Your business may be in one of these Four Stages:

1. Start Up with a beginning team of 2-5
2. First five years with 5-20 in the business
3. A mid-size business 20-200 employees
4. Sustainable mid-size up to 500+ employees

Have you thought about what it would take to move forward and reach the next stage? 

What do you need to:

• Start doing
• Stop doing
• Continue to do

To achieve your 3-year growth plan or your purpose for being?

First, take a few moments to acknowledge yourself for the work you have done so far to build the business and to acknowledge those who have partnered and worked with you as a positive force in the business.

Take an honest look at your organization’s Purpose and Core Values. Are they established and well-defined? Can you communicate with them effectively? Can your employees? Your Customers?

Next, give yourself the time to consider your current leadership team and potential leaders, and evaluate their engagement and alignment with the values and purpose of the organization.

If you have an existing team ask these questions:

1. What are the areas that you need to have covered by leadership you can trust?
2. What is the level of trust between you and your team?
3. What is the purpose of this business?
   Purpose is not your mission or what you do but the reason you created this business beyond making money or the reason you have for working in the business.
4. What is the difference that you make in your industry? What are the results of your business in the world?
5. What differentiates you business from others in your market?
6. What are your Core Values?

It is important to establish 3-5 values that give the leadership team and the rest of the company the framework for the culture that reflects the values of the team and the business. One way to find these is to list the people  in your business who bring value by having a certain quality that contributes to the excellence of your business.

Here are some examples:

• Passion for our Purpose
• Quality First—delivering value
• Personal and professional integrity
• Respect for each other and our customer
• Embrace change

Ask yourself and your team these four vital questions*:

1. Do you have the “right PEOPLE doing the right things right”?
2. Can you state your firm’s STRATEGY and is it driving sustainable growth?
3. Are all EXECUTION processes running without drama and driving industry-leading profitability?
4. Do you have consistent sources of CASH to fuel the growth of your business?

• The Four Decisions: Scaling Up Verne Harnish

I’ll be continuing the conversation on Building an Effective Leadership Team in my next blog posts. If you have any questions or would like to share a challenge or success please be sure to leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you and continuing the conversation.

~ Patricia

RELATED READING:

*“Scaling Up; How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t’”, author, Verne Harnish

Obviously, strategy is a plan for the future – but not the near future –not this year, next month, nor next week. Strategic plans look further out, typically 3+ years and act as a guide and measuring stick to your company’s success. Your weekly, monthly, yearly Execution Plans are made with the purpose of fulfilling this Strategy. (We’ll come back to Execution Planning in my next article.)

You and your executive team determine the Strategy of your organization based on your Core Values, and Purpose – your reason for changing the world or your place in the world. In a recent blog article I spoke about how to determine your organization’s core values and purpose. I recommend reading it before you embark on any efforts in strategic planning as everything you do as a company should begin and end with your core values and purpose.

Your strategic plan is formulated based on goals that bring into mind your:

• Economic engine—the part of your business that drives the revenue and profit.
• Your purpose and what you want to do to bring the best of your business to the part of the world that you serve. What do you do best?

Establishing goals is another common area where many companies get stuck. The key is to BE SPECIFIC. And that is easier said than done. Here are a few tools and tips that will help you establish your company goals with greater success and ease:

Start BIG: Establish your BHAGs – Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Looking ahead as much as ten years, what is that stretch that creates a sense of purpose and excitement? These are measurable goals with Key Performance indicators that demonstrate your progress towards your goals.

Here are a couple good examples of BHAGs:

1. I had a client who is building the public train system in an Asian country. He says his BHAG is to upgrade business practices to bring in more integrity in all business.
2. Another European client wants to upgrade business in his country so that people recognize they are accountable and cannot blame others when their success does not meet their vision.

Visualize it and Put it in Writing: You’ve got the right people in place, you’ve established your Core Values and Purpose, and you’ve identified your Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Now what? You must tie it all together in one place. The Scaling Up Vision Summary is a great tool  and a good place to start in establishing your Strategic Planing Framework, particularly if you are a firm with 50 employees or under. It’s a lighter version of the Scaling Up One-Page Strategic Planning tool which fleshes out the important questions of who, what, when, where, how and why; and “should we” or “shouldn’t we” decision making. Please contact me if you are interested in learning more about the One Page Strategic Plan.

Strategic planning is only so good as the Execution of that plan. All of your processes should be running as trouble and drama-free as possible and driving industry-leading profitability. Stay tuned for my next article on executing your Strategic Plan with more tips and tools for keeping everyone in your organization on course to ensure success.

Scaling Up Business Workshop

OUR NEXT INTERACTIVE, LIVE, WEB-BASED WORKSHOP FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR HOME OR OFFICE IS ON:

Thursday, OCTOBER 14th  11:30am-1:00pm PST

– Is Your Top Leadership Team healthy and aligned?

– Do you have the right people, in the right place?

– Do they have clear accountabilities and metrics?

– Can you state your firm’s strategy simply? Is it driving sustainable growth?

– Are your processes running smoothly and driving profitability?

Register for the Scaling Up Business Workshop Today!

Today, as the calendar year is coming to an end and a new year is approaching, I want to re-introduce a central tool in the Strategy Decision, the OPSP or the One Page Strategic Plan which is a treasure chest in the form of a detailed roadmap to insure the vision for your business reaches its destination.

Strategic Thinking and Execution Planning are two different activities that are often confused, creating a block to progress. Strategic Thinking is always about the future. Execution Planning is the current year using quarterly goals and metrics to see the progress toward the one- year Execution Plan.

As we know, Execution/Implementation is the secret to creating profit, and Team Engagement is a huge part of this. Team engagement, along with greater synergy and effective decision making, is created by Meeting Rhythms at all levels. This insures that implementation of the company vision is part of the DNA of the entire business, involving everyone. I spoke to a VP recently in a large public company that has an atmosphere of impromptu meetings and interruptions that have created a lack of focus and an individual contributor mindset that is affecting the flow of business. We began implementing a meeting rhythm for her team of leaders to create a clear flow of communication and accountability, without the constant interruption and disruption that has become an everyday occurrence. This meeting rhythm is improving the ability of the entire organization to focus and concentrate on the main priorities, instead of compromising the goals. The company now has a regular method of staying in touch with each other and efficiently solving problems. (Learn more about meeting rhythms.)

You’ll notice the One Page Strategic Plan flows from left to right and begins with Purpose and Core Values. Your Brand Promise defines your company and the BHAG is like the North Star for Strategy. Begin to define the purpose of the business beyond revenue and profit.

These four components are listed below:

1. Core values
2. Purpose
3. Brand Promise
4. BHAG (Big Harry Audacious Goal)

Core values: These are the foundational aspects of your values. They are values you do not want to change, and are basic beliefs. You might fire someone, or lose a sale to make sure these values are kept. Also, these values are alive in the business and you can find someone in the business who demonstrates each of them. The task is to have those values held by everyone and have them demonstrated more frequently in all interactions both within and outside of the business.

Purpose: The “why” of the business. Why you do the business beyond making money. What inspires you, and all of the people in the organization, to come to work and create? What inspires your customers to choose you?

Brand Promise: What differentiates you from the others in your business area? What do you deliver? Making a Brand Promise with two sub promises that you deliver consistently creates a process that attracts new customers and sustainable relationships with current ones. What supporting processes and systems are in place for success?

BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal, From Jim Collins book, Good to Great.) This goal can be 10 ten years out. The inspiration, strategic opportunities and execution plans can all be a part of this goal and give a clear road. It also can be altered of course, however, the detail and excitement about what is possible gives strategy and the execution plan a strong and clear focus.

Once you have these aspects in place, the rest of the strategic thinking and the execution planning can be developed in a way that includes the team approach, allowing for greater achievement.

I suggest you read Scaling Up by Verne Harnish to explore the methodology further, and be sure to read the Bridging Associates Blog as well where these and Collaborative Teams are discussed at length

If you’d like help completing the One Page Strategic Plan (OPSP), please contact me and we can explore how to realize your Scaling Up goals.

~Patricia

In a recent conversation with a colleague at a consulting company where I partner, we discussed change and how limited the processes are for dealing with the period of transition which is between the change and the new beginning.

As we all know “the only constant in the universe is change”. However most of us want things to stay the same or constant and so we resist change.

If we can initiate a mindset of the Transition as an exciting and creative period, our perspective will change, as will the success of innovation and new initiatives.

As a consultant I have worked with many companies who are engaged in acquisition, merger and reorganization. The stages of transition outlined in William Bridges’ book, Managing Transitions, Making the most of Change, introduce some practical mindsets and actions that make change have a positive transition period that will increase the success of the new beginning.

Change is situational, transition is psychological.

The stages of change and transition are: 

1. The intentional ending phase where we stop doing things the old way and recognize that letting go of the old to make room for the new is important.
2. Transitional Neutral Zone where innovations, new processes and enhanced perspectives can occur.
3. New Beginning vs. New Start.

There are three crucial things to remember to allow change to create a positive environment.

1. The change itself is something that is a given. Often people are expected to move forward without having let go of the previous way. I am sure you have seen organizations move forward with a change without taking the time to let go of the old way, or clarifying what will remain the same and what is going away. A good example of this is a company acquisition; change exists for both the company that is bought, as well as for the acquiring company. Discussions about what will be different are important, with the recognition that some of the old processes will disappear. Often change is only couched as a positive without the recognition that letting go of what has been the norm is a process that is necessary to bring forward new positive behaviors.
2. The second stage, which can be the most neglected, is what Bridges calls the Transitional or the Neutral Stage during which the adjustment to the new takes place. It is important that the recognition of this essential stage be given time and priority for adjustments to take place. This can be a time of innovation and the development of new perspectives that will enable a successful new beginning.
3. The third stage is the New Beginning which is greater than just a new start. The new beginning includes new perspectives and new practical tools that will be used to leverage the change. This follows the opportunity to realistically let go of the old processes and use the transition period for discovery and for innovation that may not have taken place otherwise.

Change management is a skill; however, the how-to for that skill can be learned and implemented if it is given time and priority. Giving an organization the opportunity to recognize the three stages of managing change, and to enable the transition throughout, is an essential first step in creating new reference points for new behavior.

Do you have a question, challenge, or success you would like to share? Please be sure to leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you! – Patricia

But soliciting feedback needs to be strategic or you are wasting valuable time and the precious attention of your customers and employees. .

In the Scaling Up Four Decisions Model, there are four decisions, People, Strategy, Execution and Cash. The Execution Decision has within it an outline of the Ten Rockefeller Habits that are the key to successful strategic thinking and execution planning. This is a powerful list that can transform your business as you work the model. There are two habits, in particular, that relate to today’s article; Habit #5 and #6 relating to feedback, both external and internal. 

Habit #5. Ongoing employee input is collected to identify obstacles and opportunities.

Habit #6. Reporting and analysis of customer feedback data is as frequent and accurate as financial data.

There have been many studies done over the years regarding employee and customer feedback and how valuable it can be for the top and bottom line of your business. However, a clear, regular and actionable activity around getting and using the feedback seems to be elusive.

Do you have a clear and regular process for interacting with customers both external and internal to determine how things are being received?

Often employee surveys about job satisfaction can be difficult to interpret and very difficult to implement since, without regular communication and trust, it is difficult to get the real answers.

Fred Reichheld offers a good methodology for asking The Ultimate Question in his book of the same title, The Ultimate Question 2.0. Using his method, the ultimate question is followed by two more, very telling, questions.

How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague? (0 to 10 Scale)

1. What is the ONE main reason for your above answer?
2. Can someone follow-up with you to discuss the reason? (yes/no and a space to provide contact information so you can follow up with them. This question is only asked if the answer to #1 above is below 7 on a 0 to 10 scale.

The result from these answers is called the NPS or Net Promotion Score. The truth is that knowing whether or not customers will promote your products and services, and whether your employees will promote working at your company, is the most useful feedback you can receive, and promotes action.

Reichheld’s NPS approach provides the same advantages for customer and for employee feedback:

• A simple, practical, actionable survey
• A basis, one key question
• Statistically sound and repeatable
• Reduces marketing expense (over time)
• Becoming worldwide standard

If you are requesting feedback on a regular basis both internally and externally see if adding NPS approach might refresh the process. If feedback has not been a top priority, than this is a way to implement it with a short and clear process.

For more information I recommend you read The Ultimate Question 2.0 referenced above.

As always, if you have a question, challenge, or success story you would like to share, please be sure to leave a comment.

And, if you are interested in hearing about the Four Decisions Workshops, please let me know. I would enjoy hearing from you! – Patricia

1) Does our strategy reflect the Purpose and Core Values of our business?

So often in the “busyness” of life these days we get caught up in lists of things to do versus the why of our activities.

I recently completed the initial stage of work with a leadership team that has been brought together through mergers and acquisitions to create a new business.

Each part of the business came into the new one with their own culture and viewpoint, as well as local customs that had affected their way of viewing themselves and the business.

We are building a new culture that is creating greater direct communication and respect, and that will lead to greater trust and more success through collaborative effort.

I suggest that if you are involved in growth either through acquisition/merger or through internal growth, take time to establish a clear larger purpose and core values so you will have a measuring stick for how you spend time and resources.

The vital areas of concern for scaling up, and for a culture of collaboration and trust, are People, Relationships and Direct Communication. Team meetings can be more powerful than 1:1s between the team leader and each team member. Think of the change in culture when team members hold each other accountable and leadership is developed at all levels.

Create a schedule that includes the 1-1 meetings but with focus on the team approach.  You can actually have fewer one-on-ones with greater success if you develop your team as an active communication hub for creating priorities, measurements of success and meeting rhythms that create greater synchronicity leading to alignment for achieving your strategic goals.

2) What is your brand? What do you promise to your customer and how does that promise distinguish you from others

3) What will you do to make sure that your brand promise is kept? What action will you take to insure that the customer receives the promise. Note: Reference Jim Collins “The Power of the Catalytic Mechanism”, Harvard Business Review

4) How do you build trust within your business and with your customers? What are the communication and relationship actions that you will take.

5) What is the BHAG (big, hairy, audacious goal) that you want to accomplish while being in this business. Looking ahead as much as ten or fifteen years, what is that stretch that creates a sense of purpose and excitement? This is a measureable goal so that there are Key Performance indicators that will demonstrate that you are moving toward that goal.
A couple of good examples of this:

• I have a client who is building the public train system in an Asian country.  He says his BHAG is to up- grade business practices to bring in more integrity in all business.
• Another European client wants to up- grade business in his country so that people recognize they are accountable and cannot blame others when their success does not meet their vision.

I’ll continue to share solutions that can be created to scale-up your business in sustainable and innovative ways in my next post.

As always, if you have a question, challenge, or success story you would like to share, please be sure to leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you! – Patricia

I can guarantee as you give this more attention, particularly as you move into planning for year ahead, you will find that leadership teamwork, as well as cross functional collaborative leadership conversations, will be more successful.

As you build your listening skills it becomes easier to create a greater connection between you and your colleagues. It is not necessary to inquire about their personal lives to be connected. In fact that can be disconcerting. It is more a matter of being interested in who they are and how they think about what is being discussed. So often in conversation we think about what we are saying without paying attention to the interactive process. The key to engagement is in knowing what the other person thinks and giving the space for them to say that.

Essential communication which includes time for connection is something that has parameters and needs focus. Time is at a premium so intentional conversations are important.

How many of you are using the open-door policy?

This is often seen as the way to create a sense of availability and connection. My opinion is that this is a false premise that can create inefficiency, block high performance and impede effective communication. There are several aspects of the open-door policy that I would like to discuss as a way of introducing more efficiency and effective meeting time.

A few years ago I was asked to coach the COO of a large regional bank. I was coaching the President, CEO, and several senior vice presidents on the leadership team. One of the COO’ s stated goals for our coaching engagement was time management because he was consistently taking work home in the evenings and over the weekend. In addition, and more important, he was quiet at the top leadership meetings and felt unseen and out of communication with the CEO.

As we discussed his view of his job and the important priorities he had developed, he began to talk about his open-door policy. As you might imagine, he was extremely well liked by all and spent his day getting interrupted constantly. This to me is an example of the collaborative leadership premise that states that one of the least successful modes used for communication is the “drop-in meeting.”

In our initial conversations, I became aware of his caring and his expertise. In addition he had some innovative and expansive ideas for the development of the bank that he had not shared with his peers, the President or the CEO of the bank. He had developed a sense of inadequacy because of his lack of time to focus on preparation for the executive leadership meetings.

We all appreciate a sense of control over our lives, but in reality the “drop-in” creates interruption, a lack of preparation, and can lengthen into a long period of time where the person who has dropped in has abdicated her responsibility for reflection, research and decision making.

As I worked with my client we set up a new routine which called for having his available hours posted on the door so that appointments could be made for those times. A positive consequence of this routine was that the members of his team began to talk more to each other and to arrive at his office with more organized thinking and with decisions for approval rather than beginning discussions.

In addition, he was able to organize his day and set aside time on the calendar for thought projects that he wanted to do, which also gave him confidence to discuss his ideas in the Executive Leadership meetings. The latter created a greater sense of executive presence and value for him which served to enhance his presence as a top leader.

If you have been experiencing interruptions and a feeling at the end of the day that you did not drive any of your priorities consider changing the open door. This is just one, easy to change, performance tip that can have many positive consequences for your colleagues, and for your team.

Do you have any questions, challenges, or successes you would like to share? Please be sure to leave a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you! – Patricia

I have been working with many clients using the Scaling Up Four Decisions Modality (People, Strategy, Cash, Execution), and continue to be impressed with the practicality, alignment and progress they are making using this methodology. In particular, the modality uses an effective meeting rhythm process which is an essential part of the Execution Decision and helps keep the organization aligned and moving forward. Meeting rhythms involve daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual meetings. Since we are approaching the time of year when annual meetings take place, I want to focus on the annual meeting in this article, and share with you the suggested approach from the Scaling Up Modality:

For your next Annual Meeting:

Establish Annual Planning Objectives:
1. Review prior quarters’ and years’ priorities, goals (KPI’s- Key Performance Indicators) and lessons learned
2. Review key elements in your 3-5 year strategy and KPI/s to measure progress—discuss and update (Strategy Decision)
3. Discuss culture (People Decision) people and organization for next year. Create a plan, especially in the area of fun
4. Functional accountability and core processes
5. Build Annual Plan for next year (Here is a one-page strategic plan.)

Make sure all top leadership members are there and accountable.

Ground Rules:
• Confront the facts “brutal honesty”
• Identify and solve problems —“no shame, no blame”
• Spirited debate “disagree and commit.” Alignment does not necessarily mean agreement
• Prior Preparation leads to excellence

Agenda: The following are important agenda items to include in the meeting:
• Everyone shares their own agenda for the meeting and their personal expectations
• Bright spots of the year
• Review team core values
• Review team health
• Look at essential functions of the healthy team
• Review strata of strategy and completion of each item
• Goals—top 5 priorities

The agenda continues, but this provides a good beginning look.

Your meetings will be much more effective if you master all of the Scaling Up Four Decisions that are essential to growth and progress for your business:
• People
• Strategy
• Cash
• Execution

People: The focus is on senior leadership team health: the right people, the true essentials of their role, and accountability. Five functions for a healthy team are:
1. Trust
2. Willingness to conflict
3. Commitment to group goals
4. Accountability
5. Attention to results

Strategy: Thinking about the future (3-5 year plan); a simple phrase that defines the organization’s purpose and core values-one that everyone in the organization knows, understands and can easily repeat; spend time throughout the year on strategic thinking.

Cash: Cash is like oxygen for the business and the cash flow is a vital component of continued growth that can enlighten you and your team, as well as improve cash position.

Execution: Planning for the year, quarter, month and week. This is different than strategic thinking as you establish priorities, metrics and meeting rhythms which are essential for successful execution.

You can find more information in Scaling Up , as well as at Gazelles which has public tools for growth available for download.

Would you like help exploring if a team leadership project would benefit your organization? Please contact me to set up a time to talk.

Do you have a question, challenge or success with conducting an annual meeting you’d like to share? Please be sure to leave a comment – I’d enjoy hearing from you.

~ Patricia

“Good to Great” author Jim Collins feels that People are the most critical of the Rockefeller Four Decisions as a means to successfully grow a business. Collins said, “First who, then what.” The results of having the right people “on the bus” can be seen throughout many dimensions of a business, yet it’s most easily recognized in the fulfillment of the team, the resonance of company culture and in how happy people are to come to work.

As the quote above states, the What in your business is secondary to the Who. This refers to individual accountability and performance, as well as the willingness to be accountable to the team and to the business as a whole. The Four Decision Scaling Up Methodology uses alignment and team health, along with strategic actions that can be taken to move toward stated goals. In fact, team alignment and strategy are fashioned together and work in tandem.

Here are some beginning questions to ask yourself and your leadership team to determine if you have the right people in place who are aligned, accountable and performing:

• Do you (and key members around you) enjoy the people with whom you work?
• Are your teammates invested in performance and the success of the company?
• Do they share a passion for your company’s key purpose?

Identifying core values will cast light on what is important and valued within the company. From there, leaders can begin to witness and evaluate which team members’ core values align with the company’s – and which do not. This will be made evident via individuals’ dedication and commitment. How you might ask? Committed and aligned team members often volunteer for projects or work late, of their own accord. If an employee is bolting for the door as the clock chimes five, then odds are good that it’s not a great fit.

I’ve talked in depth about the importance of communication in real time and the development of meeting rhythms as actions that support the communication. Once you have the right people in place it’s vital that you keep the team health; aligned, engaged and motivated. An important aspect of the focus on People is making the Purpose and the Core Values of the organization important and a subject that is addressed on a regular basis through meeting rhythms. It is vital that leaders understand the importance of managing results by making effective meetings a first priority.

I’m currently working with a communications company that has been in the Scaling Up process for six months and is making the bridge to honest and forthright communication leading to alignment. An interesting example was brought up recently by the CEO – one of the teams within the organization is not having meetings, and the mistrust and neglect of important issues is becoming severe. When a weekly or daily meeting is neglected because of a client meeting, or any other reason, it becomes an issue that will continually sabotage success. A meeting with a client, he said, does not replace the staff meeting because their mistrust and poor communication continue. And, the effectiveness of meeting with clients is increased by over 100% when the team meets effectively themselves. Often processes with the clients take longer when staffs are not in communication except in client meetings. The communication ability of the team with each other is enacted with clients.

Are you experiencing a similar challenge with your team(s)? The most important first step you can take is to make communication a top priority. The second is to establish meeting rhythms – schedule regular meeting times instead of impromptu as a result of a problem or a crisis. Regular meetings help you create processes, review progress, and get in front of problems before they become a crisis. For more information on Meeting Rhythms be sure to read my previous article: “How Can You, And Your Teams, Create Growth, Accountability and Alignment.”

As always, if you have a question, challenge, or success story you would like to share, please be sure to leave a comment. Also, if you are interested in an opportunity to experience this methodology, please let me know. I would enjoy hearing from you! – Patricia