Freedom & Responsibility Culture at Interventional Concepts, Inc.

7/29/2019 Freedom & Responsibility Culture at Interventional Concepts, Inc.

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Interventional Concepts, inc.freedom & responsibility culture

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Working at

Interventional Conce tsOur culture is unique but not complex. We hire

smart people, give them hard problems and get outof their way. We strive to increase the freedom ofour team members as we grow, enabling them tomove quickly as the industry evolves. With thatfreedom comes increased responsibility. High

performers thrive in that environment and makegreat choices for Interventional Concepts.

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We seek excellence

Our culture focuses on helping us achieve

excellence

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Five Aspects of our

Culture1. Values are what we Value

2. High Performance

3. Freedom & Responsibility

4. Context, not Control

5. Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled

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Many companies have nice sounding valuestatements displayed in the lobby, such as:

Integrity

Communication

Respect

Excellence

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Note: Enron, whose leaders went to jail, and which went bankrupt from fraud, had the above values displayed in their lobby.


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The actual company values, as opposed to the

nice soundingvalues, are shown by who gets

rewarded, promoted, or let go

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Actual company values are the behaviors andskills that are valuedin fellow employees

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At Interventional Concepts, we particularly

value the following nine behaviors and skills in

our colleagues...

...meaning we hire and promote people whodemonstrate these nine

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Judgment

You make wise decisions (people,technical, business and creative)

despite ambiguity

You identify root causes, and getbeyond treating symptoms

You think strategically, and canarticulate what you are, and are not,

trying to do

You smartly separate what must bedone well now, and what can be

improved later

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Communication

You listen well, instead of reacting fast,so you can better understand

You are concise and articulated inspeech and writing

You treat people with respectindependent of their status or

disagreement with you

You maintain a calm poise in stressfulsituations


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Innovation

You re-conceptualize issues todiscover practical solutions to hard

problems

You challenge prevailing assumptionswhen warranted and suggest better

approaches

You create new ideas that prove useful

You keep us nimble by minimizingcomplexity and finding time to simplify


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Courage

You say what you think even if it is

controversial

You make tough decisions withoutagonizing

You take smart risks

You question actions inconsistent withour values


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Passion

You inspire others with your thirst forexcellence

You care intensively aboutInterventional Conceptss success

You celebrate wins

You are tenacious


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Honesty

You are known for candor and

directness

You are non-political when youdisagree with others

You only say things about your fellowteammates you will say to their face

You are quick to admit mistakes


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Selflessness

You seek what is best forInterventional Concepts rather than

best for yourself or your group

You are ego-less when searching forthe best ideas

You make time to help colleagues

You share information openly andproactively


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Five Aspects of our


2. High Performance





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The Keeper Test Leaders Use

Which of my people, if they told me they were leavingfor a similar job at a peer company, would I fight hard to

keep at Interventional Concepts?

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The other people should get a generous severance now,so we can open the slot to try to find a star for that role


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Honesty Always

As a leader, no one in your group should bematerially surprised of your views

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All of Us are Responsible for Ensuring WeLive our Values

You must question actions inconsistent with ourvalues; this is part of the Courage value

Akin to the honor code pledge: I will not lie, norcheat, nor steal, nor tolerate those who do

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Corporate Team

The more talent we have, the more we canaccomplish, so our people assist each other all thetime

Internal cutthroat or sink or swim behavior

should be rare and not tolerated

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Hard Work - Not Relevant

We dont measure people by how many hours theywork or how much they are in the office

We do care about accomplishing great work

Sustained B-level performance, despite A foreffort, generates a warmgoodbye

Sustained A-level performance, despite minimaleffort, is rewarded with more responsibility andgreat pay

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Brilliant Jerks

Some companies tolerate them; we dont For us, cost to effective teamwork is too high

Diverse styles are fine - as long as person embodies

the 9 values

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Why are we so insistent in highperformance?

Great workplace is

Stunning Colleagues

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Our High Performance Culture NotRight for Everyone

People who love our culture will stay a long time

- They thrive on excellence and candor and change

-They would be disappointed if given agoodbye, but lots of mutual warmth

and respect

Some people, however, value job security and stability over performance, anddont like our culture.

- They may feel fearful at Interventional Concepts

- They could sometimes be bitter if let go, and may feel that we arepolitical place to work

We must get better everyday at attracting only the former, and helping thelatter realize we are not right for them

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Five Aspects of our


2. High Performance





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Our model is to increase teammember freedom as we grow, ratherthan limit it, to continue to attract

and nourish innovative people, so we

have better chance of success

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Most Companies Curtail Freedom as theyGrow

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Bigger

Team MemberFreedom


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Why Do Most Companies Curtail

Freedom and Become Bureaucraticas they Grow?

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Growth Also Often Shrinks TalentDiversity

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Complexity

% High Performance

Team Members

Chaos and error spikehere - business has

become too complex torun informally with this

talent level


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Process-focus Drives More Talent Out

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% High Performance

Team Members


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Process Brings Seductively Strong Near-Term Outcome

A highly-successful process-driven company

- With leading share in its market

- Minimal thinking required

- Few mistakes made - very efficient

- Few curious innovator-mavericks remain

- Very optimized processes for its existing market

- Efficiency has trumped flexibility

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Then the Market Shifts...

Market shifts due to new technology orcompetitors, or business models

Company is unable to adapt quickly

- because the employees are extremely good atfollowing the existing processes, and process

adherence has become the value system

Company generally grinds painfully into irrelevance

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The Key: Increase Talent DensityFaster than Complexity Grows

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% High Performance TeamMembers

Business Complexity

% High Performance Team

Members


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Increase Talent Diversity

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% High Performance TeamMembers

Top of market compensation Attract high-value people through

freedom to make big impact

Be demanding about highperformance culture


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Minimize Complexity Growth

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Few big products vs small ones Eliminate distracting complexity (barnacles)

Be wary of efficiency optimizations that increase

complexity and rigidity

Business Complexity

Note: Sometimes long-term simplicity is achieved only through bursts of complexity torework current systems


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With the right people, instead ofa culture of

process adherence, we have a culture ofcreativity, self-discipline, freedom and

responsibility

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Is Freedom Absolute?

Are all rules & processes bad?

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Freedom is not absolute

Just like free speech, there are some

limited exceptions to freedom at work

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Two Types of Necessary Rules

Prevent irrevocable disaster

- Financials produced are wrong

- We fail on recruiting patients

Moral, ethical, legal issues

- Dishonesty and harassment are intolerable

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Mostly, Rapid Recoveryis the RightModel

Just fix problems quickly

- High performers make very few errors

Were in a creative and inventive market

In creative environments, preventing errors is notcheaper than fixing them

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Good vs Bad Process

Good process helps talented people get more done

- Spend within budget each quarter so dont have to coordinate everyspending decision across departments

- Regularly scheduled strategy and context meetings

Bad process tries to prevent recoverable mistakes

- Get approvals for $5k spending

- 3 people to sign off on banner ad creative

- Permission needed to hang a poster on a wall

- Multi-level approval process for projects

- Get 10 people to interview each candidate

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Rule Creep

Bad processes tend to creep in

- Preventing errors just sounds so good

We try to get rid of rules when we can, to

reinforce the point

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Example: Vacation Policy and Tracking

Most companies have the standard model of N daysper year

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Meanwhile

Were all working online some nights and weekends,responding to emails at odd hours, spending some

afternoons on personal time, and taking good

vacations

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Most companies dont track hours

worked per day or per week, so whyare we tracking days of vacation per

year?

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We should focus on what people get

done, not on how many days worked

Just as we dont have a 9am to 5pm

workday policy, we dont need a vacationolic

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Interventional Concepts Vacation Policy

and Tracking

there is no policy or tracking

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Interventional Concepts Vacation Policyand Tracking

There is no policy or tracking

We dont have a clothing policy and no one comes

to work naked

We dont need policies for everything

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No Vacation Policy Doesnt Mean NoVacation

Any leader at Interventional Concepts can take bigvacations...and will likely come back inspired to find

big ideas

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Another Example of Freedom andResponsibility...

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Interventional Concepts Policies forExpensing, Entertainment, Gifts & Travel:

(5 words long)

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Act in Interventional Concepts Best Interest


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Act in Interventional Concept BestInterest GenerallyMeans

Expense only what you would otherwise notspend, and is worthwhile for work

Travel as you would if it were your own money Disclose non-trivial vendor gifts

Take from Interventional Concepts only when it isinefficient to not take, and inconsequential

- taking means, for example, taking home foodthat we purchased for a customer or expensinga meal that is not a business meal

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Summary of Freedom & Responsibility:

- As we grow, minimize rules

- Inhibit chaos with ever more high performancepeople

- Flexibility is more important than efficiency in

the long term

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Five Aspects of our


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Five Aspects of our


2. High Performance





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If you want to build a ship, dont drum up thepeople to gather wood, divide the work, and

give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn forthe vast and endless sea

-Antoine De Saint-Exupery,

author of The Little Prince

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The best managers figure out how to getgreat outcomes by setting the

appropriate context, rather than by tryingto control people

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Managers: When one oftalented people does

something dumb, dontblame them

Instead, ask yourself whatcontext you failed to set

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Managers: When you are tempted tocontrol your people, ask yourself what

context you could set instead

Are you articulate and inspiring enough about goalsand strategies?

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Why Managing ThroughContext?

High performance people will dobetter work if they understand the

context

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Five Aspects of our


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Five Aspects of our


2. High Performance





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Tightly Coupled Monolith

Senior management reviews nearly all tactics

- e.g., CEO reviews all job offers or advertising

Lots of x-departmental buy-in meetings

Keeping other internal groups happy has equalprecedence with pleasing customers

Mavericks get exhausted trying to innovate

Highly coordinated through centralization, but veryslow, and slowness increases with size


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Independent Silos

Each group executes on their objectives with littlecoordination

- Everyone does their own thing

Work that requires coordination suffers

Alienation and suspicion between departments

Only works well when areas are independent

- e.g., aircraft engines and blenders for GE


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#3 is Our Choice

1. Tightly Coupled Monolith

2. Independent Silos


Highly Aligned Loosely


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Highly Aligned, Loosely

Coupled

Highly Aligned- Strategy and goals are clear, specific, broadly understood- Team interactions focused on strategy and goals, rather than tactics

- Requires large investment in management time to be transparent andarticulate and perceptive

Loosely Coupled- Minimal cross-functional meetings except to get aligned on goals and

strategy

- Trust between groups on tactics without previewing/approving each one

- so groups can move fast- Leaders reaching out proactively for ad-hoc coordination and

perspective as appropriate

- Occasional post-mortems on tactics necessary to increase alignment


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Freedom & Responsibility Culture at Interventional Concepts, Inc.

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