PatrickMorselli

Operator & scale-up pro

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

You can’t expect your team to be productive 365 days a year.

Some days, they’ll work faster and on others, they’ll be slower.

So don’t worry when people begin to slow down in the lead-up to Christmas.

You have to let your team take care of themselves.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

Whereas by improving the engine you can improve the speed of the car forever regardless of the fuel.

Scaling fast may seem great.

But you have to make sure that whatever growth you achieved today is going to be sustainable in the future.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

There is a huge difference between scaling quickly and scaling sustainably.

If you want to scale sustainably you have to invest in creating systems, tools and teams that can continue growing without further investments.

Take a car for example.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

Sustainably growing your car would be improving its engine.

Unsustainably growing your car would be putting some sort of super fuel in it that makes it go faster for a limited period of time.

Because once that fuel is over, it goes back to the previous performance.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

Of course, you can set customer support as a top metric for the customer support team.

But for a company-wide North Star, you need something that everyone can get behind.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

Every start-up needs a trackable North Star when scaling.

But which metric should you track as your key to growth?

For B2C start-ups, that key metric is often users.
For B2B start-ups, it could be revenue or a number of clients.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

Well, the sales team is not going to feel like they can impact that and the marketing team probably won't either.

So neither of those teams would be motivated or even care to work towards that North Star.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

So, you have to make sure you are hyper-communicating by setting very clear expectations and by creating situations where everybody can use the new tool and the new systems, together.

Only then will you have an effective process for implementing new systems.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

Systems are a vital part of all businesses.

But only when you ensure your team can use them effectively.

Here is exactly how you do just that 🧵

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

2) Hyper-communicate

Most of the systems you implement aren’t just used by one team - they’re used by several.

If one team cannot get the support of the other stakeholders that need to use the system - the system becomes useless.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

Most start-up founders overcomplicate things - and it’s usually for 2 reasons:

1) They overestimate how much they can ACTUALLY get done.
2) They overestimate how much SHOULD get done.

You don't need to do more to compete.
Instead, focus on doing one thing very, very well.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

My advice:

Don’t organise company-wide time off to watch the World Cup.

Instead, balance out the time off by allowing certain teams specific times to enjoy the special moments of the tournament.

That way you get the best of both worlds.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

The World Cup has gotten off to an explosive start and I’m starting to see a lot of companies give their employees time off to support their country.

It’s a great idea.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

Because the chances are if someone's team is playing they aren’t going to be focused on work and of course, it gives the team some chance to enjoy the tournament.

However, there is a fine line between giving your team time off and having a very unproductive end to the year.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

Company perks are not a solution for bad culture.

Too many companies create environments that cause unnecessary stress for their employees and then throw free therapy at them and act like the problem has been solved.

This is NOT the right way to solve bad culture.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

2) The healthy competition

At the WC there is healthy competition between the teams and players so everyone who competes levels up.

If you can instil a similar level of healthy competition in your company, you’ll quickly see the quality of your employees’ work increase.

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

The World Cup is the perfect example of how to bring a collective group of people together.

We live in an increasingly polarised world at the moment with most countries having many:

- Social differences
- Political differences
- And individual differences

[PatrickMorselli @PatrickMorselli]

1) An aligned mission

No matter what their personal opinions are, everyone wants their nation to win gold. If you can align your team with one mission, you’ll have the same effect in the workplace.