What do the U.S. Marine Corps, Alcoholics Anonymous and Trappist monasteries have in common?
They have all stood the test of time, but unlike most organizations, they don't worry excessively about a shortage of talent, says August Turak, a writer, speaker and entrepreneur in Franklinton. Far more concerned instead with a shortage of passion, they function as what Turak calls "transformational organizations" - powered by cultures that foster commitment, sacrifice and long-term influence.
"Passion is everything," Turak says. "What most of us need is not more talent. What we need is to be galvanized. It's a lack of urgency that is the real problem in business and in our personal lives."
Turak, who dropped out of the University of Pittsburgh in the 1970s to study Zen Buddhism for five years, has spent his career exploring how ordinary individuals and organizations transform themselves into extraordinary ones. After returning to Pitt to earn a degree, Turak carved out a specialty in sales and marketing. He was a founding employee of MTV and moved to the Triangle in 1985, where he launched and later sold software company Raleigh Group International.
In recent years, Turak has mined those entrepreneurial experiences as a writer. His essay about a Trappist monk won the John Templeton Foundation's prestigious Power of Purpose essay contest in 2004. In 2009, he published "Business Secrets of the Trappists," a widely read series on Forbes.com that he is now expanding into a book. (He makes those and other pieces available at www.august turak.com ).
Companies that want to foster innovative, collaborative climates routinely seek his advice. Turak's speaking engagements nationally have included the American Society of Neurosurgeons, SAS and National Public Radio.
"Whenever I meet Marines, no matter how long they've been out of the service, they always end up yelling, 'Semper fi!' " Turak told an audience at the Triangle office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Are you running up and down the halls here yelling 'EPA! EPA!'?"
A big part of the reason they and employees in most organizations are not, Turak says, comes down to culture.
Marines, monks and members of AA are steeped in cultures that focus not only on enhancing overall performance but on literally changing the way people live. And they do it by molding themselves into more selfless individuals who serve causes greater than themselves.
This is a climate sometimes found in start-up companies, which Turak describes as "unconsciously transformational."
MTV was such a place in the early 1980s, he says. The upstart network wanted to revolutionize the way viewers experienced music - and it did. He says the infectious energy and dedication of employees there, despite long hours and the uncertainty of success, happened because they believed they were part of something important.
But as start-ups grow and become more systematized, they have trouble sustaining that passion. AA (founded in 1935), the Marines (1775) and the Trappist order (11th century) are exceptions to the rule because they are "consciously transformational."
Turak points to three reasons that explain their success - principles that modern organizations would do well to mimic. First, all three are grounded in a high, overarching mission or purpose. Second, they communicate that they can and will transform people into better versions of themselves.
Finally, and perhaps most significantly, they have a concrete and extended methodology for making that transformation happen. In AA, it's the 12-step process. For Marines, it's boot camp. For Trappists, it's a two-year novitiate of work, study and prayer.
Other streams of research bear out Turak's theory. The Center for Creative Leadership has also confirmed the primacy of culture in driving organizational success, finding that too many companies believe that fixing faulty systems and processes alone will drive bottom-line performance. In fact, the beliefs that employees, particularly top executives, hold and model about how business should be conducted are just as powerful over the long term.
A great strategy, after all, is worthless if the rank-and-file don't buy into the effort required to get there.
In North Carolina, we have no shortage of start-ups and growing organizations with the talent and ideas to create jobs, tackle pressing social problems and help make our communities stronger. They are still at a stage where their employees are deeply passionate about their organizations' missions. The chance to harness that energy intentionally through well-designed organizational cultures still exists.
Translating that potential into sustained effect calls for taking Turak's insights seriously.
Christopher Gergen is the founding executive director of Bull City Forward, a member of the faculty of the Hart Leadership Program at Duke University, and co-author of Life Entrepreneurs. Stephen Martin, a former business and education journalist, is a speechwriter at the nonprofit Center for Creative Leadership.
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/06/12/1264595/passion-is-what-counts.html#ixzz1PAoKAJVY