Self Preservation Instincts | Brand, Business & The Biological System
“Without a strong self-preservation instinct in an organism’s DNA, it would tend to disappear over time, thus eliminating that DNA. While cooperation is another important model, the self-preservation instinct is strong in all organisms and can cause violent, erratic, and/or destructive behavior for those around them” Shane Parish, Farnam Street Blog
Creative destruction is the force of new entrants into industry that helps the world make progress.
Self preservation is the humans desire to preserve its own DNA and increase the potential for future versions of said DNA.
Their is a strong connection between incumbents, creative destruction, and the instinct for self preservation. Let’s dive in.
Incumbents & Culture
Incumbents by definition have already earned significant market share, and the culture of the organization is in most cases aware that the company can withstand small dips in demand, thus implicitly incentivizing the behavior for people within the company be concerned with doing a bad job and getting fired, but not greatly concerned with doing a great job and moving forward. The perception of largeness in the organization obfuscates the need for all members of the company to do great work, to fight for the evolving needs of the customer.
Orientation of Self Preservation Of Incumbents & Consultants
Largely, the orientation or the incentives that align with self preservation inside of incumbents and consultants tend to index upon loss aversion as oppose to progression towards a better future. What about bonuses? you might think, does that not incentivize progression? No. Short term extrinsic motivators, especially those predicated upon quarterly results, rarely take into account what is best for the customer or what will be most beneficial both for company and customer long term.
What is the solution then? To be candid, I don’t know. Self preservation is something rooted deep into our biology and I certainly do not have the depth of knowledge or experience to answer how it can be altered.
Founders & The Galvanizing Force
The other side of the coin is greatness, it is the exceptional 10x solution that completely changes the course of an industry and positively creates a new mental model for the customer relative to the reality of current possibilities, whether that be physical, technical, functional or emotional.
Here, the orientation is of progress. It has to be or else everyone inside the organization will have wasted their time and maybe more importantly to this discussion, they will not be rewarded with continuity, both financially and philosophically — there implicit bet on the future looking like they envisioned it would be wrong.
So, with this orientation, how do things differ? Alignment of vision and extreme competence or nothing. Self preservation in a new entrant is do or die, someone who is not component or just doing enough will not get by and will be weeded out, similarly someone who does not share the vision will be weeded out, as this philosophical dissonance will be clearly apparent. Airbnb, and their mandate that all employees must be a host for a period of time once they are hired is a great example alignment and competence.
Staying Small & Getting The Incentives In Front Of Self Preservation
“The rabbit runs faster than the fox, because the rabbit is running for his life while the fox is only running for his dinner.”
― Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
Simply, when a company, a business or a brand is small they are akin to the rabbit, and the incumbents and the employees that comprise said incumbent are akin to the fox. We know who wins the race, and that folks, is creative destruction.
So, being small is essential to growth, innovation, and thwarting off orthogonal competitive threats. Thus, the key question becomes how do we incentive staying (or acting ) small, even as we grow?
… As per usual my thoughts are not fully clear on this yet and would love suggestions!
