The Walsh Standard v Automattic Creed

I’m reading Bill Walsh’s book The Score Takes Care of Itself on his methodology for getting the San Francisco 49ers to perform at a high level in the 1980s (and win 3 Super Bowls in the process), and I found it interesting how closely his Standard of Performance matches up against the Automattic Creed. I thought I would compare the two: Walsh’s clause in black, relavant Automattic line(s) in red, and some notes from me.

Exhibit a ferocious and intelligently applied work ethic directed at continual improvement;

I will never stop learning.

…the only way to get there is by putting one foot in front of another every day.

In both cases the first line is about learning.

demonstrate respect for each person in the organization and the work he or she does;

I will never pass up an opportunity to help out a colleague, and I’ll remember the days before I knew everything.

Not really a perfect match, but to help someone with humility implies respecting them and who they are.

be deeply committed to learning and teaching, which means increasing my own expertise;

I will never stop learning.

I will never pass up an opportunity to help out a colleague, and I’ll remember the days before I knew everything.

Learning and teaching go hand in hand.

be fair;

I will build our business sustainably through passionate and loyal customers.

I think its a stretch to say that the Creed mentions fairness so openly. But this line captures the fairness we strive to apply to our customers.

demonstrate character;

Really the whole Automattic Creed is about character. Being written in the first person means it is defining the character that we are all agreeing to try and match.

honor the direct connection between details and improvement, and relentlessly seek the latter;

I will never stop learning.

I am in a marathon, not a sprint, and no matter how far away the goal is, the only way to get there is by putting one foot in front of another every day

Systematic learning. I like Walsh’s focus on the details mattering though.

show self-control, especially where it counts most— under pressure;

I am more motivated by impact than money, and I know that Open Source is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation.

Choosing what to work on and how to work on it is all about self control.

demonstrate and prize loyalty;

We don’t really go for loyalty oaths. We have a great retention rate though and really quite a lot of loyalty and friendship. Getting together with Automatticians feels like getting together with family.

use positive language and have a positive attitude;

I’ll remember the days before I knew everything

This is really the closest thing we have to mentioning a positive attitude in the Creed.

take pride in my effort as an entity separate from the result of that effort;

Open Source is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation

I guess that kinda works… Again not strong overlap. “Pride” is actually the first line in the Automattic Designer’s Creed.

be willing to go the extra distance for the organization;

I am in a marathon, not a sprint

I think there is a pretty important difference in philosophy here. Walsh is pretty strongly into personal sacrifice in what I would call an unsustainable way — “If you’re up at 3 A.M. every night talking into a tape recorder and writing notes on scraps of paper, have a knot in your stomach and a rash on your skin, are losing sleep and losing touch with your wife and kids, have no appetite or sense of humor, and feel that everything might turn out wrong, then you’re probably doing the job.”

To me you are not doing the job at all. You’re going to write terrible code, poorly think it through, and have a really hard time sustaining this pace. Everyone has crunchtimes, but this is not a sustainable way to live. Nor is it a sustainable way to build products. I have similar problems with the Agile methodology and its focus on “sprints”.

Ironically though, I am writing this post when I should be asleep.

deal appropriately with victory and defeat, adulation and humiliation (don’t get crazy with victory nor dysfunctional with loss);

Given time, there is no problem that’s insurmountable.

Keep working at it, don’t give up. This can be really hard when you spend months fighting to fix one scaling problem after another and it is impossible to know where the end is.

promote internal communication that is both open and substantive (especially under stress);

I will communicate as much as possible, because it’s the oxygen of a distributed company

Open communication is the type of communication that really matters.

seek poise in myself and those I lead;

No real direct comparison. To me poise is keeping your cool when you realize that some code you launched is causing a performance problem about to bring down WordPress.com and how do you diligently and swiftly solve the problem.

put the team’s welfare and priorities ahead of my own;

I don’t really want a similar line in the Creed. Yes, I sacrifice some of the things I would love to be working on in order to pursue Automattic’s goals, but my welfare and priorities are pretty well aligned with the company’s.

 

maintain an ongoing level of concentration and focus that is abnormally high;

I am in a marathon, not a sprint, and no matter how far away the goal is, the only way to get there is by putting one foot in front of another every day

To me the level of concentration needed is to be able to focus on what is most important, say ‘no’ to the sorta important things, and get up the next day and make that correct decision yet again. I don’t make the correct decision every day, but hopefully I will quickly recognize when I make the wrong one.

and make sacrifice and commitment the organization’s trademark.

Given time, there is no problem that’s insurmountable

Again Walsh focuses a lot on sacrifice. I think that’s the wrong thing to focus on. There is certainly some involved in any endeavor, but the way he discusses it in his Standard of Performance, and elsewhere in the book doesn’t feel very sustainable.

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There’s some interesting differences between the two, but the focus on teaching, openness, and being systematic in making progress stand out pretty strongly. For reference, here is the entire Automattic Creed:

I will never stop learning. I won’t just work on things that are assigned to me. I know there’s no such thing as a status quo. I will build our business sustainably through passionate and loyal customers. I will never pass up an opportunity to help out a colleague, and I’ll remember the days before I knew everything. I am more motivated by impact than money, and I know that Open Source is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation. I will communicate as much as possible, because it’s the oxygen of a distributed company. I am in a marathon, not a sprint, and no matter how far away the goal is, the only way to get there is by putting one foot in front of another every day. Given time, there is no problem that’s insurmountable.