Apply High-Leverage Thinking

Leverage = impact vs. effort. Take actions that create the biggest impact with the least effort to reach 10x outcomes.

What this value means:

  • Leverage = impact vs. effort. Take the actions that create the biggest impact with the least effort.
  • Continuously using high-leverage thinking = 10x outcomes
  • This often means working in public vs. private as much as you can, which supports our Default to Transparency value. For example:

                 - When you need to make a process doc, do it in our public knowledgebase vs. a private internal system, so others can learn from it, like we did for our Triage Team process doc.

                 - When you have a question about how Storytell works, ask it in our public knowledgebase vs. privately in Slack.

                 - When you message someone in Slack, don't DM them. Instead, @mention their name in the relevant public channel so others can gain context from the conversation.

  • “Scope down and Delegate now” vs. waiting to do bigger thing later

                 - So others can start to act on it

                 - If you get something 95% of the way done, it’s still 0% done until you’ve delivered it (even if just an MVP)

                 - Delivering a bit of value “now” gives those around you a starting point to anchor off of. We call this The power of "Now."

How to live this value:

Even/Over Statements for this value:

  • Safe to try now over Wait to try until later
  • Action over Wait and See
  • We ship, then iterate. We’re never our own blocker. This applies to code, ideas, processes, content.
  • Ask for forgiveness over Ask for permission
  • Consent over Consensus

Putting it into action:

  • See something, do something (whether it’s in your job description or not)
  • Examples

                  - You meet someone at a networking event and plan to email them later to invite them to try out Storytell. In this scenario, you have yet to create any value. Instead, you could text them with a link to the Storytell playground — now you’ve created value for them and you’ve gotten it off your plate. That's high-leverage.

                  - Creating a triage card for the ops team for something you want to delegate to them as opposed to holding onto it on a todo list

  • There is always one more thing you can do to move something forward. And after that, there’s one more thing. The trick is to know where to put your focus, and how much — this value does not mean leaning into everything, all the time.

What this value doesn’t mean:

  • This isn’t about living under pressure and racing around like mice — it’s about being aware of what’s present in the moment and attending to that

Why this value is important to us:

  • It’s enlivening and engaging

Other related resources:

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