I think the first thing is to really give people the ability to express themselves in a way, and then allow—to really sort of understand what people are saying. So I try to get, you know, if you remember, one of Stephen Covey’s values, “You seek first to understand, rather than be understood.” So, take the time to understand and then really articulate.
And then, I think it’s an area that you have to keep evolving. Because as you go through different teams, and you go through different sort of leadership, and as the situation changes, you have to sort of go at different paces. So even as you think about business scaling, as different things are happening, there are areas that are so different and so complex. And really, it’s more like a black box, you have to manage like a black box, and there are certain things where you have very specific insight, and you can go deep into those areas. So it’s that combination that allows us to do that.
And the second thing, at least in our business, its data, right? And when there are deep arguments, one way to sort of look at it objectively is through data, and that allows a different kind of collaboration. In fact, right before our call today, I was at a meeting, and there were six or seven executives and two, three folks, and we were discussing a specific topic. And we were all arriving in a different direction on the topic, which was to not approve whatever this person was proposing.
But from there, we went to a different insight that this person had brought to the table, which is actually very powerful, and can help evolve the business and everyone gravitated towards it. It’s a different form of collaboration. And then we have an action item, somebody is now researching it. So, to me, that’s very exciting, because we came thinking about this, well, that didn’t quite pan out, but the value came here. And our CFO sort of identified and said, “This seems to be the most important thing,” and then we jumped there, and I’m super excited about what’s going to happen there.
So, you’ve got to keep an open mind, you know, you go into something, it could be about this, and then you come out here, and it’s great, it can be value there. So obviously, collaboration is also just keeping that open mind and listening to what people say, and embracing their weirdness in the process.
