After considering my recent views on compost as it applies to leadership and culture I want to add another for you to ponder this weekend.

It’s extremely short and I hope you will add your thoughts to my idea.

Life is compost.

You are the composting machine.

From birth to death a myriad of learning and experiences come your way.

The end result is a rich mixture of ideas, attitudes and actions and even a bit of wisdom if the worms and bacteria are especially effective.

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Last Monday I said that leadership was another word for initiative and that meant it had to be spread like fertilizer to every level and person if the company wanted to thrive.

Tuesday I followed up saying that leadership fertilizer was better composted than taught.

That thinking made me realize that the best cultures are also composted.

Cultural development follows a Y-shaped path.

Initially, the raw ingredients from the top person’s MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) form the basic building blocks of the culture.

At that point the culture moves along one of two divergent routes—one akin to the controlled manufacturing approach of synthetic fertilizer and the other to composting.

Bosses who opt for the former build out the company’s (or their organization’s) culture with little-to-no input from others. They define it, shape it and present the whole as a set piece that is unlikely to change unless they do the changing.

Bosses who opt for the latter use the basic blocks to create a framework that encourages ideas from all levels and positions within the company. The framework acts as a composter with the ideas being processed by various people. One of the most prominent examples of a composting culture was the development of ROWE at Best Buy.

Manufactured cultures have little flexibility, are limited to their creator’s world-view and often defeat initiative and the spread of leadership; even those that are positive are slower, less empowering, and less welcoming to initiative.

Composted cultures are enabling; they encourage people to have initiative, take risks, step out of their comfort zone, grow, and, above all, think—all without worrying that they will be stomped for doing so.

Manufactured culture makes bosses feel safe; they are non-threatening and within their comfort zone.

Composted culture takes bosses out of their comfort zones, often challenges their world-view and shakes up their MAP—not for the faint-of-heart.

Are you a manufacturer or a composter?

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Continuing with more thoughts on yesterday’s post Leadership Is Fertilizer.

Fertilizer is produced in a lab with scientists controlling which chemicals in what amount are used and then mass produce that particular formula in a factory.

Anyone who gardens knows that there are a multitude of brands that produce different fertilizers, some considered “general purpose,” but most with specific formulas to accomplish specific goals, including forcing growth.

Experts say compost is a better choice.

Compost is natural, produced when multiple kinds of organic matter are brought together and left to decompose with the aid of a variety of organisms. The result is an incredibly rich material that produces sustainable results without damaging the environment.

Leadership is similar.

You have the kind that is produced in colleges and MBA programs, learned in a sterile environment, with ingredients that parallel the thinking of selected experts’ mindsets and attitudes. Thus, the student is indoctrinated in a set of specifics and is often prejudiced against anything that falls outside those boundaries.

Leadership learned through doing—taking the initiative and accepting the risk of failure—is different. It combines a variety of experiences, good, bad and indifferent and adds a variety of organisms in the form of the varied humans that populate the organization. The effect of those organisms on the experiences of individual initiative produces a deeper, richer, more flexible form of leadership.

Chemical fertilizer needs to be applied again and again as it wears out.

Compost mixes with and enriches the soil itself, so that the more you add the better the growth medium.

In which do you want to plant your people?

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Last Monday and Tuesday I hit a nerve when I described leadership as fertilizer and went on to say that the composted kind was better than that produced in a lab.

So today I went looking for good quotes about fertilizer. I only found two really good ones, especially the one from Rick Pitino

Since there aren’t more, I thought I’d invite you to make up you own. Read the posts (if you haven’t already) and share your fertilizer quotes in comments.

“Fertilizer does no good in a heap, but a little spread around works miracles all over.” –Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Failure is good. It’s fertilizer. Everything I’ve learned about coaching, I’ve learned from making “mistakes.” –Rick Pitino

“Spreading fertilizer on others juices your own growth.” –Miki

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