Eilon Reshef: recommendation

Transcript context

…Coming back to something else you mentioned, this word autonomy. So, when I ask people a Gong what to ask you and what stands out about you to them as a product leader, the most often term that came up is autonomy and trust. How much autonomy you give teams, how much you trust teams to do the right thing. Can you talk about that way of working, where that came from, and why you think that is the way to operate? It's very selfish thing, it's a very personal thing. So, I think even beyond trust, it's just, for me, it's selfish. I'll tell you why, I just think you get more from everybody if you let them be themselves, and do things in the way that they believe is the right way. Of course within limits, right? They're not going to develop, I don't know what it is, software in different business. But the story I always like to tell is, when my son was in primary school, which was a while back, one of the parents told me... And we had this picnic where all the parents and the kids were going to meet. And usually there's a list of ingredients that people need to bring in, to bring on a bottle of water, whatever the thing is. And what's usually happened, there's even people are joking about it, is people run to the list, because it's usually a physical list, and then... Or [inaudible 00:18:16] probably now it's already in Google sheets always. And people run to just mark the item that is as easy to get as possible. Like, a bottle of water, and then I'm done. And then, you always get the lowest common denominator because everybody brings the sort of, I don't want to even say cheapest, the easiest thing that you can bring to such a picnic, and this lady told me, here's a different method, just tell everybody bring your own thing. I'm like, are you crazy? People are just going to not bring anything, or whatever you want. Or people are going to bring the same thing. Multiple people are going to, I don't know, bake some pie, or do something. And she's like, no, that's not going to happen. So, I trusted her, that's maybe a trust word, but we tried it out, and what happened was really kind of fascinating. People were going out to the specialty stores and bringing special cheese... I'm based in Israel, so they were going to this hummus place, which is an Israeli thing. And just driving 30 miles to your favorite thing, people were baking and making stuff. So, we had literally a feast. And the funny thing, two things happened. Everybody was much, much happier, they were happier because of course they got better food. And also, most people, just their personality, they brought it to the tables, like I really like hummus, I don't like whatever the other thing I would have to bring. And we did it every year afterwards because we did this thing at least annually, and it will work every single time. So, if you take it to the software, you can't tell everybody just develop your own thing, but if you can guide them towards, hey, do the thing that... Give him more autonomy, essentially, bring yourself to the game, be yourself, don't try to put yourself in a box, I truly believe you're going to get much better results, short, and even more importantly, long-term, because it keeps people thinking, it keeps them being motivated, and they're like, how do I contribute in the way I think is the right way? It reminds me, I'm looking for daycares for our son, he's almost 17 months now, and there's this Montessori approach to teaching kids, and it's a very similar approach, which is just let them... If they're ever busy with anything, don't even make eye contact, don't interrupt them, let them keep doing the thing, and let them choose what they want to work on.…

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