93 - Social Architecture - (Our) Values - Balance
Value 5/5 at Mayday
I’m writing about social architecture: the why, the components and the actions. I’ve covered Mission, Vision and Values at the top level as components. I’m running through our Values at Mayday. There was Delight, Ownership, Curiosity, then Boldness. The final one is Balance.
Balance acts as an essential guardrail, a protective layer, to our other values. It serves to keep us healthy for the long term.
There are two sub points we use in explaining Balance as a value:
20 Mile March - this comes from Jim Collins’ Great By Choice. The story of Scott vs Amundsen in their quest to reach the South Pole in 1911. Scott varying between extreme bursts and complete inactivity, dependent on conditions. Whereas Amundsen, who triumphed, would march 20 miles a day regardless of conditions, passing up short term opportunity to cover more ground in days of good conditions. For us, it is the idea of the green, orange and red zones as areas we can personally be operating in. And that the goal is to operate at the very peak of green. That is our 20 mile march. That is how we will do our best work over the long haul. Balance is essential as a value precisely because we know it will not be possible to operate at the very peak of green all the time. There will be extrinsic factors, both threats (e.g. bugs) and opportunities (e.g. a potential lead or investor), that mean it is necessary to stray into the orange zone and even the red zone at times. These could easily become embedded as habit. By explicitly enumerating the idea of the 20 mile march and the zone colours, we establish the very peak of green as our default state. A good example of Balance in action was when Griff and I went to Australia for a two week work trip. The first thing on our list for day 1 was to find a gym we could exercise at whilst we were out there;
Genius of the And - Balance is also about the room for duality and lack of extremism. Being ambitious and driven is entirely compatible with kindness and patience. Being competitive is often viewed as being synonymous with ruthlessnes. But it’s possible to be hyper competitive as well as being friendly and respectful. Just look at the photos of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer after Federer’s final match before retirement.