How to be effective up and down the org chart | Matt MacInnis (Rippling, Inkling, Apple)
Apr 25, 2024
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Guest Matt MacInnis, COO at Rippling and former CEO at Inkling, shares insights on culture, org-design, and product strategies. Topics include characteristics of great CEOs, leading with kindness and impatience, and fighting entropy in business. The discussion delves into hands-on leadership, effective marketing strategies, and the importance of first principles thinkers in go-to-market teams. Additionally, the episode explores anti-patterns in business success, organizational behavior, and the journey of self-acceptance and empowerment.
Leaders should 'go and see' beyond dashboards to detect potential problems.
Transitioning experiences shape effective leadership across roles.
Leveraging strengths, mitigating weaknesses key to high-impact leadership.
Maintaining velocity, intensity, and fighting entropy drive business success.
Deep dives
Leadership Principle at Rippling: 'Go and See'
Rippling's leadership principle emphasizes 'go and see,' encouraging leaders to avoid living in the dashboard. Anecdotes conflicting with data signal potential problems.
Matt McGinnis' Diverse Experience: From Founder to COO
Matt McGinnis, COO of Rippling, transitions from being a founder at Inkling to a successful pivot into creating a mobile platform for job training. His varied experiences shape his leadership approach.
High-Impact Individualism at Rippling
The podcast delves into being a high-impact individual throughout an organization's hierarchy. Matt's insights on leveraging strengths and mitigating weaknesses contribute to Rippling's success.
Velocity as a Competitive Advantage
Matt stresses the importance of velocity in business, noting that running more experiments rapidly increases the likelihood of success. Fighting entropy and maintaining intensity are key to sustained growth and success.
Perspective on Work and Wealth
The speaker shares a personal perspective on work and wealth, highlighting that work is seen as a means to create, build, and engage in meaningful activities rather than simply accumulating wealth. They emphasize the transient nature of life and the insignificance of wealth accumulation beyond death, focusing on finding fulfillment through activities like spending time with family and engaging in creative endeavors.
Clear Thinkers Versus First Principles Thinkers
The podcast explores the distinction between clear thinkers and first principles thinkers. Clear thinkers are described as individuals who thoroughly analyze problems from all angles and offer comprehensive answers, showcasing a deep understanding of the issue. In contrast, first principles thinkers deconstruct problems into basic components, form hypotheses based on foundational principles, and predict interactions among these components to derive innovative solutions.
Prioritizing Outputs and Effective Management
The importance of focusing on outputs as the ultimate result of various inputs is highlighted, drawing parallels between corporate finance's ability to distill a company's performance into a single metric and team activities centered around tangible outcomes. The speaker emphasizes a methodical approach to management, prioritizing inspecting inputs to influence desired outputs, addressing inefficiencies, and fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
Matt MacInnis is the COO at Rippling, an all-in-one HR, IT, and finance platform for businesses, which last raised $500M at a $11.25B valuation. Before Rippling, Matt was the co-founder and CEO at Inkling, a mobile learning platform that was acquired in 2018. He also held several management roles at Apple.
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In today’s episode, we discuss:
Lessons on culture, org-design, and product from Rippling
