption of sustainable energy" These tag lines are much more aspirational than the actual things the companies are currently building (rockets and cars).

kybernetikos 7y ago
And yet they are well known as companies that do a lot of drumming up and assigning.

xtiansimon 7y ago

It goes to the heart of a CEO’s job—leadership. Keeping all the of the company engaged in shares objectives, values, goals. You delegate the collection of wood. And if it’s the 15th century, you inspire sailors to risk the unknown and help them cope with the fear of falling of the edge of the world.

Enginerrrd 7y ago

I think this happens at the middle management level. Most the upper management exercises of corporate mottos, vision, mission statements, etc. is an abstraction too far removed from day to day work to be useful to lower level employees. Maybe it helps them with their planning, but even on that I'm skeptical. Those things have worked for some Japanese companies with a very different culture around collective work, but they don't really work as well applied in the West, IMO. Now at the middle management to immediate supervisor level, there's a huge boost to morale, and I believe ultimately productivity & innovation that happens when you include employees in your own thinking and motivations. It's a lot easier to please someone when you know how they think and why they want certain aspects of a project to go the way they want, and allows you to better predict when it might be appropriate to go off script a little or make a perpendicular suggestion. Otherwise, when you treat a human like a machine, and dissuade them from any bigger picture thinking, you can get all sorts of problems. Micromanagement, malicious compliance, and most importantly: you are isolating them from the natural group dynamics and teamwork that humans do well under.

austincheney 7y ago

US Army. We call this communicating intent. The idea is to allow subordinate commanders freedom to accomplish the goals of their boss. The strength of this approach is that things can change between the issue of tasks and the completion of those tasks. Instead of having the subordinate leader wait for additional guidance or confirmation they are allowed to adjust their approach immediately without permission to meet the demands of the changing environment.