If you're a business owner, executive or manager I'd like you to stop for a moment and think about why you may want to consider building your business NOT to last.
With a tip of the hat to Jim Collins, built to last may be the last thing we want to do with our organizations. To be sure, built to last implies solidity, endurance, longevity, and stability. So, how could this possibly be "bad"? Well, let's take a look at some of the possible reasons...
- Nothing in nature lasts forever. Building something with the intention that it will last is fundamentally unnatural and leads to unsustainable choices.
- Attempting to build to last is a great expression of hubris. It assumes the builder(s) have special knowledge or insight about the future. Such an assumption can blind decision makers to the local, short term (and often cumulative) consequences of their decisions.
- By definition, building to last is ultimately toxic to all involved - it eventually assumes a superior and entitled access to resources.
- Because of the inherent default to stability and predictability, built to last eventually devalues creativity and originality and, over time, can result in viewing either or both as a heretical threat to the status quo.
- Building to last reinforces a false duality of separation from nature and the natural ebb and flow of all life.
To be clear, building not to last does NOT necessarily mean to build with a "use by" date in mind. What I'm suggesting is that approaching the development, leading and management of any organization take into primary account the evolving way the founding ideals of the organization can and need to be continuously expressed. This is a difference that is crucial. And it is a difference that can lead to renewal and transformation.
In some way every organization that becomes viable has as part of its original reason d'etre making a positive difference in the quality and experience of life on the planet. What typically happens over time as organizations become more successful is that the organization's owners and managers become concerned about the wealth they are beginning to accumulate as a result of the organization's success. This not so subtle shift of focus is a slippery slope. It is the slope that defines built to last. It is the slope that leads away from the creation of value through the expression of the organization's founding ideals. It is the slope that eventually results in toxic work environments where short term fiscal returns are the core metric of success and increasingly mindless consumerism fueled by ever expanding debt is the economy's driver.
Building NOT to last can be an extraordinarily exhilarating, creative and, ultimately, spiritual approach to creating a world that works for all life. It can be the way business discovers how to take responsibility for the whole. It can be the way running a business becomes a spiritual discipline!
