We talk a lot about starting Radical companies. We are used to it, starting companies is straightforward,
- Matt quickly adapted to the startup culture in Silicon Valley
- Adrian grew up in it
- Jose has been an entrepreneur since the tender age of 16
But building a Radical company from scratch is a hack because most people work in Fiat businesses and see it as their only option. So, what can they do? Can they adopt some of the Radical practices? Can they get away with it?
Radical in Small Bites
If you are a manager in a Fiat environment, then implementing some Radical practices can be fairly easy because what you say, goes. You can always tell your boss and HR what you want; you can even tell them that it is just a clever Fiat trick.
Bonuses
As a Fiat boss, you’ve seen the reviews, you’ve used HR’s point scale to rank employees. You have gone through the process many times and you know it doesn’t work. You also know that is not satisfying.
You know that you cannot constantly assess your employees the same way they can track each other. The latest technique from HR is not going to really measure contributions.
Employees know that you decision is based on who you like as much as anything else, and they compete with each other to bias your affections. That sort of politicking is poisonous to collaboration.
Instead, you share the RADs! application with your team. They can reward each other for what they see as a contribution. Then you don’t have to sweat it and you base your bonus allocation on the RAD distribution. Is this subversive? Yes! But, is it good? Hell, yeah.
And just imagine how your team will feel having the ability to determine the bonus distribution themselves. And how will you feel knowing that the distribution is based on actual contributions to the company-as-common effort (and not guessing at it)?
Virtual Radical
In software, there is the concept of a virtual machine, where you can emulate one computer inside another computer system. For example, you could run the Linux operating system inside MS Windows, or vice versa. The software handles it.
Similarly, you run Radical inside a Fiat organization.
Deploying Radical wherever it can be run, will lead to more adoption. Mistakes will be made. Don't assume that everybody will get it right away: you’ll have to discuss what seems to you like the same topic over and over. Somebody will run to HR and tank it before it gets a chance to be put into action. You may even get fired over it.
On the other hand, the arbitrary nature of management actually works in your favor. “I’m in charge of this team, so I can do whatever I want.” You could “clear it” with your boss and tell him that you are going to try to offload some of your work onto your employees.
Whatever you do, try this and help the adoption of the Radical model. It will be good for you and the world.
ENDNOTES
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Matt Perez, Adrian Perez, Jose Leal. RADICAL COMPANIES: Without Bosses or Employees. 2021. <https://radicalcompanies.com>
