The Weekly Distillation No.52
Collaborative Leadership; 9/11; NFTs & Whisky; Rum; Facebook Glasses; Back to the office; Operational Art
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Welcome to The Weekly Distillation. This is a newsletter that seeks to distill the noise and help you be informed, provoked to think, and inspired to create as you lead in life and in your organisation.
People once said…….
"The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim." - Osama Bin Laden, February 1998
“The United States launched an attack this morning on one of the most active terrorist bases in the world. It is located in Afghanistan and operated by groups affiliated with Usama bin Ladin, a network not sponsored by any state but as dangerous as any we face.” - Bill Clinton, August 1998
“Intelligence priorities and resources have shifted from Cold War focus to new and emerging threats only at the margins. We, like other commissions before us, recommend the reprioritization of resources for collection and analysis, including human intelligence and signal intelligence, against the terrorist.” - USS Cole Commission, Jan 2001
"Hey Jules, it's Brian, I'm on a plane and it's hijacked and it doesn't look good. I just wanted to let you know that I love you and I hope to see you again. If I don't, please have fun in life and live your life the best you can. Know that I love you and no matter what, I'll see you again." –Brian Sweeney, on Flight 175 that crashed into the World Trade Center
“That is the World Trade Center, and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers,” - CNN Anchor, Carol Lin, September 2001
"There is America, hit by God in one of its softest spots. Its greatest buildings were destroyed, thank God for that. "There is America, full of fear from its north to its south, from its west to its east. Thank God for that.” - Osama Bin Laden, October 2001
"Are you guys ready? Let's roll." –Todd Beamer, on United Airlines Flight 93
Remembering 9/11
Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of a a horrific day. I was an equity analyst for Merrill Lynch in London at the time. We spent the day confused, fearful and just carrying on with work. Our colleagues in NYC worked in a building across the street from the World Trade Center, one I had been in a couple of times. The firm had 9000 staff in the area that day. Three people died. In London we were later given memorial US Flag pins to wear and a booklet about the tragedy.
My only experience of the WTC was a dinner in the Windows on the World restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower that my wife and I went to as part of a UBS Utilities & Power conference a few years earlier.
I lost nothing on 9/11 apart from a sense of belief that America was indestructible and a safe place. Remembering every person who died then, and as a result over the subsequent years. #neverforget
Skim it in a minute
Hello CryptoDramz! This is how they describe themselves - “We are Four Blockchain enthusiasts who see a significant opportunity for Scotland to reinvent itself on the world stage by embracing and utilising blockchain technology to rejuvenate its economy. We believe the digitalisation of premium Scotch whisky is the next logical step for the industry. That's why we have created limited edition collections that are directly correlated to NTFs we will be selling on Opensea. This has allowed us to create unique alternative investment vehicles for those within the crypto space. Its simple, if you buy one of our NFTs we will ship you the corresponding Whisky collection for free.” If I get this correctly, an NFT of a rare whisky is greater than the whisky, in such a quantum that the underlying rare whisky can be shipped to you for free. I think this is both a genius play and I’d like an EFT I could play that arbitrage through. Really exciting to see some innovation in and around whisky and not just in the production side. Right, off to create an NFT of my drinks bottles…..I’m having lunch with a rare whisky expert in a few weeks and this will definitely be on the conversation list!
Congratulations to Facebook, who ventured into the dangerous space of digital eyewear this week with a new partnership and product with Ray-Ban. Made me immediately think of this that used to be so prevalent on Facebook.
Maybe that was all a clever campaign to build interest ahead of a years-later product launch. One more step for FB towards AR/VR domination. Are you getting some?
Welcome back to the office UK, right? It’s not so easy going back, is it?
The rise of rum is one of those headlines that makes me think of “it will all be over by Christmas”. Maybe this time they are right though? There’s certainly a wave of craft rum distillers popping up around Scotland. I love the branding of Dark Matter.
Why the US military is starting to think about Operational Art again - a much broader perspective on battles and assets and objectives. Broader leadership lessons in here too.
A deep dive into collaborating
I get to spend a lot of my working life around entrepreneurial types. Not always classic entrepreneurs but people who believe, like I do, that most meaningful societal and market change happens through creating new solutions to problems rather than re-engineering the old. One of the downsides of this personality type is that they also often believe that they alone hold the solution, that no-one else gets them and if you’re not supporting them, get out of their way.
I have a good friend Phil who lives in California and he takes a different approach to life, even though as a type personality, a high achiever and an ex corporate-lawyer he could have chosen to be different. He collaborated with a whole cast of leaders from around the world who work in the orphan care world to bring out a fantastic book on orphan care. He co-hosts a podcast called “How Soccer Explains Leadership” (I forgave him the “soccer”, he’s American). He’s always asking how can I help, who can I connect you to, how could we do this thing together. Never looking to do anything alone and yet still having impact and influence whilst doing this - and in a far more robust way than many of those who set out alone.
I found myself in a few conversations this week, with people in London, Edinburgh and New York which touched on the area of collaboration. It struck me again that it is really hard. And it’s hard because it’s about people - not processes, systems, laws or capital but people. Anyone who has worked with me will have heard me at some point say “at the root of all problems is people” - whether it is me, my colleagues, my clients, my suppliers, my board, my staff, my boss - it’s almost always eventually traced back to a people issue. When you get that, and can solve the people problem, the quicker you get to sleep easy. (Usually i find that’s actually me, not anyone else - but that might be just me!)
When you enter into a conversation on collaboration, the problem is everyone coming into that conversation almost always has their agenda, their back story, their starting point. In 2006-2008 I worked for the Bank of Scotland in its Joint Ventures business. We did large scale (£100m-£1bn+) lending and equity investments into asset backed businesses - garden centres, hotels, property companies, property funds etc. Part of my role was to look after some of the investments we made. I wasn’t particularly brilliant at it in my view but one area I realised is 1) capital doesn’t bring alignment and 2) if you don’t have alignment of purpose, you are going to have problems.
So in any room that is talking about collaboration, the first question I need to ask myself is am I prepared to lay down my stuff for a greater purpose. Can my agenda be put in a box, can I park my back story and can I start afresh? Too altruistic and idealistic? Perhaps - but it’s also true in reality that if you have alignment of purpose, the rest is details. That’s true in parenting, it’s true in tennis doubles, it’s true in business joint ventures and it’s true in co-writing a book.
The second part to get clarity around is what is that shared vision - does it even exist? I have one conversation I am in currently where I think there is a shared vision but I don’t know if we are there yet - because we both need to get it. Questions for this part - what does it look like to visualise what this is in 10 years? What are your timelines for this collaboration? How much are you prepared to commit (time, money, reputation, connections etc)? What does success look like? There’s no shortcut to this conversation - it’s talking, it’s meals together and building trust and being honest about desires and fires. Don’t sweat the details - but is there alignment around vision (and if you can get clarity, values). I met a friend this week whose co-founder wasn’t everything he thought he would be and that this meant the relationship had to change - it turned out alignment of commitment wasn’t there. Almost impossible to see in advance and painful to resolve.
Think through what happens if it doesn’t work. Maybe some would write a pre-nup or a deadlock agreement clause, and divide up the assets now for this hypothetical future scenario. In some cases it can be ok to just have an honest conversation, in others it needs documented. When the Bank gave JV partners £100m+, there was no way we could go off just a handshake.
Ultimately, collaborations (whether tactical or strategic) can be better than going alone. You sell training but don’t have distribution and you meet someone that has distribution but no training? The whole is greater than the sum of the parts as our friend Aristotle said.
Basic rules for collaborations:
- Build trust first and foremost. Fight to retain trust. Have the difficult conversations up front
- Seek clarity on alignment of vision and values. Don’t focus on the details. Don’t formalise it until you have alignment
- Transparency goes with trust. Share the data, the updates, the good and the bad. Share the problems
- Be crystal clear on what each party is committing and what areas of focus are so there is no confusion. Who will lead what?
- Whilst problems are usually people driven, money doesn’t always help. I’ve worked on teams where we had flat $ salaries - no matter how junior or senior, followed by differing shares of the same bonus pot - which meant we all cared about the same $ factors. If there’s a way to have an equal level of commitment (which doesn’t mean the same risk given each person’s finances differ) it will help. I remember one JV where we lent £1bn+, invested tens of millions in the equity and also lent the JV partner their share of the equity - not a way to ensure the JV partner felt the same commitment or risk. (And no, you can’t have some of that deal, that was a pre 2008 gig).
- Define success and your success metrics. When it’s all getting very emotional, as most partnerships and collaborations at some point do, the data and the vision in writing will help. I have this book called Raising Men: From Fathers to Sons, Life Lessons from Navy SEAL training. I think a lot of it is genius and I’d happily parent like that. My wife, thankfully and wisely, has pointed out the folly of this and how throwing your kids in the pool with their hands tied so you can help them learn about trusting their father isn’t so clever. Sometimes you need to remember what success is and remember you were in this for a different reason. Navy SEAL kids wasn’t the gameplan. We’ll come back to this book, don’t worry.
Collaborating in a loose way, or a structured tactical way, or a long-term strategic way is almost certainly a better way for you to progress. You don’t have everything you need to achieve your goals. Who should you be collaborating with, on what and what form of collaboration?
And that brings me back to people. Find a person you want to partner with. First, second and third. Who is it for you?
Collaborating is a great to challenge the cult of the heropreneur. It’s a way to scale yourself, increase the probability of success and will enable you to share your stresses. Don’t try and do everything alone.
I had two kind comments on this newsletter this week. One person said to my wife that he really loves it and finds it really interesting. Another said to a group in a room I was in that if they are not signed up, they should it be and that it covers all sorts of random things. I think that’s a compliment! Fifty two newsletters, even if over 16 months rather than 12, feels like a meaningful milestone. I write this newsletter because I enjoy writing and I want to share what I’m thinking. Thanks for making it worthwhile. And if you’ve read more than 25 of these through a social media link and you still haven’t signed up to get it by email……