Tag: team work

If it works with ten people

FabrizioLeave a comment

The idea that by hiring more you will get more business is flawed.

The idea that by implementing more processes things will be running more smoothly is flawed.

The idea that by buying a new tool your employees will suddenly start to make sense is flawed.

The idea that by acquiring more customers your product will finally take off is flawed.

Hiring, processes, tools, and customer acquisition are fantastic ways to achieve goals, but they do not work in the same manner in all contexts. And particularly, they are not a cure for some fundamental flaws your organisation might have.

A general rule of thumb: if it works with ten people, you are ready to move to one hundred, one thousand, one million.

If it does not work with ten people, though, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and find a new way to make it work.

Just because you are right

FabrizioLeave a comment

When you seek someone to blame, things to improve, new ways to get ahead, always start from yourself.

Not because you are not good enough, but because that’s easier to control. A new habit is possible. A change of mind is possible. An additional piece of knowledge is possible.

It’s much more complex when you start pointing fingers. You might be right and perhaps others are not doing their part, the environment is not ideal, the tools you were given are suboptimal.

Yet, things will not change just because you are right.

You can, instead.

Benefit everybody

FabrizioLeave a comment

Overpromising is bad not because you are going to disappoint others but because you are setting yourself up for failure.

Make the selfish decision to only promise what you can actually do.

It’s the kind of selfishness that benefits everybody.

A bug or a feature

FabrizioLeave a comment

Many have problems coming to terms with the idea that they do not understand (something).

Even more panic at the mere thought of going in front of an audience – no matter how small, let’s say a team meeting – and admit that they do not understand (something).

If you hide your lack of understanding, you miss the opportunity to actually understand. It seems silly to just say that. But when you leave that meeting without asking the question needed to clarify the thing that is not clear, clarity will not come later on, as some sort of enlightenment. Instead, the opposite will happen. The lack of clarity and understanding will compound. That will mean an increasing feeling of being lost. For you, and also for those you might be asked to explain that very same thing to.

For years, I have seen my lack of technical knowledge in a technology-first world as a bug. Then I realized that it’s actually a feature. It’s what enables me to ask question after question. Until I get it. Until it is so clear that I can actually go and write some copy or message that makes it clear for everyone else.

And since this is not about me, I guess the point of all this is: that thing you regard as a defect, that part of you that you tend to hide, that characteristic that you feel ashamed of.

Is it a bug or a feature?

Scripts

FabrizioLeave a comment

The best way to build a relationship with others is to not treat them as if they were playing a support role in your masterpiece script.

Like the entrepreneur who can’t figure out why employees don’t care as much as they do. Or the manager who gets mad when someone resigns for a better position. Or the friend you don’t hear from anymore because you moved to the neighbouring city. Or the parent who can’t accept the fact their kids are taking a path they had never imagined for themselves.

Everyone has their own script they are working on, and when two people come together to co-author some parts of theirs, it’s a blessing, not an obligation.

We tend to forget that very easily.