a big learning the last year is the degree to which your most passionate team members will *expect* leaders/managers to coherently frame strategy

this is where "autonomy" often hits a snag. Leaders assume it means "bottom up" planning. But that isn't it ... (1/n)

Writing up 3 vague bullets on a "vision" slide is easy. Also easy is planning out each and every chunk of work for the year.

Much harder is detailing a strategy that leaves room for creativity and agency ... but is also coherent, backed by evidence, and is opinionated ... (2/n)

Opinionated? Isn't that bad?

I don't think so when it is opinionated at the right level. Passionate problem solvers want to know that their company has a perspective and doesn't want to be everything/anything.

"Um hey, so what are your OKRs" doesn't land. (3/n)

These team members can sniff out the drift into mediocrity from a mile away. So the trick is going beyond a surface level of context.

I guess my point is that ppl crave smart context over shallow attempts at promoting self-organization (4/end)