The only leadership principle that actually scales.
I didn't build that organization.
We built it.
There were people around that table who showed up because the wings were good and stayed because something real was happening. And once they stayed they didn't need to be told what to do. They could see what needed doing and they did it.
Some of them questioned the path. That's what good people do. And when you're moving in the same direction the questions make you better rather than slower.
I've thought about what made that group work when so many others don't.
It wasn't authority. We didn't have any.
It wasn't incentives. Nobody was getting paid.
It wasn't a strategic plan. We were making it up as we went.
What we had was something more fundamental than direction.
We had purpose. And the direction grew from it naturally.
The purpose was simple. Put the people in this room on the forefront of what was actually happening in manufacturing and production planning. Not for the resume. Not for the credential. Because access to that knowledge was the difference between organizations that adapted and organizations that didn't.
When purpose is that clear — when everyone in the room genuinely believes in why it matters, not just what to do — you don't need to manage people toward the goal. They find their own path there.
They read the field before anyone shows it to them.
They solve problems you didn't know existed.
They find twenty dollar bills to tape to the bottom of cans of beans because the knowledge is worth it and they know why.
Back then we didn't have a name for it. We just had chicken wings, a Valentine's dinner, a can of beans, and a room full of people who already knew what the field looked like before anyone showed it to them.
Forty years ago, it didn't have a name.
Today it does.
More on that soon.
Dominic Luzi · Chief Answer Grape, Management Alchemy