Putting STEAM In STEM

There is a big push in education and business around Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, or STEM. In parallel, there is a movement to put Art into that acronym (thus STEAM). There is controversy around it and opinions swirl.

The purpose of the STEM movement I have seen is to promote technical careers to under-represented groups (namely women and people of color). If that is true, including the Arts dilutes that. My experience is that women and other historically disenfranchised groups are well represented in art.  Even creative businesses, like advertising and marketing communications, is heavily populated by women. Perhaps that isn’t the case in more traditional fine art roles or in related fields like architecture. But in any event, I wondered if adding Art didn’t de-focus the emphasis on the hard sciences that STEM was meant to promote.

That said, I am a believer of the power at the intersection of art and science.  Design and technology is what drives adoption. Creativity is required, especially in the dynamic world of technology propelled by innovation. I am not opposed to STEAM, in fact, I have lived it in my own life and career.

• Hailing from a family of artists, I grew up exposed to live music, theater, and visual arts
• Even in technical roles of digital demand generation and product strategy, carving out time to redesign our office environment and building experience centers
• Creating a new category of architectural video walls enabling the sculptural and non-linear use of video screens as a finish material
• Actively partnering with video artists, licensed fine artist work for use on digital canvases, and promoted at places like Art Basel and Design Week in New York and Miami
• Introducing new digital visualization technologies with groups like TEDxPortland and the Society for Experiential Design (SEGD)
• Writing and delivering courses, certified for AIA continuing education, about video wall technologies
• With empathy for customers, pioneering the use of virtual reality and visualization tools for the marketing of digital products in physical spaces
• Being named on a patent for an interactive touchscreen technology
• Rolling out identity systems and serving as the creative and UX lead for a number of projects
• ·As a student of history, marveling at the technical innovations which artists have pioneered in the field of material science, color, and perception

What do you think about STEM vs STEAM? 

How have you used art in your work as a technologist, or visa versa?

Photo courtesy of USDigitalLiteracy

Jennifer Presents at Virtual Keynote on Sales and Marketing Alignment

It's a classic Dilbert cartoon plot line and sadly is very common in so many companies: misalignment between marketing and sales causing waste, confusion, distrust, and poor customer experience.

Whether you are a CEO, head of marketing, or head of sales, find out what misalignment may be costing you and steps you can take to bring the customer back into the center of your business strategy and get sales and marketing working together in active partnership to grow the business.

See a recent presentation that I gave for OnConferences here.

Align or Die: 4 Reasons To Align Sales And Marketing Now

This article was originally published on Forbes.

It’s the chronic, and often fatal, disease of business: sales and marketing misalignment.  I, like you, have seen it done well and poorly in my career as marketing leader and CMO. I have also experienced the impact of poor alignment myself, as a consumer and as a customer of B2B goods and services. Although it has been an issue since the creation of the modern enterprise, there are reasons to believe that this chronic disease is getting more deadly.

1. Your Customers Are Changing

An increasing percentage of your customers, even technical buyers in B2B product categories, are wanting to disintermediate your sales team and gather information about products and services online and on their own, according to Forrester. In 2017, the percentage of customers expressing this “don’t call me, I’ll call you” preference was 68%. This represents a 28% increase over the 2015 survey just two years earlier. In fact, only 16% said that they find interacting with a sales rep superior to self-service research.

Mary Shea, Ph.D., principal analyst at Forrester Research , said it even more strongly. “If marketing and sales aren’t aligned and if they don’t collaborate, they will be disintermediated. By buyers themselves who find other ways to get what they need or by more agile competitors," she challenged.

The data would suggest it is already happening.  This puts more pressure on marketing to facilitate increasingly sophisticated customers through a funnel (or around a pin-ball machine, to depict it more accurately) without direct engagement with sales.

2. Misalignment Hurts Your Customers

Forty-three percent of B2B marketing decision-makers report that their companies have lost sales as a consequence of not having necessary content at the right time for a specific customer and 77% of the rest have experienced costly delays, according to Forrester (Q1 2017 International B2B Marketing Panel).

This is further complicated by the fact that more people are involved in the decision-making process than before. Committees, panels, and groups are replacing individuals and making it more difficult to identify the influencers and meet all their needs. This is certainly true in B2B sales, but even consumers are sharing their e-commerce or subscription accounts with more people in their household and decision-making processes can fragment at home, too.

Despite this, shockingly, only 24% of organizations calibrate on the definition of target segments or accounts that will apply to both the sales and marketing organizations (per Forrester’s Q1 2018 Marketing Benchmark survey). How can we jointly hit a target, if there is more than one?

This lack of alignment is hurting your customers and impacting your top line.

3. You Are Wasting Money And Time

Sangram Vajre, chief evangelist at Terminus and former head of marketing at Pardot (now owned by SalesForce.com), asked a provocative question: “if only 1% of leads convert to opportunities, does that mean that 99% of marketing is wasted?”

Of course, it’s an unfair question as marketing is often responsible for strategy, channel, brand building, communications, and community engagement which may not directly relate to lead conversion, but if there isn’t cooperation on customer acquisition, where else in value chain might alignment be broken?

“Without shared goals and real-time data sets to drive decisions and investment prioritization, you have to wait for feedback from sales which may be late, anecdotal and with an agenda,” added Shea. “Marketing leaders can, and should, know what content, sales tools and campaigns are driving growth.”

If there is any doubt about what is driving your growth, then undoubtedly you are wasting time and money and that is impacting your bottom line. A bottom line that is getting more attention.

4. Your Boss Cares About It – Deeply

Forty-eight percent of CEOs say that poor alignment and collaboration will be a major marketing challenge over the next 12 months, according to Forrester. And those CEOs are looking hard at CMOs to lead the improvements.

The tenure of chief marketing officers is one of the shortest in the C-suite (per Korn Ferry) and there will be continued pressure and accountability around alignment, especially in times of transformation and change. Vajre agreed that high CMO turnover could be a sign of poor sales and marketing alignment. “If sales fall and budgets are squeezed, everyone pays,” he observed.

Shea concluded that “if you are doing sales and marketing the same way you did 3-5 years ago, you won’t survive.”

Now is the time to take your business’ vital signs and ensure that you have the alignment that you need to sustain and grow, putting your customer in the center of your strategy. As a starting point, look for evidence of customer preference changes in your business, create a common goal set and customer target, use real-time data for decision-making, and regularly report on joint progress.

Jennifer to Contribute to Forbes

Starting this month, I will begin contributing for Forbes.com writing about customer-centric marketing and the alignment of sales and marketing. My work for the CMO Network will highlight who does it best and what we can learn from their success.

You will be able to access all my articles and follow my work here.

I am very excited about writing for Forbes.com, as this topic has the potential to impact so many businesses and their customers. We've all seen it done well and done poorly and had it impact our experience as a consumer or business customer.

Knowing that every company and organization has room to improve, I will be focusing on success stories from across a wide variety of industries, organization types, and business models. I want to use this column to amplify best practices that have helped build brand, serve customers, and facilitated growth.   

Even before my first article is published, I have already had the privilege of interviewing top researchers in the field, as well as practitioners in marketing, sales, and general management leadership roles.  I am anxious to share what I am learning along the way.  Follow my articles, like, comment, and share which will help direct me to how I can help you become better at your craft.

I am also mindful and grateful of my friends, colleagues, and mentors, and now my editors, who have so generously helped me make this platform possible. Special thanks to Moira Vetter with ModoModo, Dan Bruton, Susan Clark, and Kami Toufar especially in their encouragement along the way. 

As leaders and customer advocates, we have an opportunity and responsibility to continue to  learn from the best and develop ourselves and our teams to better serve our customers. I sincerely hope that my articles help and inspire you in this worthy mission.

P.S.  If you know of companies or organizations who align internally and focus on customers particularly well, I welcome your recommendations and introductions. They can connect with me on my blog, Twitter or LinkedIn. As this is a side endeavor for me, and there is much ground to cover, I ask in advance for your patience with me as I follow up on these recommendations. 

Jennifer Shares Hiring Strategies in Virtual Keynote

Marketing holds the potential to drive business strategy and growth for the long-term, but only if you have the right talent in your organization. 

I had a chance to share some thoughts and techniques on how to hire marketers with great strategic thinking and business skills to build out your leadership teams.  This keynote presentation is now available on OnConferences, a virtual conference featuring business leaders across multiple industries and functional disciplines.

In this talk, I share the advice I give to CEOs when they are hiring marketing talent.  This same advice applies up and down the organization to make sure you have the strategic horsepower to fuel your growth.

On Leadership

“Be the leader people would kill for, not want to kill.” – Trish Mueller

For more on leadership, check out "The Momentum of Business."

Hire Your Own Manager

When an organization needs to add leadership, especially in times of growth and change, the process is fairly straightforward: the senior leader crafts a job and gets help from HR or an executive recruiter to find the best candudate. But what if it worked differently?

What if you helped recruit and hire your own boss?

It is not uncommon for staff to be involved in the interview process and some companies incent employees for referrals, but I am thinking beyond that. What if you thought about what you wanted in a manager and what you thought the business needed in a leader, and actively helped recruit that person into your organization?

Here is 7 reasons why reverse recruiting makes sense. 

1.      You can make sure there is a fit

Each person comes to the job with certain strengths and interests. You have yours and your colleagues have theirs. Who better to recommend the kind of leader that will compliment and cultivate these strengths than you? What are you looking to develop and in what areas do you want to be mentored? Hiring your boss is a great way to ensure that you are getting what you need from your career. It is a wonderful thing when the development path of individual employees and the business needs align, for a long time. And being involved in hiring your manager can start building this tenure and growth into your career at your current employer.

2.      You can be more successful

If you select the manager that is the right mix of mentor and challenger, you will be successful which will translate into more opportunities for you, and your colleagues. And if there is a good fit and complimentary skills, you may find yourself being able to focus on the parts of your job that you excel at, making you even more successful longer term.

3.      You will be happier

Extensive research, like this article in Forbes, has been done on why people leave companies and the analysis shows that people rarely leave companies, they leave managers. Employee engagement begins, and can end, here. Your direct manager has more impact on your job satisfaction than virtually any other factor in your work life, more than compensation, work environment, or specific responsibilities. Choosing wisely, can have an impact on your life, stress-levels, and overall career success.

4.      You position yourself as a leader

Let’s say you are a senior marketing director for a company who needs a Chief Marketing Officer, a Controller, or a head of operations at your company. Do you want to wait until the CEO appoints a new leader or brings in a few final candidates for you to interview or should you be more proactive? To make a recommendation for a new hire is a risk, but no matter how they ultimately end up doing in the role, you having a conversation with leaders in your company to make suggestions on what they should hire and giving them some people to consider, helps position you as a leader and someone committed to the cause of growth.  If you go proactively to the CEO to find out more about the role and how you can help recruit the best candidate, it shows that you are a committed, ambitious, and high-performing employee who connected in the community.

5.      You learn more about your business and the objectives of your boss

When you ask senior leadership what they are looking for in a new hire and how their performance will be evaluated, you are getting a fresh perspective on what a successful candidate might look like and how you can help them be successful once they are onboard. Many functional leaders or individual contributors are surprised to hear how much of their boss’ performance measures are based on things like enterprise value (ie, stock price, market share) rather than on successful execution of activities. This perspective can make you a better leader in the business, as well, able to tie your own activities with the overall business goals.

6.      You can influence the company

Those conversations about the role and success measures, can also put you in a position of influence. What is missing from the job description that you think is critical, but that the hiring manager might not be aware? What competencies would make this person successful leading your team? Want more diversity in your organization? Hire a woman or person of color. Ask what is changing in the function or market that might cause the company to want to adapt what they are looking for and recommend accordingly.

7.      You broaden your network

When helping to recruit, don’t stop with the people you already know. It is always better to build your network before you need it and there is no better way to do so than to reach out to see if people are interested in working for your company. You have something to offer them. If they aren’t interested, they might know someone who is who they can introduce you to. Ask your college professors for recommendations, see who serve on non-profit boards that you respect, attend networking meetings or industry association events and ask around. Scour LinkedIn. Referrals will lead to referrals and pretty soon you have met a dozen people who might be your next boss, at your current employer if things go well, or elsewhere in the future. Or maybe some of them may go to work for you someday.

In his book, Under New Management, David Burkus describes how teams are built at IDEO, the legendary industrial design firm. The teams pick their leader, the leader doesn’t pick the teams. The talent gets to pick their place in the organization chart, under the manager and on the projects that make the most sense to them. Managers who find themselves without teams, can’t execute projects and are probably not in the organization long. I imagine those with too many employees, find themselves with more interesting work and bigger responsibilities and reward. What started as an experiment years ago, still permeates the culture. Perhaps it is time for your organization to do an experiment of its own.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn Pulse.

Purpose

“Even evil people stand for something.” – Andy Cunningham

Hear My Talk on Marketing Mob

I participated in a podcast with Marketing Mob on February 13th.  Watch the recording here.

Story Is Strategy

“The role of the modern leader is turning data into stories and focusing actions and resources to these stories.  Story is strategy.” – Jennifer Davis

What is the Grit in Your Oyster?

Daniel Ek, the Swedish entrepreneur and technologist best known as the co-founder of Spotify, recently tweeted “I can't think of anyone I admire who isn't fueled by self-doubt. It's an essential ingredient. It's the grit in the oyster. It's the passion, perseverance, and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality.” 

I love the picture that paints of an oyster, wrapping an irritation in layers of protection until the pearl is created.  Without the pain, you don’t get the pearl.  Come to find out, oysters are not self-motivated.  And the same may be true for us.  It’s self-doubt, not confidence that is the essential ingredient.

Made me wonder what other seemingly negative emotions might actually motivate great success, fueling you to take action, approach problems differently, or creatively seek alternatives.  It is said that necessity (ie, need, want) is the mother of invention.  The same could be set about a great number of other negative things.  Here are several that you might agree have played a role in your own achievement, either in yourself or others:

-        Pain (as opposed to comfort)

-        People pleasing (as opposed to independence)

-        Anxiety (as opposed to calm)

-        Noise (as opposed to quiet)

-        Hunger (as opposed to being satisfied)

-        Close-mindedness (as opposed to openness)

-        Complexity (as opposed to simplicity)

-        Slowness (as opposed to speed)

-        Rigidity (as opposed to flexibility)

-        Fear (as opposed to trust)

-        Doubt (as opposed to certainty)

-        Exclusion (rather than involvement)

-        Discontent (rather than contentment)

Each of us have our own internal motivations.  The ones above are often dismissed or rejected as being entirely negative, when you encounter them in yourself or others, but they can be the grit in the oyster that helps you achieve success.  But only if you learn how to harness their lessons, with stamina and perseverance, all the way to the harvest. 

This article was originally published on LInkedIn Pulse.

Leaders Don't Manage People

“Leaders don’t manage people, they manage energy.” – Cy Wakeman

And the first energy they manage is their own. 

For more on leadership, check out Backing into the Future: 4 Ways to Make Change Work.

In the News

Jennifer joined other professionals across the AV and integrated experience industries on a recent podcast of The AV Life to talk about Women of Avixa.

See the Media Coverage page for other examples of articles and podcasts.

Join Jennifer and Atlanta Area CMOs

This member-only and guest event is an informal dinner with chief marketing officers at companies across industries in Atlanta, Georgia.

Beginning the New Year in Print

I am honored to be a featured alumni in Pepperdine University's first ever distinguished alumni book along side other alumni of the business school who are leading companies across the country and the world.  Thank you to Dean Deryck J. van Rensburg and the entire staff and faculty for all they do to help students achieve the "best for the world."

Are You My Customer: a simple question that demands a strategic answer

It’s the holiday season and in the final countdown, it seems everyone is a customer. But in the world of business-to-business commerce, the basic question is oft debated in board rooms and strategy meetings: who is our customer? 

I often jokingly respond that the right answer to “who is our customer?” is “yes.” Especially if you sell complex solutions or through channel partners. But who’s voice is loudest in your “voice of the customer” that speaks into your offerings and strategies?

Seems simple enough, but for those of us who sell through channel partners or distributors or have products used by different people than those who buy, it can be a tricky question which requires a nuanced and highly strategic answer.  For instance, who is the “customer” of a diagnostic display used to detect cancer? The hospital CIO or the radiologist who uses it every day or the patient who benefits from the early diagnosis. Who is the “customer” of a publisher of a complex enterprise software tool that sell through consultants who add necessary professional services to provide a solution to the companies they find, cultivate, and service? Who is the “customer” of a lighting company who is marketed by independent reps, specified by architects, purchased through distribution by contractors, programmed by lighting designers, and maintained by corporate facilities departments or property managers? Or what about advertising-based models, where the “customer” (who is paying for advertising) and the “user” (who would really rather not have ads) are inherently at odds. The definitions of a customer can be dizzying.

And adding to this confusion is changing market dynamics in many industries. Management consultants will want to analyze profit pools to make channel optimization recommendations, all the while experienced sales people appreciate the loyalty of existing partners while market disrupters disintermediate channels using technology. Integrators, resellers, and dealers are consolidating in many markets. And manufacturers and service providers are left wondering whether their routes to market are efficient enough and capable of serving the needs of the end users effectively. And for strategic reasons, you must be informed by the past, but look to the future.

When you are start into a “who is my customer?” conversation, which can devolve into academic exercises and tribal territory defensiveness, here are three questions that should be asked to provide actionable clarity.

1.     Who sees the most value in our offering?

No matter where you are in the supply chain, there is someone out there that appreciates the value that you are producing between your “raw materials” and “finished goods.” So, who best appreciates what your product or services do and sees the productivity improvements, cost savings, or other tangible or intangible benefits of your offering? This may or may not be the entity with whom you are directly transacting. It is often likely to be a specifier or end user, but it could be a channel partner who sees your offering as part of their solution and ability to differentiate against their competition. The answer to this question has huge implications on product management, pricing strategies, and overall business approach. If the people that see the most value, are not in a position to pay for it, then it is difficult to monetize the differentiation you have built into your offering. And, of course, your offering today might not be what you are bring to market in the future and this discussion about who values and can afford the differentiation you are offering is a good input into your product roadmap.

I have lead products whose primary value proposition was to help integrator partners generate more profit with easier installation and easier service features. End users of the system didn’t necessarily have visibility to these features and were not willing to pay more, but the resellers and installers preferred the product strongly and were able to shape demand effectively and maintain a price premium. In other businesses, the value propositions are for the end user, and the channels are just there to fulfill demand created directly by the brand and help the brand influence at the point of purchase.

2.     Who best represents independent demand for our offerings?

One of the arguments for supporting channel partners is that they have customer relationships and can influence transactions to the point that they are essentially a customer and can take their business (or more precisely, the business of their captive customers) virtually anywhere they want. When Costco decides that they will only accept American Express, Visa and MasterCard are locked out and Costco members sign up for American Express credit cards. When Dell selects TechData for a multi-year distribution contract, Dell’s customers don’t know or care where their computer peripherals are being sourced. So, if you are PC peripheral brand who sells through distribution, who is your customer? In contract, when a homeowner calls their trusted “AV guy” to set up a home theater, they expect to hear recommendations and purchase product, even from brands they have never seen advertised. And when demand generation budgets are tight, it is very tempting to leverage channels (which you can pay in margin) to build demand that you otherwise can’t afford to cultivate on your own. Some channels are great at creating and shaping demand and others are best at fulfilling demand created by brands or manufacturers. 

I have seen incredible wealth created in partnership with channels who can create category and build demand. And I have seen other channels that can’t create demand on their own at all. Depending on your industry and the level of commodification, there may not independent demand represented by your channel partners, in which case you are not selling “to” channels as much as you are selling “through.” This question has huge implications on how demand generation money is invested.

3.     Do we transact with the most efficient partners to fulfill the demand?

During the consumer-driven holiday season, the challenges of the “who is my customer” question is well illustrated. In this season, we are consumers, but we are gift givers. We are transacting for others. Purchasing gifts that we might not have specified nor will we use.  Your 80-year-old grandmother might not be the best prospect to put on the mailing list of a skateboard shop, even though that is where she purchased a gift for her grandson this year. Even though she technically was the one writing the check. Gift givers are like the purchasing department at a company, who might be listed in the manufacturer’s database as the customer, but in fact, are not actual customers. Or like the role of a reseller or dealer who may just be taking orders and don’t have a real ability to make product recommendations or command any customer loyalty. They might not represent independent demand. They might just be an intermediary. And as an intermediary are they effectively and efficiently playing their role in the value chain? Are you paying a reseller a large margin percentage to transact orders you have cultivated yourself? Are you absorbing service costs because your channel can not service their customers effectively? 

These questions might lead you to answer the “who is my customer?” question with more purpose and confidence. The answer might not just be “yes” (ie, end users, channel partners, specifiers, influencers are all my customers), but it might be “no” (that we need to focus on just one or two of these groups to have the maximum impact). In fact, the real test of strategy is what you are saying “no” to and narrowing the voice of the customer and your definition of who you serve is a great place to start.

These are just a few of the questions that I have found most insightful when discussing channel strategies and customer experience approaches.  I would love to hear your ideas as well, so leave a comment or engage on my blog (www.atjenniferdavis.com) to continue the discussion. I wish you all a warm and wonderful holiday season!

Cover image is a parody of “Are You My Mother?” book, a classic children's book by PD Eastman.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn Pulse.

3 Way to be the Plot Twist We Have Been Waiting For

You may have seen the tweet that has been going around that reads “may the last few months of 2017 be the plot twist you have been waiting for.” When I first heard it, I laughed and thought it perfectly captured what many of us have been feeling. When we reflect on this year, many of us don’t like the plot line. We certainly could use less uncertainty and a bit more “happily ever after.”

Economists Scott Baker (from Northwestern University), Nick Bloom (Stanford), and Steven Davis (University of Chicago) have developed something they call the Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) index to measure the uncertainty that affects how businesses invest. In the US, they measure things like news content showing uncertainty, tax code provisions nearing expiration in the coming period, and disagreements among economists and forecasters. If there is great diversity among what people are saying, what people are seeing, and what people are predicting, the index shows that there is more uncertainty and research shows that uncertainty keeps businesses from investing in new hires, facilities, or equipment. In short, uncertainty keeps people waiting and watching. 

But what about uncertainty on a personal level? Here are three ways that you can counter-act the effect of uncertainty to be the change we want to see.

1.     Don’t wait to act

If there is policy uncertainty, leadership ambiguity, or unknown results from effort, it is human nature to sit back and wait to see how things play out. It leads to risk aversion. Leaning into ambiguity is messy and can lead to change fatigue. But waiting has huge productivity implications. Waiting not only affects your work output, but how you feel about your work. Not the one should be reckless or act foolish, but we all know that one can lean too far back in these situations and not take actions we know that in any circumstance are beneficial. There is a phrase attributed to Goethe (or an ambitious and free-wheeling translator) which reads: “What you can do, or dream you can, begin it: boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” This phrase sat above my desk for years and I think that is does have power. If you wait to do something you know to know, then that lack of forward action has long-standing ramifications. 

2.     Commit to investing

In times of uncertainty, a lot of energy is focused on self-protection and survival. But this is precisely the time that you need to look outside yourself and invest in others. Your teammates, colleagues, and friends are feeling the same, or possibly even more, uncertainty than you and some reassurance, encouragement, or direction from you could make all the difference in their productivity and feeling of accomplishment. Don’t neglect your role as a leader, no matter your position, in times of uncertainty. Continue to support the causes close to you. Continue to mentor others. It is precisely in times of uncertainty that others need you more than ever. Be generous with your time and expertise and all the ways you invest in your community.

3.     Over-communicate

Closely related to #1 and #2 above, the first casualty in times of uncertainty can be communication. You might simply not know what to say or have answers to the questions that you think people will be asking. But your lack of communication will not keep people from asking questions. They will, in fact, ask more. And human nature will fill in the answers with fear or doubt. No one ever speculates that good is going on behind closed doors. They will assume the worst. Don’t let the reality of uncertainty lead to people feeling with certainty that bad things are going on or about to play out. So, commit to communicate and then rinse and repeat until you feel you are over-communicating. It is at that point, that people might be finally hearing you.

We are in unprecedented times. The perception of political tension, both in our country and abroad, and the social divisions are running high. Our businesses face new and aggressive competition, our customers have more choices than ever, it is getting harder to find and retain key talent, and it is easy to let that uncertainty get the best of us. Stress can run rampant in these times. We are in the final months of a year which has been marked by natural disasters, human tragedies, and upheaval. There are lots of reasons for uncertainty, but also for hope. 

I sincerely hope that YOU are the plot twist that we have been waiting for and that we all stop WAITING and do what we know to do, or dream to do, now.

Originally published on LinkedIn Pulse.

On the Future

“In its essence, leadership is about learning how to shape the future.  Leadership exists when people are no longer victims of circumstances, but participate in creating their new circumstances.” - Peter Senge

How do you protect what you value when the world is changing?

Process is like the armor of your business.  It needs to be strong enough to protect you from risk, but light enough that you can move quickly and fight the competition.  

We sign contracts to buy a home, but only after detailed inspections and an appraisal.  We do preventative maintenance on our cars.  Our governments have committees drafting legislation and Roberts Rule of Order to keep senate hearings in line.  Traditions and habits are the processes of our families and they build identity and security.  And our businesses have operating systems that provide structure to our decisions and cadence to our activities.  All of this is valuable and has a place.  But one has to constantly rethink the design of that armor and whether it fits the purpose.

The medieval armor used in jousting competition was fine, when the rules were understood, the time for the battle was set, and you could see the enemy approaching from a distance.  Many businesses enjoyed that kind of competitive stability in the past.  Today's business battles are fought and won against unknown and known competitors, working on unpredictable time frames, and coming out of no where.  This requires more nimbleness, speed, agility, flexibility, and empowerment. 

Process can still protect you and plays a key role in your competitive success.  Just not the same processes.

Good Talk, Coach: 3 ways to inspire greatness

I overheard the half-time huddle at a soccer game this weekend.  The sweaty 11-year-olds were sitting on the grass when their coach gave them two simple pieces of advice:

1. “Girls, we always play strong in the second half,” he started.  “Let’s go out and do that.”
2. “Now that we switched sides at the half, our goal is in the shade.  So, let’s try to keep the ball in the shade.  We’ll score more and stay cool.”

“Good talk, coach,” I was thinking as I smirked at his no nonsense style and how we matched the length of his speech to the attention span of his pre-teen audience.

But later, I was thinking of the simplicity of his practical advice.  He did three things that good leaders should do in any environment, whether it be the soccer pitch or in the board room.  He gave them confidence (we always play strong in the back half), he gave them an easy-to-remember strategy to follow (stay in the shade), and he tied it to their own personal objectives (win and stay cool). 

If we could all do this in our own businesses and with our own teams, we would end up winning more often.