Invest in High Performers by Running Experiments
Stop babysitting low performers; grow your best people by testing theories about their potential.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
A method for developing top talent instead of leaving them alone. Rather than pouring energy into strugglers, you build a theory about a high performer's potential and run incremental experiments to test and expand it, pairing their growing capability with company needs. Use it to unlock 10x returns from your best people.
Origin
Molly Graham developed this from being on the receiving end at Facebook, where leaders repeatedly said 'come help me with this thing' and unlocked her potential. She flips the common instinct of spending time on low performers.
Core principles
- 01High performers are the future of the company; investing in them yields the 10x return
- 02The natural tendency to spend time on low performers is a poor use of energy
- 03Development happens through incremental experiments, not one giant promotion
- 04The goal is to pair a person's drawn-out potential with real company needs
How to run it
- 1
Develop a theory about the person
Form a hypothesis: 'I think this person is capable of this kind of thing.'
- 2
Run an incremental experiment
Test the theory with a small step: less guidance, a bigger project, more visibility, or less oversight. It need not be a whole new job.
Pro tip Each experiment both tests and deepens your theory of their potential.
- 3
Pair capability with company need
As the person proves capacity, match their strengths to where the company needs them, giving them bigger and more critical work.
Pro tip A project manager developed this way can end up running a whole function.
In the wild
Leaders at Facebook saw potential in Molly and pulled her into new problems ('come help me with this thing'), which unlocked a huge amount of growth for her.
→ That pattern of experimental delegation is what she now deliberately runs on her own high performers to expand their box.
Common mistakes
Leaving high performers alone
Assuming 'that person is doing well, I'll let them do their thing' wastes the biggest available return on your time.
Over-investing in low performers
Getting dragged into a struggler's problems drains the energy that would compound if spent on your best people (and often the right answer is to fire, not fix).
Is it for you?
Best for
Managers who want to grow star talent and multiply their team's output in a scaling company
Not ideal for
Teams where a low performer poses an urgent, must-address risk that cannot be deferred
From the transcript
“actively investing in and developing high performers is something that's important to get good at as a leader”
“our tendency is to actually spend time on low performers and it is not a good use of your time”
“I basically develop a theory about someone. I think this person is capable of this kind of thing.”
From the episode
The high-growth handbook: Molly Graham’s frameworks for leading through chaos, change, and scale