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Seth Godin’s short-yet-always-insightful blog post today talks about compliance being easier to teach than initiative.  Our educational systems and, historically, our work culture has reflected this unfortunate fact.  I call it unfortunate because progress and success, on all levels, requires initiative.  We are finally in a stage of economic and technological development in which many companies realize the value of having innovators versus followers as employees.

Don’t kid yourself if your company has only gotten as far as this epiphany, though.  Hiring creative and proactive people is not enough.  To take full advantage of those peoples’ skills, you must have a corporate policy and culture that both encourages and rewards initiative.  A previous post of mine talked about what happens when you hire brilliant people to do dumb jobs; hiring initiative-taking people and slapping them with bureaucratic restrictions has the same outcome.

Communicate to your employees that it’s better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission.

When I interned at a defense contractor in college, I once came up to my manager and told him I could do a task that was taking 3 hours in 20 minutes, if I could make certain changes to the process.  He was 100% for it.  He immediately told me to go fill out an official suggestion form, describe the change fully, have the CFO sign the pink copy, the internal auditors sign the yellow copy, come back to him for his signature on the green copy and mail the original to corporate…  What did I do?  I sure as hell didn’t fill out those damn forms for a stupid little meaningless process (and so I bet the company still does it the same way even today…).

Red tape to implement process improvement discourages initiative and innovation. Instead of having employees run every potential by management, tell them that if they have ideas [that in their judgment would improve how business is done or add to the bottom line without burdening costs] to just roll with it and see how it goes.  If you take away the barrier to trying new things, new things will be tried. If they don’t work out, it’s still better to say, “You know what, I thought this would be great, I tried and it turned out I was wrong.  But I did it with good intention.”  Forgiveness is much easier to get under those circumstances.

Encourage ownership.

If an employee feels like a process is his own–tied to his name, his performance, his reputation–he will feel more compelled to take initiative with regards to it.  If it’s his manager’s baby, however, he won’t care how inefficient it is (unless it affects his work time) because he’s not the one taking the fall for it or having to answer for it.

Reward [attempts at] initiative.

Managers must recognize that it takes balls and dedication to stand up to you and tell you your old stuff needs to go and then put in the extra hours of work necessary to make the old stuff better, respectively.  My demonstration of initiative is a sign that I care about the company and am willing to work harder because of it.  That in and of itself is pretty awesome and should be rewarded.  You have to tell me that I have your complete support, that I should take all necessary steps to make it so, and that you will devote time and energy to go through the results with me when I’m done.  You need to realize that your support and show of confidence is part of the reward.

Additionally, when my initiative has actually resulted in meaningful change or accomplishment, publicize the hell out of me and the awesome work I did and try to apply my suggestions through the group or firm.  Getting recognition like this makes me feel really good about having taken an initiative and encourages me to do it again (because, hey, who doesn’t like the occasional pat on the back?).

Lastly, make sure you have a compensation and promotion structure that rewards those who take initiative in addition to doing their duties instead of those who do only what they’re told .  No matter how smart I am, I’m a Pavlov creature, so visible rewards get me to repeat my actions.  What does that mean for you?  A cycle of innovation.

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I love, respect, and appreciate the Winter Olympics so much more than the Summer Games because the level of difficulty involved, the risks the athletes have to take, and the sheer number of cajones they must have to still partake in these sports is simply awe-inspiring.

One of the sports that totally boggles my mind is bobsleigh.  You push yourself off as hard as you can, settle your body in a heavy sardine can and hurl yourself through curves at 90 mph (with no brakes or airbags).  Unfortunately, with the death of a Georgian luger, this year’s Olympics demonstrated just how dangerous the bobsleigh/luge sports really are.

Bad risk management, team management and project management can also be relatively lethal.  We can talk about the importance of good management and teamwork until the cows come home but nothing actually provides a better example of those dynamics than a bobsled team.

Trust: the front guy does all the steering while the last guy can’t see a damn thing. After all the guys are finally in the sled, only the first guy can see and even then, he generally doesn’t want to.  He wants to feel the course instead.  Experienced drivers rely more on the motion than on their eyes, which is probably wise considering how fast they’re going.  That’s how a lot of teams are structured as well.  Only a few people may be the face of the company or project.  The others are behind the scenes, doing the hard part of the work, and never get to steer.  A successful team, just like a successful bobsled team, requires those people in the back to be OK with that arrangement.

You’re in a fragile yet expensive tin can together. Unlike NASCAR or F1 drivers, the bobsled team does not have an expensive pit crew working on their ride.  They have to learn it, work it, and fix it themselves.  Each sled costs a lot more than you’d think and is anything but cushy.  Regardless, each team member loves it and each sled has an affectionate pet-name, just like a fancy yacht would.  A business or team is also fragile, regardless of how much or little money it makes.  In order to keep it together, every individual needs to love it, even through the rough and bumpy curves.

Success means everyone being good at their one particular role and each person trusting the others to fulfill theirs. Whether it’s pushing, guiding or steering, every member of the bobsled team has a crucial role to play and an important task to fulfill before, during and after entering the sled.  Each member relies on the others to perform their tasks in order to win the race and keep each person safe.  If one person messes up, everyone is screwed.  There’s a reason your firm has the X number of employees it does (hopefully).  If the company could function with just one person, you better believe it would.  If you’re there, you’re important, so do your piece.

Some members of your team must be the brute force “push athletes”. On the bobsled team, those strong guys and how well they push at the beginning of the slide can and does determine the outcome of the race.  Don’t marginalize them.  The arm might be more valuable than the brain.

The driver calls all the shots. If he doesn’t think you’re working out on the team, you’re out.  Most people in the business world complain that they can be dismissed for any reason and they’re right.  However, do you think your boss would axe you if you’re the top performer on your team?  What is he, masochistic?

Camaraderie directly affects how fast you move. When bobsledders like and appreciate one another, their rhythm develops naturally.  When they have rhythm, they move faster and smoother.  The same goes for any team.  Nothing says that you need to be best friends with the people you work with, but it sure as hell helps.  Bobsledders don’t really get paid for doing what they do.  They rely solely on sponsors and since the sport isn’t exactly the sexiest, they don’t get too much of it.  However, they train all year in order to compete in the wintertime.  When times are rough and the pay sucks, if you don’t love who you work with, you’re going to abandon ship (…or sled).  Alternatively, “meshing” with your coworkers allows you to develop a natural rhythm (and saves you time bickering) that can create a unique competitive advantage.  That’s why I strongly believe that if you don’t like your coworkers, you need to find yourself a new job.

Timing is crucial: if just one member of the team misses his cue, the entire sequence falls apart. The pushing-and-jumping-into-the-sled process is exceedingly fast and needs to be done in a very specific order and quickly.  If one person screws up, the other guys can fall out, get hurt, or just lose the race.  The driver needs to hit the curves at a very precise angle in order to maximize the speed coming out of that bend.  If he misses by half a second, he could throw the sled off course.  In business, deadlines are everything and timing is even more so.  Being first to market can make you or break you.  Not fulfilling a necessary piece of the project on time can delay the entire team and the firm.

The bobsledders are an amazing bunch of people.  They persevere, train, and throw caution to the wind for nothing but plain old love of the game.  It’s unfortunate that they are undercompensated because they are absolutely amazing role models, and not just for businesspeople.

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Don Dodge wrote this fantastic post about how Google is consistently able to to achieve the seemingly unachievable.  The reasons he lists are not related to talent, technology, or marketing.  Dodge states that Google’s continued success is because of the way they set goals and measure results.  Their methods, however, are not unique to their business or industry — they are universal and everyone should learn them by heart.

The first thing Dodge mentions Google does is set impossible short term expectations.  It’s important to set short term goals so that people don’t forget about them and it’s even more important to set overly-ambitious goals so that people are motivated to strive towards them.  As a manager, if you set high expectations for your employees, you’ll be surprised how many of them actually step up.  Most people like to be  challenged and when you give them that kind of vote of confidence, they will work their hardest to not let you down.  All of a sudden, you will see the true potential of what you they are capable of.

Google also believes it’s important to encourage seeking options, not accepting failure.  There are managers out there that believe in training people in how to perform a specific task.  If there comes a situation, however, when that task does not yield the desired result, the person doing it will probably stop working, feeling lost.  On the other hand, if you train people to achieve certain goals and encourage them to explore options to find the best method to achieve them, you will create an atmosphere in which people feel comfortable being creative but do not feel comfortable failing.

Achieving 65% of the impossible is better than 100% of the ordinary.  I think this is such a great quote.  In order to achieve extraordinary results, you have to create a company culture in which it’s better to get a little past half way towards an incredible goal than to meet a modest one.

Finally, after you set all these high goals for your company and its people, you need to make sure you that you reward outstanding performance, both monetarily and otherwise.  Dodge writes:

Google attracts the best people in the industry for many reasons, maybe most importantly because they give people the resources and support they need to achieve the impossible. Financial rewards are significant, but they are not the primary motivator. Working with the best people in the world and achieving greatness is the ultimate reward.

The major point here is that in order to expect greatness, you need to support people in their quest towards it.  Give them help when they need it; space when they don’t.  Provide access to as many resources as you or they believe are necessary.  Then, once the impossible has been achieved, make sure to reward accordingly, showing people that their hard work is in fact very appreciated.

None of these concepts are revolutionary, but it’s always the little things we take for granted that separate good companies from great ones.  The difference between Google and most other large and growing tech firms is not just it’s algorithm and technology — it’s the company’s attitudes towards people and achievement.