Forrest Gump on Making Difficult Decisions and Achieving Alignment
I wrote this blog post many moons ago. Recently, I asked ChatGPT to rewrite it in Forrest Gump's voice. So, here it goes:
A Good Day, Ideal World Scenario
Well, you see, in our team, everybody's got a part to play in this mission, and it's a big opportunity for all of us. We all know who we're building for and what problems we're trying to solve. And when we come across a real head-scratcher, we all put our heads together to figure out the best way forward. We think about how it'll affect the business, how hard it'll be to make it happen, and most importantly, how it'll make our customers feel.
But, in real world, things ain't always so easy-breezy. So don't you worry, I got some advice for ya.
When there's a problem, the first step is to admit it's there and show that you're serious about fixing it. That's the hardest part, 'cause it takes a lot of trust, courage, and being a real leader.
An Example: Well, you see, XYZ Inc. went and bought this ad tech company with 15 folks, but after six months things started changing around. Maybe it was because they didn't do the homework or because they changed their minds about what they wanted to do. But either way, now they're stuck with a company that doesn't make sense anymore. So what's the plan for their ad tech business, their customers, the product, and the people involved? That's what everybody's wondering for weeks now. But good news is, the CTO is stepping in to figure it all out.
Address Information Asymmetry: Well, you see, if we wanna get everyone on the same page, we gotta make sure we're all lookin' at the same information. That means askin' the right questions and makin' sure we got all the data, emotions, and people concerns on the table to really understand the situation.
Example continues: The CTO is now gathering and sharing a whole bunch of information to figure out what's what. He wanna know about how much we could sell in the near future, business deals pipeline, and what our customers and sales team are saying. He is also checking out the skills and experience of folks who joined our team and what they're good at. And of course, they're talking to everyone to see how and what they're feeling about the whole thing. But most importantly, he wanna know if there's any going back once we make a decision. Are we shutting any doors that we might need to open later on?
Align on Principles upfront: Through common understanding of goals.
"There are two principles to follow First off, We owe it to our people that they be tackling the problems that really matter for our company. Ain't nobody here just to do busy work. And secondly, we gotta make sure we're making the right choices for the long haul, both for the business and for all of us together as a team."
Create Safe Space for Discussion: Be an active listener. Communicate. Ensure everyone understands goals, motivations and challenges.
The CTO called in a meeting with all decision makers across product, engineering, sales and the founders from the acquired company. He was honest and transparent with the information, and the team discussed principles to align on. He wanted to make the decision in a credible way, that everyone can get behind and support even if some didn’t agree with the outcome. The team agreed on few things. The business was kinda slow, and it wasn't really standing out from the crowd. Sales outlook weren't looking too good either. Also the decision is not irreversible. If the company need to get back into this business later, it'll take them about 6 months. In the meantime, they figured out that they can take the technology that the engineering team made and use it for personalization efforts that'll be higher return for the company. The team made the dispassionate decision based on facts and what they knew was true. The decision was clear - exit the business, tell the customers, move the teams to higher priority efforts.
Don’t forget the Post Decision Follow-ups: Keep checking in on things, making sure everything's going okay. Have a backup plan in case something goes wrong. Just in case, you know?
The leads got together with all the folks who were affected by the changes and had a big meeting where they talked everything through. And then they did it again six weeks later, just to make sure everybody was on the same page. You know what though? Everybody was excited to be working on the tough problems and excited to be part of the company. It's like that old saying goes, 'All's well that ends well..