It's Lonely at the Top Preston: CEOs often feel very lonely. Although that may surprise many who have never been a CEO or business owner, it won’t surprise those who have. Many people clamor for time with the CEO. In addition to employees seeking the CEO’s time, there are customers, prospects and suppliers to meet [...]
Loss Aversion Loss aversion is the strong and pervasive tendency to weight losses more heavily than gains of a like amount. Many studies have indicated that losses are weighted at least twice as heavily as the same gain. Nassim Nicholas Taleb points to the Stoic philosopher Seneca having noted this human trait in many of [...]
Speed Preston: Brian, in our last exchange you talked about how the internet has enabled us to do things faster, cheaper and more efficiently. We discussed this in the specific application of developing a minimally viable product. I want to focus on the “faster” element whether enabled by the internet or not. Speed, in [...]
Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive dissonance can be seen at least as far back as Aesop’s fables. It occurs when our actions conflict with our beliefs, causing dissonance that we then seek to resolve. The resolution of the dissonance must come about by changing beliefs, changing actions, or changing our perception of our actions. Changing our perception [...]
Unsaid Brutal Facts "The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said." -Peter Drucker Leaders know communication is what the other person hears, not what they say. Good leaders know that listening is learning. Drucker makes the powerful point that to be a great leader, we must determine that which is unsaid. That [...]
Decentralize “How is [Berkshire] organized? I don’t think in [the] history of the world has anything Berkshire’s size [been] organized in so decentralized a fashion.” -Charlie Munger Berkshire Hathaway had revenue of $242 billion in 2017. Their headquarters staff is about 25 people. Take a look at your organization. Are you too centralized?
The Power of Why "If you always tell people why, they'll understand it better, they'll consider it more important, and they'll be more likely to comply" -Charlie Munger Asking why repeatedly until you get to the root cause of a problem is a powerful tool from the Toyota Management System. Explaining why is a powerful [...]
Pay and Performance There’s a good chance your top performing employees are underpaid and your lowest performing employees are overpaid. Look at your pay scales and productivity. If this is the case, what are you going to do about it?
Change "People don't resist change. They resist being changed" -Peter Scholtes How do you motivate people to want to change? Make the status quo uncomfortable and give them the opportunity and power to create change.
MVP (It's not what you think) Preston: Brian, “Ready, Fire, Aim” is great advice in those situations where we feel paralyzed by a lack of information. This is the state in which many entrepreneurial companies find themselves. It is also the state any business may find itself in when developing a new product or [...]
