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This entire article should have stopped after this quote: "Consensus means no ownership. What’s important is not that everyone agrees, but that everyone is hear

This entire article should have stopped after this quote: "Consensus means no ownership. What’s important is not that everyone agrees, but that everyone is heard and then the right person makes a decision." The rest just reads like typical, big company bullshit non-content. But the first few paragraphs? I agree with that a whole lot. After being in many, many, many meetings where multiple people "own" something and it's almost impossible to get anything done. But one owner? Even if you don't entirely agree with the direction it's at least crystal clear.

windowsworkstoo 11y ago
Yep, well said. Decisions in 10 minutes or the next one is free. 50/50 calls decide by a coin flip, otherwise the right call is always obvious
- marcusgarvey 11y ago
  This reminds me of what I've heard about MasterCard. Their CEO wanted to empower any employee to come up with good ideas. So, if an employees sends an idea to their manager and the manager doesn't respond, the employee has the right to do it. But it sounds like the recipe for a shitshow, so I'd love to know if this is really the case.
  - dawnbreez 11y ago
    I would argue that the employees are in a better position to make the decisions than the CEO is. They have all the info right there; the CEO has either no informatipn, late infotmation, or inaccurate information.
  - EliRivers 11y ago
    This is similar to one of the most effective techniques I have for decision making. I send an eMail to the people or person who holds the responsibility, stating "I'm going to carry out this action tomorrow; <describe decision I've made and action I'm taking>. This is your chance to stop me." It is fantastically effective.
    - Terr_ 11y ago
      "My assumption about the big vague spec document is that you currently are asking for {X} and that your end goal is {Y}, therefore I'm planning to do {Z}."

windowsworkstoo 11y ago

Yep, well said. Decisions in 10 minutes or the next one is free. 50/50 calls decide by a coin flip, otherwise the right call is always obvious

marcusgarvey 11y ago
This reminds me of what I've heard about MasterCard. Their CEO wanted to empower any employee to come up with good ideas. So, if an employees sends an idea to their manager and the manager doesn't respond, the employee has the right to do it. But it sounds like the recipe for a shitshow, so I'd love to know if this is really the case.
- dawnbreez 11y ago
  I would argue that the employees are in a better position to make the decisions than the CEO is. They have all the info right there; the CEO has either no informatipn, late infotmation, or inaccurate information.
- EliRivers 11y ago
  This is similar to one of the most effective techniques I have for decision making. I send an eMail to the people or person who holds the responsibility, stating "I'm going to carry out this action tomorrow; <describe decision I've made and action I'm taking>. This is your chance to stop me." It is fantastically effective.
  - Terr_ 11y ago
    "My assumption about the big vague spec document is that you currently are asking for {X} and that your end goal is {Y}, therefore I'm planning to do {Z}."