I was going through some very old cuttings and this one jumped out at me.

I want all of my rights immediately, but have no urgent need of my obligations.

It was originally written about teenagers.

These days it seems to fit a lot of folks in the tech world and beyond — way beyond.

From sea to shining sea and on to Wall Street, then south to DC and the halls of Congress and the White House.

Image credit: studio tdes

These are heady times for politicians, pundits and strutting egos.

Which makes it a very good time to recall the words of a truly brilliant and insightful man.

“The difference between genius and stupidity is genius has its limits.” – Albert Einstein

I’d add that true genius knows them.

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

Way back in 2006 I described the difference between process and bureaucracy.

I was reminded of it by a phone call from “Kev” asking for assistance because they were having trouble hiring.

He said they had no trouble attracting excellent candidates who seemed excited about the product and work, but they couldn’t seem to close them.

I asked two questions,

1. How would you describe your company’s culture and its core values?
2. What is your hiring process?

Kev described the culture in terms of working hard, a really fun atmosphere (foosball table, bubble machine, Friday beer bust, etc.) an “awesome product” and “incredible people.”

He said whoever was available sat in on the interview along with him and everyone had a say in whether an offer was made. They didn’t have a formal process, because they were a startup, but planned to put something in place when they started to scale.

I explained to Kev that what he described wasn’t really a culture; that real culture is based on inviolate values.

Moreover, processes created outside or in ignorance of existing culture won’t work. It’s that simple.

That’s because the culture is anchored by and tied to the founder’s values and MAP.

For example, startups/high growth companies are often hotbeds of raging egos. If the culture is tolerant of that then the level of open communications that form the basis of great culture leading to good process is impossible.

Further, process created without a solid cultural basis will quickly turn to bureaucracy — which will slow growth while accelerating turnover.

For more information read If the Shoe Fits: Culture is Numero Uno

Join me next Thursday for a look at how to create a successful hiring process.

Image credit: HikingArtist

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

This post is dedicated to all the under-30 founders with the unshakable belief that they have the organizational chops to lead their company through every growth level, unlike Larry Page, Mark Zukerberg and Nasty Girl founder Sophia Amoruso,

A few days ago Amoruso told her 255 employees that she was stepping down from her CEO role to focus on creative and brand marketing and President Sheree Waterson assuming the CEO role and focus on operations.

Amoruso founded Nasty Girl in 2006 and built it to its current $100+M, but believes it needs different skills to reach the next level.

“What got you here can’t get you there.”

According to investor Index Ventures’ Danny Rimer it definitely was Amoruso’s idea.

“It shows a level of maturity that she knows what she can do well and what others can do better than her.”

Amoruso is confident enough to act on that knowledge.

True leaders know when to step aside and focus on what they do best.

Image credit: HikingArtist

Last week I described way to use an innovation wiki to juice creativity and garner ideas from all parts of the company. In the comments Jennifer Brown said, “…[is a] platform across the entire enterprise wherein the innovation “conversation” occurs – not just team by team/vertical by vertical, but across verticals that typically don’t talk to each other (hence leading to silos) or collaborate. …harness the power of the workforce, break the silo’d thinking of functional structures, and revolutionize business models.”

I agree, but done with a small innovative twist an innovation wiki will break down not only departmental silos, but also the insidious horizontal silos that are based on position and education.

Personally, I loathe horizontal silos and consider them second only to politics on the corporate stupidity index.

More times than I can count I’ve seen the ideas of an engineer 1 or 2 discounted or ignored by the 3s and senior engineers—of course, that’s better than stealing them, although that happens, too.

The attitude seems to be one of ‘your brain is incapable of any creative thinking until you are at least at my pay grade’, which is idiotic.

People’s brains work differently; some see what is, others see possible improvements and a few see around corners, but that sight has little to do with position. Steve Jobs saw around the corner of the personal computer market before there was a personal computer market and certainly before he had any credibility what so ever.

Nor is it always about training and education. 20 odd years ago I redesigned two street intersection where I lived in San Francisco, but I didn’t suggest the solutions to the traffic engineers—I knew they wouldn’t listen because I have no training. Instead, I sneaked both ideas in through someone I know who was ‘accepted’ and both are still in effect today.

Silos are built of egos, which is why, vertical or horizontal, they’re so difficult to break down.

The best solution is for the CEO to build a culture that values everybody’s ideas equally, but technology offers a leg up on this.

When building your innovation wiki assign a random ID to each suggestion—sort of like match.com. They must be completely random so that level, grade and even department are totally obscured. Each idea has a different ID, so that when a person’s idea is used the next one is still anonymous; limit access of the actual name to a few top executives.

That anonymity truly levels the playing field and means that each idea is considered strictly on its merits, not on the merits of the person who thought of it. It also encourages people to way outside-the-box thinking and to post ideas without worrying about appearing silly, pushy or arrogant for offering ideas outside of their personal expertise.

Just be sure that the contributors of ideas that are used, whether all, in part or as a springboard to something else, receive plenty of public acknowledgement, kudos and anything else you’re in a position to do.

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Image credit: ZedBee|Zoë Power on flickr

Considering the business news for the last decade the title of this week’s quotes is more of an oxymoron.

And, IMCO (in my cynical opinion), it’s not over yet. I think more schemes, more unethical if not downright illegal actions and a whole lot more stupidity are going to surface globally before we get out of this tunnel.

With that in mind I offer up these insights to the human psyche.

There are two levers to set a man in motion, fear and self-interest. –Napoleon Bonaparte (He should know.)

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone. –John Maynard Keynes (That was then, now the wicked men do wicked things sans greatest good for anyone but them.)

Corporation, n., An ingenious device for obtaining profit without individual responsibility. –Ambrose Bierce (But it doesn’t have to be that way.)

Earnings can be pliable as putty when a charlatan heads the company reporting them.–Warren Buffett (Can you say derivatives, Madoff and hedge funds?)

If ethics are poor at the top, that behavior is copied down through the organization. –Robert Noyce (We really didn’t need anyone to prove Noyce’s wisdom.)

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Image credit: flickr