Work & money · Collection guide · 5 stops
Lead a team well
This route is for someone responsible for making a team’s work possible. It moves from creative conditions to daily operations and explicit culture, then challenges the idea of total executive control. Finish by inspecting the harm a narrow success metric can permit. Bring one current team problem to each step.
Browse this collection in reading order →Suggested routes through material saved to explore. I haven’t read or watched everything here yet. The order and prompts are editorial suggestions based on available source text, excerpts, descriptions and synopses; they are not personal ratings or claims of completed viewing.
Create conditions for useful contributions
Art · Est. 20 min
How Pixar Foster Collective Creativity - Ed Catmull →
Collected by The Unintuitive ↗
Catmull’s account of Pixar examines how a company supports collective creativity. Begin with the environment around the work, including whether people can surface problems and contribute across boundaries.
Pause & try
Where does useful information stop moving in your team? Choose one meeting or handoff where a quieter or more distant person’s perspective is missing.
Connect attention to responsibility
Rabois’s operating advice turns the broader cultural question into executive attention, inputs and ownership. Use it to look at a current problem that repeatedly returns without becoming anyone’s clear responsibility.
Pause & try
Name the owner, useful inputs and next decision for that problem. Check that the owner has the authority and context to act.
Make the trade-offs explicit
Netflix’s culture slides state a particular set of choices about performance, freedom and responsibility. Read them as choices to examine, including their costs, rather than a culture to copy wholesale.
Pause & try
Choose one principle you admire and one you would adapt or reject. Explain what each would mean for an ordinary team member during a difficult week.
Question the story of total control
Rao’s CEOs Don’t Steer challenges reassuring management narratives. Place it after the operational material to distinguish actions a leader can take from outcomes they cannot simply command.
Pause & try
For one team outcome, separate direct decisions from conditions you can influence and events you must respond to. Where is your attention currently misplaced?
Inspect what the metric leaves out
The reported Facebook memo makes growth-at-any-cost reasoning stark. Read it as a cautionary case, considering the surrounding reporting as well as the memo’s language, before choosing your own measure of progress.
Pause & try
Who could be harmed while your team’s main metric improves? Add one concrete check that would make that harm visible.
After the five stops
Take it into your own life.
Choose one change to ownership, information flow or review. Explain its purpose to the people affected and agree when to revisit it. Evaluate both the intended result and the cost to those doing or receiving the work.
Continue exploring
Items 1–5 are the guided route above. The remaining items are listed alphabetically below; choose what interests you next. These numbers match the collection shelf.
- “In Search of Excellence” at Apple Computer in 1984 → Find on the shelf: “In Search of Excellence” at Apple Computer in 1984 →
- Agnelli → Find on the shelf: Agnelli →
- Building the Professional Firm: McKinsey & Co.: 1939-1968 → Find on the shelf: Building the Professional Firm: McKinsey & Co.: 1939-1968 →
- Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room → Find on the shelf: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room →
- Finding fulfillment → Find on the shelf: Finding fulfillment →
- How CEOs Manage Time → Find on the shelf: How CEOs Manage Time →
- How McKinsey Makes Its Own Rules - Ian MacDougall → Find on the shelf: How McKinsey Makes Its Own Rules - Ian MacDougall →
- How to start a startup - YC series → Find on the shelf: How to start a startup - YC series →
- How we work and why - Hunter Harrison → Find on the shelf: How we work and why - Hunter Harrison →
- Hubspot Culture Code → Find on the shelf: Hubspot Culture Code →
- Kelly’s 14 Project Management Rules - Kelly Johnson → Find on the shelf: Kelly’s 14 Project Management Rules - Kelly Johnson →
- Marc Andreessen on talent and hiring → Find on the shelf: Marc Andreessen on talent and hiring →
- Memos from the Chairman (Bear Stearns) - Alan C. Greenberg → Find on the shelf: Memos from the Chairman (Bear Stearns) - Alan C. Greenberg →
- Meta Redbook → Find on the shelf: Meta Redbook →
- MrBeast Production Handbook → Find on the shelf: MrBeast Production Handbook →
- One Of One → Find on the shelf: One Of One →
- Patrick Colisson - Fast → Find on the shelf: Patrick Colisson - Fast →
- Peter Thiel on what works at work → Find on the shelf: Peter Thiel on what works at work →
- Ray Dalio Principles Original Memo → Find on the shelf: Ray Dalio Principles Original Memo →
- Solitude and Leadership - William Deresiewicz → Find on the shelf: Solitude and Leadership - William Deresiewicz →
- Startup.com → Find on the shelf: Startup.com →
- The 9 traits Sam Altman looks for to identify founders who can build a $10 billion company → Find on the shelf: The 9 traits Sam Altman looks for to identify founders who can build a $10 billion company →
- The 37signals Guide to Making Decisions → Find on the shelf: The 37signals Guide to Making Decisions →
- The Final Hours Of Half-Life → Find on the shelf: The Final Hours Of Half-Life →
- The Fog Of War → Find on the shelf: The Fog Of War →
- The Internet Services Disruption - Ray Ozzie → Find on the shelf: The Internet Services Disruption - Ray Ozzie →
- The Kingdom Of Dreams & Madness → Find on the shelf: The Kingdom Of Dreams & Madness →
- The Last Dance → Find on the shelf: The Last Dance →
- The Pixar Story → Find on the shelf: The Pixar Story →
- The Playboy Interview With Jimmy Carter → Find on the shelf: The Playboy Interview With Jimmy Carter →
- The Real Heroes Are Dead → Find on the shelf: The Real Heroes Are Dead →
- Tidal Wave - Bill Gates → Find on the shelf: Tidal Wave - Bill Gates →
- Top 10 Life Lessons - Robert Joss → Find on the shelf: Top 10 Life Lessons - Robert Joss →
- Valve’s Handbook for New Employees → Find on the shelf: Valve’s Handbook for New Employees →
- What it’s like to work for Stripe - Alex MacCaw → Find on the shelf: What it’s like to work for Stripe - Alex MacCaw →
- Whoever governs Singapore must have that iron in him → Find on the shelf: Whoever governs Singapore must have that iron in him →