AA221 - Steve Jobs' Radical Decision-Making: Why Consensus Beats Disagree & Commit

Steve Jobs once said he'd rather fire someone than force them to buy into a decision they disagreed with. This flies in the face of popular leadership advice like Amazon's "disagree and commit" philosophy. In this episode, we dive deep into Jobs' consensus-driven approach at NeXT and explore why expert-driven decision making might be superior to top-down mandates.

We examine how Jobs' 8-person policy team made only 25 major decisions per year, the importance of psychological safety in decision-making, and why paying people to tell you what to do (rather than just do what you say) creates better outcomes. Other topics include...

• Consensus vs. "disagree and commit" leadership styles
• Expert-driven decision making vs. ivory tower decisions 
• Building psychological safety for real alignment
• Scaling decision frameworks in growing organizations
• When to fire vs. when to coach through disagreement

Perfect for product managers, agile coaches, and leaders looking to build more effective decision-making processes.

#DecisionMaking #Leadership #ProductManagement

LINKS
Watch on YouTube

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@arguingagile
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/362QvYORmtZRKAeTAE57v3
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agile-podcast/id1568557596
Website: http://arguingagile.com

REFERENCES

• Source Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_W6dLP09MQ
• Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon, by Colin Bryar & Bill Carr, 2021
• Turn the Ship Around! A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders, by L. David Marquet, 2013
• AA208 - Jamie Dimon's Rant: Leadership Lessons on Trust and Effectiveness
• AA201 - Mastering Stakeholder Communication & Management

INTRO MUSIC
Toronto Is My Beat
By Whitewolf (Source: https://ccmixter.org/files/whitewolf225/60181)
CC BY 4.0 DEED (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)