Wrestling With Chaos

In this episode Urko Wood, with Reveal Growth Consultants, discusses how business-to-business (B2B) companies can grow in a predictable manner using a method — Jobs-To-Be-Done — which also sustains value and profitability. The process is described in the seminal book, Jobs to be Done: From Theory to Practice, by Anthony W. Ulwick. Urko also has a free white paper, 3 Steps to Consistently Fill Your New Product Pipeline with Only Good Ideas, you may find quite beneficial for developing new products. The discussion opens with the reality one can’t just prepare to do Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD) via a major in college. His initial contact with the method was with improving existing products and services. At the time it was not necessarily good at discovering new products and services that could be offered in new markets because the method was limited to existing products and services. Eventually he read an article in the Harvard Business Review and connected with Ulwick, the CEO and founder of Strategyn and became a part of his team from 2005 to 2012. From there Urko founded Reveal Growth Consultants, working mostly with small to midsize B2B companies. The conversation switched to VOC (the Voice of the Customer). The problem with that approach is it tends to focus on products that are already in place. With JTBD the opportunities lie with unmet needs. And in line with that it is important to separate the need from the solution, per Theodore Levitt, because “customers don’t want to buy a drill, they want to buy a hole.” A laser may do a better job than a drill. The customer wants to get the job done! The key is shifting from what we know how to do to what it takes to get the customer’s job done. The #1 reason for product failure is not understanding the customer’s needs. With JTBD the first goal is to discover the customer’s unmet needs. In line with this Urko approaches the customer defining 7 key terms: 1. Innovation 2. Customer need 3. Customer unmet needs 4. Opportunity 5. A Market 6. A Market segment 7. Creativity All terms need to be defined with the customer for innovation to occur. The client team must have a consistent definition of these terms. Innovation is first discovering the customers unaddressed needs and then integrating ideas to address them. THE SEQUENCE IS CRITICAL! The need must be defined separate from any possible solutions. This increases the odds of achieving a breakthrough. Failure to put solutions first can create real problems. The example was given of the cell phone industry switching from analog to digital and being disrupted due to analog leaders focusing on solutions first. This also occurred in the image industry with the switch from film to digital. The flow then is to first discover the customer’s unmet needs then evaluate those needs with the client’s team using concepts such as strategic fit, time to market, relative advantage, etc., in order to win in the market place. Innovation always comes before products in order to avoid being tied to existing products/services, e.g., an accounting consulting firm purchasing a digital security firm since most of their clients had that need. Most growth comes from discovering unmet needs, eliminate phantom needs, and then matching solutions with the important unsatisfied needs. The challenges of product management and innovation are often reflected in the company’s internal politics, diluting the focus on relevancy for the customer. In such situations it’s key to have an objective metric against which one can make good decisions. In other words, use the JTBD approach. JTBD uses market statistics to determine a prioritized list of needs, increasing the odds of success in terms of product development. The discussion may take some time and massaging the metrics give a good starting point rather than, say, the CEO’s pet idea. To get this information the conversation turned to methodology. A simple place to begin is asking customers what they are trying to accomplish with your product or service. It’s important to be qualified in terms o knowing what questions to ask. If it turns out the customer’s needs are best met with new technologies your company lacks then it’s best for the CEO to set up a new group separate from existing ones in order to avoid to avoid being “contaminated” with existing methods that may not meet the customer’s needs. The need to adapt and be disruptive is shown by the fact that most companies are bought out within 12 years and during that time they will have to reinvent themselves several times. Disruption is becoming the norm. Failure to do that can lead to disaster, e.g., Palm going under in the PDA/cell phone market. Funds were diverted to dividends that would have been better spent in JTBD. To keep clients “on the same page” Urko work on alignment in terms of uncovering customer’s needs, determining how the customer measures success, and then determining how much of a solution can be put into a solution. The focus is on asking not only what customers want but what they want to avoid, e.g., safety issues with hand tools. It’s important to avoid confusing needs with requirements. There should be a clear mapping between the two. Urko refers to himself as an innovation guide, totally focused on serving his client who usually are dealing with a threat and need to grow by creating new value through differentiation. What is key is having everyone who will be involved at the kickoff meeting — getting everyone on board in terms of innovation. Because of potential change management issues it is best to create a culture of innovation so people aren’t attached to one particular solution. Modeling innovation throughout the company is critical, i.e., get a clear definition of the problem or solution needed before doing any design efforts. So when submitting and idea the presenter needs to identify: 1. Who is the target customer? 2. What’s the job they are trying to get done? 3. Where are they struggling on that job? 4. What’a the opportunity for value creation? 5. What’s your idea going to do to mitigate or increase/create new value? 6. What’s your evidence that shows it’s a problem? 7. How broad is this issue in the market? Gary referenced the similarity of this approach to the one presented with regards to implementing solutions in the 12 Steps to Flow, which has a supporting series of podcasts (WWC podcasts 0037, 0042, 0043, 0045, 0046, 0047, 0049, 0050, 0051, 0053, 0054, 0055). Flow emphasizes the need for openness throughout the organization both vertically and horizontally when solving problems relating to innovation -always having a focus on the client’s problem that needs to be solved. The value of JTBD and finding hidden markets was the next topic. It’s important to know what inputs to get and how to get them from target customers. Must know how to create the needs statements so that they are accurate and unambiguous, and validated in order to go into a survey of the representative sample of the target population to rate for how important it is and how satisfied are you with your ability to implement. With a sufficiently large population segmentation can be used to see if the same valuation is placed by a sufficiently large segment that it is worth one’s while to develop solutions for that segment because they are underserved. This is superior to demographics in terms of assessing shared values. It’s all about being in the realm of causality rather than correlation. Urko explains the criteria and mechanics of putting an accurate and valid survey together — it’s a specialty. Surveys aren’t the first step - qualitative interviews are. It helps establish: 1. the target customer 2. what they want to accomplish 3. what steps they have to go through 4. what criteria for success 5. and where do they struggle and why Surveys don’t penetrate to this level of information. Surveys tend to focus on sales methods. For more information contact Urko on • LinkedIn or • e-mail to [email protected], • on Facebook see Reveal Growth Urko also has a white paper, 3 Steps to Consistently Fill Your New Product Pipeline with Only Good Ideas that is quite beneficial to learn more about Jobs To Be Done CHANGE MANAGEMENT WHITE PAPER LINK. Need help dealing with complex situations? You can download CMC’s free e-book MINDSET – 5 SIMPLE WAYS TO LOOK AT COMPLEX PROBLEMS and learn how to find a simple vantage point from which you can resolve challenges. Your feedback is important. Choose from the following options: • place a review in iTunes, • send any comments along with your name and the show number to [email protected] Listen to future episodes for our reply.

In this episode Kent Johnson, CEO of Highlights for Children, a family-owned business with a majority of independent Board members, discusses a series of topics ranging from his sudden take-over of the CEO position at age 36 due to the death of the incumbent to how the company started to the different avenues of childhood development Highlights pursues. To compound the situation he actually did not want the position since he was working successfully in biotech. Kent refers to the great mentorship he received from the Board of Directors which helped insure assuming the CEO position would be successful. A real plus was governance in terms of having sat with the Board for 2 years prior. The challenge of juggling a wide range of stakeholder populations was achieved by first focusing on the employee population since they were the main determinants of whether or not Kent would succeed, a key determinant of any leader’s success. As to general traits of being a good CEO Kent felt working hard and a willingness to listen are two key character traits. Kent’s father’s work as a scientist and his mother’s work as a politician working in the community contributed immensely to the foundation needed to succeed as CEO. It provided key lessons in diversity and its value in succeeding in meeting everyone’s needs. Humility is key. Fortunately, people are focused on the mission and avoid major, internal political struggles. To support this Kent will tell people, especially when asking a detailed questions, he just needs to know. His scientific training can creep in because he was trained to question everything…details, details. His training does help growth since promoting experiments is key to finding opportunities. Risk Management! In terms of income, Highlights for Children, is not their major source of income. Zaner-Bloser, professional development for teachers, etc. help create an environment where the organization can succeed especially by marketing to government agencies in order to gain sponsorship for their children. Chaos- and complexity theory come into play because there is a constant balancing act required to keep the company balanced, fresh, and appropriate for the markets they serve. Financially, grounding work in risk management is essential because a sunk-cost frame of mind is needed to determine whether or not continued investment in diversification strategies is essential. In turn, these efforts are grounded in a belief of what they can do for kids that will help them flourish. Consequently, a balance is struck in deciding when it is best to stop a highly-desirable project that is failing to show the necessary return potential. This is especially true as the world moves faster and faster. In line with this speed of business the criticality of maintaining balance in a constantly-changing environment is critical. In other words, Kent has to focus on, “How do we need to change in order to stay relevant?” As a middle-market company managers are expected to help in terms of looking at the outside world and how it is changing along with keeping existing workflows moving forward. This includes managing conflict through rules of engagement, e.g., assume a positive intent when there is conflict, work to provide solutions, examine assumptions, examine clarity of rules, examine possible consequences. This leads to clarity and alignment of goals from the Board to the employee. Managers must “translate” from one level of the organization to another. This alignment is critical especially when working with outside partners. Motivation can be a major task encouraging employees to work on change, stay focused on the problem-at-hand, and maintain respect for each other, i.e., an egoless team — hammer the idea, respect the people. Trust is critical. Debate in a trustworthy manner rather than attack resulting in interpersonal conflict. Conflict and fear crush innovation. Trust and discipline lead to thriving. Inclusion is vital since different personalities come at a situation, problem, or opportunity differently. A straightforward example is Extroverts want to jump in immediately and get “out there” right away vs Introverts who need time to go back to their space and think about things in order to explore and then come out with their ideas/proposed solutions/etc. A solutions-oriented frame-of-mind rather than attack/defend - that’s the key. Some of the challenges facing Highlights for Children is, as mentioned, is keeping up with the changing environment and staying relevant in developing the whole child. Another includes the business models used, e.g., the “magazine” part of the business is challenging but it is essential to go beyond just being a magazine for children. High Five is a good example — it focuses on being a part of a child’s development (preschoolers and kindergarteners). This leads to “Highlights Habits,” a range of products within which the child can explore. So “Highlights for Children” becomes the spine from which products flow develop that achieve the goals within the mission strategy of the 4 C’s - Creative, Caring, Confident, and Curious - and how the child goes through their day. This includes curriculum development for the influencers in the child’s life. An example of this is “Hidden Pictures,” which helps with critical thinking for children by doing puzzles. It helps children learn to use different tools and processes. I commented on how this helps with developing the child’s Axis Mundi — creating a space where the child’s “insides” meet the world’s “outsides.” The child is offered an experience. At “Highlights” this is expressed in their slogan, “Fun With a Purpose.” Childhood is a short, sweet season where they learn to love engaging with the world. The children can engage with the characters in the tools. Instead of tools alone, children are taught to have a sense of right and wrong and the tools to apply that sense in their life and change as they see appropriate. The hope is teaching children how to immerse themselves in the 4 C’s can help them solve major problems as they grow older and go out into the world. This is all grounded in ideas that started with the founders of the company, Kent’s great-grandparents who founded the company in 1946 when they were 61 & 59 - starting on their own new careers at that time! Being flexible and change while being faithful to core principles is the constant challenge while also trying to move faster is the challenge Kent faces — surfing the edge of chaos. This all leads to a fascinating work stream frame-of-mind challenge which imagines there is no magazine and no existing business, “What activities should we pursue to achieve our mission?” I pointed out that whether conscious or unconscious this gets to practical applications of Complexity Theory and Chaos Theory, necessary for moving through a changing world by promoting healthy child development. This means the company works at a meta level with a focus on child development through the creation of an ecosystem around “Highlights for Children” that supports achievement of their mission statement. The content may change, e.g., the magazine may have changing relevance and will just shift to its proper place in the ecosystem where certain needs for relevance are constant, e.g., touch being important with activities such as sitting on a parent’s or grandparent’s lap and reading “Highlights” together. Kent’s profile can be found on LinkedIn. Need help dealing with complex situations? You can download CMC’s free e-book MINDSET – 5 SIMPLE WAYS TO LOOK AT COMPLEX PROBLEMS and learn how to find a simple vantage point from which you can resolve challenges. Your feedback is important. Choose from the following options: • place a review in iTunes, • send any comments along with your name and the show number to [email protected] Listen to future episodes for our reply.

In this episode I talk with Jim Bruner who works in child development and who draws on his long history of mentorship to develop diversity, specifically combining the arts with technology. We started with Jim introducing the importance of diversity - turning STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) into STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math). He and his husband bought a farm and with is half Jim dedicated it to gardening and technology. He realized without diversity technology is a destructive component causing isolation and destruction. With diversity technology can be unifying. He works with anthropologists, sociologists, and ethnographers to apply diversity to “gardens” of people! This helps with his search for diversity of skill and talent among his students, working to elevate the individual while promoting team spirit and behavior. A big breakthrough occurred when he realized there was benefit to be gained when the mentoring went outside a focused purpose - the children are unique “gardens,” themselves! Children need to be in an environment where they can thrive and grow, realizing for themselves what they can and can’t accomplish. Ask about their dreams, look at their art, etc., and let them talk about it. This helps children understand they don’t need permission to be who they are. The conversation moved into STEM vs STEAM. The arts are critical to every stage of technology because without a sense of wonder and beauty there is no technology. Art is needed to move technology forward. THERE ARE NO SOFT SKILLS - technology moving forward is about people interacting based on mutual respect. It is grounded in creativity. With STEAM children are challenged to push their own limits to solve problems. This turns creativity on, which is art. Learning to do this within a group and build mutual respect is key. With the “A” for Art, STEAM turns STEM into creativity. It’s teaching children to lean through empathy and understanding. One problem mentioned was the movement from “natural philosophy” to “science.” “Natural philosophy” is a frame of mind about connection across all areas of human endeavor which encourages art to be connected to technology - STEAM. On the other hand, removal of art in order to have STEM (as was done in the industrial revolution) risks dehumanizing and fragmenting the individual thus creating problems for and within children. Jim, himself, lives a diverse life, from his farm, Mezzacello (https://mezzacello.org/) where children study food, technology, and learning, to the PAST foundation (https://www.pastfoundation.org/ ) which partners anthropology with science and technology. “We don’t need more kids to work in factories. We need factories that can work with passion and creativity to reach new horizons.” Maurice Sendak in his book, “I don’t care, Pierre,” discusses how a STEM frame of mind leads to demotivation - absence of love. Technology flows from creativity which is forged in art, history, poetry, literature, love, laughter, and tears. People are the beautiful strange attractors that create chaos leading to invention and technology. But what about kids who don’t care? Kids who are outliers? They need mentorship both from adults but also peer-to-peer. They need to be empowered by learning to trust themselves and others. It has to do with vulnerability and dealing with the associated challenges. We discussed how Apollo 13 reflects what is being spoken. (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo13.html, 13 Factors that Saved Apollo 13) To reflect all this Jim teaches algorithms to children via Tai Chi - 11 movements tied together by a story. He can teach the algorithm to children in 3 weeks! The problem with algorithms arise when they are dedicated to a single purpose, e.g., profits. People then become devises meant only to achieve the goal - their humanity is subtracted. People are multi-dimensional and for children to thrive they need to learn how to explore and express all their dimensions both individually and on the team. In other words, have children who are successful sooner teach those needed more time and input. In business, then, what is best is focusing on human capital and a culture based on wanting each other to succeed. Jim goes on to talk about ignorance, stupidity, and fear along with how a CEO is best suited to deal with them and gain respect of employees. • Ignore stupidity • Eradicate ignorance • Use knowledge to replace ignorance • Care about what people feel about each other • Then, care about what they think about you He summed it up with a quote from Maya Angelou, “People don’t remember what you did, they remember how you made them feel.” Telling people, “I appreciate you make my bottom line stronger and I am stronger because of you,” is much more powerful than, “You have to make my bottom line stronger.” The topic switched to Invention Convention and the Invention League. At one point the judging panel comprised 2 adults from a given industry. The children couldn’t take the criticism! Eventually, all critique was changed to 2 adults + all the kids in that particular group with the kids opinions ranking as important as the adults. Success ratios went through the roof! Rather than critique the students saw their peers’ judgments as being a “plus.” It built empathy. It promoted honesty, openness, and vulnerability. It supports the understanding that people are power and that vulnerability is a key component for a successful team. It teaches children to blossom. “Innovation is rented, not owned and the rent is due today,” is a poster on Jim’s office wall. You surf the edge of chaos, go back and implement, and then get back out to the edge of chaos to gain new information and insight as well as helping keep one sharp. Reinvent the journey! The conversation switched to the importance of just being yourself rather than trying to have a face for each situation. This includes “not just sitting there,” which lead to discussing the difference between homeostasis and stability. Homeostasis is an “alive” situation which takes energy and commitment to maintain, e.g., holding a body temperature of 98.6° F. Stability is a dead state - everything goes towards maximum entropy. When children start to cry Jim reminds them they are an emotional supercomputer. The brain functions on emotions - what one feels can appear more real than what is. Consequently, teaching children to respect but step away from letting the emotions rule is important. While emotions can be genuine they can mask a reality that is key for the child to learn to be successful. How Buddhism works into generating this frame-of-mind was discussed. Briefly, the need for social media to be “more human” was discussed. Humility is a character trait that is profoundly missing in today’s business leadership. Rather than throwing people a rope, Jim teaches them how to make their own rope. A potential next podcast is the intersection between technology and people discovering themselves. If you think this is a good idea, send us a comment at [email protected]. Jim’s profile can be found at LinkedIn His two websites are the Past Foundation and Jim Bruner. His e-mail address is [email protected] Need help dealing with complex situations? You can download CMC’s free e-book MINDSET – 5 SIMPLE WAYS TO LOOK AT COMPLEX PROBLEMS and learn how to find a simple vantage point from which you can resolve challenges. Your feedback is important. Choose from the following options: • place a review in iTunes, • send any comments along with your name and the show number to [email protected] Listen to future episodes for our reply.

In this episode I talk with Jim Brunson who works in child development and who draws on his long history of mentorship to develop diversity, specifically combining the arts with technology. We started with Jim introducing the importance of diversity - turning STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) into STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math). He and his husband bought a farm and with is half Jim dedicated it to gardening and technology. He realized without diversity technology is a destructive component causing isolation and destruction. With diversity technology can be unifying. He works with anthropologists, sociologists, and ethnographers to apply diversity to “gardens” of people! This helps with his search for diversity of skill and talent among his students, working to elevate the individual while promoting team spirit and behavior. A big breakthrough occurred when he realized there was benefit to be gained when the mentoring went outside a focused purpose - the children are unique “gardens,” themselves! Children need to be in an environment where they can thrive and grow, realizing for themselves what they can and can’t accomplish. Ask about their dreams, look at their art, etc., and let them talk about it. This helps children understand they don’t need permission to be who they are. The conversation moved into STEM vs STEAM. The arts are critical to every stage of technology because without a sense of wonder and beauty there is no technology. Art is needed to move technology forward. THERE ARE NO SOFT SKILLS - technology moving forward is about people interacting based on mutual respect. It is grounded in creativity. With STEAM children are challenged to push their own limits to solve problems. This turns creativity on, which is art. Learning to do this within a group and build mutual respect is key. With the “A” for Art, STEAM turns STEM into creativity. It’s teaching children to lean through empathy and understanding. One problem mentioned was the movement from “natural philosophy” to “science.” “Natural philosophy” is a frame of mind about connection across all areas of human endeavor which encourages art to be connected to technology - STEAM. On the other hand, removal of art in order to have STEM (as was done in the industrial revolution) risks dehumanizing and fragmenting the individual thus creating problems for and within children. Jim, himself, lives a diverse life, from his farm, Mezzacello (https://mezzacello.org/) where children study food, technology, and learning, to the PAST foundation (https://www.pastfoundation.org/ ) which partners anthropology with science and technology. “We don’t need more kids to work in factories. We need factories that can work with passion and creativity to reach new horizons.” Maurice Sendak in his book, “I don’t care, Pierre,” discusses how a STEM frame of mind leads to demotivation - absence of love. Technology flows from creativity which is forged in art, history, poetry, literature, love, laughter, and tears. People are the beautiful strange attractors that create chaos leading to invention and technology. But what about kids who don’t care? Kids who are outliers? They need mentorship both from adults but also peer-to-peer. They need to be empowered by learning to trust themselves and others. It has to do with vulnerability and dealing with the associated challenges. We discussed how Apollo 13 reflects what is being spoken. (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo13.html, 13 Factors that Saved Apollo 13) To reflect all this Jim teaches algorithms to children via Tai Chi - 11 movements tied together by a story. He can teach the algorithm to children in 3 weeks! The problem with algorithms arise when they are dedicated to a single purpose, e.g., profits. People then become devises meant only to achieve the goal - their humanity is subtracted. People are multi-dimensional and for children to thrive they need to learn how to explore and express all their dimensions both individually and on the team. In other words, have children who are successful sooner teach those needed more time and input. In business, then, what is best is focusing on human capital and a culture based on wanting each other to succeed. Jim goes on to talk about ignorance, stupidity, and fear along with how a CEO is best suited to deal with them and gain respect of employees. • Ignore stupidity • Eradicate ignorance • Use knowledge to replace ignorance • Care about what people feel about each other • Then, care about what they think about you He summed it up with a quote from Maya Angelou, “People don’t remember what you did, they remember how you made them feel.” Telling people, “I appreciate you make my bottom line stronger and I am stronger because of you,” is much more powerful than, “You have to make my bottom line stronger.” The topic switched to Invention Convention and the Invention League. At one point the judging panel comprised 2 adults from a given industry. The children couldn’t take the criticism! Eventually, all critique was changed to 2 adults + all the kids in that particular group with the kids opinions ranking as important as the adults. Success ratios went through the roof! Rather than critique the students saw their peers’ judgments as being a “plus.” It built empathy. It promoted honesty, openness, and vulnerability. It supports the understanding that people are power and that vulnerability is a key component for a successful team. It teaches children to blossom. “Innovation is rented, not owned and the rent is due today,” is a poster on Jim’s office wall. You surf the edge of chaos, go back and implement, and then get back out to the edge of chaos to gain new information and insight as well as helping keep one sharp. Reinvent the journey! The conversation switched to the importance of just being yourself rather than trying to have a face for each situation. This includes “not just sitting there,” which lead to discussing the difference between homeostasis and stability. Homeostasis is an “alive” situation which takes energy and commitment to maintain, e.g., holding a body temperature of 98.6° F. Stability is a dead state - everything goes towards maximum entropy. When children start to cry Jim reminds them they are an emotional supercomputer. The brain functions on emotions - what one feels can appear more real than what is. Consequently, teaching children to respect but step away from letting the emotions rule is important. While emotions can be genuine they can mask a reality that is key for the child to learn to be successful. How Buddhism works into generating this frame-of-mind was discussed. Briefly, the need for social media to be “more human” was discussed. Humility is a character trait that is profoundly missing in today’s business leadership. Rather than throwing people a rope, Jim teaches them how to make their own rope. A potential next podcast is the intersection between technology and people discovering themselves. If you think this is a good idea, send us a comment at [email protected]. Jim’s profile can be found at LinkedIn His two websites are the Past Foundation and Jim Bruner. His e-mail address is [email protected] Need help dealing with complex situations? You can download CMC’s free e-book MINDSET – 5 SIMPLE WAYS TO LOOK AT COMPLEX PROBLEMS and learn how to find a simple vantage point from which you can resolve challenges. Your feedback is important. Choose from the following options: • place a review in iTunes, • send any comments along with your name and the show number to [email protected] Listen to future episodes for our reply.

This episode is the first in a series on preparing for the next recession, “Recession Preparation - Processes and Employees.” The entire teamCMC contributes their expertise: • Gary Monti: change management, business analysis/planning, people & politics, project management • John Riley, Agility expert • Jeffrey Cochran, Human Resource expert The conversation was based on a point-counterpoint approach, i.e., which is more significant during a recession, a bad process or a bad employee? For this argument the definition of “recession” provided was, “A shrinkage of sales.” John started the conversation by saying organizations frequently want to cut employees were cut products in preparation for recession. He stressed what is important is to look at the efficiency of your processes and the value to the customer of your products. Consequently, the best place to start in terms of recession is to look at the value stream of your product. Jeffrey responded by starting with the observation that separate from a recession the bad employee is affecting your bottom line. A better employee typically has a compounding effect on the organization by influencing a drop in morale, productivity, and added stress for fellow employees. In line with this, Gary referenced an excellent book, “The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t,” By Robert Sutton. Jeffrey went on to point out one of the biggest problems with difficult employees is failing to show up for work. The discussion proceeded to talk about the impact absenteeism has on the workplace. The big point regarding this is how organizations will adapt the dysfunction in an effort to keep products or processes moving forward to sustain cash flow. An example was given of how Detroit's Big Three, back in the ’70s when production quality was terrible, argued that Toyota would never catch on in terms of significant sales numbers. The rule at the time was, "you never want to buy a car was manufactured on a Friday or a Monday." The reason being absenteeism was so high. John picked up on that and turn the conversation back towards its impact on processes. He emphasized that with process execution one of most important aspect is retrospectives throughout the product delivery process. During those retrospectives the quality of performance by the team is one of the key elements to be addressed. And one of the key elements in addressing quality is individual team member performance with this issue being addressed directly by fellow team members rather than senior management. The function of senior management is to set the goals and to support the team during execution. The team should be empowered to address whatever it takes to deliver the value to the customer. In other words, the team being very direct with regards to retrospectives conducted on a routine basis is critical for survival during a recession. Vulnerability, then, becomes a key issue because senior management needs to risk turning power over to the team in addition to shouldering responsibility for determining what direction the organization should take. Jeffrey asked an excellent question with regards to owner stepping in and modifying the process in an attempt to adapt to the dysfunction in its present. There is general agreement that this is the case now the company is put it greater risk of failure because senior management is now pulling back ownership of the process by dictating how the team should adapt to the dysfunction. Gary proceeded to point out how power then shifts from senior management to the dysfunctional employee who becomes the tail that's wagging the dog. Once this inappropriate shift of power occurs the company is destabilized to some extent in the risk of failure during the recession goes up accordingly. An example is given of an employee who was guaranteed employment as a condition of her former company being bought out. Feeling bulletproof, the employee took advantage of the situation much to the detriment of her teammates. Jeffrey proceeded to note how quality employees suffer because workloads are shifted in their direction. This compounds the damage associated with the absenteeism. John jumped back into the conversation pointing out that in line with being able to discipline fellow team members the team needs to be given the power to modify processes in order to increase value. A good, iterative process with pre-defined goals that remain constant gets people on board as to what the product is. The other thing is it solves “not knowing what the problem(s) is(are).” By knowing what the goals are the team can morph around the job and gauge each others performance accordingly. In other words, if someone needs time for a doctor’s appointment the team can adapt. The team can also call out someone who isn’t staying on task to achieve the goal(s). This helps surface risks in a very clear manner. Jeffrey backed up this approach from a Human Resource perspective, e.g., excessive overtime for those picking up the pieces associated with others not performing properly. There was some back-and-forth regarding team size estimates, etc., and whether or not that information and associated processes were adequate. The key point, though, is senior management is where the responsibility lies in determining what is appropriate and insuring the team has the resources needed. Arguing whether it is the people or the process can miss that key point. The bigger point in all this is making needed changes in preparation for a recession can be a huge challenge if there are a lot of dysfunctional habits spread throughout the company and employee base. The reward system morphs around those dysfunctions making change difficult. It’s not just about the processes and tools. John emphasized the individuals and interactions are critical, especially when practicing Business Agility. The metaphor of a race car pit crew was used for emphasis. Jeffrey expanded the conversation to the quality of managers. The conversation then rolled to knowing the principles involved. This is key for success. Everyone needs to know these principles and they need to permeate the workplace. Failure is used as an opportunity to sharpen the team’s application of principles to achieve the goals. This approach is critical since the life expectancy of the average company is

In this episode I review “Influence People: Powerful Everyday Opportunities to Persuade That Are Lasting and Ethical,” written by Brian Ahearn. In addition to influencing people in general, information is provided for those who need to improve their sales cycle. His approach is very practical, laying out key principles and associated acronyms that can be used to practice sharpening you ability to influence people. His overall tone is about helping the read as an entire person, not just one aspect. The work is based on solid research. He boils the information down to 7 key shortcuts which basically are sound principles. They include: 1. Reciprocity - behave in a way that encourages others to relate to you 2. Liking - people want to do business with their friends or people they like 3. Authority - experienced or knowledgable - use it 4. Consensus - when no authority use how groups are moving in a given direction 5. Consistency - channel a person’s consistent behavior in a desirable direction. Be consistent yourself to develop trust. 6. Scarcity - people respond more to what they might lose than they do to what they might gain 7. Unity - people like to relate with people with whom they have a sense of belonging and with whom they may have common experiences Additional tools are presented: ▪ Compare and contrast - set the stage to make it easy for the other person to go in the direction you want, e.g., “This normally is $799 but since you are here I can give it to you at $599.” Another example is given with wine lists. When the wines are listed in decreasing price people buy more because they feel they are being practical by buying a good bottle but one not so expensive. When listed from lowest price to highest people buy substantially lower priced products because they are only seeing an increase in price rather than an opportunity to “save” ▪ Consistency vs authority. Consistency is driven by client history in terms of thoughts, feelings, and actions traditionally going in a specific direction. Authority is used when your expertise legitimately points the person being persuaded in the desired direction. This especially helps when the client is uncertain. ▪ Conformational bias. Present information that is ethical and honest but plays in the direction the other person wants to go. ▪ “Because I said so.” The word “because” allows people to be gracious and help. This works especially well when put in the form of a question, e.g., “Would you please get your report to me by Monday because I have to roll it into a larger report?” If they say “no” you can have a backup position of Wednesday. “How about Wednesday?” Usually people don’t want to say “no” twice in a row so with this approach you increase the odds of getting their report when you actually need it. They have a sense of reciprocity. Decision making and rationality are the next topics he presents. Most decision-making is essentially irrational, with some researchers believing >90% of our decision-making is driving by the unconscious. What you are exposed to and the order in which you are exposed sets the stage for how the decisions will flow. This gets back to the reality people respond more to concern about what they might lose compared to what they might gain. Several examples are given. Brian goes on to give about 15 tips for improving your bottom line. Case studies are then provided, some of which are fascinating and make it worth purchasing the book. This includes: - How Kodak went from having almost 100% of the image market to almost nothing - JCPenny losing 40% of it’s stock value by making changes that failed to take the customer’s wishes into consideration - How Bernie Madoff used the principles in this book unethically to swindle $65 billion - Why Starbucks is so pervasive even though they don’t advertise. What’s their secret? The etiquette for using social media is discussed. Use it to network and connect…don’t start selling right away! The book closes out with examples of how people behave in ways that show they are worth working with. The examples are quite good. Brian is is on LinkedIn and can also be contacted at [email protected]. Need help dealing with complex situations? You can download CMC’s free e-book MINDSET – 5 SIMPLE WAYS TO LOOK AT COMPLEX PROBLEMS and learn how to find a simple vantage point from which you can resolve challenges. Your feedback is important. Choose from the following options: • place a review in iTunes, • click on “leave a comment” below, • send any comments along with your name and the show number to [email protected], • go to Contact at Center for Managing Change and leave a message Listen to future episodes for our reply.

This episode is an interview with Dr. Katherine Barteck, PsyD, about the differences between counseling and coaching. She starts with definitions of therapy and coaching. Counseling, or therapy, is about taking an in-depth look at what is creating the current problems. The person can benefit from psychotherapy without necessarily having a diagnosis. Simply having the desire to explore one's past is efficient to gain benefits from psychotherapy. Also, the person who lacks a specific diagnosis may be going through a stressful period and needs help in sorting things out. The therapeutic process can be used to directly impact behaviors and business. This can be, at times, an essential component of change management. Gary describes, in line with that, the client he worked with who'd been chronically abused as a child. It's critical when doing this work for the coach to understand when it's time to bring a therapist in. On the flipside, work may be required to perform the basic act, e.g., negotiating with others, which a therapist can help with but where there really is no underlying pathology. Dr. Bartek points out coaching is not a protected medical privilege. If subpoenaed, a coach can be required to reveal details of the relationship in court. The coach can benefit by having discussions within the therapist's office, where privilege does apply. The coach can maintain privilege by generating a list of action items, to do lists, or behaviors that need changed in taking those lists with the client out into the business world where they can be discussed and worked on without referencing the therapeutic process. In the end, what needs to be considered is whether or not the client needs a therapist, a coach, or both along with where the boundaries lie between the client and these professionals. The conversation switch to the differences between how therapy and coaching are framed. In therapy the client is in a protected space where they can open up fully and flesh out their entire frame of mind and associated feelings in order to work on improving. In other words, it is a safe space. The client can safely choose what they want to take to the outside world which is where they would work with the coach. The client can then explore in the outside world and bring the results back to the safety of the therapist office. Coaching, on the other hand, can be more open and more diverse and application because the working assumption is the coaches working with the healthy components of the client. Consequently, a psychotherapist has to be careful when they are coaching to avoid going back into a therapeutic session during the actual coaching engagement. It is important to maintain the distinction between the two. The issue of shame and seeking counseling was brought up. An article, "The Very Real Dangers of Executive Coaching," by Steven Berglas was discussed. He talks about how important it is to avoid downplaying psychological issues when coaching powerful people. Specifically, there can be prestige associated with an executive having a coach which can enhance his or her sense of grandiosity. Berglas goes on to distinguish between a "problem executive" versus and "executive with a problem." The former is able to be trained to function effectively while the latter is best helped by psychotherapy. Coaching may also be viewed as a way to get simple answers with quick results while therapy typically is more involved and takes a longer period of time to show results. It is important to set expectations accordingly. Gary provided an example where inability to follow through thoroughly with therapy led to hampering of the client's company's performance leading to the eventual sale of the organization. Dr. Bartek went on to talk about two cautions critical for coaches to pay attention to. The first one being the overplaying of behavioral techniques in order to gain quick responses when therapy is more appropriate, and the second being the avoidance of becoming "the Guru" who becomes the crotch upon whom the client leans leading to a codependent relationship which definitely is unhealthy for the client and the coach. Another caution that was discussed is the avoidance of viewing coaching as a status symbol within an organization which basically indicates who's of value and who isn't based on whether or not resources are spent on an individual. Going in the other direction there may be a fear that the stigmas attached to either having a coach and/or seeking therapy through an employee assistance program (EAP). Consequently, it may be best for the client to gain support from resources outside of the company. Coaches are also worn to avoid being a tool for weeding people out. The various modalities present to provide support for individuals includes peer support coaching where the coaches gone through similar experiences as the client. Having gone through therapy for specific problem does not mean the coaches capable of bringing the client along in that area. Likewise, having recovered from particular issue does not mean an individual is prepared to coach in that arena. In both those situations training is available to ensure professional behavior. For example, there is training available to be a peer support specialist. Coaches also need to be careful to avoid coaching protocols that are essentially therapeutic models repackaged in different jargon. The conversation then turned to peer support specialists where revealing oneself to the client helps them move forward in addressing their own challenges. The caution that is given, though, is to avoid using the coaching situation is a way to simply talk about oneself for personal aggrandizement the expense of the client. This admonition applies to therapists as well. Gary goes on to describe the three types of change situations: - the principles are constant and the rules never change - the principles are constant but the rules are rearranged - both the principles and rules are shifting and changing constantly In the first scenario coaching typically is sufficient to move people along to a more productive situation while in the last scenario therapy may be required because so much changes occurring. The middle scenario is a bit foggy and some balance needs to be found between coaching and therapy. In all three scenarios there are people who are able to navigate the changes without the need for coach or therapist. For many, though, people can be caught off guard and need support in reestablishing balance as they work through the changes. It is also critical to pay attention to what the therapist or coach knows about the situation. This is especially important for coaches so that they don't overstep their boundaries, e.g., not knowing whether or not there is a home -related issue that's influencing the performance at work and that that actually is the issue which needs to be addressed. Having a sense of the breath of the possibilities may lead to conducting various assessments to get a clear sense of what, exactly, is the problem. This also is true for the therapist and that what the client thinks is the problem may, in fact, not be the case. Thus, moving in a steady methodical manner is critical for the client to be served properly. For example, client may insist they no longer suffer from PTSD that they only need to work with the coach but yet they list all the symptoms of PTSD when talking about whatever suffering or discomfort they are experiencing. Likewise, someone may be a high functioning individual who may in fact have some therapeutic issues but under the circumstances may respond well to coaching. The session closes out with stating how critical it is for the therapist and the coach to be in touch with themselves and know their own strengths and weaknesses in order to provide the best service for the client. Dr. Bartek is on LinkedIn and can be contacted at [email protected]. Need help dealing with complex situations? You can download CMC’s free e-book MINDSET – 5 SIMPLE WAYS TO LOOK AT COMPLEX PROBLEMS and learn how to find a simple vantage point from which you can resolve challenges. Your feedback is important. Choose from the following options: • place a review in iTunes, • click on “leave a comment” below, • send any comments along with your name and the show number to [email protected], • go to Contact at Center for Managing Change and leave a message Listen to future episodes for our reply.

This episode is an interview with Brittany Dixon of Process for Profit. and continues our look at the relationship between fear and bad habits (see the previous article, Fear and Bad Habits - Give Yourself A Break and/or listen to the previous podcast of the same title) . Specifically, we dive into addressing obstacles fear creates which leads to wasting time, lowered efficiency, and an aimlessness in terms of moving one’s business forward. Brittany is an Operations/Efficiency expert. Brittany went from event organizer to home organizer to business organizer. She found she loved organizing everything "behind the curtain." When she went out on her own she started with a side hustle organizing cluttered homes. Over time, this evolved into helping people organize their businesses. She found that clients strayed from their "zone of genius" and were getting distracted by all the aspects of their business about which they lack familiarity. Brittany emphasizes that simply relying on hustle is insufficient to grow business. Organization is critical. The conversation switched to dealing with resistance and its relationship to Fear and Bad Habits by walking through the 5 basic fears and addressing how Brittany deals with them: 1. Fear of uncertainty in one's world could fall apart leading to rigidity. Brittany addresses this by providing case studies to show the benefits of moving away from the old behaviors. Goals, goals, goals; 2. Fear of being consumed leading to people-pleasing to cover vulnerability. Saying “no” is critical if one is to grow their business. It’s important to be one’s own gate-keeper; 3. Fear of being isolating leading to wanting to do everything and be everything for everyone. Without narrowing down to a specific niche growth is almost impossible. Boundaries are critical; 4. Being riddled with self-doubt leading to way too much busy work and over-explaining instead of believing in themselves and making simple decisions. Working through the fear of success and moving forward is critical; 5. Fear of being clueless leading to just falling apart and being unable to see the big picture. Here is where Brittany works with the client on developing strategic goals…thinking a year out and then choosing tactics that will get to those goals. These individuals need to take a more proactive position rather than reacting to everything. This behavior may be influenced by the jobs they had before going out on their own, i.e., being a hero at work by picking up and reacting to every problem. Working with Brittany will require changing one’s sense of significance and how that is derived. Hustle is not sustainable. Also, being organized helps in determining how best to form relationships that are in your best interest instead of just trying to get relief and engaging in dysfunctional relationships. Organization helps with generating a clear plan along with associated strategies and tactics. We closed out the conversation by Brittany talking about how she has to apply to herself the principles she uses with her clients. To find out more about Brittany and her work helping clients increase pr ofitability through process improvement listen to her podcast, The Process for Profit Show, or go to her website, Process For Profit. You can also connect with her on Facebook and Instagram. She also has a membership site, Hustle To Flow. Need help dealing with complex situations? You can download CMC’s free e-book MINDSET – 5 SIMPLE WAYS TO LOOK AT COMPLEX PROBLEMS and learn how to find a simple vantage point from which you can resolve challenges. Your feedback is important. Choose from the following options: • place a review in iTunes, • click on “leave a comment” below, • send any comments along with your name and the show number to [email protected] Listen to future episodes for our reply.

In this episode the relationship between fear and bad habits and the importance of going easy on yourself are covered. You may notice that when trying to break a bad habit resolution fades and suddenly you're back to the bad habit maybe even more so than before the resolution. There's a good reason for that in this podcast is going to cover that issue. We will look at the chain of events that goes into the creation of a bad habit with a special focus on how bad habits interlock and are mutually reinforcing, making it difficult to shift to healthier, more constructive behaviors. Bad habits originate in one of five fears which, specifically, are: - fear of instability - fear of vulnerability and being consumed - fear of isolation - fear of not being good enough and getting destroyed - fear of being nothing With the fear of instability the belief that everything in one's world is going to fall apart. This leads to rigid behaviors which in turn leads to a sense of being trapped by the very things one’s trying to save. With the fear of vulnerability and being consume leads to trying to get along with everyone which, when taken to extreme leads to just freezing in place. With the fear of isolation one tries to do everything for everyone in order to dominate the situation to ensure sense of significance and not being left in isolation. One is left feeling burned out from trying to do everything in order to ensure constant recognition. With the fear of not being good enough rather than simply standing up for oneself the urge sets in to give endless explanations, create white papers, and slide into workaholic behavior rather than simply standing up for oneself due to fear of getting destroyed if a stance is taken. With this fear one is ultimately torn apart by trying to do more and more busywork. With the fear of being nothing a blankness can set in which leads to a fragmentation of one's worldview and not being able to see the overall picture. In other words, a sense of cluelessness is present. Ultimately, with this fear a sense of dissolving into nothingness develops. So these fears the result from reacting to situations lead to the creation of projective emotions, more commonly called projections. These comprise: - rage - greed - instinct - desire - jealousy - pride With rage there is the urge to tear people and situations apart, to destroy. With greed there is the urge to consume everything, never getting satisfied, and only wanting more after something has been gained. With instinct a reptilian type of behavior sets in it is a moral and simply focuses on having urges satisfied. Desire is a little more subtle and can be reflected in concerns about societal position, e.g., wanting to live in the right neighborhood, have the right job, have the children go to the right schools, worrying about one's image, seeing one's children as simply as an extension of themselves, etc. Jealousy is a projection of feelings of inadequacy. The individual is always wanting what others have and can harbor a deep resentment when the issue is actually all about not taking care of oneself in a healthy way. Pride comprises the projection of a sense of superiority over all others, treating them like objects to be manipulated on a chessboard. A tremendous insensitivity is present which, when combined with greed, becomes hugely destructive. So far, everything that is been described from the initial fears to the reactive emotions is inwardly focused. This negative energy, though, ends up being thrown into the outside world through the creation of negative, or karmic, behaviors. Karma, is commonly misunderstood as "what goes around comes around." This is not necessarily true. Many evil people die without experiencing the repercussions of their behaviors. The better way to view karma is as a negative behavior put out into the world the takes on a life of its own in an unpredictable manner. Karma comprises four elements: - actualization - execution - objectification - completion Actualization is the conscious thought around the performance of a negative act. Execution is putting that thought into action. Objectification is choosing another person or oneself is the target of the negative behavior. Completion is about being successful in creating the desired destruction. Now, when we execute these karmic behaviors if we do it often enough it starts becoming a pattern (more commonly called a habit). The pattern comprises four elements: - mechanization - resource consumption - crystallization - habituation Mechanization is the conversion of the act from a conscious one to a "spinal" one where the activity is performed in a reflexive manner. Think about figure skater focuses on where her hand is and how her fingers are during the figure skating routine they practice the behavior over and over and over again until it becomes, well, spinal. This means they no longer have to think about it, which frees their brain to move on to other considerations. Resource consumption is about channeling energy into the negative behavior. Over time this becomes very nasty because the resource consumption increases both in terms of the amount of energy consumed and the speed of onset. This is one of the elements that makes breaking that habits difficult. Crystallization is when the negative effects of karmic behavior is compounded. By this I mean one bad habit interlocks with another bad habit at the spinal level. These bad habits become self protective so that when you try to break one the other bad habits will kick in to cause you to behave in a self sabotaging manner in order to preserve the bad habits. For example, you may be successful in losing a few pounds and suddenly, before you know it, your reading multiple pieces of cake. Finally, this crystallization becomes even more intense through habituation. In other words, the karmic behaviors are the ones with which one leads with when going out into the world. And, because these behaviors are habituated and "spinal" there can be no sense of actually engaging in unhealthy behaviors. The individual doing karmic activities can feel just fine about themselves and have a sense of confusion when confronted by friends, relatives, coworkers, strangers. From reading all this you can hopefully see the changing bad habits and replacing them with healthy ones is not necessarily a straightforward process. It requires a coordinated effort across all areas of life in order to effect the change in a lasting manner. In future podcasts I will talk about how to bring about those changes. Your feedback is important. Choose from the following options: • place a review in iTunes, • click on “leave a comment” below, • send any comments along with your name and the show number to [email protected] Listen to future episodes for our reply.

This podcast covers Chapter 12, “Small Steps To An Agile Strategy” of “12 Steps to Flow: The New Framework for Business Agility,” by Haydn Shaughnessy and Fin Goulding, developers of the internationally acclaimed workshop, Flow Academy. The authors start the chapter by stating a good Flow workplace is one that challenges the idea of big strategy and grand plans. The new method is to build strategy from small steps. How to achieve that will be covered in this chapter. The first problem pointed out is that the core elements that people focus on in strategy and planning are necessary but nowhere near sufficient for success. This necessary-but-not-sufficient problem is typical of the digital world. Many intangible factors, often intangible, have a significant influence but are difficult for traditional strategist to grasp. An old style of marketing is used, e.g., "Build the platform and market the hell out of it." The key problem is the platform is seen as a technology stack rather than a relationship nexus. So why are the issues associated with platforms so interesting to the Flow frame-of-mind? First, platforms invented modern agility, providing the ability to roam into any space choosen with a lot of activity taking place on the network along with having the ability to update with high-frequency and low-cost. Also, products are digital, which means there is no conventional supply chain to manage. Second platforms are almost impossible to plan and this is really critical because execution needs a huge amount of iteration and a commitment to real-time executive direction. For example nobody can say what it will cost to be successful at developing the ecosystem of third-party actors. Consequently, platforms force designers to take small steps. These hundreds of incremental steps requires Flow. Business often gives the impression that there is one big solution, e.g., a new platform, or a single answer to complex problems. This is just wrong. Success in High-Performance Teams In delivery terms, the economy is shifting towards small. Good leaders recognize this and see the critical gains lie in the margins, in the detail. That's why in Flow, work units are only ever a maximum of two days long. These are the micro-units where you can get 1% gains to scale up into something significant. Interestingly enough, incremental changes that scale can apply to strategy as well as to delivery. The short cycle times of two days or less force people to interact more which is good for both productivity and quality. The authors feel this is superior to long planning cycles which can drift away from providing the value required to meet the customer's needs. Small Steps to a Big Platform One problem with setting digital strategy is that many people get the core ideas of agility and scale wrong. With the digital transformation the dominates the agile world companies seek network effects where there is little disruption caused by the platform. The stability or lack of disruption by the platforms is supposedly created through: - open APIs - two-sided or multisided markets - network effects - cloud infrastructure The authors view this is flawed because: 1. Great platforms exist without having an open API 2. The idea of two-sided and multisided markets feel superfluous 3. Network effects are powerful but rare, e.g., Facebook 4. There's nothing special about Cloud services, all companies have access to Cloud infrastructure The real power of platforms lies in the ecosystems that grow around the successful ones. This is a real nightmare for traditional strategists because success lies at the other end of intangible investments in relationships, promotion, content, and likability. Services with no allegiance to the platform can exist on that platform thrive and do well and benefit the platform service at the same time, for example book arbitrage on Amazon services. Customers may pay more after successful in finding what they need. The successful companies are an essential part of the Amazon ecosystem yet Amazon does not prompt, support, or invest in any of them. In fact, they exist because of Amazon's shortcomings. The Very Basic Model for Highly Skilled Business The platform model is deceptively simple having only a few basic components but it would be a big mistake to assume that the basic structure is sufficient. For example there is the App Store for the iPhone. Essentially it is an ordering platform. As a catalog with the transaction engine and fulfillment service. The simplicity, however, is misleading. What's needed are the critical nonessentials in order to be successful in other words, there is all the work required to develop highly skilled relationships, many giveaway tools, wonderful content, and huge advocacy. Without that ecosystem the platform can't survive. It's all about having real relationships. Many companies create platforms without realizing the content and advocacy are key aspects of the project. This means human factors are quite important, a truth that platform designers overlook. To compound things, the human factors are difficult to represent in an ROI plan. Also, with the traditional approach there is a risk of viewing everything in terms of cost savings rather than value. This can easily lead to cutting those critical human factor components. Again, relationships are important. To compound the situation the activities that actually go with building relationships recruiting and nurturing, etc., are not easily planned. They require warmth, trust, care, excitement, and adaptability. Their cost/return is always going to be uncertain. Because businesses have been taught to expect network effects, they underinvest in advocacy, the very thing they need that could bring the benefits of being on a network. Being on a network is only powerful if you know how to acquire great content and generate superb advocacy. People must love what you are doing madly enough to create content around it, build new services to exploiter, recommend features of your service that they will attach their reputations to, and spend their own cash on being part of your ecosystem. The Importance of the Ecosystem because of the challenges associated with attracting and orchestrating multiple parties for your passionate endeavor a Flow approach strategy aims at creating the dozens of small steps that allow entrepreneurs or executives to figure out where value might lie in to accelerate business activity in precisely those directions. Simply put, to do Flow strategy, you have to accept that you cannot know. Instead, you can hypothesize frequently across many actions and be ready to capitalize on the basics truths you discover and can build upon along the way. This is far from the MVP (minimum viable product) frame of mind. Instead, what is needed is a minimum sustainable delivery matrix (discussed in previous chapter) the comprises: - a broad set of features and hypotheses to push through to the customer - structured feedback loops to capture knowledge - capturing and formatting that knowledge in a way that easily translates into discussions that lead to new feature in hypotheses matrices which is where the asset discovery process described in chapter 2 comes into play. This comprises: - customer segmentation - asset discovery - targeted ideation - the ecosystem - stating goals Customer segmentation. In the book they use an example comprising based on a segment that the platform advocate knows to be underserved or in need of reorganization. Asset discovery. Their assets intrinsic to the platform, however, it is important to consider other third-party assets that are critical to success, e.g., content, data, and other assets that can brought it onto the platform by negotiating with partners in the ecosystem or non-partner third parties. It is essential to take into consideration critical nonessentials such as content which are essential for success. Also, it is important to inventory any missing assets which need to be developed somewhere along the line. Targeted ideation. With targeted ideation new services are created by repurposing assets in addressing previously-underserved customer segments. The key is building trust with customers you have and determine how the assets can be repurposed. The approach is freeform, will Wall-based, in iterative with how you see your potential ecosystem along with your goals. The ecosystem. Essentially this is about finding missing assets which are needed to satisfy unmet customer needs. The key is providing sufficient tools for those third-party providers that encourages them to work on your platform. Stating goals. Use an analysis of assets to provide a few goals that comprise the first small steps to a big strategy. This includes: - identifying new customer segments to discover hidden opportunity - identify internal assets that are relevant to those new segments - call out the missing assets and the dark pool - identify an ecosystem that can deliver assets that are missing from your skill set - the eight new tools and content to support an even broader ecosystem, beyond a simple supplier base - learn how to combine these assets in a way that is really appropriate for modern markets, using a Go to Market strategy that builds share-ability and advocacy into the product or service - explore content and advocacy issues, e.g., social strategy, designed to share, effects of the network. Proceed to break the work down based on the stated goals. Once done this is the beginning of an ecosystem strategy for your agile business. Does not have to be written as a strategy. Rather it gets built from the discovery of assets, the iteration of goals, areas of work in units of work, and experience and feedback. Strategy Building from Incremental Steps Keep in mind these key points when building a strategy: - the critical non-essentials necessary for high performance - efficiencies gained by optimizing across hundreds of small steps - optimizing many marginal gains if you apply these thoughts to digital projects than you have the ultimate modern paradox, i.e., highly skilled businesses built out of many small units of activity. To achieve the success work by: - customer segmentation - asset discovery - a Customer Innovation Wall that fleshes out the segmentation. Have an inventory of assets (known, hidden, unknown-but-needed next to that wall). Also, have a chart comprising targeted ideation suggesting tools and tricks needed to engage customers third parties in the ecosystem. This approach is meant to be conversational an interactive without any big planning periods. It is an exercise in value-seeking behavior. Conversations around these walls leads to the emergence of baseline activities. These are referred to as the best next actions for achieving the stated goals. Consequently, the strategy actually emerges from the generation of these best-next activities. This is a classic characteristic the complex situation where the solutions emerge based on the actions of self-organizing teams. CONCLUSION One of the main takeaways from this book should be the awareness that work at all levels of an organization is becoming less about excellence in execution more about adaptability in the face of changing circumstances. When you can accept that order is best created by allowing people to codesign multiple strands of work, and that the big plan needs to be hundreds of small units of work, then you have the capacity to adapt infinitely. You need a passion for change to follow everything that's been stated in this book. You need to believe in a movement built on small steps. Here are the link for previous chapter reviews: episode 0037 of Wrestling with Chaos. the Introduction, The Value Seeking Enterprise, and Chapter 1, Talking About Business Agility: episode 0042 of Wrestling With Chaos. For Chapter 2, The Customer In The Agile Business. episode 0043 of Wrestling With Chaos. For Chapter 3, Disrupting The Cadence of Work episode 0045 of Wrestling With Chaos. For Chapter 4, Taking Advantage of Visible Work episode 0046 of Wrestling With Chaos, For Chapter 5, Anti-Project Thinking and Business Agility episode 0047 of Wrestling With Chaos, For Chapter 6, Creating Value-Seeking Behavior episode 0049 of Wrestling With Chaos, For Chapter 7, The Agile C-Suite episode 0050 of Wrestling With Chaos, For Chapter 8 216, Value, The Anti-Plan and Testing episode 0051 of Wrestling With Chaos, For Chapter 9, Reinventing Roles episode 0053 of Wrestling With Chaos, For Chapter 10, The Customer Wall episode 0054 of Wrestling With Chaos, For Chapter 11, Broadening Your Personal Development Goals For more on the various “Walls” using Post-Its refer to their excellent book, “Flow.” In line with Business Agility and dealing with complex situations, you can download CMC’s free e-book MINDSET – 5 SIMPLE WAYS TO LOOK AT COMPLEX PROBLEMS and learn how to find a simple vantage point from which you can resolve challenges. Your feedback is important. Choose from the following options: • place a review in iTunes, • click on “leave a comment” below, • send any comments along with your name and the show number to [email protected] Listen to future episodes for our reply.