Infrastructure. That’s the stuff like building a road or the sewers or the Internet. Seth Godin, though, takes that to a different view when he writes about Infastructure for successful companies and teams. He says it this way:
Infrastructure and culture overlap in a thousand ways.
At the organizational level, then, it’s possible to invest in a workplace where things work, where the tools are at hand, where meetings don’t paralyze progress, where decisions get made when they need to get made (and where they don’t get undone).
It’s possible to build a workplace where people expect good things, from their leaders and their peers and the market. Where we expect to be heard when we have something to say, and expect that with hard work, we can make a difference.
It’s possible to invest in hiring people who are educated (not merely good grades, but good intent) and to keep those people trained and up to speed.
And it’s essential for that workplace to be one where the rule of law prevails, where people are treated with dignity and respect and where short term urgency is never used as a chance to declare martial law and abandon the principles that built the organization in the first place.
Sounds like a great place to work. Maybe that’s the kind of place you need to create, especially on that last part about building a workplace of dignity for all. You do realize that takes each person to do, even if you aren’t the boss?
Check out the rest of Seth’s article here.