# articles ## frequent communication [Eric Jorgenson](https://medium.com/evergreen-business-weekly/lets-stop-communicating-like-minions-evergreen-business-weekly-3-internal-communication-97a9705eb71a) (2015) Secrets to Perfecting Organizational Communication—Evergreen Business Weekly 3: Internal Communication If the members of the team cannot communicate, isolation limits their potential. > Overcommunicate in all ways, all the time. There is no such thing as too much communication. When you think you’ve communicated something too much, you’re probably just beginning to get through. [Mike Crittenden](https://critter.blog/2020/08/25/hide-a-problem-from-your-client-and-now-youve-got-2-problems/) (2020) Hide a problem from your client and now you’ve got 2 problems ## knowledge base [If it will matter after today, don't talk about it in a chat room | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25751808) [If it will matter after today, stop talking about it in a chat room - Mike Crittenden](https://critter.blog/2021/01/12/if-it-matters-after-today-stop-talking-about-it-in-a-chat-room/) (2021) If it will matter after today, stop talking about it in a chat room [Bazyli Brzóska](https://invent.life/blog/on-organizing-projects-and-files/) (2013) On organizing projects and files TLDR : we shoudl use tags and we need more tools supporting them [Mike Crittenden](https://critter.blog/2020/12/29/death-to-private-chats/) (2020) Death to private chats [Jason Fried](https://m.signalvnoise.com/is-group-chat-making-you-sweat-744659addf7d) (2016) Is group chat making you sweat? ## lying [Sergey Brin: Irate Call from Steve Jobs | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34227388) [Sergey Brin: "Irate call from Steve Jobs"](https://www.techemails.com/p/sergey-brin-irate-call-from-steve-jobs) [The Delusion of the Polygraph | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40972437) [What the All-American Delusion of the Polygraph Says About Our Relationship to Fact and Fiction ‹ Literary Hub](https://lithub.com/what-the-all-american-delusion-of-the-polygraph-says-about-our-relationship-to-fact-and-fiction/) ## meetings [No, we won't have a video call for that | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28636536) [xahteiwi.eu - No, We Won't Have a Video Call for That!](https://xahteiwi.eu/resources/presentations/no-we-wont-have-a-video-call-for-that/) [I'm deaf, and this is what happens when I get on a Zoom call | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24940559) [I'm deaf and this is what happens when I get on a Zoom call](https://www.fastcompany.com/90565930/im-deaf-and-this-is-what-happens-when-i-get-on-a-zoom-call) [Death by PowerPoint: the slide that killed seven people (2019) | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30615114) [Death by PowerPoint: the slide that killed seven people - mcdreeamie-musings](https://mcdreeamiemusings.com/blog/2019/4/13/gsux1h6bnt8lqjd7w2t2mtvfg81uhx) [Mike Crittenden](https://critter.blog/2021/04/30/the-art-of-booking-a-meeting-just-to-force-you-to-do-a-thing/) (2021) The art of booking a meeting just to force you to do a thing [Dominic Krimmer](https://www.dkrimmer.de/2017/09/04/why-we-kicked-our-estimation-meetings/) (2017) Why We Kicked Estimation Meetings (And Maybe You Should Too) [Sarah Goff-Dupont](https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/types-of-meetings) (2018) 6 types of meetings that are actually worthwhile and meetings you can do without [Sarah Goff-Dupont](https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/how-to-run-effective-meetings) (2018) Running effective meetings: a guide for humans [Sarah Goff-Dupont](https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/kick-off-meeting-agenda-mistakes) (2018) Avoid these 5 mistakes for an amazing kick-off meeting [Mat Lawrence](https://www.atlassian.com/blog/inside-atlassian/how-to-facilitate-successful-offsite-meetings-human-dynamics) (2017) How to facilitate successful offsite meetings: it’s all about the team ## specificity [Just don't | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33518496) [ongoing by Tim Bray · Just Don't](https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2022/11/07/Just-Dont) [Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30128061) [Dan Luu on X: "One thing it took me quite a while to understand is how few bits of information it's possible to reliably convey to a large number of people. When I was at MS, I remember initially being surprised at how unnuanced their communication was, but it really makes sense in hindsight." / X](https://twitter.com/danluu/status/1487228574608211969) [You can't tell people anything (2004) | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35282293) [Habitat Chronicles: You can't tell people anything](http://habitatchronicles.com/2004/04/you-cant-tell-people-anything/) [Brené Brown](https://brenebrown.com/blog/2018/10/15/clear-is-kind-unclear-is-unkind/) (2018) Clear is Kind. Unclear is Unkind. [Mike Crittenden](https://critter.blog/2020/08/13/clear-is-kind-unclear-is-unkind/) (2020) Clear is kind, unclear is unkind [Giles Turnbull](https://gilest.org/2021/how-to-be-clear/) (2021) How to be clear # guides ## frequent communication [A simple system I'm using to stay in touch with hundreds of people | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30329475) [The simple system I'm using to stay in touch with hundreds of people - Jakob Greenfeld - Experiments in Permissionless Entrepreneurship](https://jakobgreenfeld.com/stay-in-touch) (2022) The simple system I’m using to stay in touch with hundreds of people ## knowledge base [High-documentation, low-meeting work culture | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33707022) [High-Documentation, Low-Meeting Work Culture | Tremendous](https://www.tremendous.com/blog/the-perks-of-a-high-documentation-low-meeting-work-culture/) [How some good corporate engineering blogs are written | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22544688) [How (some) good corporate engineering blogs are written](https://danluu.com/corp-eng-blogs/) ## meetings [GitHub - VGraupera/1on1-questions: Mega list of 1 on 1 meeting questions compiled from a variety to sources](https://github.com/VGraupera/1on1-questions) [Andy Johns](https://andyjohns.co/why-standups-are-useless-and-how-to-run-great-product-team-meetings/) (2019) Why Standups are Useless and How to Run Great Product Team Meetings [Bernie Ferguson](https://www.atlassian.com/blog/inside-atlassian/how-to-facilitate-meetings-guide) (2017) How to manage meetings like an expert facilitator [One on One Meeting Template](https://www.oneonemeeting.com/template) a template to support you while leading one on one meetings. [Shubhro Saha](http://www.shubhro.com/2017/09/15/two-sentences-better-meetings/) (2017) Two sentences for better meetings ## politics and power dynamics [Hard to work with | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30861707) [Hard to work with. | Irrational Exuberance](https://lethain.com/hard-to-work-with/) ## referral letters [9 Sample Excellent Recommendation Letters for Your Job · PrepScholar](https://blog.prepscholar.com/9-letter-of-recommendation-samples) ## specificity [Don't be spooky | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29130590) [Don't be spooky - Adam Keys is typing](https://therealadam.com/2021/11/01/dont-be-spooky/) [Red Light Green Light | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30155927) [Red Light Green Light | James Sevedge](https://jamessevedge.com/articles/red-light-green-light/) ## transparency [Covid lesson: trust the public with hard truths | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28841177) [COVID lesson: trust the public with hard truths](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02758-2) [The endgames of bad faith communication | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30997666) [The Consilience Project | The Endgames of Bad Faith Communication - The Consilience Project](https://consilienceproject.org/the-endgames-of-bad-faith-communication/) [CEO Shadow Program | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32445192) [CEO Shadow Program | The GitLab Handbook](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/ceo/shadow/) [Phil Eaton](https://notes.eatonphil.com/transparency-and-communication-on-small-teams.html) (2020) Transparency and communication on small teams [Zach Holman](https://zachholman.com/posts/opt-in-transparency/) (2015) Opt-in Transparency your employees need context # text ## brevity The checklist cannot be lengthy. A rule of thumb some use is to keep it to between five and nine items, After about sixty to ninety seconds at a given pause point, the checklist often becomes a distraction from other things. People start "shortcutting." Steps get missed. So you want to keep the list short by focusing on what he called "the killer items" - the steps that are most dangerous to skip and sometimes overlooked nonetheless. Ideally, it should fit on one page. It is common to misconceive how checklists function in complex lines of work. They are not comprehensive how-to guides. They are quick and simple tools aimed to buttress the skills of expert professionals. NOTE: MAKE COMMENTS RE: SAFETY TEAMS AND ENDLESS SAFETY STANDARDS THAT NOBODY COMPLIES WITH - It's better to have 15 rules that everyone follows than 500 that nobody does, and additional rules don't help - if the work is VERY intricate, it's wiser to focus on emphasizing the importance of safety over speed or efficiency Balance between brevity and effectiveness. Cut too much and you won't have enough checks to improve care. Leave too much in and the list becomes too long to use. Furthermore, an item critical to one expert might not be critical to another. BAD CHECKLISTS … are vague and imprecise. They are too long; they are hard to use; they are impractical. They are made by desk jockeys with no awareness of the situations in which they are to be deployed. They treat the people using the tools as dumb and try to spell out every single step. They turn people's brains off rather than turn them on. GOOD CHECKLISTS … are precise. They are efficient, to the point, and easy to use even in the most difficult situations. They do not try to spell out everything - a checklist cannot fly a plane. They provide reminders of only the most critical and important steps - the ones that even the highly skilled professionals using them could miss. Good checklists are, above all, practical. The power of checklists is limited. They can help experts remember how to manage a complex process or configure a complex machine. They can make priorities clearer and prompt people to function better as a team. By themselves, however, checklists cannot make anyone follow them. Strive for good design; it really works better. MANAGEMENT IS SIMPLICITY - Give people WHAT to do, then expand MORE information as they request or is needed - Don't overload them with arbitrary info, people get overwhelmed or start managing themselves instead of trusting your guidance! Don't waste your precious time. Phone calls and emails can eat your day. Don't let them. No one will think less of you for getting to the point. Because there are so many calls to make every day, I generally keep them very brief. And a short note to somebody is often quicker than a phone call. As the business has got bigger and spread across the globe, a lot is dealt with by short notes. ## building trust What creates trust? - we know the person from extensive interaction - the person is technically competent - the person is reliable, follows-through and does what they say they are going to do - the person gives you honest feedback, including correcting you when you're mistaken - the person admits mistakes - the person admits when he/she doesn't know or understand something - the person is not afraid or too proud to ask for help ## checklistmanifesto ### DIRECT the Rider FOLLOW THE BRIGHT SPOTS. Investigate what's working and clone it. [Jerry Sternin in Vietnam, solutions-focused therapy] SCRIPT THE CRITICAL MOVES. Don't think big picture, think in terms of specific behaviors. [1% milk, four rules at the Brazilian railroad] POINT TO THE DESTINATION. Change is easier when you know where you're going and why it's worth it. ["You'll be third graders soon," "No dry holes" at BP] ### MOTIVATE the Elephant FIND THE FEELING. Knowing something isn't enough to cause change. Make people feel something. [Piling gloves on the table, the chemotherapy video game, Robyn Waters's demos at Target] SHRINK THE CHANGE. Break down the change until it no longer spooks the Elephant. [The 5-Minute Room Rescue, procurement reform] GROW YOUR PEOPLE. Cultivate a sense of identity and instill the growth mindset. [Brasilata's "inventors," junior-high math kids' turnaround] ### SHAPE the Path TWEAK THE ENVIRONMENT. When the situation changes, the behavior changes. So change the situation. [Throwing out the phone system at Rackspace, 1-Click ordering, simplifying the online time sheet] BUILD HABITS. When behavior is habitual, it's "free" - it doesn't tax the Rider. Look for ways to encourage habits. [Setting "action triggers," eating two bowls of soup while dieting, using checklists] RALLY THE HERD. Behavior is contagious. Help it spread. ["Fataki" in Tanzania, "free spaces" in hospitals, seeding the tip jar] ## communicating goals - sivers - The Art of Project Management - Scott Berkun ### WRITING THE VISION The challenge of project management is not only to get things started up in the right direction, but also to keep it headed that way. Writing things down makes it possible to define engineering work or capture the overall objectives for entire teams only once, then reuse that knowledge many times. SIMPLYFYING : The vision should have a simplifying effect on the project. A good vision will provide answers to the core questions individuals have, and will give them a tool for making decisions in their own work. GOAL-DRIVEN : A well-written goal defines a clear intention. Enough information is provided in the goal itself, that people will know when it's been completed. The fewer high-level goals, the more powerful the vision document becomes. Try playing devil's advocate : ask how a project can still fail if its goal is satisfied as written. Consider if there is a way to more carefully phrase the goal. INSPIRATIONAL : Give the reader a clear understanding of the opportunities that exist. Provide a solid plan for exploiting it. Make everyone understand the real-world problem to be solved, not just the technical one. MEMORABLE : The ideas need to make sense and be interesting. Resonate with the reader. If the vision is too complex, it's impossible to achieve this effect. Be direct and honest. Clear and confident. Give the team strong concepts and ways of thinking about the work. KEY POINTS TO COVER: * What is the one sentence that defines this specific release of this specific project? * How does this project contribute to the goals of the organization? * Why is this project more relevant than anothers that also might contribute to the goals of the organization? * What customer features are essential to this project? (Priority #1) * What customer features are desired but not essential? (Priority #2) * What solutions for customers have been requested but will definitely not be a part of this project? * Who are the customers? * What problems does this solve for them? * How will customers get their job done without this project? * Why will these customers buy this service? * Who are the competitors? * How will this project compare to theirs? * How is this NOT a technology in search of a problem? * What is the project NOT going to accomplish? (List things people might assume would be part of the project, but won't be.) * What are some likely ways for this project to fail, and how will they be avoided or minimized? * Who else is this project depending on in order to succeeed? * Who else is depending on this project in order to succeeed? * What assumptions are being made that the project depends on? VISUAL: We forget the power of images in expressing ideas. The best vision documents include visual images. Filmmakers use storyboards for the same purpose. Showing a sketch of the final thing allows ever individual to put his own work in a larger context. If this end result cannot be visualized, the vision is not clear. DAILY WORSHIP: Keep the vision visible : the few core goals should be up on posters in highly visible places. Ask the following questions at every meeting: 1. Does the vision accurately reflect our goals and intentions for this project? 2. Is the vision helping people make decisions and reject requests that are out of scope? 3. Are there changes to the vision docs that would make #1 and #2 true? The vision should not be modified frequently. Major changes should be rare after the project is moving at full speed. ## conflicts For any plan to work, every team needs at least one asshole who doesn't give a shit if he or she gets fired or exiled or excommunicated. For a group to make good decisions, they must allow dissent and convince everyone they are free to speak their mind without risk of punishment. [humor] can go a long way to defuse most conflicts knowing how to [fix] things is a critical component for just about every manager Pretend you are the complete opposite type from yourself on each axis. What would the world look like to that kind of person? How would you interact with that person? In conversation : Indians are waiting for Westerners to interrupt them in the customary places, and when Westerners don't - (because to interrupt is rude in West) - the Indian assumes the Westerner has nothing to say, and keeps on talking. Because of the expected overlap, Indians tend never to put anything important at the beginning of their remarks, because the other person isn't listening. They begin with ritual comments and then, when the other speaker has finished, and is paying attention, move on to the substance of their message. most of the work from a good project manager involves defusing the conflicts that teams get embroiled into - it takes an [unbiased] view to accurately and articulately sort through the differences of opinion - generally, it's often [political] as well, based on the varying [types of power] each person has ## delegation To ask a CEO to spend four hours thinking deeply about a single problem is a waste of what makes him or her valuable. It's better to hire three smart subordinates to think deeply about the problem and then bring their solutions to the executive for a final decision. This specificity is important because it tells us that if you're a high-level executive at a major company, you probably don't need the advice in the pages that follow. On the other hand, it also tells us that you cannot extrapolate the approach of these executives to other jobs. Before you ask anyone else to be involved, ask, "Do I really need this person's time? Can I do it on my own?" If you need the other person, define specifically what you need. Explain why their involvement is important. Give them everything they need to get up to speed. People don't mind giving their time if they feel it's valued and helpful. It's your reponsibility to have thought that through before you approach them. When you're confronted with complex, nonroutine problems, push the power of decision making out to the periphery and away from the center. Give people the room to adapt, based on their experience and expertise. All you ask is that they talk to one another and take responsibility. They had made the reliable management of complexity a routine. That routine requires balancing a number of virtues: freedom and discipline, craft and protocol, specialized ability and group collaboration. And for checklists to help achieve that balance, they have to take two almost opposing forms. They supply a set of checks to ensure the stupid but critical stuff is not overlooked, and they supply another set of checks to ensure people talk and coordinate and accept responsibility while nonetheless being left the power to manage the nuances [French fighter jet joy ride goes très, très wrong (2020) | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31145266) [French Fighter Jet Joy Ride Goes Très, Très Wrong](https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32131240/french-dassault-fighter-jet-joyride/) - Don't outsource your courier if it's important 4 categories of work: - Business - Internal - Changes - Unplanned work Before you ask anyone else to be involved, ask, "Do I really need this person's time? Can I do it on my own?" If you need the other person, define specifically what you need. Explain why their involvement is important. Give them everything they need to get up to speed. People don't mind giving their time if they feel it's valued and helpful. It's your reponsibility to have thought that through before you approach them. IF YOU WANT SOMETHING, ASK FOR IT Don't beat around the bush. Don't assume people will know what you need. Don't make them guess. The more specific you are about what you need, the faster you'll get it. If asking an employee or peer, clearly frame your request and set a deadline. Routine work can be outsourced or automated; artistic, empathic, nonroutine work generally cannot. Someone outside your organization knows how to answer your specific question, solve your specific problem, or take advantage of your current opportunity better than you do. You need to find them, and find a way to work collaboratively and productively with them. Whatever you are doing in your business right now, your goal really is to find a way to quit it. You need to stop doing almost everything you do at the office. Be a quitter. Organize the talented. Connect the disconnected. [Kate Matsudaira](https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2926696) (2016) Delegation as Art Be someone who makes everyone else better. ## documentation Chinese proverb: the palest ink is better than the best memory. ## documentation - sivers - The Art of Project Management - Scott Berkun ## WHAT TO DO : REQUIREMENTS, STATEMENTS The hardest single part of building a software system is deciding what to build. A requirement is a carefully written description of a criterion that the work is expected to satisfy. Good requirements are easy to understand and hard to misinterpret. Vision documents directly define the "what" of a project. Specs define the "how" of a project. Work breakdowns define the "how" of a project, from a team perspective. Specs are complete when they provide a workable plan that engineering can use to fulfill requirements. A vision document is where all of the perspectives, research, and strategy are synthesized together. The simplest tool is the use of requirements. A requirement is anything the team (and client) agrees will be satisfied when the project is completed. Problem statements are 1-2 sentence descriptions of specific end-user issues, written in a format that identifies a problem or need from the customer perspective. Problem statements are broader than bugs, because their goal is to capture what's missing from the customer perspective, instead of only what's broken from the technical perspective. Problem statements should remain purely about customers and their needs. Problem statements need to be converted into feature statements / scenarios. Feature statement is a short description of something a customer will be able to do as a result of the project or tasks they will no longer have to do because the project automates those tasks for them. Avoid any description of how these benefits will be achieved. Feature statements should never describe a specific solution or design, but should instead explain the solution's impact on the customer. Require a temporary ban on solution proposals during discussions of problem lists and scenarios. Postpone discussion about design alternatives. Focus on clarifying the real goals of the project, ordered by importance. Problem statements and scenarios are a simple way to define and communicate requirements. They are easily converted into design ideas without losing clarity about what's important and what isn't. ## drama and conflicts some people are EXTREMELY high-maintenance individuals, often through no fault of their own - high-neuroticism people get wound-up over all sorts of silly little things - low-conscientiousness people will look for any excuse to get out of work - some people simply don't know how to honor [social norms], especially if they're [neurodivergent] ## ethical use of ideas Now let's talk about ideas and who owns what. If someone comes to see you with an idea you're already considering or working on, no matter how loose the connection, then stop them abruptly and tell them the situation. That's only fair. Ideas, by the way, can not be owned by anyone. You can not trademark or patent or copyright any idea. You can only protect the execution of an idea, and trademark the name. This is an important thing to know in any business, and is often misunderstood by people who come to you with an idea. Such people often request you sign an NDA, and I'm usually happy to do so. - their [intellectual property] may give you some more money, but it could be their chance at becoming truly great (recollecting David w/ prophet Samuel story) What if they come up with an idea which the company then develops then proves to be a huge success - who owns it? The company does. You do, if you are the owner of the company, and your employee put forth the idea. If someone came to you with an idea. How far has she gone towards executing this idea? She should not have come to you without protecting that idea very very carefully indeed. However, if she brought out a sample which does not work well, but worked to some degree, the case is altered. She has executed her idea, however badly. If you wish to invest in the idea, you would almost certainly have to come to a legal agreement with the inventor. ## failures - firing I think that you should only fire somebody as an act of last resort. If someone has broken a serious rule and damaged the brand, part company. Otherwise, stop and think. ## failures [I accidentally saved my company half a million dollars | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38069710) [I Accidentally Saved Half A Million Dollars - Ludicity](https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-accidentally-saved-half-a-million-dollars/) - sometimes, stupid things save the company money - there's really no explanation for it beyond it being too much (bureaucracy) and something failing ## getting feedback Test your own views in the form of questions. Let other people help you smooth and polish your ideas. Use "what do you think of this suggestion?" Don't be dogmatic. The higher you go, the more your problems are behavioral. It could be your expert intuition at work, or maybe it's just a cognitive bias or other bug. You need to get some feedback: create a prototype, run some unit tests, and chart some benchmarks. Do what you need to do to prove that your idea is a good one, because your intuition may have been wrong. You need unit tests for yourself, too. To help get a bigger picture perspective and test your understanding and mental model, ask yourself something like the following questions: How do you know? Says who? How specifically? How does what I'm doing cause you to…? Compared to what or whom? Does it always happen? Can you think of an exception? What would happen if you did (or didn't)? What stops you from…? Is there anything you can actually measure? Get hard numbers on? Any statistics? Indians don't admit when they don't understand, because saying they don't understand would be like saying the person giving instruction did a bad job. So, when done, say, "What would you like me to explain again?" BEST PRACTICES : MANAGEMENT STYLE: - Encourage Indians to use their own judgement and make their own decisions in areas you have delegated to them. They do not always have to check with you before acting. - Encourage Indians to approach your subordinates directly about matters you have authorized them to handle. Indians do not have to approach your subordinates through you. - Encourage Indians to question instructions they think are inaccurate or wrong, and praise them when they do. - Encourage Indians to speak up if they know a better way to do something. - Explain to Indians that you regard them as your equals in the relationship, not just hired hands. That you are relying on them to act as expert consultants. - Explain to Indians that you fully expect them to ask questions if they have not understood you. - Instead of asking Indians if they have understood you, volunteer additional clarification and see if they accept it. - Encourage your Indian subordinates to speak up at meetings whenever they have something to say. - Try to praise the whole team, not just one individual. - Don't be surprised when younger Indians can be very Western in their behavior one moment, and very Indian the next. Coach her employees, "If you see people using our product in a way we haven't anticipated, let's talk about it." Seek constant, critical feedback. If you don't know how you're doing, you won't know what to improve. Focus ruthlessly on where you need help. ## giving credit Shoe designer taking designs from the world : promised to adorn any shoe design he adopts with the name of the designer. Generate vibrant customer ecosystems where users help advance, implement, and even market new product features. ## giving feedback Distinguish between someone truly wanting and needing help, and someone who is merely exploiting a willing helper. All you have to do is… nothing. When someone offers a less-than-brilliant idea in a meeting, don't criticize it. Say nothing. When someone challenges one of your decisions, don't argue with them or make excuses. Quietly consider it and say nothing. When someone makes a helpful suggestion, don't remind them that you already knew that. Thank them and say nothing. This is not a semantic game. The beauty of knowing what to stop - of achieving this state of inspired neutrality - is that it is so easy to do. Hone a quick wit. Look for connections or analogies between unrelated things. - [creative] thinking can take you VERY far If you want a team to NOT consult you for everything: 1. tell them you want them to take responsibility and not check with you 2. explain why : that you find it inefficient and a poor use of your time 3. reassure them that even though what you're asking would feel uncomfortable in their culture, it's OK in yours 4. repeat the advice a number of times 5. give them time to practice 6. immediate positive feedback To get beyond the "doing only what's told": 1. encourage them to apply the instructions to an entire category of things, not only what's said 2. encourage them to be more direct in questioning innaccurate or wrong instructions 3. encourage them to be more direct in suggesting a better way of doing something Addressing questions or remarks directly to subordinates is likely to be seen by Indians as an attempt to circumvent the chain of command. Everything must go through the manager/supervisor. Praise the team, not the individual. They regard themselves as family, collaborating, not competing. Praising one subordinate in front of the others is an insult to the rest of the group, and an embarrassment for the person singled out. Planes are safer when the least experienced pilot is flying, because it means the second pilot isn't going to be afraid to speak up. Combating mitigation. - rigidly enforced egalitarianism is the ONLY way to combat this I don't think there has ever been a letter from my office which criticises the staff or an individual. Now and again I've disagreed with something and suggested changes in behaviour. But the Virgin Group has always tried to look for the best in people. That way, you get the best back. You'd be amazed how quickly people change for the better, given the right circumstances, and how willing they are to learn from costly mistakes when offered a second chance. If you've over-promoted someone and it hasn't worked out, then offer them their old job back rather than firing them. It's your fault for over-promoting them. Not theirs. Decent leadership is about explaining clearly and unemotionally why a decision has been taken. The Dalai Lama said, "If you wish to experience peace - provide peace for another. If you wish to know that you are safe, cause others to know that they are safe. If you wish to understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another better understand." The most skilled and experienced members of the community provide leadership and help integrate contributions from the community. Peering helps assign the right person to the right task more effectively than traditional firms. The reason is self-selection: when people voluntarily self-select for creative, knowledge-intensive tasks, they are more likely than managers to choose tasks for which they are uniquely qualified. As long as communities have mechanisms for weeding out weak contributions, then large self-selecting communities of people in constant communication have a higher probability of matching the best people to the right tasks. Collaborative outsourcing works best in areas that are not core to your product or central to your business model. Weaknesses. Areas where your market efforts have floundered. men vs women in workplace - men crave autonomy, and a healthy work environment involves many autonomous individuals who delegate responsibility by their volitional choice from finding meaning in sharing the work - women generally want more affection, validation, and feedback, meaning there's plenty more dialogue - this is not a hard-and-fast rule, but conventional [gender] roles are guaranteed to play out among larger groups ## inspiring workers Use momentum to keep major projects on course: - Make momentum part of the plan. Don't move ahead until everyone knows how to create momentum. - Grab low-hanging fruit. Select a few major "wins" and tackle them before doing anything else. - Go for just one big win. One important thing, and really deliver on it. - Celebrate early successes publicly. Celebrate. Congratulate everyone. Give updates and praise people involved. Attaching yourself to existing movements that have momentum will create the best results. ## meetings Meetings : Verbatim minutes are taken. I read all of the minutes of these meetings very carefully and I can get a mite cross if they are not produced promptly and accurately. For me they are not a memorandum of past events. They are a tool to understanding current positions. I also have my personal financial manager as well as my group CFO placed on all these boards. If I'm not present you can be sure he is. NOTE: INDICATE ROBERT'S RULES Don't schedule important meetings at 3 p.m. It just doesn't make sense because you need naps! Try to avoid all unnecessary meetings Most meetings can be summarized by an email - Be clear about the specified end time, which should never be more than 30 minutes unless it's critical LOOK AT GANTT AND OTHER WAYS TO SLICE EVERYTHING UP YOU NEED TO CHECK The human brain evolved under conditions of almost constant motion. From this, one might predict that the optimal environment for processing information would include motion. That is exactly what one finds. Indeed, the best business meeting would have everyone walking at about 1.8 miles per hour. Managers as input/output machines When I first started working with my PhD advisor, I thought our weekly meeting was for me to prove to him that I had been productive. That is false. Now that I have grad students, I see this same behavior. But it isn't a good use of anyone's time. These meetings are for getting feedback. In the words of my PhD advisor: "advisors are input/output machines". You put into it your update and you get back feedback. The meeting is for your benefit. However, you have to show up with something in order to get feedback. If all you say is "I'm still looking into that one thing" or "I'm stuck", then there is little to go off of. Sometimes that happens though. But if you want help from your advisor/manager, you have to show up with something. This is virtually always possible to do, even if you think you didn't make progress, though it does take a bit effort to get organized. A few suggestions for running update meetings with your advisor/manager: Assume they forgot everything that was said last meeting. Show up with things to talk about and a goal. In 3-4 sentences, refresh everyone's memory about the last meeting and what you were supposed to accomplish since then. In 4-6 sentences, summarize what you did, what worked, what didn't work, and what you think you should do next. Think of this as bullet points. Avoid diving into details until you know everyone is on the same page and caught up. If possible, show up with something tangible, like a visual aid, a demo, a draft, or at least some notes. My advice, based on thousands of such meetings over the years, is to keep them short. Unless your gut tells you you've stumbled across a winner, set the meeting at 20 minutes. Have someone interrupt you after 25 minutes and have the caller ushered swiftly from your room. MEETINGS : Indians meet not so much to discuss and deliberate, but to present the results of their discussions and deliberations. On Meetings: - Meetings start off innocuously, with a few people, maybe once a month - Then it gets larger, and the meetings get more frequent - Then it gets longer, to keep everyone updated - eventually, it's every 2-3 workdays, 90 minutes each, making the effective workweek 37 hours without overtime - the manager must be mindful of when people: - start getting bored, since the [speaker] isn't making it interesting, and the workday will suffer from their unhappiness - don't need to be there because it's irrelevant to them (for pending decisions), and can be put in an email for them to skim if they need - further, the topics that DO need addressing need to be chopped up: - 1 topic per decision-making meeting - meet as-needed, and expect it to take 3-4 times longer than you'd think (either from limited [understanding], unforeseen [conflicts], or [as-of-yet unknown] information) Gates estimates that he devotes 70 percent of his time to review meetings with small product development teams. Get as many people as possible into one room. And then go somewhere else. ## requests IF YOU WANT SOMETHING, ASK FOR IT Don't beat around the bush. Don't assume people will know what you need. Don't make them guess. The more specific you are about what you need, the faster you'll get it. If asking an employee or peer, clearly frame your request and set a deadline. ## specificity RESTAURANT: A checklist for every customer. When an order was placed up front, it was printed out on a slip back in the kitchen. The ticket specified the dishes ordered, the table number, the seat number, any preferences required by the customer or noted in a database from previous visits - food allergies, for instance, or how the steak should be cooked, or whether this was a special occasion like a birthday or a visit from a VIP. You must define a clear pause point at which the checklist is supposed to be used You must decide whether you want a DO-CONFIRM checklist or a READ-DO checklist. DO-CONFIRM checklist: … team members perform their jobs from memory and experience, often separately. But then they stop. They pause to run the checklist and confirm that everything that was supposed to be done was done. READ-DO checklist: people carry out the tasks as they check them off - it's more like a recipe. We adopted mainly a DO-CONFIRM rather than a READ-DO format, to give people greater flexibility in performing their tasks while nonetheless having them stop at key points to confirm that critical steps have not been overlooked. Must nurses make written check marks? No, we decided, they didn't have to. This wasn't a record-keeping procedure. We were aiming for a team conversation to ensure that everyone had reviewed what was needed We had a team in London try the draft checklist and give us suggestions, then a team in Hong Kong. With each successive round, the checklist got better. Even the most expert among us can gain from searching out the patterns of mistakes and failures and putting a few checks in place. The handbook was comprised not of one checklist but of scores of them. Each one was remarkably brief, usually just a few lines on a page in big, easy-to-read type. And each applied to a different situation. Taken together, they covered a vast range of flight scenarios. First came what pilots call their "normal" checklists - the routine lists they use for everyday aircraft operations. There were the checks they do before starting the engines, before pulling away from the gate, before taxiing to the runway, and so on. In all, these took up just three pages. The rest of the handbook consisted of the "non-normal" checklists covering every conceivable emergency situation a pilot might run into: smoke in the cockpit, different warning lights turning on, a dead radio, a copilot becoming disabled, and engine failure, to name just a few. They addressed situations most pilots never encounter in their entire careers. But the checklists were there should they need them. These things mean NO to a high-context person: - responding with a question - won't answer your question - hesitate - qualified yes ("maybe" or "should be possible") - postponing ("let me ask my team") - saying how busy they are - agreeing at first, but then asking about it again later These are ASKING FOR HELP to a high-context person: - saying how busy they are - saying something is taking longer than expected - implying a deadline might be missed (you are supposed to ask why) - something is more complicated than they thought - talking about another team that recently needed and received help - talking about a time when they received help in the past These are NEGATIVE CRITICISM ABOUT YOUR PROPOSAL to a high-context person: - avoiding any response - repeating your suggestion - a loud silence - suggesting an alternative - asking your opinion of your own idea - only praising part of it If you want Indians to be more direct, you have to tell them several times, and give them time to get used to being what they regard as impolite. Give strong feedback as soon as you see the least sign of Indians doing what you've asked. Don't telegraph the answer you want. They will say what they think you want to hear. Don't say, "That won't take long, will it?" or "Can you get it done by Friday?" If you really want to know what they think, don't begin by telling them what you think. In India, bosses do not empower subbordinates. They are expected to check-in constantly to get the boss's OK. Subbordinates should never act empowered. When talking to a team, you must talk to the boss, not the subbordinates. The more guidance, the better. Explicit, detailed, specific instructions. Have formal written business processes for every signifiant job function. Outsource it to a consultant who specializes in creating and maintaining written business processes. If you are trying to persuade someone to join you, invest with you, or make some changes, then it's important to speak to them directly and take the time so that they know what they must do. Remember to communicate, and pay attention to detail. You wouldn't believe how far you can get, just by remembering and practising those two rules. ## transparency there was once controversy about using emails to setup a lunch date with a colleague (like using Facebook on company time now) - social media will be used no matter what, and that's tied directly to the [personality] of the hires - if you have a problem with it, focus on results and leave them the hell alone Trust in the power of communication. Don't believe in the wisdom of the single individual, of even an expert. Believe in the wisdom of the group, the wisdom of making sure that multiple pairs of eyes were on a problem and then letting the watchers decide what to do. TELL THEM WHAT'S ON THE TEST Tell people how they will be measured, so they can focus on the most important things. To reinforce performance, link a portion of the compensation to their performance in those areas. We should all pledge to do nothing that we'd regret reading about in the press. The mass market is dead, replaced by the mass of niches. We have shifted from an economy based on scarcity to one based on abundance. The control of products or distribution will no longer guarantee a premium and a profit. Enabling customers to collaborate with you - in creating, distributing, marketing, and supporting products - is what creates a premium in today's market. The most successful enterprises today are networks - which extract as little value as possible so they can grow as big as possible - and the platforms on which those networks are built. Owning pipelines, people, products, or even intellectual property is no longer the key to success. Openness is. Yahoo and AOL are already has-beens. They operate under the old rules. They control content and distribution and think they can own customers, relationships, and attention. They create destinations and have the hubris to think customers should come to them. They spend a huge portion of their revenue on marketing to get those people there and work hard to keep them there. Give the people control, and we will use it. Don't, and you will lose us. That is the essential rule. As a business owner, respond to people. Don't rely on an intern or PR company to make the search and contact. Do it yourself. Be yourself. Find someone who has a problem. Find out more about the problem by engaging in conversation. Solve it. Learn from it. Then tell people what you learned. You might have had such exchanges over the years via letters, phone calls, and underlings. But now the conversation will occur in public, as will your education. As with free speech itself, what we say isn't as important as the system that enables us to say it. That system requires that everything about you, your product, your business, and your message, has a place online with a permanent address so people can search and find you, then point to you, respond to you, and even distribute what you have to say. Firms that cultivate nimble trust-based relationships with external collaborators are positioned to form vibrant business ecosystems that create value more effectively than hierarchially organized business. This threatens entrenched barriers to entry, including the high costs of obtaining the financial, physical, and human capital necessary to compete. Firms can no longer depend only on internal capabilities or a handful of business partners to meet external needs. Companies that make their boundaries porous to external ideas and human capital outperform companies that rely solely on their internal resources. When companies are open, customers respond by giving their trust. A firm will expand until the costs of organizing an extra transaction within the firm become equal to the costs of carrying out the same transaction on the open market. As long as it is cheaper to perform a transaction inside your firm, keep it there. But if it is cheaper to go to the marketplace, do not try to do it internally. Or, backwards : firms should shrink until the cost of performing a transaction internally no longer exceeds the cost of performing it externally. The main reason for taking Perot Systems public in 1999, he says, was to motivate employees. "I want them to know what their work has produced in the way of value. Nothing motivates a team like having them have stock." You will have to supplement your native talent with acquired skills. To become an outstanding builder of organizations, Wayne Huizenga had to correct an early tendency to be curt toward people who did not grasp points he considered self-evident. Intimidated by this reaction, employees would sometimes fail to pass along important information. Ross Perot and Sam Walton had to revise their original inclination to reward only senior managers generously, which caused lower-level employees to feel like second-class citizens. This sort of adaptability is one of the most important traits that you should strive to stamp on your organization. Create an "aura of authenticity," which is the elixir that attracts smart people and inspires them. Monitor search queries. If users are asking questions, write articles with those answers. Keeping an eye on search terms is a preemptive reader survey. Publicness is a key attribute of successful business. We now live and do business is glass houses (and offices). Take actions in public so people can see what you do and react to it, make suggestions, and tell their friends. Customer service is the new marketing. ## transparency - do what you do best and link to the rest Do what you do best and link to the rest. The link forces specialization. The specialization fosters collaboration. Specialization creates a demand for quality. Explosive web companies don't charge what the market will bear - they charge as little as they can bear. Today's "Web 2.0" method for growth is to forgo paying for marketing and instead create something so great that users distribute it. Networks are built atop platforms. A platform enables. It helps build value. If it is open and collaborative, those users may in turn add value to the platforms. Facebook didn't translate its own Spanish and German versions: it created a platform for translation and handed the task to its users, who did the work for free. USERS: "Can I use your platform to build my own business?" The correct answer is yes. How can you act as a platform? What can others build on top of it? How can you add value? How little value can you extract? How big can the network atop your platform grow? How can the platform get better learning from users? How can you create open standards so even competitors will use and contribute to the network, and you get a share of the value? ## transparency - elegant organization You don't start communities. Communities already exist. They're already doing what they want to do. The question you should ask is how you can help them do that better. Bring them elegant organization. The key to all platforms is to enable others to use the tool as they wish. Look at the communities around you. Have you enabled them... to talk? to share what they know and need to know? to support each other? to do business together? to socialize? Be careful. Don't assume these people care about you or think of themselves as members of your community. Don't think that you can create a community. They're not yours. ## transparency - how Google would improve education When we embark on learning, we often don't know what we don't know. The teacher still has a role and value: to craft a syllabus to guide your understanding. When it's clear what you want to learn, it's possible for a student to use books, videos, or experimentation to teach himself. TeachStreet.com connects teachers with students. We join to learn and teach together, sometimes handling the teaching duties to the best student on a given subject. Peer-to-peer education works well online as we can see in language-learning services such as Livemocha.com where teachers in one language become students in another, and where anyone in its gift economy can critique and help any student. It's a learning network. See The Berlin School of Creative Leadership (where I serve on the advisory board). ## transparency - how Google would improve health see PatientsLikeMe.com Decentralized. Self-organized. Not just DIY, but DIO (Do It Ourselves). ## transparency - how Google would improve investing See Fred Wilson, partner at Union Square Ventures in NYC: His blog is avc.com Venture capital's goal is to find talented people with good ideas, and to give them the resources they need to execute those ideas. If I were a venture capitalist I'd figure out how to build a platform for entrepreneurship. Consider being a matchmaker connecting investors and start-ups directly, trying not to get too much in the way. Learning from lots of data is the pillar of Google-think. ## transparency - how Google would improve manufacturing See Threadless, CafePress.com, Zazzle, Threadbanger, BurdaStyle.com ## transparency - how Google would improve newspapers Decide what business you're in. A huge new business of being analog in a digital world: like therapy. What if papers handed over much of their work to Google? Why not outsource distribution, technology, and a good share of ad sales to Google as a platform so the paper can concentrate on its real job: Journalism. In the link economy, it no longer pays to sell copies of content when the original is just a link and a click away. The link economy makes five demands: - produce unique content with clear value - open up so the world can find you - when you get links and audience, exploit them (often through advertising) - use links to find new efficiencies (Do what you do best & link to the rest.) - create value atop this link layer: curation, infrastructure, advertising networks. See how the world is disrupted and find opportunity in it. The best way to exploit the legacy value of a paper is to use its old-media megaphone to promote and build what comes next. Cannibalize thyself. Convincing your audience to move to the future is better than following them there after they have discovered other sources of news. What doesn't the public assign us? Gather assignments. This turns the relationship between journalist and public on its head. The public is now the boss. Reaching deeper into communities, having more of an impact, and adding more value. Revision3 TV: inviting viewers to submit their own pilots. ## transparency - how Google would improve pr and lawyers It's hopeless. PR: They can't be transparent. They have clients. It should be the job of PR advisers to convince clients that it's in their interest to be transparent and honest. PR turned upside-down: rather than representing and spinning the client to the world, they remind the client that the world is watching. Help get companies into this groove. Volunteers could publish simple, clear, and free explanations of laws and legal documents online. All it takes is one generous lawyer to ruin the game for a thousand of them. ## transparency - how Google would improve real estate If you must explain your value, it's not as great as you think. I'd start a company that does nothing but help market homes in the open internet, creating listings on Craigslist, taking pictures and making videos, making web pages for the homes, making sure those pages show up in searches, even buying ads on Google. You can do this for free using Picasa, YouTube, Google Maps aerial view, and lists of local restaurants using Yelp. Home sellers can add links to their own favorite hangouts, best grocery stores, and add tips about where the kids can play. You can sell not just the property but the experience, the lifestyle, the community. It won't be long before you can introduce buyers to our neighbors, linking to their blogs or Facebook. Many homeowners wouldn't want to do this themselves, so there's a business opportunity to help. I'd sell these services and options for flat fees, not a percentage of sale price. Start a company that offers concierge services to schedule and escort would-be buyers. Buyers could pay the consierge to chauffeur them from home to home. Sellers could pay the consierge to hold open-houses (& make the place presentable). See lcoal home-tour bloggers emerge, taking tours, taking pictures, and treating new homes on the market as news. I'd read it and buy ads there. EveryBlock.com lists all kinds of data around addresses. Outside.in organizes local blog posts around locations. CleverCommute provides a real picture of traffic headaches. All this open data beats the agent telling you that every neighborhood is wonderful and every house has potential. ## transparency - how Google would improve retail Imagine a restaurant run on openness and data. The menu shows exactly how many people had ordered each dish. Survey diners at the end of the meal. The more layers of data you have, the more you learn, the more useful your advice can be. You could show what dishes are popular with runners! Open-source the restaurant. Put recipes online, and invite the public to make suggestions.