Today is the first time I've come to talk to virtual Manolo — that middle manager or founder — about the "cargo cult" in companies, or what happens when we imitate success without understanding a damn thing about why it works. And you all get to watch.
In World War II, some Pacific tribes saw something that blew their minds: planes landing with food, medicine, technology.
When the soldiers left, the tribes built fake landing strips, bamboo control towers, "headsets" made of coconut and wood.
And they waited.
And they waited.
They figured that if they set up all the paraphernalia, the planes would come back. They were copying the form without understanding the substance.
This is called a "cargo cult". And I'll bet you anything your company is doing it right now, so keep reading, Manolo — this concerns you.
### The corporate cargo cult (spoiler: we all fall for it)
Look, I've done it. We've all done it. I have to put up mental guardrails to stop myself, although honestly, I've had so much practice spotting it that I can call myself a "tenth man" by now (google "tenth man, Mossad").
You see Google doing OKRs and you think "we need OKRs too".
But Google has 180,000 employees and you have 40, Manolo. Do you really need the same system?
Or Netflix scraps limited vacation days and you think it's brilliant. But Netflix has years of processes and a very defined culture. What happens when you roll that out in your 40-person startup with no processes at all?
You tell me how it goes, Manolo!
Or worse: you talk about "being like a family" but you fire people without warning the moment sales dip for one quarter.
That's crap, Manolo. Crap.
You copy the form. You don't understand the essence.
### How to know if you're in a cargo cult (Manolo's honesty test)
* Brace yourself, this one's going to hurt... You run rituals nobody understands.
Weekly meetings where everyone reports but nobody decides anything, 45-minute daily standups where the team isn't blocked on absolutely anything. (I once ran one-hour standups with a team of 4 people. ONE HOUR, for a team that saw each other all day in the same office.)
* You talk more about "how" than about "why".
"We need to be more agile." Fine, but why, Manolo? What concrete problem does Agile solve in YOUR context?
Silence.
* You reward the appearance of knowing cool methods over results.
A gorgeous KPI dashboard nobody looks at.
* An open-plan office "for better collaboration" where everyone wears noise-cancelling headphones because they can't concentrate.
Manolo, stop reading the books your VP-at-Meta friend recommends, and delete your X account.
* You use jargon to sound smart, not to communicate.
"We're going to pivot our go-to-market to maximize product-market fit iterating in sprints."
Translation: "We're going to change how we sell and test what works."
You see the difference, right, Manolo?
### How to leave the cult (the questions nobody wants to ask)
If people can quit drinking, you can quit this too, Manolo.
It's uncomfortable. But it works.
Ask yourself out loud in front of the mirror: "Why am I making them do this? What did my employees ever do to deserve my crazy ideas?"
Seriously. In your next meeting, raise your hand and ask: "What specific problem does this meeting solve that a Slack or Teams message wouldn't?"
If there are 10 seconds of silence… there's your answer.
(Yes, people will hate you for it... unless you're Manolo, who's the boss and called the meeting himself.)
Adapt, don't copy like a parrot.
Spotify has "squads" because it has 9,000 employees across 17 countries. You have 50 people in one office.
Do you really need "squads"? Or do you just need people to get up from their chairs and talk to each other more?
And most importantly... do you even know what a Squad is, Manolo? I bet you don't.
Measure real impact, not how pretty your PowerPoint looks.
Uncomfortable question: did your system of WHATEVER IT WAS YOU DREAMED UP improve any measurable result last quarter?
Or did you just fill up colorful dashboards nobody looks at after the first month?
Question the sacred cows. All of them. My favorite part.
The best companies I know have one person whose job is to ask "why do we do it this way?"
That person is usually disliked — I'm usually disliked. But it comes naturally to me. Search "tenth man, Mossad" on Google and you'll understand me. Those people save companies from turning into a tribe building landing strips like the World War II islanders.
### The difference between copying and innovating
Cargo cult companies:
"Amazon does 24-hour delivery, so do we." (But Amazon has $500B in logistics infrastructure and you have two vans, MANOLO)
Companies that understand the essence:
"Amazon obsesses over speed because it removes friction for the customer. Fine. What's OUR biggest friction? Ah, it's the 3-week onboarding. Let's cut it down to 3 days."
See the difference, Manolo?
One copies and the other understands the principle and applies it to ITS context. Companies that understand the essence, not just the form, are the ones that actually innovate. The rest build fake landing strips and wait for the planes to show up on their own.
What "fake runway" are you building in your company right now?
Unless you're the boss, nobody will breathe a word — I know, but I had to try. So if you enjoyed this, share the article; I'm sure you know plenty of people like Manolo.
I'm going to publish once a week, or once a month... I still don't know... So sign up and you won't have to keep checking.
Thanks