The Tech Industry – Which Game Are We Playing?

The Tech Industry – Which Game Are We Playing?

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 4 minutes

But in other areas of life, that’s not at all how the game works. War, business, education, etc. are not finite games. It’s not clear who all of the competitors are, the rules change and there’s no one “score” that everyone has agreed upon. Maybe most importantly, it doesn’t end at the allocated time, it goes on and on with some of the competitors giving up over time and dropping out of the game.

The problem Simon identifies is that when the game is infinite, but you play it as if it were finite, you end up in a quagmire.

A Business Lesson From Reading Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away

A Business Lesson From Reading Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 4 minutes

She uses these stories as a jumping-off point to talk about goals and failure. When the goal is to finish the marathon, anything other than that is a failure. Despite the change in circumstances, the risk of doing more damage to themselves, and the fact that no one would find fault in them for stopping, they went on with this myopic focus on hitting their goal.

It got me thinking about OKRs. You know, those quarterly, semi-annual, or annual goals we set for employees during performance reviews, and then measure them solely on whether they hit those goals or not. As if the world doesn’t change in the middle of the time period and forces us to react in a way that might not be part of our stated goals.

It also got me thinking about company-wide goals like market share, revenue, etc.

Linked – 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

Linked – 80% of bosses say they regret earlier return-to-office plans

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute

“The companies that are seeing the most success with returning to the office appear to be the ones that are making decisions with their employees, rather than for them. ”

Employees do not like being told what to do without any input. That’s no way to create an environment for them to do their best work or inspire trust in them.

Linked – Adam Grant’s 7 Commandments for Successful Hybrid Work

Linked – Adam Grant’s 7 Commandments for Successful Hybrid Work

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 1 minute

They focus on hybrid work, I think these commandments should be applied in every situation. I don’t care if you all work in the office full-time, remotely across the country full-time, or any combination in between.

Intention, communication, setting expectations, and living the example will go a long way with your team. There’s no reason to not follow these commandments for working as a team, regardless of location. This is a great outline for how to set the rules of engagement, provide the proper tools and solid communication, and continually measure the effectiveness of what you’re doing.

How does your team measure up to the experts?