Short answer: Teamwork is about knowing & playing your position to deliver results. What it's not: getting along with others or building consensus. Required: healthy debate.
Hi Gib - this is my most reshared of your articles. I find lots of startups struggle to find the balance between being respectful and nice with their staff and being aggressively focussed on a single goal on the other hand. And they struggle with the concept of loose coupling and tight alignment - the concept is obvious when you've lived it, but really opaque if you haven't lived it. Its also a nice touch to pull in Amazon as well as Netflix - please bring us more examples from great tech companies :-)
My struggle has always been encouraging meaningful debate. I'm fortunate to have learned this in school (the benefits of a classical education?), but sometimes even leading by example doesn't create a culture of open discussion.
I've come to believe that truly effective debate works best within a culture built on trust and objectivity. Without those foundations, debate quickly turns into another case of "the loudest voice wins". As Product Managers, we are uniquely placed to encourage the sharing of divergent ideas from a wide variety of stakeholders in an objective and constructive way and drive a path forward to the desired outcome. As with many things, this is often more of a journey than a destination, but well worth the effort.
I appreciate the ideas, and I agree that avoiding "swarmball" is a good plan. However, the "company first" mentality is both an executive view, and one of immense privilege. From Amazon drivers to supply chain workers to teachers and ER nurses, and on and on we continuously see scenarios in which "company first" is at the expense of the people who actually create the value for the company. Until companies change their attitudes and actions to value the people who work for them over themselves (and their executive bonuses, e.g. Kellogg) then it is suicidal for workers to place the company's interests above their own.
I understand. Historically, the "company first" mentality is guarding against ego and self-interest in making decisions. I suppose a softer statement would be encouraging folks to be as selfless as possible in making decisions. Thanks for your comment.
Thanks for the response. I see that a lot in Product organizations where PMs are rewarded for growing their particular product within the line of business or maximizing engagement with the area they are responsible for. I've not been able to get people to be selfless when the incentive structures are not aligned. If you want to write about this topic in the future I'd look forward to it.
Hi Gib - this is my most reshared of your articles. I find lots of startups struggle to find the balance between being respectful and nice with their staff and being aggressively focussed on a single goal on the other hand. And they struggle with the concept of loose coupling and tight alignment - the concept is obvious when you've lived it, but really opaque if you haven't lived it. Its also a nice touch to pull in Amazon as well as Netflix - please bring us more examples from great tech companies :-)
Thanks! Gib
Excellent piece and a great year-end read.
My struggle has always been encouraging meaningful debate. I'm fortunate to have learned this in school (the benefits of a classical education?), but sometimes even leading by example doesn't create a culture of open discussion.
I've come to believe that truly effective debate works best within a culture built on trust and objectivity. Without those foundations, debate quickly turns into another case of "the loudest voice wins". As Product Managers, we are uniquely placed to encourage the sharing of divergent ideas from a wide variety of stakeholders in an objective and constructive way and drive a path forward to the desired outcome. As with many things, this is often more of a journey than a destination, but well worth the effort.
Yeah, I think you’ll enjoy the essay Todd wrote. Link towards bottom of my teamwork essay
I appreciate the ideas, and I agree that avoiding "swarmball" is a good plan. However, the "company first" mentality is both an executive view, and one of immense privilege. From Amazon drivers to supply chain workers to teachers and ER nurses, and on and on we continuously see scenarios in which "company first" is at the expense of the people who actually create the value for the company. Until companies change their attitudes and actions to value the people who work for them over themselves (and their executive bonuses, e.g. Kellogg) then it is suicidal for workers to place the company's interests above their own.
I understand. Historically, the "company first" mentality is guarding against ego and self-interest in making decisions. I suppose a softer statement would be encouraging folks to be as selfless as possible in making decisions. Thanks for your comment.
Thanks for the response. I see that a lot in Product organizations where PMs are rewarded for growing their particular product within the line of business or maximizing engagement with the area they are responsible for. I've not been able to get people to be selfless when the incentive structures are not aligned. If you want to write about this topic in the future I'd look forward to it.
If you have a moment, ask some of your questions with the ask gib link in my essay— ask and upvote