1: Then Intel CEO Andy Grove was sitting in a conference room with other members of the Intel team.
The topic? “Evaluations of a certain highly touted new software from a company whose other products we already use,” Andy writes in his legendary business book, Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.
Intel’s head of Information Technology shared the challenges her team was experiencing in adopting this new software. Her recommendation was to wait to implement it until the next generation of the software was released.
Building on this, the marketing manager added that he, too, had heard that other companies were struggling with the new software.
So, Andy called the software company’s CEO and asked, “Are you considering changing your strategy and going directly to the new generation?”
His response: “No way.”
“They were going to stay the course,” Andy recalls. “They had heard of no one having any problems with their strategy.”
When he shared this information with the Intel team, the IT manager said, “Well, that guy is always the last to know.”
Ouch.
2: Andy writes: “He, like most CEOs, is in the center of a fortified palace, and news from the outside has to percolate through layers of people from the periphery where the action is.”
The lesson? As leaders, we “must expose ourselves to the winds of change,” he suggests.
“We need to expose ourselves to our customers,” Andy writes, “both the ones who are staying with us as well as those that we may lose by sticking to the past.
“We must invite comments even from people whose job it is to constantly evaluate and critique us, such as journalists and members of the financial community.”
And, “we need to expose ourselves to lower-level employees, who, when encouraged, will tell us a lot that we need to know.”
3: Andy shares a recent story about receiving an email one night from the Intel sales manager in charge of the Asia-Pacific region.
“He passed on some breaking news from his area that had to do with a potential competitive element. His story was a familiar enough scenario—and yet as he began to talk about the new item, his tone was quite concerned, almost scared. . .
“My immediate reaction was to shrug off his news. I feel much safer back here in California than he does in ‘enemy territory.’ But is my perspective the right one? Or is his?”
Given this situation, one natural response would be to assume that as CEO, Andy had a better overall perspective on the business.
“Yet I have learned to respect changes in the tone of messages from people in the field,” he writes. “I will watch further developments of this news item more carefully than I would have otherwise and, in fact, I have since decided to initiate a broader study of its potential implications.”
Having conversations with people at all levels is crucial for leaders to keep informed and adapt—this is a fundamental takeaway.
“Even though it’s time-consuming,” Andy notes, we should “do our best to hear them out, to learn what they know and to understand why it affects them the way it does.” He views this time as an “investment in learning what goes on at the distant periphery of our business, whether we think of distances in geographical or technological terms.”
Andy likens these conversations to what happens when spring arrives, and the snow melts first at the periphery. “Because that’s where it’s most exposed. Factoring in the news from the periphery is an important contribution to the process of sorting out signal from noise.”
Learning from the periphery offers insights distinct from usual business discussions.
“In the ordinary course of business, I talk with the general manager, with the sales manager, with the manufacturing manager. I learn from them what goes on in the business.” The problem?
“They will give me a perspective from a position that is not terribly far from my own,” Andy notes.
“When I absorb news or information coming from people who are geographically distant or who are several levels below me in the organization,” he shares, “I will triangulate on business issues with their view, which comes from a completely different perspective. This will bring insights that I would not likely get from my ordinary contacts.”
Does this mean we should spend all our time listening to random inputs?
While leaders shouldn’t listen to all inputs indiscriminately, being open to valuable new perspectives is essential for staying informed and adaptable. This is a key takeaway from Andy’s approach.
In time, “we can adjust your receptivity accordingly,” he states.
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: How often do I step outside my own “palace” of familiar meetings and preferred voices to really listen to what people on the front lines and at the edges of my world are seeing and feeling?
Action: Schedule at least one conversation this week with someone closer to the periphery than I am—a front-line teammate, a customer, or a partner—ask them what they’re noticing that worries or excites them.
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