What I learned from Stephen Colbert Last Night - Escape Velocity

This post has little to do with last night's episode of the The Colbert Report except for the fact that the words "escape velocity" were mentioned and it immediately hit me that influence and incentive/reward initiatives have an escape velocity. See video at 3:25 into the clip. Stay with me camera guy... Escape velocity is described at Wikipedia as the speed needed to "break free" from a gravitational field (without any additional impulse).  The three main elements of escape velocity are the gravity of the thing you are escaping, the mass of the thing escaping and the distance the escaping thing is from the thing you want to escape from.  Clear as mud, no? Gravity Think about your own company.  There is a gravitational force - it's called culture.  Each company has a different culture and therefore a different gravitational force that holds people back.  The rewards and recognition in place typically increase this gravity. Mass The people are the mass that needs to escape.  If you have a few people - that's low mass.  If you need to get a lot of people to escape you got a lot of mass. (No connection to corporate wellness programs.)

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Jabari Asim Colbert at Christmas Colbert Christmas DVD Green Screen Bill O'Reilly Interview

Distance (this is a bit of a stretch I'll admit)

How far do you need to go?  How close to your goals are you?  If you are far away from your goal (closer to your source of gravity) then you need more oomph.  If you're very close to  your goal (escape velocity) you will need less.

Do the Math

Simply put - if you have a lot of people (mass) that you need to move away from a strong culture (gravity) that is really far from where you want that culture to be (distance) - You are going to need to be haulin' *ss to break free - your escape velocity will be a big number.

Too often we look at what other companies have done with their cultures and expect to do the same with ours.  However, rarely is the math the same.  Every company has different values for each of the variables - and therefore every company has a different escape velocity.  If you use the wrong formula and use less energy than you should, you can miss hitting your number and crash down to earth in a ball of flame.  Use too much energy and you overshoot your target and end up somewhere where apes rule the world and Stature of Liberty is the high dive at an ocean resort.

What is your company's escape velocity?