It's Not The Wind, It's the Sails
Building a business- big or small, whether the business is legal or illegal- rests on the foundation of a consistent application of principles.
Coming into business we bring along, not just a business model, idea or plan, but also our idiosyncratic business principles; these principles are built from combination materials; traditions that we apply because someone said so, theories we have learnt through vocation and conclusions we have drawn through experience. Unquestioned, maladapted principles lead to a lack of fluidity and plasticity. When inflexible principles are applied we may find our businesses breaking because they have refused to bend.
The Cautionary Business Tales posited in Case Studies, Business Reviews and Malcolm-Gladwell-type books do not exists without actors. These actors move in the direction of their strongest thoughts... in other words in the direction of their principles. Let me put it this way, principles are the sails and circumstances are the winds behind the sails. We move in the direction of our principles (our sails) and we are propelled in that direction by our circumstances (the wind). Think about that for a second, why is it that other companies or teams can experience the same things and end up with different results? It is not the wind (circumstances), it isn't even the boat (resources), it is the sails (principles). Why is that? Because our experiences of our circumstances is dependant on how we respond to them, and how we respond to them is dependant on how we compute and interpret the data we gather through our experiences... in other words, we decide not with our hearts, not with the data, but with our principles.
Life is fluid, it is never static and it always requires a new level of adaptability. Every industry is moving at 60 minutes per hour to its next level of innovation and exploration... are you? I am not here to suss out the nuances of your existing principles, I am simply proposing a North Star for any principle:
Adaptability.
When we change our sails it is because something is guiding us, we have a North Star that we use to steer our teams towards a destination of either success or failure. How often do we tune our navigation system? How often do we challenge the principles we operate from in our positions of leadership? How sure are we that our sails are set in the direction of success? The winds and waves are constantly changing but it is up to us in our ships to exercise a level of vulnerability which results in adaptability.
Our principles are not the abstract "Why" painted on building pillars with optimistic words nor the staff training sessions meant to align us with a corporate culture. Our principles start where our actions- not our words, nor our sentiments- begin. Adaptability finishes what strategy beings.
"Adaptability finishes what action begins."
So, here's a proposition:
One Principle. Adaptability.