How a CEO can stay in touch: A ‘Top-5 Things’ approach
The classic novel Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift, chronicles the journey of Lemuel Gulliver to a number of fanciful lands. In one of them, he encounters “flappers.” These servants surround authority figures and decide whether they should pay attention when someone speaks to them. In other words, the flappers control who has access to the powerful leaders.
Flappers often fail to curate information
It turns out this is not fiction. In modern large organizations, I have run up against numerous flappers—the gatekeepers who determine who and what gets through to senior executives. The goal, of course, is to ensure that the leader’s time is not wasted on unimportant trivia. But it isn’t the leader who’s deciding what’s important—it’s the flappers.
When flappers control access, the result is that C-suite executives get carefully curated information. Everyone who follows my writing knows I am very much in favor of curation, but not in this case. The data and opinions that really matter, such as truly innovative ideas, festering problems or customer insights often get buried as they are passed up the chain of command. What the leaders need is a way to access that raw information.
A chip off the Nvidia CEO’s block
Nvidia, one of the world’s most valuable companies, has come up with a solution. Every employee at Nvidia is encouraged to send regular T5T’s, emails about the “Top-5 Things” they’re working on, thinking about or noticing. The emails go out to their teams, their leaders and the CEO. And he reads them—every single one. The only person who doesn’t send out T5T’s is the CEO, because he knows others would be influenced by his ideas and mimic them.
Of course, this is not the only management strategy that Nvidia uses to bring out the best from its employees. It is, however, an unusually effective technique and one that other companies could easily incorporate.
It’s a great example of how a company’s culture starts at the top. For this tactic to work, the CEO really has to walk the talk: read all the emails, take them seriously, and respond to many of them. Busy employees aren’t going to take the time to send T5T’s if they think they’ll just vanish into the ether. And beyond that, the employees have to trust that their ideas will be treated with respect, even if they’re not acted on.
If you’re a leader who’s looking for “ideas from the edge,” consider instituting T5T’s in your company. And if you want other ideas about how to foster innovation and engagement in your company, contact me at ggolden@gailgoldenconsulting.com.
