MindSpring Presents: "Greatness" by David Marquet
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters cite it as a compact illustration of empowered, decentralized leadership, for founders and for managers who try to control everything.
What it is
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.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2017 to 2019.
What Hacker News said
Recommends endlessvoid94 · 2017-05 · on “Ask HN: I don't want to be a founder anymore”
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 th
Recommends hnrodey · 2017-12 · on “Steve Jobs on how to hire, manage, and lead people [video]”
> 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]
Cites ConfusedDog · 2019-06 · on “When Employees Use Software That IT Hasn’t Approved”
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.