High Output Management

---
name: high-output-management
description: 'Manage for output using Grove''s "High Output Management": a manager''s output is their organization''s output, raised by high-leverage activities. Use when the user mentions "high output management", "managerial leverage", "one-on-ones", "1:1 agenda", "OKRs", "performance review", "task-relevant maturity", "delegation", "meeting overload", "new manager", "how do I run a 1:1", or "just got promoted to manager". Also trigger when structuring a manager''s calendar and meeting cadence, designing team metrics, running planning, coaching delegation, or preparing performance reviews. Covers leverage, production principles, meetings as the medium of management, decisions, OKRs, and task-relevant maturity. For intrinsic motivation, see drive-motivation. For a company operating system, see traction-eos.'
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: wondelai
  version: "1.2.0"
---

# High Output Management

Manage teams the way Andy Grove ran Intel: a manager's output is not what the manager does — it is what their organization produces. This skill turns *High Output Management* into auditable practice: production principles for knowledge work, output indicators, managerial leverage, meetings as the medium of management, clean decisions, OKRs, and a management style matched to task-relevant maturity.

## Core Principle

**A manager's output = the output of their organization + the output of the neighboring organizations under their influence.** Nothing a manager does — emails, meetings, reviews, decisions — counts in itself; it counts only through how it raises that combined output. Since managerial time is the scarce input, the craft reduces to one question asked relentlessly: of everything I could do right now, what creates the most output per hour spent? Choose high-leverage activities; eliminate negative-leverage ones.

## Scoring

**Goal: 10/10.** Rate management practices, calendars, and processes 0-10 against the principles below. State the current score and the specific changes needed to reach 10/10.

- **9-10:** Output indicators with quality pairs, subordinate-owned 1:1s on a TRM-based cadence, delegation with task-level monitoring, OKRs that stretch without driving pay, calendar built around forecasted key events
- **7-8:** Process meetings run well, but a few activity metrics, ad hoc decision meetings, or skipped training sessions remain
- **5-6:** 1:1s happen irregularly, indicators track busyness, delegation is all-or-nothing, planning produces documents instead of actions
- **3-4:** Management by interruption: status theater, decisions made by rank, reviews as annual surprises