Making Business Matter (MBM)

Sticky Learning Lunch #55 - HBDI Model & Whole Brain Thinking #1

In this HBDI model #1, find out more about the HBDI Whole Brain Thinking ®. Do you want to understand more about the way you prefer to think, communicate, and make decisions using the HBDI ® assessment? Using the HBDI ® assessment, understand how you can use your profile to help adapt your thinking, decision-making, and communication style to improve audience engagement. Identify how to improve team effectiveness, through better problem-solving and effective feedback.

How well do you know HBDI?

 

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Good afternoon, sticky learners. Hello. Sticky learners. Maybe that's a thing. Maybe my, I think hi sticky learners. Hey, welcome to Tuesday. Uh, we are just gonna give it a few more minutes while we're waiting for the last people to arrive. Just coming into the room. Hope everyone is well today. Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine on this fine Tuesday. Let's have a bit of a roll call. Angelique, good to see you. I, I believe this is the first time. Apologies if I've got that wrong. Really great to have you here, Cameron. Good to see you again. Colin, Darren, Fabian, Howard, Martin, Victoria. Thank you everyone for being here. It's very appreciated.

Nathan Simmonds:

I know there's a handful of people still yet to come in on their way. He says, let's get everyone set up for success as we're just starting this day. Let's make sure mobile phones hold 'em high. Let's make sure the little airplane is lit up. And let's zero out the distraction. A hundred percent attention on what you are doing here today. Also, making sure that you've got a drink available. Let's keep the brain hydrated and lubricated and make the learning stick.

Nathan Simmonds:

And then also making sure you've got a fresh sheet for fresh thinking. So making sure you've got a clean sheet there, ready to get down your notes. No, it's not Sate Night fever. This is just a change of color scheme, Darren, um, The fresh sheet. Fresh thinking. As always, it's about making sure that you are taking notes. We're gonna be some, sharing some different ideas from different perspectives on how you can approach how you interact and interate with people. So it's gonna be absolutely vital that you are getting down some of these ideas that you want to remember, that you want to reread so you can reignite that thinking when you come back to it later.

Nathan Simmonds:

Keep the ideas expanding. I think we are pretty much good to go. So welcome to Sticky Learning Lunch with me, Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM and with Andy Palmer, resident expert in HBD. I always get the initials wrong. H remind me Andy, HBDI. No, you're right. HBD. Yeah, HB DI was right. I got confused at the last bit. Let's going a smooth thought. I like it.

Nathan Simmonds:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. HBDI From MBM, the Homo Stick learning. This is where it gets confusing is 'cause there's too many, you know, too many initials and acronyms going on. So now the idea of these sessions is to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do and preparing you for that return back to the office. And we wanna share these ideas which are gonna help you to expand what it is you do and how you interact. The reason we do that is because MBM is the home of leadership development and soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industries. We understand how important it's that we do interact and relate with you, with each other at the highest possible level. So, Andy, what are we covering today?

Andy Palmer:

HBDI, we're gonna come profile. So, um, lots of psychometric tests out there. You will have come across some of them I'm sure in your, uh, careers. Me Briggs be being five B insights, discs. There is a whole host of them and they're all particularly good in their own individual ways. Um, today, tomorrow and the next day, we're gonna be talking about the HBDI, the Herman profile. Um, we're selecting this one because one, it's a personal favorite of mine 'cause I'm absolutely confident and can guarantee within about the next 20 minutes, you're gonna go, you know what, I get that. I can see how I can use it.

Andy Palmer:

And then we're gonna spend the next couple of days really getting into how you can practically use it, different parts of the application, how you can make this thing live and breathe if you so wish, uh, in your businesses or in your personal life. So yes, we're talking about the Herman profile. I'm gonna refer to it as the Herman profile just 'cause it's less of a mouthful. Um, but HBDI stands for Hermann Brain Dominance Instruments. So that's the mouthful bit. Let's refer to it as, uh, the Hermann profile. That's what we're covering next three days. Nathan,

Nathan Simmonds:

Want me on mute? So there, I'm on back in the room. So where are we going to, first of all, for day one then?

Andy Palmer:

Yeah, so today is just, um, no, it's not just anything today is an introduction to what actually is this, uh, profile, what is this assessment? Um, and helping our audience today to go, oh, that's interesting. I want to know more about that. And, and hopefully then the next couple of days really builds on that. So yeah, today is about an introduction to the Herman profile. Bring it to life. What are the colors, um, what does it mean, how can I use it? And uh, yeah, we'll see where it takes us in terms of individual's questions. So if you've got them, get them in that chat window. Nathan will feed them through to me. Uh, test me, challenge me, question it. Let's, uh, let's see if we can really bring this, uh, this to life.

Nathan Simmonds:

I'm smiling now because

Andy Palmer:

No.

Nathan Simmonds:

I'm just smiling because Mohammad's comes training. Is it like six hats? What was I mentioning literally 30 seconds ago?

Andy Palmer:

Brilliant. Um, is it like six hats? Um, oh, . I've got four hats. Okay. Um, different topic, different way of approaching different situations. So, um, I'm, I'm gonna suspend, um, kind of thoughts on that and I'll allow him happy to kind of make his own decision over the next 20 minutes. So, amazing. Brilliant. One thing. Go,

Nathan Simmonds:

One thing I was gonna say, Andy, was, you know, before we dive into that, this is gonna be a three part miniseries that we're doing. So we're gonna cover some of different elements over the next three days. I have put in the chat box already there, down the bottom, he says, bear with me the link there for tomorrow's session. So if you have not already registered, now is the time to make sure you click through that and get yourself onto the future sessions, um, and get yourself a, a seat in the room. So, Andy Floor's yours.

Andy Palmer:

Brilliant, thanks Nathan. Okay, background to this, uh, Herman profile called, so because it was developed by a gentleman called Ned Herman. Ned Herman worked for General Electric over in America in the fifties and sixties. Uh, he was part of their l and d function at the time. Uh, they knew there was a, a left hand and a right hand side of the brain. And he hypothesized that coupled with the upper and lower quadrants of the brain. And they were responsible for different thinking preferences.

Andy Palmer:

So he went to his boss as you could back in the day and said, Hey, got this idea what said fascinating. I want you to go off and explore it. So he did. So he tested it, developed it, and he's come up with what we know is today as the Herman HBDI profile. What effectively it does is give you and the people around you a better understanding of how you prefer to think, communicate, and make decisions.

Andy Palmer:

This is based on preferences that you have and how you see the world. Okay? What it isn't is something that limits you by going, oh, I'm only this, or I'm only this. I can't possibly do the other things. It's really about whole brain thinking and understanding where your true preferences actually sit to allow you then to adapt yourself to certain situations, be more tolerant and understanding of others, and then really get into the, the core of this, which is that about challenging yourself to, to kind of do things differently, do things better, and absolutely bring to life yourself and those around you.

Andy Palmer:

And I think it absolutely summed up perfectly, and I'll quote there on that slide there, by understanding yourself, you can learn to value and understand others once you've got that rock and roll, the world your oyster. So how does this work? Um, I'm gonna refer to, um, our different quadrants in the colors. Um, but what effectively we've got is a left hand and the right hand side of our brain. Effectively, our brain's about that big, um, no relation to the size of your hand. So don't worry if you've got particularly small hands, but you've got a left hand and a right hand side of your brain. What you've also got is an upper and lower part of your brain. At the top half. You've got your cerebral mode, which is our, um, uh, the part of the brain we developed over the majority of species on the planet.

Andy Palmer:

Uh, it's our cerebral mode that almost differentiates us apart from the majority of other, uh, species around there. Uh, some of the grapes have this as well, just not as developed as ourselves. So our cerebral mode at the top, we've then got our limbic mode, bottom half of our brain, bottom half, but more bottom half up here, our limbic mode. And that's taking into account these two quadrants at the bottom below that, there is something called the reptilian brain. Sits right at the top of your spinal column. That's the part of the brain that, uh, takes care of our basic functions. Respiratory, it tells us when we're hungry, tells us when we're thirsty. Um, some of the flight fights or freeze mechanisms also sits in there.

Andy Palmer:

...

HBDI Model & Whole Brain Thinking #1

Find out more about the HBDI Whole Brain Thinking ®.

Sticky Learning Lunches #54: The Leadership Upgrade #4

"Worried if you change you won’t know what to expect? – Part #4 of the Unique Leadership Coaching model ‘EVOC’ Create. Reflected, dreamed, seen the problems now it’s time to Create actions. In this episode of The Leadership Upgrade #4.

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Good afternoon, sticky learning lunches. Welcome to Monday. We are just gonna give it a minute for people to arrive. Just been having a wonderful conversation with Sarah, catching up on the weekend. And the one question I didn't ask is if I've got her support completely for the whole of this session. 'cause if I haven't, I haven't got any of the links ready, but we'll find out about that in a minute. Just giving it a minute. Hello, Colin. Fabian. Good to see you. Howard. Thanks for Martin. Thank you for being here as well. Tim Victoria, thanks very much. Happy Monday to you too. Yes, Sarah is with us all session to support and help.

Sarah:

Thank you all.

Nathan Simmonds:

Wanna make sure I've got pens handy? Now it's a little bit of a lazy start for people today. A few people arriving. Let's just give it 30 more seconds and then we're gonna do the roundup. Hello, Matt Brown. Good to see you. Making sure we're supporting ourselves, delivering the best possible results here. Good afternoon, Lana. Good to see you. And by the way, do you know what we need to make this a little bit of a routine. Everyone, you can say hello to me. It is. Okay. Good afternoon to all of you. Let's get ready on this.

Nathan Simmonds:

On a scale of one's 10, how are you feeling about today and this week? One being terrible, 10 being phenomenal. How are you feeling about today, this week? Where you are going, what you are up to? Positive starts, nines, tens, nine's. Got an eight. Okay, we can work on that. Eight's good. Last mouthful of tea. Ask me after the playoffs. Let's dive in as people arrive. Hello V. Good to see you again. Mobile phones. Let's do this. Light up that little airplane, zero out the distraction, a hundred percent attention on what you are about to be doing here.

Nathan Simmonds:

Also, making sure you've got a drink. Let's keep you hydrated. Keep your brain lubricated. So let's make this learning stick. Just run out of tea. This could be a problem. Third piece as always, fresh page, fresh thinking. So let's make sure you've got a nice clean sheet in that notepad. At the top of that, you're gonna write keepers. And these are the things that you want to remember, you want to remind yourself about. And when you reread it, it's gonna reignite that thinking. It's gonna help you keep those new ideas fresh and expanding as you start to reapply them.

Nathan Simmonds:

Good. Let's go. Welcome to today's Sticky Learning lunch with me, Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM Making Business Matter, the home of Sticky Learning. We are the leadership development soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industry. And the idea of these micro learnings is to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do right now. Whether that's from home in the office, or just preparing you to return back to whatever normality is gonna look like in the next couple of weeks. What are we covering today?

Leadership is our focus today!

 

Nathan Simmonds:

The fourth part of the EVOC leadership model. So we are looking at create, so we're looking at the final stage of this model in the C for how we are creating and using and actualizing solutions to our obstacles. But before I get into that tomorrow, for the next three days after this, we're gonna be looking at HBDI profiling. So when you look at things like the grow coaching model, when you look at the mind coaching model for mental health conversations, when you look at the leadership coaching model, the elements that I'm taking you through in here through in this

Nathan Simmonds:

Give your real clear framework of the questions to ask yourself to make those parts happen. Great. The HBDI profile is another tool that just gave, gives you a deeper view on yourself. It really works on this evaluation piece. Eve evaluation

Nathan Simmonds:

In number one, it starts to show you how you work. It starts to show you how you work with others. You start to see certain behavior patterns by doing this sort of analysis. And over the next three days, we're gonna be going through that profiling mechanism, the Herman profiles with Andy Palmer again, and he's gonna take us through all the quadrants in there. It's gonna give you a really deep view on this evaluation piece. If you have not already signed up for that, the link is in the chat box below right now. Call to action, make sure you are registered for the next three sessions so you can get that deeper view. Also shows you the previous session.

Nathan Simmonds:

So this is the, if this is the first time you are watching this session and you want to catch up on the other three parts of this model, you can also click on that link and it will take you and show you the older ones as well. So the first part was self-evaluation, and we're gonna be going deeper into that in the next three sessions. The second part is then vision. Where you want to get to. Number three, obstacles, the challenges along the way to making things happen. With part four being all about creation. That we do is requiring an action to be taken. You know, it's, you cannot meditate your way out of a tiger attack. You cannot sit and wait for a million dollar check to come through your letterbox without actually doing something to make that thing happen.

Nathan Simmonds:

So the idea of this phase when we get into the solutions is about asking the right questions so that when you understand where your obstacles are, that you can overcome them. The way this model works, and it's the same way as how success thinking works, is quite on a simple timeline. Right at the beginning. Here is where you are doing your evaluation. Where you want to get to over here is your vision by understanding these two elements like sat nav, again, you know, you've gotta understand where you are in the current moment and also where you want to get to.

Nathan Simmonds:

When I then start looking to see what the obstacles, rather than me having this simplistic, naive view that the journey's gonna be simple, straightforward, and there's gonna be no hiccups, I have to understand that those challenges are gonna come downstream in order for me to perceive them, embrace them, mitigate them, and resolve them before they cause me any challenge. And even if they do arrive so that I enjoy the process of going through them. So rather than thinking it's gonna be like this, it's gonna be more like this.

Nathan Simmonds:

Put a big tree in the way there. We put another pit in there with spikes so that when we understand the journey looks like this, we can start to prepare and understand, well what are the tools I need here? What are the tools I need here? How do I climb this tree? How do I jump over the pit of, you know, nasty, um, spikes at the bottom? Because when we start to understand this and it's not about lingering in the problem, we can then start to put the solutions in place, which is why these four stages exist. So how do we do this? We wanna create a little bit of disruptive thinking.

Nathan Simmonds:

We want to embrace all of the problems and all of the challenges that we have on a daily basis. Moham just put in here for every action there is a reaction. Absolutely. And then we have to understand, as I've said before, action creates traction. The moment you take one step, you are almost compelled to take the next one in whatever direction it takes or whatever direction it's pulling you in. So when we start to see all of the problems, we can then come up with solutions. So there's an interesting technique that you can use here. Question to you all. How many of you, and it is 10 past one now have mentally or verbally, and I mean out loud as well, as well as inside your own head, complained about something in your day, yes or no? Got me good.

Nathan Simmonds:

No good? Yes, yes, yes, yes. With an explanation mark. Good, good. Interesting technique. So is gentleman by the name of Jay's Summit, I think, I believe it is. He wrote a book called, uh, disrupt You. And his suggestion was for 30 days, write down three problems you've got. So it might be anything from the person cutting you up in traffic at the traffic lights on the way to work. It might be the patch of sweat that your slicer toast left on the, on the countertop when you put it on there by accident. Um, anything, what problems have you got? Think about any challenges or problems you've got or things that have irritated you a day that you wish you had a solution for.

Nathan Simmonds:

Fire 'em in the question box. Anything that comes up. His suggestion is, and this is an activity for you to take away in this, okay, is you write down three challenges that you've got, physical challenges, things that you know have you know, really frustrated you or you know, annoyed you and then you've grumbled about them and then just carried on with the day. How many other people do you think have the same challenges that you have with that thing? And if you actually solve that problem in one way, shape, or form, how many people do you think would then potentially buy your service or buy your product to overcome that thing? Everyone with me? Does that make sense? Those questions.

Nathan Simmonds:

So the idea that what we're doing is we're starting to activate, as I referred to it before, that solution thinking rather than looking at, oh, that's a pain in the backside. Oh I can't, I can't do anything about that. Actually what I'm suggesting is you start to ask some better questions to help you start coming over, overcoming that to help you move beyond that so that actu

Sticky Learning Lunches #53: The Leadership Upgrade #3

Today's topic, The Leadership Upgrade part 3. "Worried if you change you won’t know what to expect? Part #3 of the Unique Leadership Coaching model ‘EVOC’ Obstacles, If you always did what you’ve always done. You’ll always get what you always got. Get prepared, get aware and plan for a better future.

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Uh, go green and we are live. Hello everyone. Good afternoon. Welcome to Thursday. Let's just give it 30 seconds. Let the last people just get into the room. A few more people still arriving by the sounds of it. My neighbors are actually trying to get into the room as well, but physically, so if you hear any loud banging, that's not us. Apologies. Good afternoon Cameron. Good to see you. Colin. Good to see you again. Thank you. Fabian, Howard, Martin, Matt, Petra, Stewart, Tim. Thank you everyone for being here. Let's just give it 30 seconds. Give it a moment. Oops. Excuse me. Mobile phones. My one hiding across the other side of the desk. Wow.

Nathan Simmonds:

Right. Let's get everyone set up for success. Let's make sure that we have got that little airplane lit. Zero out the distraction, a hundred percent attention on exactly what we're doing here today. Making sure you've got a drink. Let's make sure we stay hydrated. Get the brain lubricated and let's make sure we keep this learning sticky. Dry brain equals dry session.

Nathan Simmonds:

And then finally, fresh sheet, fresh thinking. So we wanna make sure we've got a clean notepad in front of us. At the top of that page, you are gonna write keepers and these are the things that you wanna remember, that you want to reread, that you want to use to reignite that thinking, to help keep these ideas expanding and flowing into the work that you are doing. I think we are here. I think we're all good. Good afternoon, Victoria. Good. See you Ivy. Thanks for being here again.

Part #3 of the Unique Leadership Coaching Model

 

Nathan Simmonds:

Let's do this. Welcome to today's Sticky Learning lunch with me, Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM Making Business Matter, the home of Sticky Learning. We are the leadership development and soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industry. And the idea of these micro learnings is to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do. Whether that's while you're at home or whether it is helping you to return back to the office. Let's dive into today's session. Good afternoon Vonne. Good to see you again. And Lana, thanks for being here. Really appreciate it.

Nathan Simmonds:

So we've already covered evaluation, we've already covered a bit of the vision. So we've taken time to look at ourselves. We're looking at 360 feedback, whether we do this once a year, but actually ideally, ideally, as this idea came to me as we were doing the session, two days going, breaking it up into bite-sized chunks. So maybe you're asking smaller numbers of questions about a very specific part of your leadership, coaching, communication or feedback, whatever it might be, and getting some input on that on a regular basis, maybe once a quarter. Then taking the time to build the vision.

Nathan Simmonds:

Where do you want to get to? And I use the analogy a lot. It, it's the same as sat nav. Where am I now? Where do I want to get to? Where am I now? Where am I going to and making sure I've got the right information that's gonna help me get where I need to be. And this pen is now departing. Let's see. That'll do. And today we're gonna be looking at obstacles. We're gonna be looking at those things that hold us back. And before I do that,

Nathan Simmonds:

I'm just gonna drop in the link for the future sessions and rightfully reminded, come off the full screen. So in the chat box you can see the link there. It's got the previous sessions. If you haven't seen them, they're on there already. You can click onto them and rewatch 'em. And also, if you haven't signed up for Monday's session where we're gonna be looking at the last part of this framework, which is around how to create the actions, now's the time to do that.

Nathan Simmonds:

You've got the link there, click through, sign up, get yourself registered so you're live in the room. And also if you know people that are gonna get value from this, share it with them. Really important that we get some of this information into more leaders so that more leaders are thinking this way and approaching life differently rather than thinking they're already perfect, rather than having no idea where they're going and actually just end up complaining about the problems as they come downstream.

Nathan Simmonds:

'cause they haven't prepared for them. 'cause they didn't expect them. And actually most of the time, 99% of the problems that come downstream, we know they're gonna happen if we ask the right questions. And not enough people are doing this. This is why we have challenges in leadership. This is why we have challenges, um, in certain teams because we are not self-evaluating. We, we don't have our own vision and we're too reliant on someone else telling us what to do.

Nathan Simmonds:

And actually the obstacles are the things that we need to embrace and, and see before they come downstream so that we can line up the challenges in front of us in a chronological strategic order and overcome them now gradually improving our skillset as we step over each one of them. Hope this is making sense. So where are we going first? Number one, it's all about how we frame it.

Nathan Simmonds:

So it is how we, it's the labels that we apply to this. And I talked about this a bit before, um, in regards to ourselves, when we're doing personal development and when we're doing goal setting and also when we're doing negotiation. It, it's different ways that we focus our brand. When we're looking at, at feedback, which we're gonna look at in a couple of weeks, and you're looking at personal development. So what you think of someone is how you treat them. So what you think up here, the content of your head dictates the content of your math. And when you're doing your own personal development, the phrase I use is, is what you think of yourself is what you will achieve.

Nathan Simmonds:

And you may remember me hearing this or if you've worked one to one way that you would've heard me say this. So the moment we start thinking that we are not capable or no, it is beyond us, we'll find reasons and excuses to make sure it is beyond us and it stays that way. When we have a situation, actually it is the way that we think about the thing that turns it into actually what we believe it is. So what we think of a situation is what it becomes. So especially when we're working in feedback or we're looking in these um, looking at these challenges coming downstream, the moment you think it's going to be a problem, it becomes a problem.

Nathan Simmonds:

Everyone with me, this makes sense. Gimme some yeses on those. Show me you're alive. Yes, I've got some yeses. Good. So let me say this again. What you think of a situation is what it becomes. Let me hit you with a couple of key quotes that, you know, ring true on this one Marcus, or really know things. Things are neither good or bad. It's the thinking that makes them. So I have no idea how many thousands of years he said that it was right then. And it's right now when we see these obstacles, we'll use a little bit of drunk logic. The problem isn't the problem, it's your attitude to the problem. That is the problem.

Nathan Simmonds:

Captain Jack Sparrow on rum and even he was getting it right. The challenge is though, when we frame it and we hang these labels on things and we see them as issues or we see them as problems, that's what we turn them into. So when we're delivering feedback or even to a leader or someone in our team and we say this is going to be a difficult conversation, what are we saying that the conversation is going to be? What are we actually saying about the person that we're actually going to talk to? How, what, how are we actually labeling that individual before we even get to them? So are we making it more or less difficult for ourselves before we even go into it?

Nathan Simmonds:

And I've got my notes here, I'm just gonna make sure, because the moment that you judge someone, you cannot influence them. Remember this, when we do feedback, I will repeat this again. At the same time, the moment we judge a situation, we deem ourselves as incapable of influencing it or changing it. So we have to address how we are looking at it. Now, common error. Common error or or belief. Fake news. That crisis in Chinese means two things. Someone said the crisis, the word crisis means, um, no danger or, and or opportunity. I did some research on this.

Nathan Simmonds:

It's a misnomer. What it actually means is there's a tipping point. We've got a a a moment in there where we can change and go in different directions. Something could happen, but we've got an opportunity to look at what else is going to happen. Questions come in here, but how can you control your feelings? Example, somebody I, I do not like for example, you have the option to the choice to respond or react whether you like them or not.

Nathan Simmonds:

Whether they've done something to upset you or not, you still have a choice of how you wish to respond to them. Guaranteed though what you think of someone is how you treat them. So if I'm thinking no, they're an idiot or you know, I don't want 'em around them, my words will change shape. And the conversation and the outcome of that conversation will also change as well.

Nathan Simmonds:

So when we go back into this is, okay, well what's this person asking for? How can I help this person right now? How can I change my responsibility? Oh sorry, my, my ability to respond,...

Sticky Learning Lunches #52: The Leadership Upgrade #2

Today's topic, The Leadership Upgrade part 2. "Worried if you change you won’t know what to expect? Part #2 of the Unique Leadership Coaching model ‘EVOC’ Obstacles, If you always did what you’ve always done. You’ll always get what you always got. Get prepared, get aware and plan for a better future.

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Good afternoon. Let's get this screen up there. Good afternoon. Welcome to today Sticky Learning Lunches. Just as always, given the last few seconds for people to arrive in the room for today's conversation. Cameron, good. See you. Thank you Colin. Darren, amazing for being here. As always, Fabian, always pleasure. Howard. Thank you very much. Ivy Mar Martin. Sorry, Matt Mohamed. Tim Victoria. Hello alone. I was gonna go for a different colored shirt today, but we had a minor wardrobe malfunction before four inch shirt.

Nathan Simmonds:

I know Martin, I'm sorry, I apologize. Wardrobe malfunction. I dunno what tomorrow's gonna look like, but we'll see what we can work out. CLA says, looking sharp. Yeah, I know, but we need to change things up. We need to keep things fresh. Last mouthful of tea, last few people arriving. So just as we're doing this, let's make sure we're setting ourselves up for success today. As always, first things first, mobile phones. Let's get those little airplanes lit up. Zero out the distraction. A hundred percent attention on what we're gonna be covering today,

Nathan Simmonds:

Following on directly from yesterday. Before we even go into the, the crux of what we're gonna be covering today. The key points we talked about yesterday. Actually, no, let me come back to that in a minute. You said we did okay. We talked about this yesterday in brief. You know, you said we ignored is the normal thing that we see in a lot of large organizations when we're looking to take on feedback and we're doing that self-evaluation.

Nathan Simmonds:

Often when we are doing these 360 feedbacks or these company surveys, we know there's quite a lot of information and we don't always feel like we're getting hurt. What we took on board yesterday, there was a lot of stuff that came up about feedback yesterday and about how to deliver feedback and how to give feedback to members of the management team and leadership team above you and how to give that feedback to your peers and in your teams.

Nathan Simmonds:

So the first thing that we did when we left that conversation, that call yesterday, is we have created a four part training session on how to deliver feedback that will be starting on July the 13th. I have just put the link in there for the future sticky learnings. So you can go straight in there first thing and make sure that you are booked in for tomorrow's section if you're not already.

Nathan Simmonds:

The other part is that in, you know, starting on July the 13th after we've done the HBDI profiles, the Herman profiles with Andy, again, we're gonna go into four sessions about how to deliver feedback. We're gonna look at how to do it, the structure of it, we, some of those nuances that come up when we talk to people and when we're working with different people. So we are going to tick a lot of the boxes on there to make sure that you can do this. Hope this is useful.

Part #2 of the Unique Leadership Coaching Model

 

Nathan Simmonds:

Right, last few people have arrived. Thank you everyone for being here. Let's dive in. Phones on flight mode, zero under distraction. Get your emails shut down. A hundred percent attention to what we're doing here. Make sure that you've got a drink available. Let's make sure you stay hydrated. Keep your brain lubricated so you can make this learning stick. And the third part as always is make sure you've got a fresh page for fresh thoughts as they come in. Okay? Top of that page, you're gonna write keepers.

Nathan Simmonds:

These are the things that you wanna remember and remind yourself about so that when you go back and reread it, you can reignite that thinking and come up with some new ideas that keep the idea expanding and you make sure this learning sticks part two of the leadership model. Let's go into this. Good afternoon. Welcome to Sticky Learning Lunches with me, Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM making Business Matter, the home of Sticky Learning. We are the leadership development and soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industry.

Nathan Simmonds:

And the idea of these lunchtime micro learnings is to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do. Whether that's from home right now, or whether it's helping to prepare you back, uh, return back to the office part two of the Leadership Model eoc. So we've already looked at the E, which is all about evaluation

Nathan Simmonds:

For those that were here yesterday, what was useful from yesterday, what have you taken away and what new ideas have come up since we got together yesterday. And I'd love to see those in the questions book just to keep this moving. Uh, thinking moving the first, so just as I get up the, the headlines of what we covered, we looked at self-evaluation, we looked at 360 feedback and the absolute need to, to do that 360 feedback.

Nathan Simmonds:

And we looked at a couple of different ways to approach that as well. I have gone back and I've spell checked that really rush document that we put together yesterday. There is a fresh one that will be being emailed to you if it hasn't already been done. So, uh, done so yet, but it's on its way out to you. What do we got? Self-assessment. Absolutely. How you see yourself versus how others perceive you.

Nathan Simmonds:

Absolutely. And going into that, there is no smoke without fire. So someone's feedback, someone's perception of you may only be a snapshot of time. It is still just as valid though 'cause that's their viewpoint on what you are doing. So make sure that you are, you are willing and able to take on board that feedback at the right time. All VA feedback is valuable, absolutely is a gift. Taking action on the feedback good still with people in your, uh, still with people in your charge, not people. Absolutely.

Nathan Simmonds:

These, the people in your teams, they are in your charge. You are not in charge of them. They are, you know, you are there to steward and support them. We're all visionaries, absolutely. Anyone tells you that. And not everyone is a visionary leader. It's a lie. We've got eyes in our heads, we have to lead ourselves, you know, in order to go and get the new job to lead our family to whatever it is. We've all got this capability inside us.

Nathan Simmonds:

The moment that you say someone can't do something, you are labeling them based on a bias or an opinion that's been formulated somewhere else. So the best thing to do is just remove that label and accept and acknowledge everyone has this capacity in them. So we looked at self-evaluation, we looked at the 360 feedback and as I said, you said we did. So the feedback, um, elements are in place now for the 13th. Make sure you are registered part two. Vision.

Nathan Simmonds:

Vision is all about obviously what you see. It's about where you want to go. It's about the thing that you can see in your mind that you want to create in the reality. We talked about this in goal setting. Thank you Colin for reminder me. We talked about this in the goal setting and the coaching for, um, training that we did. We talked about this in personal development plan. It's all about where you see you want to get to. And the thing that I say countless times, and I'll say it a million times again, is that people can only see as far as they can think.

Nathan Simmonds:

I don't know who said this quote originally. It's so very vital though. And so very useful. The idea is that, you know, if you haven't taken time to think about where you want to get to, how are you supposed to paint a picture that's gonna encourage others to go to the same place? This is the same analogy when we are looking at satnav, when we're setting goals. Satnav works on two pieces of information where you are self-evaluation, the postcode of here in the moment and the postcode of where you want to get to the vision.

Nathan Simmonds:

Once you have those two pieces of information, then the sat nav will work out the route to get you there where the traffic, uh, the roadworks are, the traffic lights, et cetera, et cetera, and the speed cameras and help you take the best route in order to make that happen. But the moment that you fail to put any either of these two pieces of information, what's gonna happen? Open question. If you are missing one of these two, two pieces of information when you are programming your, your, your route finder, what's gonna happen to your journey? What do you think will happen?

Nathan Simmonds:

You are lost anyway. Will take you there eventually it will do. You might find that, okay, something else coming in. Mystery tour, wasted time, no direction. Absolutely. Absolutely. So we need clarity in these two spaces. So once we've done this at the the self-evaluation, we can then start getting into the vision and start looking at some of the questions that we wanna ask ourselves. So let just share my screen. Let me know if you can see the screen forming. So there's the outdated feedback, 360 feedback form I started working on earlier. But then when we look at the evaluation, what I've said on here is a little bit of a little bit of this

Nathan Simmonds:

HQ Q equals QA high quality questions equal high quality answers. If you don't like the responses that you get, if you don't like the quality of the answers that are coming back, you need to adjust the quality of the question that you are asking in the first place. Your brain is a validation machine. I've said this before and I'll start again....

The Leadership Upgrade #2

"Worried if you change you won’t know what to expect? Part #2 of the Unique Leadership Coaching model ‘EVOC’ Obstacles, If you always did what you’ve always done. You’ll always get what you always got. Get prepared, get aware and plan for a better future.

Sticky Learning Lunch Videos

M: Struggling to be Productive Because You're Working from Home?

I: Help! Cabin Fever is Starting to Take Hold

N: Confused about What to Wear When You are Working from Home?

D: Working from Home – Lots of Time – Not Sure Where to Start?

S: Working from the Kitchen Table and the Sofa will Drive You Nuts 

E: It is Hard to Know How People Feel when they Work from Home

T: The Tech You Use whilst Working from Home is Holding you Back 

G: Frustrated Because You Know You Need to Coach Your People – Goal 

R: Frustrated Because You Know You Need to Coach Your People – Reality

O: Frustrated Because You Know You Need to Coach Your People – Options

W: Frustrated Because You Know You Need to Coach Your People – Way Forward

1: Personal Development Plan – Not Sure What to Start? Part #1 

2: Personal Development Plan – Not Sure What to Start? Part #2

3: Personal Development Plan – Not Sure What to Start? Part #3

4: Personal Development Plan – Not Sure What to Start? Part #4

5: Personal Development Plan – Not Sure What to Start? Part #5 

1: The Cunning 4 Stage Sales Plan by Geoff Burch – Part #1

2: The Cunning 4 Stage Sales Plan by Geoff Burch – Part #2 

3: The Cunning 4 Stage Sales Plan by Geoff Burch – Part #3 

4: The Cunning 4 Stage Sales Plan by Geoff Burch – Part #4 

M: Having a Mental Health Conversation Bothers Me – Part #1: Mindset 

I: Having a Mental Health Conversation Bothers Me – Part #2: Importance

N: Having a Mental Health Conversation Bothers Me – Part #3: Network

D: Having a Mental Health Conversation Bothers Me – Part #4: Direction

Sticky Learning Lunches #51 :The Leadership Upgrade #1

Today's topic, The Leadership Upgrade Part 1. Got promoted and wish someone showed you how to Lead? – Part #1 The Unique Leadership Coaching model ‘EVOC’ (Self) Evaluate, take a deeper dive into your leadership style and capability.

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Let's wait for this, right. Okay. Just doing a screen share waiting for the last few people to come into the room. It is absolute pleasure to be here in front of the whiteboard again, so many eager people just looking down the list here at the moment. Alan, thanks very much for being here. Thanks very much. Andy's saying rocking the shirt. Thanks. It's a changing color scheme for me, Cameron. Long knot time. No speak. Really good to see you, Colin and Fabi and gerd. Howard Ivy, thanks for being here again. Martin, looks like the first time I've seen you here. Matt Brown, welcome back Ming. Good to see you, Mohammed, to be, I'm gonna go with Mt. Tim Moore.

Nathan Simmonds:

It is an absolute honor to be sharing this sticky learning lunch with all of you. Eager people. I'm not sure I've seen so many people in the room waiting to get in. This is phenomenal. Welcome to today's Sticky Learning Lunch. Last few people arriving. Lee, welcome Victoria. Hello. Thanks for being here again. This is gonna be good. The weather outside is terrible here. My shirt is making up for the difference in the, uh, darkness that is outside the gray. So let's get everyone set up for success before we kick off today.

Nathan Simmonds:

First things first, get the phones out. Let's make sure we're zeroing out the distraction. A hundred percent attention on what it is you are doing right here is, which is looking at your leadership skills and looking at your personal development as a leader or even how you are gonna help to develop your leaders. 'cause this is something that is still vitally missing or vitally important that is missing from modern work, modern society, humanity as a whole. And it's something that I'm very, very passionate about. So phones on silent. Let's eliminate the emails.

Nathan Simmonds:

Let's eliminate all of those distractions which are gonna stop you from learning here. Stage. Second thing, making sure you've got a drink available. Let's keep you hydrated so you can keep your brain lubricated and make this learning stick. And finally, the last stage of setting you up for success for this session. Fresh sheet, fresh thinking. So I want you to find a nice clean page in your notepad. And at the top of that you're gonna write keepers.

Nathan Simmonds:

And the keepers are the things that you wanna remember and the things that you wanna remind yourself about. So when you go back and reread it, it's gonna reignite that thinking. It's gonna get the new ideas forming and get the actions in place to keep you moving forward. Hope this is clear with everyone. I think this is the last few people in the room still look up more arriving. Beautiful.

Click the image to take a look at your leadership style with this sticky learning lunch

 

Nathan Simmonds:

Let's do this. Welcome to today's Sticky Learning lunch with me. Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM Making Business Matter, the home of Sticky learning. And we are the leadership development and soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industries. Idea of these sticky learning lunches is to help you be the best version of you and the work that you do right now, whether it's working from home or whether it's preparing you to return back to the office. And today, what are we covering?

Nathan Simmonds:

We are covering evoc, EVOC. So lemme get this up on the whiteboard for evoc is a leadership coaching framework that I built in the MBM lab to help p compartmentalize their thinking, to give them a structure so they can do that self-inquiry and start to create their version of reality based on a leader. So it's about helping them to create the pictures in their heads so that they've got something to strive for and that they can show people around them where they're going and help to mobilize that team.

Nathan Simmonds:

I think I've dived straight in. I dived straight in with the content over enthusiastic, but we're gonna run with it and I'll pick up the other parts as we go in. So what does evoc EVOC stand for? Evo? The first part is to evaluate. And this means taking the time to look at yourself. It means taking the time to reflect on what you've been doing for the last year, two years, five years. It's about looking at your habits and the way that you behave and interact with people inside your business so that you can actually see what's going on.

Nathan Simmonds:

And that's the first stage we're gonna be looking at today. But then the next stage we're gonna be looking at tomorrow is we're gonna go into the vision. So where you want to take people, where you want to get to. When we're talking about leadership, it's really important and we understand this when we are leading, we are out front taking people there. Now if we don't know where we are going, how are people gonna be able to know if they want to follow you? So it's really important we understand where we are going and what our vision is.

Nathan Simmonds:

The truth is, and I heard recently that a great thought leader that often inspires me said that no, not everyone is a visionary leader. And right now I'm gonna call BSS on that. Everybody is a visionary leader. If you have eyes in your head, you have vision. If you are taking somewhere, going somewhere, you are a leader. 'cause you are leading the way for yourself or for someone else. Even if you throw a ball for a dog, you are a visionary leader 'cause that dog is enthusiastic and enthused by your behavior that it wants to go and get that ball and bring it back. So let's get really clear.

Nathan Simmonds:

As human beings, we have all, we all have the capability to create a vision and lead people there. The O stands for obstacles. It is not about. And when we get into this later on, it is not about being stuck by things, it's by about having the reality to see things as they are. See what your challenges are and then understand what it is you need to do to move beyond them. So you can get a real clear viewpoint of what's happening. And then take the right rea um, actions,

Nathan Simmonds:

Just . Let's get a fresh one so that we can go and create. So we can come up with some new ideas that are actually gonna help us beyond this. That gets us into this 'cause we understand who we are. I hope this makes sense to everyone. Everyone with me so far? Yes or no? I know I've dived straight in with the content. I've got really enthusiastic. I saw lots of friendly faces and went straight in. That's definitely a typo. Jamie , you meant to say All good

Nathan Simmonds:

So this is the model. So this has given us a four part structure, very similar to the grow coaching model with goal reality options and way forward. So we're gonna break this down. The first part that we want to do though is we want to get absolute clarity on who you are. 'cause if you don't know who you are, how is anyone else gonna know what they're buying into? If you don't know what you are capable of and what makes you tick, how's anyone else gonna be able to get involved?

Nathan Simmonds:

How's anyone else gonna help you achieve what you see in your head as the big picture for your business, for your department, for your family, whatever it is. So we have to take the time to do this evaluation piece. It is so absolutely vital. Who has heard of confirmation bias or biases, mental biases? Who has heard of those? Yes or no? Couple have got a mixture here. Yes. Bits no. Yes. Okay. High level view. When we have things like a confirmation bias,

Nathan Simmonds:

Primarily when we do a job interview, they call, they refer to this often as thorns and halos thing. You know, you see someone, um, I'm sitting there about to interview someone with my very bright purple shirt on and this person comes in with a, you know, a nice beard and glasses and a very nice purple shirt. All of a sudden I'm starting to get a confirmation bias. They look like me, they dress like me. They must be a good person. Therefore maybe I'll give them the job, not based on whether they've got the skills or not, but because they look a bit like me or they talk a bit like me. So we start to kind of, we sway our, we are, we have our opinions swayed based on what we think of the world.

Nathan Simmonds:

The challenge is when we're doing the self-evaluation piece, if I'm a leader or I've been in a position for a long time and I haven't got enough people around me to challenge my way of thinking or approaches, I start to think that my way is the only way I start to become blinded by my behaviors. 'cause maybe they worked with this group of people or in this project and I think that's the only way. So I just stick in that track, in that, in that groove and I just stay there. Boss bias, absolutely, Howard love it. I might have to use that one.

Nathan Simmonds:

So it's understanding that when we get caught in that rutt and we need to get a clarity on, you know, what is working, how am I interacting with people? How do I take the time to reflect on myself to make sure that I'm doing the best for myself and for those in my care. Questions has come in. It's uh, how honest someone will be in evaluating themself. Absolutely. So this is where we get this confirmation bias. We get a personal bias to ourself because we've been doing it for such a long time. We, you know, we've become blinded.

Nathan Simmonds:

It's like the horse with the shy horse with the, with the blinkers on. We don't see what else is going on. We just go, okay, I'm just gonna go there in this way and not think about anything else. So we need to take the time to do the self-assessme

Sticky Learning Lunch 48: Increase Your Category Opportunities

Today's topic, Increase the Number of Category Opportunities Landed Part 7.

73% of your Category Opportunities Never Make it to Store.

You will learn: - Each of the 7 parts of the MBM Category Management Funnel. - How each part is essential to creating an effective Category Management approach. - Various tools and techniques to support each stage of the process.

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Good afternoon, sticky learning lunches. Welcome to Monday. Really great to be here. Really great to see you even in the virtual. We're just gonna give it a few more seconds while we're waiting for the rest of the people to arrive in the room. Just gonna have a mouthful of drinks. Gonna make sure we're getting ourselves set up for the day. A few more seconds. Good to see you, Colin. Thanks for being here. Darren, always a pleasure.

Nathan Simmonds:

Fabian, great to see you here again, Joe, lovely to see you. John, thank you very much for being here. First time attendee, I believe. Thanks very much for taking the time to invest in yourself in this session for today. Just as we're waiting for those last people to arrive, let's make sure we are setting ourselves up for success. So, first things first, before we even get into the introductions, let's zero out the distraction, a hundred percent attention.

Nathan Simmonds:

Let's get the little airplane lit up. So we haven't got our WhatsApp, Twitter, our pings, buzzes, beeps or whatever, distracting us from what we're spending our time doing here today. Making sure that you've got a fresh sheet as well. Fresh sheet, fresh thinking. So you wanna make sure you've got a nice clean page in your notebook. And at the top of this, you're gonna write keepers and keepers are the things that you want to remember that you wanna remind yourself about.

Improve your category opportunities

 

Nathan Simmonds:

And when you reread that, it's gonna reignite that thinking. So when you come back to this learning from today and from our previous sessions, that you can go back, go back into that thinking and create some new ideas that are gonna help you deliver a better result in your business. And as you've just seen me with my drink, making sure that you have hydration.

Nathan Simmonds:

Make sure you are hydrated. Keep your brain lubricated so you can make this learning stick. I think we're good to go. Let's dive into today's session. Actually, before we do that, if you have not already registered for tomorrow's session, I'm gonna put a link in the box at the bottom there in the chat box for everyone. If you have not registered for tomorrow's session, now is the time to make sure you've got a copy of that link so you can get prepared for tomorrow.

Nathan Simmonds:

Tomorrow we're looking at the first stage of evoc, the self-evaluation, part of the leadership model that is in the chat box. Now, if that's gonna be beneficial for you, sign up for tomorrow's session. It's four part module of system. We'll be running through Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Monday next week. If you know anyone else that would benefit from that, share that link with them as well.

Nathan Simmonds:

Get 'em involved. There's gonna be some great content in there. I'm gonna be delivering the first stage of our leadership coaching model. It's gonna really help you take your game to a whole new level, Andy. Ready? I'm ready. Good. So look, welcome to today's sticky learning with me, Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM Making Business Matter, the home of Sticky learning. And we are the soft skills and leadership development provider to the UK grocery and manufacturing industry.

Nathan Simmonds:

Idea of these learnings is to give you 20 minutes of micro learning to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do, whether that be from home or returning back to the office. Today we are covering part seven of the category management funnel, also lovingly known by MBM as the 73% funnel. 'cause what we, we have calculated is that 73% of your opportunities never make it to store. No, sorry, never make it to the store. And we want to help you improve that quite significantly. Andy, welcome to today.

Andy Palmer:

Thank you, Nathan. Good to here. Can't believe we're on day seven already,

Nathan Simmonds:

Day seven. And as you said before we hit go live on this, it's gone super quickly. We've covered some really decent content, you know, not even at the depth that we know that we can go to. There have been some absolute nuggets though, for people watching.

Andy Palmer:

Absolutely. I thinking, uh, picking up on what you've just said there about someone, uh, attending stay that hasn't attended the previous sessions, thank you for being here. Um, I'd also had some contact from people last week, send the missed sessions. So I'm thinking, right, I've got this right. That link that you've just put up, Nathan, will also allow people to view the sessions that we've run, those other previous six sessions that we've ran over our funnel. Um, if you haven't picked up on those or you wanna watch those again or watch 'em for the first time, they're, they're gonna be in that link as well.

Nathan Simmonds:

Absolutely. Click through, go and have a look. Well worth it. What are coming today,

Andy Palmer:

Nathan, we are colleagues in the circle on our funnel. Um, so we previously talked about agreeing category targets, understanding the shopper, understanding our channel, turning data and analysis into insights and recommendations, selling those opportunities and landing those opportunities. We're now gonna go all the way, all the way back round with evaluating, improve the key, key part to any project or anything that we ever do. Yeah, it's so often overlooked because we're on what we class as the PowerPoint treadmill that we just jump straight off one project or straight out of one presentation into another.

Andy Palmer:

So I'm gonna share just a one tool with you today, um, of how you can evaluate more effectively. Um, somebody can just take away and and do. So we're gonna get into that in a moment. The other bit I'm gonna ask for right now is we've got some more time today to spend on questions, uh, challenging me, probing me appropriately, um, on category management, on any of the seven stages that we've, uh, gone through. So if people have got questions now, maybe, uh, start to consider them, get 'em in the chat box when we get to that in maybe 10, 15 minutes time.

Andy Palmer:

Um, Nathan can start sharing those and we can hopefully just bring this topic to life even more. Um, and at the same time answer some questions that you may have, um, again, take away and add continued value.

Nathan Simmonds:

Absolutely. So any questions that are coming up because we're getting into that evaluation, evaluation stage. I get my words out today. Any questions that are coming up for you today from this funnel from previous or any other category management challenges that come up today to day to follow those questions in? I think so we can start looking at those.

Andy Palmer:

Absolutely. Now we've covered a heck of a lot and I've realized I've got a really busy whiteboard behind me. But that's largely some of the things that we pulled out. There's been loads of three letter, uh, things to hang our, uh, hack, hang our hats off. We'll come back to those maybe in a little while. But today is really about evaluating and improving. And of course I've got maybe not by design, another three letter tool to share with you.

Andy Palmer:

So Nathan, I'll ask you to slide down just a couple on, on the slides. Um, I wanna share this tool with you. That was perfect. Um, PMI typically, as I said, we'd move from project to project, presentation to presentation, maybe not taking that time to figure out what good, great, better, could have been worse, getting those kind of learnings. We are all about continuous improvement.

Andy Palmer:

We think this is a terrific tool that you can use in the moment for pretty much any situation. So for example, our category category management. Um, we could use this to evaluate, um, a cell when we've been in sort of see the buyer and we're putting our recommendations. We could then do this quick evaluation afterwards, or we could do it right at the top and say, right, let's, let's have a quick look at our, uh, agreeing category targets. What was, what can we learn from that?

Andy Palmer:

So this tool works very, very simply, but yet super powerfully by saying what was positive? What was the things that were really good, we can take, make some notes on what was good, got the category, target came up with it really, really quickly. It's tangible, it's smart, and we can start to pull all those positive learnings out.

Andy Palmer:

We can look at then from a minus point of view, what was not so good? It took us a long time to get there. Actually. We had to, we had to kind of go round circles a few times next time, let's not do that. Let's, uh, start with our end in mind first and work backwards. And again, we're listing all the things that weren't so great that we want to do differently next time. The last part I for interesting, those things that you just didn't see happening could be maybe down in the, uh, the sell part of the funnel when we're presenting to the buyer and the buyer says, ah da, go, oh, that was really interesting.

Andy Palmer:

Didn't see that coming as a curve. Didn't see that coming as a question. Didn't see that coming as an opportunity. Again, let's capture that 'cause it's worth being aware in future, something similar could come up. Yes, we can get into big evaluations, we can organize meetings, we can get a bunch of people in a room. We can create all sorts of 120 step, uh, review points. Sometimes just being really pragmatic and looking at under t

Sticky Learning Lunch 48: Increase Your Category Opportunities

Today's topic, Increase the Number of Category Opportunities Landed Part 6.

73% of your Category Opportunities Never Make it to Store.

You will learn: - Each of the 7 parts of the MBM Category Management Funnel. - How each part is essential to creating an effective Category Management approach. - Various tools and techniques to support each stage of the process.

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Good afternoon, sticky learning lunches. Just making sure we've got screen share on there. Welcome to today's session. Yes, I'm not wearing a white shirt, it's Thursday. Just gonna give it a few seconds while we wait for the last people to arrive in the room. If anyone's got any opinions about the shirt today, I'm more than happy to hear them. What do you think, on a scale of one to 10, one terrible, 10, phenomenal, happy. Let's go with the ratings on that. Just while we're waiting for everyone else to turn up.

Colin:

I say that it's certainly better than the sound and I'm, uh, supporting today.

Improve your category management opportunities

 

Nathan Simmonds:

8.5. Thank you, Colin. I'll, I'll take that and run with it.

Colin:

Nine for me. Thanks Colin.

Nathan Simmonds:

Yeah, finally.

Nathan Simmonds:

So let's make sure we're setting everyone up for success. First things first, as always, let's get the mobile phones up. Let's get the little airplane lit. Zero out the distraction, a hundred percent attention. Also, making sure we've got a drink. Let's make sure we're staying hydrated. We're in the thirties here in the south is getting warm. Let's make sure we're looking after ourselves. Keep, keep ourselves hydrated and keep the brain lubricated.

Nathan Simmonds:

Also, fresh sheet, fresh thinking. Get yourself a blank page. Make sure that top of that you've written, keep us and these are the things you want to remember and remind yourself about when you reread them so you can reignite that thinking and really make this learning stick. It's the end of the week for us in the sticky learning. Before we go any further, and before we go into the introductions and get the session rolling as well, if you have not signed up for Monday session, which is the last one of the 73% funnel, now is the time to do that.

Nathan Simmonds:

We'll get a link into the chat box so you can click through there and sign up for Monday's session. We've also got Tuesday's session. We're gonna move into the leadership coaching model, evoc, which I've designed. It's all gonna be about self-evaluation and getting really deep on who you are, what you bring, and how you develop yourself as a leader as we move through the course of next week as well. So if you haven't already signed up, now is the time to do that.

Nathan Simmonds:

We are on, let's do this. Welcome to today's Sticky Learning lunch with me, Nathan Simmons, senior leadership coach and trainer for MBM, making Business Matter, home of Sticky Learning, and we are the leadership development and soft skills provider to the grocery and manufacturing industry. Idea of these sessions is to give you a 20 minute, 20 to 30 minute micro learner. It's gonna help you be the best version of you in what you do right now, and also preparing you to go back to the brave new world, that whatever that might be as we move into the future. What are we covering today, Andy? Do

Colin:

A Okay. Nathan. Today we are covering, landing those opportunities in store. So it builds this funnel continually does by targets, shoppers, our stores, our insights and recommendations, selling it through to landing it. So it today's about landing it, it's about that, uh, last hundred yards, ensuring that all that time and effort and analysis we've put in actually hits the shelves. It hits the shelves, right? Um, so for meLearning opportunities in store, why the funnel flows is largely about preparation.

Colin:

Um, what we're trying to ensure happens is that those recommendations that you make to the buyers that you've sold to the buyers don't just look good on paper, that they actually can work in store and then giving them, uh, sustainability for the future. So getting into this one, um, there broadly, two groups of people that work for supermarkets, those that work in offices and those that work in stores.

Colin:

Yes, of course, there's some other areas, but broadly speaking, those two groups of people, this is really about bridging that gap between those particular areas. Um, talks about, it's the last 100 yards. Um, it's a difference between ideas generated and where they are implemented. So I'm gonna start with a quick story. Um, one of my colleagues may be in this afternoon, this story is actually, um, uh, about him so many years ago, and he'd probably tell us it was about 20.

Colin:

I think the reality was it was probably maybe 30 or 40 years ago. Um, he was an up and coming, uh, frozen foods buyer, and that buying department at, uh, this particular supermarket was trying everything to drive sales. They would draft in suppliers, they would go through all the analysis, through all the skew level, store level by week analysis. And it was all with a view to try and getting availability sorted, uh, in, in frozen foods.

Colin:

Hundreds of spreadsheets, lots of analysis hours spent on it. Nothing was improving. So my colleague himself decided, you know what? Maybe I need to get out to stores. So he did out of his desk, off to stores, and he spent some time working in stores, spent a few days observing what colleagues are doing. He spent a few days helping colleagues in store, putting stuff into the shelf. A couple of weeks later, he pulled and gathered the guy buying team back together.

Colin:

What he then did was placed 50 pairs of gloves down on the table and said, there's our issue. It doesn't matter how much analysis we do, it doesn't matter how much, uh, how many recommendations we come up with. It's about this. And everyone kind of went, what do you mean it's about gloves? What then went on to explain was that the insight he got from working in the stores, but frozen food was cold.

Colin:

And so because frozen food was cold, everyone in store avoided filling or replenishing that particular part of the store. By providing gloves to the stores right across the estate, they were able to increase availability. So they made it just in that little bit easier for people to go, do you know what? We pick up those cold cardboard boxes, open it, put it on the shelf, just make life a little bit easier. The point of that really about closing the gap between what we see behind our screens and within our spreadsheets and bits of paper to what actually happens in true reality.

Colin:

So finding your gloves is the kind of, or the equivalent of, is my real challenge to use for this afternoon. Find those gloves, close that gap between the analysis that you do and the opportunities that you are recommending. Making sense, Nathan?

Nathan Simmonds:

Absolutely. And it's the real life stuff and what you see on your computer screen and from where you are sitting is completely different to the reality inside a store. Now you are in, and geographically you may be twenty, thirty, a hundred and fifty miles away from that location. So you have no idea actually what's going on in the head of the individuals that are supporting you. Make those opportunities land. You have to be there.

Colin:

Yeah, I, um, gonna share another little model. Why not? Um, we, we looked at the staircase the other day. This is another staircase I seem to like staircases and, uh, three letters or, uh, acronyms this week. This is, um, effectively the, the staircase of learning. Some of you may well be familiar with it, but I actually think it works really well for, for this particular topic as well. It draws up, got these two areas. There. Not a big fan of this work, but it makes sense. Unconscious incompetence. It's the things that we don't know.

Colin:

And this is typically what can typically be the area that some category managers tend to reside in. They don't know what they don't know. Sometimes getting out to stalk and, uh, can help that. I often think about this as, uh, my 8-year-old, she doesn't know, she can't drive. She sees Daddy get in the car, do some stuff like this, do some stuff like this, move his hands in the car, get to be, she has no idea.

Colin:

She couldn't jump in that seat. Over time, we move them into conscious incompetency, start to become aware of the things that you both can't do. Sometimes it's getting out to store and going, you know what? Hadn't appreciated that loves example. It's a great place to start. So for me, this was my son, uh, probably a few years ago when he started asking these questions, he was getting slightly closer to taking that first, uh, driving lesson and he started asking, put your feet up.

Colin:

You going there? What's that bum for? What's that lever do? How are you getting in the car to do that fee? And he moved from, I don't know, I can't do it through to my God, I know I can't actually do that. I'm gonna need some lessons. Absolutely. He then starts taking some lessons and he moves into conscious competence. He's now aware he can do it over time.

Colin:

And to ask anyone in the room who's done a drive recently and to ask you how many gear changes you make providing you've got a manual car, you're not gonna know because you're doing that stuff unconsciously. So you then move into unconscious competence and it's about taking our cashflow managers ourselves on this journey through, dunno what I don't know. Now I know what I dunno through to now I can do it. And then finally making this stuff just automatic so we're not just sitting behind spreadsheets.

Colin:

We're spending some time in store and we're now unconsciously competent on that new level of knowledge that we've got. Um,...

Sticky Learning Lunch 48: Increase Your Category Opportunities

Today's topic, Increase the Number of Category Opportunities Landed Part 5.

73% of your Category Opportunities Never Make it to Store.

You will learn: - Each of the 7 parts of the MBM Category Management Funnel. - How each part is essential to creating an effective Category Management approach. - Various tools and techniques to support each stage of the process.

You Can Read the Full Transcript Below:

Nathan Simmonds:

Welcome to day five. Is day five of the yeah, of the category management funnel. It is Wednesday. Welcome to today's Sticky Learning with me, Nathan Simmons and Andy Palmer, resident expert on category management. As always, we're just gonna give it about 30 seconds to wait for the last people to arrive in the room, and then we are gonna crack on. Good afternoon, Colin. Good afternoon, Fabian. Good afternoon again, Mikayla, good to see you.

Improve your category management opportunities

Nathan Simmonds:

Thank you very much everyone for being here. Good afternoon, Gemma. Just joining the room. We are just gonna give it a few more seconds and then we are going to get on with today. But while we're sway for those last people, on a scale of one to 10, one being terrible, 10 being phenomenal, how are you? How is your day? Let me know. Let's see how people are feeling on this. Fine Wednesday with the Gloria Sunshine and ISS A 10. That's good.

Nathan Simmonds:

We've got an eight coming in from Colin. Thanks very much. Right. I think it's time to get this show started. Mr. Palmer, welcome to today's Sticky Learning lunch with me, Nathan Simmons and Andy Palmer idea with these sessions is to help you be the best version of you in the work that you do. Coming from MBM making business matter, the provider of leadership development and soft skills to the grocery and manufacturing industry, and we couldn't be more pinpoint and more niche when it comes to category management in this space, we are hitting day number five of the funnel.

Nathan Simmonds:

And this funnel lovingly known as the 73% funnel. Because the reason why is why it's helping you to highlight why 73% of your opportunities, your category management opportunities, never make it to store. And we've been breaking this down for the last five day or four days, sorry, day five today. Andy, what are we covering today?

Andy Palmer:

Today, Nathan? Good afternoon. No, today we're covering selling those opportunities. So building on everything we've done back end of last week, beginning of this week, got our targets. We understand our shopper, we've got a good handle on the channel that we're, uh, presenting to, analyzed all our data and we pulled together our very succinct presentation. So today's about making that stuff land with the buyer, the person, that office, that buyer.

Andy Palmer:

So we've got a few things to share with you today that hopefully increases or hopefully will increase your chances of success when you've got that opportunity to be out there pushing the recommendations that you are suggesting. So without further ado, um, I'm gonna share one thing straight away with you. Um, cool. About four years ago, the IGD ran a, an industry survey and part of this capability and partnership survey, it said that too often trust is the single biggest barrier to getting proposals into action.

Andy Palmer:

It comes back to trust. I've mentioned it a little bit, you know, the last few days we've certainly talked about credibility. So today I wanna really bring to life what trust is about for you then to consider. How trustworthy am I, how trustworthy is my team? Could this be one of the reasons why when not getting our recommendations across the line, were not as influential as we could be? So we're gonna talk about trust. Um, in true blue left brain style, I'm gonna bring this to life, uh, using the medium of a formula.

Andy Palmer:

So bear with me as I lovingly create it up here and then hopefully explain it in a way that really resonates with you. So let's talk about trust. Trust is what you need with the buyer. It's what you need with colleagues that you work with. It's what you need with your partners, your friends, your family.

Andy Palmer:

Because if you're trustworthy, you are far more likely to get what you want when you want it in an appropriate way. So in order for you to have trust, there are three component parts to this. The first one, credibility. Credibility. Stick to the kind of world of category management at the moment. So credibility, this is going to come from the knowledge that you've got, the experience that you've got, the things that you say and do, and the way in which you communicate.

Andy Palmer:

Tthe understanding you've got of the category. So if you've got credibility, you are far, likely, far more likely to have a high level of trust. So first one's credibility, making sense, thumbs up, Nathan. Good, two thumbs up, loving it, credibility. Second one, reliability. Reliability is about the commitments that you give and how you follow up on them.

Andy Palmer:

So if you say, yes, I'm gonna get you that report by five o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, and they don't get it until 11 o'clock on Friday evening, they will see you as less reliable. So it's about the commitments that you give, the deadlines that you commit to. Um, and it's really about helping them to see that if you say and you are gonna commit to do something, that you are reliable enough to ensure that it absolutely happens. You've got credibility, reliability, and the third part, just gonna fit it in next to where my head's gonna be, intimacy, appropriate intimacy.

Andy Palmer:

This is how well you know the person, how well the person knows you. So if you take those um, times at the appropriate moment to discuss something you may have in common that could be going, running or swimming or an interest in a certain sport or activity that you do, you have those connections, you have intimacy, appropriate intimacy, you get to know people, you consider those people in your world, either professionally or personally who you trust and those who you don't trust, I can pretty much guarantee that you will typically put it back to one of these three factors as to whether you've got high trust or you'd like more trust.

Andy Palmer:

Making sense so far, Nathan? Readability, reliability and intimacy. Okay, there are numerators are below the line are something called self-orientation. Um, I'm gonna simply sum this up as ego. It's how much you talk about yourself versus how much you're prepared to listen to others. Um, so for example, if I came into these webinar and I was only talking about all the experience I've got, how great the company, uh, how great a company we are, how marvelous I'm, how nice my shirt is, and I talk about only about me, I could come across potentially as being rather egotistical.

Andy Palmer:

If I take time to interact with my audience, ask them how they are, how they're feeling, what they're up to, what's on their mind at the moment, I can balance that ego off and make it less about me, more about them getting that balance. So no matter how good you are at the credibility, reliability, and intimacy part, um, that can be diluted if you have a big ego and your self-orientation is very, very, um, only about you.

Andy Palmer:

So for you, my challenge back today is to consider those four areas both for yourself initially. Um, I know rank them out of 10. Am I personally, am I a nine out 10 here, or four outta 10 here? A six out of 10 here, zero outta 10 here. Start to figure out where you could potentially increase your trust by dialing up or dialing down certain parts of this formula. Um, I said credibility is about, uh, the experience and the knowledge you've got.

Andy Palmer:

Reliability about commitments that you give to timescales and intimacy, how well, uh, that person knows you and how much you're prepared to get to know them. Lemme pause for a second there, Nathan. Um, cum, is that working for you? It's working for you. I'm hoping it's working for our audience today.

Nathan Simmonds:

And do you know what, for me it's working absolutely fine, but, and I'm gonna put this question out to everybody who's here now, rate yourself one to 10, CRI. So in each of those areas, rate yourself on a one to 10 right now in the questions box so you can start to really bring this to life in your own eyes and make it visible. Okay, how credible are you? One terrible 10, phenomenal. How reliable, how, how much, what level of intimacy do you have with your main buyers?

Nathan Simmonds:

Think about one of the buyers you're working with, one of the supermarkets and answer those questions now. And while you're doing that, you know, it's the way that we create sales is through know, like, and trust. So when someone knows you personally, your content, when they like what they're seeing, you're creating that trust. But then that trust, as you say, comes from that credibility, reliability and intimacy.

Nathan Simmonds:

And depending on where you are, scoring yourself in each of those three areas comes out of knowing your supermarket, understanding your shopper, and being able to turn that stuff into opportunities. It works in all three of those, you know, credibility, knowing your shop and knowing your supermarket reliability, turning that into opportunities that actually that hit the mark in those spaces. And having the intimacy with the people that you are connecting with to actually go and reflect on those things to make sure it's working and and working to build each other up, including yourself and the the buyer them as well.

Andy Palmer:

Agree Nathan. And on that, um, point I made on uh, back on day one last week when we talked about the pie chart. Account managers taking care of slice of the pie category managers taking care of the whole pile,...