The One Week Rule
I remember being on the Google Hangout with Craig Bryant, our CEO, when he began “talking out loud” his new vision for the company. It wasn’t as clear as it is now, but it was obvious we were taking a dramatic shift. The shift was one we had been thinking about for a while, but had never fully acted upon. I felt that flip that a stomach does when it hears a big risk. And rightfully so. As Craig says, this was the “build or burn” mission.
I immediately looked back at him and said, “So, we’re pivoting.” He responded ever so calmly and confidently, “Sure.” True Craig Bryant form.
This, folks, is what marketers dream of: The ability to tell a fresh, new story.
However, there was a lot of work ahead of us before we could become storytellers of the new We Are Mammoth. Just speaking about the vision doesn’t make it come to life. Months and months of grueling work, only fueled by believing in where you’re going and how it would better align the company to the mission, does. Even with all of those months behind us, I know we have a lot more to do to truly realize everything we’re setting out to accomplish.
Over the last few months, nothing has been more clear to me than the current company’s true strengths and weaknesses. Nothing has been more exceptionally clearer than what my own weaknesses are. When you’re changing direction, there’s no time for sugar-coating. Transitioning a 10-year-old company with the sense of urgency we had behind the movement is basically holding yourself up to a mirror with #nofilter and honestly answering, “How are we doing?” over and over.
The answer isn’t always, “Good, thanks.”
It’s exhausting and at moments, defeating. It’s also extremely rewarding, gratifying and all the other words you could think of to describe a fulfilling moment within your life when you know the work you’re doing is amounting to something that will create impact. And with that came some significant change that we needed to make room for.
Our founders understood the need to ‘fire ourselves’ from our existing roles. That doesn’t mean that we stop all responsibilities within those existing roles. It means that the passion within us to transform to the new We Are Mammoth vision is so strong that we shift priorities, we communicate about it, and we get it done.
To get things to where they need to be, we have a basic rule here at We Are Mammoth: If you don’t see progress on an assignment or project in one week, you either kill it or move the assignment to someone else.
There’s something to be said about that fire in your belly when you are going after something big. If you assign a piece of that ‘something big’ out and don’t see action on it, there’s a chance that person doesn’t feel the same fire. That’s okay and it’s nothing to see as a failure on your or the assignee’s part. In fact, it’s probably a blessing in disguise.
Following this rule helps you recognize the simple indication that the person you assigned the task to may not be the match for the job. They likely don’t feel the same passion. For us, getting a pivotal task completed well outweighs who does said task. Keeping this in mind helps us go beyond the roles assigned to us. We became keepers of the vision, whether or not it directly related to our title.
When a company is pivoting or making a big change, you need guidelines like The One Week Rule. When you create guidelines that stay loosely open and have one major thing for all employees to point back to, you get more people participating in ways you never imagined. You see skill sets broadening and mindsets changing. You see progress.
Honestly, it’s a beautiful thing.
