If I were writing a book, this would be a memorable chapter.
A few hundred years ago, shortly after beginning Phase II of life as Cove Street Capital, I was “summoned” to a very large allocator organization, after 10 years of annual treks and pitches to zero avail. After an hour, we were hired for $50mm. When I asked, “why now, I have basically said the same thing each time,” the answer was something along the lines of “Oh, we always liked you and your approach, we just couldn’t stand the other people around you.”(Note to self – be the person who tells the other person they have a giant green thing in their teeth.)
Things went well at the start, and after three years or so, X correctly thought it was time for a “re-underwrite” and asked to sit in on an investment meeting. Petition granted. We had our usual Monday fracas which encourages “off spreadsheet thinking” and I thought this was a great meeting for the X research team to see how sausage is made. The concerned call came a week later, with the perception that players at CSC were “not all on the same page” and there seemed to be a “lack of leadership and there were pre-Covid “language concerns.” The only reply was, “well, that sounds like a good investment meeting.”
The reality is that “every once in a while” a path seems self-evident to an “experienced leader” and action needs to be taken. (Attribute 65% probability of being correct.) The rest of the time I think the best team functioning requires said leader to just be another person in the room with a blank piece of paper and his own crayons.
Said another way by this guy.
JEFF BEZOS: “I am very skeptical if the meeting is not messy. One time—it doesn’t happen very often because it’s kind of verboten at Amazon—but I could tell in the meeting that the team had rehearsed. I could just feel it. You can tell from the little tiny cues. I turned to them and said, “Did you guys rehearse this meeting?” And they were like, “Uh, yes.” I said, “Don’t do that again. You don’t need to.” Maybe you would rehearse a sales meeting. If you’re going to go visit a customer and trying to sell them a new product or something, maybe you want all your ducks in a row and you want to put your best foot forward. Internally, you’re seeking truth, not a pitch. I don’t want to be pitched, and you don’t want any of your senior executives to be pitched. That’s why messy is good. You also want to be early. You don’t want the whole thing to be figured out and then presented to you. You want to be part of the sausage-making. Show me the ugly bits. I always ask, “Are there any dissenting opinions on the team?” I want to try to get to the controversy. Let’s make this meeting messy. Help me make it messy. I go last, too. We try to go in kind of seniority order. The most junior person goes first, and the most senior person goes last. It helps with groupthink. In that rare case where I actually know that nothing can change my mind, I’ll just say, “Look, guys, nothing here is going to change my mind, so let’s not waste a lot of time.” It shouldn’t be a charade. But that’s a very rare case. Personally, I’m very easy to influence—something I’ve realized later in my life, maybe starting 10 years ago or so. I realized I’m a very easy person to influence. I change my mind a lot. People talk to me, I take in the information, and I change. But a couple of percent of the time, no force in the world can move me because I’m so sure of something. I can’t tell you how many people tried to talk me out of Fulfillment by Amazon, as an example. I just knew. I was like, “You will never talk me out of this. We’re going to do this. I will do this through sheer force of will if need be.”
