KINDD WORKING @ Citizen Shareholders

 

“Everyone you ever meet is fighting a battle you will never know of, be kind to one another”

 

KINDD working is a model for teams to execute lean strategies.

 

It balances the need to ‘get shit done’ with the need to ‘get shit done right’.

 

We all too often focus on the short term ‘cash flow’ implication with our considering the long-
term, balance sheet, perspective.

 

Start-ups that have a positive culture in which everybody feels safe and respected are more likely
to have the resilience to survive the rollercoaster ride that is life in an early stage disruptive
business.

 

The core principle is for everyone to agree that all on the team are trying to achieve the agreed
mission, and that no matter how much you might disagree with them, they are coming from a
good place. If that is not the case, you’re not a team.

 

So, KINDD:

 

Kollaboration
The unit of success is the team, not the individual.
Hugely talented individuals are great, but in a business environment, particularly a lean one, you
need people to work together to achieve your goals.
A group of individuals that are striving independently to achieve the goal are never going to be as
successful as a group of people working together.

 

Iteration
In a lean environment we are learning how to do things. This requires failing; lots of failing. With
the early iterations we likely fail each time, but each time moving closer to success until we no
longer fail.
Then we iterate again, and again, until we can improve no further, at which point we go and find a new problem to play with.

 

Networked
We don’t work in silos. Each individual, each team, can see how each other individual/team has
iterated. They don’t have editing rights, but we do get to see how others are thinking, and
everyone else gets to see how we are thinking. The idea is that this creates an endless
brainstorming-type cycle. For this to work there has to be trust. There has to be permission to
make mistakes. It is worth repeating: we need to have an agreed understanding that no matter
how much we might disagree with someone’s viewpoint we recognise that we are all coming from
a good place and are all trying to overcome the problem we are trying to solve.

 

Democratic
Everybody gets to be heard on what direction to go in next. And these get recorded. Guessing is
great, second guessing isn’t. If you have a view, let’s hear it, and again, you’re allowed to be wrong. This is designed to eliminate the ‘I knew it wouldn’t work’ mentality that we have all
encountered at some point in our journeys. If you know it won’t work, share – along with data and reasoning. Don’t wait till afterwards.

 

Dictatorship
At the end of the day, it’s the person who is accountable for the project that makes the final call.
They can choose to overrule the voices of other team members, but, as decisions are recorded, we
can identify patterns of who is good at making the right calls.