From Memo to Movement: Shopify’s Cultural Adoption of AI
TL;DR: When Shopify co-founder and CEO Tobi Lütke publicly released an internal memo declaring reflexive AI usage a baseline expectation at Shopify, the format became a genre - Box, Fiverr and even the Prime Minister of Canada quickly shared their own versions externally, while many more companies did so internally. We wanted to find out what happened inside the company after Lütke hit send.
Key insight: If you were to analyze every single movement of how a professional sports team trains, or chefs working on the line at a Michelin starred restaurant, you’d notice they’re operating at something like 80% efficiency of motion. Now think about a business; at most, it’s operating at 20% efficiency.
“Help: my team doesn’t feel connected any more”
Takeaways:
- Determine whether a team is necessary for the desired outcome
- Clearly define roles and expectations within the team
- Recruit talented individuals who can contribute to the team’s success
- Establish effective communication channels within the team
- Consider the challenges of being part of multiple teams in the corporate world
- Individuals have a choice in shaping the team’s identity and should be selfless and committed to the team’s purpose and desired outcome.
- A high-performing team is one where individuals consistently perform at their best and have a culture of excellence.
- The environment plays a crucial role in enabling or disabling team success, and teams should create an environment that fosters innovation and energizes individuals.
- Teams should regularly reflect on their environment and identify and eliminate factors that hinder performance.
The Best Leaders Edit What They Say Before They Say It
Summary: At the executive level, your words carry more weight and come with greater responsibility. That’s why strategic editing is a critical senior leadership skill. It’s knowing what to say (and what to leave out), how to say it, and when silence is more powerful. First-time CEOs and other new C-level leaders often find that the communication habits that served them earlier in their careers don’t scale well at the top. To communicate more effectively, leaders need to develop the skill of saying less with greater impact.
ADJ View: Recently moving roles, I am even more of aware of my communication habits, and the team are probably reading this with some amusement.
We Have Decades Of Research Telling Us How Change Works. We Need To Start Following The Evidence
Summary: We tend to think of transformation as a journey to some alternative future state, but that’s only half of the story. The underlying truth is change always involves a strategic conflict between that future state and the status quo, which always has inertia on its side and never yields its power gracefully. For change to take hold, the status quo must be addressed.