This article summarizes an episode of Sequoia Capital’s video series featuring Dick Costolo, former CEO of Twitter.
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Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo warns growing companies that seeking group agreement slows everything down. He challenges leaders to stop playing it safe and fix mistakes quickly.
He explains why “because the boss said so” is a terrible excuse, why rules to prevent errors ruin the work, and why too much money destroys a team’s discipline.
The cost of group agreement
As companies grow, group agreement replaces decisive leadership, and progress dies in endless meetings. During Twitter’s early hyper-growth, Costolo realized that spreading out responsibility actively hurt the product.
Costolo recalls that early on, the company moved too slowly because decisions were made by committee. Instead of giving a specific leader the clear authority and responsibility to solve a problem, everything required group consensus.
To fix this, he mandated a default-to-yes culture. “Only the person you report to is allowed to tell you you’re not allowed to do that… no other organization is allowed to tell you that you can’t do that or that you need permission.”
Without this limit, support teams fall into the habit of asking for endless meetings rather than giving answers. A slow “no” is worse than a fast “no” because it obscures who is actually responsible for blocking progress.
Reacting to mistakes with rules
Removing approvals inevitably leads to mistakes. Instead, leaders must rely on rapid correction and clear accountability:
- Give one person ownership over a project.
- Limit company rules to a few checks that stop the business from failing.
- Show leaders fixing errors so workers do not confuse caution with good work.
Costolo warns against this bureaucratic bloat, “Don’t solve problems with processes. At Google, the launch checklist got to be like 17 pages long. Pretty soon you’re not managing to outcomes; you’re managing to the processes.”
Leaders cannot demand risks while punishing mistakes
Removing checklists requires a culture that embraces failure. “It’s not the job of leadership to prevent mistakes from happening, but to correct them quickly when they do,” Costolo says.
Losing a shared understanding
Working faster creates a new risk: misalignment. Teams moving fast will run in different directions if they lack a shared, deep understanding of the company’s ultimate plan.
Costolo grew frustrated with managers who used his name to shut down pushback. Saying “the CEO ordered it” gives the team no real context or reasoning.
The false appearance of success
The lasting cost of waiting
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