Nice Guys Finish First

Nice Guys Finish First reveals what it takes to build long-term success in business and in life. Written by co-founder of Record Bar and Bare Escentuals, Barrie Bergman, this insider's guide on how to behave when everyone else isn't gives hope to those who want to get results and still sleep at night. Here, Bergman shares an excerpt from this entertaining, fun and provocative book

A huge problem impacting growth in American business today is organizational inertia. Organizational inertia occurs when a culture of fear permeates the business, starting at the top and running down through all levels of the organization.

When an organization creates an environment of fear, you can take very capable, creative people and turn them into ineffective paper pushers. They come to believe the worst thing they can do is to make a decision. They don't want to risk being responsible for a project that could fail. 

I believe that decisions in an organization should be made at the lowest level possible, and people should be empowered to make those decisions. At Record Bar, we said to people, "Nobody gets fired for making a bad decision; you only get fired for not making a decision."

People want to achieve. They want to act on creative ideas and make things happen, but you have to let them make mistakes. Intelligent people will learn from the experience and not make the same mistake again. If you're going to cut somebody's head off the first time they make an error, they aren't going to take risks. They'll stop trying, they'll never learn and they'll never innovate. 

If you graph it, most organizations make progress by fits and starts. Over time, the graph will show a steady upward trend. The fits and starts represent a learning curve. In a culture of fear, that graph will flat-line in a hurry. I believe most competent people will make the right decision 90% of the time. If you just empower people to act, most of the time, they'll get it right. Unfortunately in this country, the larger the company is, the greater the bureaucracy. People become set in their ways, and innovation stops happening because bureaucratic organizations reward the status quo.