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Too much of any kind of dependency not only slows down the pace of innovation but also creates a dispiriting second-order effect: disempowered teams. When a team is tasked with solving a particular problem and is judged by their solution, they should expect to have the tools and authority to complete the job. Their success should be a source of team pride. But Amazon’s tightly coupled software architecture and org structure too often made owners heavily dependent on outside teams, over whom they had little influence. Few teams were fully in control of their own destiny, and many were frustrated by the slow pace of delivery that was beyond their control. Disempowered workers increasingly became discouraged, unable to pursue innovative ideas in the face of so much structural resistance.
Working Backwards
Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
When you’re done you should have a small number of goals for both the personal and professional areas of your life. Once you’ve identified these goals, list for each the two or three most important activities that help you satisfy the goal. These activities should be specific enough to allow you to clearly picture doing them.
Over time, his comments drifted back into dangerous territory. The problem was that Mohammed bin Salman’s approach to reforming the country was infuriating him. Everything seemed to be done by decree; Mohammed only seemed to be paying attention to different opinions when he was locking up those who expressed them. Mohammed was trying to open the country up to tourists and clamp down on corruption, but many who questioned his way of doing it were hauled in by state security and ordered to sign a pledge never to criticize the government again. The key lesson for Saudis: You are free only insofar as Mohammed bin Salman decides. On the surface, Saudi Arabia seemed to be reforming. But its underlying problem—the fact that people had no say in their own governance and that their freedom was left to the whim of a single man—was worse. Ironically, Mohammed encouraged his closest advisors to be brutally honest about projects and ideas, praising effusively those who spoke up about what they considered to be an unwise course for the country, even if they directly contradicted the prince’s own views. One evening, he got into a heated argument with a minister about the size of government allowances for Saudi government workers. Mohammed thought they should be enlarged in the budget because the 2030 plan wasn’t yet at a stage where it was putting more money into people’s hands, but the minister felt it was financially imprudent to spend money in that manner. Finally, the weary minister told Mohammed that he was the crown prince, and it was up to him to decide. “If I wanted to use my powers to push the decision through, I wouldn’t have spent three hours trying to convince you, losing my voice,” he said. When the matter was put to a committee vote, the technocrats voted against Mohammed, and the budget item wasn’t increased. But such debate happened strictly in private meetings. Public dissent was off limits, especially when it came to the key reform plans.
Blood and Oil
Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck
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