October 5, 2023
Uncategorized
You can’t actually control people, so what can you control? I reveal it in this interview…
August 28, 2023
Great cultures ,Hacks ,Hiring
In a recent WSJ profile of the CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi was asked what he looks for when hiring a new team member. Here is his answer:
What I look for above all else is followership. I want to know who they’ve hired, who they’ve developed, because ultimately, you get exponential benefit, not just based on the individual, but everyone they’ve hired and developed.
This an amazing insight, because it goes beyond asking if they have management experience, and makes them tell stories about specific people. In other words, it’s hard to fudge it.
File this one under “Interview Hacks.”
August 14, 2023
Culture of Chaos ,Great cultures ,Productivity
The question in hybrid work is when should we bring people to the office instead of letting people stay at home?
The brilliant people at NOBL figured out a great model, based on what type of work actually needs to be accomplished (which is so refreshing compared to dialogue about how many days).
Novel:
The task or challenge is new; there may not be an established process. When it’s new, there can be a lot of fear and anxiety and it’s easiest to relieve emotional discordance in person. It’s also very hard to read tone over the text of email or Slack. This is where hybrid work switches to in person.
Experiential:
An immersive experience can possibly be more effective. This is especially helpful if you do anything tactile.
Collaborative:
When tasks require sustained synchronous participation among a group. So obvious and yet with hybrid work, everyone is still obsessed with staying at home. It’s truly hilarious that Zoom is having trouble getting people to come into the office. The problem is they haven’t created a great collaborative culture such that people actually want to come to the office. (There’s a lot of room for creativity here).
Hybrid work culture can include: team building, annual strategy meetings, and change initiatives. And remember, if it’s important, put it on the calendar!
Going into the office is supposed to be a great experience! Where are you falling short?
I’ll tell you one way is to upgrade the coffee. I need to do an article on this because the CEO of United Airlines recently said that what motivated him to start making serious changes was hearing the airplane stewards say they were tired of apologizing for the bad coffee.
As always, remember that culture is co-created. So don’t think you have to figure this out all on your own. You can crowdsource the ideas and then experiment.
July 25, 2023
Great cultures ,Hacks
It’s very in fashion these days to have “unlimited vacation” at high performance companies – and yet it doesn’t matter because those people rarely take vacations. In mediocre companies, employees will play games with their vacation days and even get compensated for the days they don’t take.
The problem is that everyone sees vacations as a luxury, as opposed to a productivity hack that helps the company.
Think about it this way – Do you usually get more or less done right before a vacation? A lot, right?
Try this out:
Pull each person aside and say, “I’d like you to plan your vacation that you’ll take 3 months from now.” It will probably make them nervous, but explain to them that:
a) This will make them more productive so they will get things done before the vacation starts and
b) It helps the team because if anyone is so crucial they can’t even miss a week, then the team is not resilient. This forces the team to be resilient by making sure the operations are covered.
So go ahead, while it’s on your mind. Set up those meetings to ask people to proactively schedule their vacations.
