This document discusses bridging the tension between "zero to one" dreamers and "one to end" doers in organizations. It suggests that dreamers thrive on problems and nonlinear solutions while doers ensure long-term success, and both are needed. Key ways to manage this include tying compensation to overall performance, building respect through communication and learning, creating a "corporate mosh pit" to involve doers early, and establishing processes with some flexibility through "speed bumps" rather than rigid rules. Celebrating both dreamers and doers together is also important for success.
This document discusses bridging the tension between "zero to one" dreamers and "one to end" doers in organizations. It suggests that dreamers thrive on problems and nonlinear solutions while doers ensure long-term success, and both are needed. Key ways to manage this include tying compensation to overall performance, building respect through communication and learning, creating a "corporate mosh pit" to involve doers early, and establishing processes with some flexibility through "speed bumps" rather than rigid rules. Celebrating both dreamers and doers together is also important for success.
This document discusses bridging the tension between "zero to one" dreamers and "one to end" doers in organizations. It suggests that dreamers thrive on problems and nonlinear solutions while doers ensure long-term success, and both are needed. Key ways to manage this include tying compensation to overall performance, building respect through communication and learning, creating a "corporate mosh pit" to involve doers early, and establishing processes with some flexibility through "speed bumps" rather than rigid rules. Celebrating both dreamers and doers together is also important for success.
individuals who are the yin to the others Yang you're either the person who Stacks the dishwasher with creative Reckless abandon or you're the one who correctly thinks of it as a very competitive game of Tetris and rather than what might be a series of expletives as you restack the plates it's the tetris St ER coming to some appreciation for the halfhazard where the tension breaks and that's a beautiful thing and you might even get a few extra clean plates out of it this scenario isn't just true in our personal relationships it's true in relationships across institutions and organizations of all types bridging this tension I believe that that is the key to organizations continuing to build grow and make new and different different things this is the story of two different kinds of people coming together 0 to1 humans and their onet to end counterparts 0o to1 humans they're dreamers I love this about them they're founders of companies creative inventors they thrive in the fogginess of problems looking for nonlinear Solutions and to their counterparts they often seem untethered to reality which is true and also how they find new opportunities it's why I think they're really good at what they do but it is a core tension with those around them one to end humans these are the doers they build companies and ensure their success over long periods of time they're the glue that keeps it together i've been a dreamer but i've also been a doer at varing points along my own career journey and in my day job I help organizations see and harness the value of both kinds of people to build new things how the zero to1 dreamers can be just spiky enough that the organization doesn't reject that entrepreneurial talent and how the onet to-end doers can support their move fast and break things counterparts being their guides to the ins and outs of the organization finding a way to bridge this tension that's the key to organizations being able to both keep on keeping on while building and capturing New Growth one of the easiest ways to bridge this tension it's to get byy in not with gestures or words but with cold Hard Cash I was talking to my friend Alex she and Jordana they're dreamers they co-founded Lola a feminine Health reproductive company company and when they launched as a direct to Consumer they just had a single product tampons and everything they did those first few years was focused on that developing a product packaging marketing pricing distribution building a site a community getting investors hiring an incredible team of startup talent and they did that all to build a product that was safer for women to put inside her body they got great traction they found those incredible investors also some endorsers influencers who all really liked them women really liked them somewhere along the way they realized that in order to have the level of impact that they wanted in the world they couldn't just be a single product after all direct to Consumer it's a channel not a business they had to figure out how to crack retail how to get that box of tampons onto the physical and virtual shelves at Amazon Walmart Target and despite having this incredible team of startup Talent they did not have Decades of lived retail sales experience they had to hire in those people the doers from outside and they definitely did not come from the startup world but they absolutely knew how to get that product into that retail store you can probably see where this is going so maybe to save you a little bit of anxiety it didn't blow up in their faces because Alex and Jordana well they're pretty smart they did all the things that you and I both know to manage that kind of change in tension building respect Learning and Development internal communication but the thing that made it all work right away between the dreamers and the doers money they tied the compensation in this case in the form of shares and stock options of that new retail sales team not just to their ability to put product in retail stores but to the full performance of the business DSC and Retail and vice versa and that made all the other things building relationships cross business line sharing internal Communications happen just at a much more rapid rate so make sure to get Buy in and use money I'm also a fan of a corporate Mosh Pit zero to1 humans the dreamers they tend to move a little bit more quickly than those around them and it's often implicit that they are there to break existing Norms processes and paths to previous success but I've seen organizations forget that on the other side of those Norms processes and paths are humans the doers they tweak existing products they probably train whole parts of your organizations in new service protocols building a corporate Mosh Pit well it requires acknowledging those who are explicitly not like you be they doers or dreamers each has vast knowledge and deep expertise as well as a commitment to the organization's success just from a different starting point I love how Marriott has done this Marriott has a zero to one dreamer team and they think about not just what's next but what's 5 to 10 years ahead and as they're coming up with these experiences they build them in physical prototypes to tweak what works figure out what definitely doesn't work understand how much of course it's going to cost how roles might change and as a result what training they might need and as they're building these prototypes before they are finished but explicitly before they are final I've seen them invite in the doers for Marriott that's franchisees and Frontline staff who come in to poke and prod and put their mark on changes that will ultimately have a not small impact on their role in the business if you're a zero to1 team of dreamers I want you to go first to your doers and invite them in to your work raid their brains and hook their hearts to what you're doing shift it from a happening to me to a happening with me build your own corporate Mosh Pit it's not the only building you should do though I think you might want to make a few speed bumps along the way and here's why your 0o to1 dreamers well I hate to tell you but I think they probably missed the memo about your corporate processes because honestly it never occurred to them that there are corporate processes they should be concerned with and to their doer counterparts at best this seems disrespectful and at worst like they are intentionally dodging the rules how each group does the work probably makes the other quite uncomfortable that's not how we do things here that's definitely not how you get to Market first on one side the process is foggy and on the other too rigid or prescriptive building speed bumps well that makes explicit A Cadence or process to an individual or a team and I believe that that creates better alignment among the humans around you but one caution if you build speed bumps one after another and you're really in a rush to get to your destination well you're definitely not going to get there on time zero to1 humans it's not that they don't want to abide by your corporate protocols it's that they literally and I've seen this firsthand they literally cannot do the job you've tasked them with building something net new if they slow down for each and every speed bump along the way I'll never forget how one team tasked with new innovation and growth at a very large consumer Products company was also asked to meet with her Innovation board on a monthly Cadence now if you're a doer that probably doesn't seem like a big deal but here's how it played out in practice during the first week they made the deck the second week they took that deck they shopped it around walked the Halls aligned their stakeholders the third week that was the meeting then they had to take the feedback incorporate it in and change their plans which left just one week one week a month to do the work work so build speed bumps just don't build too many and one more thing it's so easy to celebrate what seems new and shiny in an organization and trust me your zero to one teams when they're successful it will seem shinier and newer worthy of confetti maybe a little champagne but I like to step back and remember that all wins dreamer wins and doers but most certainly the wins that are the results of both teams coming together those absolutely deserve confetti and it doesn't take your boss to make a party you are there stand up celebrate acknowledge the humans around you be they doers or dreamers for the work that they did to meet you in the middle to stack that dishwasher with a little bit more joy so get out your pom poms because everyone needs a cheerleader thank [Applause] you.
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