☄️ High standards set the pace

Most teams accept mediocrity.

High-output teams make it structurally impossible.

The difference between average teams and exceptional ones isn't resources or even talent. It's setting standards that leave no room for average performance.

I studied 3 orgs that transformed entire industries through radically different approaches to standards.

Each method is immediately actionable.

Here's exactly how they work:

Frank Slootman's Tempo Revolution

Frank Slootman transformed ServiceNow from $100M to $1.4B in five years.

Then he led Snowflake to the largest software IPO ever.

His secret is operational velocity. Here’s how he implements it:

The Timeline Compression Method

His first response when his team proposes a timeline is “Why not tomorrow?”

This forces them to at least think about how to make it possible.

It might take more time than 24 hours. But it will always be faster than what the team had initially proposed.

Slootman demands order-of-magnitude changes, he says, “the pace has to be profound, palatable, breathtaking, order-of-magnitude type change. You want to go 20% faster? It’s barely discernible, and you will be back in your old mode before long.”

Single Priority Focus

The moment you have many priorities, you actually have none.

He forces teams to answer one question: "If you couldn't do anything this year except for one thing, what would that be?"

This helps his teams narrow in on a single priority.

Standards > Resources

While most companies hire to go faster, Slootman proposes the opposite.

He tightens the screws on quality, speed, and accountability, then watches the existing team rise to meet the new bar.

His standards force sharper focus, expose weak processes, and unlock capacity you never knew you had.

Raise expectations first; you may discover you already have all the resources you need.

Palantir's Embedded Excellence

“What does Palantir even do?”

That’s the famous joke in the valley.

In reality, Palantir is a software service company. While most software companies sell products, Palantir embeds Forward Deployed Engineers directly into customer operations.

Since they work on high-risk projects with near-zero margin of error, like defense and aerospace, they need to have a culture and methods in place to ensure high performance.

Here are a few of the processes from Palantir.

The OODA Loop Implementation

Palantir's CTO Shyam Sankar uses military OODA loops (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) to compress decision cycles.

Using The OODA Loop For Faster Decision Making

Most companies get stuck analyzing. Palantir forces rapid action through all four phases.

Their embedded engineers sit with customers, observing problems in real-time. No layers between problem and solution.

While competitors debate features in conference rooms, Palantir ships solutions based on actual user behavior.

Anti-Bureaucracy Through First Principles

Palantir questions everything from first principles.

Adam Judelson, who spent seven years at Palantir, says, “at Palantir, we broke most business rules. Not for the sake of it, but because we valued thinking from first principles, or the art of getting to the core of what is true multiple layers beneath the surface of the problem.”

An example of this is that instead of traditional sales teams, Palantir places engineers and former operators directly in front of customers. Because they questioned why salespeople are necessary for complex technical sales.

Real-Time Operational Integration

Palantir teams attend daily client meetings, identify workflow bottlenecks, and prototype solutions by afternoon.

Ex-Palantir, Nabeel S. Qureshi, says about this:

“FDEs were typically expected to ‘go onsite’ to the customer’s offices and work from there 3-4 days per week, which meant a ton of travel. This is, and was, highly unusual for a Silicon Valley company.”

Teams of 2-5 people are "dropped" into client projects with complete authority to solve problems.

Netflix's Context Over Control

Netflix evolved from "Freedom & Responsibility" to "People Over Process" while maintaining radical trust across 13,000+ employees.

Here are a few strategies from Netflix’s playbook on how they did it:

The Informed Captain Model

Netflix identifies an "informed captain" for every significant decision. No committees. No consensus building. One person owns the decision within a clear context.

The company has a culture of pride in how few, not how many, decisions senior leaders make.

The Keeper Test Reality

At Netflix, managers continuously ask: "Which of my people, if they told me they were leaving, would I fight hard to keep?"

Despite seeming ruthless, Netflix's turnover is at the industry average, while voluntary turnover is lower.

The key: generous severance immediately rather than “Performance Improvement Plans” stretched over months.

No Rules Rules Execution

The company’s policy is five words long: “Act in Netflix’s best interests.”

That’s all, there are no other rules. Netflix eliminated expense policies, vacation tracking, and approval processes.

Instead, they hire adults and expect them to act like it.

The result is speed. Employees make decisions faster because they're not waiting for permission or navigating bureaucracy.

Bottom line

These methods and systems created over 1 trillion dollars in market value through systematic approaches that make mediocrity structurally impossible.

Slootman proves that 10x improvement demands setting high standards. Palantir shows that removing layers between builders and users accelerates value creation. And Netflix demonstrates that trust plus clarity beats bureaucracy every time.

Pick one approach that matches your team. Execute it with uncompromising standards.

Your standards become your team's ceiling. Make sure that the ceiling is worth reaching.

Until next week,

David Lobo

Head of Growth, Workmate

P.S. Which approach resonates most with your organization? I'd love to hear about your implementation experience.

P.P.S. Ready to raise your own productivity standards? Workmate helps you focus on high-value work by handling your scheduling automatically. Join the waitlist today.