Brie Wolfson

Instead of protecting your teams from failure, prepare them for it.

 I thought my job was to be right. I thought that was how I proved my worth to the company. But that was all wrong. My job was to get things done and doing anything meaningful past a certain point requires more than one person. If you are right but nobody wants to work with you, then how valuable are you really? How much can you realistically... See more

I think most companies start to explicitly encode and articulate their principles or values too late. I would try to produce a provisional revision literally when you’re just a handful of people. Then continue to update it on an ongoing basis, because assuredly there will be things you realize or come to appreciate are wrong over the course of the... See more

 Among the senior leaders I’ve worked with, I’ve seen folks cause far more harm applying this advice too literally than by ignoring it. Leading effective and collaborative teams requires a nuanced approach to trust.

The thing that will endure for 100 years, the way it has for most 100 year companies, is the culture. The culture is what creates the foundation for all future innovation. If you break the culture, you break the machine that creates your products.