Page 179 - 6 Secrets to Startup Success

158 6 SECRETS TO STARTUP SUCCESS

Robert Putnam, consultant Ken Macher developed expertise and
tools for helping business teams dramatically improve discussions
and decisions, and he brought the full force of these ideas to D1’s
early growth process. Conversations became a unit of focus for D1’s
leadership team and a powerful point of leverage for increasing ca-
pacity throughout the venture. “I began to realize that the quality of
conversations is not only indicative of the culture,” he says, “it creates
culture, and it determines the quality of decision-making, planning,
everything.”

In Appendix B, I have included a list of helpful resources and tools
for improving the quality of conversations that will drive the success
of your venture. Here are a few principles and guidelines to keep in
mind:

9 Frame conversations as a pathway to team intelligence. Some
startup founders are hesitant to spend time building inter-
personal clarity and chemistry, because they fear it will be
seen as a touchy-feely exercise more suited for an episode of
NBC’s The Office than a startup environment. Counteract this
concern by positioning high-quality conversations as a non-
negotiable business imperative, a way to elevate your team’s
collective IQ and performance. Most of your competitors’
half-hearted efforts at teamwork will result in a net loss of
capacity; their whole will be less valuable than the sum of
individual parts. Tight teamwork will give you a competitive
advantage and a more reliable path to value creation.

9 Use targeted involvement. One of the skills in creating pro-
ductive conversations is knowing who to involve, when to in-
volve them, and why. Be careful to include people who bring
key expertise to a decision or who will play a major role in
implementing it, but don’t make the mistake of involving
everyone in everything. I’ve known a few founders whose
teams became unnecessarily bogged down in unending con-
sensus-oriented deliberations. These not only were a bad use
of most people’s time but also led to cynicism about the value
of team meetings. Skillful leaders strike a balanced approach

American Management Association • www.amanet.org