I saw a tweet from Chamath of the All-In-Pod that made me fist-pump because I’m, by nature, a doer. I want to see what happens, not just theorize about it.
Instead, what I often see around me at work is a lot of “let’s research the best option for six months, get buy-in, and influence others to support the idea” behavior. Now, I’m good with that approach in specific, high-risk scenarios. But these aren’t high-risk decisions. These are situations being handled by experienced people, where the path forward should be pretty cut and dry.
The culture in my workplace is low-risk, with large groups of people protecting their workloads, budgets, and egos. Many have been in the same role for a decade or more. This dynamic creates a need to show up with facts, present all the options, and play the game of building consensus—often involving at least half a dozen stakeholders.
I get it.
The issue arises when those same people express frustration about our lack of speed. So, what’s the answer? I think there’s a real opportunity here. You continue engaging stakeholders and doing due diligence, but at the same time, you spin up a tiger team to push things forward, ensuring we’re ready to move when the stars align. Its your ace in the hole. You already know the answer from the beginning…you’re just doing the hard work of helping others get there and be comfortable with it.
PS. This is one of the differences I’ve found between startup-level executive leadership and enterprise executive leadership.