Bravery
Ultimately, Going Big means the courage to be brave. It’s hard enough for us to do in our personal lives and a million times harder at work. Companies are so highly matrixed and political that they make sticking your neck out nearly impossible. At least, shunned. No one wants to take the ball or stand out. Since no one is brave at work, most employees mimic lots of average and invisible employees.
Conceptualization
Big comes from big ideas and big dreams. Most people and companies don’t know how to recognize an idea. It’s not anyone’s fault, we’re just not practiced at developing them. Most ideas don’t have a clear course. And charting new courses or knowing how to stop turning the same crank is not something companies genetically know how to do. Ideas need care. Anyone can kill a sapling but only those who can Go Big can grow them into trees.
Intuition
Instinct is amazingly human. It’s so immediate we often don’t give it a voice. At work, we bury instinct with layer upon layer of justification, data, and gobs of the unnatural for fear that our instinct may be wrong. We don’t trust ourselves, in large part thanks to the Naysayers, who have used fear to bash down people’s gut. Gut is a powerful guide in our individual lives but for some reason we abandon it at work. Your gut doesn’t have supporting data. Like a relationship, it isn’t something you can prove before you do it.
Relationships
Plain and simple, if you can’t rally people, you can’t Go Big. The more people we can motivate, the bigger we can go. Since the only way to deliver is through a powerful network of leaders and followers, nothing works without the relationships you’ve built. They are your water. Make sure you have plenty. Networks aren’t created through entitlement. They’re created through respect.
Execution
Ultimately, if doughnuts aren’t leaving the factory, you’re not Going Big. People and companies need to deliver and re-deliver consistently and constantly. They must bring their Go Big dreams to life. Execution is key. Markets and coworkers have no loyalty. They judge you on what and when you deliver.
