Lenny Rachitsky: preference

Transcript context

…Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So I'll talk about writing. I think it would be something like, okay, "Matilda, part of your job is to be able to create these documents and I appreciate that you do them on time. What I've observed is that they can often be not as structured as I'd like them to be and they also lack a conclusion. So what I'd love you to do is look at these three or four examples of some folks who are doing them really well and see if you can model your writing on theirs. If you need to take additional classes or if you need help in any way, let me know. But ultimately, I want to get your writing to the level where everybody is appreciating what you bring to the table because the level of your writing really reflects the level of your thinking." Mm-hmm. Wow, I like that. I'd want to follow your advice if I got that. So the way you started that is what I've observed, which also is not like, "Here's what I think" or "Here's what you just need to do. " It's more like, "Here's what I've noticed, here's what I've seen, here's what I've observed about what you're doing." And then it reminds me of, what is it, nonviolent communication, that whole framework of just focus on what you see, not what is wrong with them, not what they've done. I guess, is there anything there you want to say of just the importance of focusing on what you've heard from people or what you've observed versus maybe what people often do instead? Yeah, I mean you just really said it and I think it's such an important point, observable facts. The idea that this is not a judgment. This is not... Sort of as less judgy as possible is also very helpful. It makes it neutral. It's observable facts and it's also sort of based on expectations, right? So the writing is, we expect it to be at a certain level and it's not that way. And here are the reasons it's not, the specific reasons, it's not. The way you interact with your peers, it's important to be at a certain standard, and here's why. Because when we all work together, we're going to be able to execute and when we don't, unfortunately we won't be able to. So you staying in sync with them is important and the observation is that they don't feel fully in sync with you. And so every time we talk about this, it doesn't become this, "Oh, I don't know. I just feel..." By the way, some things you have to give feedback on and they are kind of a feeling and those are more difficult, but so many things if you do the work to really think about what is the observable data, I always ask my clients, what's my evidence that this is happening? And you have to spend some time thinking about it, but it's really worth it because it makes the feedback easier for you to give and easier for them to hear.…

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