One of the most frustrating challenges of leadership and management is having to tell people what to do, follow up, and then realizing they haven’t done the thing. Sometimes, it’s worse—you tell them what to do, they go do something completely different because they had a “better idea” and it’s nowhere near the outcome that you need to be successful. In times like this, it can be tempting to default to an authoritarian management style where we dictate terms and demand outcomes.

The reality is that almost never creates lasting inspiration or motivation. But at the same time, as a leader, you need your team to step up, to produce outcomes, to serve customers, and to advance the business.

Given this tension, how can we promote the team and create a shared vision without suppressing the individuality of everyone involved?

As Bitcoiners, we value decentralization and sovereignty. But when it comes to managing teams, those same principles can create tension when trying to create alignment for the organization. This article explores how we can build shared vision without betraying our values. And to do that, we’re going to use one of Charlie Munger’s favorite thinking tools: inversion.

Inversion

"Invert, always invert." - Charlie Munger

Bitcoiners might know of the late Charlie Munger as Warren Buffett's investing partner and longtime friend, who once notoriously called Bitcoin "rat poison" back in its early days. While Munger did not understand or grasp the power of Bitcoin then, we can still learn a lot from Munger’s thinking and approach, even if he was wrong about Bitcoin specifically.

Munger has a powerful principle that we can apply to help reconcile the inherent tension between building a shared vision across an organization and fostering a culture of decentralization: it's the principle of inversion. In World War II, Munger as a meteorologist was responsible for clearing aircraft for takeoff. Instead of thinking, "my job is to clear pilots for takeoff," Munger raised the stakes by inverting the problems he was trying to solve:

"If I wanted ensure that these pilots crash during their flight, what would I do?"

At first glance, it’s a morbid question. Why brainstorm how to kill pilots flying their missions? The trick was that Munger found that by coming up with all the things that he could do to maximize the danger to the pilots--and then choosing to do the opposite--he found better solutions to the problem. For example, if an ice storm created conditions that would cause a plane crash if he cleared pilots for takeoff, Munger came up with a route to keep the plane as far from the ice storm as possible.

"Invert, always invert."

Inversion & Driving Shared Vision

Using this principle, we can return to the above friction between the idea of upholding the principles of decentralization and individualism in management while also driving a shared vision among our employees.

Let’s invert the problem:

If I wanted my team to be in the dark and dictate to them what to do, what would I do as a leader?

• Keep the vision in my head, never written down or discussed with the team.

• Withhold information “until they need to know.”

• Get angry with the team up to and including firing them for questioning the vision.

• Never personally talk with my team about the vision and their connection to advancing it in their work.

• View myself as the sole steward and protector of the vision and refuse to take input.

• Only focus on short term outcomes, which would allow for shifting goalposts when convenient.

At some point, many of us have worked in cultures where, even if this was not the stated approach, it was the assumed approach. Few would admit to doing this, but many are fine to operate in this way. The outcome? People start solving the wrong problems. Others do nothing at all, because why even bother anyways? The few who take initiative? They burn out and move on.

So how would we invert these two questions to carry Munger’s exercise all the way through? Go bullet by bullet and articulate the opposite by starting with “Don’t do that, instead…”

• ~~Keep the vision in my head, never written down or discussed with the team.~~ Instead I’ll communicate the vision as I see it in the next team meeting and ask for feedback.

• ~~Withhold information “until they need to know.”~~ Instead, I will share key updates with the team and present a plan for execution that I want their input on.

• ~~Get angry with my team up to and including firing them for questioning the vision.~~ Instead I will always welcome questions from the team about our vision and ensure they know it.

• ~~Never personally talk with my team about the vision and their connection to advancing it in their role.~~ Instead, I will meet 1-on-1 with each of my team this week and ask them what their contribution toward our vision is. If they don’t know, then we will work together to clarify.

• ~~View myself as a steward and protector of the vision and refuse to take input.~~ I Instead, I will seek input from the team about where they have any confusion about our vision.

• ~~Only focus on short term outcomes, which would allow me to shift goalposts as is convenient.~~ Instead, I will establish consistent benchmarks that I will regularly update the team on and solicit their feedback.

The power of the mental exercise comes in identifying the things that you’re not going to do first and replacing them with actions that are so opposite that you can land your vision plane safely just as Charlie Munger helped hundreds of pilots land safely in World War II.

Emergence, Not Enforcement

Bitcoin works not because Satoshi shouts a mission and everybody gets in line, but because the rules are clear, incentives are aligned, and everyone participates voluntarily.

The same can be true in your business.

A shared vision doesn’t mean everyone agrees on every tactic. It means:

• Everyone understands the purpose.

• Everyone is empowered to act in alignment with that purpose.

• Everyone contributes their unique strengths toward a better outcome.

The vision outlines the objective where the culture of decentralization and individualization inspires the innovation to make that vision happen. This is how a group of individuals becomes a team.

This is emergence, the same principle that lets decentralized systems like Bitcoin evolve, adapt, and thrive without a central planner.

Inviting alignment and letting your team contribute towards it works better in the long run that enforcing unity. That’s how you can have a team that works toward a shared vision while still being individual, sovereign, and contributing.

Nothing can stop a shared vision rooted in principled decentralization.

Building a great company on Bitcoin principles doesn’t require abandoning decentralization. In fact, it’s the opposite: encouraging decentralization by being clear and upfront with the communication of vision, trusting your team to show up and get the job done. Clarify the vision. Communicate it often. Empower your team to get it done.

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