Tired of endless talk? Here’s how entrepreneurs can solve problems effectively: act, simplify, take charge — and yes, make your bed first.
The original design of a parliament was simple: Few people would debate and discuss (the representatives), and many people would work (the ordinary people).
That was in the 19th century.
Welcome to the 21st century, where most ordinary people rather spend their time debating and discussing, rather than working.
That ain’t gonna work if you are an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are the resource, they don’t have resources.
Here is what you will have to do.
1. Start by Making Your Bed
As Admiral William H. McRaven said in his 2014 Commencement Address at the University of Texas, start your day by making your bed. Even if you are having a bad day, at least you have completed one task, and you will return to a made bed in the evening.
After making your bed, move on to the next task. And then the next, and the next. And by the end of the day, you will have accomplished a good bit of progress.
If you spend your day debating and discussing, you will not see any progress at the end of the day, and you will return to an unmade bed.
2. Slice the Monster
Instead of going for the all-encompassing “monster solution”, go step-by-step. Some people call such an approach agile, modular, phased, or whatever.
It doesn’t matter. It only matters that you really take that first step and don’t just talk about going step-by-step.
3. Take Charge
Precious little gets done when everyone is in charge. That’s especially true in situations of risk and uncertainty that characterize entrepreneurship and innovation.
Such situations need a single person taking charge — you. Do things, even if they are dangerous and if they hurt. Do things, even if they prove erroneous and you will have to do them again.
Of course, it’s a fine line between consulting with others and commanding. But when discussions circle back and forth whilst people are being eaten alive, step in, end the consulting and start commanding.
4. Involve Fewer People
Legend has it that when your company grows, your team needs more resources. Whilst that is certainly true in functions like customer success or customer support, let me share a secret with you:
Sometimes, it helps to have fewer people on your team.
At 30 people, you don’t need a full-time QM or CISO. You don’t need six people on your executive team. And you certainly don’t need a finance guy who prepares tons of Excel sheets, the CEO can do finance himself.
Parkinson’s Law at its finest. You need fewer chiefs, but more Indians. When things go badly, don’t hire an additional manager. It’s better to fire a manager, not replace him, and organize the work more efficiently. By the way, that’s not just theoretical talk, I’ve done this before at Yonder.
5. Fewer Emails, More Talking
Now it gets even harder. Productivity guys swear by working asynchronously, which is often just an excuse for sending too many emails and Slack messages.
I’m afraid there is no way around talking to each other — be it in person, or over tools like Slack’s huddle feature.
And that’s why you need leaders. One of their primary tasks is to make sure people talk to each other rather than write to each other. What sounds simple is a never-ending marathon.
Paradox, right? You want to end the endless talk in favor of getting things done and problems solved, but it doesn’t work if you don’t talk to each other at all.
6. Accept to Do Things Twice
This one is the most important lesson. Doers do, talkers talk. But when doers do, doers make mistakes. But doers draw learnings from their first step, which they can take into account for the second step.
Quite often, this means doing things twice. Whilst this might sound counter-productive, it is much more productive than contemplating the perfect solution forever: Because there ain’t no perfect solutions, but there are tons of good solutions that can be implemented fast and improved later.
So why don’t you get out of bed, make your bed, and start getting things done?
