I recently had the opportunity to clean out a file cabinet that held at least fifty years of information.  It wasn’t as bad as it sounds. In fact, it was highly instructive.  This file cabinet contained all sorts of records, notes, cards, receipts and other pieces of paper that not only summarized the work of years past, but also provided some lessons to build from.   

Respect the contributions of the past

Every organization has a beginning, every team has a starting place and every society has founders.  Without any of this we would all be starting from ground zero.  No matter what the thoughts are about the things that were done by those that came before you, they are the foundation upon which you stand. 

Progress requires purging

The amount of confusing and contradictory information in this cabinet was beyond dizzying.  But it explained why staff often referred to the past and had difficulty moving forward.  Like many things is the universe (i.e., plants, trees, caterpillars) nothing that is growing stays the same and as we move from phase to phase we must realize that there are some things that no longer serve us well. 

Who you are as a leader is birth out of who you are as a person

Leadership is a pressure cooker and when you are under pressure, your true character always comes forward. Changing who you are at your core requires a significant change of mind and investment of heart. As a leader, you can only fake it for so long.  

Structure without security leads to secret contempt

It is often said that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.  When you apply that type of philosophy to a business it’s not as much about information as it is organization. A rigid, dogmatic structure is not what brings the best out of employees.  This doesn’t mean that there should be no structure, but instead the structure should be implemented in a way that the needs of employees are considered and reasonably accommodated for.

Valuing people over outcomes leads to profitable outcomes

Without people, the outcomes are just a random compilation of words. Leaders are responsible for the people (and the systems) that produce the outcomes. When people are treated well they perform even better. 

Customer service begins before candidates become employees

Employees are our internal customers.  When people are treated well before becoming employees they begin their journey with an understanding of how important organizational values and outcomes are. 

The absence of creativity leads to organizational suicide

At the root of innovation is creativity.  Without it the organization never grows or evolves. When organizations cease to evolve with the world around them, they become irrelevant.

Look around you, there are people and organizations that have continued to reinvent themselves, but there are also people and organizations that haven’t transitioned as well.  This file cabinet adventure made me realize how meaningful it is that every generation stands on the shoulders of the past.  This happens when we know how to learn from the mistakes of the past and to benefit from their successes.