observe what 30 years actually built?
“You are never going to be a good guitar player.”
He was right, and I knew it, but it really hurt. I was a college Freshman, brought my guitar back after a weekend home, and was playing with a kid who was flunking Physics. The trade was easy – teach me guitar and I will get you through Physics. I had always wanted to be a musician – a drummer in the 4th grade, a guitar player in High School, but other priorities always won. So here I was facing that reality…
…the person you have never once observed properly…
Somewhere in your organization is the one who has been there longest. They are not the loudest in the meeting and they have never asked you for anything. When was the last time you sat down and asked them what they know that nobody has written down?
You will find out it is most of it. You will also find out that nobody has asked them in years.
30 years ago today, a debut record went out and nothing happened…
Yourself or Someone Like You came out on the first of October, 1996. It got to number 5 on the album chart and it went on to sell 12 times platinum, which is the kind of number that makes people assume it was an overnight thing. It was not. It climbed for the better part of 3 years on the back of song after song, and it is still, 30 years on, the record Matchbox Twenty is most known for…
The person who has been there longest is the least documented person you have.
…and the man you never observed is still holding it down…
Brian Yale has played bass on all of it since 1995. Through the lineup change, the hiatus, the near-ending, the return. Singers get written about. Lead players get written about. The bass player who has been in the same chair for 3 decades is the least documented person in the story and the most load-bearing, and every organization has one.
“But you would probably be a great Bass Player.” Those words then changed my life. I have a good ear for rhythm and notes – and that is the recipe for someone that holds down the bottom of every song. His affirmation encouraged me to borrow a red Fender Mustang bass from a good friend… and she forgot she loaned it to me. Years later, that is how I got into a bluegrass band that I enjoyed being “forgotten about in the back.”
your Succession problem is an observation problem first
You cannot hand over what nobody has written down, and the things nobody has written down are held by exactly the people nobody observes. The vendor who takes a call at 3AM. The clause 2 renewals ago that everyone works around. Which customer will forgive a late delivery and which one will not. None of it is in the system, all of it is in somebody’s head, and when that head walks the Succession stops being a plan and becomes an archaeology project.
What would you observe, if you stopped assuming you already had?
Go sit with the longest-serving person on your team and ask 1 question: what do you know that is written down nowhere else? Then be quiet for a long time. The first answer is never the real one, and the third answer is usually worth more than the last 2 quarters of process work.
Your “Simple… Not Easy” move: write down everything you know that is written down nowhere else. Stop when the page is full, then ask 1 other person to do the same.
Finding the undocumented load in a team is usually the first hour of the work. Schedule time with me here.
Ask the question while everyone is still in the building, not at… 3 AM
