Disagree and commit

Startups shouldn’t beat established incumbents. Incumbents have all the advantages. Better market share. Better data. More experience. More cash.

But startups beat incumbents all the time.

And when startups win, one reason is because they make faster decisions.

Incumbents are generally good at making good decisions. Slowly. Startups can win if they make decisions that are just as good. But faster.

In Jeff Bezos’s 2016 letter to shareholders, he says all organizations can make good decisions faster if they can get comfortable with the idea that teams can “disagree and commit.”

Use the phrase “disagree and commit.” This phrase will save a lot of time. If you have conviction on a particular direction even though there’s no consensus, it’s helpful to say, “Look, I know we disagree on this but will you gamble with me on it? Disagree and commit?” By the time you’re at this point, no one can know the answer for sure, and you’ll probably get a quick yes.

This isn’t one way. If you’re the boss, you should do this too. I disagree and commit all the time. We recently greenlit a particular Amazon Studios original. I told the team my view: debatable whether it would be interesting enough, complicated to produce, the business terms aren’t that good, and we have lots of other opportunities. They had a completely different opinion and wanted to go ahead. I wrote back right away with “I disagree and commit and hope it becomes the most watched thing we’ve ever made.” Consider how much slower this decision cycle would have been if the team had actually had to convince me rather than simply get my commitment.