Organizational Leadership vs. Company-of-One Thinking
If I’m truthful, I think I’d say I really like working alone. Not all the time, of course. But a lot of the time. In fact, I’m pretty happy running a small business as my side hustle, in partnership with my wife, with no other employees.
Wait. Pause. That might be my “remembering self,”[1] taking over.
Thank you, Daniel Kahneman, for unpacking “Two Selves”[2] – remembering self and experiencing self – in Thinking, Fast and Slow.
During the start of the recession of the late 2000’s, just a couple of years after I launched a small consulting service, if someone would have asked me, “How are you experiencing this time? How happy are you right now?,” I imagine my answer would have been mixed. At the very least, I would have said, “This is incredibly hard.” The thought of owning a small business that helps a client solve a problem is an incredibly rewarding venture in my “remembering self” memory, but the “experiencing self” would have said, and still would say, that owning a small consultancy is a bit of a roller coaster. It’s laden with highs and lows. However, at the end of the day, I think my wife and I would agree that the highs outweigh the lows. Years later, the business morphed and re-branded, with as many clients as we could handle. Overall, it’s been a rewarding endeavor and has functioned as a helpful side-hustle while I continue to live and work in the W-2 world of organizational leadership in my “day job.” Kahneman’s two selves helped me make sense of 17 years of side-hustling (2.5 years of which were “full-time”).
Back to running lean…
One of the better books I read in 2022 was Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business, by Paul Jarvis. The title sort of says it all. If you are a small business owner or operate a small ministry/organization, it is a must read. There’s so much there that just resonates. I like being able to control my time, NOT scaling, being able to handle the clients that we DO have. I love remaining agile where I can pivot on a dime, if necessary. I’m often happy just going with gut intuition. Who cares if “the chances that a small business will survive for five years in the United States are about 35%.”[3] So, it’s going to be hard to write this next sentence.
Going it alone is not always the best thing.
A bit of context….
Kahneman’s System 1, a way of thinking that “operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control,”[4] has a lot of influence on individuals, probably way more “than your experience tells you.”[5] Whereas, System 2, “allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration.”[6] System 1 and 2 show up in both freelance work and/or small business ownership, yet System 1 thinking doesn’t always receive needed feedback from others, especially when you work for yourself or have an intuitive way of operating. A more System 2 experience in a larger organization might provide help with this. “The way to block errors that originate in System 1 is simple in principle: recognize the signs that you are in a cognitive minefield, slow down, and ask for reinforcement from System 2.”[7] A healthy organization, with all of its checks and balances, can provide this reinforcement.
Institutions and organizations can be amazing forces for good. Despite all the rumors about the “tanker” being too large to turn, or the “machine” being something to rage against, working for an organization doesn’t have to be such a bad gig. In fact, one of the best ways to mitigate against a leader’s errors in decision-making – even among the most well-differentiated of leaders – is to work within a healthy organization. Kahneman writes, “Organizations are better than individuals when it comes to avoiding errors, because they naturally think more slowly and have the power to impose orderly procedures.”[8]
I’m thinking about the value of having a good HR department, or a stellar accounting department. Think about hiring, employee retention, and strategic planning processes. I know I’m probably running the risk of someone saying “Really?” But there is much to be thankful for in working within healthy organizations that “encourage a culture in which people watch out for one another as they approach minefields.”[9] System 2 thinking can really help leaders slow down and find help, especially if they are fast-operating individuals prone to error.
Kahneman’s discussion on how to go about having a hiring procedure in his chapter on Intuitions vs. Formulas is spot on. Having navigated hiring processes, and now having some experience behind me in making some hires that were great and some that were probably not a great fit, Kahneman is right. Kahneman states that rather than following a procedure, most people “go into the interview unprepared and…make choices by an overall intuitive judgment such as ‘I looked into his eyes and liked what I saw.’” (233) That doesn’t always work out. I can vouch for that. Today, I am thankful for both the organization I serve, complete with its committees and procedures, AND the small consultancy that my wife and I operate, even if System 1 doesn’t always get along with System 2.
[1] Kahneman, Daniel, Thinking, Fast and Slow (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux), 2011, 409.
[2] Kahneman, see Chapter 35: Two Selves.
[3] Kahneman, 256.
[4] Kahneman, 20.
[5] Kahneman, 13.
[6] Kahneman, 21.
[7] Kahneman, 417.
[8] Kahneman, 418.
[9] Kahneman, 418.
About the Author
Travis Vaughn
11 responses to “Organizational Leadership vs. Company-of-One Thinking”
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Thanks for writing this, Travis. I acutely feel this dynamic of needing others to keep your system 2 brain functioning, I recently lost my team which I used to run as a sort of community of practice with this idea that the diverse sets of perspectives within that group helped keep each of us sharp. Through a recent transition, I now am sort of all out there alone, without the group readily available to “check my work” – in other words slow me down and keep me from taking the proverbial curves too quickly.
It has been a real loss for me and one I am trying to rebuild through informal networks. I am curious: what ways have you and your wife found to prevent operating in an echo chamber in your consulting work?
Jen, I’m sorry to hear about you losing your team recently. I do resonate with your attempt to build other networks, though, even if it is “informal” for now. It’s funny, there’s so much I love about my “side hustle,” but I do know that building in or recognizing other layers of checks and balances to help with “checking my work” can be good for system 1 errors, even if I don’t like or want to slow down sometimes. In your case of building an informal network, I wonder what it might look like if you created a “board” of advisors (not a fiduciary board) into your own personal work. As for what my wife and I do…we both serve larger organizations outside of our consultancy, so that is helpful. There are some other things we do that help fight against the “echo chamber,” including soliciting feedback from clients and using action-learning methods that invite others into problem-solving, but your question is one that I need to ponder even more.
Thanks, Travis, I appreciate this perspective. The further along I get in this doctoral process the more it looks like I’ll launch a small but independent ministry in the future. Part of me desperately wants to develop a team around this project, but the other part of me recognizes that building a team is a real weakness of mine (thanks, LCP, for that insight). The path of least resistance is definitely to work on my own but I know, as your post reminds me, that I need the checks and balances that come from working with a team. I need someone to help me watch out for those minefields you mention.
In the missions world we sometimes discuss the “ideal team size”. Do you have any advice on team size coming from your business and ministry experience?
Kim, based on what I know about what you are working on…it totally makes sense that an independent ministry could be in the works. As far as the team size, I think it depends (how’s that for a non-answer). I wonder if some of the checks and balances you are talking about could be handled in part by a governing board. Perhaps as you (and others?) begin to hone in on the “problem” you’ll be solving with the formation of the independent ministry. You could even create a group of subject matter experts that could help you figure out the best way to go about executing on your mission. Those could be two layers — one for governance and the other for counsel. That would help you make sense of the team number. Just thinking aloud.
Just this morning I had a brief conversation with a fellow pastor from a nearby city. We’ve been friends for a few years now, and can get honest and transparent with each other pretty quickly. We were talking about church sizes – he is in the 300-400 realm, and I am in the 700-900 realm. The admission that we agreed upon is that one of the more difficult sizes to navigate is that 300-400 one, because there’s just enough people to feel the critical mass, while not having enough money to really staff it properly. He said, “I’m still having to most everything myself.”
There is a small country church that my wife and I drive past whenever we go out to the Oregon coast, and I always comment to her, “Honey, some day I just want to pastor that little place, with those dozen or so people, and call it a day.” In other words, the pressure of bigger can be a wear on body, soul and spirit.
That’s not to say there are not massive blessings and perks to a larger organization, but I resonated with your blog and will be ordering the “Company of One” book because of its appeal in my life right now!
This was more of a reflection on your post, then a deeply intellectual engagement, but regardless, thank you!
If the slow thinking/processing of System 2 comes with the package of serving a larger organization, I totally get (and resonate with) you talking about pastoring the small country church on the Oregon coast. The larger church, or organization, as great as it is to work within that kind of context, can be tiresome. It absolutely can wear on the body, soul, and spirit. So the company-of-one thing starts to become more and more appealing the older I get. But that’s where a reality check with “experiencing self” and “remembering self” helps (maybe). But even as I write that, I’m not sure. Hmmm.
Hi Travis, so many good things have been said, so I thought I would think outside of the box. Once upon a time my 10 year old baseball team in Hungary slowly but surely grew up to be twenty something. We were sitting in my living room, when my pitcher picked up my dogs new electric dog collar. He asked me what it was and I told him that the dog would get zapped if he tried to cross the sensors in the ground.
A smile appeared on his face and I could see that he wanted to put it on. ALL the boys were thinking the same thing. They wanted to give it a shot…
I am told that the frontal lobes of males don’t connect until about age 25. Does this men that young males live in a system 1 reality? If they survive to 25, time, experience and a fair amount of jolts from a dog collar will force those brain networks to connect to the frontal lobes. In that growing process, System 2 style analytical thinking begins?
Just wondering. Your posts are great…shalom…Russ
I have also heard something similar regarding the age of young men and their brains. Having a son who turns 27 this year (he is also newly married), I think I can attest to that. There is no doubt that he processes things (much more cautious/careful decision-making) more slowly than he did growing up in our home. Just last night he texted how he was going out to dinner with the senior recruiting staff of a healthcare group that he is possibly going to be working with. I’m thinking that System 2 is going to drive more of the discussions he has with them, for sure. The fact that he is newly married also helps with his growing awareness of his own cognitive minefields and the errors that his System 1 decision-making often produces.
Ah growing up…
I forgot something. C.S. Lewis’ Dignity of Causality. Pray, unceasingly (1 Thessalonians 5:17) is Paul’s reminder to bring every facet of our lives to Christ. Jennifer Vernam found the number 35,000 decisions are made by humans daily. While System 1 and 2 thinkers have strengths and weaknesses to contend with, imagine if we prayed continuously so that our decisions were guided by the Holy Spirit, all 35,000 of them.
Travis this is such a good perspective, and challenging to me. As an old punk rocker, I’ve had a long history of suspicion towards organizations and have done my fair share of ‘raging against the machine’.
I guess the key is “healthy organizations”. I’ve been stuck in so many unhealthy ones that the red tape and politics sometimes overwhelm the good. But you reminded me of the many positive aspects of having an organization that works well. Thanks!
This is some good stuff man, you put words to how I feel in a lot of instances. You struck a great balance. I love working with a team and see the immense value of being in a healthy culture and having procedures, while at the same time it has been nice to work alone in some instances and have the freedom to go with “my gut” instinct and make an unconventional decisions that ends up working out.
While in grad school my wife and I were looking to start a home church so we could have more freedom and less procedures and systems until one of my professors messed my world up and said, “historically, it usually takes systems to change systems”. I couldn’t get that idea out of my head so I ended up going back into “the system”, and it has been amazing. I’ve always wrestled with this tension in faith communities, so I really appreciate your posts! I’ll be checking that book out as well!