# Chapter 3 — People

## Felix on managing people

The chapter opens with disarming honesty: Felix says it took him decades to learn how to manage people well. He was a visionary leader with strong communication and sales skills — and rubbish as a manager. The chapter is grounded in the lessons of those mistakes.

## The simple weekly one-to-one agenda

A thirty-minute weekly 1-2-1 with three even slices:

1. **Ten minutes — you**: how the team member is doing.
2. **Ten minutes — the company**: how their work is contributing.
3. **Ten minutes — me**: what they need from the manager.

Felix calls this "infinitely easier" than the unstructured catch-ups most agencies default to.

## Brilliant people who fit

> "*Brilliant people means brilliant people who **will fit**.*"

The chapter is firm that brilliance alone is not enough. Felix tells the story of brilliant people who didn't share his values, brilliant people who went in different directions, and **brilliant people who turned into "Pied Pipers"** — leading entire departments away from the company's direction. His advice on that last case is uncomfortable: the only cure is to fire the entire department. *"That kind of toxicity, if you've allowed it to manifest itself at all, can't be cured, only cauterised."*

## Show the Strategy Map at interview

Felix shows the Strategy Map to potential hires. Occasionally a candidate looks at it and tells him they don't see themselves at a company that will be three times bigger; that is useful information. The hires who do see themselves there are the ones who help build it.

## The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies example

The worked Roadmap example for the People segment is a unifying People goal of being recognised on the *Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For* list. The chapter shows how that single goal cascades into a set of Year-1 actions — recruitment processes, training programmes, internal communications and the like — each of which becomes a task with measurable outputs and an accountable owner.

## The People → Sales & Marketing link

Better-motivated staff make fewer mistakes that lead to revenue loss. Beyond that, *happier people make customers happier*. Several of the Roadmap's People tasks (training, retention, leadership development) are therefore prerequisites for Sales & Marketing growth tasks.

## See also

- [The Growth Lab Team](https://2y3x.com/agents/method/growth-lab-team/)
- [Chapter 8 — Bringing It Together (meeting rhythms)](https://2y3x.com/agents/book/scale-at-speed/chapter-8-bringing-it-together/)