Implanting the Organisational Sutras of Speed, Observation, and Value
The modern world does not wait for the Slow and Steady Tortoise; it rewards those who dare to become the Smart and Strong Rabbit- taking rapid action with deep observation. This article consists of three concepts that are designed for Leaders and Human Resource experts who wish to create a vibrant organisational culture, as well as for those individuals aiming to bring their greatness into reality. These three concepts are the Sutras that can be incorporated into an organisation as the Blueprints for every employee’s everyday working style. By internalising these frameworks, we can create relentless, speedy, and strong workforce.
1st Sutra – Move Fast and Break Things
If you want to feel the wind, you can either wait for the windy weather or you can simply RUN. That run breaks the pattern of the still air and creates wind around you.
Attaining progress is the same in life. Rapid progress requires you to break the pattern, challenge the still air, penetrate the circumstance, and encourage growth to be magnetised towards you.
Move fast and break things is a leadership and innovation philosophy that encourages fast thinking, quick experimentation. It encourages the avoidance of bureaucratic decision-making delay, enabling quick learning instead of the long wait for the perfect plan.
The phrase earned fame when used as an earlier motto of Facebook. It introduced the organisational culture of quick implementation, speedy learnings, and quick improvement. This notion pushed employees to build fast, learn fast, and improve faster, instead of dwelling too much on perfect planning tendencies.
Meanwhile, integrating the culture of ‘Move fast and break things’ brings its own kind of challenges, from short-term failures, numerous mistakes, customer frustration, to imperfect implementations.
The idea of Move Fast and Break Things is about the three pillars-
- Action reveals reality faster than intensive planning and paperwork.
- Speedy implementation, and quicker improvement are the most crucial assets to continuing your competitive edge.
- Small failures today can help introduce the innovation that can disrupt the market.
This sutra encourages to create the following types of mindsets and behaviour:
- Trying with least hesitation.
- Sharing ideas with decreased fear.
- Adapting quickly, improving fast.
- Treating failure as data, but not as a defeat.
Elon Musk, the tech billionaire, often said – We will make mistakes. We won’t be perfect. But when we make mistakes, we will fix them very quickly. He is found encouraging the idea of quick implementation and quicker improvement in order to shape up an innovation.
I have worked as an expert trainer for organisations for the past 17 years, and my observation suggests that Nepal’s work culture lacks experimentation and even enthusiasm for creativity. We must plant the mindset of speedy action, creativity, quicker adaptation, and the will to welcome ideas that can perform better.
Move Fast and Break Things is one addictive, appealing, and inspiring notion that can help employees as well as students, executives, or tech enthusiasts to understand that the competitive world needs more innovators who can challenge everyday assumptions, biases, and attempt to create better solutions, fast.
2nd Sutra – The Hat of Sherlock Holmes
While speed is significant, so is the mindset of multiple investigative perspectives. Sherlock Holmes, the British fictional spy, with his classic hat, is famous for his capability of digging a context with a list of lenses to discover the answer or the right pathway. That hat of multiple investigative perspectives can help employees view their problems or assignments from a variety of angles. While the idea of challenging assumptions is a famous practice, I have framed it as “Wearing the Hat of Sherlock Holmes” – to make it appealing, adventurous, and practical.
So, what about we offer the Hat of Sherlock Holmes to many?
This transforms a standard corporate task into a mission of discovery, encouraging employees to view their assignments from a variety of angles. You do not accept the first “obvious” answer. You ask questions, challenge assumptions, explore multiple angles, connect the dots, find the best possible solution, and then build your conclusion.
The Power of Observation over Sight
Sherlock Holmes often told his friend, Watson, “You see, but you do not observe.” In our professional lives, we see emails, the deadlines, and the reports. But do we observe the shifting morale of our team? Do we observe the subtle changes in our customers’ needs before they express themselves? Do we observe the tiny hints that the market gives us?
As Dr. Victor (Vik) Perez, a leading expert in Neuroentrepreneurship, points out, our brains are often trapped by “cognitive patterns” that limit our vision. To truly observe, like Holmes, we must engage in what Dr. Perez calls “entrepreneurial enhancement” – training the brain to see the hidden opportunities in chaos.
Wearing the Sherlock Hat means becoming a “Corporate Detective.” It means:
- Analysing the “Quiet” Signs: Knowing when a team member is burnt out even if they say they are “fine.”
- Connecting Unrelated Dots: Seeing how a trend in a completely different industry might disrupt your own.
- Refining the Instinct: Evidence and Instinct-Based Decision Making
In the pursuit of greatness, we must shift from a vague, emotionally guided “I feel” toward a firm “The evidence suggests” decision making style. However, the finest leaders do not discard their feelings; they train them. This is the essence of what Malcolm Gladwell suggests in his book Blink – the power of “thin-slicing.” It is the ability of our subconscious mind to find patterns in an instant. By rigorous study, progressive experience, focused learning and Sherlock Holmes thinking style, you are programming your subconscious mind with the capacity of great instinct. You are teaching your brain to provide the best rational decision in an “irrational” way. Like a spark of clarity that feels like a gut instinct but is actually a high-speed calculation based on a thousand previous observations. It might look baseless, irrational, without logic, because your rational mind does not know why, but your instinct knows that’s the right way, and that instinct is not just an outcome of emotional or moody ‘I feel…’, that is the outcome of the trained version of ‘I feel…’
Sherlock Holmes has spent years studying 140 types of tobacco ash, different types of mud, and handwriting styles. Because his brain is so fed with data, he can look at a scene and reach a conclusion in a “Blink”.
It is like – you don’t just follow your heart; you follow a heart that has been educated by your long-term experience, study, and education.
3rd Sutra – Increase Your Quality, Increase Your Salary
There is a fundamental law in the economy of talent, famously articulated by the legendary business philosopher Jim Rohn.
He once said: “We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace. It takes time to bring value… but we don’t get paid for the time, we get paid for the value.”
If you want to increase your salary, you must first increase the quality of your output. Many employees spend years waiting for a “raise” based on the number of years they have sat in a chair. Seniority can increase your salary just slightly but it is not a guarantee of greatness. If you want to increase your salary, you must first increase the quality of your output. That is the fastest route.
To increase your quality, you can train harder, build more knowledge, and add more value to yourself. Meanwhile, as a smart thinker you can plan strategies that can bring exponential growth in your quality and the output you bring. Here are a few strategies.
A. Skill Layering: Don’t just be good at one thing. Bring multiple layers of good skills in your area of strength so that the value of your strength is magnified. It is like you attach multiple layers to your major pillar.
Example I. The Business Owner who understands Branding: A leader who doesn’t just manage operations but effectively understands the science of branding can give more significant direction to the business than an ordinary business leader.
Example II. A Creative Manager: A manager who also has designing skills can educate the team with visuals and designs.
Example III. Entrepreneurial Athlete/Celebrity: An athlete or a celebrity who has entrepreneurial skill can start his/her own brand or business or effectively partner with other businesses.
B. The “Extra Mile” Principle: High-quality leaders are those who do 10% more than is asked. That 10% is what separates you from the ordinary. That 10% brings you prosperity that 90% can’t. That 10% separates you from the 90% of the people around you. That 10% builds your mindset, adds greater value to you, and helps you eliminate procrastination and bring results.
At the end of the day, it is not just the slow and steady Tortoise who wins, but the Smart and Strong Rabbit who wins the race every time. By adopting these Sutras as your organisational blueprint, you are not just teaching theory – you are designing a culture that is both rapid and rigorous.
When these principles are implanted as some of the blueprints of the company, they transform from concepts into a collective mindset. You create a workforce that has the courage to Move Fast and break the stillness of the air, an army of “Smart Thinkers” who discover solutions through the adventurous lens of The Hat of Sherlock Holmes, and a team of high-value individuals who are obsessed with Increasing their Quality.
(Bhatta is author and award-winning expert trainer, and leadership consultant)
