(2009-04-19) Blank Mission And Accountability

Steve Blank on

• Mission: When faced with the time pressures of a startup, too many demands and too few people, we began to teach our staff to refer back to the five Mission goals and the Intent of the department. When stuff started piling up on their desks, they learned to ask themselves, "Is what I'm working on furthering these goals? If so, which one? If not, why am I doing it?"

• Commitment Accountability: One day I simply put up a sign on my door that said, "No excuses accepted." And I let the department know what I meant was we were all going to be "accountable." What I didn't mean was "deliver or else." By accountable I meant, "we agreed on a delivery date, and between now and the delivery date it's OK if you ask for help because you're stuck, or something happened outside of your control. But do not walk into my office the day something was due and give me an excuse. It will cost you your job." That kind of accountable. And, "since I won't accept those kind of excuses, you are no longer authorized to accept them from your staff or vendors either." The goal wasn't inflexible dates and deadlines, it was no surprises and collective problem solving. After that, we spent a lot more time working together to solve problems and remove obstacles in getting things done on-time.