I've learned so much in the past 12-18 months, it's crazy to think who I'll be in another 12-18. Hell, I learned so much on Wednesday itself! Listened to the Founders Journal podcast episode on the Decision Journal. I'll plan to use one of my notebooks that's being shipped in for that. Or potentially just create a Notion DB for it. I think it's vital to have one personally as well as some version of it professionally. So that we can actually learn as an org, not and just feel like we're doing stuff. But really we're just going in circles, not learning from our mistakes. Heard a great quote today by Paulo Coelho: "A mistake repeated more than once is a decision."
I was really in that planning mode Wednesday afternoon by helping to set the stage for what I think would be a valuable planning process and experience as a company. We definitely learn a lot in the moment as a company but I'm not sure we do a good job of capturing that info to inform the next time something similar appears. The same test will keep occurring until we find a solution to it. It's probably one of the reasons why Beck suggested us to keep a Learning Register as a company as well as ones per-team. That's the same intention behind having a living retro doc that we just add things to throughout the quarter. All these are just tools to help us level up as a company. To take that next step from an emerging brand to an established player. The foundation we set now will be how and why we operate 5 years from now. It's about building those business habits. We don't necessarily think of our jobs as environments to implement habits. But it can actually be one of the best places to see the benefits of them because of the collective nature of a team. All of our jobs now is to realize what those habits we want to intentionally prioritize and practice are, and improve upon them. Personally, you can probably do one habit for a month consistently and have it be a part of you, maybe a bit longer depending on whose research you cite. But organizationally, these habits take a quarter+ to soak into our culture. We make the same mistake that many individuals make when bringing on new habits. Trying to do too many at once. By not saying no to every one of the but 1, maybe 2, you're saying no to real, lasting improvement of identity. As a company, we don't say no enough. We say yes and take it as an opportunity, which is positive in many contexts. But when we approach everything with that attitude, it gets overwhelming. Lack of focus and clarity on what we're actually trying to achieve. Profound from Nir Eyal's hour long session that I attended on Wednesday. How do we know what a distraction is if we can't define what traction is? It's not that we don't have a path of traction. I think there are potentially too many. On the macro level, we have a clear enough direction. But within each department, there are a million ways to go. It's on this level that we commit the mistake of not saying no. We need a clearer decision-making process and framework for these projects / initiatives. By introducing something like this, we can be more focused on what will actually provide the biggest value. There will be more alignment on how we make decisions. It'll be more process-oriented and structure-driven, but within that structure you actually have more freedom. Going back to business habits, these structures that we set right now will become the foundation of whatever we want it to be; a skyscraper, sports stadium, bridge, anything. That potential of infinite possibilities of freedom is there. And as times change, market forces evolve, we'll actually have more flexibility because we're all rowing in one direction. And over the long term, we'll actually become even more enticing to a potential acquisition partner, knowing that the value of the business is not solely based on the knowledge and experience of its employees. But that we've built a machine that any competent, well-intentioned group can come in and run. To get there though, it's the small learnings, improvements, micro-decisions compounded over time to provide the largest long-term ROI.
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