Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day!
Do the leaders at your organization align with the values? For many organizations, their company culture is often misaligned from their values.
Tom Watson served as the Chairman and CEO of IBM from 1914 to 1956. There’s a story about how one time he approached the gate of one of IBM’s high-security buildings with a group of his executives. A 19-year-old security guard refused entry to Mr. Watson because he didn’t have his security badge. One of the executives hissed at her, “Don’t you know who that is? He’s the chairman of the company!” But Watson stopped the whole party and sent someone back for his badge. “She’s quite right,” he said. “We make the rules. We keep ’em.”
The best organizations rely less on hierarchy and more on the free-flow of ideas without fear of judgement. Ray Dalio, the author of the book “
Principles” describes his company as operating on an
idea meritocracy, which allows a higher level of transparency and honesty.
The opposite of this can be seen in a new Netflix documentary,
The Devil we know which shows just how unethical a corporation can be while proclaiming innocence all the same.
What is your organization like? Do your leaders embody the values they created, or is it meaningless fodder? Food for thought.
🍺 to another great week ahead!
- Cody
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