6 Management Moves That Beat Business “Guru Advice”

Welcome to The Elephant in the Boardroom, where we talk about the business practices we love—love to hate, that is. These are the practices that frustrate employees, anger customers, and hurt shareholders. We challenge conventional wisdom, share our stories, and give you advice you can use at work and even sometimes at home. It’s time to banish those elephants in the boardroom.

Today, we’re highlighting something that makes us a little bit crazy: business “guru” advice. Our main issue with it is that it tends to be completely unusable in real life. It’s lovely. It’s likely true. But it’s completely impractical. One we just recently came across was from Tony Robbins: “The path to success is to take massive, determined action.” Massive, determined action. Okay, great.

I know how to succeed now, thank you. I mean, sure—are you going to be successful if you don’t do anything? If you’re a nepo baby, maybe, yeah. Just hang on tight to someone who’s doing that massive, determined action. And then of course there’s the famous one from Warren Buffett: rule number one is don’t lose money, and rule number two is don’t forget rule number one. Yes, that makes sense. But how? The “how” is missing from so much of this. People get excited by it. You know, Adam Grant will have a post and we’ll go, “well, duh,” but thousands of people will like it. Are we missing something?

So today we thought we’d talk about some really nitty‑gritty, practical things that we think are impactful instead of the high‑level “be kind” and whatever else.

First, meetings. People complain that meetings go on too long, that some people talk a lot without adding much, and other people don’t get a chance to talk. Time just sort of fritters away. There’s a very simple thing we use all the time: get a countdown clock, just like in basketball. Set up a clock on the wall or screen. If there are 30 minutes for the meeting and everyone knows a decision has to be made by the end, people pay remarkable attention to those 30 minutes. The seconds are ticking away, so folks hold back on diatribes. If the person with key info hasn’t spoken, someone will jump in and say, “we only have eight minutes left—Susan, what do you think about X?” You can find countdown clocks on the web and put them on a monitor easily.

A quick aside on airtime: women get a lot less airtime in meetings than men. Be intentional about who’s invited to speak.

Second, ask a question: “How do you know that’s true?” Picture the scene. You’re in a meeting—hopefully with a countdown clock—and someone is vehemently going against an idea that otherwise sounds good. “That won’t work. We tried it 17 years ago.” It’s uncomfortable, especially peer‑to‑peer, to ask: “How do you know it won’t work?” But that’s how you get to the truth. That simple “it won’t work” stops good things and prevents a culture of looking for facts. Make it a practice. Over time, people will give facts without being asked. Sometimes you’ll even uncover a misunderstanding of the idea; once the person really gets it, they might say, “oh, that’s a good idea—we should do that.”

Third, entrance interviews. We think exit interviews are close to worthless; people don’t tell you the truth when they have nothing to gain and something to lose. But companies rarely do entrance interviews. The perfect timing is about a month or two in. On day one they’re focused on onboarding; six months in they’re already entrenched. At 30–60 days, new hires can tell you what your old company did better or differently and where your blind spots are. Book the meeting when they start so they observe with that lens.

Fourth, the After‑Action Report. Militaries all over the world do this: after training exercises or real battles, they do detailed after‑action reports to figure out what went right and what went wrong. Businesses rarely do this. There are two overlapping use cases: any complex project that made promises about cost, timing, and results; and any large capex project with ROI projections. Months later, go back and ask: did we get what we promised? If not, where was the slippage? Use those insights to change processes—to prevent what went wrong and encourage what went right.

Fifth, shorter meetings by default. People stick to 30/60/90/120 as if those were laws of nature. Not everything is a 30‑minute conversation. Have a 15‑minute meeting. Have a 10‑minute meeting. Pop into someone’s office for five minutes. If you have a clear goal and you hit it early, stop. Don’t talk past the win—especially in a pitch when the other side says, “you’ve got the deal.” Take the win and hang up.

Sixth, brainstorm for problems—not ideas. “No idea is a bad idea” produces fluff. There are plenty of bad ideas. People find it easier to surface problems than to conjure solutions on demand. Once a real problem is on the table, curiosity kicks in and you can develop it into a pearl.

One last stat: 30% of employees feel invisible at work. Find that 30% and ask them what problems they face. Ask 100%, but make sure you include those who feel invisible—they have a lot to tell you.

Quick summary:

1. Use a countdown clock in meetings.

2. Ask “How do you know that?”

3. Do entrance interviews at 30–60 days.

4. Run After‑Action Reports on major and capex projects.

5. Don’t default to 30/60/90—book the minimum time and end early.

6. Brainstorm for problems, not ideas.

Thanks for listening. To learn how Harvest Earnings helps large companies overcome bad practices, visit HarvestEarnings.com or email info@HarvestEarnings.com. Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and if you’re feeling generous, leave a rating and a review—it helps others discover the show. Now it’s time for us to get back to work. Bye.