1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:03,480 Speaker 1: Well, we think, particularly for people leaders, as we try 2 00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:05,800 Speaker 1: to think of our role as to find a way 3 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:07,880 Speaker 1: to yes, so rather than you know, go into a 4 00:00:07,880 --> 00:00:09,440 Speaker 1: lot of meetings and people think it's their job to 5 00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:12,559 Speaker 1: say no. Really, my job is if someone's brought me 6 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:14,120 Speaker 1: a proposal, is to try to work out how to 7 00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:14,720 Speaker 1: get it to yes. 8 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:21,759 Speaker 2: Welcome to How I Work, a show about the tactics 9 00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:24,239 Speaker 2: used by the world's most successful people to get so 10 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:28,040 Speaker 2: much out of their day. I'm your host, doctor Amantha Imba. 11 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:33,159 Speaker 2: I'm an organizational psychologist, the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium, 12 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:36,760 Speaker 2: and I'm obsessed with finding ways to optimize my work date. 13 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:42,519 Speaker 2: My guest on today's Best Of episode is Paul Migliarini. 14 00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:46,839 Speaker 2: Paul leads the Amazon Web Services business across Australia and 15 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:49,680 Speaker 2: New Zealand, which is a role that he's been in 16 00:00:49,680 --> 00:00:53,519 Speaker 2: for the last four years. Prior to joining a WS, 17 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:56,400 Speaker 2: Paul held senior leadership roles in Asia and Australia with 18 00:00:56,480 --> 00:01:00,000 Speaker 2: bt Motorola, Regis and Ernst and Young and most recent 19 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:03,040 Speaker 2: as the CEO for Regis A and Z and the 20 00:01:03,080 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 2: Regional Managing Director for South Asia at BT SO. I 21 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 2: was really keen to have Paul on the show because 22 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:15,120 Speaker 2: I've heard so many things about Amazon's culture and just 23 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:19,200 Speaker 2: their ways of working, which I find fascinating. And there 24 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:22,120 Speaker 2: is nothing better than and able to get an insider's 25 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:25,320 Speaker 2: perspective on how it all works. So if you've ever 26 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 2: wondered what goes on behind the scenes of one of 27 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:32,399 Speaker 2: the world's biggest, fastest growing, and most powerful companies, I 28 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:36,920 Speaker 2: think you'll love this chat with Paul. So on that note, 29 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:40,279 Speaker 2: let's go to Paul to hear about how he works. Paul, 30 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:42,640 Speaker 2: Welcome to the show. Great to be I want to 31 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:44,480 Speaker 2: start with what we were just talking about before we 32 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:47,080 Speaker 2: started recording, and this is that you've been having email 33 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:49,920 Speaker 2: and calendar problems on your phone and now you're actually 34 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,120 Speaker 2: going to change your behavior as a result of what happened. 35 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:52,960 Speaker 2: Can you tell me about that. 36 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:56,320 Speaker 1: So it's totally by accident, and as I say, constraint 37 00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:59,320 Speaker 1: does breed innovation in many cases. And so I had 38 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: an issue with I with my phone, so for some 39 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:05,280 Speaker 1: reason that I still haven't resolved, my email and the 40 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,600 Speaker 1: calendar stopped working and I just haven't gotten around to 41 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:10,720 Speaker 1: getting it fixed. And so I've been living in this 42 00:02:10,760 --> 00:02:15,000 Speaker 1: world without email and calendar. And my realization is that 43 00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:18,240 Speaker 1: I really miss my calendar, but I don't miss my email. 44 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:20,880 Speaker 1: And it's helped me be a lot more present and 45 00:02:20,919 --> 00:02:23,320 Speaker 1: helped me manage the context switching that happens during my 46 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:26,320 Speaker 1: work day, but equally the context switshing that needs to 47 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 1: happen when I go home in a much more effective way. 48 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:30,560 Speaker 1: So you're very intentional about when you look at your 49 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:32,760 Speaker 1: email and when you're focused on it what you do 50 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:35,840 Speaker 1: with it. And I'm thinking it's contributing to a pretty 51 00:02:35,919 --> 00:02:39,040 Speaker 1: good increasing productivity. So when and if I get my 52 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:41,480 Speaker 1: phone fixed, I think I will leave my email off 53 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:43,320 Speaker 1: and put my calendar back on. But it's been a 54 00:02:43,320 --> 00:02:44,800 Speaker 1: really positive change by accident. 55 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:48,080 Speaker 2: That's awesome. And so you're saying when you get home, 56 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:52,920 Speaker 2: like rather than in the pre broken phone days, you 57 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,280 Speaker 2: might maybe check your email a few times, like throughout 58 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:56,680 Speaker 2: the night, because it's just so easy to do when 59 00:02:56,680 --> 00:02:59,079 Speaker 2: it's on your phone, But now it's intentional. You open 60 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:02,000 Speaker 2: up your laptop once and check totally. 61 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:03,560 Speaker 1: And because you know, in our world and I think 62 00:03:03,600 --> 00:03:05,760 Speaker 1: most people would work in this way, you're working across 63 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:09,200 Speaker 1: multiple time zones, you know, within Australia and New Zealand, 64 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:10,760 Speaker 1: but around the world, and so you've got these threads 65 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:12,840 Speaker 1: that stay open, and you're trying to process things in 66 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:16,440 Speaker 1: real time because customers are looking for quick results, and 67 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:18,760 Speaker 1: so you tend to just continue to look at things 68 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,359 Speaker 1: because you've got so many things that are open. Sometimes 69 00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:23,639 Speaker 1: that's productive because you can be really responsive, but most 70 00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:25,680 Speaker 1: of the time it's not, because you get distracted by 71 00:03:25,680 --> 00:03:28,560 Speaker 1: a whole raft of things. It could easily wait till 72 00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:30,079 Speaker 1: another time, a more formal time. 73 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:32,240 Speaker 2: Yes, because I was going to ask, like there must 74 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:35,800 Speaker 2: be listeners kind of going, yeah, but what if there's 75 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:38,840 Speaker 2: an emergency that you're going to miss, what do you 76 00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:39,400 Speaker 2: say to that? 77 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:42,320 Speaker 1: People can call or they can send an SMS or 78 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:44,800 Speaker 1: or something like that. And so there are other means 79 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:45,440 Speaker 1: to get in touch. 80 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:49,440 Speaker 2: That's right, there are, aren't they? We forget about the barone. Yes, 81 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 2: good old fashioned calling. Yes. Well, I want to dig 82 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:56,119 Speaker 2: into Amazon's leadership principles because I think they're really interesting 83 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:59,160 Speaker 2: and maybe for those really most listeners are not aware 84 00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:01,640 Speaker 2: of the leadership princes. Can you just explain briefly what 85 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:03,240 Speaker 2: they are, why they exist? 86 00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:08,000 Speaker 1: Sure, So we have fourteen of these principles that the 87 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:10,960 Speaker 1: best way to think about it, I think is as 88 00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:13,400 Speaker 1: an operating system for the company. So there's a set 89 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:15,640 Speaker 1: of principles that are booke ended by two the first 90 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:18,640 Speaker 1: being customer obsession, which is that everything we do in 91 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:21,039 Speaker 1: the company starts with a customer and works backwards, and 92 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:23,039 Speaker 1: we try to take a really long term perspective to 93 00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:26,520 Speaker 1: that and keep customer trusts out kind of core true north. 94 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:29,839 Speaker 1: And the other end of the book end is deliver results. 95 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:32,640 Speaker 1: And then there's twelve other principles that sit between those two, 96 00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:35,760 Speaker 1: and a lot of it started goes back to kind 97 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:38,200 Speaker 1: of the early days of the company when we floated 98 00:04:38,279 --> 00:04:40,920 Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety seven, Jeff Bezos wrote a letter to 99 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:43,360 Speaker 1: shareholders and said some important things. In that letter. He said, 100 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 1: you know, we're going to build a company that's really 101 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:47,400 Speaker 1: focused on the customer, and we're going to index on 102 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:50,120 Speaker 1: the long term and not be thrown off course by 103 00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:52,920 Speaker 1: short term sort of market forces or other things that 104 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:55,320 Speaker 1: make it in the way of us and our customers. 105 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:57,320 Speaker 1: And I think that a lot of those principles and 106 00:04:57,320 --> 00:04:59,159 Speaker 1: a bunch of others have been codified over the years 107 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:02,919 Speaker 1: into the four Leadership Principles, and what we try to 108 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:05,840 Speaker 1: do is as an organization is operate in a very 109 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:10,400 Speaker 1: decentralized way where people close to the customer can be 110 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:13,440 Speaker 1: really clear on how to make good quality decisions at 111 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:16,840 Speaker 1: high velocity velocity without having to refer them back to 112 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:19,880 Speaker 1: managers or even to head office for decision making. So 113 00:05:19,880 --> 00:05:22,440 Speaker 1: it helps us move really really quickly, and it helps 114 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:25,240 Speaker 1: us make good quality decisions around what we're trying to 115 00:05:25,279 --> 00:05:27,560 Speaker 1: do for our customers. And really it's one of the 116 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:29,960 Speaker 1: big fundamentals on how we can move really quickly, and 117 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:31,840 Speaker 1: it's a kind of absolute bedrock of how we run 118 00:05:31,880 --> 00:05:32,360 Speaker 1: our company. 119 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:35,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, fourteen, Like that's a lot. And one of them's frugality, 120 00:05:35,880 --> 00:05:38,200 Speaker 2: which just sort of seems odds with having fourteen principles, 121 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:40,479 Speaker 2: Is that right? Yeah, So I do want to delve 122 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:44,320 Speaker 2: into maybe frugality first and tell me about what does 123 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:48,039 Speaker 2: that mean and how does that actually play out. Like, 124 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:51,240 Speaker 2: for example, we're just talking about lunch before and apparently 125 00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:53,760 Speaker 2: Amazon's not giving you a free lunch what you're a 126 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:55,200 Speaker 2: tech company. 127 00:05:55,480 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 1: Well, there's a couple of aspects to this principle of frugality. 128 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:02,360 Speaker 1: One of them is that we believe really fundamentally in 129 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:06,360 Speaker 1: this idea of investing in things that we can directly 130 00:06:06,360 --> 00:06:10,359 Speaker 1: correlate with benefit to our customers. And you know, we 131 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:12,640 Speaker 1: think that, you know, a lot of these superfluous benefits 132 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:14,880 Speaker 1: don't right, We try to It's not as though where 133 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:17,600 Speaker 1: we don't spend. I think, as I recall one last year, 134 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:19,880 Speaker 1: we were one of, if not the largest spending globally 135 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:21,960 Speaker 1: in the context of R and D, you know, over 136 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:24,000 Speaker 1: twenty billion dollars in R and D. But we try 137 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:26,359 Speaker 1: to make sure that investment is deliberately focused on creating 138 00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:28,640 Speaker 1: value for our customers. So that's one big aspect of it. 139 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:30,480 Speaker 1: We try to be really disciplined about that. The other 140 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:34,520 Speaker 1: big aspect of frugality is this notion of constraint. You know, 141 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:37,919 Speaker 1: so when you do actively constrain resources, typically what you 142 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:40,440 Speaker 1: find is that you come up with really interesting ways 143 00:06:40,480 --> 00:06:42,320 Speaker 1: to solve problems. So in a world where you have 144 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:44,919 Speaker 1: unlimited resources, you probably aren't going to be a particularly 145 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:46,960 Speaker 1: innovative company because you don't have to be. But when 146 00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:49,720 Speaker 1: you're actively constraining resources, you tend to find really creative 147 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:51,839 Speaker 1: ways to solve problems. So that's a couple of the 148 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:54,600 Speaker 1: fundamentals that sit behind this notion of frugality, and it's 149 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:57,960 Speaker 1: a really important leadership principle, and often most people will 150 00:06:57,960 --> 00:06:59,640 Speaker 1: say it's one of the more difficult ones because we're 151 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:02,719 Speaker 1: growing so quickly and investing so readily and in so 152 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:04,560 Speaker 1: many important things, and you know, we try to think 153 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:06,680 Speaker 1: really big, which is another one of our leadership principles, 154 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:08,880 Speaker 1: and be very expansive as to how we think about 155 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:11,840 Speaker 1: creating value for our customers. And you have to invest 156 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:14,280 Speaker 1: a lot, you know, and then to actively constrain resources 157 00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:17,200 Speaker 1: at the same time is quite a difficult discipline, but 158 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:18,240 Speaker 1: a really important one. 159 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:21,320 Speaker 2: And so can you give me an example of where 160 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:23,680 Speaker 2: you've had to apply that in a way. I guess 161 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:26,240 Speaker 2: that's been challenging for you and your role. 162 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:29,440 Speaker 1: So typically what will happen is, you know, we will 163 00:07:29,440 --> 00:07:33,120 Speaker 1: get an investment plan and often the teams will be saying, look, 164 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 1: I'm looking to you know, there's this many customers and 165 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:38,560 Speaker 1: we believe fundamentally we can we can help them in 166 00:07:38,840 --> 00:07:40,960 Speaker 1: a really interesting ways, and therefore we need this, you know, 167 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 1: this level of investment, and we'll go, okay, that's interesting, 168 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:45,720 Speaker 1: but you know, how would you do that with half 169 00:07:45,920 --> 00:07:49,400 Speaker 1: the investment? Because we're constantly thinking about this idea of 170 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:52,480 Speaker 1: scale and in particular the notion of doing it in 171 00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:54,680 Speaker 1: a non linear way. You know, so as we're trying 172 00:07:54,680 --> 00:07:56,640 Speaker 1: to grow our business, you know, how can we be 173 00:07:57,400 --> 00:07:59,320 Speaker 1: doing it in a way that's not proportional ae where 174 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:02,080 Speaker 1: because that's allmly not effective in the long term. So 175 00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:05,240 Speaker 1: we'll consciously say well, okay, you can have half or 176 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:08,120 Speaker 1: you can have a quarter, and invariably what happens is 177 00:08:08,160 --> 00:08:10,800 Speaker 1: it's super interesting because the team go away and because 178 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:13,600 Speaker 1: it's conditioned through our principles, it's not a real frustration. 179 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:15,520 Speaker 1: People know that's why we're doing it, and it's just 180 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:17,640 Speaker 1: as a forcing function to go away and think about 181 00:08:17,640 --> 00:08:20,240 Speaker 1: a problem in a very different way, and most people 182 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:22,040 Speaker 1: find it to be pretty useful. 183 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:24,880 Speaker 2: So would that then be unusual to give a project 184 00:08:24,920 --> 00:08:27,680 Speaker 2: the full funding that has been requested. 185 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:31,480 Speaker 1: It really depends. I mean, we are investing, you know, 186 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:34,600 Speaker 1: really really heavily, you know, lots of people, and that's 187 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:37,160 Speaker 1: because the market opportunity is there and we see that 188 00:08:37,160 --> 00:08:39,199 Speaker 1: customers are driving a lot of value from the work 189 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:41,640 Speaker 1: we're doing, and therefore we're investing against that. And so 190 00:08:41,679 --> 00:08:43,800 Speaker 1: there's a tension, you know, between the two. And it's 191 00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:46,240 Speaker 1: a question of how well you manage that tension. I 192 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:48,720 Speaker 1: guess that just coming back to leadership principles for a moment, 193 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:51,560 Speaker 1: I mean, part of the way or one of the 194 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:53,840 Speaker 1: easier ways I think to think about it, is that 195 00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:58,240 Speaker 1: we have this kind of fundamental belief around the company 196 00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:00,760 Speaker 1: that we are a company where builders come to build. 197 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:03,679 Speaker 1: And so this notion of being a builder, it really 198 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:06,120 Speaker 1: is the embodiment of these fourteen leadership principles that you 199 00:09:06,480 --> 00:09:08,920 Speaker 1: really focused on invention, you really want to think big, 200 00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:11,120 Speaker 1: you have a strong level of ownership and biace for 201 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:13,760 Speaker 1: action around how you solve customers, and so you can 202 00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:16,000 Speaker 1: roll all of those principles up into this idea of 203 00:09:16,679 --> 00:09:18,640 Speaker 1: being builders. And we think that everyone's a leader and 204 00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:22,000 Speaker 1: everyone should be a builder and really therefore represent those 205 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:23,840 Speaker 1: principles in a really kind of effective way. 206 00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:26,800 Speaker 2: So how does that relate, like in terms of everyone's 207 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:30,600 Speaker 2: a builder. If you're in say sales marketing or something 208 00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:33,000 Speaker 2: like that, like you're not an engineer, how do those 209 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:34,120 Speaker 2: people conceptualize that. 210 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:37,199 Speaker 1: I can give you a real example. So my current manager, 211 00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:40,679 Speaker 1: Ed who was my predecessor in my current role a 212 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:42,720 Speaker 1: number of years ago, now four or five years ago, 213 00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:45,880 Speaker 1: was looking at what we're doing for our customers, and 214 00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:49,800 Speaker 1: he had a hypothesis around this notion of global customers 215 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:52,319 Speaker 1: and how they wanted to deploy tech. And so he 216 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:54,520 Speaker 1: had an idea basically, and he wrote it up in 217 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:55,880 Speaker 1: a six page and he said, look, we need to 218 00:09:55,880 --> 00:09:58,640 Speaker 1: think about building a new organizational unit that's really built 219 00:09:58,679 --> 00:10:01,840 Speaker 1: specifically for the needs of these global multinationals who who 220 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:04,640 Speaker 1: want to consume tech in different ways. They're highly distributed. 221 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:07,480 Speaker 1: And so he wrote a six pager and when build 222 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:10,600 Speaker 1: a entirely new business today is a multi billion dollar 223 00:10:10,960 --> 00:10:13,439 Speaker 1: business from a six page document. So that's a really 224 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:16,840 Speaker 1: good example in the world of sales of how this 225 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:19,960 Speaker 1: works today. We have a team of people here who 226 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:22,440 Speaker 1: are doing an incredible work around this idea of what 227 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:24,760 Speaker 1: we call the cognitive customer experience. So we've got a 228 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:28,600 Speaker 1: platform that effectively creates a software based contact center called 229 00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:31,440 Speaker 1: Amazon Connect. But equally, what we're seeing is that loads 230 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:34,240 Speaker 1: of customers are looking to integrate that with AI and 231 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:36,120 Speaker 1: a whole raft of other things that will help them 232 00:10:36,160 --> 00:10:39,520 Speaker 1: to transform the customer experience. And so we created a 233 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:42,160 Speaker 1: small team we called it a two pizza team of 234 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:43,559 Speaker 1: builders who are out there. 235 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:44,840 Speaker 2: And I can explain what you mean by a two 236 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:46,959 Speaker 2: pizza team that are not familiar with that chanel. 237 00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:51,560 Speaker 1: So it's essentially a small cross functional team that has 238 00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:56,240 Speaker 1: their requisite skills within it to operate completely autonomously. And 239 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:58,200 Speaker 1: the idea is that what we want in terms of 240 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:01,720 Speaker 1: scale is a team that it's kind that you could 241 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:03,840 Speaker 1: feed with two pizzas is the basic rule of thumb. 242 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:05,840 Speaker 1: So we think it kind of ten to twelve people roughly. 243 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:08,160 Speaker 1: And the reason we try to keep it small is 244 00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:11,080 Speaker 1: because what happens is as teams grow is you tend 245 00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:13,920 Speaker 1: to have to create a whole series of mechanisms to 246 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:16,599 Speaker 1: establish to manage cross functional communication. So what happens is 247 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:18,120 Speaker 1: once you get to a certain level of scale, you're 248 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:20,040 Speaker 1: building all of these overheads into the team and it 249 00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:22,480 Speaker 1: impairs your ability to move fast. So we call it 250 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:25,840 Speaker 1: a two pizza team and have a principle around scaling 251 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:28,600 Speaker 1: those teams horizontally that enables us to move fast. So 252 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:31,560 Speaker 1: we created this two pizza team around Connect and today 253 00:11:31,559 --> 00:11:34,000 Speaker 1: we've got many, many hundreds of customers across Australia and 254 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:37,120 Speaker 1: New Zealand using the Connect platform integrated with a whole 255 00:11:37,160 --> 00:11:39,520 Speaker 1: aft of our artificial intelligence services to think in a 256 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:42,720 Speaker 1: very different way around improving the customer experience. And there's 257 00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:44,160 Speaker 1: many of those types of examples. 258 00:11:44,240 --> 00:11:46,520 Speaker 2: Yeah, I like the idea of scaling horizontally. That's an 259 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:49,760 Speaker 2: interesting way of putting it. And I've heard Bezos say 260 00:11:49,880 --> 00:11:54,080 Speaker 2: that he would prefer two completely separate teams working on 261 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:57,440 Speaker 2: the same thing and not knowing about each other's work, 262 00:11:57,520 --> 00:11:59,520 Speaker 2: and then just kind of finding out after the resources 263 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:02,439 Speaker 2: have been used. Can you maybe go into that a 264 00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:04,480 Speaker 2: little bit, because I feel like that's a really challenging 265 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:07,480 Speaker 2: concept for most organizations that are organized and really structural. 266 00:12:07,559 --> 00:12:09,880 Speaker 1: As a leadership principle, that's kind of helpful there. It's 267 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:13,360 Speaker 1: called having a bias for action, and so we believe 268 00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:17,920 Speaker 1: that one is probably better than two, but equally too 269 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:21,440 Speaker 1: is a whole lot better than zero. And what we 270 00:12:21,520 --> 00:12:24,040 Speaker 1: mean by that is that doing nothing is not a 271 00:12:24,040 --> 00:12:26,800 Speaker 1: good answer. So invariably, what we accept that if we 272 00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:28,840 Speaker 1: have a bias for action and we see an opportunity, 273 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:32,360 Speaker 1: rather than stopping and waiting and aligning all of the 274 00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:35,280 Speaker 1: resources and making sure there's no waste, invariably what tends 275 00:12:35,280 --> 00:12:37,400 Speaker 1: to happen in a lot of companies is nothing right, 276 00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:39,920 Speaker 1: And we accept that in some cases, what we might 277 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:42,120 Speaker 1: create is a situation where there may be two people 278 00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:43,840 Speaker 1: or two groups of people doing the same thing or 279 00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:47,640 Speaker 1: even more. But if we're moving forward around the customer's 280 00:12:47,679 --> 00:12:49,439 Speaker 1: agenda and we've got good rigor in what we're doing 281 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:51,800 Speaker 1: and we're learning, then ultimately it's going to be better 282 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:53,640 Speaker 1: than doing nothing because we'll learn and at some point 283 00:12:53,679 --> 00:12:55,800 Speaker 1: in the future we may consolidate or aligne or whatever, 284 00:12:55,880 --> 00:12:58,000 Speaker 1: but it's way better than doing nothing. So accept that 285 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:00,880 Speaker 1: in moving fast and having a bias for action, there 286 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:01,640 Speaker 1: may be some waste. 287 00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:05,160 Speaker 2: So how does that then sit with you as a leader, 288 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:08,600 Speaker 2: Because again, I would imagine most senior leaders it is 289 00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:12,079 Speaker 2: important for them to retain control and understand what's going 290 00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:14,360 Speaker 2: on in every pocket of the organization and feel like 291 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:17,360 Speaker 2: they're all like across it. But I would imagine it 292 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:20,120 Speaker 2: couldn't be like that here based on that. What's that? 293 00:13:20,800 --> 00:13:23,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of interesting. I often tell people that 294 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:26,480 Speaker 1: you don't do a whole lot of management work at Amazon. 295 00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:30,560 Speaker 1: You do a whole lot of coaching, and the leadership 296 00:13:30,559 --> 00:13:32,800 Speaker 1: principles become really helpful there because you know, we're hoping 297 00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:34,680 Speaker 1: that people are out in front of customers making great 298 00:13:34,720 --> 00:13:38,000 Speaker 1: decisions and helping customers in a really effective way. And 299 00:13:38,040 --> 00:13:39,400 Speaker 1: the last thing I want to do is get in 300 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:40,840 Speaker 1: the way of that. I want to give them as 301 00:13:40,880 --> 00:13:43,920 Speaker 1: much freedom to do that work as I possibly can, 302 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:46,040 Speaker 1: because it'll enable them to move faster, and we'll learn 303 00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:48,120 Speaker 1: from that and we'll just get better and better over time. 304 00:13:48,600 --> 00:13:51,600 Speaker 1: In terms of helping our customers, what we try to 305 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:55,040 Speaker 1: focus on, rather than outputs is a set of inputs. 306 00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:57,440 Speaker 1: So we try to feel really convicted around the inputs. 307 00:13:58,120 --> 00:14:00,360 Speaker 1: You know, in the case of the cognitive c X 308 00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:02,839 Speaker 1: work that we're doing, we look at, you know, how 309 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:05,400 Speaker 1: many customers are experimenting with a platform. We look at 310 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:08,559 Speaker 1: how much value they're getting from it. We look at 311 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:10,839 Speaker 1: the skills that they might otherwise need to be able 312 00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:13,880 Speaker 1: to really affect change and get value from the platform. 313 00:14:13,920 --> 00:14:16,040 Speaker 1: So we'd measure those sorts of inputs and make sure 314 00:14:16,040 --> 00:14:19,760 Speaker 1: that we're applying our effort on the right inputs, because then, 315 00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:21,440 Speaker 1: you know, what we try to do is apply the 316 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:24,760 Speaker 1: test that says, well, let's then measure the causality to outputs, 317 00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:26,160 Speaker 1: you know, which might be sort of a set of 318 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:28,520 Speaker 1: business goals might be in our case, it may be 319 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:30,760 Speaker 1: revenue or sales or the p and l or whatever, 320 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:32,920 Speaker 1: and as long as we feel like we're convicted on 321 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:35,000 Speaker 1: the right inputs, then it's really about ensuring that we're 322 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:38,040 Speaker 1: supporting the teams effectively and enabling them as much freedom 323 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:40,680 Speaker 1: as possible to move quickly in front of the customer. Yeah. 324 00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:43,760 Speaker 2: Kind that's interesting, so kind of like lead versus lag measures, 325 00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:44,280 Speaker 2: I guess. 326 00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:46,760 Speaker 1: Yeah, you could call them leads. You know, we use 327 00:14:46,760 --> 00:14:50,280 Speaker 1: the term inputs quite intentionally, and we do measure a 328 00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:53,320 Speaker 1: lot of things. We're a very data driven organization and 329 00:14:53,360 --> 00:14:55,560 Speaker 1: we try to be very, very convicted and have a 330 00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:57,240 Speaker 1: whole lot of rigor on in terms of what we 331 00:14:57,280 --> 00:14:59,800 Speaker 1: measure and the inputs we measure. So that's some of 332 00:14:59,800 --> 00:15:03,920 Speaker 1: the thing we think about, and hopefully those inputs really 333 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:06,680 Speaker 1: guide us to the things that are most important for 334 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:08,880 Speaker 1: our customers and in the fullness of time, we think 335 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:10,720 Speaker 1: that'll mean that will create value for us. 336 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:12,760 Speaker 2: Now, you mentioned bias for action as one of the 337 00:15:12,840 --> 00:15:16,160 Speaker 2: leadership principles. There's also deep dive is another one. And 338 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:18,800 Speaker 2: for me, kind of when I was looking through them 339 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:21,240 Speaker 2: and thinking about them, they feel kind of at odds 340 00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:23,280 Speaker 2: and I want to know how do they actually play 341 00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:24,600 Speaker 2: together and complement each other. 342 00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:28,400 Speaker 1: Yeah, there's certainly a tension there, and that tensions quite deliberate. 343 00:15:28,880 --> 00:15:33,680 Speaker 1: So the way we think about that particular aspect is 344 00:15:33,720 --> 00:15:36,960 Speaker 1: that it comes down to judgment, which is embodied by 345 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:40,560 Speaker 1: another Leedgshire principle called write a lot, and we try 346 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:43,200 Speaker 1: to ensure that we're making a judgment call. In this case, 347 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:45,520 Speaker 1: the judgment call is built around the type of decision, 348 00:15:45,680 --> 00:15:47,920 Speaker 1: and so we think about decisions in two forms. We 349 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:51,600 Speaker 1: think about a decision being a two way door, that 350 00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:55,040 Speaker 1: it's inherently reversible, in which case we should index on 351 00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:58,440 Speaker 1: moving quickly even if we don't have perfect information. We 352 00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:00,640 Speaker 1: just need to kind of use into wish and judgment 353 00:16:00,680 --> 00:16:03,280 Speaker 1: and move really quickly. Equally, if we take the view 354 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:05,120 Speaker 1: that it's what we call a one way door, so 355 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:09,240 Speaker 1: inherently irreversible, then we expect that our leaders and by 356 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:11,240 Speaker 1: the way, everyone inside Amazon is a leader, so when 357 00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:13,560 Speaker 1: I talk about leaders, I'm talking about everybody as opposed 358 00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:17,000 Speaker 1: to people leaders. Then we expect our leaders to exercise 359 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:19,520 Speaker 1: good judgment and dive deep and go really deep into 360 00:16:19,560 --> 00:16:23,240 Speaker 1: the problem, get to the root of the opportunity or 361 00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:25,480 Speaker 1: the root of the challenges in a very rigorous data 362 00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:27,800 Speaker 1: driven way to ensure that we're making as good as 363 00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:29,920 Speaker 1: decision as we possibly could. And so that's how we 364 00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:30,720 Speaker 1: think about that. 365 00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:32,840 Speaker 2: Is it always obvious whether the door is one way 366 00:16:32,880 --> 00:16:33,480 Speaker 2: or two ways? 367 00:16:33,560 --> 00:16:35,440 Speaker 1: No, it's not always obvious, which is why we rely 368 00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:38,520 Speaker 1: on good judgment. You know, we're hoping that people can see, hey, 369 00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:40,640 Speaker 1: this is you know, I think in most cases it's 370 00:16:40,680 --> 00:16:42,680 Speaker 1: reasonably obvious when you look at a decision and go, well, 371 00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:45,440 Speaker 1: you know, I can see how that's inherently reversible. Like 372 00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:47,120 Speaker 1: if we've got that wrong, as long as we've got 373 00:16:47,160 --> 00:16:49,240 Speaker 1: good rigor around what we're learning, then you know, we'll 374 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:52,560 Speaker 1: pivot and iterate in an effective way. Equally, if it's 375 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:54,560 Speaker 1: a really big decision, and you've seen some of those, 376 00:16:54,800 --> 00:16:57,680 Speaker 1: there's really big decisions you know that we've made invariably 377 00:16:57,720 --> 00:16:59,960 Speaker 1: people like Jeff Bezos and in our case Andy Jasse 378 00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:03,760 Speaker 1: you are super involved in those decisions, and everyone goes 379 00:17:03,800 --> 00:17:06,600 Speaker 1: really deep on those specific decisions. But usually it is, 380 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:08,240 Speaker 1: but in some cases not so much. 381 00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:12,199 Speaker 2: I feel like, disagree and commit gets a lot of 382 00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:15,560 Speaker 2: pr as one of the leadership principles, And can you 383 00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:18,879 Speaker 2: explain for those that haven't come across it what it means? 384 00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:22,520 Speaker 2: And then I'm curious how you have personally gone about 385 00:17:22,560 --> 00:17:24,400 Speaker 2: applying that, because I think it's a challenging one. 386 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:27,760 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's one of my absolute favorites on 387 00:17:28,119 --> 00:17:31,520 Speaker 1: many levels. The root of the principle is this idea 388 00:17:31,600 --> 00:17:35,400 Speaker 1: that you know, if you have if you're a scenario 389 00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:38,280 Speaker 1: where we're in a room for context that has white 390 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:41,359 Speaker 1: walls and there's another wall that is black, and you know, 391 00:17:41,400 --> 00:17:43,000 Speaker 1: we could have a debate as to whether the wall 392 00:17:43,080 --> 00:17:45,760 Speaker 1: is white or black. And what happens in many companies 393 00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:47,880 Speaker 1: is you tend to land on consensus and you go, okay, 394 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:50,159 Speaker 1: let's agree that it's great, but the answer is that 395 00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:53,840 Speaker 1: wall's white and ambiguously white. And so what we should 396 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:56,960 Speaker 1: do is we should have a really robust and rigorous 397 00:17:57,040 --> 00:17:59,280 Speaker 1: argument that gets us to the right answer, and let's 398 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:01,600 Speaker 1: have a lot of backbone about that, you know, and 399 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:03,280 Speaker 1: make sure that you know, if we have a strong 400 00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:05,080 Speaker 1: opinion on it, we're putting that opinion on the table 401 00:18:05,119 --> 00:18:08,200 Speaker 1: in really forthright ways and because it'll we believe it 402 00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:11,040 Speaker 1: will get us to a better quality answer. And we 403 00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:13,160 Speaker 1: shouldn't be meek and mild about that, and we shouldn't 404 00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:16,600 Speaker 1: be consensus based because ultimately, if we land on the 405 00:18:16,600 --> 00:18:18,800 Speaker 1: wrong answer, it's going to be mean about outcome for 406 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:20,879 Speaker 1: our customer. And so what we try to do is 407 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:23,639 Speaker 1: we try to build a bunch of cultural conditions that 408 00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:27,120 Speaker 1: say it's really okay to have a very rigorous debate. Now, 409 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:29,480 Speaker 1: clearly it needs to be respectful, it needs to be 410 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:32,159 Speaker 1: data driven, but it needs to be forthright, and we 411 00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:34,520 Speaker 1: expect people to have a load of backbone on that. 412 00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:37,000 Speaker 1: And it's good because it creates a level of permission. 413 00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:38,800 Speaker 1: And what happens is we you know, it's a big 414 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:40,600 Speaker 1: part of how we recruit people that you know, we 415 00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:42,679 Speaker 1: have an expectation that you're going to going to really 416 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:44,760 Speaker 1: fight your corner on a position if you think it's 417 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:46,760 Speaker 1: important for customers, you're not going to back down for 418 00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:49,639 Speaker 1: unless you you know, you've really made your case clearly. 419 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:51,720 Speaker 1: And then the other part of it, of course, is 420 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:54,000 Speaker 1: to say, look, when we've made a decision, then let's 421 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:55,840 Speaker 1: make sure we've made it, you know, and nobody is 422 00:18:55,880 --> 00:18:58,119 Speaker 1: second guessing the decision, because we'll choose to move forward. 423 00:18:58,359 --> 00:19:01,320 Speaker 1: And so I find it's really really helpful because most 424 00:19:01,359 --> 00:19:04,199 Speaker 1: of the people I work with at whatever level I 425 00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:06,880 Speaker 1: can rely upon to give me a really honest, data 426 00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 1: driven view on a perspective, and that's really really useful. 427 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:11,840 Speaker 1: You know, you don't have to second guess or assume 428 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:14,480 Speaker 1: that people won't most people, I would hope all people 429 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:15,680 Speaker 1: inside our company will. 430 00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:17,400 Speaker 2: So how does that work in a meeting then, because 431 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:20,280 Speaker 2: normally I'm just thinking about a typical meeting where it's 432 00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:22,200 Speaker 2: a consensus based decision as it is that you know 433 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:24,400 Speaker 2: nine to nine percent of companies and you know when 434 00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:29,040 Speaker 2: the meeting has finished because you've reached consensus. But here, like, 435 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:33,200 Speaker 2: how how do you know when you've reached the decision 436 00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:36,800 Speaker 2: because you don't have that natural consensus of closure. 437 00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:39,520 Speaker 1: Well, we try to make sure that we make a 438 00:19:39,560 --> 00:19:44,159 Speaker 1: clear decision, and most meetings are kind of unusual in 439 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,679 Speaker 1: the sense that we do really believe in being very 440 00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:51,199 Speaker 1: data driven and rigorous in our decision making, and we 441 00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:53,760 Speaker 1: have a mechanism for that. Most meetings, by the way, 442 00:19:54,200 --> 00:19:57,160 Speaker 1: internally we don't use PowerPoint. Most meetings are governed by 443 00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:00,960 Speaker 1: a sixty well and as long as six page narrative. 444 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:02,760 Speaker 1: But it's a written form narrative. And the reason we 445 00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:05,720 Speaker 1: use a narrative is because it does that job right. 446 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:08,560 Speaker 1: You're not relying on interpretation you're not using high level, 447 00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:12,080 Speaker 1: superficial data and know nice pictures. You're actually having to 448 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:15,640 Speaker 1: write a long form narrative and you have to substantiate 449 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:18,240 Speaker 1: the statements you make in that narrative with clear data, 450 00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:21,240 Speaker 1: and when they're well written. What we find is it's 451 00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:22,879 Speaker 1: really useful because at the start of a meeting, we 452 00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:24,720 Speaker 1: stop and we read it and usually take fifteen to 453 00:20:24,720 --> 00:20:27,160 Speaker 1: twenty minutes in silence to read it, and it gets 454 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:30,119 Speaker 1: everyone onto the same page in a really effective way, 455 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:33,399 Speaker 1: really quickly. And what I tend to find and we 456 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:36,280 Speaker 1: have basically a set of principles around how these meetings 457 00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:39,920 Speaker 1: should run, which is that people that the senior most 458 00:20:39,920 --> 00:20:42,639 Speaker 1: person in the room should speak last so as not 459 00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:46,479 Speaker 1: to introduce any any bias inadvertently, and then we have 460 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:49,960 Speaker 1: a robust debate and then the opinions of the senior 461 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,320 Speaker 1: person you're kind of informed by everyone else's opinion, and 462 00:20:52,359 --> 00:20:54,480 Speaker 1: then typically we get a fairly clear decision as a 463 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:57,840 Speaker 1: consequence of that. So I find that that mechanism, in particular, 464 00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:02,800 Speaker 1: that narrative is really helpful to getting clear decisions, you know, 465 00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:06,080 Speaker 1: and that have backbone disagree and commit principle is clearly 466 00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:09,080 Speaker 1: at work. But what happens is with the document is 467 00:21:09,119 --> 00:21:11,879 Speaker 1: you do tend to get a lot of rich data 468 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:14,840 Speaker 1: that kind of removes a lot of the interpretation and 469 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:18,760 Speaker 1: subjectivity that you often see with PowerPoint in other organizations. 470 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:20,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to come back to the six page narrative, 471 00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:26,600 Speaker 2: but on the disagreeing commit for you, how how do 472 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:28,760 Speaker 2: you manage that just internally because I imagine there must have 473 00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:31,520 Speaker 2: been many decisions that you disagreed on but had to 474 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:35,000 Speaker 2: commit to. Like how how internally has that worked? Yeah? 475 00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:38,240 Speaker 1: Totally fine. I mean I love it, you know, you 476 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:42,040 Speaker 1: know because I feel and certainly it's the case with 477 00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:44,959 Speaker 1: the people I work directly with, is that you know, 478 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,320 Speaker 1: you really, you really are expected to have a strong, 479 00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:52,040 Speaker 1: strong opinion. And actually it's it counts against you if 480 00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:53,800 Speaker 1: you have an opinion and you don't share it. So 481 00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:55,560 Speaker 1: I'm going to give you my opinion, but you know, 482 00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:57,560 Speaker 1: the expectation is you do it in a very objective, 483 00:21:57,600 --> 00:21:59,800 Speaker 1: data driven way, and so here's the basis of my opinion, 484 00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:03,600 Speaker 1: and you'll have a good quality argument and it's not subjective, 485 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:07,280 Speaker 1: it's objective, and you tend to get the argument or 486 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:09,280 Speaker 1: conversation built around the right things, and you get to 487 00:22:09,320 --> 00:22:11,960 Speaker 1: a much clearer decision. And you know, it's happened many 488 00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:14,000 Speaker 1: times that decisions have gone against me, and I feel 489 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:16,680 Speaker 1: totally fine about that because it's not as though you're 490 00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:19,320 Speaker 1: having voiced an opinion and you usually what you find 491 00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:22,280 Speaker 1: is that it's a good, considered decision that gets made, 492 00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:24,080 Speaker 1: even if it's one that you probably don't agree with, 493 00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:25,920 Speaker 1: And so I find it to be really effective. 494 00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:29,240 Speaker 2: How do you pick up for that in recruitment? Because 495 00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:32,959 Speaker 2: I feel like so many cultures, my own workplace culture 496 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:38,439 Speaker 2: and Inventium included, like we've got very nice, agreeable people, 497 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:41,720 Speaker 2: and I love this principle of Amazon's and you know, 498 00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:44,560 Speaker 2: it reminds me of radical candor, and like there are 499 00:22:44,600 --> 00:22:47,959 Speaker 2: sort of lots of versions you know of that, I guess, So, 500 00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:50,199 Speaker 2: how do you pick up for that in recruitment to 501 00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:52,560 Speaker 2: find someone that's actually going to thrive in a disagreeing 502 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:53,440 Speaker 2: commit environment. 503 00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:56,120 Speaker 1: Yeah, we test for it. And the way we test 504 00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:59,040 Speaker 1: for it is that we have another leadership principle called 505 00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:02,560 Speaker 1: hire and develop the best, And the thinking behind that 506 00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:05,560 Speaker 1: leadership principle is that we want every person who comes 507 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:08,520 Speaker 1: into the organization to be a creative. In the context 508 00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:11,879 Speaker 1: of our company, culture that they're bringing something that's additive, 509 00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:13,840 Speaker 1: and the test we use is that they're better than 510 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:16,280 Speaker 1: fifty percent of people already in that role. So we 511 00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:18,879 Speaker 1: try to apply an empirical test to that, and then 512 00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:21,960 Speaker 1: we have a mechanism that we call the loop. And 513 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:28,400 Speaker 1: in the loop, it's quite a a structured process where 514 00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,800 Speaker 1: a candidate who usually has already met a competency bar 515 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:34,399 Speaker 1: goes into a process and specifically, what we're trying to 516 00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:37,360 Speaker 1: test for is whether the person is raise the bar 517 00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:40,280 Speaker 1: in the context of our culture. And each of the 518 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:42,720 Speaker 1: interviewers in the loop is assigned to one or two 519 00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:46,000 Speaker 1: leadership principles, and we'll ask a series of questions related 520 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:49,320 Speaker 1: to gathering data as to whether that person raises the 521 00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:52,199 Speaker 1: bar or not against the leadership principles, and then we 522 00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:55,440 Speaker 1: have a debrief at the end and we compare data points, 523 00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:58,200 Speaker 1: and one of those leadership principles will always be have backbone, 524 00:23:58,240 --> 00:24:01,600 Speaker 1: disagree and commit, and we'll have a conversation about it. 525 00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:03,280 Speaker 1: If we don't feel like the person raises the bar, 526 00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:05,919 Speaker 1: we'll talk about why and whether we feel like it 527 00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:08,200 Speaker 1: can be mitigated, because nobody is going to be perfect 528 00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:11,520 Speaker 1: against forteen leadership principles. It's usually the case, but the 529 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:14,040 Speaker 1: question is can they be mitigated and do we feel 530 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:16,359 Speaker 1: like the strengths outwigh some of the perhaps risks that 531 00:24:16,359 --> 00:24:19,159 Speaker 1: we see, and then what happens, which one of the 532 00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:23,200 Speaker 1: things I really like is we have typically in recruitment processes, 533 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:25,520 Speaker 1: you have a lot of biases that are built into 534 00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:28,720 Speaker 1: recruitment processes. You have a bias from the hiring manager 535 00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:32,280 Speaker 1: who's invariably got it incentive to hire you because at 536 00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:34,159 Speaker 1: that particular point in time he or she may not 537 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,479 Speaker 1: have someone in the role and therefore is suffering as 538 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:38,080 Speaker 1: a consequence of doing two jobs. You know, there's a 539 00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:40,560 Speaker 1: whole bunch of biases there. So we have what's called 540 00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:44,199 Speaker 1: a bar raiser, and the bar raiser is typically what 541 00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:46,880 Speaker 1: we think of as a role model, amazon in someone 542 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:49,560 Speaker 1: who's really kind of embodies of leadership principles in a 543 00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:51,879 Speaker 1: really strong way, and they're certified and they have no 544 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:55,400 Speaker 1: stake whatsoever in the outcome of that decision other than 545 00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:57,399 Speaker 1: to ensure that this person raises the bar against our 546 00:24:57,440 --> 00:24:59,520 Speaker 1: leadership principles. And in the debrief, that person has a 547 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:04,040 Speaker 1: veto and it often gets exercised, and so we try 548 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:06,680 Speaker 1: to make sure that if you accept the premise that 549 00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:08,520 Speaker 1: you know, our culture and our people are going to 550 00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:10,960 Speaker 1: drive in the fullness of time, our ability to be 551 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:14,520 Speaker 1: successful for customers and therefore successful ourselves, then the point 552 00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:17,040 Speaker 1: of hiring is a massively important point in time in 553 00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:19,160 Speaker 1: the context of our long term success. So we spent 554 00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:20,600 Speaker 1: a lot of time and effort on that. 555 00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:23,840 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's awesome. With the questions that you're asking around 556 00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:28,560 Speaker 2: the leadership principles, are they more like behavioral questions where 557 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:30,400 Speaker 2: you're like, tell me about a time where you've disagreed 558 00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:31,040 Speaker 2: and committe like, is. 559 00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:34,320 Speaker 1: That we're just looking for an evidence base around how 560 00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:36,679 Speaker 1: the persons operated through their career that you know that 561 00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:38,399 Speaker 1: we think aligned strongly to the things we think are 562 00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:39,040 Speaker 1: really important. 563 00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:41,720 Speaker 2: Do you remember your recruitment process? 564 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:42,720 Speaker 1: I do. I do. 565 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:45,159 Speaker 2: What are some of the things that stood out to 566 00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:47,480 Speaker 2: you or that you that were most memorable in terms 567 00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:49,159 Speaker 2: of how they worked out whether you were right for 568 00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:49,520 Speaker 2: the role? 569 00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:51,879 Speaker 1: I don't know, because you don't get visibility to your 570 00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:55,359 Speaker 1: own process. Yeah, no, you don't see the output. Obviously 571 00:25:55,440 --> 00:26:00,240 Speaker 1: it must have been, okay, must have been. But look, 572 00:26:00,280 --> 00:26:02,560 Speaker 1: one of the things I find and I get this 573 00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,560 Speaker 1: feedback consistently from people is that culture is a kind 574 00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:08,560 Speaker 1: of interesting thing because it's not as though it's good 575 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,760 Speaker 1: or bad. There's no judgment. I think typically people are good, 576 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:14,320 Speaker 1: you know, fit well in a culture, or they don't right, 577 00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:17,280 Speaker 1: and you may be an outstanding performer but not right 578 00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:19,080 Speaker 1: for the culture, in which case you're probably not going 579 00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:21,359 Speaker 1: to be successful or happy in an organization like this. 580 00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:24,879 Speaker 1: It's so strongly attuned to these fourteen leadership principles. So 581 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:26,920 Speaker 1: what I found is that even though it's a very 582 00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:30,200 Speaker 1: time intensive process, it's a really good screen both ways 583 00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:32,240 Speaker 1: because you know, often what I've had is people coming 584 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:33,880 Speaker 1: into the process going, look, I've got a really clear 585 00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:35,840 Speaker 1: sense of your culture now, because you know it's so 586 00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:37,960 Speaker 1: evident through the process, and you know, I just don't 587 00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:40,040 Speaker 1: think it's the right culture for me. And that's awesome, 588 00:26:40,080 --> 00:26:41,359 Speaker 1: you know when you get that sort of an output, 589 00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:43,480 Speaker 1: because it's given people a chance to get a real 590 00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:45,560 Speaker 1: sense of how the culture works and whether they're going 591 00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:48,480 Speaker 1: to be happy and thrive and operate well in that environment. 592 00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:49,960 Speaker 1: So it's really useful in that sense. 593 00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:53,200 Speaker 2: Yeah. Interesting. I want to come back to the six 594 00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:56,160 Speaker 2: page and narrative because I had heard that power points 595 00:26:56,240 --> 00:27:00,359 Speaker 2: are banned. Was that hard by the way to I 596 00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:04,760 Speaker 2: imagine in your pre Amazon or pre WUS life you 597 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:08,000 Speaker 2: would have credited lots of PowerPoint. What was that like 598 00:27:08,280 --> 00:27:09,119 Speaker 2: getting that up? 599 00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:11,000 Speaker 1: In actual fact, I used to be a management consultant, 600 00:27:11,040 --> 00:27:13,439 Speaker 1: so I lived in PowerPoint for a long time, and 601 00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:17,960 Speaker 1: so I thought I would struggle with it. Actually, but 602 00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:21,840 Speaker 1: it became a big It took a long time. And 603 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:25,359 Speaker 1: because it's not it's not a natural thing. A lot 604 00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:27,800 Speaker 1: of people don't spend time writing long form documents in 605 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:30,359 Speaker 1: any company, and so actually it's a learned skill and 606 00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:32,159 Speaker 1: it just takes a bit of practice. And we you know, 607 00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:36,000 Speaker 1: so we use long form narrative for most things. So 608 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:38,040 Speaker 1: for instance, when we when we do an interview, we'll 609 00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:39,960 Speaker 1: write our notes up as long form narrative. We don't 610 00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:41,679 Speaker 1: use bullet points. We just write them up as long 611 00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:44,240 Speaker 1: form narrative. And so you just become very practiced at it. 612 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:46,879 Speaker 1: And so what I find is now it's just it's 613 00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:51,640 Speaker 1: it's so useful. I just couldn't imagine operating without them now. Actually, 614 00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:54,240 Speaker 1: because because of the level of rigor and depth you 615 00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:56,600 Speaker 1: get to and when you're writing one, what I find 616 00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:59,520 Speaker 1: is I probably write maybe six or seven of them 617 00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:03,439 Speaker 1: a year, long form, six pages, and when you're writing them, 618 00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:06,840 Speaker 1: it gives you exceptional clarity because you really have to. 619 00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:10,440 Speaker 1: It forces you to be quite rigorous and to think 620 00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:13,000 Speaker 1: things through deeply, So both in terms of consuming it 621 00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:14,560 Speaker 1: in terms of getting people onto the same page and 622 00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:17,080 Speaker 1: writing them, it's a really really useful mechanism. And so 623 00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:18,520 Speaker 1: I thought it'd be a lot harder than it was, 624 00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:20,760 Speaker 1: to be frank, and it wasn't at all. 625 00:28:21,200 --> 00:28:24,280 Speaker 2: Like I imagine when you say narrative, I imagine something reading like 626 00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:26,639 Speaker 2: a short story. Is that the right interpretation? 627 00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:31,240 Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, six page long form narrative, full sentences, no. 628 00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:34,359 Speaker 2: Dot points, no dot points, beginning, middle, and end, with 629 00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:35,280 Speaker 2: data woven in. 630 00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:39,360 Speaker 1: Black and white. You know. Yeah, wow, you can have 631 00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:41,360 Speaker 1: lots of appendencies, by the way, and so some people do. 632 00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:44,080 Speaker 1: I never do. But you see these documents that are 633 00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:46,400 Speaker 1: so well but you don't have to read them, and 634 00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:49,080 Speaker 1: that's the rule. And so again it's a forcing function. 635 00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:52,080 Speaker 1: So people have them, but you're not expected to read them. 636 00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:54,200 Speaker 1: So you need to write the document with a view 637 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:56,440 Speaker 1: that the apendicies may not be read. 638 00:28:57,120 --> 00:28:59,320 Speaker 2: How long does it take to write one of it? 639 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:02,840 Speaker 1: Kind of depends. It depends. So like I sit down 640 00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:06,120 Speaker 1: and write, you know, a kind of a document that 641 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:08,240 Speaker 1: summarizes our aims at business once a year, and I 642 00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:10,160 Speaker 1: take a lot of time on that because you know, 643 00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:12,160 Speaker 1: I really go deep in every part of the business 644 00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:14,000 Speaker 1: and thin deeply about it. So maybe that's you know, 645 00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:17,280 Speaker 1: fifty or sixty hours of my time to write that. Equally, 646 00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:19,080 Speaker 1: I've written docs that I can do, you know, in 647 00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:22,160 Speaker 1: an afternoon in three or four hours, that aren't perhaps 648 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:25,680 Speaker 1: as deep or kind of analytical as the broader docks. 649 00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:27,440 Speaker 1: It just kind of depends. You just get very good 650 00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:28,880 Speaker 1: at writing them. Some of them are quick to write, 651 00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:31,200 Speaker 1: Others take a lot longer that. 652 00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:33,560 Speaker 2: You taught how to write, because I feel like the 653 00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:36,160 Speaker 2: ability to write, and particularly the ability to write pros 654 00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:38,680 Speaker 2: is a lost skill. Does Amazon give you training? 655 00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:43,440 Speaker 1: We do have narrative writing courses and so it's totally optional. 656 00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:45,280 Speaker 1: So if people want coaching on it, you can get 657 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:48,280 Speaker 1: you can get coaching. And then there's what you do 658 00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:50,000 Speaker 1: find to your point is there's a bunch of people 659 00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:51,720 Speaker 1: who are just really good at it, and they invariably 660 00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:53,920 Speaker 1: become coaches to everyone else as well. I'm not one 661 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:54,440 Speaker 1: of those people. 662 00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:56,080 Speaker 2: So how did you get better at it? I assume 663 00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:58,000 Speaker 2: that you've improved at it during your time here. 664 00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:00,880 Speaker 1: It's just practicing conditioning. You just get you consume a 665 00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:02,680 Speaker 1: lot of them, you know, you write a lot of them. 666 00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:05,840 Speaker 1: You just get good of it. I think moderately competent, 667 00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:07,400 Speaker 1: I would describe probably not good. 668 00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:10,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm just I'm fascinated by that. I feel like 669 00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:12,960 Speaker 2: there'd be you know, people listening to this going, ah, 670 00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:15,720 Speaker 2: do away with powerpoints. But then I feel like with 671 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:17,800 Speaker 2: the amount of time and rigor that's going into a 672 00:30:17,840 --> 00:30:19,880 Speaker 2: six page narrative, and I assume that they don't have 673 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:23,040 Speaker 2: to be six pages, but that's just the limit that's right. 674 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:25,480 Speaker 2: And I assume that they are like font sized guidelines, 675 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:27,160 Speaker 2: so you're not just going eight point five. 676 00:30:27,080 --> 00:30:31,080 Speaker 1: Totally ten point font minimum. There's there's hard rules around 677 00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:33,680 Speaker 1: margin sizes and line spacing the whole lot. Because you know, 678 00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:35,440 Speaker 1: you can imagine every trick in the book has been 679 00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:39,200 Speaker 1: tried absolutely. You know that this notion of a forcing 680 00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:41,600 Speaker 1: function is an interesting one. That the idea that it's 681 00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:44,000 Speaker 1: a fixed six pages is really useful as well, because 682 00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:47,640 Speaker 1: you know, I know that Andy writes a six pager 683 00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:50,760 Speaker 1: on AWS each year for Jeff and I sit there 684 00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:53,760 Speaker 1: and going, you know, goalie, how would you know fit 685 00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:56,400 Speaker 1: an entire business into six pages? And you know when 686 00:30:56,440 --> 00:30:59,520 Speaker 1: I struggle to do the AMZ business and Edwin, who 687 00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:01,840 Speaker 1: runs out APEC business, does the same. And it's a 688 00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:06,760 Speaker 1: super forcing function because it does force you to synthesize 689 00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:10,200 Speaker 1: your messaging into a coherent six page narrative. You can't 690 00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:12,080 Speaker 1: just waffle on forever, and you've got to get to 691 00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:14,040 Speaker 1: the important points and you've got to you've got to 692 00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:18,200 Speaker 1: make it constructive and really focused, and so that becomes 693 00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:19,360 Speaker 1: useful as well. 694 00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:22,440 Speaker 2: I imagine that must be a beautiful time saving device 695 00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:25,240 Speaker 2: because I feel like like that much thought does not 696 00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:27,479 Speaker 2: go into PowerPoint decks and there's often a lot of 697 00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:31,560 Speaker 2: unnecessary totally waffle Where is this? It's all, It's all there. 698 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:33,320 Speaker 2: And I want to pick back up on what you 699 00:31:33,360 --> 00:31:36,440 Speaker 2: said about how within the meeting is when people will 700 00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:38,600 Speaker 2: actually read the narrative. Is that right? So the of 701 00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:39,840 Speaker 2: time blocked out for reading. 702 00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:43,360 Speaker 1: Normally, what happens is you take you read in silence 703 00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:45,160 Speaker 1: for the first fifteen to twenty minutes of the meeting, 704 00:31:45,320 --> 00:31:48,680 Speaker 1: and everyone reads in silence, and again as a bunch 705 00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:51,640 Speaker 1: of protocols around that and what are they? We just 706 00:31:51,960 --> 00:31:56,760 Speaker 1: complete silence because people are focused on it and concentrating 707 00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:00,320 Speaker 1: on their docks, so you know, just being respectful those 708 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:03,200 Speaker 1: is important. So it's quite funny, like it's really feels 709 00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:05,520 Speaker 1: very unnatural when you first join that. Everyone sits down 710 00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:07,280 Speaker 1: and you know, hi, how are you? And let's read 711 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:08,720 Speaker 1: a dock and you sit there in silence for twenty 712 00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:11,880 Speaker 1: minutes and read a dock. I find it so super 713 00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:16,200 Speaker 1: useful because you do get this situation where often what happens, 714 00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:18,240 Speaker 1: particularly with PowerPoint, is you've get people that are just 715 00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:23,360 Speaker 1: wonderful communicators and can communicate really well and present really well. 716 00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:29,160 Speaker 1: Often that can cover a lot of sins. And the 717 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:31,000 Speaker 1: reverse is also true. You get people that are poor 718 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:33,880 Speaker 1: communicators who can't get a point across well, but actually 719 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:37,600 Speaker 1: what they're saying is really important, and that's kind of 720 00:32:37,640 --> 00:32:40,640 Speaker 1: I think that's potentially very risky in a lot of companies. 721 00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:42,680 Speaker 1: What you want to do is get the right message 722 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:44,360 Speaker 1: and because you've got time to construct it well and 723 00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,280 Speaker 1: a narrative, typically what happens, and it's not always the case. 724 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:49,640 Speaker 1: You know, invariably, if you've get a poorly written narrative. 725 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:51,480 Speaker 1: You know, you don't get a great caller outcome, but 726 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:54,240 Speaker 1: when it's well written, getting everyone to the same page 727 00:32:54,280 --> 00:32:56,160 Speaker 1: with the same data set at the end of that 728 00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:58,240 Speaker 1: twenty minutes is really powerful. Because the other thing that 729 00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:01,840 Speaker 1: happens with PowerPoint is you'll have someone who has seen 730 00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:03,760 Speaker 1: an hour and they'll spend forty five minutes of the 731 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:08,560 Speaker 1: hour presenting a pack and you've got a bunch of 732 00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:10,440 Speaker 1: questions for each of each of the pages, so you 733 00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:12,880 Speaker 1: can stop and ask questions, and often you don't get 734 00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:16,160 Speaker 1: to a really clean endpoint because you're debating different things 735 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:18,560 Speaker 1: and it leads a lot to interpretation. So often find 736 00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:20,680 Speaker 1: that you just don't get as cleaner an outcome, which 737 00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:22,680 Speaker 1: means it actually takes a lot longer because you're reving 738 00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:24,760 Speaker 1: through things a lot more. That doesn't seem to happen 739 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:25,160 Speaker 1: as much. 740 00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:28,360 Speaker 2: Yeah, I do like the fact that it really takes 741 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:30,760 Speaker 2: out a lot of the biases that you know, if 742 00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:33,000 Speaker 2: you've got the gift of the gab, you can sell 743 00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:35,960 Speaker 2: moost things through a PowerPoint deck and the reverse is true. 744 00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:39,800 Speaker 2: But also I like the fact that the ratios of 745 00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:46,360 Speaker 2: consuming information versus talking about the information is really different 746 00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:49,720 Speaker 2: here because You're not just like in passive mode listening 747 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:52,640 Speaker 2: to a PowerPoint presentation. You're actively reading and processing something 748 00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:55,520 Speaker 2: that must make for a very different quality of discussions. 749 00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:57,360 Speaker 1: I think, so, yeah, invariably it does. 750 00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:01,000 Speaker 2: I want to ask about the PRFAQ, which, from what 751 00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,920 Speaker 2: I understand, is Amazon's version of a minimum viable product. 752 00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:09,120 Speaker 1: Well, probably not. I'd say it's a precursor to a 753 00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:11,680 Speaker 1: minimum as we would call a lovable product as opposed 754 00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:15,360 Speaker 1: a viable product. So invariably it goes back to our 755 00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,400 Speaker 1: leadership principle, right, which is that everything we do starts 756 00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:20,920 Speaker 1: with the customer and works backwards. And so one of 757 00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:25,120 Speaker 1: the mechanisms we use to underpin that is the PRFAQ. 758 00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:26,440 Speaker 2: So what does that look like? 759 00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:30,080 Speaker 1: So essentially what happens is that we have a process. 760 00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:33,960 Speaker 1: We call it a working backwards process clearly, and the 761 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,239 Speaker 1: idea is that it's working backwards from the customer. There's 762 00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:40,000 Speaker 1: a set of questions. Your listeners won't be able to 763 00:34:40,040 --> 00:34:42,719 Speaker 1: see these questions, but I'm just funking security on my 764 00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:47,360 Speaker 1: security tag, and there's five questions. If you want to 765 00:34:47,360 --> 00:34:48,600 Speaker 1: look at those and. 766 00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:49,200 Speaker 2: Can I read these out? 767 00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:49,600 Speaker 1: I can? 768 00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:52,200 Speaker 2: So the working backwards questions, who is the customer? What 769 00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:55,240 Speaker 2: is the customer problem or opportunity? Is the most important 770 00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:57,680 Speaker 2: customer benefit? Clear, how do you know what customers need 771 00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:01,800 Speaker 2: or want? What does the customer experience look like? That's cool? 772 00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:03,879 Speaker 2: And this is like a little laminated card that you've 773 00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:06,040 Speaker 2: got attached to your Curity neckcloud. 774 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:08,600 Speaker 1: And the reason it's called the working backwards process is 775 00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:11,960 Speaker 1: because everything we do starts with a customer and works backwards. Now, 776 00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:14,560 Speaker 1: the first step is to say, all right, well, how 777 00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:17,200 Speaker 1: do I know that this is useful for the customer? 778 00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:19,560 Speaker 1: And so our way of doing that is to write 779 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:22,879 Speaker 1: a press release. And what we do is we write 780 00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:25,480 Speaker 1: a press release at some point in the future about 781 00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:29,799 Speaker 1: this particular service or product or initiative. And the reason 782 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:31,920 Speaker 1: we do that is and we tend to have fictitious 783 00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:36,640 Speaker 1: quotes from potential customers and other people, and we're trying 784 00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:38,440 Speaker 1: to apply a test that says, how do we know 785 00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:41,560 Speaker 1: that this particular thing that we're proposing to do is 786 00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:44,800 Speaker 1: really going to have impact for our customer? Because you 787 00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:46,919 Speaker 1: can build a whole lot of things and then find 788 00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:48,560 Speaker 1: you've gotten to the end of a process and go, well, 789 00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:50,480 Speaker 1: you know that really just didn't add a whole lot 790 00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:53,279 Speaker 1: of values. So the pifique is our tool to do that. 791 00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:55,600 Speaker 1: And so what happens is you start drafting these press 792 00:35:55,640 --> 00:35:58,960 Speaker 1: releases and it really helps you to think about them 793 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:01,600 Speaker 1: in with the customer in mind, because you're saying, it's 794 00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:07,000 Speaker 1: total point of reference is whether this will create value, 795 00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:10,359 Speaker 1: will be useful, or be valuable. And the quotes help 796 00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:12,680 Speaker 1: you because you're actually saying, well, how will this person 797 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:15,080 Speaker 1: consume this and what would their reaction be to this 798 00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:18,000 Speaker 1: particular thing. So that's the press release. Now the FAQ 799 00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:20,480 Speaker 1: is kind of interesting because what you then do is 800 00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:23,520 Speaker 1: you think up a whole series of frequently asked questions, 801 00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:28,440 Speaker 1: and typically they're grouped into sort of outward facing questions. 802 00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:30,359 Speaker 1: You know, it might be how would we think about 803 00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:32,000 Speaker 1: pricing this? You know, all of the things you could 804 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:37,040 Speaker 1: otherwise think of, and you know, internal questions like maybe 805 00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:40,680 Speaker 1: an investment type conversation, those sorts of things. And what 806 00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:42,479 Speaker 1: we try to do is apply a test that says, look, 807 00:36:42,520 --> 00:36:44,640 Speaker 1: how do we think We try to come up with 808 00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:46,880 Speaker 1: the hardest possible question. So again we're trying to use 809 00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:49,719 Speaker 1: a forcing function that says, look, let's have considered as 810 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:53,160 Speaker 1: much about this problem as we possibly can through these FAQs, 811 00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:54,880 Speaker 1: and again it's just a forcing function to do that 812 00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:57,480 Speaker 1: planning and assuming. And what tends to happen is these 813 00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:00,520 Speaker 1: power of FAQs tend to iterate a lot and if 814 00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:01,919 Speaker 1: you get to a good answer, then you go into 815 00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,360 Speaker 1: your sort of MLP type phase where you're starting to 816 00:37:05,360 --> 00:37:07,960 Speaker 1: build a prototype and getting this thing built. But everything 817 00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:11,280 Speaker 1: starts there. There's nothing significant that we do that doesn't 818 00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:13,719 Speaker 1: have a paer FAQ. And often what happens is you'll 819 00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:16,640 Speaker 1: get to a certain point in the life cycle of 820 00:37:16,680 --> 00:37:18,560 Speaker 1: this thing. Because I'm using the word thing because it 821 00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:20,640 Speaker 1: could be a product or a service, it could also 822 00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:22,640 Speaker 1: be a project, it could be a whole after things, 823 00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:25,560 Speaker 1: and your reference back to the PERCQ going well, you 824 00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:27,680 Speaker 1: know what do we envisage this would look like? And 825 00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:29,920 Speaker 1: you know how do we track back against that? So 826 00:37:29,719 --> 00:37:31,560 Speaker 1: it's quite a useful mechanism. 827 00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:36,040 Speaker 2: That's fascinating. What percentage of ideas get past the PRFIQ stage? 828 00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:38,719 Speaker 1: I would say a lot. And the reason I would 829 00:37:38,719 --> 00:37:40,800 Speaker 1: say a lot is because we don't have a defined 830 00:37:40,840 --> 00:37:45,799 Speaker 1: process for ideation and investment. There's no investment committee, there's 831 00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:49,840 Speaker 1: no clear path. And that's pretty intentional because you know, 832 00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:51,799 Speaker 1: you don't know where an idea is going to come from, 833 00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:54,480 Speaker 1: and so you don't necessarily want to preordain you know, 834 00:37:54,520 --> 00:37:56,640 Speaker 1: how to get an idea. So we have this management 835 00:37:56,719 --> 00:37:59,719 Speaker 1: I guess philosophy, this idea of the organizational Yes, have 836 00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:00,840 Speaker 1: you heard about that context? 837 00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:01,960 Speaker 2: I don't think I have nice. 838 00:38:02,080 --> 00:38:05,799 Speaker 1: So what we think, particularly for people leaders, as we 839 00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:08,200 Speaker 1: try to think of our role as to find a 840 00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:10,440 Speaker 1: way to yes. So rather than you go into a 841 00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:12,000 Speaker 1: lot of meetings and people think it's their job to 842 00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:15,160 Speaker 1: say no, really, my job is if someone's brought me 843 00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:16,680 Speaker 1: a proposal, is to try to work out how to 844 00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:18,960 Speaker 1: get it to yes. And so in many cases, what 845 00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:22,160 Speaker 1: happens with a per FAQ is it iterates, which is, look, oh, 846 00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:23,880 Speaker 1: you know, maybe you should think about A, or you 847 00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:26,080 Speaker 1: think about B, and look, why don't you go to 848 00:38:26,080 --> 00:38:28,120 Speaker 1: have a conversation with person over there? And you know, 849 00:38:28,320 --> 00:38:30,239 Speaker 1: I'm not sure this is quite ready, but like I think, 850 00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:32,320 Speaker 1: if you think about A, B and C, you know 851 00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:34,200 Speaker 1: we can get it there. So often what happens is 852 00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:36,719 Speaker 1: the per of FAQ becomes a tool to help with 853 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:39,240 Speaker 1: the process of iteration. So the reason I say most 854 00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:41,480 Speaker 1: is because if you've got a fundamentally good idea that 855 00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:43,680 Speaker 1: holds water in the context of creating value for customer. 856 00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:45,399 Speaker 1: Then most of what we're trying to do is work 857 00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:47,360 Speaker 1: out how to get it executed. Now, in some cases 858 00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:49,480 Speaker 1: that could be really quick and really easily easy, and 859 00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:52,319 Speaker 1: the process enables that. In other cases, though, it'll take 860 00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:53,719 Speaker 1: a lot of iteration to get to a point where 861 00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:55,839 Speaker 1: we go, Okay, good, let's move, you know, And so 862 00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:58,480 Speaker 1: most of the time you're really working towards yes as 863 00:38:58,520 --> 00:39:00,480 Speaker 1: opposed to a killing idea and saying no. 864 00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:04,839 Speaker 2: I love that. Yeah, working towards yeah, getting to a yes. 865 00:39:04,920 --> 00:39:07,400 Speaker 2: That's so different to how most people operate because no 866 00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:11,040 Speaker 2: makes you sound smart generally because you you know, it's funny. 867 00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:13,520 Speaker 1: It's easy to say no. It's a lot harder to 868 00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:13,960 Speaker 1: say yes. 869 00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:18,200 Speaker 2: Yeah, Absolutely, I love that. My final question for you, 870 00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:21,560 Speaker 2: Paul is how can people find out more about you 871 00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:26,239 Speaker 2: and Amazon Web Services and by what you're doing? Like, 872 00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:27,920 Speaker 2: where where can people go to find out more? 873 00:39:28,239 --> 00:39:31,440 Speaker 1: Thank you? Well, look, I really appreciate this opportunity because 874 00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:34,799 Speaker 1: you know, fundamentally, the thing that enables us to be 875 00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:37,160 Speaker 1: successful for customers in the fullness of time is being 876 00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:40,240 Speaker 1: able to attract great quality of people who have awesome 877 00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:42,640 Speaker 1: careers here, so you know, it's fun to be able 878 00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:46,240 Speaker 1: to talk about our culture and hopefully you know, people 879 00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:48,520 Speaker 1: see it as being interesting and you know context around 880 00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:50,160 Speaker 1: where they can do great work. And you know, we've 881 00:39:50,200 --> 00:39:52,239 Speaker 1: got lots of lots and lots of roles open in 882 00:39:52,239 --> 00:39:54,600 Speaker 1: Australia and New Zealand today, so always looking for great people. 883 00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:57,040 Speaker 1: You can go on to our website. You know, I'd 884 00:39:57,040 --> 00:39:59,520 Speaker 1: love it if you're based in Sydney or Auckland. We 885 00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:02,000 Speaker 1: have made your customer events each year. Our summer he's 886 00:40:02,040 --> 00:40:05,040 Speaker 1: in April, about thirty thousand people are expected at the 887 00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:07,680 Speaker 1: International Convention Center in Sydney, and we'll have a similar 888 00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:10,520 Speaker 1: one in Auckland i think in the June July time frame, 889 00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:12,040 Speaker 1: and we have a whole lot of events. You know, 890 00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:14,120 Speaker 1: if you're a developer, we have big developer days through 891 00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:16,279 Speaker 1: the year, so i'd encourage you to come to any 892 00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:18,839 Speaker 1: one of our events as well. And you know we 893 00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:21,239 Speaker 1: often have meetups and our partners have meetups, so there's 894 00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:23,600 Speaker 1: many different ways you can you can come and meet 895 00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:25,120 Speaker 1: our team and get us sense of the work that 896 00:40:25,120 --> 00:40:27,680 Speaker 1: we're doing and hopefully the work that you might do. 897 00:40:27,719 --> 00:40:29,600 Speaker 1: If you chose to come and work with us. 898 00:40:29,680 --> 00:40:31,480 Speaker 2: That's awesome. And we'll link to the career's page in 899 00:40:31,520 --> 00:40:33,440 Speaker 2: the show notes and also just the events page as well, 900 00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:35,520 Speaker 2: so I people want to find out more, we'll put 901 00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:37,480 Speaker 2: those in the show notes. Paul, it has been an 902 00:40:37,520 --> 00:40:40,600 Speaker 2: absolute delight and just fascinating hearing how Amazon works. So 903 00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:41,919 Speaker 2: thank you so much for your time. 904 00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:43,920 Speaker 1: It's a pleasure. Thank you really appreciate it. 905 00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:47,680 Speaker 2: Hey, there, that is for today's show. If you like 906 00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:50,759 Speaker 2: this episode, why not share it with someone else that 907 00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:53,400 Speaker 2: you think could benefit from it. I just thought there 908 00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:57,279 Speaker 2: were so many great tips that Paul shared that so 909 00:40:57,400 --> 00:41:02,120 Speaker 2: many organizations and leaders could benefit from knowing and maybe 910 00:41:02,160 --> 00:41:05,319 Speaker 2: trialing out at their organization. So that is it for 911 00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:08,399 Speaker 2: today's show and I will see you next time.