Close loops

For the next 5 minutes, let’s elevate your career.

In today’s email:

Jeff Bezos said, “Have backbone, disagree and commit.”

Bezos encourages open debate and strong opinions, but stresses the importance of committing to decisions as a team once they’re made.

Having a voice means we’re heard. Not that we will have each decision go our way.

Speak-up. Then onward. We want collective endeavour, not open loops of uncertainty created by second-guessing projects.

We help colleagues be productive when we communicate the information they need. Often this is a simple update for us to provide, but it has a large impact on their ability to advance a project. Closing the information loop begets action.

Update others quickly whenever you can.

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, influenced my coaching and personal time management by his concept of closing mental loops. Open loops are unfinished tasks or unresolved commitments that occupy attention and drain mental energy. Allen said, “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” Holding too many ideas or concerns impedes us being creative and productive.

3 of Allen’s tips to close loops:

Closing mental loops helps us focus on what truly matters and fosters serenity.

Good designers can deliver function and style. OpenAI bought Jony Ive’s hardware startup, io, for approximately USD 6.5 billion. They want to combine the power of ChatGPT with elegant product.

Ive was Apple’s Chief Design Officer. He was fundamental to the design of the iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook, Apple Watch, software, Apple Park, and Apple’s retail stores.

Delivering great function and great style doesn’t merely add value. It multiplies value. We get much more than the sum of the parts. Great design makes us want to use a product more. This applies from a chair to a phone to software.

In all jobs, we can design a great user experience for our stakeholders. We can make processes less complicated. Even elegant.

Florence Knoll (nee Schust) was born in 1917 in Saginaw, Michigan. She was orphaned at a young age. Knoll went on to study art and architecture at Cranbrook, Columbia, and the Illinois Institute of Technology. She studied under the famous architects Eliel and Eero Saarinen and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Knoll’s career transformed American modern design. With her husband Hans, she grew Knoll Associates. This business pioneered integration of architecture, furniture, and space planning. Knoll set the standard for modern office interiors. She emphasized function and modern aesthetics. Knoll’s clients included CBS, IBM, and GM.

Knoll humbly called her own furniture designs the “meat and potatoes” of the Knoll collection. Many of her designs are now iconic. Knoll was the first woman to receive the AIA Gold Medal for Industrial Design.