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“Level Two thinking is about creating an environment and empowering people such that they do produce great outcomes without you having to tell them. If they can

“Level Two thinking is about creating an environment and empowering people such that they do produce great outcomes without you having to tell them. If they can get into a mental model of what’s good for the company, and if they can be motivated and feel empowered, then they start doing great things. You don’t have to direct them. ” “If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.“ - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

MichaelMoser123 8y ago
but what happens if number #1 doesn't like the ship they built?
- rorykoehler 8y ago
  Then they hired the wrong people.
  - MichaelMoser123 8y ago
    Or there might have been a failure to negotiate requirements and priorities, or that different parties were pushing in different directions. Many choices exist. The endless sea may not appear to be the same to everyone.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - rorykoehler 8y ago
      For the first part of your comment to make sense you have to assume there is a right answer and a correct solution both which don't make sense in the real world as you eluded to.
  - atoav 8y ago
    A good Casting is as important as a good script. Sometimes it is more important
- fsloth 8y ago
  Then they iterate? Nowhere does this say that the CEO stays out of the way. CEO can act as the editor, co-designer, arbiter, curator and whatever. Like you hear how Steve Jobs operated. Mode two thinking does not mean you can't be critical. In fact, critique is critical for the best end result. It means you must understand how to skillfully switch between type 1 goal oriented and type 2 creative mode. That's the trick - you need BOTH. And utilizing mode 1 so that it does not kill mode 2 is really hard. You have to be compassionate, emphatic and work from the common understanding that everyone is striving towards the same goal. It's "Build this my grandest design to me now!" vs. "Ok, hotshot, show me what you can build and we can tweak that into the ultimate ship".
  - MichaelMoser123 8y ago
    Thanks, there must be several styles of switching between the modes/management styles that determine how one is interacting with his colleagues. What are your thoughts here?
    - fsloth 8y ago
      Mm, I'm really not an expert and don't have anything constructive to add except to simplify what I said: IMO the key thing is that the work is done in open mode, and the results are observed critically. This means that the constraints, implicit or explicit, should be as unlimiting as possible, because all constraints will limit the space of solutions that people can think of. This includes such limits as performance metrics and various financial incentives. Which means if you want creative output, you should generally fund peoples and projects, and not milestones. And then when they deliver something, gauge that critically, and if the thing they make sells well, give them a bonus so they will feel fairly treated. But don't incentivize the innovation process itself and don't hold the bonus up as a promised gift they will wait for. This is of course completely different way than you would incentivize sales people or people doing linear repetitive tasks where performance based incentives are shown to work pretty well. Dan Pink's TED lecture is pretty good. https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?language=en#t-906824 https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?language=en...
- olau 8y ago
  I find it funny that the others here assume the problem is with the builders and not with #1. Good leadership requires that you come to terms with shortcomings, both your own and those of other people.
  - matwood 8y ago
    More generally, most people always think it's someone else's fault. It's hard for people to look critically at themselves, but only once you learn that skill can really start to improve.
    - camerony 8y ago
      This is incredibly true. At Torch we are constantly building feedback loops into leadership process. It works because even hard feedback comes with genuine respect and care for the other person. Without care, it's like two Vulcan's giving each other feedback, and that starts to look more like criticism...which in fact is one of the most toxic qualities in a company culture.
- 3pt14159 8y ago
  Out of the big five personality traits agreeableness is the the one most corollated with being a CEO. Negatively correlated, that is. There is a reason for this. Most people have really low standards. Most people are lazy. Inspiring them to build the ship fixes the second problem. Telling them that the ship's sails are junk and they should design better ones fixes the first.
- matwood 8y ago
  The CEO still manages and communicates the vision on a regular basis. Autonomy is a sliding scale.
berlinstartup 8y ago
Great quote, but did Saint-Exupery know anything of actual ship-building?

MichaelMoser123 8y ago

but what happens if number #1 doesn't like the ship they built?

rorykoehler 8y ago
Then they hired the wrong people.
- MichaelMoser123 8y ago
  Or there might have been a failure to negotiate requirements and priorities, or that different parties were pushing in different directions. Many choices exist. The endless sea may not appear to be the same to everyone.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - rorykoehler 8y ago
    For the first part of your comment to make sense you have to assume there is a right answer and a correct solution both which don't make sense in the real world as you eluded to.
- atoav 8y ago
  A good Casting is as important as a good script. Sometimes it is more important
fsloth 8y ago
Then they iterate? Nowhere does this say that the CEO stays out of the way. CEO can act as the editor, co-designer, arbiter, curator and whatever. Like you hear how Steve Jobs operated. Mode two thinking does not mean you can't be critical. In fact, critique is critical for the best end result. It means you must understand how to skillfully switch between type 1 goal oriented and type 2 creative mode. That's the trick - you need BOTH. And utilizing mode 1 so that it does not kill mode 2 is really hard. You have to be compassionate, emphatic and work from the common understanding that everyone is striving towards the same goal. It's "Build this my grandest design to me now!" vs. "Ok, hotshot, show me what you can build and we can tweak that into the ultimate ship".
- MichaelMoser123 8y ago
  Thanks, there must be several styles of switching between the modes/management styles that determine how one is interacting with his colleagues. What are your thoughts here?
  - fsloth 8y ago
    Mm, I'm really not an expert and don't have anything constructive to add except to simplify what I said: IMO the key thing is that the work is done in open mode, and the results are observed critically. This means that the constraints, implicit or explicit, should be as unlimiting as possible, because all constraints will limit the space of solutions that people can think of. This includes such limits as performance metrics and various financial incentives. Which means if you want creative output, you should generally fund peoples and projects, and not milestones. And then when they deliver something, gauge that critically, and if the thing they make sells well, give them a bonus so they will feel fairly treated. But don't incentivize the innovation process itself and don't hold the bonus up as a promised gift they will wait for. This is of course completely different way than you would incentivize sales people or people doing linear repetitive tasks where performance based incentives are shown to work pretty well. Dan Pink's TED lecture is pretty good. https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?language=en#t-906824 https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation?language=en...
olau 8y ago
I find it funny that the others here assume the problem is with the builders and not with #1. Good leadership requires that you come to terms with shortcomings, both your own and those of other people.
- matwood 8y ago
  More generally, most people always think it's someone else's fault. It's hard for people to look critically at themselves, but only once you learn that skill can really start to improve.
  - camerony 8y ago
    This is incredibly true. At Torch we are constantly building feedback loops into leadership process. It works because even hard feedback comes with genuine respect and care for the other person. Without care, it's like two Vulcan's giving each other feedback, and that starts to look more like criticism...which in fact is one of the most toxic qualities in a company culture.
3pt14159 8y ago
Out of the big five personality traits agreeableness is the the one most corollated with being a CEO. Negatively correlated, that is. There is a reason for this. Most people have really low standards. Most people are lazy. Inspiring them to build the ship fixes the second problem. Telling them that the ship's sails are junk and they should design better ones fixes the first.
matwood 8y ago
The CEO still manages and communicates the vision on a regular basis. Autonomy is a sliding scale.

berlinstartup 8y ago

Great quote, but did Saint-Exupery know anything of actual ship-building?