Matt suggests using the first portion of a meeting to digest the meeting’s agenda as text. This is a similar to Amazon’s strategy where a meeting’s purpose is distributed as a narrative document (not as a slide deck or bullet points). The team spends the first 10-15 minutes reading through the document and leaving comments. After everyone has read the document, they will begin discussing.
Terminology
DRI – directly responsible individual
Areas of Responsibilities (AOR)
A table of Department, AOR, DRI, and Backup that each individual in the company has access to.
RAPID Decision Making
Someone encounters a problem that needs a fast decision. The individual drafts a document with the below.
Issue
Proposed solution
List of people to make the decision
R (recommend) – the person who identified the issue and proposed the solution
A (agree) – those whose input must be incorporated in the decision making
P (perform) – people who enact the decision and should have a voice
I (input) – senior people whose departments will be affected by the decision and should be heard
D (decide) – the one who will make the decision
Once D has made a decision, D writes up the decision or ask R to. D publishes the decision to the company.
The document is pivotal as it will be filed away and stored for future reflection.
Types of decisions
Type 1 – irreversible
Type 2 – reversible
Type 2 is important for a company’s speed. As a company grows, many Type 2 decisions are treated as Type 1 which slows the company down.
Conflict resolution between team members (see page 66)
Levels and Ladders
A team member needs to know where they are in the organization and where they can go. They also need clear steps for how to get there.
You may need to sacrifice merit increase rates to align all Senior Designer compensation rates. Of course, this will take time and you’re unlikely to (and unlikely do not want to) do this all at once.
Metrics tracking
A company as a whole can at most track 7 KPIs.
Choose these 7 wisely and track them religiously. The entire company should be able to recite them when asked. They also need access to where they are being tracked to measure progress (or lack there of).
Accountability, Coaching, Transparency
Accountability – KPIs, action steps to get to our goals
Coaching – current health of the entity, the good and the bad
Transparency – sharing feedback with people on what they are doing
Perfect calendar cadence
1 day of internal meetings
1 day of external meetings
3 days of no meetings
Vision
Imagine what the business is in 10 years and that you are the dominant company in the industry.
Values
The what drives your business.
The rest of you in the business can make all of the decisions, as long as you…
In the early days the company values are aspirational, as the business matures you need to look at the individuals in the company and how they conduct themselves as examples of your company’s values
Ask your team to share a value and a team member who exemplifies it.
OKRs / Goals
Areas for OKRs to focus
Profit – massively grow revenues while maintaining expense
Product – delight our customers
People – create a positive and transparent environment where we are all inspired to do our best work
