Lukas Grech

Blaise Pascal – ‘I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.’

My high school physics teacher taught me the pursuit, and difficulty, of simplicity.

If you handed in homework with lazy and inelegant workings, you got a comically extended ‘long’ stretched across the offending part of your work. Even if your final answer was correct.

It was a life changer in my search for simple and clear thinking. 

Yes, it works if you end up at the correct answer, but you should care about whether your process to get there was right. 

Working harder to make things simple is worthwhile. Attempting to express a problem in simple terms truly tests your understanding of the matter.

Bonus: you typically find your solution this way.

There’s a leadership lesson here too. Leaders should care about simplicity. Simplicity leads to clarity. Clarity is what makes communication effective. Good communication is what you need to get things done.

Keep it simple, stupid.

Thanks for reading!

I have a book recommendation: ‘What I know about running coffee shops’ by Colin Harmon.

Required reading for the future coffee shop owner. But, read it with a generalist view and it is one of the best business books out there. In it are the most concise and practical explanations of Scale, Customer Value Propositions, Strategy and Planning.

Here is one page from the book; a list about ‘the basics’:

It reminded me of the phrase ‘retail is detail’.

How many things on that list are about making a good cup of coffee? None. Yet, all of these elements contribute to the perceived quality of the coffee served, and certainly to the quality of the establishment. It’s never just about the product.

Generalising again, the idea behind ‘retail is detail’ applies to anything related to customer service. Every small detail matters. Every little interaction compounds in the customer’s mind to form the whole experience.

Compounding works here just as it does with interest. Too many average or negative interactions will overwhelm even the best product. Similarly, a bad product will be forgiven (at least once) if the rest of the customer interaction is excellent.

In fact, the brands and establishments I am most loyal to are the ones where I’ve had issues with a product – but, the returns or exchange process has been so helpful and smooth that the correction of the issue actually cemented my loyalty to that company.

The basics matter.

Practice it.

Away from screens.

–

How?

Cycling, walking, running, swimming, meditating, cooking, writing.

Integrity.

–

Here’s three: Integrity, Ingenuity & Hard Work.

Praise publicly and loudly.

Criticise in private and quietly.

Say thank you and well done.

Is simple, but not easy.

–

Understand what problem someone wants to solve, give them something to solve that problem.

Listen to what people are struggling with (be boring).

Help them organise their own thoughts – don’t impose yours.

–

Help people with their goals:

GROW.

What do you want? (Goal)

Where are you now? (Reality)

What could you do? (Options)

What will you do? (When/Where)

You only get three.

–

There’s a reason they’re called Key Performance Indicators.

Not everything is important all the time.

–

Trouble deciding? See: Sturgeon’s Law or Pareto Principle.

Are not challenges or opportunities. They are problems.

And they need to be fixed.

–

Solving problems in a team:

Bring the group together. 5 minutes on each of the below questions to come to consensus.

If no consensus is reached, leader decides.

1. What is our problem?
2. Is it actually a problem?
3. What’s needed to solve it?
4. Who will effect the fix?
5. When will it be done?

Is not all it’s cracked up to be.

–

See: lean supply chains in response to Covid.

“It’s not until the tide goes out that you find out who’s been swimming without shorts.” – Buffett

The tide will, at some point, go out.

–

Also see: creativity.

“It is amazing what you can achieve when you don’t care who gets the credit.” – Truman

–

Have no ego, but assume the most responsibility.

Be where the buck stops.

lukasgrech.com

	Urgent	Not Urgent
Important	Do	Plan
Not Important	Postpone	Ignore

Also: Sturgeon’s Law – 90% of everything is crap.

lukasgrech.com

Write a to-do list.

In pen, on paper.

–

For repeatable tasks – make a checklist.

Isn’t real.

–

Do one thing, do it properly.

Then do the next.

“Be so good they can’t ignore you”. Steve Martin

–

Also: luck.

As much as possible.

–

Trust but verify support.

Ask for advice. Offer a coffee.

Trust a lot. Decentralise.

Berkshire Hathaway has returned 20% per year for 55 years through ruthless decentralisation.

–

But sometimes don’t.

Jerry Seinfeld says his show’s phenomenal and enduring success is due to his micromanaging every aspect of it.

(Buffett has handled capital allocation for most of those 55 years).

Inverse efficiency.

–

Organise yourself to be bored. Creativity needs space to fester.

Is ok.

–

If you’re consistently consistent, you’re not challenging your own thoughts enough.

(Try to) kill your best ideas. You gain perspective.

No one has time to, and no one does, read paragraphs in emails.

Be direct, and cc with care.

Assume positive intent.

Use plain English – we’re not impressed by the long words.

“If I had nine hours to cut down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my axe”. Lincoln

–

With nine hours to make a change, spend six getting people on board.

And intensely curious.

It will help you learn. It will make you listen.

–

There once was an owl who lived in an oak

The more he saw, the less he spoke

The less he spoke, the more he heard

Why can’t we all be like this old bird?