“Getting Real”
The smarter, faster, easier way
to build Organizations 2.0
August 7, 2008
1
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

Leadership = Conversations
What is key is not access to the
information, but access to the
conversations, taking active part in
them.
These are the conversations that will
allow us to develop new
capabilities as leaders, to anticipate
the future needs of our customers and
to atract the new digital talent required
by our organizations.
2
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

“Getting Real”
Test your ideas in a real
environment, with real customers and
real markets.
Don't lose your time. Skip all the stuff
that represent real and build the
real thing. Experiment, listen and
improve.
Get something real up and running
quickly. It's the best way to build
momentum.
www.37signals.com/
3
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

Less is more
Less people, less structure, less
instructions, less paperwork,
less hierarchy, less predictions
and less meetings and
abstractions.
Stick to what's truly
essential, to the core of your
business.
Less cost of change, less margin
of error, less support needs, less
useless explanations.
4
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

Time is the key
In the current environment of high
competition and accelerated
changes time is the key variable.
Launch on time and on
budget; adjust the scope of
your idea.
Long term projects are nothing but
fantasy, something that keeps you
away from real.
5
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

Find the “core” of your idea
Take whatever you think your project
should be and cut it in half. Pare
goals down until you're left with the
important ones. Cut it in half again:
you got the essential now. That's the
“core” of you idea
Stick to what's truly essential. Most
good ideas are also simple, not-
so-good ideas are difficult to
formulate.
.
6
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

Work in iterations
Accept that decisions are temporary. Make
the call and move on. You'll go back and
change that decision later if it doesn't work.
Accept that mistakes will happen and go on.
Don't expect to get it right the first time.
Avoid pressure. Let the project grow and
speak to you. Let it take form and evolve.
You will take better informed decisions as
you go along. The result is real feedback
from your customers, and real guidance on
what requires your attention.
7
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

Create agile organizations
Build transparent organizations.
It's about staying small and being
fast and flexible, open to change
and innovation.
More flexible, more changes
and, definitely, more freedom
and more fun.
Less paperwork and formalities,
less mass, less fear.
8
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

Foster an innovation culture
Find new ways to deal with future
challenges, exploring new avenues
and avoiding the easy answers to
problems.
Build a culture that questions the
\"Status quo\" and face challenges
in unusual ways.
Create people centric and flexible
organizations, where leadership and
innovation is everyone's job.
9
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

Keep the team small
Metcalfe's law explains why you
have to keep teams as small as
possible: the efficiency of the
team is approximately the
inverse of the square of the
number of members in the team.
In other words: the probability that
communication problems happen
in the team grows exponentially
as the number of members grow.
10
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

Cultivate simplicity as a value
Maybe it's better to simplify a process
instead of training the people to face
complexity.
Not everyone feels able to have
creative ideas; but everybody can
point out something that could
be done in a more simple way.
As time goes by, the organizations
get used to complexity. They just
don't notice it, and tend to increase it.
11
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

Resist the temptation of growth
Not all companies need to have
thousands of employees, or to
reach billions euros in market
capitalization.
Your ideal size could be only ten
people, five people or even just
yourself.
12
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

Avoid “passion killers”
Hire happy, enthusiastic
people. People who are
passionate about their job.
Look for people who are
curious and willing to learn.
Don't think you need a tech-
celebrity. A happy yet average
employee is better than a
disliked and negative guru.
13
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

Jump into the lifeboat!
Value creation in the
Collaboration Era
requires imagination,
creativity and passion.
It's about creating new
people centric
organizations, where
leadership and innovation
is everyone's job.
14
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

We make it real
“Less is more” is our guiding
principle.
We build easy-to-use low-cost web
products for SMEs and freelance
professionals.
We create unique applications
that do less things instead of more,
but they do the important ones.
We use agile technologies such as
Ruby on Rails to achieve agile www.aspgems.com
and flexible development.
15
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

The book
https://gettingreal.37signals.com/
16
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com

“Getting Real”
The smarter, faster, easier way
to build Organizations 2.0
August 7, 2008
17
José Cabrera blog.cabreramc.com