Communicate to Operate

I've spent the last few months of lock down thinking about how I can help tech companies operate better in chaos.

I've noticed over the last few years that the increasing pace of change, and more regular dislocations (Brexit, COVID etc) have execution harder and harder for more of the companies I've work with. So my line of thinking isn't anything new. I have been researching and thinking about how to apply that research to building better tech companies for the last half decade or so.

Here are two the conclusion I've come to:

Startup tech companies are more like elite military units than factories. We increasingly need communications optimised for an exponentially changing world.

So I've collected everything I've learned about leading tech teams through chaos into a short, actionable course. A manual of communications systems based on principles and systems the Royal Marines use to operate for high growth tech start ups if you like.

Structure

I've split the course into four sections. Here's a sneak peak at the content:

Principles

Just like in tech, choosing the right abstractions is everything. If you build off the wrong fundamentals, everything else becomes more difficult. So I start with the principles that I've landed on at the intersection of all the research and exploration I've done, and what I experienced in the Royal Marines.

We then look at specifics at the 3 different time horizons. Strategic, Operational and Tactical.

Strategy

How do you communicate your place in the world and your plan for the next quarter +

Operations

Prioritisation and coordination of work.

Tactics

Empowering and enabling your teams to execute and get shit done

The course is currently open for pre-orders on and ships on the 14th of September.