October 4, 2017
Great cultures ,Hacks
It used to take me weeks to figure out a culture. I would spend a lot of time with the company and then write a long report about what’s going on.
Now I can quickly diagnose a culture with this question:
“Are people on time for meetings and do they end on time?”
For culture to work properly, it’s all about agreements – our cultural norms. And our realities can be so different that there’s not a lot we can agree on. Even something as simple as honesty can break down when you ask if white lies are okay, or if you argue whether taking pens home from the office is dishonest.
But one thing we can agree on is that we all go by the same clock.
Time is the great equalizer.
So when one person puts their time agenda above others, then the culture system breaks down. That may sound extreme but think of it this way…
Let’s say Bob is leading a meeting that’s supposed to end by 9am and he decides he needs 10 extra minutes to get his point across. Because Bob is a manager people feel like they have to stay. Meanwhile Susan is losing time for her 9am meeting because she needs those people there, who (now) will not be on time.
To put it simply – Being late is all about prioritizing your own individual needs above the group needs. And that is when things break down.
Will being on time solve all problems? No, but it sets the foundation because:
a) People respect the whole over the individual (as a practice)
b) People learn to work with constraints
c) People learn to put integrity above any goal
In all my years of knowing Tony (CEO of Zappos) I have never once seen him be late (both personally and professionally). And he is a leader who achieves a lot, has a ton of fun, and delegates like a master.
Don’t believe me.
Try it (just for a week) and see what happens.
July 13, 2017
Great cultures
Well this took me surprise! After my speech, Rob said, would you like me to shoot an intro video for you? I had no idea it would be this…
May 27, 2017
Great cultures
Granted, this is coming from a guy who spends very little time on social media, but I think that’s actually an advantage.
It seems that people crushing it in social media are very clear on who they are and what they value (Once again, it’s all about values).
This all came to me in just a few moments. I just had a very fine cup of coffee, I got on Instagram and I suddenly realized what really works…
(and by the way, that term Social Media is pretty much everything within public digital communications)
These trends make the following assumptions:
With a million places to direct our attention, it’s not about what’s important or interesting or entertaining. It’s about what’s most relevant to us or our audience at any given moment.
The Joe Rogan Podcast gets more than 120 million downloads per month. That’s more people than watch the Super bowl. I can listen to it for hours (except for the parts on MMA).
I love how he mixes three vital elements:
1) Highly relevant topic matters
2) People highly qualified to talk about them
3) Improv comedy style humor and flow
The first segment of this episode with Michael Malice is incredible because I learned so much about what’s really going on in North Korea and how the people there are being held hostage. I feel like I’m being informed and having fun all at the same time.
Gary Vaynerchuck was at Mastermind Talks when I heard him say that nostalgia is going to be huge, I think because as things change faster and faster, the joys from the past become comforting and grounding.
In this video, comedian Bert Kreischer pretends to be in an episode of Magnum PI before his Hawaii shows.
I noticed how this is far different from everything else in my feed, so it immediately drew my attention.
This is a fancy way of saying it conveys everything you need to know, in one shot, without explanation. I got a lot of compliments on this post for that reason. This is me conveying my ideal productive day, without explanation…
The value of humor cannot be underplayed. I remember seeing Seth Godin speak and half the content was funny images. As a pro speaker I thought it seemed like cheating, but hey, he’s winning and it’s working. Funny cuts through, opens people up, lets us relax and take our guards down. I fully believe our next president will be very, very funny.
Fred Savage posted this clip from Netflix on Instagram. I love how I could understand the scene quickly, with our without audio.
This is brand new territory, so let me first say that a lot of people are getting this wrong. Having automated conversations (such as facebook messenger bots) that are actually relevant and helpful are speeding up interactions and keeping people engaged.
For an example of this, check out the opt-in at Bot Academy…
May 18, 2017
Vision
“The fastest way to move cattle is sloooooowww.”
Hearing this quote it hit me that maybe moving fast can actually be harmful.
A friend posted about how amazing it was that Google created a Google Glass prototype within a day of the idea. Hmmm… That’s a good innovation story if it were not such a disaster. There are a lot of people out $1500 for a piece of plastic. How is that a win?
I get that we should encourage failure, but what if the irony is that speed of innovation is actually at the root cause of failure?
I was speaking with a company that’s growing tremendously fast and they are hiring hundreds of people in months. That is incredibly risky for culture. Yes, we want to keep up with growth, but at what cost?
Think about Elon Musk and Tesla. They didn’t rush. In fact they said, you can pay us to be on our wait list, and we’ll get back to you when we’re ready.
They took their time, in the name of excellence and quality.
That said, I’m a huge fan of increasing capacity when it comes to customer service. Customers will be forgiving of a lot of errors if they feel they are being given a lot of attention. At Zappos we built up a bench of people because otherwise it’s impossible to answer a call in under a minute.
If you’re thinking about growth, here is the fundamental question to ask yourself…
What is more important? Momentum or Clarity?
Momentum can drive you 100mph into a brick wall. Clarity means no matter what the speed you’re going in the right direction. That’s slow growth. That’s taking more time with innovation.
