Reese: Google found top teams excel via trust, not individual talent
Lexi Reese · The Playbook to Scaling High-Performance Teams with Gusto COO Lexi Reese | SaaStr Software Community · Feb 3, 2020 · at 3:51
This episode carries Lexi Reese's own address, with nobody on the show putting questions to them. It still counts as said, and it is kept out of every score on their page.
Gusto COO Lexi Reese references Google's people analytics research on team performance factors during a SaaStr presentation.
0:00 / 0:16exact quote · 16.7s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“They cross-referenced a bunch to come up with the teams that performed the highest were not the smartest people in the room. They were not the best Positional players in their particular spot on the field. They were a team that had engendered this sense of trust”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Lexi Reese
Reese: Firing high performers who destroy trust is worth short-term revenue hits
“At the end of that time period, if it has not gotten remarkably better, the person needs to go. And you need to be willing to take the hit to revenue or product delivery or whatever it is that that person was so amazing at, but I guarantee you the short-term h…”
Reese: Tech's speed culture and unicorn storytelling erode organizational trust
“And in technology, we worship at this altar of speed, and moving fast, and breaking things, and for crying out loud, people refer to us as mythical creatures and unicorns. And the deities, and the myths, and the, and all of this storytelling is actually the ve…”
Reese: Missed commitments require a public apology without excuses to prevent mistrust
“No, if you commit, you also deliver, and if you don't, you apologize. You apologize publicly, and you don't give a long backstory about why you could have done. You say, I'm sorry, I committed, I didn't get it done, and that's unacceptable because we hold ours…”
Reese: Hiring purely for specialist capability without evaluating trust is kryptonite
“Really, really bad kryptonite is urgency to hire a role-related specialist. I need the best engineer. I need the best salesperson. I need the best finance person. So I'm gonna screen only for their capabilities against that role-related need. No, equally, if n…”
Reese: Building trust slows nominal metrics but drives high performance
“And importantly, this work is not fast. It can go faster sometimes, but it's actually slow, and it may slow you down at a nominal level against whatever scorecard you're tracking, but it is the biggest lever to high performance.”
Reese: Homogeneous teams stifle innovation through the common information effect
“There is a ton of research, and from experience, maybe you all relate to this, that when you surround yourself with sameness, it's pernicious, because you're not getting new and novel ideas. People often, with rare exception, will default to what is the best w…”