Content

⚠️ Notes

• Will share very specific, tactical ideas today. You can start using them right away on Monday
• However, not all of them will suit your exact situation → think first principles, and be creative!
• Feel free to share everything you hear in this session!

<aside> 💡 BLUFF from Stripe: never underestimate the compounding power of small changes. Twitter 🧵 with more details here.

</aside>

Habit 1️⃣: Summarize the outcomes of every single meeting

• At the end of a meeting, recap the decisions made, action items, and owners (until AI does this for us 😂)

  • So damn obvious, yet from Shreyas’ 5 YOE at Stripe, he saw this happening for ~50% of meetings

  • Why isn’t this a habit? Many meetings end with people still discussing some topic but have run out of time, or people have to go to their next meeting

  • When passionate discussion is happening, we become afraid to jump in and call out decisions, action items, and owners

  • How do we start building a habit?

    • Takes more than action

    • The biggest blocker to action is fear/resistance

    • Recognize and be aware of the fear that exists

    • To close the loop, we also need to get rewarded for it

      • Personal rewards
        • Shreyas’: bubble tea, watching YouTube, Twitter
      • Social rewards
        • Ideas: ask a colleague via a quick note on Slack immediately after, ask your manager at your next 1-1, react in Slack

      <aside> 💡 Figure out your primary motivator.

      </aside>

  • How do we overcome fear/resistance in group settings?

    1. Find the right words

       • If you’re leading the meeting:

         It looks like we have only a minute left. Instead of continuing this discussion, which will likely take a lot more than 1 minute, let’s recap the decisions we’ve already made and the action items…

       • If you’re participating in the meeting:

         Just before we end and go to our next meeting, may I perhaps suggest that we recap the decisions made and the action items? I want to ensure that our time together is well spent and we’re all clear on who’s doing what and by when moving forward

    2. Practice beforehand
    3. Do it a few times to gain confidence

Habit 2️⃣: Morning routine to prepare for meetings

• Set aside 15 minutes every morning to clarify what I want to achieve from each upcoming meeting in my calendar

  What outcome do I want?

  What obstacles might I encounter?

  How might I overcome them?

Meta-framework: 4 types of cross-team collaboration dynamics

• Inter-team conflict arises when:
  • There is low alignment between goals & incentives between teams, or
  • There is interpersonal conflict between leaders or key players between teams (compatibility of personal values and working styles)
• Low-low: frustrated
  • The worst-case scenario
• High-high: integrated
  • The best-case scenario
• High-low: pragmatic
  • Most important and trickiest
  • Conflict arises due to how work gets done and who gets credit
  • Focus on clarity of expectations and emphasize evidence-based decisions
  • Always communicate progress jointly
• Low-high: empathetic
  • Show early progress to management to create greater goals alignment, to influence them to support on better aligning goals moving forward
  • Avoid giving in for relationship reasons when it might compromise broader company outcomes

<aside> 🎯 First, understand the collaborative situation you’re in.

</aside>

Habit 3️⃣: Shreyas’ overall morning routine

• Not checking email in the morning is well-intentioned advice but not pragmatic
• Create critical alert email filters (auto-starred)
  • From specific people
  • Mentions your product(s)