Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity

by Frank Slootman

Instead of telling people what I think of a proposal, a product, a feature, whatever, I ask them instead what they think. Were they thrilled with it? Absolutely love it? Most of the time I would hear, “It's okay,” or “It's not bad.” They would surmise from my facial expression that this wasn't the answer I was looking for. Come back when you are bursting with excitement about whatever you are proposing to the rest

Now let's look at the three criteria for a great mission: big, clear, and not about money.

People always monitor the variance between what you say and what you do—and especially how you treat the staff. They will detect the slightest patterns of misrepresentation, which, over time, convert to discounts on promises. This is why politicians have such low currency—most of what they say is disconnected from reality. They live in a world of appearances and impressions, where every promise can be delayed or fudged until after the next election.

But business, I've found, has the opposite cultural tendency. We tend to be “solution centric”—we spend most of our time discussing solutions rather than diagnosing problems. We race to conclusions about what's wrong and what to do about it. We pattern match, reacting to situations based on our individual experience rather than studying the specific situation in front of us from a broader perspective.

My preferred tactic is to start with so‐called first principles. Break problems down into their most basic elements. Ignore what you think you already know, and imagine you are facing this kind of situation for the first time in your life. The more you have seen, the harder this tactic gets, but it's worth the effort.