johnmaconline

I was describing my startup company, 4TLAS (pronounced “atlas”), to someone recently, and the person said something like, “Maybe someday you’ll get on the Great Places to Work list!”

Hmmm. Is that what we want? 

I mean, yeah, we definitely want our people to love working here. We want it to be a great place to work. But do we want/need to be formally recognized by some external entity?

If you go to Fortune’s Great Place to Work list for 2024, you’ll notice a few things:

1. The Great Place to Work list is a business. 
2. They created the criteria (ie, KPI’s).
3. They tell you whether you win.

All of that is fine if you’re OK signing up for that game. 

But, KPIs will be gamed, the criteria they choose might not be what we care about, and we might value someone who thinks differently about this. 

Here’s what we’re going to do to be a great place to work:

• Ensure our people’s mission is aligned with our mission
• Encourage their curiosity
• Empower them
• Challenge them
• Value them
• Grow them
• Reward them

So yes, I definitely want 4TLAS to be a great place to work, but we don’t need to be on a list.

If you’re a serious backpacker, astronaut, artist, startup founder, or anybody who does new things or creates new ideas, you know the wilderness.

You may have a map and water bottle, which is helpful, but at some point, you’re off the grid. You’re flying blind. It’s midnight with no moon. You got your hands out in front of you, trying not to run into things.

The ground is rocky. Sharp edges everywhere. Then mushy. You’re in a swamp. You’re just trying to take the next step without cutting yourself, or losing your leg in the quicksand, or falling off the cliff.

But then someone steals your shoes. You never even considered that would pop up.

Now what?

Well, that’s the question. How will you handle it when they steal your shoes?

You are the only one who walks around with your eyes — your personal history, experiences, and outcomes.

Maybe that sounds dumb, or you think, “so what?”

But that is the most powerful, most important, and most beautiful thing you bring to this world.

What do you see?

I’m an athlete (or I loosely identify as one — or a former one — or, OK, I still run about 20 miles a week — let’s leave it there). I also love cards, Catan, Survivor, and backyard games.

Win or lose, I love brilliant gamesmanship.

We’re seeing brilliant gamesmanship in the US political landscape right now. It’s fascinating.

It started with the right. First, they hooked into the mental capability rhetoric and found a path that was working. Then, they were thrown a bone. They took the assassination attempt and used it perfectly. It worked.

The left was on the ropes. Bloodied and confused. Reeling. Praying for the bell.

But then the left countered perfectly. They stung and wobbled the right. They’ve done it. They completely turned it around.

Now, the right is on the ropes, praying for the bell. What will they come up with?

Make no mistake. National politics is, and always has been, a game. It’s not about who is better or will be better. Nor is it about principles or right and wrong. It’s about who has the power.

Watching it unfold is a fascinating study in gamesmanship.

Does it make a difference if you blow the red light when nobody is around?
Would it have made a difference if the US boycotted the 1936 Berlin Olympics?
Will it make a difference if I have another beer?
Does it make a difference if we contract out this piece?
Would it have made a difference if I had made the bed?
Will it make a difference if we elect (whomever)?

Sometimes, leaders get caught up trying to answer the question of whether it makes a difference. Here’s the Cliffs Notes: the answer is always “yes.”

The question you should be trying to solve is, “To whom does this make a difference?”

I just signed up as a claimant in (yet another) class action lawsuit. This one is against Visa and MasterCard.

“The deadline for the Visa/Mastercard $5.54 billion settlement claim is approaching quickly…This settlement provides all eligible businesses the opportunity to reclaim a portion of the interchange fees paid between 2004 and 2019.”

Class action lawsuits, like many other boondoggles, are good-intentioned at their core.

The primary purpose of a class action lawsuit is to allow a group of individuals to band together and sue collectively against larger entities. If Big Evil Company has misrepresented, mischarged, or otherwise duped us little people out of what we deserve, then we can get together and stick it to the man.  

Power to the people, and whatnot.

Y’all know how it works in practice. The law firm gets a pile, and we, the claimants, get a tiny drop. 

“Hey! That’s not fair!” 

Sure it is. It’s actually the very definition of fair.

I don’t fault the law firm, nor am I bothered by the distribution. If I was duped out of $3.64, then I should be repaid $3.64. The law firm does the work on behalf of all of us. They should get paid. 

The problem is the incentive. 

It’s the Cobra Effect, the social media algorithms, and KPIs. 

We usually get what the system incentivizes.  

The pilot who successfully lands the crippled airliner gets the headlines. So does the emergency room doctor who restarts the heart of a 53-year old man.

As they should. These are extraordinary efforts that lead directly to saved lives.

Plus, it’s easy to point at “who did it.” Headlines love who did it.

What about the engineer who designed a redundant switching mechanism in the aileron control system? That system has never once failed over the lifetime of the aircraft fleet on which it has been installed for over 30 years.

What about the 53-year-old man who changed his lifestyle ten years ago and is now healthier than he was at 40?

If nothing bad or dramatic happens, it’s harder to point at who did it.

But that doesn’t mean somebody didn’t do it. As a leader, your job is to look under the covers, past the mundane, and point at who did it.