Whitepaper Responsible Rebels
Introduction
Organizations don’t just need drones, bots, or AI to scale fast and steady. They need people who seek, see, and seize the opportunity to do things differently to rise above the status quo.
I recently had a long winding discussion with a Venture Capitalist who was curious about what makes Decklar tick. Since its founding in 2014, Decklar has made a mark in the IoT market. We didn’t begin with millions of dollars in funding, nor did we have hundreds of team members handling things. Despite a frugal foundation, we’ve built full-fledged operations in 7+ countries and have catered to 200+ global enterprise customers. We overcame the inevitable teething problems of a new technology solution, and we took competition from well-established players head-on.
How did we take our operations global with fewer than 200 people? How do we roll out radically new market solutions in a matter of months? What is it that drives such rapid evolution and scale from such a small team?
“It’s simple” I told him; “that’s because we’re Responsible Rebels”.
Work culture is the most important catalyst for a company’s success. Just like Facebook has a “Hacker” culture, and Netflix built a culture of “Freedom and Responsibility,” Decklar has its own unique culture that fosters rapid innovation and growth.
At Decklar, we believe in people who love to innovate and positively disrupt everything. We thrive on people who rebel against the norm, people who challenge the status quo, people who don’t just follow a process because “it’s how things are done around here”.
We are rebels, Responsible Rebels
Let’s break that down.
Responsible Team Members
A responsible team member follows a company’s rules and processes to the letter.
Whether it’s hitting targets, meeting expectations, or taking ownership for their actions, they’re the dependable shoulders that stable organizations are built on.
“Dependable” is what most organizations look for. But is “Dependable” enough? Organizations built solely on a dependable workforce will stagnate.
Without people who think outside the box or color outside the lines, organizations could go years, even decades, doing things exactly the same, without ever wondering if there’s something better out there.
The Rebels
“Rebels” on the other hand are team members that question the status quo. They think differently, innovate, bring new concepts and methods to the mix. They catch flaws that hide in everyone else’s blind spot, and they improve the odds of success by stress-testing the logic behind everything.
They live life outside the box, they color outside the lines, they define their own way.
Managers and HR departments in most companies often struggle with them. Rebels are often misunderstood, they’re the black sheep that can’t follow the rules. They flout the norms, they get into heated debates that can spiral into arguments. Rebels are often let go because they’re “not team players.” They jump from organization to organization because they just don’t fit the template that companies treasure above everything else. Whether their opinions and ideas add value is beside the point.
Some of the world’s biggest companies — Uber, or even the old Apple that Steve Jobs set up (before his unceremonious exit) — nurtured these qualities. These companies thrived and disrupted the market precisely because the person at the helm rebelled against the norm, dreamt big, and did things differently. Still, many of these companies bore the brunt of their rebellions at later stages in their journey. Things took an ugly turn, and many believed it could all have been avoided if the upstarts acted just a bit more “responsible.”
An organization full of responsible people will hold steady, grow slowly, but eventually fail. If the rise and fall of companies like Kongō Gumi, Kodak, Nokia, or Yahoo has taught us anything, it’s that companies that don’t adapt to change, don’t stand a chance. An organization full of rebels wouldn’t work either, things would be too turbulent to get anything done.
Is there a way to balance the mix of “responsible” and “rebellious”?
A Responsible Rebel at Decklar questions everything, digs deep for every decision, and always has a bigger picture in mind. We don’t think rules or processes are draconian, we see them for the positive discipline and structure that it brings to help us realize the bigger picture.
But, if the rules or processes don’t help achieve our ultimate goal, we are sure to rebel against them.
A Responsible Rebel is also someone who is self-motivated and sees things through to completion, without any prodding.
