Coming down from the high of last weekend’s Junto retreat, I’m left with a simple observation: everything we do, everyday, either contributes to our longevity or it doesn’t.
We have no idea how sizable those contributions are in the moment but, over time, we do know they add up: our movement, breathing, time in nature, posture, and diet. Those essentials of well-being were the basis of the retreat sessions, and yet they left me recognizing how essential they are in our companies.
A few years ago we began saying in Junto that every new hire is a life or death decision: either the new hire breathes life into a company, extending its lifespan, or it sucks life out of it, moving the company one step closer to death. But there are countless little decisions that go into the bigger hiring one: who responds to the job title and description; how the recruiting process unfolds; what questions are asked in screening calls; whether we forgive or penalize a candidate who shows up late for a group interview; and many more.
So while we can dramatize the importance of a hiring decision, which is only made periodically for most companies, the truth is that the countless smaller decisions that lead up to it are the meaningful contributors. And the same applies to sales, marketing, finance, and operations. The more I reflect on this, the more I’m left with a bunch of questions.
What are the business comparables to breathing, posture, nature, diet, etc.? What are the absolute essentials of our companies’ well-being that are not determined by the big decisions we make periodically but rather by the hundreds of smaller ones we make everyday? What are analogies to physical, emotional, and mental fitness that we can use in the workplace?
Should we worry about life or death decisions, or should we worry about living and dying decisions? And how often do we think or talk about our companies’ durability, longevity, and life span?
