The Speed Trap. Shaping Chaos Issue 2
The Dangerous Attractions of Speed
Driving an organization at speed can be a ton of fun (at least it was for me back in the day). It feels like progress, like we're doing something, working hard, making progress. It's also a terrific way to avoid the hard stuff: figuring out what you’re trying to do and why. In the current environment of less wiggle room, more pressure, it's a tempting bandaid. If we're moving super fast, working longer hours, setting tighter deadlines maybe we can stave off the uncertainty of navigating a much less forgiving world.
In fact, it's more likely the reverse is true. The biggest optimizations you can make to your business overall are:
- figure out exactly, and I mean exactly what it is you're doing. For extra credit, if you haven't already, work out exactly why you're doing it (this may be hard).
2. communicate exactly what you're doing clearly, repeatedly and convincingly
Needlesstosay, both of these steps require time, care and attention.
Once you've done the above, and you're completely sure you've done them (did everybody hear you? have you repeated them enough?), of course feel free to shoot for speed! I've got nothing against speed. But speed by itself is like having desert before dinner: lots of sugar, no nutrients.
I think this tweet is easily misunderstood. "The speed at which you ship, get feedback, iterate and ship again" is indeed a competitive advantage, but it's got a lot more to do with clear thinking and goal-setting than anything else.
All the sketches below represent a high short-term execution (clock) speed. I am not the first, by a long shot, to point out that speed and velocity (speed + direction) are very different. In the current environment, it's worth revisiting how much of your activity is speed without direction.
Feedback: Don't Triangulate. Just Don't.
Your boss (lets say CEO) comes to you. “I have some feedback”, they say. “OK!" you think, "All good! Feedback is useful, etc etc”.
They continue: “VP X told me that person Y told them that you can be overly direct”, says your boss.
You’re a little peeved. “Did VP X tell person Y to talk to me?” you ask.
“Ah, no”, says boss. “But I thought I’d should pass this on”
This is triangulation. It is a bad thing. There aren't too many things I can unequivocally say are a bad thing, but in this case, the results are in, and the evidence is clear: just don’t do this. Please. Don’t.
If someone comes to you and says “I have feedback about Person A”, your only valuable response is “have you talked to them?”
If the answer is “no”, the only next valuable response is “go and talk to them, preferably soon, preferably face to face”. For added points: “if you need coaching on how to talk to them, let's do that now”.
We get into triangulation because we don’t want to have difficult conversations. None of us do. They’re hard at a fundamental level. We don't like hurting people and avoid situations where we might. But they are a fact of life and work. As a human being, you, and the people who work for you have no option but to get better at them. Triangulation avoids them, starts politics, wastes acres of time, creates anxiety and uncertainty. Just don’t.
There are plenty of resources for greatly improving your skills for dealing with such conversations. Use them.
Difficult Conversation Resources
The original radical candor talk. The ur-text for direct, but compassionate feedback.
The Radical Candor team on encouraging direct convos not triangulation..
Why “brutal honesty”, “radical transparency” is not the way to go.
Why feedback is hard, at a fundamental level.
Why we delay hard conversations and what to do about it.
Why spending a ton of timing scripting hard conversations is futile.
Notes
"Ambiguity (in a startup career) is a feature, not a bug"—Head of Product
Giving somebody a clear career trajectory in a startup is hard. That's a feature, not a bug. The best career advice is "keep nailing hard things. There will be more of them, and bigger, and if you nail these, you can take a shot at those"
"The problems come down to people"—CTO, Founder, Scaling crypto startup
Yes, OK, incredibly obvious, but once you get this, leadership gets soooo much easier!
"Don't brainstorm with your investors"—Series A Founder/CEO
Brainstorms include uncertainty, difficulty. Your investors want, in the end, clarity and confidence. (Of course, depends on the relationship. But as a rule of thumb...)
"Madness and genius are not the same"—Twitter
A Good Article
Just that. Wise words from Ed, as always.