Brevity Is In Failing

Have you ever seen a book titled “I am so happy that I have failed” and jumped right at it to sniff away some major career takeaways? We never do that because we are tuned from our birth to be conformists and our mind is incepted with baseless monolithic perceptions of good and bad, right and wrong acceptable social norms and ones that are not. As a result we build an empire of mediocrity and incompetence because at some point in our lives we have stopped questioning status quo and accepted mediocrity as a way of life. These streams of mediocrity flow long distances to meet rivers and oceans- corporations, educational institutions,  non-profit organizations etc. You need to map your perceived limitless capabilities with the fractal capabilities of the organization you are marrying into and there are thumb rules to guide you to the right decision.

I have loved failing! My failures have kept me going because I choose to be a non-conformist of sorts. If you are a non-conformist, you will likely fail, or the system will work extra time to fail you and that’s alright. Non-conformists are usually radical thinkers a.k.a right brained. Never be shy when someone complains you are right brained. We don't work along the demand curve, we seek ways to shift it. Did you know you were born only with a very powerful right brain and limbic language? Just believe you are good but always be open to constructive criticism.

 If you can read this piece literature all the way to the end, I would like to know if you believe your company’s foundation over time has become a mound of termite that eats into what otherwise could have been a legacy of sorts and at some point showcased at the Metropolitan Museum. Does your company favor high achieving right brained Belfort over Szpilman when it comes to Bell Curve fitment?I am not saying it’s wrong or right, all I am trying to do is, gauge your perception and retrofit it to your personality lens. Most often when we join a new organization we  overlook the cultural fitment because we are too excited about the brave new world and the iPnone 7 we could now afford.

Having spent the initial years of my post management career as an analyst I am a great supporter of fundamental research. It’s kind of like the way doctors treated patients when there were no fancy gadgets to fall back upon. If the patient was active, had appetite and showed no signs of periodical fatigue just ignore the disease and follow basic hygiene – hydration, exercise and rest. When I take a call on whether the company will see the light of the day, I hardly ever see the EDIT, EBITDA, FCF etc. Those are just numbers a cartel of market makers hold companies accountable for so they can holiday at  Ca?o Cristales. I am not undermining its relative importance, just not making it sacrosanct. To make a judgment call whether a company is good or great, I always co-relate employee happiness and satisfaction with changing company policies. I ask, is there a corporate sepsis? If a company is changing employee policies too often, there is some malignancy that the company is unable to detect i.e., there is some fundamental problem in the organization. The more frequently they change policies to keep employees happy, the more the disease ridden the company gets because employees lose trust. The idea of trust is discussed at length in Plato's "The Republic" and I won't even go there. All acts of recovery beyond that becomes symptomatic unless the management tries to find the underlying disease. It’s difficult to do so in large organizations because the disease is nothing but carefully nurtured “skilled incompetence”, an idea introduced by Chris Argyris in the early 90s. We will visit this idea a bit later but just know this, you don’t want to be in the company of skilled incompetence and you need to quickly identify one before you become a part of the problem.

There is a striking difference between companies that make it and the ones that don’t. The ones that don’t will always penalize you for failure because they are myopic. This is a lead indicator of a company whose engines are greased by the Sensei's of skilled incompetence. These companies often create centers of power and policies flow top down. They are very often process driven but these processes are a result of skunkworks.  Newton’s 3rd Law will be evident here with certainty. Schmoozing and compliance will show an unequivocal upward flow. A perfect celestial alignment. Let me draw an analogy here comparing successful countries with the ones that are not. It is my personal opinion that countries that are now centers of power have become so not just because of great policy making, but, due to their DNA of accepting failure with open heart, not penalizing failure. Successful countries learn from failures and the best example is Germany. Failure to me is an unreal as pink being associated with femininity. Just remember that in the 18th century pink and masculinity would go hand in hand in all of Europe. Similarly failure is bad depending on how you are marketing it. So in your next interview if you learn your future boss hasn’t failed, stave off! In standard costing if you haven't ever hit negative variances, there is something wrong with your budgeting policy. In a state of skilled incompetence, no one fails because everyone conforms and thus everyone is a happy camper.

I have no qualms when I fail because it prevents me from being 1) complacent and 2) keeps me grounded and humble. I have realized that the easiest qualities to acquire are arrogance and megalomania. They are available cheap, almost free if you are on top of the food chain. There are several brilliant scholarly articles on why companies fail and they touch upon dimensions like neglect of primary flywheel, bad leadership, obsessive reorganizations at al. I don’t think companies ever fail. People fail them and the answer lies in the theory of agency cost. Typically these heavenly bestowed qualities of individuals that fail organizations stem from a false sense of achievement and a queer sense of insecurity. Let me offer a fair warning in case I have raised some eyebrows. When I say it’s ok to fail, I don’t mean failure from skilled incompetence. Skilled incompetence is unpardonable. Skilled incompetence is a situation in which managers produce what they intend i.e., managers develop an uncanny skill of being incompetent enough to agree to something they believe otherwise and they take a stand to drag everyone under them on that road of incompetency. This is especially so in top down authoritarian plutocratic organizations. I can list down companies here but that will be boring and predictable.

The point I am trying to drive at is, never shy from taking up roles that are unfamiliar. Muster the courage to take up tough roles that you know nothing about and just roll with it. Trust me, you will be able to break through every time. Work was never tough no matter how divergent they were from your skill set. It’s always the people who have been closely guarding it make it tough for you. Why? I think you know the answer by now. Before I sign off I will leave the  thumb rule to gauge if you are entering into a swampland of collective skilled incompetence and if yes, how to recognize it. You can only deal with something once you recognize it exists. Just know that the Private is a great guy. He is always underestimated because his strength lies in his humility be he can be very sharp. If you are in the company of Charles, you will be able to bring out the best in you because Charles is a natural born achiever. Don is fun because you can read him through and through and is generally harmless at heart. Be very careful if you are stepping into the Penguins colony.