A long time ago, I interviewed at Amazon. I interviewed there a couple of times, come to think of it, including at their game studios and hardware subsidiary. If you are interviewing at Amazon, you must read this Clearly Affiliate Linked book: The Amazon Way. It is an interesting book to read, even if you do not interview at Amazon. One of my Amazon interviews was with a part of the company that prided itself on its independence, including independence from Amazon culture. I did not know this going in, and I did My Very Best to sound as Amazonian as possible. I channeled my inner Bezos and felt I nailed the interview. I later got feedback from some of my spies that I sounded too Amazonian to fit into their culture. Whoops.
There is a lot to like about The Amazon Way. There are also parts that are less likable. One of the fourteen principles of The Amazon Way is to disagree and commit. I found this to be the principle I loved the most from the book. I was not a “disagree and commit“ employee early in my career. I was a “disagree and burn the whole fucking company down around me” employee. I did get better. After becoming older and wiser, I apologized to several people too close to the flames I created in choice moments of disagreement.
Disagree and commit is an important principle. In many situations, I have been the lone voice of dissent and have argued heartily for what I believed were the best business strategies and outcomes. Sometimes, I have been voted down with good reason. Sometimes, I have been voted down, and the cost to the business was severe. In at least one case, it was fatal.
In the case where it was fatal, I was right to disagree, and I committed to our intended (and flawed) path. I have often wondered how I could have persuaded the rest of the leadership team to adjust our trajectory. Sometimes, you do not have the tools necessary for the situation, and the best you can do is to commit to the bit.
This is GDC week. I debated writing one or two of my pending game-related blog posts. My contrarian instincts kicked in, and I wrote about my favorite part of The Amazon Way instead. Everyone will learn enough about the game industry from others for the next seven or eight days. I am even participating in an exciting event near the show to talk about what I do for fun and excitement these days. I think the event is filling up, and if you want to learn more about revenue optimization or say hello, you know how to find me on the interwebs.
Let’s get back to disagreeing and committing. This is an incredibly valuable team skill, and it is also an incredible leadership skill. While you want to put forward the best ideas, sometimes they do not land successfully on the roadmap. The best you can do in that situation is to challenge each other to understand what truly happened after the dust settles. This can sometimes take months.
Some of my earliest career mistakes revolved around holding onto my ideas too long. I should have let some of them go even when I was right. There was some karmic blowback from that when I started my own game studio. I was the CEO and held the majority stake in the business. My cofounder was in the minority. Most of the time, however, his ideas were correct. We had long debates on strategy and tactics and often took his proposed path. I could disagree and commit, even though I could have just doggedly pushed my slightly worse ideas as the decision-maker.
Right now, I am in a nice spot of being able to agree and commit. That is super easy! I always stand ready to jump into the decision-making fray and argue my position if that changes.
Learn to disagree and commit. Especially if you think you do not need to do so.
