There was a moment, not long after we incorporated 60 Decibels, when I was sitting in the office with my head of operations. We had to decide which of a number of office spaces we had seen was right for us, and what lease to sign. We discussed it for about five minutes, agreed what we wanted to do…and then we both just stopped for a beat.
Both of us paused because it felt like we needed to check with someone else, to get an additional approval, to run it up the flagpole.
But in a startup, blessedly, there is no flagpole.
Both of us got a bit giddy as we realized it was just up to us. When the surrounding silence made this abundantly clear, we confirmed our decision and moved on. That was the first of a thousand small decisions we made quickly.
She and I had both spent our careers in bigger organizations. We’d learned about things going slowly. It had been, slowly and surely, pounded in to us.
Of course things change in moments of crisis–like what we’re living through right now. When a crisis hits, we all move faster, because what’s happening externally is so big and so universally understood that no one will punish us for choosing to act.
The question that presents itself is: why only in a crisis?
One of the many things we are all learning is that we can up our game when we have to: we can make important decisions and own the consequences.
The people whose job it is to make sure everything is just right have other things to worry about right now. Or they’ve consciously changed their standard, tilting far in favor of action and away from methodically checking off all the boxes.
This has happened because we all understand the cost of inaction in a crisis.
What we shouldn’t forget, not just today but also in a calmer tomorrow, is that the cost of inaction is always high.
Many of us have learned that we can’t get blamed for doing nothing. But the much more important lesson is that inaction and passing the buck are nearly always the most expensive thing–not just because of the things we don’t get done, but because of the culture we build and the lessons we teach our best people:
That’s it’s not really up to them to decide.
That they’re not really on the hook.
That we don’t, when you boil it all down, trust them to act in our best interest.
What could be more damaging to the cultures we aim to build?
