Leadership – Aristotle Enterprises

July 28, 2017December 10, 2017

Want to Build Companies and Countries that Change the World? Embrace Diversity

On July 26, 1948 President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981 to desegregate the armed forces of the United States. He explained: “it is essential that there be maintained in the armed services of the United States the highest standards of democracy, with equality of treatment and opportunity for all those who serve in our country’s defense.” The United States armed forces had a long history of racial segregation until that point in time, but Truman recognized the country needed to foster greater levels of equality in the military if it was to face down the Soviet Union in the impending Cold War. 69 years later, to the day, President Donald Trump declared that transgender people could no longer serve in the United States military.

Trump’s actions undermine our progress as a country and a people – the most impactful nations have been tolerant of the ‘other,’ just as the most successful companies embrace true diversity.

We cannot succumb to fear of other people because they are different – diversity makes our countries and companies stronger. Luckily, history offers many examples that demonstrate the power of diversity.

By 1279, the Mongol empire started by Genghis Khan stretched from the Pacific Ocean in the east to the Mediterranean Ocean in the west. Not only is the Mongol empire remembered as one of the largest in terms of land area the world has ever seen, it was also remarkably tolerant for its time. Because the Mongols were nomadic and had no experience managing settled towns and cities, they chose to create an inclusive political culture that kept very different groups of conquered people running their own affairs. The Mongols were able to maintain their massive empire by embracing the vast cultural and religious diversity of the civilizations they integrated.

When it came to matters of war and politics, the Mongols often convened an impartial council called a kurultai to bring disparate tribes together and make important decisions. In a similar vein, successful product-oriented companies leverage a Product Council that incorporates diverse perspectives from various department leaders to help make strategic decisions. Essentially, the product leader presents a list of prioritized, strategic options that support the business to the Council. Then, leaders of the different departments (Sales, Marketing, Operations, Customer Success, Engineering, and the CEO) sitting on the Council collaborate and help decide which ideas are worth pursuing.

Successful Product Councils work because they foster healthy discussion across diverse perspectives. For example, Sales might really want a new feature that will allow the company to expand into a new market. But Customer Success knows that same, awesome new feature will also result in a substantial increase in support-related calls. The best Product Councils navigate these diverse viewpoints to make good strategic decisions, like the Mongolian kurultai.

But the most successful companies foster more than just diverse perspectives – they assemble teams with varied experiences and cultural backgrounds. According to Fortune Magazine, “the 50 companies on the 2016 Best Workplaces for Diversity list average 24% higher year-over-year revenue growth than non-list winners.” This is strong evidence that building a culture of inclusiveness has a tangible impact on a company’s bottom line. But, there is more to this story; simply hiring people with diverse backgrounds does not mean a company will realize financial gain. There must be a cultural focus on mutual respect as well.

One of the most influential modern companies, Google, recently completed a large-scale research project (called Project Aristotle) aimed at uncovering the secrets behind optimal team performance. After analyzing vast amounts of data looking for patterns among the highest performing teams across the company’s 57,000+ employees, one commonality rose to the top. Termed psychological safety, Project Aristotle found that the most effective teams at Google created an environment where people felt safe to speak up and share ideas. As The New York Times noted, “Google’s intense data collection and number crunching have led it to the same conclusions that good managers have always known. In the best teams, members listen to one another and show sensitivity to feelings and needs.”

To unlock the full benefits of diversity, a company or country must value a culture of mutual respect toward diverse ethnic, cultural, religious, sexual, and political backgrounds. Only then can a truly great vision be achieved.

President Truman understood the United States military had to be desegregated so it could convincingly make the case to the world that American democracy offered equal opportunity for all and was preferable to Soviet communism. The Mongol empire was held together by its inclusive political and social culture. The most successful companies today attract people from varied backgrounds and create an environment that values diverse perspectives.

The lessons of history teach us we are stronger together.

Adam F. Caplan is the product leader at a rapidly growing digital healthcare IT company.

July 11, 2017December 10, 2017

Platoon Leaders as Product Managers – Why the Allies Won the Battle for Normandy

It was one of the largest invasion forces ever assembled in human history. 175,000 fighting men, 50,000 vehicles, 5,333 ships, and 11,000 aircraft were prepared to deal the decisive blow to Adolf Hitler in the European Theater during World War Two. The mission was called Operation Overlord and its success would alter the course of history for decades (for more on the historical significance of the moment, check out Stephen E. Ambrose’s comprehensive book D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II).

Hollywood has done a great job over the years immortalizing the battle. But the Allied invasion of Fortress Europe on June 6^th, 1944 should have failed. Fortunately, the Allies had prepared their military leaders to act like product managers.

As early as November 3^rd, 1943 Hitler knew an Allied invasion was imminent along the German-occupied French coast and, if the invasion was successful, would pose a serious threat to the Nazi Reich. So he put one of Germany’s greatest generals, Field Marshall Eriwn Rommel, in command of the defenses. Rommel quickly realized that Hitler’s so-called Atlantic Wall was nothing more than incomplete fortifications manned mostly by Slavic prisoners pressed into German service against their will. Rommel (who earned the nickname ‘Desert Fox’ while out-maneuvering the British in North Africa) understood that any Allied landing had to be defeated on the beaches – he implemented many of the dangerous hazards American, British, and Canadian troops would encounter on D-Day. More important than the static fortifications, however, was Rommel’s plan to overwhelm any invasion force with tanks.

Rommel wanted the seven Panzer divisions in the Normandy theater (approximately 70,000 soldiers and hundreds of tanks) placed directly behind the beaches so they could respond swiftly to any landing attempted along the coast. But, even though Rommel had the most direct knowledge of conditions on the ground and experience in maneuver warfare, the German high command overruled his plan and placed many of the German troops much further inland – it would take three days for reinforcements to reach the battlefield. This pattern of top-down decision-making would seal the Nazi’s fate.

Allied military leadership, in contrast, empowered the lowest level leaders (lieutenants commanding platoons of 40 to 50 soldiers) to make critical battlefield decisions without seeking higher approval. To borrow from Jim Collins’s business management ideas, the Allied military strategy centered on getting the right people “on the bus” first so that they could best respond to changing conditions on the ground rapidly.

This idea of building a framework around sound decision-making in stressful situations with incomplete information is very similar to how a good product manager must operate. A product manager is responsible for the success of a product but she can’t be everywhere at the same time – in any given day, a PM could be engaged by conversations with customers about a prototype, discussions with sales and marketing teams about the validity of a new feature in the market, tweaking user experience elements with designers based on feedback, refining product requirements with the development team, ruthlessly prioritizing product requests, or selling internal executives on why a particular long-term vision for a product offering is worth investing in. Suffice it to say, there simply isn’t time to micromanage every detail.

A successful product manager must organize all of these moving parts around a unifying framework. Yes, an effective product leader must establish a compelling vision. But when it comes to actually getting work done, the product manager cannot become a bottleneck and must delegate decisions to other team members. When every team understands the desired outcome, the product manager doesn’t need to be available at all hours of every day to shepherd a product toward success.

In the same vein, all Allied platoon leaders knew every objective they needed to secure on D-Day. When the battlefield devolved into chaos, the Allied platoon leaders didn’t need to check with higher command – they adjusted to changing conditions on the fly and made good decisions.

For example, D-Day began the night before the beach landings when 13,000 Allied paratroopers expected to parachute into clearly-defined landing zones near their objectives (like strategic towns and bridges). Instead, they ended up scattered all across the Normandy coast – individual platoon leaders had to step up and organize ad-hoc units to successfully capture objectives, ensuring the troops coming ashore on the beaches could establish a beachhead.

The Germans, in contrast, had to wait for approval from senior leadership to organize a counterattack. In fact, any strategic military decision during the war had to pass through Hitler, and no one wanted to wake him on the night of the invasion. Worse, the commander who could have mounted an effective counterattack wasn’t available – Rommel went home to celebrate his wife’s birthday on June 5^th.

The German centralized command structure severely hindered their ability to respond to the Allied invasion in real-time. Despite Rommel’s sound defensive plan, he wasn’t there to implement it; even if Rommel was present on the battlefield, he was not empowered to adapt the strategy as conditions changed. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme Allied commander of the invasion, understood the tactical edge his platoon leaders had over their German counterparts when he remarked: “[i]n preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable” – when the situation on the battlefield changed, Allied platoon leaders adapted their plans; the Germans waited for approval to launch an already obsolete counterattack strategy.

Allied platoon leaders were crystal-clear about their missions and were empowered to achieve them through whatever means were necessary. Effective product managers know how to define clear objectives for their teams, resulting in sound decisions even when they aren’t present. It should come as no surprise that a successful product will deviate from an early roadmap plan – conditions on the ground are always evolving.

Adam F. Caplan is the product leader at a rapidly growing digital healthcare IT company.

July 4, 2017December 10, 2017

American Visionaries – What the Founding Fathers teach us about Leading Companies

July 4^th, 1776 marked a turning point. No longer was this conflict just a struggle for rights between British citizens in the American colonies and the crown – on this day, Thomas Jefferson and his fellow committee members convinced the rest of the Continental Congress to formally approve “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America.”

But signing a Declaration of Independence from the most powerful empire on earth was merely the beginning of an incredibly dangerous endeavor that could have easily ended at the gallows for all involved. Indeed, the fledgling United States of America still had to face seven more years of war, near bankruptcy, and its very first foreign military engagement (for more on this last point, I highly recommend Don Yaeger’s book Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History).

So, how did this new nation weather these trials and emerge as the country we would recognize today? America’s early leaders had a vision for the future worth fighting for, striving for, and dying for.

A vision, according to one definition from Dictonary.com, is “a vivid, imaginative conception or anticipation.” But, America’s leaders needed something more tangible than an “imaginary conception” that would inspire individuals to persevere through the hardship and sacrifice required along the road to the realization of the American dream.

The funny thing is, this strategy of motivating individual people to accomplish great things is the same one that the most successful companies employ.

SpaceX, for example, states unequivocally that its vision is “enabling people to live on other planets.” It is successfully working to accomplish this goal by drastically reducing the cost of launching rockets, thereby removing one of the most significant barriers preventing the human race from becoming a regularly space-faring species: financing the research and technological advances needed to turn that vision into reality. Fine, but why do we need to be a multi-planetary species? Well, according to Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, this is the only real path to saving humanity.

The most important reason for a company to have an inspiring vision, however, is not to say it is changing the world (or taking us to other worlds). Indeed, the actual vision itself matters less than simply having a vision, a higher purpose.

Every company, cause, or country needs a vision because every individual involved wants his or her work and sacrifice (whether realized consciously or not) to have purpose and meaning. Only when the individuals that comprise the company or cause know why their effort is worthwhile can truly great results be achieved.

What does having a vision that motivates individuals within an organization look like in practice? To extend the space theme a bit further, there is a famous story of President John F. Kennedy asking a janitor at NASA in 1962 during the space race with the U.S.S.R. what he was doing. The janitor replied “well Mr. President, I’m helping put a man on the moon.”

The early leaders of the United States had a vision that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. “ The individuals in the American colonies that bought this vision proved they were capable of a great achievement – a free republic that still stands today, 241 years later.

Want to lead a business to awesome financial results? Give your employees a cause to work toward – you may be surprised what a small group of people can achieve against extremely long odds when everyone knows why his or her work matters.

Adam F. Caplan is the product leader at a rapidly growing digital healthcare IT company.