My time in Croatia lasted just over a month. I was sometimes with friends, sometimes with strangers, and other times alone. Out of character for my usually extroverted self, I loved the days I had to be alone. It has been difficult to secure opportunity to ponder and write as I did in the peaceful atmosphere of the Dalmatian pines since leaving just a few months ago.
Yes, I started writing this book while I was in Croatia. I am still in Europe and not much time has past since I began writing.
Now back to Croatia.
Running a company is a complicated thing to do. My team had been talking, working, and toiling to build and sell software for roughly a year and a half. I was growing impatient with our progress and had been thinking about what could be done to speed up the growth of our little organization. That was a major catalyst for finding God because, as it turns out, business is spiritual.
If you’re going to build a cathedral, or a skyscraper, or a startup worth a billion dollars, you need people. The three cofounders on our team simply were not going to cut it, try as we might. And as you’ve heard, in order to build my billion dollar startup, I needed a way to get everyone inside of my company to think together because I could not do all the thinking myself. I had already tried and my head nearly exploded.
In consequence of having spoken with my roommate about systems used in his company and the stress that I was under, I came up with the concept of strategy trees. I doubt either of us were the first to discover them though. Don’t worry, the idea is simple.
If I do some thinking and write it down, that thought is now permanent. Anyone, anywhere, can utilize that thought anytime they want. If the thinking that I have done defines a strategy for accomplishing some great work, it will also describe a list of actions to take in order to accomplish that work.
From that point, while I certainly could take the actions myself, I do not need to. Assuming the work will be done if the actions are taken, I can delegate each action item to someone else. Should all go well my work will be accomplished.
If I can teach others to do thinking themselves, and to write that thinking down with a list of explicit action items, they themselves can delegate the work assigned them to other people. Many people may think together, complicated problems can be solved, amazing things can be done.
If you’re a communist and this sounds too much like exploitation I apologize. An endless hierarchy of people thinking and writing and passing the buck to the next person must surely sound like Hell on earth. I solemnly swear that I mean you no harm. I understand your plight and I bid you good luck in your quest to topple the bourgeoisie. If you let me be I simply wish to build cathedrals, nothing more.
At any rate, when you collect all the papers that have been written by all the people thinking and delegating to others who do more thinking, what do you have? You have a plan. No individual person knows what the plan is, but at the same time everyone does because the plan is written and anyone could understand any piece of it if they wanted to.
A strategy tree is a logical tool. Nobody has to do more thinking beyond that which they are able. People may think together, craftsmen may be led, and a great inspired work may then be done.
For heaven’s sake you know it’s not that simple.
The problem with a strategy tree is that it is logical and people have feelings. What happens when two people disagree on the best actions to carry out? What happens when the actions you have taken do not work and you must try again? What happens when you ask a bricklayer to build a cathedral? Do you expect to go into the world with nothing but paper and tell everyone “behold, I have a strategy tree, and now any great work may be done!”
I do believe you can do anything. And in a strategy tree you have a powerful, logical idea. But when you tell anyone about it, they will see nothing of substance in your hands. How do you expect someone to believe an armchair philosopher and business strategist is going to build a cathedral? He knows nothing of great buildings.
And yet, you and I both know it can be done. We walk around and see that cathedrals stand. The pantheon has occupied it’s plot in Rome for more than two millennia while medieval walls in the same city crumble around it. The ancient dome is older than the religion that now occupies it.
Whether the work is possible or not is not the problem. The cathedral can be built. The problem is the bricklayer does not believe it can be done. But why doesn’t he believe? Whether for castles or cathedrals, he does not believe he is capable of becoming an architect. He is content with his bricks.
But you have given the bricklayer a strategy tree! He understands stones and bricks and mortar and weight-bearing structures doesn’t he? Why does the bricklayer not believe or trust in himself?