When a team is struggling, a micromanager gives the answer. An effective hands-on leader resists making the decision. Instead, they intervene to teach the team the correct *method* for arriving at the decision, thereby improving the organization's long-term capabilities.
By reopening a failed GM plant with the same union workers, Toyota demonstrated its management process alone could transform the worst-performing factory into the best. This proves the immense power of systems over just hiring "A-players."
Use company-wide meetings to reinforce your operating system. Instead of only celebrating wins, have successful teams present the specific processes and methods they used. This turns every success story into a practical, scalable lesson for the entire organization.
A leader's job doesn't end after designing a process. They must actively and continuously teach and reinforce the company's methods, especially as new people join. The goal is to ensure the right things happen even when the leader isn't present.
A leader's role in creating an experimental culture is not to micromanage individual tests. Instead, as Jeff Bezos did at Amazon, they should invest heavily in building the internal systems and infrastructure—the "plumbing"—that makes rapid, high-volume testing frictionless for all teams.
Truly customer-obsessed leaders don't delegate the definition of key metrics. Like Jeff Bezos specifying how to measure package delivery speed, they personally architect the measurement systems to ensure the entire organization optimizes for what customers actually value.