Set the Pace Through Decisiveness (Bias for Action)
A company's speed is governed by how fast it decides, not how hard it works — so refuse to 'circle back.'
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 85%
Chesky argues a leader's most important job is setting the team's pace, and that pace is determined by decisiveness rather than hours worked. To speed up a company, make faster decisions from a bias for action: resolve things inside the meeting, assign owners, and set hour-scale check-ins instead of deferring to next week.
Origin
Brian Chesky's operating philosophy at Airbnb on leadership pace and bias for action.
Core principles
- 01One of the most important things a founder can do is set the pace of the team.
- 02Pace is governed not by how hard people work but by how decisive they are.
- 03To improve a company's speed, make faster decisions.
- 04Fast decisions come from a bias for action.
How to run it
- 1
Resolve it in the meeting
Rather than ending with 'let's circle back next week,' stay in the meeting until the decision is made — compressing what could be weeks of latency into the session.
- 2
Assign a clear owner
Immediately name who is responsible and what exactly they are doing next.
- 3
Set hour-scale check-ins
Instead of weekly follow-ups, schedule tight check-ins ('let's check in an hour,' 'I'll call you in the morning') to keep momentum.
Pro tip Compressing decision latency this way can get roughly three months of work done in a short period.
In the wild
Chesky describes refusing to defer: 'we don't just say okay, let's circle back on this next week. No, we'll have it done by next week. Let's stay in this meeting till it's done... let's check in an hour. I'll call you in the morning.'
→ He claims this compression yields about three months of work over that period.
Common mistakes
Deferring decisions to a future meeting
'Circling back next week' injects latency at every step, and across many decisions it is the main thing slowing a company down.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and managers who feel their org is slow despite long hours and want a concrete lever on velocity.
Not ideal for
High-stakes, hard-to-reverse decisions that genuinely need more information or deliberation before committing.
From the transcript
“the pace of the team is one of the most important things you can do and that pace is sometimes governed not by how hard…”
“No, we'll have it done by next week. Let's stay in this meeting till it's done.”
“you end up getting three months of work done over that period of time. But the last thing”
From the episode
Brian Chesky’s new playbook