[balderdash]

I enjoyed reading this, but I felt that 90% of this person’s experience was simply the result of being a real contributor in an organization with non-existent expectations/completely un-optimized state/no other real contributors.

In other words it’s easy to make a difference as a high performer in a low performance organization.

Again not detracting from this persons achievements, I just don’t think these most of these observations apply in high performIng organizations

[robertclaus]

I got a similar sense, especially the section where they talked about needing to build trust before trying to change things. I do volunteer photography, and feel the same way as this article any time I do a shoot for a small organization that has never gotten good photos for their business before. It's super rewarding, but a completely different thing than my dayjob managing a solid team of engineers.

[teractiveodular]

There are a lot more low performing organizations than high performing ones. Even organizations usually perceived as high performing tend to have a few high performing teams surrounded by oceans of mediocrity.

[busterarm]

And if you're this kind of person you can absolutely crush it at certain types of non-profits and NGOs that attract people with a lot of ideas but no work ethic.

At least if you're okay with being the only person with any ambition. Personally I have to flee from those environments.

[jimbokun]

Which can be an incredibly important realization.

If you don't have access to high performing institutions for whatever reason, this is how you can leverage a position in a low performing institution to achieve a lot of success.

[wouldbecouldbe]

It’s not necessarily more easy to be great in a low performance organisation. Often these organisations are low performant for a reason. The worst one egos, drama and politics

[jchmbrln]

> In other words it’s easy to make a difference as a high performer in a low performance organization.

And yet, the big takeaway for me is that to be a high performer it isn’t enough to A) know what needs to be done, or B) be able to do it well. The key is C) figuring out the incentive landscape.

His story of carving out his own job only to find he had no support from the board is what I’ve tried before. In my low performing organization, I thought I could be a high performer by knowing what needed to be done and doing it well. Everybody I directly worked with loved me and thought I was highly effective, but I never made any lasting change like this author. I didn’t understand the need to skip way up the levels until I was already burnt out.