Seven Core Principles

Here are some of our thoughts related to the kind of system and culture we are building, asking you to join, and wanting you to help further improve

1. Reading in the Meeting

If a decision matters, we write down the reasoning and the assumptions. We generally prefer the rigour of memos over the Cognitive Style of PowerPoint.

2. Tolerance for failure / Intolerance for incompetence

Exploration is encouraged, constraints minimised, ideas welcomed. But experiments, projects and programmes are selected based on a hypothesis of their potential value, and designed rigorously, using developed processes or modification/hybrid thereof (e.g. R-W-W, Discovery-Based Planning, Working Backwards, Job-Mapping). Seeking to ‘fail fast’ means anticipating why a project might fail and ensuring it yields as much valuable information as possible relative to costs before doing so. There are clear criteria for killing, modifying or continuing the project, defined explicitly, written down from the outset, refined as knowledge is gained. There is a rigorous written systematic review of literature, evidence, all-source information at project start. Data and evidence are ruthlessly pursued and presented at all stages.

3. Willingness to experiment / Uncompromising, rigorous discipline

4. Psychological Safety / Brutal Candour

Psychological safety means providing an environment in which ideas can be freely expressed, all feel supported, and encouraged, to contribute. HIPPOs (highest paid persons opinion) and hierarchies are as open to challenge as anyone else. They invite it and reward it. Space is created constantly for people to say what they think, as Amazon says, by “leaders…[who]…do not believe their body odour smells of perfume”.

In a planning meeting ahead of D-Day Eisenhower said “I consider it the duty of anyone who sees a flaw in this plan not to hesitate to say so. I have no sympathy with anyone here, whatever his station, who will not brook criticism. We are here to get the best possible results.”

Our leaders demand criticism. But brutal candour is hard. Not for everyone. No-one minces words. People are direct. Radical truth and radical transparency are respected above people’s feelings – Ray Dalio and his Bridgewater Asset Management’s runaway success were founded on these principles. They gets results. But Bridgewater’s approach was accused of being cult-like for its obsession with honesty and transparency. We seek to ensure psychological safety extends to calling out when candour might be going too far – seeking to ensure feedback is constructive, courteous, enabling – making sure everyone is appreciated. Candour to improve and build, not diminish.

5. Collaboration, not Consensus but Individual Accountability

Collaboration is vital – we need diverse ideas to maximise performance. But consensus and compromise are not – and indeed might be antithetical to innovation. They slow decision-making, reduce individual responsibility and thus increase the sense of invulnerability and optimism in the face of risk. Consensus and compromise can reduce focus on moral and ethical consequences. Social support for ideas can reduce scrutiny of them. It encourages conformity. The powerful can have more influence when consensus is sought, because of incentives to agree. As Nash equilibria teach us – compromise might be fair but it can leave everyone worse off. Someone must make a decision and be accountable for it.

At that point, as Amazon put it, everyone is expected to ‘have backbone’ (see brutal candour) ‘even when doing so is uncomfortable and exhausting’. They must ‘disagree and commit’. Our approach demands leaders make decisions and are individually accountable to a degree unusual in most organisations.

6. Flat Structures

Engaged, Strong, Visionary Leadership. Organisational charts show innovative organisations as very flat, personnel have a high degree of autonomy and are able to make decisions, to move fast. Deference is based on competence, not position in a hierarchy. But flat organisations are chaotic without engaged, visionary leaders, who communicate vision, goals, the principles around how an organisation operates and decisions are made, what the strategic priority and direction is. Think Andy Grove at Intel, his obsession with one-to-one’s and detail. These are our guide, and we want you to help keep us honest in applying it, and act in accordance with the approach yourself.

7. Continuous Learning

We believe that speed of advance in science and technology, the uncertainty in geopolitics and economics, demand continuous learning. Advances in AI are likely to render many skillsets obsolete. We seek to continuously upskill and learn – and as the company grows, we will make this a deliberate practice, ensuring you learn and grow as we learn and grow.