Hardtech 101: The CEO experiment.

“ Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”- Abraham Lincoln

Up until the early 2000s the corporate structure was somewhat standardized. Broken into teams at the microscopic level, with experienced individuals leading those teams, calling shots and being accountable for their units or other employees under them.

Fast forward to the current scenario and we will see that “Flat Hierarchy” has almost become fashionable now. Enterprises take pride in that.

Yes, the flat hierarchy removes a lot of barrier in communication. The integration with the agile way of working also creates pseudo positions which can be handed to experienced professionals, without giving them excessive powers.

But how well does that work for a startup?

Frankly for us it never added a lot of value. When a small number of people are working closely, flat hierarchy is not a culture but an extremely natural way of working. So arose a new problem. We didn’t have enough leaders!! The accountability factor took a serious hit in this structure. There was very little value addition to the people skills of the employees, I mean people skills is not just about being nice to your colleagues, it’s also so about taking the lead role when you know you are fit for it and you will deliver. All in all, we were very soon going to hit a wall called “MONOTONY”, which is awful for a company where creativity is an essential trait.

So, what’s the plan here Boss?

The eureka moment came to one of the founders, where, in one of the team meetings he put forth the idea of the “WEEKLY CEO”, which later on came to be known as the “Culture Enhancement Officer”.

The idea here was to make individuals responsible for the rest of the team for a week. The idea was a welcome break for all. So how exactly did this work for us?

Better communication.

Just the act of having a team meeting every week is not enough. There have been occasions when these meetings have not lasted for more than 15 minutes. But I honestly believe that an all hands meeting deserves a lot more attention than this.But just the process of selecting a new CEO opened new fronts of discussions. The (/) CEO gives his opinion about his tenure. He may sometimes even receive a small feedback from teammates, which in turn reduces communication gaps and forms a learning curve for the individual. The new CEO, will give his opinion on what he thinks can change about the company and how he or she will try to do that and make the enterprise more efficient.

The can of worms, if you may.

Many a times, just listening to people mentioning what they plan to do as the CEO, gives you a deep insight in to what they actually think about the company and how serious they are about it. It sometimes reveals the small pains they might have faced being a part of the company but may have never mentioned it (the metaphorical can of worms). This becomes a huge help for the human capital management team and also helps the promoters gauge the overall mood and attitude of the employees.

Them cojones!

Colleagues of mine who would generally kept their heads down and worked quietly away from the noise, came up as the biggest surprise in this exercise. They were clear with their opinions and thought process and what they wanted for their colleagues and companies. They took the role as seriously as they take their day to day tasks, and this lifts the working atmosphere so high it’s almost unimaginable. Their discipline very soon penetrates into the working practice of the whole business and at least for a short period you see a very noticeable change.

I can go on and on about how this was one of the best things we have done in our org. but their is one point which is the most important one.

What we did with this exercise is that we called everyone out, we put them in the limelight and put them in a position where they were responsible for a lot more than their “profile”. We called out to the most primal instinct of every human being, which is to leave a mark, whatever they do wherever they are. And this was clearly visible in the changes brought about by every individual that has held this title until now.

It is important to keep everyone on their toes and keep things lively, and this experiment has surely done that for our little company. Go give it a try, maybe there is resistance at first. But which good idea has not faced resistance in the early stages?