Masters of Scale – Reid Hoffman:   Coda’s Shishir Mehrotra

Masters of Scale – Reid Hoffman: Coda’s Shishir Mehrotra

You need more than a good product to scale – you need strong rituals that help build your culture, cohere your team, and home in on your targets. Shishir Mehrotra learned this when he scaled YouTube to a billion hours of watch-time each day.

In his new role as CEO and founder of Coda, he’s learned to constantly ask: What old rituals are holding us back? And what new rituals can we create together that keep us all moving forward?

The power of rituals

So we set this goal, “We’re going to get to a billion hours a day.” And had this very big positive rallying factor. And everybody feels like that’s a big goal. And if you ask anybody at Google in that period and said, “Hey, what are the YouTube guys working on?” They’d probably say, “Oh, they’re working on this crazy billion-hour thing.” And it was good.

Focus on user experience

Meaningful rituals

Bold goals

The pitfalls of water cooler talk and importance of distributed team behaviors

The danger with relying too much on water cooler talk is that it can lead to bad decision-making and groupthink, especially if physical presence dominates. Coda replaces this with distributed team behaviors that are better for decision-making, including over-communication and finding ways to develop mutual trust among team members.

Rituals are important in reinforcing company culture and identity, but they can also hinder progress if they keep the company locked in the past. Therefore, it’s crucial to continuously evaluate rituals and create new ones that are inclusive, empowering, and keep the company moving forward.

More lessons from YouTube

Designing new company rituals

Designing company rituals can promote positive behavior, but it’s crucial to eliminate those that exclude marginalized groups. Prioritizing inclusivity by involving everyone will result in a diverse and welcoming work environment.

Companies must be cautious about the rituals they establish and actively work to dismantle harmful ones. With expert guidance, small changes in these rituals can lead to bigger ones and ultimately create more inclusive and equitable workplaces.

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