Companies usually organize employees that share common activities and responsibilities into teams and groups. Teams meet for a variety of reasons ranging from simply exchanging information to collective decision making. There are varying opinions on the use and effectiveness of meetings. Bill Gates is quoted as saying “You have a meeting to make a decision, not to decide on the question.” Yet Mark Cuban is quoted as saying “The only way you’re going to get me for a meeting is if you’re writing me a check….. They’re a waste of time.” That’s a broad spectrum of opinion on meetings. But beyond meetings alone, what principles should guide the organization of employees into teams and groups? Is it a collective one attempting to achieve majority agreement or an individual one attempting to empower individual initiative and action?
“People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.”
Thomas Sowell
The principles of an Objectivist entrepreneur are based on Individualism, the idea that ultimately there are only individuals who think and act as individuals. This implies within a group there is no such thing as a collective mind any more than a collective stomach enjoying the coffee and donuts served. Individuals can only think as individuals, even within a group. Only individuals can decide and act.
“The mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought.”
Ayn Rand
Yet it is common to see employees when concluding meetings call for a “group vote” to make decisions. But is this a good idea? While a majority vote may achieve a majority result, does it achieve the best result? Clearly this is this nothing more than a compromise, a reversion to mediocrity? The principle of non-compromise that applies in decision making (Compromise vs Negotiation) applies to teams and groups as well for the same reason. Compromise always leads to a less than ideal solution.
“An agreement reached by a group of men is only a compromise or an average drawn upon many individual thoughts.”
Ayn Rand
Some employees may be willing to submit to the authority of a superior or a majority vote and direct their actions accordingly. But if they are agreeing to a compromise this is evasion in an attempt to avoid personal responsibility.
“We unfortunately live in a corporate world where group decision making is made to avoid failure rather than to achieve success.”
Bill Cahan
Employees who fail often hide behind group decisions they have subordinated themselves to. Similarly they often attempt to claim credit for successful outcomes of groups whether they contributed to that success or not. This is an attempt to both escape individual accountability for their failures while garnering unearned rewards for other’s success. Only individuals succeed or fail. The idea that a group succeeds or fails is merely the sum of the successes and failures of the individual members of that group.
“.. the rewards are his; if it is wrong, he is his only victim. … that demands the best (the most rational) of every man and rewards him accordingly.”
Ayn Rand
An Objectivist entrepreneur always encourages employees to accept full responsibility for their decisions and actions. They organize employees into teams and groups, but recognize that they think, decide and act as individuals. Meeting are called not to make decisions but to share decisions, exchanging information from each other so they can best coordinate their actions to achieve their individual goals. Groups do not have responsibilities or make decisions, only individuals do. As individuals they are accountable for the decisions they make and the actions they take, responsible for their failures and rewarded for their successes accordingly. Just as Individualism underpins the activities of an Objectivist entrepreneur so does it apply to employees even working within teams and groups.
“Men learn from one another. But all learning is only the exchange of material. No man can give another the capacity to think.”
Ayn Rand