#1 - The factory is the product

The Factory Is The Product was a concept I first learnt through Jordan O'Connor. It's somewhat related to the quote from Atomic Habits author James Clear that "you do not rise to the level of your goals, but you fall to the level of your systems", but it has slightly different implications. While the latter allows you to assess the inevitable nature of your outcomes (your systems), the former actually gives you something actionable to improve (the factory).

Too often, I've seen knee-jerk managerial responses to failing results by attempting to patch them up. To tweak the output, to make it look superficially better, without addressing the fundamental nature of the factory that was responsible for producing it.

Over time, I've learnt to resist that urge or, at least, complement it by addressing the factory. Because the simple fact of the matter is this: no one outperforms their factory. Not for long. Not sustainably. Whether that's on an individual level or at an organisational level. To get to sustainably better results, you'll need to continuously iterate on your factory's structure, processes, tools, flows and skills, etc.

Improve the factory, and you'll inevitably improve every product it produces.

The hard part about this is that the feedback loop towards results of systemic improvements is generally longer. It takes time to see the results, especially when there's a lot of moving parts.

However, the best leaders know sustainable success doesn’t come from pushing harder at the end. It comes from working quietly on the factory. On the stuff no one sees, until it’s all they can.