People support what they help to create

“If you remember nothing else from the next two years, remember this.”

The tall man stands at what would be the front of the room, but with 28 people in a circle around him, the room doesn’t really have a front. Or a back. Or sides. No hierarchy, no means of orientation. Just this one thing we have to remember.

“People support what they help to create.”

Morning of the first day of my masters program at American University. I wasn’t ready for this. Not the circle, not the program, and certainly not the loss of control embodied in that phrase.

“People support what they help to create” is such a simple statement, and yet it encompasses some of the most difficult problems any leader faces. Over the years since that morning, I have seen extraordinary teams lock themselves in conference rooms with reams of research and hypotheses, only to come out with technically brilliant solutions that fail to solve anyone’s problems. Talent and technical elegance may not be the problem.

Despite their small size and limited resources, startups don’t often involve anyone outside their team unless they can tightly control the interaction. They keep the walls up despite talking the talk of “lean” and “agile”; they know the words but don’t hear the music. Sadly, it’s in the areas outside of their control where the real learning happens.

The most wildly successful companies find ways to rely the communities they’re creating for support, contribution, and evangelism. For these communities to work, the entrepreneur must release control and allow others to shape the idea. The self-reliant entrepreneur is likely to be a lonely one — and fatally misguided.

That’s where I was on that January morning years ago. I wanted to be in control yet sorely needed the input and support of a community. My ideas were a good start, but they needed to be shaped and challenged by people who could fill in my blind spots and point out opportunities I hadn’t considered.

People support what they help to create. It has been one of the most profound truisms in 20 years of working with change. Hole up by yourself to develop your brilliant idea, and you can only hope that people will understand it and use it. Not only is that not guaranteed, it isn’t even very likely.

Allow users, customers, colleagues, advisors, and even distant relatives to make changes to the idea — or to recommend changes that you then make–and you have a community that sees themselves in what you make. That community will support your idea, share it with others, and stay with you through good times and bad. They will feel an ownership in what you have created. Why?

People support what they help to create.

A quick word:

Teams are a big thing for me. Where some see mystery and ambiguity, I see rocket fuel for company growth. Teams are serious business.

My work is making teams work better, which makes companies grow faster.