High Leverage Thinking

Leverage = impact vs. effort. We aim to take actions that create the biggest impact with the least effort.
Continuously using high-leverage thinking leads to 10x outcomes.
This often means working in public vs. private as much as you can, which supports our Default to Transparency value. For example:
- When you need to make a process doc, do it in our public knowledgebase vs. a private internal system, so others can learn from it, like we did for our Triage Team process doc.
- When you have a question about how Storytell works, ask it in our public knowledgebase vs. privately in Slack.
- When you message someone in Slack, don't DM them. Instead, @mention their name in the relevant public channel so others can gain context from the conversation.
“Scope down and Delegate now” vs. waiting to do bigger thing later:
- So others can start to act on it
- If you get something 95% of the way done, it’s still 0% done until you’ve delivered it (even if just an MVP)
- Delivering a bit of value “now” gives those around you a starting point to anchor off of. We call this The power of "Now."

Work in public vs. private as much as possible to support transparency.
Scope down and delegate tasks now rather than waiting to do bigger things later.
Focus on actions that can be taken immediately to move things forward.
Even/Over Statements for this value:
- Safe to try now over Wait to try until later
- Action over Wait and See
- We ship, then iterate. We’re never our own blocker. This applies to code, ideas, processes, content.
- Ask for forgiveness over Ask for permission
- Consent over Consensus

This isn't about living under pressure and racing around; it's about being aware of what's present and attending to that.

It enables us to be more effective and efficient in our work.
It helps us prioritize actions that will have the most significant impact, driving our success and growth.

See something, do something (whether it’s in your job description or not)
You meet someone at a networking event and plan to email them later to invite them to try out Storytell. In this scenario, you have yet to create any value. Instead, you could text them with a link to the Storytell playground — now you’ve created value for them and you’ve gotten it off your plate. That's high-leverage.
Creating a triage card for the ops team for something you want to delegate to them as opposed to holding onto it on a todo list.
There is always one more thing you can do to move something forward. And after that, there’s one more thing. The trick is to know where to put your focus, and how much — this value does not mean leaning into everything, all the time.