We R Human

How did the founder of Lego transform a small carpentry business in a remote Danish village

Into the most iconic toy company ever?

After the 1929 Crash, Ole Kirk Christiansen had to let go of all his carpentry employees.

To survive, he started making cheap wooden products like ladders, ironing boards & toys.

This scrappy diversified strategy started to slowly work.

But then one day, Christiansen did something odd.

🧸 He just focused on toys.

He applied for a huge loan to build a toy business & asked his siblings to co-sign.

🪀 They thought it was insane to fixate on kids trinkets in the aftermath of a recession.

💡 But Ole Kirk had an epiphany.

1️⃣ He discovered that even though he was a good carpenter,

He was an excellent toy maker.

2️⃣ He also realized that toys were like alcohol:

The darker the times, the more parents want to cheer up their kids.

3️⃣ Finally, he just absolutely loved sparking kids to ideate through "hands-on, minds-on" play.

He called his new venture LEGO, which is Danish for "Play well".

And even though he slid into bankruptcy,

his factory burned down

and his wife died,

he still persisted in his original mission: Helping children with his toys.

Leaders are too often hedging their bets & doing a little bit of everything.

But to truly succeed, identify

◾ What your business is great at?

◾ What's badly needed?

◾ What you all love doing?

And then dedicate all your focus & resources towards executing that.

Within a few years, Ole Kirk laid the foundation for one of the most successful toy companies ever.

🤜 Because he went all in on one fun decision.

Why did Obama never pick his outfits when he was president?

“You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits”

It's not because he was on a power trip.

🤵 It's not because he was sartorially challenged either.

It's because he didn't want to think about it.

As the president, Obama was forced to make an avalanche of decisions every day.

And with every judgement & choice he made, he knew that was a little less left in his tank.

🔋 Each of us has a finite amount of decision energy in the day.

Every time we decide, we degrade our ability to make further decisions.

🥱 Psychologists call this Decision Fatigue.

🛒 It's why shopping for groceries can be so exhausting.

😾It's why judges give harsher rulings at the end of the day.

To battle this, create a system where we:

1️⃣ Punt low value tasks to later or to someone else

Ex: Instead of collecting ongoing customer feedback ourselves,

Ask our team to do it & create summaries for us.

2️⃣ Identify & automate high-value, low effort actions

Ex: Instead of trying to find moments every hectic week to check-in on our biggest clients.

Schedule 60 minutes once a week on our calendar to study & reach-out to a few top clients.

3️⃣ Simplify decisions

Ex: If our team is always asking us to weigh in on decisions,

Ask them to give us a '3 Decision' summary where we can respond with Agree, Disagree or Let's Discuss

Great leaders remove their ego, trust others & build systems to decide faster.

⚡ To act more like the Commander in Chief, let's learn to protect our ability to decide.

Here's a story about the power of ownership from the Navy SEALs.

Too many leadership teams don't own their problems.

💥 The team always has a reason for their misfires.

⛔ The employee always has a justification for a shoddy job.

🚦 The executive in charge always has an excuse for the delay.

And those causes might be true, but ownership is a mindset more than an outcome.

It's where your identity is deeply tied to it's successful ex*****on.

And this story really helps illuminate that point.

Kind words from a great L&D leader.

We all need a little bit of encouragement when we're putting ourselves out there.

Thank you Nick Congelosi.