The Recipe

I love to cook (and eat), and if I’m cooking for myself or someone I care about, my favorite thing is to create a dish from the ingredients on hand. I love the challenge of using the formulas that work (cooking is chemistry after all) with unique combinations of ingredients. The results can be fantastic, but there are risks.

There are ‘standard’ methods for making most dishes. Granted, there will be some minor fluctuations between cooks, but you can usually tell what to expect from the name or description of the item. However, there are exceptions to the rule.

I love to eat at a place called Nonesuch, a tasting menu restaurant that never fails to surprise and delight me. There I have eaten a Sourdough Waffle with Allium Paste, Oyster Mushroom Custard, and Sorrel Ice Cream with Age Blueberry Tart. All of these are standard preparations made with unique combinations of ingredients. Waffles must rise, custards must set, and ice cream is a frozen confection. In each dish, they found new options within the culinary rules.

Building and leading a team is like preparing a meal. You violate the rules of healthy organizational culture at great risk; however, if you just follow the cookbook, things will work fine but may not be spectacular. Great leaders acknowledge the benefit of unique ingredients and know how to follow the right rules to create a community that amazes.

If you cook frequently, you instinctively know the fundamentals. Similarly, leaders must effortlessly grasp the essentials of organizational ‘cooking.’ This leaves room and time for contemplating how a variation could create something special.

If you want something to rise, you must have a leavening agent to create and trap air to elevate and expand the dish. Organizations must have vision so they can rise to their optimum level. A well-communicated and illuminated vision is the leavening that causes everything else to rise.

If you want something to set, you need a gelling agent to create the three-dimensional network and give your dish its structure. Organizations must have a mission linking people around a common cause that transcends the daily work they do. When people are committed to a larger purpose, it overcomes things that drive us apart.

If you want dessert, you probably want something sweet. We like sweets because they trigger dopamine (a brain reward) which makes us feel good. People don’t mind working hard if they get rewarded for it. Recognizing the group’s successes—through praise, encouragement, shared access, and financial rewards—makes everyone feel good.

Every leader needs to experiment a little to get their recipe right. Like a great dish, when the structure is correct, it goes unnoticed. There is no “right” way and probably very few “wrong” ways. Find what works for you and then find ways to improve it.

That brings us to the ingredients. I would never have thought of making ice cream from sorrel (a leafy green herb). The people in our organizations are like the ingredients a chef selects to craft a menu. There are a lot of combinations that can work and a few that don’t.

A great leader is willing to put things together that are unusual but must be very aware of the “tastes” of the organization. Sorrel is often used to enhance fish; putting it in ice cream worked here in Oklahoma, but putting fish in ice cream has only ever worked in a niche market in Japan.

When we are adding people to our teams or creating working groups, we should be willing to take some risks. We should also be aware of the group’s tastes and not try something that will offend their palate. This comes down to knowing the people on your team well and paying attention to how they function as a group and as individuals.

Putting together a team and leading the culture of a community can be an exciting and creative effort. Great leaders know the “rules” by heart, so they are free to create amazing combinations with the incredible variety of ingredients available to them. An organization that values the individual possibilities this diversity offers while honoring the recipe of a great team is sure to be extraordinary—the Bison Way.