Archive of posts from June 2018

Many teams thrive on just one strategy that works.

What if it didn’t?

Let’s play a little game of “Take it away, what now”:

• That client source. Take it away, what now? If it stopped working, how would you access your market?
• That product advantage. Take it away, what now? If you open-sourced it, how would you raise the bar next?
• That nest egg. Take it away, what now? How would you slash costs, get creative, be resourceful?

We don’t like being tracked online. Yet we enjoy having more followers.

What’s the difference?

• We share our secrets with those we trust. I don’t mind friends and family knowing where I am. This information is freely given to those we trust, but we rightly resent it being taken or bartered away from us.
• Friends and family don’t ‘cash in’ our trust. I’ve received emails that literally said, “I saw you on my website today and…” That’s just being...

Xenophobia is a fear of people from other countries.

Is it because they talk differently, or because they might be better than you?

• The metric is care: If they care more than you do, you have every reason to be afraid. They’ll take your job and that’ll be that.
• It goes both ways: If you care more than those around you are prepared to, they should fear you regardless of where they’re from.

The dividing lines are in...

‘Evolutionary’ is often seen as the lesser twin of ‘Revolutionary’.

• Evolutionary means progress. Revolutionary begins in stark contrast to the market. Some changes may be better, others may not be. Change too many things at once and you won’t know which is which.
• Evolutionary means survival. Revolutionary thrives on creating a lot of buzz. Buzz causes big valuations and sudden scale. But buzz doesn’t stick around. All that scaling needs supporting even once valuations drop.
• Evolutionary means statistical inevitability....

Or art a science?

• Art becomes a science when we learn how to create masterpiece after masterpiece, on-demand, objectively.
• Science becomes an art when we choose to express our genius in our chosen area of study, on-demand, subjectively.

While doing important work at scale on a team, perhaps we need both.

We behave differently when something is urgent, compared to when it’s merely “coming soon”, don’t we:

• ‘Urgent’ creates an emotional response. The rational process of methodical craft circumvented by borderline-desperation.
• ‘Coming soon’ creates a reasoned response. The pragmatic process of considering all our options begets potential for ‘analysis paralysis’.
• ‘Up next’ avoids both of these things. When something is ‘up next’, there’s no emergency, yet there’s insufficient time to over-think.

Some people are terminally urgent. For the rest...

Do you struggle asking people for help?

Many people do. But the greats don’t:

• Newton formulated the Law of Gravity, but wouldn’t have been able to without the help of Galileo’s work.
• Galileo proved Heliocentrism, but wouldn’t have been able to without the help of Copernicus’ theory.
• Copernicus gave Galileo a theory to prove, but needed Ptolemy’s Geocentrist theories to build upon.

And so it goes on, a chain-reaction of help creating breakthroughs throughout history.

So, about that...

Why is getting an oil change is so arduous?

• When we buy an oil change, we’re okay with things being cheap and dirty. It was designed that way. It could have been an experience full of education, topical appreciation, and celebrating artisan work. Like buying jewelry.
• When we buy a piece of jewelry, we’re okay with things being slow and overpriced. It was designed that way. It could have been an experience void of mystique, or enforcing how it’s...

How would we behave differently if we were to live for >1000 years instead of <100?

• We’d be less selfish with our time. We’d have time to contribute at a greater level, to make more of an impact. To do things that last.
• We’d slow down and think more. We’d have time to really consider our actions and our legacy rather than “going through the motions”.
• We’d care more about how we effect the future. We’d be more aggressive...

Which of these is a better question: “What should this email sequence say?” or “Do people want these emails?”

Sometimes we build upon the wrong question:

• Emails before opt-ins: We could guess what our tribe might want to read… or we could see who shows up and write just to them
• Features before offers: We could create them, hoping folks upgrade for it… or we could first extend the offer and see what happens.
• Solutions before problems: We could...

How do you feel about asking for more?

• Buy another. Because it’s good for you, and you should do it again. To not encourage you to is to not care at all about your progress.
• Upgrade to this. Because these benefits will help you, and not letting you know that makes us an opportunity thief and a bad friend.
• Donate to this cause. The biggest, best gift of all: the gift of no personal gain at all, except for...

We all have one. We think it’s an asset, but it isn’t.

Really, it’s holding us–and everyone around us–back. Consider these examples:

• The Fantastic Firefighter: So great at jumping in and fixing problems that nobody knows where the system needs improvement.
• The Flexible Friend: So accommodating that they’ll issue discounts and extensions without any thought to sustainability.
• The Pedantic Perfectionist: So ‘by the book’ that projects and infrastructure suffer ‘death by minutiae.’

These are all skills. We may...

Here are three pieces of feedback I saw come through our teams today:

• “You guys know me better than I know myself”: Client using one of our ImpactCoaching team’s sessions. Takeaway: the session is strong, connect more people to it.
• “Your team’s work was what won me this job”: Prospect using our Creative team’s freebies. Takeaway: the freebies are strong, connect more people to it.
• “I had no idea you guys could do that”: Prospect of one of our Creative team’s...

Your work shares a challenge that Apple and Google both have: control requires trust.

• Apple created a closed platform: We can’t change it, edit it, or even assist with bug fixes. So we either trust they’ll make better choices than the competition (with our data and their products), or we leave.
• Google created an open platform: We can change it, edit it, fork it, root it, flash it, make it ours. But we don’t trust them with our privacy (we...

Can we agree that good communication is proactive, not reactive?

The latter is widespread:

• Reactive: “The client did the wrong thing again.” Proactive: I must teach them the right way more clearly.
• Reactive: “That team member never seems to ‘get it’.” Proactive: I should been clearer and invest more time with them.
• Reactive: “The prospect didn’t show up for the call.” Proactive: I didn’t make the call valuable enough, nor did I remind them of it.

In each...

We love the guy who stinks on stage.

We root for him until he finds his stride. His weakness earns him our support until he gets good.

And yet some still prefer to “fake it”:

• Blowing up social media about your “wild success” when you’re struggling to pay rent. That’s called ‘lying’.
• **Playing the guru **when your advice is either untested or unsuccessful. That’s called ‘thievery’.
• Struggling quietly when your problem is quickly solvable by peers. That’s called ‘stupidity’.
...

They’re often just repackaged ‘standard practices’, and they’re seldom ‘best’.

They’re simply what most people do:

• ‘Standard’ rejects unprofitable activity: even if it delights a pocket of customers, turning them into evangelists… perhaps its profitable after all.
• ‘Standard’ sells anyone who meets spec: even if it’s a bad fit for them and you know it. Eventually they’ll know it too… perhaps they weren’t ‘spec’ after all.
• ‘Standard’ does what standards do: the same as everybody else. A rapid descent...

I’m fascinated by things that stubbornly stand the test of time.

A bit like U2:

• U2 have been making music for 42 years. They committed to their craft for decades longer than most. And they’re not done yet.
• U2 decides whether or not U2 is relevant. They don’t let others tell them who they are. Trendy bands usually die with the trend.
• U2 frontman Bono founded Product(RED). They use their influence to influence positive change. What better reason is...

…is that it’s the wrong goal.

Teams that obsess over scale risk diluting their work. If we instead focused on…

• Better promises: These win you more attention and (if you keep those promises) the opportunity to serve more people.
• Better method: Streamlining your team’s work enables individuals to focus on their areas of genius, instead of re-solving the same problems.
• Better leaders: Leaders create leaders. This cascade enables everyone on the team to level-up, producing even higher quality work.
...

You probably know what it is.

The one your team may have all thought of, but never voiced, because it’s much too risky.

The riskier it feels, the bigger problem you have:

• It feels risky when your work needs work: How sure are you that your team’s work will beat expectations? Aggressive guarantees aren’t risky if the answer is ‘99%’.
• It feels scary when nobody else does it: They probably don’t do it for the reasons above. That’s good:...

Sometimes, we’re going to screw it up.

The project. The presentation. The conversation. We’ll do the wrong thing, slip up, misunderstand.

• Customer satisfaction won’t be 100%. Not if we serve enough people. Eventually, there will be a small few that mess up our “perfect 100%”.
• Some ideas or implementations will flop. The 3rd Gen iPod Shuffle. Google Buzz. The Ford Pinto. Can’t win ‘em all.
• Sometimes we’re just going to screw up. The conditions were perfect, you just didn’t...

Let’s imagine you were #1 on Google.

Are you ready for what would happen?

• Being ready so you need not get ready: We know where we aren’t ready: the undocumented steps, the weak-spots. Getting ready prepares us for the increase.
• Being more than a noun: “Page 1” can either be a generic noun (“plumber”) or where you’re so remarkable that people search for your team directly.
• Being like that, now: What new things would your team do in that...

Is engaging your team’s work as easy as pushing a button?

Vending machines are clear about what each button gives us. The Lemonade Button is unashamedly Lemonade:

• It’ll turn many away: We won’t push it unless we want lemonade. Nobody else will push.
• Some will surely press: We’ll push it if we want lemonade. And we’ll be happy with the result.

No guesswork.

The alternative is to be less specific in an attempt to get our button pushed...

What do you do when crisis hits your company?

Let’s say a key player has an incident that takes them temporarily out of the game. Some have a Crisis-Mode Switch, and they respond by flicking theirs to “On”:

• Taking lead: These people jump in and step up in their stead, taking lead on new roles and doing a sterling job of it.
• Keeping promises: These people make certain all bases are being covered, by them or others, so the...

“Hoping for your opponent to make mistakes is not a strategy” – Kasparov, Chessmaster

How many things on your team feel un-controllable by nature?

For instance, whether you’ll win over that customer, or how much your competition can influence your success?

We need not leave things entirely to chance:

• “It’s the same work, but maybe the competitor’s proposal isn’t as good”: Perhaps “maybe” isn’t a good strategy. Play to win or change the rules.
• “It’s the same product,...