Ideas vs Ideals
When I was a teenager, I played in a couple of bands that were initially very exciting and a lot of fun, but ended with fighting and insurmountable differences of opinion. In both cases, they started with a great idea – “Hey, James, we’re forming a band and we need you to play drums for us. Are you in?”. At some point along the way the ideas took second place to our ideals. What started out as a couple of fun and exciting jam sessions ended because we all had different ideals, be they creative, political, musical, or other. No matter how well we played together or how good we sounded, the lack of cohesion around our ideals tore us apart.
Business is the same, particularly when it comes to small companies and start ups. The idea is what gets us going. It’s what gets us in the door. It’s what brings us an immediate small amount of value for our energy. But an idea alone is not enough to sustain momentum. Even product success, high sales volumes, and positive consumer reviews aren’t enough to sustain true momentum.
At my company, we have eight ‘company values’. These values guide and direct every decision that is made, from the seemingly momentary and insignificant decisions all the way up to the critical directional decisions made by the top leaders and visionaries. These are our ideals. These are our non-negotiables. These are the glue. Failure to acknowledge, behave, and perform in line with these values, or even treating them with a modicum of mediocrity, will result in one of only two options; buy in to them, or move on. We treat these values incredible seriously. Why? Because they are our ideals that keep us together.
A friend of mine works at a company that has a very interesting and, in my opinion, effective interview strategy for job candidates. First, there is a traditional business interview in the office with a panel and the expected interview Q&A sessions. Perhaps there might be a second interview in the office as well. At some point after that the candidate is invited to a ‘social’ interview. This is an informal gathering at a bar over a beer or two and the topic of discussion can be about anything. The purpose of the social interview is to get to know the personality, not just the qualifications. It’s in these social interviews that a candidate’s ideals begin to show. This additional insight in to a candidate’s personality can (and has) finalized a decision to hire or to not hire the individual.
It’s my belief that working according to a set of values, or interviewing a candidate in a social environment, or purposefully highlighting a set of ideals, or *insert ideals-focused mentality here* help us to be more successful and more productive. Ideas come and go, but a team of people who are individually bought in to and observantly agree with a set of ideals will collectively pursue any idea put in front of them. Ideas are what bring people together, but ideals are what keep people together.
