MindSpring
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2017–2019
9:41 · 2.7M views · Oct 8, 2013
An animated adaptation of Captain David Marquet's talk on greatness, based on his book Turn the Ship Around!. It argues for pushing decision-making down to the people doing the work instead of controlling everything from the top.
HN commenters cite it as a compact illustration of empowered, decentralized leadership, for founders and for managers who try to control everything.
3 comments from Hacker News
How big is the company? You're right to identify this as a hard problem. I've been in your exact shoes before. 100+ person company, the weight is heavy. The good news is that it's totally possible to get out without wrecking the company's outlook. But it does take a minor amount of time investment. Perhaps it's possible to view it as a new challenge: how to quickly hire or find someone within your org who is capable of taking over your day-to-day responsibilities? Who do people ask for decisions / advice when you're out sick? Frame it as a promotion for them. Give them a (small) comp bump and a new set of responsibilities that include most (or all) of your existing responsibilities. Coach them for a quarter, give them enough rope to hang themselves with, give them radically candid feedback, and then you can step away. (Or even go do something else interesting at the company!) I can go into a lot more detail if you'd like -- please email me. The username in my profile (not my HN handle) at gmail. Good luck, positive vibes! P.S. Watch this: this video as a jumpstart to getting your org ready for life without you
> managers aren't able to keep up and so might find themselves in a position where when they first started managing they were an expert.... Reminds me of this. The value is in the audio but the animation is entertaining. this video
I entirely agree with you. This is the same idea in the Greatness video by David Marquet ( this video ) Try to control everything is just futile. I think hiring and retaining best people is the best countermeasure to this sort of things.