Exclusive to Innovation America by Dr. Janice Presser, CEO, The Gabriel Institute
The boys (and girls) of summer are out on their fields of dreams, ripe with the belief that if they build a business, customers will follow.
What will they build?
They'll be building the physical infrastructure - even if the initial effort only occupies a bedroom or garage. And they'll likely be working on their IT infrastructure, perhaps using VOIP to integrate it with their telecommunications infrastructure, starting with laptops and mobile phones. If the plan is to manufacture something, they might be deeply into their supply chain or transportation infrastructures, and if they're in a more unusual field of endeavor, a specialized security or financial infrastructure might be in the works.
In almost every kind of operation, infrastructure issues are mission-critical. Any failure to ensure smoothly functioning interaction between infrastructure components will cost excess time and money, and may diminish the possibility of survival.
So how's your human infrastructure?
Now more than ever, people serve complex, interactive, mission-critical functions in business processes. Decades of economic and technological change have made it necessary for people to work together in ways that are less and less like industrial revolution foot soldiers, and more and more like an infrastructure. So no matter whether you start with two, or ten, or twenty people, you need the ones who can maintain the smoothly functioning interaction that is the essence of a successful business.
In a manufacturing or supply infrastructure, lack of synchronization causes 'choke points', and in a telecommunications infrastructure, low quality or flawed components cause 'noise' and 'interference'. The same kinds of things happen when people don't connect, communicate, and coordinate with others. And, just as in other forms of infrastructure, a very small failure at a key juncture can cascade into major problems. That's why, in the 21st century, how people 'team' may be much more important than what they know.
If you want to build a successful business, focus on creating a high-quality, coherent human infrastructure.
Consider these factors in your plan:
- People do best what they like best, and people like best what they do best. Make sure you aren't setting up the division of labor with a rigidly defined set of functional rules. You want team players, not robots, so recognize the fact that once you bring good people together, they will be able to work out a lot of the details without you. Stop thinking about job 'Titles', and instead, organize each individual's job responsibilities to be consistent with their 'teaming characteristics'.
- Wait till the team has practiced together - a lot - before attempting a big play. If you haven't assessed people to determine their orientation to working with others to solve problems and achieve group objectives, you will need to give them a lot of low-risk practice time. Create opportunities for everyone to work with other team members before you try playing on a bigger field, such as presenting to investors or going after a contract that is at the limit of the firm's proven capabilities.
- Don't forget to share the magic. There is something magical about any entrepreneur's 'field of dreams': something that some dreamers may be tempted to hold back. It's not the same as the "mission" or the IP. It's more like the reason behind the dream, like the true identity of the 'they' in 'if you build it, they will come.' Think about how to share your dream and how to keep it alive. It is a subtle source of power that will not only strengthen the existing human infrastructure, but will also attract exactly the kinds of people who recognize an opportunity to play a fulfilling position on your team!
Dr. Janice Presser is CEO of The Gabriel Institute, which has created Role-Based Assessment: the completely new way to predict how someone will work on a team. She offers readers of Innovation America a 'no cost solution' for a hiring problem. Contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
