Tired of Lame Ideas? Here’s a Powerful Way to Trigger the Spark!
Inspiration & Creativity
By June 27, 2019 Comment»

A company in the automotive sector getting inspired by…the humane society?…a beauty salon?…a chiropractor? You must be kidding!

No, not kidding…that’s precisely what happened in a series of client workshops we recently conducted. The team was in search of something different…not the “same old” ideas, not “me-too industry best practices” (aka benchmarking), but something out of the box — something really game-changing that would differentiate them in their market.

Fireworks

We first clarified specific areas of opportunity and capabilities we’d need to truly “change the game” — examples: customer-care, services bundling, turn-key solutions, use of data/analytics…

Then we went to places we’d seen these capabilities “in real life” (like the chiropractor) and gathered inspiration — asking questions, experiencing, feeling, watching, listening.

When we got back to brainstorming ideas, the results were transformative. Not only did we have sharper and more practical ideas (seeing real life helps a lot!), they were also clearly differentiated (“game-changing”)…i.e. very different from what we would have gotten had we stayed confined to the paradigms of their own industry.

This technique is known as “analogous inspiration”, and is one of the most powerful approaches you can use to generate new ideas. Why is it so effective? Two main reasons – first, it makes your brain “jump the tracks” from its normal pattern of thinking (a core prerequisite for creativity). Second, analogous inspiration frees you from “the blindness of your own context” (that gets you tangled in current constraints) and opens up paradigm-shifting ways of thinking as you see potential “game-changers” much more clearly in a completely different context.

So next time you want to spark your team’s creativity and take a truly different perspective, consider igniting the flame with analogous inspiration!

Picture: www.pexels.com

4C’s that Determine the Right “People-Fit” for your Organization
Leadership & Organization
By May 27, 2019 2 comments»
Nate Hamblen is founder and CEO of Red Elm (www.red-elm.com), a company dedicated to delivering “over-the-top residential services” to premium home owners and being a “force for good” in the lives of both customers and employees. From “one guy and a truck”, Nate rapidly grew the company to a multi-million dollar operation through a relentless focus on culture and people. As I’ve had the privilege of accompanying Nate on this amazing journey, we’ve had deep discussions on “how to find people that fit.” Together we developed a framework that has guided our thinking and is described in the post below.

Over the last few years we’ve done significant work growing and scaling processes, teams and organizations. Although there are various things to get right on this arduous journey, one of the most important is finding and growing the right people that are both capable and a good fit for your culture. No matter the challenge, whether expanding operations, leadership-horsepower, technical expertise, or all the above….people are the lifeblood of growth and change.

Recently Nate and I were discussing the roles and profiles of people to be part of the company’s next phase of rapid expansion. As we discussed each person, it seemed we would frequently circle back to the same high-level categories that drove our perspective on good (or bad) fit.

Red and Three Blue Jigsaw Puzzles

While there are many specific attributes, regrouping them into four macro families/categories helped simplify the conversation and gave a common language & lens for discussion and assessment.

Here are the “4 C’s” we determined to be most helpful in determining “people fit”:

  1. Character – the foundation of someone’s personality and values that drive them (ex integrity, work ethic, drive, commitment, relationships with people…)
  2. Capability – fundamental skill-sets that make them effective in a given role in a generic sense (ex detail vs macro, communication, individual contributor vs leader, tolerance for ambiguity, etc.)
  3. Capacity – ability to carry “weight”, whether psychologically, physically or emotionally (ex work hours, travel, hi-pressure environments, complexity, isolation, etc.)
  4. Content – industry-/trade-/function- knowledge, know-how and specific expertise that makes the above relevant in a specific fields or function (ex from sectors like medical, automotive, construction… to functional skills like nursing, engineering, carpentry…etc.)

You may be wondering…”how do these contribute to ‘culture fit’?” Great question!…and something we considered. In fact, we believe that defining the right mix of attributes within each of the families in your specific context (as highlighted with examples in parentheses) allow the families to become the “macro-ingredients” that “dial-in” culture-fit at a personal level. In this metaphorical sense, the overall culture-fit of a person is “the cake” i.e the outcome, that is composed of a tailored recipe of 4C’s i.e “the ingredients.”

So as you consider the next stage of growth for your team, what about using the “4 C’s” as a framework to define and evaluate critical attributes required in your people? We believe it’ll help focus your thinking, and give you a common lens/language to communicate/identify what it takes to succeed in your culture and the journey ahead.

Nate Hamblen & Johannes Mutzke

Picture: www.pexels.com

Give Peace a Chance!!
Vision-2-Fruition
By April 27, 2019 1 comment»

In the early days of my career I had the amazing opportunity to work for a large global company launching their first manufacturing plant in the United States. As part of the ramp-up, I distinctly remember the exciting journey….AND growing pains: a new “unknown” product, inexperienced employees, struggling suppliers, debugging new equipment, constant quality challenges, etc…

Since our team was under a strong mandate from corporate to turn the tide and stabilize quality, I remember the immense pressure we felt to prove we could handle operations, and had an effective plan to deliver the required results.

Two Person Holding White and Green Peace Wreath

 

Of course, whenever we had a management review or “checkin with corporate” the pressure would rise……and we’d feel compelled to come up with something more effective, more clever, a new approach, a “silver bullet” that would save the day…and buy us more time. Sound familiar?

At one point in this frantic circle of activity, I also remember the chief designer saying something I’ve never forgotten – “since we keep changing the plan, we don’t even really understand what’s actually driving the results we’re seeing today; I’d rather we stick to a mediocre plan long enough to see results…then improve on it; at least we’d have clarity on cause-and-effect and have a stable base from which to improve.”

Can you relate? Perhaps you’re under pressure to finally deliver the plan that makes “all the stars align”…or turn around performance with a perfect “get well plan.”

The answer may lie in resisting the urge to constantly re-discuss, re-start, re-hash, re-question…and actually have the discipline to stick to your plan long enough to get results, understand what’s driving them….and only then systematically improve upon it.

This approach mitigates frantic chaos and random action, putting much higher value on consistent execution than “the perfect plan.” It creates a stable base for learning & pivoting, which then allows you to strategically activate the right improvement-levers, giving you much more insight on cause and effect…and ultimately results.

So the next time you feel compelled to change an action plan prematurely, resist the urge…rigorously execute the “mediocre plan” you’ve got… and “GIVE PEACE A CHANCE.”

www.pexels.com

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