Leadership Lessons From Slack: Embracing the Pattern Interrupt
I recently rewatched the movie Fury. If you haven’t seen it, it's a story about a tank crew in Germany during the waning days of World War II.
It follows a tank unit led by a hardened and battle-weary sergeant named Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier, played by Brad Pitt. At one point they get stuck behind enemy lines and are trapped inside their tank with nowhere to go, and in the midst of being surrounded by enemies ‘Wardaddy’ (what a name right?) says this line:
What a line.
Now, I can’t personally relate to anything as life-threatening as that... I’m not in the military, I’m not an EMT and I’m not a firefighter.
What I do is important, yes. But building a startup obviously isn’t the same as the extreme stress that people like that deal with every day.
And I know it’s a movie, but to be in that sort of position and have the mental fortitude to not only stay calm but to also project optimism and confidence (even if you’re not feeling it) is next-level leadership.
‘Wardaddy’ and his crew have created this ‘pattern interrupt’ that when times are really tough; they tell themselves: ‘I love this.’
I think about pattern interrupts as ‘eject’ buttons to get us out of our heads when we’re stuck in a certain pattern of thinking.
We're here, making a difference, pushing boundaries, and building something meaningful, but it ain’t easy.
So when we find ourselves in challenging situations, I like the reminder to ‘pattern interrupt’ and remind ourselves: "this is the best job I've ever had."
We’ve talked about different ‘pattern interrupts’ before. These are some of my favorites:
If it was easy, someone else would be doing it
I volunteered for this
Embrace the suck
Some people would kill for my bad days
I wonder what companies exist today, just because they were good at ‘pattern interrupting’ during the tough times.
I think about the story of Slack.
I don’t know if you knew this, but Slack was originally a side project within a gaming company called Tiny Speck. The gaming venture ultimately failed, but the team recognized the potential of their internal communication tool and decided to pivot their focus toward it.
Let that sink in for a moment…
How many pattern interrupt moments would that team need to have to not just give up when their core business was failing…
Initially, the team faced numerous challenges in gaining traction and attracting users. They struggled to compete with established players in the market, and their early product didn't resonate well with users. Additionally, they faced financial constraints, dwindling resources, and intense competition.
Before I keep going… just picture the conversations that were happening at that time. We started <over here>, didn’t work… so let’s go <over there>… still not working.
…Now what do we do?
To cut a long story short, they persevered and made several crucial decisions:
They actively sought feedback from users, iterated on their product, and continuously improved its functionality and user experience.
They also actively engaged with their user community, listening to their needs and incorporating their feedback into the product's development.
They built a strong brand and built a passionate user base.
Their commitment to user satisfaction and community building eventually paid off.
Over time, Slack made huge progress and became one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in history. In 2019, Slack went public with a valuation of $23 billion.
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This to me is a great reminder that even on our ‘bad days’, we need to tell ourselves “this is the best job I’ve ever had”.
Who knows… maybe that simple pattern interrupt is the difference between your organization and Slack.
Thanks for reading,
MT