The Ship Of Theseus And Orgs
Using an ancient paradox to understand change, constancy, and identity
I was talking to a coworker about culture. And we talked about departures and changes in our team. And it reminded me of the ship of Theseus. For those not familiar it is a philosophical question:
The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned from Crete had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their places, insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same. — Plutarch, Theseus, courtesy Wikipedia
The ship was preserved, but as parts of it got older they were replaced piece by piece. And as the different parts of the ship changed so much that no original part was left. However, we still call it the same ship. Even if we change all the pieces we’d call it the same ship. Which is arguable since it has no components of the original boat. Except if you replace all the pieces in the same day you wouldn’t say that. Similarly, if all the removed pieces are combined together under the same design are they the ship of Theseus or is the one with all new planks the actual ship. And that is the essence of this paradox. For something as fundamental about an object as identity we cannot define a clear definition.
What I find amazing is how apt this thought experiment is when applied to a business with time. And how the metaphor arms us with tools to think about the how an organization stays the same with the passage of time and how despite all parts of it changing is still the the same organization.
Culture
This is how the conversation started. And culture is the quintessential characteristic that outlives the members of its organization. What’s interesting is that each person joining an organization brings their own culture. And each person leaving the organization takes a little bit of the culture with them. So the culture of an organization lives through new people and losing people.
Every new person that comes in is transformed by the existing culture. It sets the rules for what is acceptable and unacceptable. And so for a new person to survive in a new culture they have to adapt themselves to the existing rules. They add their own individual twist to the culture but the culture still stays the same.
But with time, the culture does move. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes for the worse. People in a leadership position are more critical to establishing culture but in the end it is every individual. And with each person it undergoes a slight shift, until it is an entirely new entity.
People
This paradox is not only applicable to the collective but also the individual. Everyone changes with time. Some get more mature, enhance their skills, learn to put their egos to the side. Others become more rigid and cynical. Ideally you want everyone of your team members to be able to look back and celebrate how far they have come from their past self but that is not always the case. People may learn to be more humble and empathetic after understanding others better. Others may let their success get to their head. Either way, as time passes we stop being the same person.
Business Models
One of the best examples of this is Amazon. They started as a bookseller. I remember using them in college to buy some books but by the time I graduated they were selling everything under the sun. In a few years they started making more money from reseller business on their platform from than from the actual store. Surprisingly in a few more years their largest business became renting out servers on AWS. They had IBM mocking them for being just a bookseller but in the end Amazon got chosen over IBM for government cloud contracts despite being more expensive.
In many ways the business models were completely changed. Each of the companies was completely different. Different needs, different products, different customers, different ways to sell. So Amazon is not the bookseller we used for buying the hard to get books.
But in other ways the business model was more similar than different. Through their many incarnations they maintained the same ethos of customer service, ease of use, carrying the products that meet your needs, and competitive pricing. They have just taken the idea of creating businesses with these qualities and bringing them to different spheres.
Growth
As an organization grows many things change with it. It goes from being the carefully vetted inner circle to a group that can scale. It goes from being able to turn on a dime to needing a large amount of consistent messaging. When earlier you can just try out any idea in a scaled organization you have to think about consistency, messaging to the customer, the overall product portfolio.
All of this is a consequence of success. To build something sustainable you have to capitalize on your successes. But the problems it causes are well documented in books like “The Innovator’s Dilemma”
One thing these examples show is that we are in constant change with time. And so maybe a better way to look at the question whether something retained its identity or not. Rather it’s a question of did we change in such a way that we can still meet the expectations of that identity. So how do we direct our change
Know Your Priorities
“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.”— Lewis Carroll, Alice In Wonderland
The first part of directing your choices is well having a direction. We need to have a focus for our efforts and for that we need to prioritize what’s important to us. We need to have a vision on where we want to be in the future. You don’t need to figure everything out. You don’t even need to be right. But you just need to have a direction that you can make progress to. In fact the further out the vision the more vague it should be.
Know Your Values
I have always been bothered by the phrase, “the ends justify the means”. Until recently when I finally understood the catch. Outcomes are the most important aspect of work, but we need to be mindful of the means. Because different means actually result in different ends. They’ll leave you with different states of your relationships, how you see yourself, stability of your position. And so just as important as the destination is how you choose to get there. To make sure you can look back and are satisfied with the path you’ve taken you need to understand your values. And then be true to your values.
Be Deliberate
One lesson from everything we talked about here is that change is inevitable. Everything changes with time. We can’t lock it in place. But rather we need to embrace it. So we can be deliberate about the change we introduce and make sure it is consistent with what we want from our identity. Because if we’re not deliberate the change will happen anyway, except it won’t bring us closer to our desired identity.
