Astro Teller explains how X celebrates killing projects as a win. At the lab, ending something that doesn't work frees up resources and people for better ideas. The culture shift makes failure feel safe enough to try ambitious things.
When one of our projects that actually has like a non trivial number of people, at least a few people full time on it, ends their project and they end their projects, I'll tell you a story about that. We bring them up on stage. We have a bunch of Xers here. They've seen this multiple times. We bring them up on stage and we say, this team is ending their project today. They have done more in ending their project in this quarter than any of you did to further innovation at X in the last quarter. And then all of you, especially the first time you hear this, are going to feel a little ripped off. Like, wait a second, they're failing. They're calling it a day. I'm working my ass off, how come they're up on stage? That seems kind of unfair. Then I say, and we're giving them bonuses. You say, wait, I'm not getting a bonus. Why are they getting a bonus? They're killing their project. I'm actually succeeding. Mine's still going. You know what, guys? Take a vacation and when you come back, the world's your oyster. You'll find some new project to start, or you can pick which project to jump into, depending on which one's going best. At this point, all of you are a little mystified if this is your first time through this and feeling quite ripped off. But social norms are incredibly powerful. People will do horrible, horrible things to each other if you set the social norms appropriately. They will also do incredibly innovative, creative, expressive, transparent things if you create the right norms for it. By the 10th time that we do this, it's normal. I don't even have to remind people anymore when we stand them up that they should get a huge round of applause and that everyone there should be looking up to the people who ended the projects. But have you ever heard of somebody actually getting rewarded? Because if I tell you to fail fast, are you going to run out? If you're part of our organization and fail fast just because I said it? No. You're going to be thinking, what happens if I fail fast? Am I going to get fired? I mean, I'm going to lose all the people reporting to me, right? So then I suck and then I'll have to go tell my friends I was kind of demoted. Am I going to get my bonus at the end of the year? Well, what happens to my compensation or my opportunity for promotion? Are those things all out the window? This is the difference between the lip service and and the actual emotional paths of least resistance. Creating the feeling that failing fast would actually get you what you want instead of getting you the opposite of what you want.
O processo de reconhecer limites, mesmo quando a vida parece exigir sempre mais.
Depois de tantas histórias, aprendizados e pausas necessárias, o @interior_iza está de volta
