🌱 The problem most people ignore

Hola friends. 

Here are your 3 insights in 3 minutes. 

📉 Ringelmann Effect 

The harsh truth is that most people don’t come close to meeting their “potential.” 

Especially those working in groups.

The Ringelmann effect is a teamwork problem where individuals become increasingly less productive as the group size increases.

This is also referred to as “social loafing.“

Assuming that “someone else is probably taking care of that.”

Loafing is a lose-lose.

❌ The individual is not happy because of unfilled potential.

❌ The company is not happy because of “wasted” resources.

On the other hand, consider when Instagram was bought for $1 billion by Facebook when it only had 13 employees. No room for loafing around.

So what’s the solution?

First, add accountability to get more leverage.

The 3 main forms of leverage:

1. Labor (people work for you… costs money and often time)

2. Capital (money… also expensive)

3. Code or Media (newest, no marginal cost of replication, least expensive)

What does "business risks under your own name" look like in practice? 

Nathan Barry is a perfect example of this.

He’s the founder of ConvertKit, a company doing $40M in annual revenue.

But of course, that’s not where it started.

It started years ago when Nathan was learning and sharing everything he knew.

It’s cool you can see his principles in the background on his old videos:

“Work in public” and “Teach everything you know.”

He created accountability under his own name and multiple forms of leverage.

• Code → building his software company

• Labor → hiring help to build the company

• Media → publishing videos and content (under his own name)

He did this for YEARS.

Through the process, he became a super-connector and built a successful business.

Now your turn. 

Check out my full blog post here for specific ways to add accountability and leverage into your own work. 

🗓️ Accountability Cadence 

The 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) is a formula for executing priorities. 

1. Focus on the wildly important

2. Act on the lead measures

3. Keep a compelling scoreboard

4. Create a cadence of accountability 

Not sure where to start? Insert a cadence of accountability. 

For teams, this can be sharing successes and analyzing failures to course correct. 

For individuals, this can be a weekly review, accountability partner, or publishing routine. 

I’ve chosen a weekly publishing routine for this newsletter and haven’t missed a week. (This is week 137, thanks to you all for keeping me accountable! 🙏)

🤔 The 4 Important Questions 

The 4 Important Questions to Continually Ask Yourself by Jerry Colonna.

1. “How have I been complicit in creating the conditions I say I don’t want?”

2. “What am I not saying that needs to be said?”

3. “What am I saying that’s not being heard?”

4. “What’s being said that I’m not hearing?”

Or alternate version of #2, “What am I not doing that needs to be done?” (consider adding accountability). 

Salud,
Mitchell