our own system

Companies that actually (actually!) mean what they say about the culture being most important always seem to be successful. But the thing that’s difficult for me to understand is why so many continue to pay lip service to culture’s importance. Naive on my part? I don’t think so. But I’m biased.

Enter Nick’s Pizza and Pub (they use checklists too!):

Sarillo has built his company’s culture by using a form of management best characterized as “trust and track.” It involves educating employees about what it takes for the company to be successful, then trusting them to act accordingly. The alternative is command and control, wherein success is the boss’s responsibility and employees do what the boss says. Think of the Navy SEALs versus the National Guard. Both approaches can work, but they produce very different cultures. If done right, moreover, trust and track can allow a company to be nimble, flexible, and productive enough to perform at the highest level through good economies and bad.

Trust. Wild concept.