Without them, it’s difficult to make quick, decisive choices because teams and individuals don’t have any guides. Principles and vision should be the guide for everything. But they not only discovered and defined them, but use and reiterate them frequently in everything they do. The book discusses how quickly Amazon grew and the need to define core leadership principles in order to maintain the Amazon culture. Define Principles and Reiterate Them Frequently But if you can make the shift, it’s worth it. It’s a massive cultural change, and I’ve had varying success on my own pushing for a shift to writing over presentations. It helps you understand them and helps others understand them as well. I’ve written about this before, but writing out your ideas brings clarity to them. And the ideas became more and more refined as we debated them thoroughly as a group frequently, helping each other make our documents (and ideas) better. I think everyone grew more in a short time than they had in years before, because the expectations were much higher.
And it was strange to walk into silent rooms where everyone was reading narratives for 20 minutes and then debating.īut the change was incredible. I remember when we started this practice at one of my organizations. It ultimately puts the focus on the ideas. It also levels the playing field so that great speakers and presenters can’t talk their way around people, even if the ideas aren’t sound. You can bullshit a presentation, but it’s much harder to do that in a document. This included a 6-page narrative for business reviews as well as a future press release for strategic documents. In 2004, Jeff Bezos banned PowerPoint and required everyone to use written narratives. Most of us are probably familiar with this. But the value in shifting is immense.įortunately, you don’t have to be at Amazon to work in an Amazon way, which is what the book is primarily about (as well as some interesting stories from behind the scenes).
And it is a serious shift from the way most companies work. If you haven’t had the chance to work at Amazon (I haven’t) or at a place that espouses these principles and practices (like I have), I can tell you they take them very seriously. Much of what they wrote about and the advice they gave jibes completely with my experience. The authors were part of Amazon through most of its growth, and were in charge of some of the highest profile initiatives, helping to launch things like Prime Music, Prime Video, Amazon Studios, and Amazon Associates. I’ve worked for several former Amazon executives who have created Amazon-like cultures at other companies, so I was excited to read Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon.
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