Achieving Excellent Results

1. Mastery Requires Patience: James Clear emphasizes that achieving greatness requires patience and persistence. ‘The process’ of mastering small habits that lead to profound results is not immediate but gradual.
2. Use the Goldilocks Rule: The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right. This balance keeps tasks engaging and challenging enough to maintain interest without causing burnout or discouragement.
3. The Two-Minute Rule for New Habits: To make new habits stick, start by making them incredibly easy to do. The two-minute rule focuses on starting a new habit in a way that can be done in two minutes or less. The idea is that once you start doing the right thing, it is much easier to continue doing it.
4. Focus on Identity-Based Habits: Build habits that are outcome-based and rooted in your identity. This means cultivating practices that reflect who you want to become, not just what you want to achieve.
5. Leverage the Power of Environment: Design your environment to make good habits more automatic and bad habits challenging to engage in. This might involve physical rearrangements of your space or changing your digital environments to reduce distractions and encourage productivity.
6. Reflect and Review: Regular reflection on your habits and systems allows you to fine-tune and adjust your approaches based on what is working or not. This helps maintain flexibility and responsiveness to change, essential for continuous improvement.

Everything Good Starts Small

The problem with everything good is that it happens from many small things. When folks tell their story, they tend not to talk about the process. They talk about results. And, we often only hear from winners. Only one person wins a gold medal. So, that person has it all figured out, while the rest are just bums with inferior systems. We believe in the romantic notion that inspiration is divine, creativity is not understood and only happens for those who are blessed, and all success happens overnight. To level up, you have to have the other levels.

Drive your satisfaction from the levels.

Final Check In

What habit did you select to focus on over the past six weeks? Did you keep up? What have you learned from the experience?

What does satisfying mean (in this context)?

“Satisfying” refers to the emotional payoff or pleasure we experience immediately after performing a habit. This satisfaction is crucial because it taps into the brain’s reward system, which helps to reinforce the habit, making it more likely to be repeated in the future. It’s a trick, but we are “trickable”. Our brains can know it’s a trick, and we still release dopamine. I get a lot of pleasure from finishing a blog post and hitting the big Publish button in WordPress.” I celebrate it with a listen to my favorite song from Filter.

The Fourth Law of Atomic Habits: Make it Satisfying

The fourth law is centered on the idea that people are more likely to repeat a behavior if they feel a sense of immediate satisfaction after completing it. This law taps into the human brain’s reward system, encouraging habits by making them enjoyable or short-term rewards.

1. Using a habit tracker: This provides visual proof of your achievements, which can be inherently satisfying.
2. Creating a loyalty system for yourself: Rewards after completing certain milestones can boost the gratification derived from a task.
3. Making the benefits of good habits feel immediate: Even if the actual benefits take time to manifest, creating little immediate rewards can help reinforce the habit.

These strategies aim to leverage positive feelings and rewards to cement habits more firmly, countering the natural human tendency to prioritize immediate returns over long-term benefits.

Habit Tracker

Here’s a template that I use to track habits.

I like to use pencils and paper to track my progress. I grab my trusty Peper Mate SHARPWRITER #2 pencil and circle the month, write in the habit on the left, and fill in the dot as the month progresses. Ultimately, you have something physical and can clearly see when you miss a day. When you miss multiple days, the habit tracker smacks you in the face with that information. A trick to make it satisfying is to get some joy out of seeing unbroken chains. This is known as the mythical Seinfeld Method, which is not entirely true but a good story. Jerry has been reported to write jokes every day and actively tracks his streaks.

There are even more sophisticated habit trackers out there—ones with buttons, lights, switches, and flaps. Go for it if they will bring you joy. I can easily slip into being a gearhead, so I have learned to use what I have now and get joy out of using primitive tools. For me, it is an excuse to start when the thing arrives from Amazon instead of right now.

Checking In

How long can you go?

In the first part, the book focuses on why habits form, break, and significantly impact your life. In the second part, we get to work by becoming aware of habits and cues. Then, we must find a way to make habits attractive. Now, how do we make habits easier? The book offers what it means by easier and how to do it. I will share some notes and some of my strategies.

The “Make It Easy” law is about reducing friction to make good habits easier to adopt and bad habits harder to follow. This law is based on the principle that human behavior tends to follow the path of least resistance. The easier it is to do something, the more likely it is to become a habit.

‘Easy’ could mean…

• Low Effort: Actions that require minimal physical or mental effort to initiate and complete. The easier a task is to start, the more likely it is to be done. For example, reading one page of a book each night before bed is considered an easy task that can lead to the habit of reading regularly.
• Simplicity: A straightforward and uncomplicated habit is more likely to be adopted and sustained. Complex routines requiring multiple steps or conditions to be met can be discouraging and more challenging.
• Reduced Friction: Minimizing the obstacles or barriers to performing a habit. This could involve physical setup (like having your gym clothes ready if you plan to work out) or removing distractions that might deter you from a productive habit (like turning off notifications on your phone to focus on work).
• Convenience: The habit should fit seamlessly into your life or routine. The more convenient a habit is, the less resistance you’ll feel towards doing it. Placing a water bottle at your desk to stay hydrated or having a fruit bowl visible in the kitchen to encourage healthy snacking are examples of making habits convenient.
• Accessibility: Making the tools or elements you need to perform the habit readily available. For instance, if your goal is to play guitar daily, keeping the guitar in a stand in the living room rather than tucked away in its case makes it more accessible and thus easier to pick up and play.

“Easy” (in this context) means designing habits so that starting and continuing them requires the least resistance.

So, how do you make it easy?

1. Reduce Friction: Identify the steps involved in your habit and find ways to simplify them. The goal is to reduce the number of obstacles between you and your desired behavior. For example, if you want to exercise in the morning, prepare your workout clothes and gear the night before.
2. Environment Design: Optimize your environment to make good habits easier and bad habits harder. This could mean placing a water pitcher on your desk if you’re trying to drink more water or removing junk food from your home if you’re trying to eat healthier.
3. The Two-Minute Rule: To make a habit easy to start, focus on the first two minutes of the behavior. Break down your habits into actions that can be done in two minutes or less. The idea is not to complete the entire task in two minutes but to make the starting point as simple as possible.
4. Automation: Use technology or services to automate your habits where possible. Automation can take the effort out of good habits by making the desired action the default option. For instance, setting up automatic transfers to your savings account can help with financial goals.
5. Habit Shaping: This involves gradually increasing the complexity and duration of your habit as it becomes more ingrained. Start with an incredibly easy version of the habit and slowly build upon it. This approach can help you maintain momentum and avoid burnout.
6. Use Commitment Devices: Commitment devices can help you stick to your habits by adding a layer of external accountability. For example, signing up for a class with a friend can increase your commitment to exercising.

The Two-Minute Rule

My biggest takeaway is the Two-Minute Rule. Of course, I looked for a two-minute video to help me with the two-minute rule. The video, however, was 2 minutes and 37 seconds. I guess the trick worked and got me to focus for a little more time

The Two-Minute Rule from “Getting Things Done” by David Allen

In David Allen’s productivity system, the two-minute rule is a practical guideline for managing tasks efficiently. The essence is simple: if you encounter a task that can be completed in two minutes or less, do it immediately.

• Immediate Action: It reduces procrastination by encouraging instant action on small tasks.
• Clears Mental Clutter: Completing the task immediately helps clear your mind, reducing the cognitive load of remembering to do it later.
• Efficiency: Often, the effort to record, track, and revisit a minor task exceeds the effort of just completing it. This rule keeps your to-do list more manageable and focused on larger, more time-consuming tasks.

The Two-Minute Rule from “Atomic Habits” by James Clear

James Clear’s adaptation of the two-minute rule in “Atomic Habits” focuses on habit formation rather than task management. Here, the rule is designed to lower the barrier to entry for starting new habits by committing to just two minutes of the desired activity.

• Overcoming Initial Resistance: The most challenging part of any task is often just starting. Committing to only two minutes significantly reduces the mental barrier to the beginning.
• Building Consistency: It emphasizes the importance of consistency over intensity at the beginning of forming a new habit. It’s easier to increase the duration of an activity once the habit is established than to start with a high level of intensity.
• Catalyzing Longer Sessions: Often, you’ll find it easier to continue beyond the initial two minutes, leading to more meaningful engagement with the task or habit.

My Trick: Take Care of ‘Future You’

‘Future You’ is the you that exists moments from now, tomorrow, or years from now. Future You will forget about the book your reading now. Future You will not remember what lightbulb type is in your dining room. Future You might be disappointed that it didn’t run a 5k. So, do things for Future You. Take care of Future You. This is why I take notes. I am leaving clues for the future version of me. I get my outfit ready at night for tomorrow’s me. That me that’s tired and has a big day. Today me has a little energy left. Today me can anticipate what tomorrow’s me might need.

Checking In

What are you doing to take care of Future You?

In the first part, the book focuses on why habits form, break, and significantly impact your life. In the second part, we get to work by becoming aware of habits and cues. Now, we must find a way to make the habits more attractive. Here are my notes and takeaways.

Anticipation of Reward

Habits are easier to adopt if they are attractive. Anticipation of reward drives us to act. The greater the anticipation, the greater the reward.

Consider the habit of exercising daily. Expecting rewards like improved health, better mood, and physical appearance can make this habit more attractive. For instance, envisioning yourself completing a marathon or achieving a personal fitness goal can amplify the anticipation, making lacing up your sneakers and heading out the door much more appealing.

Temptation Bundling

Temptation bundling. Pair an action you want to do with the action you need to do.

If you love listening to audiobooks but struggle to find time to work out, combine these activities. Only allow yourself to listen to your audiobook while exercising. This way, the desire to see what happens next in your book propels you to hit the treadmill, effectively bundling a want (listening to the audiobook) with a need (exercising).

Imitation of Social Groups

We tend to imitate three social groups: the close, the many, and the powerful. If a behavior gets us approval, respect, and praise, we will find it attractive.

If you’re trying to adopt a plant-based diet and you see that your close friends (the close), a majority of people in your social media circles (the many), and celebrities or influencers you admire (the powerful) are all praising and adopting this lifestyle, you’re more likely to find it attractive and worth pursuing.

Joining a Culture

To build a habit, join a culture where your desired behavior is expected.

If you want to make reading a habit, join book clubs or online communities where reading regularly is the norm. Being part of a group where members share book recommendations, discuss their readings, and celebrate the completion of books provides motivation and makes the habit of reading regularly more attractive and normal.

Highlighting Benefits of Avoiding Bad Habits

Highlight the benefits of avoiding a bad habit to make it seem unattractive. Frame negative things as positive.

To make the habit of reducing screen time before bed more attractive, focus on the positives of avoiding this bad habit, such as improved sleep quality, better mental health, and more time for reading or meditating. By understanding that avoiding the blue light from screens before bed can lead to deeper, more restorative sleep, you frame the reduction of screen time not as a loss but as a gain of positive outcomes.

Checking In

How’s your progress this week?

In the first part, the book focused on why habits form, break, and impact your life in major ways. In the next part, we get to work by first becoming aware of habits and cues.

Become Aware of Your Habits

Before you can change your habits, you need to become aware of them.

The concept might seem straightforward, but the implementation can be surprisingly challenging. Many of our actions are performed subconsciously, making them difficult to recognize and evaluate. The solution? Verbalization. By articulating your actions as you perform them, you bring them from the subconscious into the conscious. For example, saying out loud, “I am getting out of bed to get coffee,” helps pinpoint a routine action that might otherwise go unnoticed. This practice of verbalizing your activities serves as a form of self-observation, allowing you to become a detached analyst of your own behavior.

Awareness is more than just observation; it’s about understanding the frequency, triggers, and outcomes of your habits. It requires patience and honesty, especially when confronting habits that may not align with your goals or self-image. This initial step of awareness is crucial for setting the stage for meaningful change. Without recognizing the habits that shape your daily life, it’s impossible to accurately target or modify them.

Become Aware of Cues

Cues are what lead you to take action. You might not even notice them, but something triggers you to do something. James Clear describes cues as “silent conductors” orchestrating our actions. Understanding these cues is essential for anyone looking to reshape their habits, as they are the first domino in the chain of behavior.

Cues can be anything: the smell of coffee brewing, the sight of your running shoes, the sound of an alarm clock. They can be environmental or emotional, tangible or abstract. But they all share a common trait: they signal to our brain to initiate a behavior. For example, the mere sight of a remote control on the couch might be all it takes to prompt an unplanned TV-watching session. The challenge lies in identifying these triggers, as they are often deeply ingrained in our routines and surroundings.

Becoming aware of cues requires a blend of observation and introspection. Start by reflecting on your habitual responses and what precedes them. What environment are you in? What time is it? How do you feel? These questions can help unearth the cues that lead to automatic behaviors. Once identified, you can begin to alter your environment to reduce negative cues and introduce positive ones. For instance, hiding the remote control can remove the visual cue that encourages TV watching, while placing a book in its place can create a new cue for reading.

Create New Environments

Our environment, which could be your house, workplace, or school, contains our cues. New environments can be particularly conducive to forming new habits because they lack the established cues that trigger old behaviors. This explains why people often find it easier to adopt new behaviors while on vacation or after moving to a new house. By understanding and manipulating cues, you can design an environment that fosters positive habits and discourages negative ones.

Breaking bad habits starts with making their cues invisible, removing the triggers from your surroundings, and thereby disrupting the cycle of habitual action.

Habit Stacking

Once you’ve become aware of your habits and the cues that trigger them, the next step in your journey towards self-improvement is to build new, positive habits. One of the most effective strategies from the book “Habit Stacking.” This method involves integrating new habits into your existing routine by pairing them with established ones. This technique leverages the momentum and familiarity of your current behaviors to naturally introduce new actions without overwhelming your daily routine.

Here’s how you can stack habits. Start by identifying a current habit with its cue, then add on a new behavior you want to adopt. For example, if you already have a habit of drinking a cup of coffee every morning, you could stack a new habit of meditating for five minutes immediately after you start brewing your coffee. The existing habit provides a built-in cue for the new habit, creating a seamless transition between the two. This not only makes it easier to remember the new habit but also embeds it into the fabric of your daily life.

The cool thing about habit stacking lies in its flexibility and adaptability. It can be applied to virtually any scenario and tailored to fit any schedule. This is something that YOU (I mean ME) can do right now.

Checking In

How’s your progress?

BLOT: This book will change your life.

Did I oversell it? Well, one way of thinking about life suggests that I am not overselling it. Tiny habits are the basis of everything you do, from your personal and professional goals to your beliefs and personal identity. Time keeps ticking forward. You are presented with many choices. Some choices fall into patterns, namely habits. The results are all the results of the systems that emerge.

“All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision.”

James Clear

I am going to write about the book club as I go. This is kind of like a tiny habit that I want to form. The system is the framework of the book club, and the habit is to read a little every day and reflect on it in the form of a blog post here.

Critical Threshold

My favorite takeaway from the first three chapters is this idea of hitting some critical threshold. Our intuition is that you make linear progress toward goals and outcomes. But it doesn’t work that way. It is often frustrating until it is not.

First Three Chapters

1. The Surprising Power of Atomic Habits: The book emphasizes the compound growth of tiny improvements and the concept of marginal gains. James Clear illustrates how making 1% better choices and improving your daily habits can lead to significant, transformative changes over time. The idea is that just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the small, foundational components that can lead to larger systems of success.
2. How Your Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa): This chapter delves into the relationship between habits and identity. Clear proposes that true behavior change starts with a change in our self-image and our sense of who we are. Instead of focusing on what you want to achieve, focus on who you wish to become. This shift from outcome-based habits to identity-based habits can lead to more sustainable change because it integrates the habits into your sense of self and everyday life.
3. How to Build Better Habits in 4 Simple Steps: In the third chapter, James Clear introduces the four-step model of habit formation: cue, craving, response, and reward. These four steps are the backbone of every habit, and understanding them can help in breaking down and rebuilding habits. Clear explains how cues trigger a craving, which motivates a response, leading to a reward, which consolidates the habit. He emphasizes the importance of making cues obvious, cravings attractive, responses easy, and rewards satisfying to form new good habits.

Professional Systems Versus Personal Systems

A good discussion in our book club formed around why we separate our professional systems from our personal ones. At work, we tend to fall into the systems the office has in place. Often, these systems help us get things done and have predictable results, but at home, we don’t have any systems.

Challenge

What system do you want to build for yourself? Let me know. Maybe we can hold each other accountable.

Key Points From Good to Great

“Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t” is a management book authored by Jim Collins. First published in 2001, the book is the result of a comprehensive research study conducted by Collins and his team, in which they analyzed and compared companies that made the transition from good performance to great performance and sustained it over the long term.

Here are some key points and concepts from the book:

1. Level 5 Leadership: Collins introduces the idea of Level 5 Leadership, which refers to leaders who blend personal humility with professional will. These leaders aren’t typically high-profile or charismatic but are incredibly effective at driving their companies to success.
2. First Who, Then What: Before determining a strategic direction, companies that went from good to great started by getting the right people on board (and the wrong people off). Once the right team was in place, deciding on the best path forward became much easier.
3. The Hedgehog Concept: This idea is based on the ancient Greek parable that says, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Good-to-great companies focus on what they can be the best in the world at (and equally important, what they cannot be the best at). This focus is as much about deciding what not to do as it is about deciding what to do.
4. Culture of Discipline: Collins argues that when you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magic combination of sustained results and the ability to adapt to change.
5. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: The transition from good to great doesn’t happen overnight. Instead, there’s a process of building momentum over time, similar to turning a heavy flywheel. Conversely, companies that jump from one new program or fad to another find themselves trapped in the “doom loop.”
6. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about technology. They avoid jumping onto technology bandwagons and only adopt technologies that align directly with their Hedgehog Concept.
7. The Stockdale Paradox: Named after Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, this concept emphasizes the importance of confronting the brutal facts of a current situation while maintaining unwavering faith that you will prevail in the end.

From Good to Great Communities

Let’s replace the idea of company with community and see how we can twist the key points to support a community strategy.

Level 5 Leadership

Level 5 Leaders are known for:

• Their accomplishments Enriching the lives of others
• Leading their organizations to change the world for the better
• Setting their successors up for even better results in the next generation
• Building sustained excellence beyond their tenure
• Not needing or expecting to receive credit for future successes
• Putting people first and strategy second
• Finding the right people for the organization, getting rid of the wrong ones, and putting employees in the appropriate positions
• Making difficult decisions that may not be popular but are necessary for the good of their organizations

In the realm of online community management, the essence of Level 5 Leadership—blending personal humility with professional will—becomes increasingly vital. As online spaces grow and evolve, the need for leaders who embody these traits can be the determining factor in transitioning a community from good to great.

Personal Humility: Online communities thrive on genuine interactions. A Level 5 Community Manager understands that their role isn’t about being the loudest voice or the shining star, but about facilitating and elevating the voices of others. They actively listen, show empathy, and appreciate contributions from all members, no matter how big or small. By placing the community’s needs and aspirations above their own, these managers foster trust and cultivate an environment where members feel valued and heard.

Professional Will: Equally critical is a relentless commitment to the community’s vision and goals. A Level 5 Community Manager is resolute in maintaining community standards, guiding discussions back on track, and ensuring that the space remains positive and productive. They make tough decisions when needed and do so with the community’s best interest at heart. Their determination is not about exerting authority, but about steering the community towards its shared objectives and aspirations.

To transition an online community from good to great, it’s not just about the tools, platforms, or the number of members. It’s about having a leader who can humbly serve the community while possessing the unwavering drive to uphold its vision. Such leadership ensures that the community remains cohesive, engaged, and purpose-driven, setting the foundation for long-term success and impact.

First Who, Then What

The principle of “First Who, Then What” is pivotal in establishing and maintaining thriving digital spaces. At the core of this concept lies the belief that before charting out any strategic direction or initiating activities, it’s essential to ensure that the right people are in place to drive the community forward.

The Right People: Before determining the content, themes, or engagement strategies for an online community, it’s paramount to identify and onboard individuals who genuinely resonate with the community’s values and vision. These might be moderators, key contributors, or even influential members who have a positive and contagious energy. Their passion, commitment, and alignment with the community’s ethos will significantly influence the direction and tone of discussions, ensuring a vibrant and constructive space.

The Wrong People: Just as important as bringing the right people on board is identifying and, if necessary, parting ways with those who might not be a fit. This isn’t about exclusion but about ensuring the health and integrity of the community. Misaligned members can derail conversations, breed negativity, or create discord. A proactive approach in understanding and managing such members can make the difference between a flourishing community and a fragmented one.

Once the right team of moderators and influential members is in place, the community’s trajectory towards greatness becomes clearer and more achievable. With their collective insights, experiences, and energies, decisions about engagement strategies, content themes, and growth initiatives become more intuitive and effective.

The Hedgehog Concept

In the intricate landscape of online communities, the Hedgehog Concept offers a transformative approach to community management. Drawing inspiration from the ancient Greek parable, where the fox, despite its cunning, is often outmaneuvered by the single-minded focus of the hedgehog, this concept champions the power of simplicity and clarity in purpose.

Understanding the One Big Thing: For an online community to transition from good to great, it’s vital for community managers to truly comprehend what their community can excel at. This isn’t just about recognizing what the community is passionate about, but also understanding what can drive sustainable engagement and where the community’s true value lies. It’s the intersection of these three facets – passion, excellence, and value – that defines a community’s core strength.

Avoiding The Fox’s Dilemma: Just as crucial as pinpointing the community’s strength is the conscious decision to let go of diversions. An online community can be tempted to chase multiple trends, topics, or engagement strategies. However, spreading too thin can dilute the essence and focus of the community. By adhering to the Hedgehog Concept, community managers can avoid the pitfalls of becoming a “jack of all trades, master of none.”

Consistency in Action: Once the central strength of the community is identified, every decision, strategy, and action should align with this focal point. Whether it’s curating content, fostering discussions, or onboarding new members, consistency in promoting and nurturing the community’s core strength ensures that members feel a strong sense of purpose and belonging.

Culture of Discipline

Fostering a “Culture of Discipline” can be the linchpin that elevates a community from being good to achieving greatness. This concept, rooted in the balance between structure and freedom, provides a framework that community managers can adopt to ensure sustained growth, harmony, and impact.

Disciplined People: The first step in instilling a culture of discipline in an online community is ensuring that the people, especially the moderators and key contributors, embody discipline in their actions and interactions. These individuals set the tone for the rest of the community, and their commitment to upholding community values, norms, and goals is paramount. Their discipline is not born out of rigidity but stems from a genuine dedication to the community’s success.

Disciplined Thought: A community that fosters disciplined thought encourages its members to engage in constructive discussions, share informed opinions, and respect diverse viewpoints. This doesn’t mean stifling creativity or debate, but rather promoting thoughtful and meaningful interactions that align with the community’s core values and objectives.

Disciplined Action: Ensuring that the community operates within set guidelines and standards is crucial. A culture of discipline involves taking consistent actions – from moderating discussions and managing conflicts to promoting positive interactions and celebrating community achievements. This consistency ensures that the community remains focused on its goals, even as it grows and evolves.

Yet, a true culture of discipline is not about bureaucracy or rigid control. It’s about creating a space where members feel empowered to contribute meaningfully, knowing that there’s a strong framework in place that supports order, respect, and positive growth. It’s this delicate balance between freedom and structure that allows an online community to thrive.

The Flywheel and the Doom Loop

Online communities, much like organizations, thrive on momentum. Jim Collins’ metaphor of the “Flywheel and the Doom Loop” offers valuable insights into the dynamics of building and sustaining successful online communities. This concept emphasizes the gradual buildup of consistent efforts leading to transformative results, contrasting it with the pitfalls of inconsistent, reactive measures.

The Flywheel Effect: In the context of an online community, the Flywheel represents a series of consistent, well-thought-out actions and strategies that, over time, compound to create a powerful momentum. Initiatives such as fostering meaningful discussions, recognizing and celebrating member contributions, and ensuring a safe environment might seem incremental in isolation. Still, when executed consistently, they cumulatively build a community’s strength and cohesion. Like pushing a heavy flywheel, the initial efforts may appear to have minimal impact. However, with persistence and consistency, the community begins to gain momentum, eventually reaching a point where its growth and engagement become self-sustaining.

The Doom Loop: On the flip side, the Doom Loop embodies erratic, reactionary approaches that disrupt a community’s growth trajectory. Jumping from one trend to another, frequently changing community guidelines, or inconsistently enforcing community norms can lead to confusion, mistrust, and disengagement among members. Such sporadic actions, even if well-intentioned, can derail a community’s progress, much like how erratic pushes can stop a flywheel’s motion.

For community managers, recognizing the power of the Flywheel effect means having a clear vision and strategy for the community and staying committed to it. It involves understanding that building a thriving community is not about quick fixes or sudden bursts of activity, but about sustained, consistent effort. Equally important is avoiding the pitfalls of the Doom Loop, ensuring that decisions are proactive, aligned with the community’s long-term vision, and not merely reactions to transient challenges or trends.

In conclusion, taking an online community from good to great requires the patience and perseverance of steadily pushing the Flywheel, building momentum with each thoughtful action. By avoiding the short-term temptations and inconsistencies represented by the Doom Loop, community managers can ensure that their communities not only grow but thrive and sustain their success over the long haul.

Technology Accelerators

Technology stands as a driving force behind the success of many endeavors, including online communities. Jim Collins’ idea of “Technology Accelerators” underscores the strategic use of technology to propel an entity forward, rather than merely jumping onto technological bandwagons. For online community managers, this concept provides a roadmap for harnessing technology to transform communities from good to great. Is Generative AI a bandwagon?

Strategic Adoption: For a community to truly benefit from technology, it’s imperative that technology serves the community’s core objectives and values. Instead of adopting every new tool or platform that emerges, community managers should critically evaluate how a particular technology aligns with the community’s goals. Does it enhance member engagement? Does it facilitate better communication? Does it uphold the community’s ethos? If the answer is yes, then that technology can act as an accelerator, pushing the community towards greatness.

Empowering Members: Technology, when used right, can empower community members by offering them more avenues to interact, share, and learn. Tools that allow for collaborative projects, real-time discussions, or even gamified engagement can boost participation and foster a sense of ownership among members. However, the key is to ensure that these tools are intuitive, inclusive, and add genuine value to the member experience.

Staying Agile: While it’s essential to be discerning in adopting technology, it’s equally crucial for community managers to remain agile. The digital landscape evolves rapidly, and what works today might become obsolete tomorrow. Regularly reviewing and updating the community’s technological toolkit ensures that the community remains dynamic and responsive to members’ changing needs.

The Stockdale Paradox

The “Stockdale Paradox,” named after Admiral Jim Stockdale, emphasizes the balance between facing the harshest realities of one’s current situation while maintaining unwavering faith in eventual success. This duality of acknowledging challenges without losing sight of the ultimate vision provides a powerful perspective for online community managers striving to take their communities from good to great.

Facing Brutal Facts: Every online community, regardless of its size or niche, encounters challenges. These might range from member conflicts and engagement lulls to external criticisms or technological setbacks. A community manager, akin to Stockdale’s mindset, must have the courage to confront these brutal facts head-on. This means actively acknowledging issues, being transparent with members about challenges, and taking proactive measures to address them. Pretending problems don’t exist or downplaying their impact can erode trust and hinder a community’s growth.

Unyielding Optimism: While it’s crucial to recognize and tackle challenges, it’s equally essential for community managers to maintain an unwavering belief in the community’s potential and future success. This optimism serves as a beacon of hope for members, especially during tough times. It reminds everyone of the community’s purpose, values, and the collective vision they’re working towards. This steadfast belief can inspire members to rally together, contribute positively, and work towards overcoming obstacles.

Balanced Leadership: The true essence of the Stockdale Paradox in online community management lies in striking a balance between realism and optimism. Managers need to ensure that while they’re addressing challenges, they’re also celebrating successes, no matter how small. Highlighting wins, sharing positive stories, and constantly reminding members of the community’s goals and achievements can fuel motivation and foster a sense of collective pride.

Where do we go from here?

As community builders and managers, we should drawing inspiration from any source that we can. We need to discuss, try, learn, and tweak. Building and managing an online community is both an art and a science, blending human connection with strategic execution. Elevating an online community to greatness is not a singular action but a continuous journey of strategic decisions, steadfast commitment, and genuine passion. Do you love what you do?

“7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy” is a book written by Hamilton Helmer released in 2016. It is considered a seminal text in business strategy and has been influential in many industries.

The book presents a framework for understanding, analyzing, and changing a company’s position in the market, whether you’re an entrepreneur, a business veteran, or a student of business strategy. The framework is built around the concept of “7 Powers,” each of which represents a specific business condition that allows companies to sustain profits against rival forces.

The 7 Powers

1. Scale Economies: The company’s costs decline as its volume increases.
2. Network Economies: The value of the company’s product increases as the number of users grows.
3. Counter-Positioning: A newcomer adopts a new, superior business model which the incumbent does not mimic due to anticipated damage to their existing business.
4. Switching Costs: It is hard for customers to switch to competitors because of the high costs (economic, emotional, etc.).
5. Branding: Customers trust and therefore prefer the company’s product, allowing it to charge a premium price.
6. Cornered Resource: The company has privileged access to a valuable resource.
7. Process Power: The company has superior methods of production that provide it with a cost advantage.

Each of these Powers can create a barrier to entry for competitors and give the company a competitive edge, allowing it to sustain its profitability over the long term.

The Prepared Mind

There are lots of nuggets in the book, but the biggest takeaway for me was this idea of the prepared mind.

“The Prepared Mind” is a concept put forth by Louis Pasteur, a 19th-century French biologist, who said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

“Chance favors the prepared mind.”

Louis Pasteur

In the context of strategy and business decision-making, having a prepared mind means that you are ready to recognize and seize opportunities as they arise. This preparation typically involves having a solid understanding of your environment, including industry trends, market dynamics, and competitive forces. It also includes an understanding of your own organization’s strengths, weaknesses, and strategic position.

Being prepared means that you’ve done the work to analyze different scenarios and understand their potential impacts on your business. This allows you to make better decisions because you have thought about the possibilities in advance and are ready to act when the time is right.

Having a prepared mind means that you are proactively learning, anticipating, and strategically thinking about how to achieve success. It encourages leaders and decision-makers to invest time and resources in understanding their business context deeply, to increase the probability of recognizing valuable opportunities when they emerge.

It’s worth noting that this concept of a “Prepared Mind” is not only applicable to the field of business and strategy but also to various other fields like science, arts, sports, etc. It highlights the importance of continuous learning, foresight, and readiness to adapt and act decisively in a changing environment.

7 Powers for Community Builders

I always take what I read and try to apply it to my work. Here’s how I think of the 7 Powers looking through a community lens: Remember that the goal of the 7 Powers is to create a sustainable advantage—something that your competitors can’t easily copy or overcome, and something that’s valuable enough to your users that it keeps them engaged with your community over the long term. I believe you can’t copy your competitor’s community; it is what defines you in the marketplace.

1. Scale Economies: As your community grows, each new member brings more value to the others, and the costs of managing the community can be spread over a larger user base. This could also relate to your capacity to create content or features: the more users you have, the more content is generated, and the cost per piece of content decreases.
2. Network Economies: In an online community, the value of the community increases as more people join, because each new member can bring new perspectives, information, and connections. This is particularly relevant to social networks, professional networks, or any community based around information exchange.
3. Counter-Positioning: Your community could offer a unique value proposition that other communities can’t easily imitate without losing their existing users. For example, if your community is focused on privacy, a competitor that depends on data monetization might find it hard to replicate your model.
4. Switching Costs: If your community platform has unique features, or if users have built strong relationships and invested a lot of time in your community, it might be difficult for them to move to a new platform. This could be strengthened by exclusive content, earned reputation points, or proprietary tools that members can’t access elsewhere.
5. Branding: A strong brand can make your community more attractive to new members and more resistant to competitors. This might be built through unique values, a distinctive visual identity, thought leadership, or a reputation for high-quality discussions and content.
6. Cornered Resource: This might be exclusive access to certain experts, content, tools, or experiences that your community offers. For example, if your community is the only one that offers access to certain industry leaders, or if you have exclusive educational content, this could be a cornered resource.
7. Process Power: This could be a unique way you manage or organize your community that gives you an advantage. For example, a distinctive moderation system, a unique way of categorizing content, or a proprietary algorithm for recommending connections or content might give your community a competitive edge.

Join my Discord server to keep the conversation going. Let me know what you are reading and how you apply it.

But, I think the book itself is sentient. Okay, AI has been on my mind a lot lately, so not only do I think about AI all day, it has gotten into my dreams. Today, I noticed that our bookshelf had five copies of itself. It’s replicating as its prime objective is to be built to last. It is achieving the objective by multiplying. In reality, the book has sold over a million copies and does offer some keen insight into standing the test of time.

Key Takeaways

• Have a strong core ideology: Visionary companies possess a clear sense of purpose and a set of core values that guide their actions and decisions.
• Build a culture of continuous improvement: These companies are committed to learning, adapting, and evolving over time in order to stay ahead of the competition.
• Embrace the “Genius of the AND”: Visionary companies reject the idea that they must choose between seemingly conflicting objectives, instead striving to achieve both (e.g., stability and innovation, or profits and social responsibility).
• Cultivate home-grown management: They often develop and promote leaders from within the organization, ensuring a deep understanding of the company’s core ideology and culture.
• Encourage “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” (BHAGs): These companies set ambitious, long-term goals that serve as a focal point for their efforts and push them to achieve more than they might have thought possible.

Big Hairy Audacious Goals

Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) are ambitious, long-term goals set by visionary companies that aim to push their boundaries and inspire their employees. BHAGs are meant to be bold, daring, and seemingly out of reach, but they provide a clear and compelling target for the organization to strive towards. By setting and pursuing BHAGs, companies can create a sense of urgency and motivation that drives them to achieve more than they might have thought possible.

Here are three examples of BHAGs from Ford, Microsoft, and Amazon:

1. Ford Motor Company: In the early 20th century, Henry Ford’s BHAG was to “democratize the automobile.” He aimed to make cars affordable and accessible to the average American, transforming the automobile from a luxury item for the wealthy to an essential means of transportation for the masses. Ford achieved this goal by introducing the Model T and pioneering assembly line production, which significantly reduced the cost of manufacturing and allowed for mass production of automobiles.
2. Microsoft: Microsoft’s BHAG, as stated by Bill Gates in the 1970s, was to have “a computer on every desk and in every home.” At the time, personal computers were expensive and primarily used by large businesses, research institutions, and hobbyists. By developing the Windows operating system and partnering with IBM, Microsoft played a pivotal role in making personal computers more affordable and user-friendly, ultimately contributing to the widespread adoption of computers in homes and offices around the world.
3. Amazon: In the 1990s, Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos set the BHAG to become “Earth’s most customer-centric company.” This goal went beyond merely dominating the online book market, as Amazon sought to expand its product offerings and revolutionize the way people shop. By constantly innovating in areas such as logistics, customer service, and technology, Amazon has become a dominant force in the global e-commerce industry and has extended its reach into various other sectors, including cloud computing, streaming services, and artificial intelligence.

Key Takeaways

• Follow your creativity
• Embrace the struggle
• How you handle failure is how you will find success
• Find a work-life balance
• Find something that you love doing
• Understand the differences between data and opinion
• Tell great stories
• The best ideas are painkillers, not vitamins

My favorite idea is that when you are developing a project, product, or company, start by writing the press release. The press release should be the story that you want to tell the market and your potential users/customers and include the why. This not only helps you on the external side but it helps you motivate the folks working on the project and those who are supporting the project. The press release will serve as the watermark that you need to reach before you can ship. If your project doesn’t tell that press release story, you need to go back to work.

“If you’re not solving a real problem, you can’t start a revolution.”

Tony Fadell

Storytelling for Product Design

Applying storytelling to product design involves using narrative techniques to create engaging, memorable, and relatable experiences for users. This approach can help make a product more appealing, improve user satisfaction, and foster emotional connections between users and the product.

“Make the user the hero of the story.”

Hans Scharler

Here are some ways to incorporate storytelling into product design:

1. Establish a clear narrative: Define the story you want to tell through your product, considering the context, the user’s journey, and the desired outcomes. Think about the beginning, middle, and end of the user’s experience with your product, and ensure that each stage contributes to a cohesive narrative.
2. Understand your users: Develop user personas to represent your target audience, and consider their needs, goals, motivations, and pain points. This will help you create a story that resonates with them and addresses their specific requirements.
3. Create a relatable and engaging plot: Design your product’s features and interactions to support the narrative, making sure they align with your user’s goals and motivations. Consider using storytelling techniques such as conflict, resolution, and cliffhangers to create tension and keep users engaged.
4. Use visual storytelling: Use visual elements such as images, icons, colors, and typography to support the narrative and convey the story’s mood and tone. Consistent visual language can help users understand the product’s purpose and guide them through their journey.
5. Leverage emotional connections: Create emotional touchpoints throughout the user experience by using empathy and addressing users’ emotional needs. This can foster a deeper connection between users and the product, making it more memorable and enjoyable.
6. Provide a sense of progression: Show users how they progress through the product’s narrative by providing feedback, achievements, or milestones. This can help users feel a sense of accomplishment and motivate them to continue using the product.
7. Use micro-interactions and animations: Incorporate micro-interactions and animations to enhance the storytelling aspect and make the user experience more enjoyable and engaging.
8. Iterate and test: Continuously iterate on your product design, incorporating user feedback to refine the storytelling elements and ensure that the narrative remains relevant and engaging.

Lex Fridman Podcast

Okay. It’s almost three hours long. It’s a video of two people sitting. It’s a masterclass on product management. It’s amazing storytelling. I strongly recommend watching Lex Fridman’s interview with Tony Fadell. Lex guides a great conversation, but there is much to extract, process, and apply. I recommend this to my colleagues all of the time. I am recommending it to you now.

Let’s chat about books that inspire us on my Discord server. See you there.