Seen.
Disagree and Decide
This week a founder and his management team were debating the strategy for their company.
On one point, the founder disagreed with a member of his team and the team got stuck.
They asked themselves three questions:
Do we believe these two people are the right people to make this decision?
Will we all support whatever decision they made?
Do they feel they have everything they need to make the decision?
This being confirmed, they left the room, not to return until the decision was made.
When they returned they informed the group they would be going with the team member's decision.
We thought this was a great way to manage a conflict and disagreement. It's also a good reminder that when founders listen to their team members good things can happen.
Read.
Power and Pitfalls
This article in the Sunday Times features a group of restaurants co-operating to fight back against the high fees charged by delivery apps.
Partnerships can often be key for founders. Even with competitors. They can unlock potential and drive growth.
It also reminded us that partnerships have pitfalls. Getting it wrong and being left obligated to something that doesn't work any more can slow us down.
What partnerships do you depend on? Do they still work for you?
What new partnerships could you consider that would unlock the next level of success?
Learned.
Habits and Clutter
The New Year is often a time we take stock. We thought this exercise was interesting way to do that.
Go and look at your wardrobe or closet. It's probably full of clothes. When was the last time it was empty?
Most of us only confront an empty wardrobe when we move house. This usually prompts us to be selective, and only put in it what we want in there. But over time most of us find that it slowly fills up with items we rarely wear, that take up room and don't serve any useful purpose.
So, if your wardrobe was empty now, what would you keep?
Now apply this rationale to your working life. What habits have you developed this last year? What new routines have formed?
List them out on paper.
Then take another blank sheet of paper. Transfer on to this those habits that continue to serve you. Cross them off the other list as you go.
The output you have is a list of habits to continue; and a list of habits to stop.
And finally.
Each year we do an Atomex get together around this time and review the year that was.
Because 2020 has been so horrible, we decided to focus our review on what we'd learned, rather than the specific KPI's and metrics.
This led to a much more positive outcome. Although 2020 has been horrific in almost every regard, we definitely learned loads.
We finished excited to begin applying that learning in 2021.
We'd love to hear your learnings from last year - and to add them to the ever growing archive of #founderhacks!
Don’t forget to check out the accompanying podcast version of #founderhacks for a tantalising live experience of team atomex!
