Many of us have worked in a startup environment. It’s exciting: there’s this thing we’re working toward that we all believe in to the point of putting our own well-being on the back burner. There’s an infectious energy and thrill of watching this brand new thing enter the world and gain momentum. It needs a lot of care and attention, and we have a group of people who pull together to make it happen.
There’s nothing wrong with startups – the startup phase is a critical period for any business! This phase is the initial make-or-break of the business, and a lot goes into bringing a new business through it. The issue arises when the business fails to move past this stage – and many businesses are several years or decades old and are still operating from the startup place.
There’s an argument to be made that the startup mentality is critical to maintaining a fresh sense of urgency for any business, and I’m not going to argue that point. I will argue that running a business off of startup-type energy in perpetuity is a big problem, though. This approach means that there’s two gears: ALL or NOTHING. Humans simply cannot sustain in this type of environment, and the result is that businesses running as perpetual startups often experience high turnover, consistent repeated but avoidable mistakes, and a lot of waste (time, effort, and energy).
Why? Because rather than turning their attention toward sustaining into the future, they continue to keep their noses to the what if we don’t make it grindstone. That place generates a lot of intense scared energy but fails in learning crucial lessons that allow a business to succeed past that initial push and into a maintainable future.
For perpetual startups, the unspoken mantra is WORK HARDER. They require employees to fight fires rather than working smarter to prevent them in the first place. The initial thrill of bringing something new into the world wears off as people get tired, burn out, and feel like nothing they do has any consequence in the long run. There’s no other way to feel when no matter how hard you work, nothing ever really seems to get better.
The question then, is what is the alternative? How does a business shift from the startup energy that got it going in the first place to a more sustainable, consistent source of energy? What is that source of energy?
I will posit to you that part of the answer lies in a true understanding of the business identity – who it is, why it exists, and who it exists to serve. This helps us understand the big WHY question, and once we have a clear understanding of that, we have a solid source of energy to drive decisions and ideas.
How can a solid understanding of business identity combat what I’ve described above? First, it answers questions that allow the business to align itself with its true purpose as it makes critical decisions. It gives people a foundation to stand on as they go about their work. It sets the tone for what is acceptable and what is not in the work place, and as the business grows it needs these anchor points to keep growing.
Activity: Take 15 minutes to answer the three questions above. What do these answers tell you about your business today? Where do you see opportunities to move toward a more sustainable energy source?