“This is actually a hard-nosed, scientific and financial reality. Any hour you spend on people is a better investment than an hour spent on systems, processes, or policies. Great people can overcome average systems; average people won’t live up to great systems.”
Surround yourself with talented people and get to know what makes them tick. Conversation about work is great but that will only give you a shallow understanding of who they are and, if you're working with someone, do you really want to settle for partial understanding? You can invest in technology and great ideas but without reliable, talented and communicative people to execute ideas you'll be stuck cleaning up other people's messes and that's just not a good use of your time.
“Spend time with your folks every week. Learn their strengths and weaknesses. Learn their projects. Learn their children’s names.”
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