Change the channel please
How to build exceptionally
talented teams from the ground up.
At larryroof.com we prefer to staff our team with young talents right out of college. We
find that they bring enthusiasm, fresh ideas, the willingness to learn new things, and no
baggage and bad habits from previous jobs. In our business those are all key skills - no,
requirements for success.
Thing is, when you hire in raw talent, you have to be ready to spend the time to invest in
them, something that most managers aren't willing to do, and frankly, just don't
understand. Which is why most tech managers aren't very good, but that's another story in
itself. When you hire in raw talent, you have to give them chances to grow, chances to
learn, chances to make mistakes and chances to have huge successes. Most importantly, you
have to mentor them without directing their every move and making their every decision.
To do this correctly, it has got to start right out of the gate. One orientation technique
that I personally like I call "using the TV remote control".
This is how it works. On an employee's first day, rather than having them show up at the
office I would have them meet me at my home and we would ride in to work together. The new
employee would inevitably show up right at the time we had scheduled to meet, and I would
be running late. I would welcome them into my home, direct them into the living room, give
them a drink and the remote control to the TV. At which point I would tell them to turn on
something to watch while I excused myself to get ready.
Then (jumping ahead a few minutes) I would walk back in on them. The new employee would be seated on the couch or chair, the TV would be on, they would be watching some show, the volume would be set to their satisfaction and before they could turn off the TV, I would stop them to deliver my first lesson as their new manager.
"When I left you here, the TV was off and I handed you a remote that I expect you had never seen before, to a TV that you have never used before. A few minutes later, I returned and you managed to turn on the TV, selected a station to view and adjusted the volume. I expect that I could have handed you any variety of remotes to any variety of TVs, and the results would have been the same. I want you to remember this principle when it comes to developing systems for our clients. For our users, it should be just as easy as what you went through here this morning. You didn't need any training. You didn't need any manual. You didn't need any support desk. It just worked. That's what we strive for with the systems we design at larryroof.com. Intuitive, functional, easy. Now lets get to work."
At larryroof.com our systems aren't better than our competitors by accident. It starts from the employees we select, what we expect of them, how they are mentored, challenged, the opportunities they are given to grow and our continued focus on the fact that our products need to be as easy to use as your TV remote control.
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