9 Lessons From Jeff Bezos’ ONLY Podcast Appearance

If you lead an organization (CEO or management), this podcast is a much-watch.

Lex Fridman did a brilliant job getting the best out of Jeff Bezos.

It is a masterclass in strategic decision-making, business strategy, and execution.

Follow Levership/Symplicity CEO and founder Matt Symes on LinkedIn for more: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-symes-8328a765/

1. 9 LESSONS FROM JEFF BEZOS’ ONLY PODCAST INTERVIEW (A Masterclass in Strategy, Decision-Making, and Execution) MATT SYMES Symplicity / Levership

2. LESSON #1 - HUMANS ARE NOT TRUTH-SEEKING ANIMALS “And so you want to set up your culture so that the most junior person can overrule the most senior person if they have data.” You have to create psychological safety ( see Amy Edmondson’s critical talk here ) for the mistakes, the errors, the thoughts, and the hunches to come out as a team.

3. HERE ARE THREE TIPS: Contributions in a meeting start from the most junior person to the most senior so that seniority bias does not drive the agenda. Seek the data you need, not the data you can see. When the anecdote disagrees with the data, investigate the anecdote.

4. LESSON #2 - STOP USING ONE-SIZE-FITS ALL DECISION-MAKING “You end up using the heavyweight process on all decisions… Two-way door decisions should mostly be made deep in the organization. One-way door decisions are the irreversible ones. Those [should] be elevated up to the senior-most executives…” Is your organization set up for two-way door decisions to be made at the right level of the organization? ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL DECISIONS

5. LESSON #3 - RELY ON THE POWER OF A MEMO FOR BIG STRATEGIC DECISIONS Bezos starts every one of his strategy sessions with 30 minutes of silence. So that everyone can take the time to read, make notes in the margins, and get their questions prepared. In a powerpoint presentation, the onus is on the audience to understand. In a memo, the onus is on the writer to be clear. The discussion that comes next is elevated.

6. LESSON #4 - COMPROMISE AND STUBBORNNESS ARE TERRIBLE WAYS TO MAKE DECISIONS “Never get to a point where you are resolving something by who gets exhausted first” Seek facilitation and a pathway to get at a clearer truth. Where are you falling victim to these two methods of decision-making?

7. LESSON #5 - WHAT IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS? “I know [at] Amazon, 10 years from now, customers are still going to want low prices. I know they’re still going to want fast delivery, and I just know they’re still going to want big selection. So when you identify the big things you can tell they’re worth putting energy into because they’re stable in time.” Low Prices, Big Selection, Fast Delivery Those are Amazon’s three. What are yours?

8. LESSON #6 - WHERE IS THE TEAM WORKING ON PAPER CUTS? There are large strategic decisions to execute. Operations to execute. And there are paper cuts (small and valuable incremental improvements) If you don’t have a team (or for small businesses, the dedicated time) to work on the “paper cuts”, then you will die a death of a thousand paper cuts. 1-Click buying was a paper cut. Removing the friction was exceptionally valuable to Amazon.

9. LESSON #7 - DISAGREE AND COMMIT Disagreement doesn’t mean we have to quell action. I can disagree and commit. This is particularly powerful on two-way door decisions. We can walk those back easily and we should be supportive of the individuals we go to battle with. One-way door decisions are a little more intense. The stakes are higher. Untangling failure here will hurt more. And yet, “disagree and commit” is more important here

10. LESSON #8 - LEAN INTO HUNCHES, ANECDOTES, AND INTUITION (BUT DON’T BE A SLAVE TO THEM) “Sometimes you don’t even have strong data, but you may know the person well enough to trust their judgment. [Let’s] go collect some data on that. Let’s try to see if we can actually know whether it’s right. But for now, let’s not disregard it. It feels right.” Notice he trusts enough to follow it but wants to find a way to see the data to further illuminate a pathway forward.

11. LESSON #9 - YOU HAVE TO GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO WANDER “[R]eal invention, real lateral thinking requires wandering, and you have to give yourself permission to wander.” I run often. And for the last year, I’ve been running with a voice recorder. The ramblings sometimes amount to nothing. But often with my feet moving and my mind wandering, I have better thoughts.

12. Listen to the full interview on Lix Fridman’s podcast here: https://lexfridman.com/jeff-bezos/ Want More? Follow for More Levership.com / Symplicity.ca