Even as we’re setting up something ambitious, we can often spot the things lurking in the shadows that are going to get in the way.

It’s hard to push decision-making to the edges if we’re not sure how the edges are making decisions.

There is no narrative arc more dystopian than insecure people with power and limited accountability.

No one wants to work in an org that’s hopeless or doomed.

“How do I set goals without a strategy?” Or “How do I get my team working on the right things, when no one has told me what the right things are?”

So much of being an effective operator is noticing problems early, because groups react differently to problems early on.

And pretending it’s a title or a pay bump without a new set of responsibilities is a disservice to everyone.

A great performance review is not an evaluation conversation, it’s an alignment conversation.

If we want to understand the nagging sense, the underlying frustration, the thing that’s screaming in blinky red lights. We’re gonna have to say it out loud.

When we talk with bosses about their work today, we don’t hear about commutes. We don’t hear about summer hours, or four-day-work-weeks, either.

The opportunity in July (or whenever your mid-year review period lands) is to go back to the whole point of the exercise.

How do you know? How is it that you can listen to someone talk about work and consistently know what’s going to happen next?