There are those who characteristically resist change in their lives. In fact, a great majority among us display this trait of character habitually. There are those afraid of new things, of changing their ways, and there are others who simply feel most comfortable where they are, who don’t want to move at all.
Fortunately, there are also a few hidden gems amidst the herde, people who aren’t rigid like most others. These people not only feel comfortable riding along the wave of change, they are actually thriving on it.
It is these kinds of people who outperform all others in the scenes of a startup company. After all, that’s what it is all about as a startup: being flexible to the changing market segment you’re in, the changing needs of your customers, and the changing products you make. This flexibility grants us a great advantage over larger, more rigid corporations who are considerably slower in reacting to the changing environment variables involved in business.
So what is it exactly that makes us flexible to change?
Mindset might be the most important asset in this picture: as long as every single employee knows the collective goal of the entire company and is flexible to a changing environment, you’re going to see your productivity skyrocket. Everyone has to be on the same page , knowing that what matters is the solution, not the road that led to it. They need to accept the idea that every big victory needs lots of small failures, that in order to get to a truly great solution you must get over a dozen bad ones quickly and re-iterate.
Systems will assist your flexibility in most cases. If you’re lucky to be in the IT business, systems can make your development team excel in productivity. You can use Continuous Delivery (or even Continuous Deployment if you’re feeling confident) to get your software to your customers faster, and the Agile Development architecture is ready for you as well. These systems are great tools to emphasize the benefits of your “agile minded”, flexible programmers. You can use Scrum-based project management systems for your Project Managers. Even your Quality Assurance team can benefit from automated health testing suites like NewRelic (or PingDom, if you like simplicity).
Communication is what makes it all stick together. If people are to move and decide swiftly, your communication lines need to allow for rapid interaction. Whether you mandate a communication system to be used, have a physical office where people can talk face-to-face, or you let everyone call eachother’s phones, interfacing in-between employees can make or break your flexibility.
Having all three core assets present in your company brings great advantages. You can think faster, move faster, and act faster than your competition. Other companies are extremely fragile to changing external factors like your market segment, whilst you ride along, adapting to every change as it comes along.
Embrace change, and it will become your best friend. Meet “Organized Chaos”.