When I worked at Trade Me, every week started with an executive team meeting on Monday morning. To kick off the meeting Sam would ask for our “stars”. Each of us had to rate ourselves.
Five stars? Everything is perfect. Zero stars? Everything is terrible. Three or four was a common answer. Things were mostly pretty good, but there was always something that could be better.
The vital follow-up question: What’s the gap?
If I said I was four out of five, then I’d have to explain what I thought it would take to be five out of five.
Having to articulate that each week in front of each other was an amazing habit. It triggered some great discussions and forced us to be honest with each other about how good things really were. Every week it felt vital to spend that time together.
