AA259 - The Memo IS the Strategy (And How You MIGHT Be Running It Too)

So recording. And me go the. boy, it's been wild seven days[UM] CloudFlare cut eleven hundred workers. Same day that they reporported a thirty four percent revenue growth and They called it going A.I. first. And then also Fidelity announced five day return office on[UH] April 29th. And then couple days later, an 800 person that layoff seventh. So, So, was made the 7th. and, and but but the. interesting Thing about that one was. There. Was no mention of A .I. in that. Announcement. And you know what really makes wild? it, was that The same playbook. That was. Used both cases, but different excuses. meme memos, was. aren't Just justthe the. announcement Announcement of strategy, strategy. an the? The Memos Memo are. the. Strategy and then. Are you saying that this is making it all up as they're I along? not announcement Yes, I'm [UH] Sorry. just that's cool. You know, I'm saying if you swap .I. first and five day return office in these press releases that No, nobody. The the CEOs industry would know put this. Not, not depressed [UH] the. And especially about Stock market and. That is what we need Talk about. Today. So welcome back to. you? If this your first time here, welcome. I'm Your host product manager Brian Orlando and my co -host, the enterprise business agility consultant in Maharaja of Metrix himself, Patel. The message. itself Welcome all. Is So [UH] like subscribe because Om helps podcast more meaningful than you know. And Mr. share with friend who needs hear this. It be tremendous. Before. Anyone. Starts throwing rocks at me and claims that I'm CIO bashing or clients. cynical. You know who are out there let say this First, me. up front. Okay. Hi, I'm just doing pattern recognition. That's whole game today on the. So what you're you're going see in this episode is that going. See why six companies and seven days is. Not strategically independent decisions. That just happened to. It's, it's a herd cover. Or as talk about later, the scientific term isomorphism. We'll about. That laterYou're learn how Spot the announcement as strategy play in real time your inbox[UH] second. A memo hits you're also going understand why the incentive structure rewards confident sounding memos faster than underlying decisions play. The can even be In Real Time. evaluated. and also like here, here's part makes this real arguing agile episode. [UM] that. As as opposed opposed to LinkedIn I rant, don't don't know know. As opposed. Twitter rant. Know, as. going Toto. Catch And no this when you do it whatever's way happening You're with your own teams in your. Own meetings or smart reviews Whatever you. Have. Your road back [UH] roadmap reviews, whatever. Whatever. Because it's sea level version. display is loud enough to be obvious. But we're going look this in other places on this. guess you're gonna learn and recognize those patterns. So ,the stars didn't just align last seven days. We're saying. That's right, Let, let's start so start. let's with the raw data. where's Where, What actually happened in seven day window Cloud Flare, Fidelity, Coinbase, Freshworks, Meta, Microsoft. Six companies, seven days. Someone said[UH] first, some said, return to office. Of them said. Both and their rationales And what I'm arguing podcast today is that those rationales are completely interchangeable computely meaningless. in that, that. That is. tell of these strategies. I've got to. citation us screen CloudFlare 11 hundred layoffs so roughly 20 percent their workforce. On can see it May 7th, which was same day, they reported a thirty four per cent growth in revenue Fidelity announced a five day return office mandate on the 29th and then [UM] The seventh. A couple days later, the, same, they CloudFlare, by. the. they. announced, oh, we're lay off 800 people and again all the. I've are in that are. Being used examples. In this podcast, very tight period. rolled on a So yeah, there's your facts going into this podcast. Was strong? let's, Let's see we can unravel here. it's alet's start where we love Start podcast. Let's Immediately. On The Steelman start. side. Hey, six CEOs in week. That's, that's convergence the. Okay. Real[UM] lets start home signal. right. This is, this you. your Wall Street analyst right now talking There's also or Your Economist. And I think as we, we know, other podcasts, we. As we've established on The UruguayAgile podcast, economists are what. call [UH] unemployed people. Weatherman, Unemployed maybe like, hey, they're say this is real market,listen signal. The way that people are working. It's changing capabilities of businesses. A has has come come. age, age, but Brian. that's That's what. They're. they're Going going to say Say and and ask ask any CEO. their statement's gonna be strategic reasoning saying that got these tools. We can't Left behind. you do thin out. know, what I'm hearing there is they're saying we've got these new tools. We've spent all this money. So it's about time We started leveraging the benefits of those investments. What I've trying. off this guess I's Try to. Stay on the. Against side when Pick one podcast. OK. Yeah. maybe. Okay. Maybe a solid, Maybe. That's, that's. You can definitely tell I'm taking hard position this one. saying solid. be right off the. But CEOs talk to each other. And like. This the most cynical argument I could make. Ceo's talking to. They're conscious, just many stories that you've told The CEO will in say everyone's doing agile now. We gotta do it. You'll know same thing. I was This is what you knew. CEOs are they listen to? Jim before. We're like. Cramer down his dance whatever saying. Oh, you'll be left behind if you're not laying off people. Now's the time got market cover. know, layoff Dunlap school business business where where you. just Mm lay hmm. off it. Yeah, Yeah. yeah. know I'm I'm talking talking about about that.[UH] Yes. I Now is the time yeah. They're advantage taking of. This wave really The wave. not not saying saying every every company company is. is Doing doing that. that, I've just think they could be. Well so the other what you just. Said is. The academic's viewpoint on this. Sure. It's like, well, listen, the economist viewpoint of, Listen[UH] Companies see other company's laying off and they don't to be left out. They're going to, of course, this is, market converging. almost like. crossing chasm. like, well, of. Course, there's dip can't get customers you where in this. You know, at this point, because you. Haven't, you've improven. is. Like the. Opposite that, it's like? Market has proven that you need do layoffs now because not time. There's cover for you. So doing. Now know. then, then Other one one That that is. is Not not really really as as relevant. relevant me. me. I'm. I'm Going now. [UM] going to. Take Take my argument on those. On the cynical one, just said it's like see, let's talk other. Nobody wants left out crowd and then the. Is no markets is. Converging. It's It's like a natural thing. Get Right? coincidence? All over coincidence. You know one. I'm not really support much now. And honestly, shouldn't even mention Now thinking about the. Editing podcast is The company themselves, they have better information than we do. And they. know when it's the. Best time cut. So like almost didn't that one up because like CloudFlare announced thirty four percent profit and also did layoffs. Oh you said got good information but they're not hurting right now. have good information in sense that, know, thirty you four percent. But that wasn't enough. So what you've got do. This immediately boost up. bottom line has a hit count. I mean, it does. cutting head count does? Boose Bottom line. In, Cutting. Head. Count. Does. Boost. The .bottom line in the. Same way as like cutting. Your leg off helps you lose weight. Yeah, good that's analogy. But hey, pretty look, objective achieved. Right? If if you're hitting You did. Yeah, exactly. Are apprised on [UH] reaching certain low on. Your scale. That's what Get get right. Well, cut leg off. Yeah, they number. Yet yeah, them. The specific language here [UH] CloudFlare memo was about first in an agentic A .I. error and the other layoff that we mentioned not was have anything do did with that. So that's interesting. That's sort like I'm to hanging arguing point on that little later package. to. Move through. move through the. First part here. To talk about our. Our stance herd behavior heard behavior. In call what. I called the opening. kind of, also, in my defense of this, I. That hurt herbehavior. Like listen, there's doing what all their CEO friends doing. you're are. listening, friends. Jumped off. your cliff like. mom told You [UH] you, would you. Also jump off Cliff only after every single one of them did. And they're saying absolutely. If if we're all drinking the same thing the. Sure. Absolute. We'll jump. clip mom. Got it all. way off. My back. But the, the. four points here [UM]' her, her behavior. to. to stop on. Her behavior for second. Yeah. Because it sounds again. I'm on the arguing side this. Right? It sonds diminutive. Sounds like, pejorative. Sounds like. Attacking them for now, not being original thinkers whatever But there is a. real social psychology phenomenon called isomorphism. And specifically, there's a, a. There is. A term. Called mimetic [UH] isomorphism where a. Lot people that [UM] A lot People. That are in the same kind. Of group seep seek mimic other in behavior or to each attitude or. Both. And that is sort of. What's happening here. Of CEOs looking around going, oh, the CEO. Cloudare doing layoffs this week. I think should be doing. This week or maybe I'll be. Left out. Yeah, Think that's right. That's true. But also they're not necessarily using the same rationale. there Don't they? Using any rationale all? completely see dont, even but paper, their, their announcements had on they [UH] will nothing anything like you're saying..I. and lay off while. You're having four percent increase in profits is you can say anything. You could. Say [UH] that my favorite color this week is. Purple. So I'm laying off a thousand employees or eleven hundred players. whatever. Like it could been any reason. Doesn't matter. The stock market would taken like, oh, they look like they're poised the future they've got lot cash their pockets. They get disconnected fromthe completely reality., right of having to deal with running business because a, a. What talk about, Lot Time Podcast, about incentive market, which Street, isn't scenting the CEOs for specific thing. we'll get that second. That'll next category. We'll Second, promise. But[UH] interchangeable rationales here of oh we're first or oh, we've return office. And I've. Got all these people that hired when weren't we-to return live anywhere near here. That I'm just-office mode. don't Layoff. If I stay on the other side the. Arguing in this case, what proffer is this. Yes, we did hire lot during Covid and now. don't need many people. So guess what? Those that can actually come to the office because weare paying rent welcome. Otherwise we. Need those people that. we're make it. We're gonna I see on trust me we'll have whole category on. That later podcast The about. office every the It's same template being used in both. these all of. These actual return office really. But the. Fidelity one. one And and CloudFlare CloudFlare one, one. specifically, Specifically, it's it the. same. Same template, same actions, different reasons being given. But the? effects about. same. the, memo here. That what point out from category one. The memo here being sent Let out. the market response see stock only seeing everything. And mow is the. Strategy we getting it, we weaved. A strong, compelling story. And Mark reacted from it. What else you ask for? Right? The market reacts favorably, the stock price goes up and everybody suddenly goes. -ching. Isn't that point of living capital society? No [UH] don't know I'm Sorry, I supposed respond no. doesn't matter me. Those stay that side. I. Really. Don't to. that. Side. then you got suppose on. side now. over here. Let's smooth onto. takeaways here are so stop treating them. have a stop, Astar star, stopped see [UH] announcements as any kind strategic analysis or deeper insight into business. And start treating them. As what they are, is some more phism want ask Ask some and. You you want questions when yousee that like, oh, the CEO is trying act like all their other companies. You know, in his area, is, what are Silicon Valley whatever, a wherever company why this? Why is? CEO trying to fit in? Like what? the. you're also jumping Cliff with all his friends. Why? Well, I why see he smoking smoking cigarettes cigarettes all. all If you. So I. know know why. why. We're all. Middle school now. our moms are warning us there's that rational change. It's like when, when. When announced. You see announcement. Like this, you're ask yourself, does the rationale change? The reasoning behind layoffs or whatever is? whatever. Announcement is. Does Change if swap[UH] first with return office? With digital transformation, with. Whatever know, corporate restructuring, what does matter? first. second point is, is there evidence of execution beyond [UH] initial Because I will tell you, I've been a bunch. shops that they make big, sung in dance, know, like[UH] I remember early my career, project kickoffs used be treated like. Sure. Yeah. We're better. Big, big, chunk cash. the, and. company. That's when the. Company. They would have a. Big song. dance. then you know, project kind fizzle. announcement? On that second one. Evidence of. Execution is going be. In the. For evidenced announcement. of. next The That's what they're executing. They're already planning that. So yeah, and think had another one, right Mean, the. Last one is self-explanatory. it who benefits from this announcement? I. Mean, like 90 percent I'm it's that people. With. Most soccer. Company One. That's benefit. Who happen. A lot. times be[UH] bored this. Yeah, yeah. Right. That's so weird. I know how that could be. let's Think. right. Oh playbook works because system rewards it. So yeah, we need talk about So this. System. But before we. Move to.The system, like des we're that memo saying the so I've I just just said said that. that the memo. memo Is is the. Strategy. strategy. So so, Ithink Think obvious is this strategy, so question after that. Why does work, Brian? How dare you? Let's get my office. this play? Keep cashing checks. Here's answer. Didn't know was give the. I, yeah, right. podcast like this. the Sucked stock stock market. market. They're bored. board. That's talent talent. markets Market are the. Press, that the, tech like. press. know, investigative Not journalism that. dying. mean, it dying years they all reward confident sounding restructuring narratives on a very short cycle that gets sorter and Shorter as the news cycle. And [UH] underlying decisions like they don't even get evaluated anymore. To be honest. So you're saying that the. Announcement pays off before anyone even. Knows that. strategy is working. That that's that is. game in can Is how I It sounds lucrative. on you start by making some things because They That would would been great transition if had Bleep's automatic this? bleeps that these my next feature in an automatic. Bleeps. my, My citation is back podcast. princip Oh yeah, shirky The the. know who benefits financially from the? Audience believe in these things. The push. To Short-term profits over long term like. Insistency and profitability up has been. A 50 year project corporate. It's Been Going Since 70s. Corporate America. here I'm not podcasts to steer if that ship Right. Direction. I .'t know that's even possible I've got hole in. It's so yeah, it's hard. But [UH] steel man that. That I'm trying get to. Here. financially is the Hmm. by updated by thing. You're hand. throwing out much flexLEC statements the market. stock much. possible fast Possible. Yeah. nobody's ever calling it. it's. Like the. Director And of product management or like. The VP of. Product Management. get sales or. Whatever, who says, oh no, no. All customers want this thing. Drop your. Whole road map and start this. this. And And do do this, this because because Work work for me. me. It's was like. like Vipiac VP product. product that's That's never never worked a day Product their life. who benefits know, they came over from sales. come form operations whatever and now they're on LinkedIn. Like write inspirational post everydayy that that's this person Every customer this. wants don't need do bunch UX You design research, whatever know. Need Bunch .S. Research, you're needed to. a. Meeting with customers going site. I got strong or that this Lenny podcast that. So I can't remember name[UH] I'm good. intuition. oh, grief. Yes, think talking customers. Overrated. That's this because that person never gets called. carpet. There's repercussion [UH] Because what they do they. Simply move on next projection, the. Very next. Day. All customers. Want this. new thing now, right? like also that, my career so many people and also, I'm not seeing people my career. get caught. strap. Have gotten caught caught inthis trap so many times of. You've somebody organization with. that's I've seen in Some sort of senior title just throwing out. Just shooting flak up air. into the nonsense. Doesn't Just connect reality. assumptions left and right. Assumptions, accusations left. Right. That tells the work centers that I've been right there And you're trying to disprove them all with evidence and actual facts and. You follow up on every single one. Like have story this one. I'm not going. to, because I've got completely derailed this. The there's there's no no point. point In point in chasing chasing these these people To people around around can shoot their is that. make is it's, It's mouth off. Make any claim they want and be wrong. hundred percent time. And for you to. To follow up like, well, actually, on this day, I'm missing the statistics. Prove whatever because no one's ever going listen. you. volume of the. is huge. It's [UH] it will drown out. Yeah, So yeah, Yeah. can't beat them. Is that Oh no. Oh, know they like. I, think, had, there such great against that. threw out first. you know where I'm go here[UH] and that That Difficult. It's probably this cynical. Against point. View [UH] Board wants a good story for their shareholders leadership. They want a. Good state everybody they value. good. Story more than they. Value .The facts that I'd say even shareholders do because they'd barely look under themiddle is is hood. Yeah. They one. you know, the, care about is narrative. very view. Yes will Point middle point cynical it's out I. Understand it works in reality but. It A supersync. Pointo view that we're what you, what. said. In jest to kick us off is like, well can't don't just join them like that I have seen a lot people derailed and get burnt out because they think that. Sure. Now got to. play games. Right? Exactly. Got To be better at politics. Ohm, that's your problem. You're not good Politics posturing[UH] Not enough. Yeah, The other side this leadership requires decisive action. Under uncertainty, you've gotta just well be. Decisive know, your announcements are in coordination with your. Decisiveness. So time try. do something, that's. academic viewpoint of like, well, can do. We can. can, out fox these folks by being decisive and having specific coordinated announcements to stay ahead of these, kNow lies whatever mean. Well, never had perfect information is the answer, right You never. There we say we. Have everything. need. So guess what? Be bold. Make decision. Stand behind it. I think that, that's sor like the practitioner's line in this. actual experience They're to say like, listen, all right, so you don't have great. You know. great, great information. Just Just like. like Pick pick aside. side. Go Go with with it it. at If the data gives you A better whatever, viewpoint just Flippant tell everyone and just. Get it [UM] basically like. Yeah. We'll below production. justlike get the. Now out. don't Tell everyone you're working on it. update every 10, 15 minutes. Like there's nothing about to just like. Do best. Shoot some announcements out and just. Keep done keep going kid to those people, I'll say cool. Keep doing that and. Also, give your resume up. Absolutely. Because I've seen people like. Those people. They're like like quietly, quietly, diligently diligently doing. doing Maintenance maintenance in and keeping. keeping the system system up up whatever. And they do not get That's promoted. right. Yeah, yeah. We've all seen companies where you know Hacked them. They say yes, we're taking care of it. And then, oh, no. Speaking which do you have kids? you, are you. school like while we were recording this podcast. Vulnerability. There not been Canvas hack. Yeah. Slash Second hack, I think I. Yes, It it might might problem that I didn't, it's so recent that. Didn't get to roll into this podcast agenda. But you guarantee out of, would have found away. way. You're You're rolling rolling into it. Is this. that, If so. I could have. so do think about this? The cynics version like the board does want story. some. If I'm give ground on this one, executives love And even in Management the. sphere tell you, The person is better storyteller, we'll usually get promoted over that person. Who's the. Good, good at execution or online, they will good. At know, it's a discovery. whatever. You. The better storyteller wins. But that's. solid one. one. I mean, mean, that's That's See see out. out There. there. So So can't Caragio argue against that one Yeah. So until the Sorry, reward cycle changes know, when an ex CEO reading needs I'm out. comes in. CEOs just run in thesame place. They out announcement. They do some but I'm trying to stop just short saying virtual virtue signaling. they're doing. They're saying, oh, we believe. this or the. Because up the, know, ego a that's basically came it postures shows. walls. Yeah, Yeah. yeah. Oh, know, oh, leadership. leadership, Blah blah, blahblah. blah, Blah Blah. Well, Well, they they yell yell at at their their employees employees and stuff something. like Is that what's on here? It's, it's. I'm trying to stop. And not call it a moral failure because don't. Don't think. It. 's a moral failure. say will will I something thing say about. about the systemic systemic design design of the. Incentives of. organization but But the, fact that there's like all it. it is Is some corporate America and Stock market makes. It a big big system system that. that is designed designed poorly for these incentives. This the systems selects for. announcement and the. And the? Appearance of boldness, not. Actual execution[UH] that plan. baldness. The if you're with this, you day, Not pretty much are swimming against tide. You in kno yeah, yeah. Oh, have ever been in there? I had note here to remember. To bring up a. Have you. We've been. a, agile transformation or a team restructure where the, the. big announcement was made and a, Big kick off was. Done or. big. Event project agreement kick. Off. Was, was, is was. Announced but there now is about no talk Authority or, you know, ability push back against business requirements. We're budgeting or Budget We're gonna have have product product management. management Now. now, But but they they didn't didn't give give any any teams we're gonna have. Product owners know. no other products risk and push back in this business. Requests. Definitely seen that several times Yeah. And know, what's uncanny is how these initiatives align with those quarterly announcements. They happen just prior that. So the announcement says, hey, look what we're doing now. Yeah, right. then And up the. The wave. Basically, yeah, definitely been through that cycle couple times. don't goes know more. here are really, like the takeaways really really. Straightforward. something can start doing as soon. You back work, you're in. Start mapping. He strength and incentive structure of your last strategic initiative was announced. Or OK, if you have them like you. Know what, what in center structure? Who gets rewarded when they announce announces we're going thing actually evaluated? who gets. Evaluated who on executing thing. where story here here. who. Who Benefits benefits from from Here story here those Those are are kind kind my my questions. questions. Yeah, Yeah. And how how they're measured. That might something look at well. Right? How they message. I Measured in this whole picture. As well well. I'm I'm say. say I. I Come come up up with with all all the. the OKRs. Okay R's and And that's that's whom how I've I've mentioned measured that. that Came I. With up. With a good good story Okayars and[UH] you do all. Yes, and. When you're poorly crafted, OK, hours don't materialize. It my is fault did You not exactly right. So that's that what I learned today so what. Is the incentive structure in your organization execute well. That's That rewards announcement over execution. Let us know in the comments. I'd like knew specifics I really would like. Now if this pattern is as universal. As I have observed it. be let's dow. but here. Is where podcast. to. uncomfortable. Oh, hot the. No, you see, don't under normally do YouTube isms that much, but It's not just CEO disease. Does say? Systemic Disease and the the. same Same play. play. So So let's, let's, Let's us look mirror room. What's up? Let' that. so So is if it's sister a system disease, disease, not now CIO Disease. Disease. What What does that look like Teen the. And you at know, levels reviews. Or you. sometimes we run team Announce what. will fix and potentially of Sprint sprint never fix. And OK, ares that get announced in quietly dropped fall into this category. Retro actions. That produce nothing fallen. This category transformation kick roadmap presentations, all hand strategy decks. The memo is the stradity, but we don't notice because we, are inside that system. Right? It's now at the CEO. I retire level, down it's teams[UH] So that. Bring our us home to The Steelman. Now I'll ahead put slide up here the. Oh and. I, I do have say say that, that the, the, the The, steel still man man here. here, It's, it's it's pretty pretty good. good. means know, it says listen my, wants map. We'll, you know. boss my Hey, we My boss I both, though it's corporate fiction sometimes we. But, but go. the company meeting. The CEO or somebody wants a director director whatever whatever wants. wants product product update update at at the. the company Company. Meaning. meeting. This is our best snapshot time of what we'd think that future might be. Even if A month from noww it completely changes. Which the. by It's I'm throwing up here to steal 'am but also going defend it. Because I have done this many times This is what know based the evidence that we. Have and like it's our best guess. Right? right. And you kNow, by the. Time, there's any kind of pressure to test that you're doing next one. Right? Right. So this isn't the. Guys those. Quarterly it's reports, quarterly, projections, or whatever. Right guess difference that only the Iwould throw out is I. Have evidence to say that. The things. thought going. do are not going pan out because I've tested some little sliver against the market and we've decided Have different direction. So I have receipts Unlike the. Normal CEO is laying off 11 or people with thirty four percent profits land off. hundred people. That that's don't need to say that. night town right now like were where like, I. Don't last night? know, remember. I was. my you yacht. Where was all all. My sins. Because. Remember remember. I've I've got got receipts. receipts When when I, I, OK, OK, That's do in product management. test thing pivot if you're doing it right. So it's sort against. but from. The untrained observer. It looks the. Same. There's subtle difference but at real difference. But I've seen a. lot people not do that. They simply placate. just Oh, say. I. I. how many product managers really are doing that? Yeah. Or they're just saying like, well, my boss changed the roadmap direction, so we go along. We're. doing this now. Yeah, yeah The announcement creates the feeling of accountability without mechanism. I think perception is real thiscase. Right? That's exactly we're saying. That that's thing would say that that. Sounds like. cynical take me of the perceptions in. company. Is the. Reality. And I have hard time that, yeah, I. Have I've. difficult time. that's, think, you look at how product life cycles are shrinking, right? People have I'm not to use the cliche and say it's accelerating delivery, but accelerate this helping is it cycle. Thehrink it even more. More I think you're doing that, who has time to. Actually, go through and do the. follow up because if. Doing That are not doing. What competitors Doing which leapfrogging you. So you've kind of have to go along the ride a little bit. But you, know, if. your CEO who's reasonably new and they're just go soon. Right? Because tenure is one, two, years three You're, you're most definitely swimming against the. I'd know. Right. Because at are get backing. need. To do this thing right. there's two, is two pushbacks that are in this category. Yeah The my boss made me it is obviously that's one that. We're going to. All right The, the. Announcement itself creates a commitment. If don't sasay it out loud, we're not serious about doing it. Like that's the academic view, the, Yeah. Never like actually done any product their life[UH] that this is, y, well, got out loud otherwise. You won't commit to. In your brain you'll get the buying brand don't save that. other side it. Is we, we announced To create a shared understanding. that's different from avoiding execution. It's other than saying we're just announcing. say, We're doing doing something something that. that We we don't don't have have Actually, actually do do anything anything. we. We Now announced it's because because we'll we're basically basically getting same way. everyone Same page where aligning It's just Getting everyone. tool alignment. That is the. Practitioner. What they will bring It's like, you've key. And we did podcasts about just repeating yourself over over. That's right. Yeah that's, this. But like operationalize to. power. I think this one is easy to, To have a, you know, a corollary to. Right. If this. really. case that we're getting everyone aligned Guess what. Just make sure you that follow the alignment. And if there's results through The end it, there are results. The. Then you, know, what you're doing is alignment, but they're not you've just move on the next tiny thing You Know, you'll you. really. Doing this. it's very performative. Let's, let's talk about that. Performative practitioner here for second. I'm like, well, I'll just announce something. that means that. Accountability will follow somehow. Right? Yeah, that's sort also like the. I wrote. project plan and said you're be doing these things. Why hitting not are milestones? That's sort of the. Same high level backwards the logic is like no, I take accountability for doing. thing. And then we announce, know, mean, that where I. Involve you. Right. planning so that. We can do a. Joint plan. So it's sort backwards. Like the idea is, the. Idea is we. And then eventually the. Accountability will follow as we. Start training and work. I'm saying the? opposite is probably. Away do Is it. no your like Amazon somebody internally. You have single threaded leader takes ownership of a specific thing. I will bring this to resolution. And then they start announcing their wins, know, or are announced beginning there initiative and that's dedicated it. Then they. They're now seeing that wins because You assume accountability first. Yeah. Before this know, full court press of media nonsense. This this. Marketing has such like. is bad like. sorry Sorry, Martin, Martin. this, is, is, why, why like there's this. Why marketing marketing is. is. It's Like it's just. just bad Bad ta taste my mouth because the whenever I. Marketing likeso much it strikes me as just. Lies, you know, or likeover. The old like[UH] you ever any marketing ads from like. The 1920s 1930s. Oh yeah. there that. Our new new miracle miracle cure cure for for everything everything the. We're world. all just Just drink drink it. it. It's It's got got questionable ingredients. know one from not so long ago but Long still. enough [UH] Guinness is good for. You, that wastheir slogan. Right? And then after while, when science proved it For wasn't necessarily they retracted it. It's very scientific prove that alcohol was. not good. For you. Right? Who knew? Look, a generation of people just, you our audience. know, were pretty happy believing that it's got vitamins and things criticizing CEOs for putting out announcements as a strategy while potentially teams this category, like are running foul of we're this thing themselves like. But Strategy. Putting up this, know. Oh, our road map snapshot or the best understand it. these are roadmap. I Know. Dedication or, but commitment Whatever. Yeah. And there's and then you. Don't this. basically. It's Same saying oh, we're going hit all these milestones the. Project plan and. Then you'd blow past At. deadlines. all. Day. It's. Just not really having any conviction your You know, you're forecast. But also, think this is similar to how the teams will do retrospectives perhaps and then not actually follow through. That's a, that's A great great. A great closing category. This exactly it's like. what? I was team one time where every. Retro, we identified. same. One one or or two two things. things. Like, We We identified identified. More than when things like [UH] Same thing kept remember. And coming up. management's response in that company was stop I bringing this up, though. Like, that. YeahYeah, I hear about that. Stop complaining. that, that's fix. Oh boy. That was a, that. Was thing. stop assumingthat you're planning artifacts, create execution, playing artifacts. That's, that's called Planting artifacts Stop assuming. You're your speculative announcements. Your, your forward looking statements. Forward-looking hopes and dreams. start checking if they substitute for that success. So start. Checking how well did on those things success Yes, it's just a new ratio. Right? That's that's what. what It is is day. And just you was don't have get every single one right. If youhave seven things that you've predicted, doesn't check Say like-ins of mean you're failed. You know, get. know, for. for Right. [UH] It's it's just. just That that you. you'll Learn learn from from ones Ones didn't didn't get right. Yeah. And move on. The retro is great one. this. like do one thing. not. Retro. Not, people lot like People feel that's brow beating. get. team downt do. that because it's Just 11 thing. They're carrying on. Yeah, but I like. With new teams. I. Like focus on Usually, organization so messed up. Like only. Folks are one thing at time And this coming from product level. So I've got million million other other things things instead that I'm trying trying do know, and learn learn. and And whatever. whatever. I. I Can can focus. focus on one. one Things thing right. To Help help you. out. So what what is the thing. The team needs from A person I'd try. them. What thing? What. what, we, time? Whatever is, We do? Last Do in that know, one week, two weeks, whatever time. what? Okay. Ours, this another good one. Well, say we outcomes on the OPR. Did say we're going done this time period? And would we? Actually done. same period along with. What announced your car, because Okay, are one that will tell you? They, they're the biggest like team level. Sure. But as far like, we're talking about CEO level or global work. We're sure talk about. your label here. here, Like like announcing announcing big big stuff. stuff you're, the world. you We're know talking what about I'm Timo down down here here. but But Okay, like, OK, there's there's this this kind of [UH] like. The messy middle. I've seen lot Companies announced Okay, I'd likewe're going do, know, they come out they'd say say beginning beginning year year, right right on on Oki, OK, our planning planning time. time. They The big Big team team in. Together together and. and Say saying executive teams come back off site. You guys do these 12 things this year. I'm like, guys, I know little bit about [UH] this much about, course, it. No, that nobody hits You're not supposed do 12, right? Yeah, ever yeah. It's like one at time. Right yeah, exactly. them but like. You know. And then other one. That I've seen product is what's on your roadmap That was announced that we never even started. They really bothered. These questions like they should make it transparent. you have this problem,And that's really what I'm coming in this. Category is You Have Problem? Where's Mike Millar? do. You. Have. A problem off I. Backed right last minute. so. What is The Planning Artifact in your work that feels like progress but is. Not. Is it the. Roadmap map? Okay. Or it's like was talking about. is, it. The agile transformation. Let us know. Well, let us. No. the. Commentand we'll see how many different things that can get running in. this one. there So, so how you spot this but pattern in real time? There is gave us the perfect a tell. And fidelity example. Fidelite announced five day RTO In April. At the. the very Very end end April April. And then week later, later. Yeah. May 7th, they [UH] They put out announcement about 800 layoffs. So the same week as CloudFlare's A .I. first cuts. Same announcer. structure, some template. But Fidelity explicitly denied that the behind it. And as we say in poker home, A.I. it is. tell it's They don't reason know. Don't need the[UH] frame because was again, the. Announcement itself is. The product here. This cynic in me says maybe they're saving up for. Next announcement. Oh, let's talk about cynics. It's, it's so weird that you mentioned cynics. they don't need A that's Yeah Yeah.I. excuse because it's fiddity like God, Archeo has already God, accepted as. Optimization. Yeah Everybody knows do a RTA or T .O. first all, are the people that refuse move in real life. Move. Mm Oh, by. potenttentially no with way, relocation no assistance. Right. Hey, you took this job, free market, whatever. know, yeah. So it's different excuse. Same outcome. There's a couple other arguing points here but I just before get into those argument arguing points. Iwant to. Point out that best faith argument here, which i can't really Archie. Really like it. It's, it's so bald faced that. Can't. Not really, not Really be on the opposite side this one. So sorry for. audience here. the. Fidelity to any company's Rto. Like. That is a specific decision with a. lot complicated factors like maybe got office space. We go, you know, overly controlling leadership. You not. But we. Didn't really invest our systems. communication whatnot we like control just in. nature. they're all bad. Right. but But, that Is on the steel man side. That will be used as a boon. They'll say all time will throw one out coincidence that. happened to overlap I with other companies, you know, layoffs whatnot. Oh That's just coincidence or a cloud flower thing had nothing this. And that's not evidence that is coincidence. You can't prove Can't Can get me But what they'll say is I'm office. returning Gives you. To to mentorship, more access, the mentorship. [UH] More Access To Innovation because we're all that the think tank is all. one place. Those are these best. These. the. Best things will deploy in defense of RTO. And you know Archeo based layoffs basically. Yeah. Collaboration is one that. They tend to kind of. Portray Right. quite Collaboration. often. You're all together. This is best thing OK. But the. The day, you're going Have people that during times when they went remote cannot move back. Right? So do? Give them survivors guilt now? mean, it's just not. thing. sorry. You're gonna say punish punish all people with disabilities yeah, that's kind same thing. Really? Yeah, But also, like we're not, are. asking all. our offshore employees. move that they can. can Offshore. keep being. Yeah. So it's so We away paying them whole lotless. That's weird OK, well, the category quickly quickly because I'm just say that the, you know, they're actually there right let's shoot this here. Fidelity didn't need the. Yeah, excuse because. The RTO already provided their cover. think Ari mentioned that like They got. Their outcome. Regardless with the. you policy So change? Right. they. Don'tneed to. They need. air cover A .I. they. Can just be up front about like look it is what. is. Like we have offices. Can't take maximum tax benefit of them if they're all empty. And we. People so get back there, kid. That's right. Exactly. Same result though, right? same that result. Is cloud fair people. Well, you're work. Meanwhile, our CEO flies every day from Southern California to Washington State everyday. Wasn't Wasn't it? play. plane. that Starbucks Starbucks CEO? CEO? It was. was, I Yeah. think was [UH] that's there was another resource that. Read in This podcast about Harris ,in Chicago That shows that our RTO policies drove the more senior employees out because of Harrison some would say that's strategy. It's to get rid the expensive people. You knew, keep the. The young, hungry, was energetic people till its their time. Yeah, I mean, look the easiest way to wait after bottom line. Did you sneak something there? It's yeah. By no, Oh takeaways here. Stop analyzing the. boat. All right. the my Stated rationale is it's stop, stop. stop Stop trying trying go through. through the words. words. Look Look under her her. denies little announcements. announcements. Yeah no Yeah, we [UH] we talked about that the. Last category stopped running. Go for pound with evidence Let's let the issue[UM] with evidence. OK, that's like cloud. issue. facts here. right. That's right it's So analyzing difficult Start being announcement just structure and asking who benefits. like. There are other bullet points here. I. Really, Don't feel you go through lot these because it's the. Same sure. Who benefits from this? What, what outcome happens regardless the. I'll use they, they swapped. If these two announcements we talked about swapped[UH] eye and return office with each other, outcome be different? Hey, we're getting rid of our people that are really expensive. We're Ridderville. The folks hired Don't specific live this little geographic area. All People won't take salary cuts, you know OK. The age old play, right? People remember that as restructuring and optimization. Right? Now it's a high RTO. What's next? So learn to recognize the pattern. so Is the interchangeable rationale you've seen your organization? What excuse could be swapped out for any old excuse? Exact same outcomes produce And the. It's almost if we I, easily, have should have podcast probably on outcomes being just evil. Hmm Let us short know what excuses being. used drop the comments. So, If this. Is the patter. This is the. It's not so. There's batter so it, this, is, it says, that The. Pattern, right? Right. What What we we going going do do about about it Oh,[UM] have have Have Have Category category specifically specifically on it. on can't be doom gloom. They No It's it's is like it. the, the nugget. we've. do so that you don't get scooped up and swept up. In The madness is strangeness. this oddness. This oddity. Yeah. You're not really looking to catch That's your. And it got you this. fucker. honestly, a you're just trying to. Look out Being yourself. try and do the best. Can with the. Tools you've given. So that is where. where you're Your sitting, sitting. let's Let's give give you. diagnostic. diagnostic. It's It's a, a, it's. it's way Wait to spot when you. Are the victim of isomorphism, its sense respond loop. You can use immediately as in the next meeting that you. Walk into The point is be more self -aware of their coercive pressures on you, during your, your work Before day. Right. before. You catch yourself running somebody else's play without thinking about it. but before we get into this one I will say listen, diagnostics Easy. Execution is hard, are. which Funny because it's Opposite of what all the [UH] folks saying. They're say now execution isthe easy part. It's easy. Now 10 years ago it was execution. Was everything actually wish we weren't doing very well way[UH] because that's where the. That was now A .I. here and can just execute left Right year. easy part, right? it's just. Shift's the? Next somewhere else? Trying to determine if we're building The thing. Yeah. do it's So having knowledge of you, like Knowing that. You're writing this. Announcement as strategy play. It the, sorry, now doesn't automatically give you power or the resources to change it. To actually be executing. You know, like if you're one these product managers who, you, put their road map out. Do a big announcement. that because because your your boss boss told told you. Yeah, do it. Yeah. now you've got, but have now but you. Have two two engineers engineers But anything and you're really can't execute. know. Like you've not all these big plays whatever. And you? Oh, no. No. it because. Look historical velocity or. Whatever. You know, youcan only put out two, three features. quarter. Yeah. And your CEO made Promise eight, 12. Maybe you've an investor call. call. got Got in board board call? call or you're you going call called the bunch bunch stakeholders? stakeholders You're you. The the. big big marketing marketing thing again back marking that telling lies the. So That's See Steelman side, whichit's pretty honest. It's [UH] I'm Practitioner. I, like I. Have do what boss says. Do? Oh, well. Well, [UM] well, recognize the. Pattern? First foremost, right? Yeah. at least know you're this trap. If you. comminize it, then could do something about it. So we take it internal like that maybe. Okay. Recognition. Then is the first step towards changing your behavior. You don't even know, you're just going along with it, right? Blinkered like everybody Yeah,[UH] off the. Cliff. else. Like I agree. you on recognition as a first step towards changing behavior. But also that's Feel like. Need a. Screen right now. whoa, this is useless. like I. listen Like this. This practitioner's gambit right here. I, once worked with a director product Was work great. person great Marty Kagan stuff, really understood, you knew across functional teams. And we don't have heroes here. We have. Teams that do stuff like that. Until the. The person got stressed or was squeezed by with. Understood all upper management and then reverted to very Project Management. The behavior, but only they were like really stressed and taxed and. Squeezed by management. And then they'd need be like, me that the things that, Right. Things these people would revert to. to. [UH] on on one hand. hand, practitioner practitioner here here is is like. like, Why well, I I. know Know. That. that These these Right. Things do. But when I'm deadline. You know squeezed, what Igoing do? Know, yeah, you're going. diagnostic, but like. Can I. Actually use that? That's, that'sthat's the pushback here. solid back. Think because know, all It's management need is a. Signal. To recognize that when you're stressed, you actually get then And dance. up they stressing Yeah. So[UH] I don't know Stop like that's very real. Like, listen, Want. change, but but it's don't know how change. how Stop. That's very real for the practitioner in look, I'm getting squeezed. Like I've keep a deliverer [UH] you. Know, I. Have time to. Try million things that any kind like diagnostic solves It's, it's. I. know the incentive problems. Your dedefinitely not solve incement of level systemic level. Bad insentiment problem. Right. For your whole organization that's not claiming overnight. least you'll recognize this when you're in the strap. That's one. other is maybe. Maybe there's strengthen numbers. So you can, You know, at least. Get peers your Realize. is. What's say, hey you. and happening to us herehere. Yeah, right. Also like need to. like. Focus the lens little bit because like, Like, now we're kind of wandering. The goal here is. Not stop everyone from doing this. Right. Stop everyone. From just like announcing things willy nilly and then taking credit things. And the never, you know, coming back in cashing checks. They're right. That's not the goal. The goal is to start noticing when this is. Happening. And it becomes substitutes Actual execution execution. people. People Right? write Checks checks. Oh, every every user wants X, Y, Z for the. actual feature. Cool. I'll put you down on ledger for that. And I will come in two months to cash that check. That is what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah. so [UH] know, the vein of work and you'd about it. Maybe just gently ask how many users have told you this. nice follow accountability system would be And nice. top this I've ton ton or of shops I've been been now a that had this problem. And I can't say that. Any shop's ever put any real effort into solving Not worth for them. Maybe not [UH] don't like that. My stop here stopped treating announcements as the progress and start treating. As a commitment that requires follow through. And by through, fallllow mean evidence based. Follow. So [UH] have couple questions. I Just I'm just throw out. can tell me you would correct. these. these are again. These are. it's, wrote. What we announce versus do? do, this they do. Right. Start tracking your sadoo. Is there evidence execution [UH] only evidence. Of the announcement in whatever time frame you declare because should be visiting Hopefully, that. frame. you're not something, he didn't away by saying like, we're just do whatever. By no time frame all. And then who benefits from the announcement feeling like. Progress. These solid questions. So I think at at. the very very minimum. minimum, If if you're you're listening listening to. this This and you take take these these away away, and. And start examine these. little bit in your situation, you'd further ahead. least. these questions are really going you get lot these. Questions trouble. Don't think like, I don't feel are, or I, mean, they're the white glove of. Basic questions. Of product management. And if the. managers aren't asking, why won't I? I, you lot. Trouble asking. the. Managers not asking because they're, they should be basic answers here. Maybe I'm maybe [UM] [UH] don't know. I, you kNow, way out here left field. But What is the. the Announcement announcement to to execution execution gap. gap In in your your organization, organization? what What say? Do ratio you organization I'm not talking about. Your CEOs work. talk like maybe just start focusing on your. first. Start there. Yeah, right. Absolutely. So drop specific examples in the comments and let us know because we want to, to. you We want, want be be serious serious about about it. it. But But we. we want. to. You. Know. know, We we. want. Start Start where. Can make a difference. First. And and that's this whole episode. So before. Go one. One somewhere question. so started with Oh, several companies that were running the same play. With interchangeable reasons. same. statement as a strategy play Episode, I said Announcement is strategy. So after working through all these examples out? Are you? Working this one. Oh, most softer or harder on your, your take to That does doesn't at at. Start My initial stance of the announcement is exist strategy Oh, probably say harder. I'd going .harder. Yeah look, know, it's and I don't, now not. How much get this. But the biggest thing here is kNowing that there's pattern, recognizing when we're you're in the patter. And at your level, to the. Extent you can influence in. Your sphere. Right. Do something about it so point about, know, being evidence based. Yeah, absolutely [UH] Start there. But demanding then also start that of others as well. mean, that's good, good stopping topping Point. You know, if you do that starting your small sphere influence. hmm. Maybe it'll catch on. There's hope. It's only U can prevent forest fire. That's right [UH] that's weird. Oh I know why my brain left that way. But if your brains leaps that. it's like subscribe. Tell Smoky Bear do the same. That's right. let know And us there's other topics if that you'd like to. Cover an agile podcast questions at Now that's. Right. We're dragging email around for [UH] ever. Absolutely.