Every Organization is Fragile

You look at a finished building and it feels permanent. The concrete is hard. The steel is bolted tight. It is not going anywhere.

It is easy to look at a company the same way. You see the trucks, the office, and the contracts. You think, “We are built to last.” Haven’t some companies been around for decades, even centuries?

But a company is made of agreements. It is made of people choosing to show up today.

That choice can change in a second, especially when a leader is entitled to people showing up.

Leaving is Easy

Fifty years ago, leaving a job was hard. You needed a pension. You stayed for safety.

Today, leaving is easy.

Your best people can find a new job on their phone while eating lunch. They can get a better offer before the check clears.

Life is chaotic, too. People’s circumstances and needs change.

• A Project Manager suddenly wants less travel because they just had a baby.
• A veteran Superintendent gets tired of the cold winters and wants to move south.
• A quiet estimator decides she wants to lead a team.

If you assume your people are the same today as they were when you hired them, you are wrong. They have changed. And if your organization does not notice, they will leave.

The Fastidious Student

This is where the work begins.

To keep a strong team, you must become a student of your people. You have to be fastidious. That means you pay attention to the details.

You have to know what drives them. Not just “money” or “work.” You need to know the specific things that make them tick.

You have to study the landscape of their lives. What is heavy for them right now? What are they dreaming about?

If you are not studying them, someone else is. Headhunters are calling them. Competitors are watching them. If you are asleep at the wheel, you lose.

Part of being an exceptional leader is never letting your guard down to entitlement. Always curate and cultivate alignment.

Aligning the Org to the People

Most (I’d guess 80%) leaders try to force people to fit the company. They say, “This is the role. Take it or leave it.”

That is a brittle way to build.

The best leaders do something harder. They align the organization to the people.

This is the high art.

If you have a star player who needs flexibility, you figure out how to give it to them without breaking the business. If you have a leader who wants to try a new market, you look for a way to let them build it.

You bend the rigid structure of the business to catch the strengths of the human.

Now there are edges or ditches to this concept. You can distort the organization unhelpfully around people. Finding the right thread of alignment between people and the mission is delicate work.

This requires leadership with high emotional intelligence and perceptiveness about others. Often it requires being perceptive about things people may not be perceptive about themselves.

Fragility is a Fact

Your organization is fragile because we (people) are fragile, in certain senses.

Handle with care. Don’t take the loyalty of your team for granted. Don’t assume the structure will hold itself up.

Be a student of your people. Learn what they need. Build a place where their goals and your goals lock together. That is how you turn a fragile collection of people into a team that stays.