Phil Le-Brun is an executive in residence at Amazon Web Services and a former corporate VP and international CIO at the McDonald’s Corporation. He is a sought-after speaker and has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian. He is the co-author with Jana Werner of The Octopus Organization: A Guide to Thriving in a World of Continuous Transformation (Amazon, Bookshop)*.

Most of us have gone through some version of a reorg. A lot of leaders have also implemented their own reorgs. Sometimes they work. Many times, they don’t. In this conversation, Phil and I discuss what goes wrong with reorgs and how we can do better.

• Organizations traditionally looked like the tin man from The Wizard of Oz: perfectly planned, many interchangeable parts, not flexible.
• An octopus organization adapts, works independently to serve the larger whole, and is innately curious.
• A reorg that starts with an org chart misses the complex organic connections you are unlikely to fully understand.
• Prioritize structural stability while building internal flexibility.
• Nurture the complex informal human networks that deliver value.
• Be honest about objectives and communicate a reorg early.
• Engage people by starting with smaller-scale change. Clarify the problem to be solved instead of the structural “answer.”

• The Octopus Organization: A Guide to Thriving in a World of Continuous Transformation by Phil Le-Brun and Jana Werner (Amazon, Bookshop)*

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

• How to Get the Ideal Team Player, with Patrick Lencioni (episode 301)
• How to Approach a Reorg, with Claire Hughes Johnson (episode 621)
• How to Help Employees Handle Tough Moments, with Anthony Klotz (episode 777)

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For the past 25 years, Liane Davey has researched and advised teams on how to achieve high performance. She is the author of You First and The Good Fight and is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review. She is the author of the new book Thoughtload: Manage the Madness and Free Your Team to Do Great Work (Amazon, Bookshop)*.

We all love to hate our task lists. However, we can do a lot better with just a bit of strategy. In this conversation, Liane and I explore how to make our task list work for us instead of against us.

• Often it’s not really the workload that’s crushing – it’s more so the thinking about all the workload. That’s what thoughtload is.
• The problem with a to-do list is that everything goes on it. Thus, to-do lists are terrible for managing your attention.
• Instead of one task list, keep a limited amount of tasks on three priority lists.
• Category 1 list: your most important outputs and outcomes.
• Category 2 list: what you do to help others achieve their most significant outcomes.
• Category 3 list: administrative stuff.

Four questions determine what gets on your lists:

• Important (an activity that will add value to a key output or outcome)?
• Urgent (something with growing negative consequences if you wait)?
• Targeted (a task that no one can do as efficiently or effectively as you)?
• Essential (core to creating the critical value, not just a nice-to-have)?

• Thoughtload: Manage the Madness and Free Your Team to Do Great Work by Liane Davey (Amazon, Bookshop)*

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

• The Scientific Secrets of Daily Scheduling, with Daniel Pink (episode 332)
• Align Your Calendar to What Matters, with Nir Eyal (episode 431)
• How to Take Back Your Evenings, with Guy Winch (episode 783)

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Eric Ries is the creator of the Lean Startup method, and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup, The Leader’s Guide, and The Startup Way. Over the last two decades, his ideas about continuous innovation, long-term thinking, governance, and market reform have reshaped company building and management practices. He is the author of Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad…and How Great Companies Stay Great (Amazon, Bookshop)*.

If you build a great organization, the predators will come. With the right principles in place, not only can you protect what you love, but help many people flourish because of it. In this conversation, Eric and I show you exactly where to start.

• Most leaders are one acquisition, one IPO, one board meeting away from seeing something they love turn into something they hate.
• If you build something great, they will come. The “they” are the predators who are willing to kill the golden goose.
• Financial gravity is the force no one controls but everyone obeys. Appreciating its realities and laws will help you build stronger.
• Rather than framing profit as good or bad, define profit as how you contribute to human flourishing.
• Harder is easier. Rather than viewing principles as a burden, the best leaders see principles as opportunities.
• Design the business model so the organization prospers only via mission attainment.

• Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad…and How Great Companies Stay Great by Eric Ries (Amazon, Bookshop)*

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

• Doing Better Than Zero-Sum Thinking, with Renée Mauborgne (episode 641)
• Crafting the Modern Business Plan, with Seth Godin (episode 704)
• Notice Disruption and Innovate Through It, with Steve Blank (episode 761)

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.