While I was a VP at Amazon I sent out the "Sunday Missive" to my organization of 100s. It was my way of updating and developing the whole team at once. I couldn't work directly or meet individually with hundreds of people spread around the globe (a minority of my team was in Seattle with me). But with email, I could reach everyone at once. The "missive" contained a mix of product and project updates, book recommendations, and development resources. Amazon did not invest very much in formal employee development programs - we were expected to improve ourselves on our own. By sharing what I could of what I was reading or thinking, I hoped to inspire others. Some things I did that you can do for your team or organization today: 1) I offered to reimburse the cost of any book that someone actually read. 2) I shared my view of our projects, products, and purpose because people who know why we were doing something could then make their own good decisions about their work on the project. They didn't have to wait to be told what to do or to solve… |
