The thing about Amazon’s leadership principles

One strange thing about Amazon’s leadership principles is: some of them are obviously self-conflicting. For examples, Insist the highest standards vs. Bias for action. How can you have the highest standards, which means you need to slow down and focus on quality, and take action to address immediate concerns, which means you have to move fast, at the same time? Earn trust vs. Have backbone; disagree and commit. If you disagree with your colleague, how can you earn trust from them? It took me a while to understand the leadership principles are a system of thinking and categorizing our behaviors. The tension between these leadership principles is the exact reason they are good principles. By balancing the tension just right, we get the most optimal solution. Engineering, is all about making the right trade off armong constraints. Middle way, in eastern philosophy like Buddhism and Taoism, teaches a way of life which avoids extremes. In western philosophy, “dialectical” method, relies on a contradictory process between opposing sides. The tension and contradiction, keep the system fresh: through the endless circle of thesis, antithesis and synthesis, new ideas and innovations are born. So the thing about Amazon’s leadership principles, is to treat them as a system: “a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole”. The tension, the tug of war between the principles, creates the cohesive force that keeps Amazon together. So instead of avoiding the conflict between the leadership principles, appreciate their tension, find the right balance. “The master uses his skill to harmonize with both sides which makes all things equal. This is called 'walking on two paths at once.'” — Chuang Tzu 莊周