Member-only story
What happens when there is no boss ?Getting long term perspective back
It’s not for the faint-hearted
Move fast and break things.
This is the sentence that start-ups love to throw around, almost like a rallying cry. I hate this sentence.
Our time span for attention has shrunk so much over the past years, largely due to start-up culture : get in, grow fast, sell and become rich and famous.
So in the process of getting rich and famous fast, breaking things isn’t such a big deal. This is a very machiavellian approach : who cares what breaks, who suffers ? You’ll be laughing all in the way to the bank in the end right ?
But what if you were trying to build something meaningful that’ll still be around for a long time ?
And what if you knew that moving fast today meant that that move was going to cause a deceleration or even a fall down the road ? Would you still move fast today ? Would you still compromise long term growth over short term gain ?
This is why holacracy, or any form of shared governance, isn’t meant to be for companies that are looking for short term gain.
Holacracy isn’t a short term win. It’s a long term game.
