Burning Man For Business

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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.

By Alyssa Royse

Greetings. This week’s missive is coming to you fromBlack Rock City, where I am very likely covered in dust, sleepy, happy andthinking about how magical the world is. That’s right, I’m at Burning Man rightnow, but with freedom comes responsibility, so I’m getting my work done anyway.That said, I’ve got a one-track mind, so I’m bringing you all to the playa withme.
 
If you’ve been living under a rock and have never heard ofBurning Man, then you need to know that it is a “spontaneous” city of about50,000 people that exists for one week a year and is the physical manifestationand celebration of art in all it’s forms. Yes, all the stories you’ve heard aretrue, and no, you cannot get your head around it if you haven’t been there.
 
However, far from the free-for-all that people like to thinkit is, Burning Man is a focused and dedicated community of people who coexistpeacefully and collaboratively because of shared principles, which are damnedgood principles for both life and business – with or without pink fur.
 
There are 10 Principles, and because of them, it works.
 
1. Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. Noprerequisites exist for participation in our community.
 
Obviously, you need prerequisites in your company, it wouldbe asinine to hire a programmer with no programming experience. However, manyof us get a variety of other “prerequisites” in our head that serve no purpose.As you build your team, try to focus more on what it is that you want people todo and accomplish than an your idea of what that person “looks” like on paper(or in the real world.) If they can do what you need, then it probably doesn’tmatter if they didn’t graduate from high school, weigh 300 pounds, have boobs,or are older than you. By focusing on the strengths and skills of people ratherthan the labels, you may be able to build a team that is both productive anddiverse.
 
2. Gifting
Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift isunconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange forsomething of equal value.    
 
This is sort of the golden rule of Burning Man. If there is something that you can give or do to someone, then do it. Don’t waitto be asked, don’t sit and wait to be paid or acknowledged. Just do it because it’s right, and goodand will improve something. It will also feed the spirit of teamwork andcommunity that ultimately make things work better. Be generous. It will comeback to you.
 
3. Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to createsocial environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships,transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from suchexploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatoryexperience.
 
It is tempting to cut deals that will just make a lot ofmoney, or provide quick returns. As a businessperson, you have to pay attentionto the bottom line. However, you cannot do it at the expense of your product,your team or your customers. Sometimes the quick-cash situation is the one thatultimately kills your brand and alienates your customers. Think long and hard.Profit and integrity are not mutually exclusive in the real world. Beyond that, the strength of reciprocal and mutually beneficial actions is the kind of thing you can build future relationships on.
 
4. Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his orher inner resources.  

Getting your work done is your responsibility. Period. It isnot anyone’s fault but yours if you don’t get it done. Sure, your teammatesdidn’t get theirs done fast enough, and someone was mean to you, and themusic….  Whatever. If there’s aproblem, fix it. If you can’t fix it, then figure out who can and what it willtake. But do not use anyone else as an excuse why you didn’t get your job done. If you fail, then learn something from it, and be sure you fix the problem next time.

5. Radical Self-expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No oneother than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content.It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect therights and liberties of the recipient.

Assuming that you have hired a team of talented people, thenlet them shine. The more space and freedom that brilliant people have to bebrilliant, the more great ideas and innovations they will come up with. Thejuicer the creative process is, the better. By creating an environment wherethere REALLY is no such thing as a bad idea, you will find yourself with manygreat ideas to pick and choose from, and that’s good. Reward creativity.

6. Communal Effort
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive toproduce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, andmethods of communication that support such interaction.

This is obvious, right? We all work better when we’reworking as part of a team that listens, understand, embraces and encourageseach other. Sure, it sounds like the opposite of the radical self-reliancething, but it isn’t. Because when you have a team of people who are each takingresponsibility for their own actions, it builds the foundation for everyoneelse to have what they need to do the best job they can do. Assuming all yourparts work together, that’s vital. Now, it’s time to work together, make sureyour parts function with the other parts, and that you are all supporting eachother. It only takes one jackass with a pickaxe to sink a wooden ship, but ittakes a team to keep it sailing on course.

7. Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assumeresponsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civicresponsibilities to participants.

Everything you do will impact somebody else. Be sure youtake that into account when you make a decision. Whether it is hitting adeadline or changing a product design, be conscientious about the impact onothers.

8. Leaving No Trace
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physicaltrace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves andendeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than whenwe found them.

Although this one is an environmental thing in the BurningMan credo, it has other applications as well. Yes, please take the planet intoconsideration as you make business decisions. But also consider the otherenvironments in which your actions will resonate. Are you sending a positivemessage to consumers? Are you creating an environment in which employees areencouraged and happy and healthy? What is the impact that you are leaving onthe world around you? (Sometimes, I like to imagine what would be said at myfuneral if I were to die, today…. You could do the same with your business, what would people say if youshuttered the shop today. If the answer is “thank god,” then you’re doingsomething wrong. )

9. Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe thattransformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only throughthe medium of deeply personal participation.

If there are people on your team who are not participatingand contributing, ask yourself why. Are they redundant? Do they not have thetools they need? Are their responsibilities not clearly defined? It matters.  Figure it out. All hands on deck at all times. If you don’t need the hands, then get them off the deck.

10. Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of valuein our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and arecognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participationin society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers.

Be in the moment. Your market is constantly changing. Yourpeople are constantly changing. Opportunities come and go, sometimes before wecan even notice them because we are so focused on what we think we should bedoing. Especially in the software and technology game.  You have to pay attention to subtlechanges in the market, and respond, immediately. It’s okay to change yourplans, to pivot. It’s less okay to fail because you couldn’t change.

And lastly, though it’s not in the Burning Man manifesto,HAVE FUN. Seriously, if you wake up every day dreading what you know is aheadof you, then change it. Life is too short to spend any of it sucking. Sure,there will always be crunch times and obstacles, but, on a very deep level, ifyou don’t feel good about who you are and what you are doing, then change it.Nothing is etched in stone. It is entirely up to you to create the life andself that you want. No excuses.

______
Alyssa Royse was going to say something profound at the endof this piece, but was distracted by a blinky thing, which she had to go chasedown, until she was distracted by a sparkly thing, that was only interestinguntil the nice man with no shirt handed her a snow cone. You can read other stuff, some of which is profound, on her blog.
 

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