But contrary to tech lore, data isn’t black and white. It can be massaged and manipulated to support or contradict opposite sides of the same argument.
Take self-driving cars. Google claims the data proves them safer than human drivers.
But is that what the data really shows or is it being stage-managed?
“You can’t just extrapolate Google cars driving ~1.5 million miles under specific conditions (weather, topology, construction, traffic, accidents around it, etc.) to usurping the ~3 trillion miles/year under all conditions in the US. 1.09 fatalities per 100 million miles is the current non-self-driving numbers.
2014 had ~30k fatal crashes out of the 3 trillion miles traveled. We have to understand not how those crashes happened, but what makes the vast majority of them not happen. Luck is not a contributor, expertise is. Understanding human expertise is the key, not human frailty.”
Tech claims that security isn’t that big a problem and certainly not one that requires statutory approaches or regulation.
Two years ago Eddie Schwartz, vice president of global security solutions for Verizon’s enterprise subsidiary, said that self-driving cars will prove an irresistible target for hackers if they ever hit the roads.
Change if to when. Of course they’re irresistible; hacking and controlling a real car on a real road, with the potential of doing real damage, would be catnip to a large number of naïve kids (to prove they can), not to mention angry adults (getting even) and terrorists (creating chaos).
The cars aren’t yet able to handle bad weather, including standing water, drizzling rain, sudden downpours and snow, let alone police instructions (…) “I am decidedly less optimistic about what I perceive to be a rush to field systems that are absolutely not ready for widespread deployment, and certainly not ready for humans to be completely taken out of the driver’s seat.”
And now being added to the thrills and threats of hackable cars comes Otto — an affordable $30K (cheap when you consider the cost of a new rig) retrofit to make big rigs self driving.
After every seven years of service, employees become eligible for a six-to-eight week paid sabbatical, which they can use to spend time with their families, travel, and accomplish longstanding personal goals — no strings attached.
Aarstol believes that a shortened workday could motivate employees to work more efficiently. And he is proving to be right through his own company, Tower Paddle Boards, which continues to expand, even after a year of rolling out the five-hour workday. Last year, it was named the fastest-growing private company in San Diego. Aarstol even published a book titled “The Five Hour Workday” this month.
REI, for example, gives its employees two paid days off a year, called “Yay Days,” to enjoy their favorite outside activity. The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) takes every other Friday off, coining those “Panda Fridays.” We also give our employees every other Friday off — and we pay them for it. We call it the “18-Day Work Month,” and we truly believe it’s the key to a more productive workforce.
Gusto, a startup with 300 employees in San Francisco and Denver, just became the first midsize company in the US to cover fertility treatments in a way that will help single women and same-sex couples, according to Cigna.
However, some of the best perks cost the company nothing.
SEI made Forbes’ 2016 Best Small Companies list earlier this year, in part because of its unusual employee goal-setting policy. Twice a year managers meet with reports who lay out goals, including compensation, and SEI pledges to support employees’ wishes.
The main point: this is not a high-profile kind of job at Facebook, not a developer building a feature that will be used by millions, nor an engineer working on some of Facebook’s moonshot projects like its solar-powered drone or Internet.org.
“At Facebook we believe that ‘Nothing at Facebook is somebody else’s problem’ — it’s yours,” she writes. “I’m tasked with finding creative, innovative and realistic solutions for my clients, even if it has never been done before.”
In other words, she feels a sense of empowerment.
In fact, academic research shows that there’s a strong correlation between job satisfaction and employee empowerment. People who are given the freedom to solve problems in their own creative ways simply like their jobs and their companies better.
In fact, it’s the willingness of management to help their people function at their highest level, grow and succeed, i.e., a manager who cares, that is worth more than most tangible perks.
It’s amazing to me, but looking back on more than a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written. Golden Oldies is a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time.
For decades, ‘culture’ didn’t get much respect. Many managers considered it ephemeral; smoke and mirrors served up by consultants focused more on their bottom line than their client’s. Today, the critical importance of company culture is a generally accepted management subject. However, creating a great culture isn’t enough; it needs a solid infrastructure to sustain it and keep it flexible as the company grows. That said, the most important action any boss takes is found in the final sentence of this post. Read other Golden Oldies here.
When you build an edifice that you want to withstand the stresses of everyday living as well as crisis and catastrophe it’s important to include structural supports in the design.
The same is true for corporate culture and I call them “infrastructure building blocks” or IBBs.
There are three categories of IBBs—philosophy, attitude/style, and policy. There are many things that can be included, but here is a list of the most basic ones, some are fairly self-explanatory, others include commentary and links where possible.
The policy category is the concrete expression of the Philosophy and Attitude/Style IBBs. Just as the Preamble to the Constitution delineates the doctrines underlying it, each Policy IBB supports one or more of the IBBs described above.
Policy IBBs should be reasonably broad—macro rather than micro—since they support a flexible process, not ossified bureaucracy. They are your most potent infrastructure—the most tangible and, therefore, the hardest to corrupt or ignore, but also the most dangerous, because they can turn into bureaucracy in the blink of an eye if you’re not careful.
Management by Box: actually a way to set your people free
Dual Ladder Career Path: a series of hands-on positions that equate straight across the board with management positions.
Hiring process: transparent and painless and easy to use for both candidates and hiring managers.
Stock bonus plan (or similar)
Sales incentives
Reviews: Done correctly, they encourage personal growth, make negative behavior much harder to conceal and can even act as a screening tool during interviews.
Surveys: useful for discovering problems, attitudes, product directions, company standing, etc. as perceived by employees and selected outsiders.
One caveat when implementing these and other approaches: lead by example; both managers and workers will do as you do, not as you say.
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
I constantly field question from founders about delegating, which actually means ‘how do I let go’?
But before tackling that question, there is a more fundamental question that you need to think through first.
There is no right answer to the question, because the answer rests on a psychological difference between entrepreneurs that has nothing to do with investment, revenue or even number of employees.
It’s the ability to trust others and not believing that you know best.
It’s the difference between making yourself central to every action and decision within the company or taking time to hire well, delegate and then get out of the way, so people can do their jobs.
It’s the difference between being self-employed — even if you have 80 employees and $50 M revenue — and creating a self-sustaining entity that will keep going without you.
Simply put, it’s the difference between holding on and letting go.
The way you choose is by being ruthlessly honest with yourself about how best you function; not how other people think you should function.
And if you don’t like your choice then change it by changing your MAP.
In my personal experience, this “why” is so important because it helps you rally people behind your mission. It gives you purpose and meaning. It helps you make the right decisions. And when things get hard, as they inevitably will as an entrepreneur, the “why” keeps you going – especially in those moments when you want to give up.
Of course, many of the things that are good for us are uncomfortable.
‘Why’ not only provides purpose and meaning, it also spurs innovation, solutions and closure.
So, the next time you are faced with a need for motivation/inspiration or a problem/challenge/angst/confusion find your way past by first identifying the ‘why’.
It’s amazing to me, but looking back over a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written. Golden Oldies is a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time.
I always find it interesting when people who show a lack of respect for others complain about being treated the same way. And to truly understand this post be sure to click the Carl Sagan link at the end. Read other Golden Oldies here.
One of the most common complaints I hear about from workers, both new and those who have been around for a while, is the lack of respect from colleagues, subordinates and bosses.
One of the most common complaints I hear from bosses, and not just new ones, is about the lack of respect from colleagues, bosses and staff.
The common theme that runs through most of these conversations is that “they” should respect me (for being me), but “they” need to earn my respect.
At first glance this looks like one of those chicken/egg questions, but it’s not.
While I’m the first to say that people need to earn respect, I’d rather frame this discussion as one of initiative (or leadership, if you prefer).
Since most people tend to mirror those around them if you take initiative and show respect you will be shown respect in return.
If you show disrespect you should expect to receive the same.
If you show neither until you see what the other person does expect neither, which usually feels like disrespect.
And in case you’re assuming a Golden Rule mentality don’t; what I’m recommending is the application of Carl Sagan’s Tit-for-Tat Rule.
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read allIf the Shoe Fits posts here
I saw a new Snickers’ commercial and thought how relevant it was to the startup world — founders, employees and candidates.
In case you haven’t seen it, here it is.
Dimpatient.
Great word. No question what it means and so apropos to the situation.
Most bosses have interviewed a fair number of dimpatient candidates in the course of their careers.
Of course, candidates have been interviewed by a goodly number of dimpatient founders, managers and team members.
And that’s not counting how many founders have presented to dimpatient investors and been forced to interact with dimpatient advisors.
Or, worse yet, because they have no one to blame but the selves, hired dimpatient contractors.
Dimpatience is already rampant throughout the tech world and spreading rapidly to other fields.
Too bad Snickers®adv can’t actually curtail the epidemic.
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And if you’re looking for inspiration, information, guidance or solutions click over and browse the August Leadership Development Carnival. You can’t go wrong.
Age, however, is the biggest stupid and has been for decades.
For Boomers, the breakpoint for when a person became hopeless and valueless was 30; Millennials raised it to 40.
As bad as age discrimination has been in general, it is far worse in tech.
VC Vinod Khosla crystallized and popularized this mindset back in 2011.
“People under 35 are the people who make change happen. People over 45 basically die in terms of new ideas.”
That means you can expect no more creativity from Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Marc Benioff, Parker Harris and Satya Nadella. (For insight to other fields read the article.)
Not to mention that 32 year-old Mark Zukkerberg only has a few good years left.
There are thousands more at all levels, I just picked recognizable people to better illustrate the stupidity.
The difference between when the Boomers did it and now is the notice and action being taken.
This past week, the EEOC joined a probe behind a federal class action lawsuit against Google filed last month, charging that the search giant “engaged in a systematic pattern” of discrimination against applicants over the age of 40. The suit, expanding upon a related case filed earlier this year, cited data from Payscale that placed the median age of Google’s workforce at 29, with a margin of error of 4%. By contrast, the median age for U.S. computer programmers is 43.
Actually, I will probably find it somewhat amusing to watch founders as they try to meet candidate demand for the compensation and perks of the past few years in today’s do-more-with-less/revenue-based-business-model world.
That also goes for many, not all, by a long shot, tech workers who are looking for those same jobs and perks.
So heed the advice I recently gave a founder who took advantage of my standing offer of free help (both my phone number and email are posted on this blog).
He asked how to land a “star” candidate looking for “yesterday’s” compensation and refused to consider anything less.
My advice was to take a pass, refer him to Facebook or Google hire a reality-based programmer who can do the needed job and was sincerely interested in his product and vision.
The only thing he might lose were a few late night bragging rights.
In short, grow up, get smart and hire talent — no matter its age or color or gender.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
When you build an edifice that you want to withstand the stresses of everyday living as well as crisis and catastrophe it’s important to include structural supports in the design.
I constantly field question from founders about delegating, which actually means ‘how do I let go’?
One of the most common complaints I hear about from workers, both new and those who have been around for a while, is the lack of respect from colleagues, subordinates and bosses.
