What Companies Can Learn From 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Books

I grew up in the time of ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books. I loved them. They were great because they made you feel like you got to control the story. You would read a chapter, and at the end, you would get to choose which way the journey went.

‘To continue down the dark hallway, turn to page 38.’

‘To pick up the candlestick and go in the kitchen, turn to page 12.’

‘To run out of the house in fear, turn to page 70.’

Invariably you would almost always meet your death. I’m convinced that just like a maze, there was only one way out, but many more ways that ended in failure. Sometimes I would cheat, flip ahead to the next possible options, and see if that ended in ‘sorry, you died’, and then quickly divert to another option if it did.

What made these books great was the sense that I was in control, that I got to choose my adventure, my outcome. In reality, the book was already written, the journey had already been laid out, the endings already predetermined. But the book gave each of its readers the feeling that they could dictate the outcome.

This idea is extremely powerful. People love to feel they are in control of their destiny. It’s why people try so hard to find that same control in their daily lives.

For lots of employees in lots of companies, your future within that company isn’t determined by you. Your growth and progress are determined by those above you: your manager, their boss, and the CEO.

While they may give you a roadmap to success, it often only consists of one road: you stay on this path, one line of movement, and hope it turns out well. You have to get on the corporate ladder and hope someone lets you climb. This doesn’t sit well with many employees. They want to be in control of their own destiny, not have it determined by others. So they create their own options, which are:

‘To continue on the ladder, stay put for 30 years’

‘To try out a new ladder, leave your job and try something else’

‘To gain back your drive and push yourself to grow, create your own ladder.’

One of the biggest reasons that people end up leaving a company isn’t just because of money. It’s because they feel stagnant in growth and opportunity. They feel they aren’t learning new things anymore. 

They feel that the one road they have been put on by their company may not be the one for them.

Is it really a surprise, then, that the natural reaction is to leave a company? To seek new growth and new experiences? To conquer new challenges? Often Millennials get labelled as lacking loyalty and being job-hoppers, but what it really is comes down to constantly wanting to learn, tackle new challenges, and own their own journey.

The question that younger top talent are asking themselves is not what job they will have in 30-40 years. They are asking themselves how they can gain new skills, grow, get better every year, and ultimately enjoy what they are doing. If a company focuses on allowing each of their people to own their journey, and give them options, they may find that hunger quenched and the need to leave subside.

‘To try out marketing, talk with your manager.’

‘To see what business development is all about, talk with your Vice President.’

‘To give input on new ideas and directions, speak up.’

When you give your people more routes and roads internally, you give your people less reason to find new roads and routes outside of your company.

So here is my question to companies and their leaders: which type of company will you be? The choice is yours.

Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts, or share it with someone who you think should read this.