The “How we got here” method in action

- Now let me give you an example. In June of 2000, Andrew Moorfield started an online bank to help make loans to small businesses. He said, "It was exhilarating "and terrifying at the same time." But as with a lot of companies at startup, there were times when there wasn't enough cash to pay the bills. In fact, he told me, "The first time I couldn't make payroll was the worst. "Having to choose who got paid "and who didn't was emotionally draining." But the way he handled it was a masterpiece of storytelling with data, and he did it with only five numbers on a whiteboard. Here's what he did. He pulled all 25 employees into a conference room, and then he wrote a number at the top of the whiteboard and he said, "That was our bank account balance "at the beginning of the month." Below that, he wrote two other numbers and explained, "Those are the revenues we expect to get this month "and the expenses that we have to pay "to keep running the business." and he drew a line and added them…