(Stop!) Hunting for the Company Panacea

You’ve heard the tales. Studied the clues. You believe it’s out there, hidden in the shadows. Maybe it’s deep in the jungle in an exotic country. Or the mysterious 10-x hole on Oak Island. Or your Great Grandfather’s attic. Or in your grandmother’s diary. Or on the back shelf at the old pharmacy. Or the bottom of your physician’s doctor’s bag. It’s the “secret" buried in Chapter 12 of a self-help book. It’s the holy grail. It’s the object of legend. It’s the great business savior. It’s the great company panacea. And it’s going to make your company great (again?)!

pan·a·ce·a   n.

           - a solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases. “the panacea for all corporate ills"
           - synonyms: universal cure, cure-all, cure for all ills, universal remedy, elixir, wonder drug;
           - informal - magic bullet

As a consultant, I’ve seen companies fall to this obsession. It’s like a disease. It takes over the great minds of men and women and ruins them. It corrupts great people and erodes great companies. They spend an inordinate amount of time and anxiety looking for a panacea. The cure all. The elixir. The magic bullet. The "wonder drug." Looking for a panacea is akin to winning the lottery, and investing all of your time and energy into one thing that inevitably will not save your company. Lottery winners almost always end up miserable, and in ruin.

As a leader, you don’t have the time to play Indiana Jones. He was a professor with Teaching Assistants, free summers, and even sabbaticals. You have assistants, too, but you’ve got a company to run, 24/7/365. You cannot spend more energy looking for mythical elixirs than looking for practical medicine. You can’t even spend more energy looking for perfect than you look for close to perfect, or even “working” with really good. I call this right church, wrong pew. Get in the right general place, the right "church," while working, diligently, and methodically, toward the right pew, or even your place at the “altar.”

From what I’ve learned from all of the companies I’ve worked with, I’ve come to terms with the fact that the greatest - and really, probably the only - panacea you’re ever going to “find” is an answer that’s been right in front of you the whole time. Are you ready for it? The answer is this: build a ridiculously effective company culture. If you build a culture where all people, ideas and solutions are given the chance to succeed, and there is risk and diligence in equal measure, you will find two things: 1) the phrase “we are smarter than me” is absolute, and 2) the only singular solution actually is plural: one solution comes from the multitudes.

Some may think that finding one cure-all is easier than taking the time and effort to build or re-build your company culture, but it’s not. You want the muscles, but you don’t want to go to the gym. You’re simply avoiding pain by distracting yourself from the pain you’re actually creating by not taking care of a simple problem with a long-term solution. In essence, you’re doing one of two things: hiding behind perfectionism and/or “due diligence” while actually procrastinating and/or spinning your wheels by indiscriminately trying everything. Really, anything. You exhaust yourself searching for the - or trying every - solution over the long-term but never arrive at one.

Company culture encompasses everything. It is not just one, or “a” solution. It is “the” solution… from many. Nothing can happen with one person in a vacuum. It’s takes ridiculously effective leadership and ridiculously effective teamwork. If it sounds miraculous, or even ridiculous, it nearly is. Panaceas often are, and rarely live up to their “name" because of that. What follows serves to illustrate where panaceas are most sought, but are never (or very rarely) found, and leave company leaders even more wanting and more lost.

A Panacea App

I love apps. I'd stop short of saying I'd marry one if I could. I love marketing, too. Great marketing gives me a buzz. One of the greatest ads was for the iPhone 3G: “There’s an app for that.” If you look at almost any problem in business today, you’re going find, very quickly, that… Yep. There’s an app for that. Yep, there’s an app for that, too. And that. And that. And… Please know, I’m just as app happy as the next guy, but this is one area where I must always warn people: just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Just because it’s there and available doesn’t mean you should buy it. Nor use it. Nor cajole your people into using dozens of them, each app for one distinct problem.

This is an odd situation where a plural becomes a singular. Please stay with me. Some company leaders buy into the concept that apps, and their usage, will save their company. There is not a single app nor are there a multitude of apps that are going to save your company. You can quickly reach app saturation. Using multiple apps for multiple problems can quickly spin your whole company out of orbit. Hard to train. Hard to maintain. And hard to support.

More than ever, there are too many companies today that are a flash in the pan. Here today, gone tomorrow. Some just waiting to be bought. Some are unabashedly built to be bought. As much as the next guy, I’m for the next guy. The little guy. The entrepreneur with big dreams. But I’m also a fan of consistency. Support. Value for my money. Long-term relationships. A little more predictability. No one can predict if an app or a company is going to be around for the long-term, but there are much safer bets. Don't subject your staff to the newest, hottest thing... just because.

On the other hand, there are those that switch apps constantly because they actually believe the next app is the panacea. It's a catch-all. And constantly switching from one savior app to the next is not any better, for many of the same reasons. Just as your employees are finally settling into using another app, blam! Stop the press! There's a new savior in town. Pack up your stuff, we're switching sides. I am fan of product suites, menus of products and services that help you get close to one solution. I know it takes companies a long time to get there, and many do it by buying the flash in the pan companies and adding them and integrating them into their product/services portfolio, not just re-branding (re-painting) them. I don't want to have to pray that mine gets bought by a company I trust, or that the one that does won't kill the product or the support for the product. I don't want to pray I can integrate what I have.

I also see the opposite. People/companies that are app adverse. They use spreadsheets for everything in their company. They use databases for everything in their company. They use email like a database, or CRM. They use apps and alter them to the point where they’re barely recognizable anymore, even to the company that built them. They hang on to sunsetted products decades after the product is obsolete and even after the company has folded. Ones where they’ve broken any warranty or support contracts because they’ve been ABS (Altered Beyond Support). No app’s going to be perfect, and neither is your culture panacea. Work toward getting as close to possible and don't hang on for dear life into obsoletion. We're in the right church, and getting to the right pew.

A Panacea Process (or System)

Albert Einstein searched his whole life for a unifying theory of physics, to prove that electromagnetism and gravity were different manifestations of a single, fundamental field. He failed, but what a glorious "failure." Most of us only wish we could fail like that. Philosopher Ken Wilber had the audacity to publish a (very large) book titled, “The Theory of Everything.” I read it. He did an honorable job trying. If there is any one unifying force in business, I’ll be audacious enough to say that it’s your company culture.

For some companies, the beginnings are like a well-executed experiment, a company (and culture) started with someone's figurative sweat and blood (swab) and nurtured in a petri dish. For others, it’s the big bang. All things spring from there, and from that initial (very big) spark, spews forth all kinds of chaos that took years to spin into a semblance of a universe, much less countless galaxies (star systems) and finally, solar systems. Note the word system. You might have one “star” or planet spin out of orbit. You may see one of your "stars" burn out. It may be eclipsed now and then by something or someone. But generally, you can bring order to it even after being a "hot mess." Mind you, you don't have billions of years.

Again, you'll see the process extremes. In one company, they’re process happy. They have a process for everything and people freak out because they feel like things are spinning out of control when process is not followed. It's tight. They have an onboarding process. Great. They have a sales process. Great. They have a financial reconciliation process. Great. They have a process telling you how to tie your shoes, and how to go to the bathroom. Yep. That tight. There seemingly is a process for everything. There’s an "app" for that, too. Only certain stars will not burn out in that system.

Some companies are process adverse. They think it's stifling. Kills the creativity. Too staunch. They’ll tell you they’re “loose,” or they’re casual, when they’re actually erratic. Undisciplined. Disorganized. Slippery. They’ll say they're "agile," when they actually have no plan or don't follow/respect the only plan they have, and are all over the road. It's ready, fire, aim, and go/stop. Do/don't. Hurry/wait! They are so process adverse (often because it locks them into hard, decisive decisions, and accountability) they will claim, and perhaps actually believe, that their “system” or plan is actually not having one. They might even say it's their "culture." In reality, they have no culture. And in some cases, no class, either. The classy move is to admit you're stuck or that the old way isn't working and you need help. Or to acknowledge it and take action to move forward. Most people prefer to work for a company that has no culture, but has class, rather than one with well-defined culture but no class.

A Panacea Employee

This is a company with what I call a Savior Culture. They continuously look for, recruit, and hire people who they can hail as the latest savior. This is the person that’s going to save the company. To bring about real change. It gets to the point where the person believes it, and gets a savior complex. The more you hail and prop up the new person coming in as the person who’s going to save the business, the more some of your older employees are going to be a bit stung by all of the attention you’re putting towards your hire. They’ve seen it. They know the pattern. Some are going to burn out because they are optimists, and “believers” and constantly get hurt when/each time it fails. Others are going to burn out and get bitter because they've seen it before, and know they will see it again. And again. And again.

Rather than hoping and believing this next savior is the one, others will be waiting (and sometimes wanting) for the day when they can exclaim,“See! I told you he was just like the last guy.” They won’t play nice in that system or for/with that star. They’ll be obstructionists, or help it to burnout. In America, we love to watch people rise, and we love even more to watch them fall. And we love a great comeback story, too. Just ask Steve Jobs and Tom Cruise. Some falling stars never get back up.

We love drama in all its forms. Savior stories are dramatic. They’re biblical. Don't look for saviors. Don't bet on them. Don't hire them. Hire great people. Hire great people that work well in a culture similar to yours. Give them credit when they do a great job. Leave saviors for religion. They’re an app. But not for everything. Saviors are often false prophets. Savior cultures are bad cultures. Don't wait to go out with a bang or a flaming burnout. Go back to the petri dish and start over.

A Panacea Team/Department

Just as no one employee can bear the weight of saving the company, neither can a department. The problem is that any culture is going to be divided into subcultures. Each department is a subculture. Not just because of the work and priorities demanded of that department, but because of the people leading and managing that department, which often is the same person. Think of a software company. I'm willing to bet you that the leader of your sales department and the leader of your software team are two very different people.

Each department may use different apps, may hire very different personalities, may have different budgets, and require very different management styles, etc., but the one thing that's keeping each star in your galaxy, and each planet in orbit around those stars, is your company culture. No team or department can save a company, and no department should be allowed to float in and out of your system. Company culture is your gravity. It's the binding, unifying force.

A Panacea Consultant

Consultants are not saviors. Sometimes they give some wildly revolutionary advice, or bring proven methods. Sometimes, it's merely sage advice. Sometimes it's them telling you you're on the right track and to fight harder. Sometimes they just tell you what you want to hear. And if they’re good and confident, they'll even tell you what you don't want to hear, even if they know it means you'll "disengage" and kick them out of your orbit. Unfortunately, they too, are not a panacea. You have a problem. A consultant may be able to fix it. They're an app for that. But they're not a panacea app.

Unfortunately, in savior cultures, consultants are too often viewed as potential panaceas. Company leaders announce, sometimes at big company meetings, that this or that consultant is going to save the company. What's this look like? Someone asks a question and the answer usually starts with, “I’ll be talking to the consultant about that this week,” basically saying, "We'll get back to you when the miracle will be performed." Or they don't and you're wondering when Lazarus is going to show up for work again with a new skip in his step. He never will, and soon enough, when the company's increasingly asking the consultant to take your company where no man has gone before, they break down, and like Bones from Star Trek, practically rip their hair out and scream, “Damn it, Jim, I’m a Doctor, not a miracle worker.”

The biggest problem with a consultant, much less a consultant with a savior complex, is this: the only way you're going to know if a consultant is any good is if you (or someone in your company) listens to them. And attempts to put into practice what they preach. Consultants are not panaceas, but they're often damn good remedies. Practical medicine. They should, at least, get you into the church, and hopefully much closer to the right pew. Remember: they can lead you to water, but they can't make you drink. But there's often someone who can...

A Panacea Captain

CEOs are the closest thing to a savior a company should ever hire, if nothing else because they are often given enough authority to get things done, and because the board often is paying them to save the company and in doing so, perform miracles. Just remember: new captain, same ship. That’s not saving. That's taking over the wheel. That's steering. Maybe they have the courage to take you through the storm. Maybe they're the one finally to acknowledge the iceberg directly in your company's path. That's not a miracle; that's a decent driver.

You might not want a person that just steers but helps to chart a completely different course. A great navigator. Or better yet, someone that has the sense to put the ship in port for a bit and make "her" a little more seaworthy before he brings her back out. Or in some cases, has the metal to suggest and command that you tear the ship apart and rebuild it. Or commission a whole new ship. If you want to build a new culture, that’s sometimes what you have to do. It’s risky, but where there’s risk, there’s great reward. It’s riskier to waste your time looking for a panacea. You don't want to wander around in the choppy waters like a Moses of The Sea. That’s a call for mutiny.

CEOs can lead you to the water. And if you want to keep your job, they can be very persuasive in getting you to drink. But even they can't make you, or anyone, especially if the people they are persuading don't trust the water, or aren't drinking the proverbial "Kool-Aid." That's when an ocean of water is just as bad a desert. Like the famous poem, "Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink." You can't drink saltwater. You'll die, quickly. You can't even drink pool water. You'll die, slowly. It doesn't matter how desperate people are. If a company has a savior culture, it's that much harder to impress the crew, to guide them and "steer" that ship. Change the water so that it's not just palatable, not just sustaining, but nurturing. Build a new culture they can embrace. One they are willing to drink.

Band-Aids are Temporary

In my culture-based books, I talk about Thumb in the Dike and Band-Aid Cultures. They're cultures where the general game plan is to plug holes and find temporary (usually cheap) solutions. You should always be looking for the solution to every problem. However, it’s okay to work with “a” solution until “the” solution is presented. Perfect is a great goal. It’s ambitious. We know that no one or thing is perfect. Not a person, not an app, not a solution. And no one or thing is a miracle.

Your company culture usually starts with a mission statement. It’s the first step toward communicating your culture. In that, you should communicate some simple things that keep the solution simple: "We’re working on it. Always. Together." We are smarter than me. No one person or one thing will ever shoulder the burden of being a panacea, the all, the everything, the perfect, the answer, the "the," and especially not the answer to all of our prayers. And remember, anyone that lays claim to that is a false prophet. They’re someone who is a band-aid at best, someone who exacerbates the wound at worst. Anyone who accepts it is a blind believer. You don't want the blind leading the blind, or someone with true vision to be falling on deaf ears.

Treat and Inoculate

Penicillin came from a culture in a petri dish. We got the crude beginnings of penicillin by mistake. A lucky, awesome mistake. The genius was in looking at it, recognizing what happened, recognizing its potential, and working hard to use it for the good of humankind. To treat disease. Infectious disease. But from that point forward, we realized you can grow a culture, both organically, and with guidance. You can plan to grow culture. And you can guide its mutation as well. Your culture is no different.

You could have an awesome culture or a terrible one... by mistake. You also could have an awesome one or a terrible one through a plan. Either way, a mistake is a mistake, whether if arose "organically" or through a plan. Take the mistake, whatever it may be. Learn from it, and work with it. It took years for them to learn how to “purify” penicillin and use it to treat disease. Purify your company culture. You’ve got your own penicillin now. It is the only thing that can treat you from the disease you suffer from: searching for the panacea. And eventually, your company culture will help to inoculate you from those who bring the disease with them.

Nothing is Everything

We cannot be everything to anyone. Any one solution cannot be the answer to everything, and there's a warning in the "Jerry Maguire" line, “you complete me.” I also don’t agree that any one person or thing can “complete” another. Your life without them/it might feel more empty, but they/it can’t complete you. You and your company can come closer and closer to completing yourself/itself. We all should strive to complete our company to the best of our ability, every day, every week, every month, every year. Every day, no matter how complete it seems, it will be incomplete. One bad hire, boom! Incomplete. One botched project, incomplete. It’s a constant state of flux that you can strive to bring closer to stasis, or closer to “balance.”

Make your plural singular. Rebuild. Break and reset the bones rather than hobble along. Fix the many problems in your company by developing your company culture so you may not only save your company, but grow it. Grow your culture, grow your company. Don’t treat it like a flash in the pan. Live long and prosper. Together, you can do it. Make it your singular mission to shake things up and have all of your stars working on this at all times.

There’s one way to make sure you always have stars where they should be, with your awesome planets revolving around them in an orderly pattern: have a plan. Build a culture that expands the universe you created, one that values stars and values order while continuously creating new stars. It’s called a succession plan. You’re next star might not be a savior, but they may be your next guiding star. It’s not rocket science. It’s not physics. It's not a miracle. It’s simple. It’s beautiful. It’s magical. It’s transformational. It’s culture. Make it yours.

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Patrick Longo is CEO of Upaya Partners, a firm specializing in transforming companies and people through company culture, storytelling and storyselling. 

He’s a recognized motivational speaker available for keynotes, training and content delivery for company culture, organizational development, change management, talent acquisition, customer experience, customer service, and social media marketing.

As a lifelong creative, he also enjoys his “free" time as a filmmaker, composer, musician, and author of professional and personal development books.

Feel free to engage with Patrick by Following or connecting with him on LinkedIn, or liking his posts. Find out more at upayapartners.com.