Hi treasure hunters,
Yesterday I got good feedback from my reader Alexandre. He asked me when I would release another English treasure. I do this every week, because I now publish all articles bilingually. To change the language, simply click on the American or German flag in the navigation bar. In the mobile view on your smartphone or tablet, this is unfortunately hidden and you have to open the navigation menu to see the flag. As a small thank you to Alexandre and all faithful English readers I put more English nuggets into the box today.
The World Cup is over and the elimination of the German national team has been discussed in detail. In Nugget #1 David Bach describes what lessons can be learned for leadership. His essence from the failure of the Germans is that one has almost exclusively bet on proven players. Although many younger players played a fantastic Confederations Cup, they were left at home and the coaching staff played it safe. Whether one would have become world champion with the “riskier” variant is of course pure speculation. At this point I want to talk about the behaviour of many managers. I fully agree with David Bach’s reference to Clay Christensen’s “Innovators Dilemma”. If you look at the system of many companies, it is not surprising why managers prefer to rely on the tried and tested. The goal is often to adhere to an annual (self-defined) plan. In many cases, part of the compensation also depends on it. What do you think I’ll do? Of course, I’ll take as little risk as possible and put my money on what’s proven. This way I can increase the likelihood of my bonus occurring. Whether this generates customer benefit and does justice to the dynamics of the market is of course another matter.
What Germany’s Spectacular World Cup Failure Can Teach Us about Management (7 min, text, English)
Nugget #2 is a little more practical and invites you to try it out. It is about decisions, which was discussed this week in my organisation in the form of an exhibition. More about this format in a separate blog post that will appear shortly. Brian Armstrong explains how important decisions are made at Coinbase. These steps are supported by a spreadsheet that Brian thankfully makes openly available. Of course, the framework presented is not the only way to make decisions. So you should be careful not to run into the “best practice” trap and blindly use a tool. A fool with a tool is still a fool! Nevertheless, I find it a good template for own experiments, how Coinbase has formalized important questions in the decision-making process and thus creates awareness. For example, the spreadsheet asks who makes the decision. Sounds simple, but I bet in many companies this question is not really asked. In many cases, the head of department also simply decides, although he is not the best. New for me and really exciting is the expiry date for decisions. On the one hand, I think this creates commitment, but on the other hand, it also takes into account that general conditions can change and that a decision can therefore be revised. A little bit of fun was added to the last part of the article, which gives names to the usual ways of decision making. There are some familiar methods in it. How do you make decisions? What works well and what works less? Feel free to give me feedback in the comments, via social media or email!
How we make decisions at Coinbase (9 min, text)
Nugget #3 is the latest blog post from my favorite network of Intrinsifiers. The Freischwimmer Christiane and Larissa discuss why the belief “My individual contributors can’t do this” is a trap. At the first moment I wanted to tag the post as “noticed” and “nothing new”. Luckily, however, I have changed my mind. Firstly, this is something new for many managers and executives. And secondly, personally, I must always be careful not to fall into this trap myself. I myself am part of a system that reaffirms this very belief over and over. I don’t want to add anything big to the article anymore. Christiane and Larissa have chosen an illustrative example and give four tips on what to do. At this point I would just like to add how it is not so easy to forget the implementation in the routine of daily business. How can you break out of the usual behaviour more often. Calendar popups often help me in these cases. This could be a recurring entry on Friday at noon at 12.30. As the title I choose “Experienced kindergarten in your team? Maybe you’re the trigger.” Small tokens also work well at my workplace. These can be characters, pictures or signs that draw my attention to a topic. Do you have any more examples of how to outwit the blinkers in everyday business?
Taking responsibility? Not with our staff (7 min, text, German)
Have a nice summer weekend! But maybe you are already on holiday or will leave shortly? Treasures are often at home on beaches. Send me a photo of the places where you open the treasure chests 😉