Symptom: People are not making good use of contractors.
In a bureaucracy, people think their job is to make best use of the resources they've been given. In this culture, more staff means more territory, status, and power.
By contrast, in an entrepreneurial culture, people think in terms of running lines of business. They want to minimize their overhead by hiring the smallest possible core staff, and they are enthusiastic about expanding (through contractors, vendors, and permanent staff) whenever demand warrants.
To expand when needed, entrepreneurs treat contractors and vendors as extensions to their staff. When they're out of resources, entrepreneurs don't send their customers to work directly with contractors (who in this context would be competitors). Instead, the build the habit of buying through them, take the business (at a fair price), and fulfill it with a mix of contractors and staff. We call this the "open organization."
The perspectives and skills of the open organization can be taught and ingrained. It is not a method or procedure, but rather a way of thinking. As such, it fits within the dimension of culture.
Root cause:Culture copyright 2024 N. Dean Meyer and Associates Inc. All rights reserved.
