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Do what you say you will do = reliability = trust. If you do what you say you will do every time, people will trust you and want to work with you.
Grain | LSD | Common Sense
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Common sense
How to be a good human
Be 100% reliable and do what you say you will do
Be on time and present
Top goal
Productivity
Improving lives through meaningful food experiences.
Principles
01
Create magic for customers
02
Be open and curious and committed to learning
03
Be excellent and insist on the highest standards
04
Have fun and care a lot
05
Disagree and really commit
LSD (Learning Skills Development)
In the age of AI, being able to communicate well, think clearly and exercise good taste matters more and more. We have been learning and sharing these in Grain for a while now, and they should be second nature to everyone. LSD organises everything back into one fun place.
LSD
01
Common sense | How to be a good human
02
People sense | How to lead
03
Product sense | How to build
04
Grain sense | How to amplify Grain
LSD modules
Common sense
Be 100% reliable and do what you say you will do
Be on time and present
Top goal
Productivity
TEA (Time, Energy, Attention) framework of productivity
Close loops
Structured communication
Mindful communication
Structured decision making
First principles
MECE
PCM (Pros, Cons, Mitigate)
Consulting 101
Magic loop
Trust battery
People sense
Communication is the job
[Wes Kao] Exec communication and influencing
Setting goals
Meetings
Who's got the monkey?
Performance management
Trust but verify
High Output Management
One-minute management
Building processes
Radical Candor
Amp it up
Never split the difference
Product sense
Product sense
Financial statements
Grain sense
Hiring at Grain
Onboarding at Grain
Today
Personal standards. Get these right and you will be in the top 10% already.
01
Be 100% reliable and do what you say you will do
Reliability = trust.
02
Be on time and present
Every minute late is stolen from the other person.
03
Top goal
Always move the needle on your most important work.
Check-in
Which team are you from?
One word state of mind?
What's your energy level now?
Energy level
12345
Super sleepy
Pumped up
Be 100% reliable and do what you say you will do
Reliability = trust.
02
Get this one habit right and you are already in the top 10% of the world in your field.
03
Unreliability negates all good values. People will stop trusting you and soon will not want to work with you.
Trust
Trust builds slowly and drops fast. Do what you say you will do, every time.
“First, be unreliable. Do not faithfully do what you have engaged to do. Master this one habit and you will more than counterbalance the combined effect of all your virtues, howsoever great.”
“…you will be outrun by hordes and hordes of mediocre turtles, and even by some mediocre turtles on crutches.”
Charlie Munger, on how to live a life of misery
Have an organisational system to track and manage yourself
The system can be whatever works for you, but you must have one you can execute.
01
Inbox management system
02
Task management system
03
Prioritise the 3-5 most high impact things to do the next day / week / month
Inbox management system
Use your inbox as a follow-up tracker. Archive what you have closed the loop on, keep what's open.
Email
Inbox Zero. Archive everything you have closed the loop on (press E).
WhatsApp
Treat your inbox as a to-do list. Archive every chat that does not need your action. In settings, untick Keep chats archived.
Slack
Show unreads only. React, comment in threads, or mark as Later with a due date.
Process every single item regularly. Weekdays: within an hour, or at least twice a day. Weekends: once a day. On leave: no expectation, set an out-of-office responder.
Task management system
01
The 2-minute rule
If it takes under 2 minutes, get it out of the way.
02
Write tasks as a verb / action
"Book venue for team offsite", not "Venue". You should never have to think about it again.
03
Acknowledge items
Even a "Got it!" makes it clear you are on top of things.
04
Now / Later / Pending / Goals
Always be prioritising.
What does good look like?
Looks like
- -"I'll send it by 5pm", and it lands by 5pm.
- -Can't meet the deadline? You flag it early with a new date.
- -A quick "Got it!" so people know you're on top of it.
- -People stop double-checking your work.
Not this
- -Silence when the deadline passes.
- -"Sorry, been swamped", after the fact.
- -Promises buried in 1,000 unread chats.
- -Saying yes just to avoid a hard conversation.
Show don't tell.
Be on time and present
Being on time and being present.
01
Every minute you are late is a minute of productivity stolen from the other person. There is no winning scenario.
02
Life happens. Just let people know you will be late as soon as you realise it.
03
Present means composed, prepared and focused. Arrive 5-10 minutes early. Phone in your pocket, pen and paper out.
10 minutes late
A meeting of 8. You arrive 10 minutes late.
0
minutes of productivity stolen. There is no winning scenario.
What does good look like?
Looks like
- -In the room 5-10 minutes early, prepped on the topic and the attendees.
- -You messaged the room the moment you knew you'd be late.
- -Phone in pocket, pen and paper out.
Not this
- -Walking in late and asking what was covered.
- -Replying to WhatsApp under the table.
- -"Can you repeat that?" because you weren't listening.
Top goal
Protect your most important work.
01
Fires will never cease to happen. You can do a lot every day and after weeks, still feel like you have not accomplished anything.
02
Every week, know your #1 goal. Every day, schedule 2 hours for it in the calendar, the earlier the better.
03
During this time, do not respond to emails, texts, calls or messages. If 2 hours is hard, start with 15 minutes and increase it.
2 hours a day
MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
There are fires that happen every day. Block time for top goals.
2 hours a day = 10 hours a week = 40 hours a month = 500 hours a year moving the needle on what's truly important.
What does good look like?
Looks like
- -You can name this week's #1 goal in one sentence.
- -A 2-hour block sits in the calendar before the fires start.
- -If you do this every day, you will achieve great things.
Not this
- -A busy day where the important thing didn't move.
- -Getting bogged down by small urgent things.
- -A to-do list with no priorities.
Activity time.
5 mins
01
Write your top 3 goals for the next 30 days.
02
One promise you kept this week, and one you dropped.
03
Pick the one thing you'll practise this week and why!
Before we go
01
Be 100% reliable and do what you say you will do
Have a system to track and manage yourself.
02
Be on time and present
Arrive 5-10 minutes early. Phone in your pocket, pen and paper out.
03
Top goal
Schedule 2 hours a day for your #1 goal.
Check-out
What is one key takeaway from today's session?
See you next time.
Be on time and present.