The Algorithm
Speeding up a process also exposes quality and process issues. Addressing them often enables an organization to move even faster.
Aug 6, 2026This reveals a hack I’ve learned. When looking at cycle time, look also at “touch time”—the amount of time the product or service is actually being worked on. The difference between cycle time and touch time represents your opportunity to improve.
Aug 6, 2026Step 5 Automate Last
Aug 6, 2026I’ve found that if you go around the table and ask people what they’re hoping to accomplish in the given half hour, you often find that they’re not all on the same page. To reach any goal, they must be.
Aug 5, 2026We discussed it and finally came up with a simple and compelling goal: “Be so great that they’ll talk about you at dinner.”
Aug 5, 2026Step 4 Accelerate Cycle Time
Aug 5, 2026Step 1 Question Every Requirement
Aug 4, 2026A corporate culture expands its possibilities if it looks at every “no” as a potential “yes.” This can lead to all kinds of breakthroughs, both big and small.
Aug 4, 2026Many of the biggest breakthroughs come from questioning and probing rules that appear ironclad, and quite a few of them are disguised as physical or chemical limitations.
Aug 4, 2026Goldratt’s book was called The Goal, and it was transformative. It helped us simplify complex problems by zeroing in on constraints. The key, Goldratt wrote, was to hunt for bottlenecks in the industrial process. Why? Because a process cannot go faster than its slowest step. That is the constraint. And it has to be eliminated for the process to speed up.
Aug 4, 2026only by failing can we be sure that we’re pushing far enough into the realm of the possible.
Aug 4, 2026Step 2 Delete Every Possible Step in a Process
Aug 4, 2026Step 3 Simplify and Optimize
Aug 4, 2026Oh, and why not a big company car guy? Tesla was ready to hit $2 billion in annual revenue. He immediately jumped on the big company car guy idea. “That’s exactly what I don’t need. I need a fellow entrepreneur.” He needed someone who knew how to disrupt because they’ve done it before. Someone who knew how to allocate capital. Someone who has been on the brink of running out of cash. Those people, he said, have judgment, are decisive, and move fast. “I’ll never find that in a big company car exec.”
Aug 3, 2026The Algorithm was designed to supercharge speed, efficiency, innovation, and growth.
Aug 3, 2026five steps of the Algorithm: Question every requirement. Delete every possible step in a process. Simplify and optimize. Accelerate cycle time. Automate last.
Aug 3, 2026Embedded in many of these examples is the relentless drive to ask a question: Why is this necessary? It could be a rule, a custom, or something long accepted as axiomatic. But the questioning often leads to efficiency gains, and occasionally to dramatic breakthroughs.
Aug 3, 2026Expanding the definition of the product to encompass the customer’s entire experience. In Tesla’s case, part of the product is the charging infrastructure, because without it the customer is miserable. Urgency and accountability to the CEO in solving key problems. The example at Tesla is what we called the “weekly cadence.” Every Tuesday, Elon would be expecting engineers to give him detailed progress reports on the two or three most pressing problems. Eating your own dog food. (I might never have gotten my job at Tesla if Elon had bothered to take Teslas for test-drives and monitor the follow-up messages, or lack thereof.)
Aug 3, 2026The Algorithm features a set of best practices, yet one overarching idea infuses them all: Question the status quo.
Aug 3, 2026