Amazing tips to grow yourself

💡JC's Newsletter #137

Sep 20

👉 Mike Cannon-Brookes (co-founder and co-CEO of Atlassian) (The Observer Effect)

❓ Why am I sharing this article?

Overall, it is a long but very worthwhile article about leadership, improving an organization, and innovating.

To share that storytelling is a very important skill for a leader to develop.
How to go deeper in interviews with less questions but more depth.
How could we have a good framework to classify decisions and level of involvement of stakeholders? Tree metaphors work well.
How to think about A+ problems, priorities and how much you can have at the same time.
Building confidence internally to move walls, to challenge the status quo.
The importance of protecting new things before the organization kills them.

Storytelling:
Within the 90%—at Atlassian—that is made up of one on ones, as much on product and strategy as possible, and lastly, storytelling.
I define storytelling as the broadest version of scaled communication.
One of the things that's really hard in a larger company is sharing and repeating stories.
This is less about the company’s founding and such, but rather “What is our strategy? What are we trying to achieve? What are we doing?”.
Though people can look up our OKRs, it's not quite the same.
If they hear repeatedly in different forums that we’re guiding the ship towards a few sets of goals.
I think storytelling is incredibly important and that takes a lot of forms. Because of this, I try to divide my time evenly between product strategy and scaled storytelling—town halls, presentations, et cetera.
Ironically, working from home has been amazing. Yesterday I recorded two videos—fifteen to twenty minutes each—that were going to different groups in different formats.

➡️ Should we produce more internal videos?

Tips for development:
Confidence is vital.
I like to see if senior leaders disagree with founders.
As I get older, I increasingly ask open questions and note if opinions change or not once I weigh in.
If a leader disagrees and pushes back on something with evidence to back it up, that's a good sign.
It is vital to instill the team with the confidence to disagree with senior leaders.
Not disagreeing offensively, but rather saying something like, “Hey, actually no, we did the customer research and I think left is a better direction to go on that particular issue” or “No, the competitors are all charging that. Here's why I think that we should hit the bottom of the pricing curve”.
Scratch one area quite deeply.
We often use it in interviews. For instance, I have asked people to tell me about what happens when you click a button in a web browser in technical interviews.
I try to go as deeply as I freaking can. I’ll continue: “How does that turn into HTTP?...Okay, cool. And that runs into TCP? How does that work?”. If I get to the point that I've run out of questions, and the candidate can still go deeper, that means he/she is likely a really good engineer; he/she has thought about the seventeen layers of stuff that go together to make a web page work.

➡️ How can we go deeper? Our interviews are too much of a checklist. Should we ask fewer questions but going deeper in examples?

Decision Tree Mental Model
The basics of the decision tree are root, trunk, branch, and leaf.
So you have four types of decisions and they vary on two axes in a generalized decision model.
The two axes refer to the person making the decision and the information that is broadcast about the decision.
To break it down, a leaf decision is a decision where you're working for me, you make the decision, you don't tell me, and I don't need to know. People make thousands of leaf decisions every day.
A branch decision is one that you make and then you tell me, “FYI I'm going to let that person go, I'm going to do this, or I'm going to do that”. Okay, great. I don't need to weigh into that decision.
A root decision is mine to make. As such, I will tell you what the answer is.
The trunk sits in the middle of the prior three and is my decision to make. You need not tell me the outcome, however, you hopefully come to me with options like, “Hey, boss, we're going to decide what to do here. I think A and B are the big choices. Maybe I’m leaning towards B, but it’s your call. You have to make this decision”.
What goes wrong in business is that people get all of these decisions mixed up.

➡️ I like how he classified decisions and the importance of clarity in what types of decisions it is and who to involve.

Obama-Inspired Prioritization System:
The way I remember reading about Obama's prioritization system was that every big issue going on for him as President was assigned Priority 1, 2, 3, or 4.
He had a certain number of P1s and P2s that came directly to him, as he was going to make the call on those particular issues.
With P3s, maybe he knew about them and advised from afar, but he did not delve into the weeds.
P4s were off his radar completely.
He could only have two P1s and four P2s simultaneously to prevent decision fatigue and overwhelm.

➡️ It is the equivalent of A+ problems, and how you can organise your week. Have only one P1 and two P2s per week?

On Encouraging New Employees to Break Down Walls:
One of our core values is “Be the change you seek.” In other words, move the damn wall yourself! Metaphorically speaking, I don't care how fancy it looks. I don't care if we used expensive paint or whatnot. When you take this initiative and act boldly, you will receive one of three responses:
The first response is that no one will care. If you know deep down that you've improved the company, we’ll be a better business. You should try to leave this place better than you found it and you have to derive satisfaction from that.
The second is that someone will walk past and say, “Fucking A, man. I thought that was in the wrong place,” and then continue on their walk.
That's probably the best response you’ll get. You'll be frustrated because that person has been here a decade and you’ll wonder why he/she never moved the wall, but it’s foolish to be angry at the people that came before you.
They were doing as best as they knew how. They built the building as quickly as they could.
The third response is when someone says, “Whoa, what the fuck are you doing?!”.
Now, this is the response you are afraid of in your head.
This will happen less than 1% of the time and only if the proverbial wall was really important, because all the important walls have somebody guarding them.
Crucially, this will trigger a conversation about whether the wall should still be standing.
I'll bet that most of the time, the desire to protect the wall is not backed by real facts. It's usually some variation of “We’ve always done it this way”.
It’s vital that necessary, meaningful progress win out over an organization’s spurious desire to protect itself.

➡️ It is important that we keep breaking walls, innovating, and using first principles. Alaners need to be confident to try to move things forward.

I often share the story of the four-minute mile to get people in the right headspace.
I'm not sure if you know the story, but there were all these physics studies that said it was impossible for human beings to run a mile faster than four minutes.
Then, Roger Bannister broke it in 1954. Afterwards twelve people broke the four minute mile within like a year. They didn't train any better; it was a mental thing.

➡️ How to break your own limitations.

Promoting and Killing New Things
The framework of a founder’s three roles:
1. Culture and Storytelling
2. People and Hiring
3. Promoting and Killing New Things
He compared a new product or project—a small thing with a couple of resources—to a small sapling. As founder, he would stand right beside that tree and simply say, “Nobody touch this fucking thing.”
Otherwise, the very bulk and size of the organization with all of its competing priorities takes its resources and squashes it.
My number one job in the area of creation and innovation is to find new, exciting things and protect them so that they have a chance to succeed.

➡️ I will do it more.

We had a very large team and we made the choice to exit the chat business.
We sold our chat tools to Slack, moved the team onto other things, and shut down the product.
It was a very pragmatic decision; I think it was the right one, but it was one of those decisions that will always haunt you.
We were adding five hundred people a year, we had four or five growing businesses, and we had to kind of choose our favorite children.
Though we built an amazing thing and we had, I would argue, the best product at the time, we had to kill it.

➡️ It is often really hard to kill “good” products. Like we did with Baby.

👉 The Pixar Way of Storytelling (Emma Coats)

❓ Why am I sharing this article?

Sharing stories is paramount to convince internally and externally.
I loved the advice on writing fast, and then rewriting.
I also loved the advice on focusing and dropping even valuable stuff.
That even if you scrap something, it is not wasted because it helps you get better ideas in the future.

You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
You won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.

👉 How to Awaken Your Beginner’s Mind

❓ Why am I sharing this article?

I believe that this energy around new ideas, “childlike sense of wonder” is really important. Being positive, excited around new ideas, sparks so much energy around you that it helps innovate.
It does not mean we should never see the problems, but leading with positivity and wonder is powerful.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few,” wrote Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki (1904-1971). Cultivating a beginner’s mind, called shoshin (初心), is about clearing your head of assumptions, previous experiences, or biases, in order to see things anew.
Having an open mind gives you the mental space to spark your childlike sense of wonder, to see things with fresh eyes, and to forget—if just for a moment—what is and consider what could be.
Get an opinion about your work from someone who doesn’t know anything about it. (For example, if you’re an artist, get an opinion from someone who doesn’t know anything about art.)
Reconsider something that you take for granted.

👉 Blackstone chairman, CEO, and co-founder Stephen A. Schwarzman

❓ Why am I sharing this note?

I thought they were all good tips that the team should learn & digest!

Take a moment to slow down before speaking:
People appreciate it.
Gather your thoughts.
Breathe slowly.
Understand that whatever you say is amplified by others.
Write to people to meet who you admire. Ask for advice. Some will. Meeting people early in life creates an unusual bond.
Nothing more interesting to people than their own problems. Try to help them.
Sales rarely happen on the first pitch. You need to sell over and over again. Most people don’t like change.
Difficult problems have less competition and often more upside.

👉 Brain Food: Tomorrow Self (Farnam Street)

❓ Why am I sharing this article?

A great and visual explanation of our leadership principle: “We break down big problems into manageable and small pieces”.
Always focus on the small tasks that are going to move a topic forward. That is why I split all big tasks in small tasks in my to-do, to build momentum.
It means spending some time at the beginning of a topic on how to approach it, how to break it down into small pieces.

If you’re writing a book, focus on writing the best paragraph and not the entire book.
If you’re playing sports, focus on the next play and not winning the game.
If you’re starting a company, focus on delighting one customer.
Or, if you’re my kids, don’t focus on the pile of T-shirts to be folded, focus on one shirt.
Don’t focus on the enormity of the task, rather focus on the smallest thing you can do that moves you forward.
As the momentum builds, things get easier. The second paragraph is easier to write than the first. The second T-shirt is easier to fold than the first. The second brick is easier to lay than the first.
Grasping this concept and applying it to what you’re doing is the key to accomplishing anything. Focus on a small but critical part of the task that moves you forward. Execute. Repeat. The logic is simple but not simplistic.

👉 Mental Models I Find Repeatedly Useful (Medium)

❓ Why am I sharing this article?

Having a set of mental models that you use often helps uncover the world complexities.
All those models have been helpful to me, and I suggest the team dig deeper into them.

Hanlon’s Razor — “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by carelessness.”
Occam’s Razor — “Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.”
False Positives and False Negatives
“A false positive error, or in short false positive, commonly called a ‘false alarm’, is a result that indicates a given condition has been fulfilled, when it actually has not been fulfilled…
A false negative error, or in short false negative, is where a test result indicates that a condition failed, while it actually was successful, i.e. erroneously no effect has been assumed.”
Pygmalion Effect — “The phenomenon whereby higher expectations lead to an increase in performance.”
Luck Surface Area — “When you do something you’re excited about you will naturally pull others into your orbit. And the more people with whom you share your passion, the more who will be pulled into your orbit.”
Cialdini’s Six Principles of Influence
Reciprocity (“People tend to return a favor.”)
Commitment (“If people commit...they are more likely to honor that commitment.”)
Social Proof (“People will do things they see other people are doing.”)
Authority (“People will tend to obey authority figures.”)
Liking (“People are easily persuaded by other people they like.”)
Scarcity (“Perceived scarcity will generate demand.”)
Dunning-Kruger Effect — “Relatively unskilled persons suffer illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability to be much higher than it really is...[and] highly skilled individuals may underestimate their relative competence and may erroneously assume that tasks which are easy for them are also easy for others.”
Spacing Effect — “The phenomenon whereby learning is greater when studying is spread out over time, as opposed to studying the same amount of time in a single session.”
Parkinson’s Law — “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

👉 Charlie Munger in Outstanding Investor Digest (OID)

❓ Why am I sharing this article?

I thought both tips are very relevant.
I very much like this notion of inverting and try to disprove assumptions as well. We should always be able to talk about both views when arguing, and it makes your argumentation stronger.

There’s one mental trick that’s unbelievably useful. Follow the injunction of the great algebraist, Carl Jacobi, who said, “Invert. Always invert”.
What worked for Jacobi in algebra works in the rest of life.
For example, if you were hired by the World Bank to help India, it would be very helpful to determine the three best ways to increase man-years of misery in India – and, then, turn around and avoid those ways.
So think it through backward as well as forward.
When it gets complicated, it’s very helpful to think it through forward and backward.
The mental habit of thinking backward forces objectivity – because one of the ways you think a thing through backward is you take your initial assumption and say, “Let’s try and disprove it”.
One of the great things to learn from Darwin is the value of extreme objectivity.
He tried to disconfirm his ideas as soon as he got ‘em.
He quickly put down in his notebook anything that disconfirmed a much-loved idea. He especially sought out such things.
Well, if you keep doing that over time, you get to be a perfectly marvelous thinker instead of one more klutz repeatedly demonstrating first-conclusion bias.

👉 David Rubenstein - Life, Leadership, and LBOs (Join Colossus)

❓ Why am I sharing this article?

Good lessons of leadership. I’m a huge fan of perseverance.

Most basic ingredients in any leadership recipe?
Number one, have a vision of what you want to do.
Second, you got to persist.
Because whatever you say you want to do, there'll be inevitable resistance to it.
Because it was such a great idea, somebody would've done it already.
So, you've got to persist because people are going to tell you no.
And then, at some point in your career, as you're persisting, or maybe before you started this new idea, you have to fail.
You have to learn what it means to be a failure.

➡️ Too many people drop at the 1st challenge.

You have to be able to write in effective way. You have to write in a way that people will read what you say and then will follow you.

👉 Brain Food: Uncommon Discipline (Farnam Street)

Positioning yourself for future success is simple but not easy. The hardest part is the discipline required to do otherwise ordinary things for an extraordinarily long period of time, even when the results are barely noticeable.

➡️ Resilience is so important to be successful. It is something you can learn.

When people say you need to love the process, this is what they mean. Can you do it when it’s hard? Can you do it when other people stop? Can you work on something long enough to let it compound? Can you do it when the results aren’t visible?

👉 Brain Food: Personal Philosophy (Farnam Street)

Few things are as destructive and limiting as a worldview that assumes people are mostly rational.

It’s already over! Please share JC’s Newsletter with your friends, and subscribe 👇

Let’s talk about this together on LinkedIn or on Twitter. Have a good week!

💡JC's Newsletter

Amazing tips to grow yourself

💡JC's Newsletter #137

Ready for more?