The difference between Blame and Accountability
We all make mistakes.
Errors of judgement, misplaced leaps of faith, problems of trust, bad timing, misplaced loyalty, uninformed opinions, wrong assumptions, badly researched bets… Mistakes come in all shapes, sizes and hues.
I’ve written multiple times before about the importance of Culture… the resonance of Values.. and the importance of faith in building a startup.
As a startup grows into a larger company, It’s easy to get lulled into a place where laissez-faire startup culture meets dogmatic corporate work standards.
So as a “startup team member” you’re entitled to free lunches, work from home as much as you please, flexible hours, and unfettered access to the leadership inside a “flat” organization. You’re allowed to make mistakes, move fast and break things, and generally work around every single paradigm of corporate slavery — thats what makes it so attractive.
But as the startup scales, you become a distributed team, goals get loftier, processes become more complex, the team grows into an org chart, and an exec team is formed to be the company’s stewards. Venture Investment means scale matters, tests need to succeed, and shit needs to happen.
Suddenly, you’re having to chase people for information, results have a deadline, and people are looking at you for results, insights and plans. Its no longer all “Kumbaya”. The company’s survival suddenly depends on your decisions, your inputs.
Your hard work, speed and accuracy determine meaningful outcomes for the company. And no, you can’t pick two.