Business Design and the Rise of the Toolsmiths

Responding to the complex and challenging environment most businesses are operating in today is about being adaptive, agile and nimble. 

But the trouble is, most of us are using tools that are from a bygone era. That's dated, rigid and stuck!

My sketch video and visual image this week looks at mutations, stories and visualisation. These are the tools of today. 

Join this "Rise of the Toolsmiths" and make sure you're equipped to respond!

Do you do the things successful people do?

Of the many lists and hints on how to be successful, the 12 things successful people do before breakfast by Jenna Gourdreau in Entrepreneur magazine was … quite tasty!

 
My visual this week is a pictorial reminder, based on the article (which was based on the book of similar name by Laura Vanderkam.)
 
Here they are… 12 things to do before breakfast:



Who could remember the written list after reading it?

The picture I sketched and doodled helps me recall the tips with greater ease… certainly in the early hours of the morning!
 
As always, visuals do a lot of the heavy lifting for you when there's detail or complexity at play.

Pictures help people hear each other… when they're not listening. 

Visuals help people digest smaller pieces of information and make for a more engaging piece of communication than a spreadsheet, data pack or dump of information.
 
How can you help the people you're working with at the moment to digest some of your important information more easily?
 
 

Do you do the things successful people do?

Of the many lists and hints on how to be successful, the 12 things successful people do before breakfast by Jenna Gourdreau in Entrepreneur magazine was … quite tasty!

 
My visual this week is a pictorial reminder, based on the article (which was based on the book of similar name by Laura Vanderkam.)
 
Here they are… 12 things to do before breakfast:



Who could remember the written list after reading it?

The picture I sketched and doodled helps me recall the tips with greater ease… certainly in the early hours of the morning!
 
As always, visuals do a lot of the heavy lifting for you when there's detail or complexity at play.

Pictures help people hear each other… when they're not listening. 

Visuals help people digest smaller pieces of information and make for a more engaging piece of communication than a spreadsheet, data pack or dump of information.
 
How can you help the people you're working with at the moment to digest some of your important information more easily?
 
 

Breakthrough and Backcast

I remember a Qantas Airlines business advertisement on TV a few years ago. It went like this: a clichéd facilitator was looking at a business team and asking "where are we now, where do we want to go, how will we get there?"

Fairly staid questions - typical of most strategy conversations and planning sessions. A big yawn - o! 

The problem with this thinking is it's so very limiting to possibilities. If we're only dealing with where we are at now, of course our future dreams will be framed by that starting point. Our future thinking is going to be shaped by the steps - challenging or otherwise - that got us here.

Breakthrough thinking - and backcasting - take a different approach. It suggests you go forward, waaaaay forward to where you want to end up...your end goal. Then work backwards and ask : What did you do just before achieving that end goal? What was the step before that, and the step before that, before that, before that... it looks like this:

What happens is, it takes us further than forecasting. We can be more adventurous. We will take bigger risks and larger steps. We will create a list of 'next steps' and actions that are more aptly focused on how that end goal was achieved ... not how (unachievable?) the end goal looks from here, now.

The visual template I use with teams to get them breaking through and backcasting is here in this enews for you. Click and save the template above or sketch out your own.  

To help you achieve your goal - any goal at all, fundraising, publishing a book, garden design, being appointed to a board, setting up a share portfolio, staring a new business... breakthrough and backcast. Don't plod along and forecast! Breakthrough and backcast. 

And the Qantas Airlines advertisement? The rest of it went like this: just as quickly as the corny facilitator was saying 'where do we want to go' etc, one of the (naturally, bored) participants had logged on to the airline's website and booked his flights. So quick to decide and act on things like that these days, but longer to get your strategy and steps in place using traditional, old school thinking. 

I think breakthrough thinking and backcasting are a must for your project, team and business. Pick up an old school marker and get to grips with breaking through on that goal you've got you're eyes on!

Mints, water, agenda. Where are the outcomes?

There's coffee on arrival, mints in little bowls, jugs of fresh water and an agenda on the tables - a gathering of the team for a strategy or team session. Perhaps it's a day or two, or you're fortunate enough to escape off-site in an effort to get fresh perspective and avoid workplace distractions.

The strategy or team session is a big investment of people, time, preparation, accommodation, travel, catering, audio visual support, time away from your role .... and on and on.

But simply getting people in the one venue and heading into the agenda doesn't get the best out of the group or that investment.

There are 7 problems I see with strategy and team sessions and they can all be avoided with pre-planning, creative input and the right resources. When I'm facilitating high-value strategy and team sessions for clients and providing input into agenda design before the event, there are key things I work to avoid. The difference in the feel and running of the session is certainly noticeable ... but the impact on outcomes achieved can be extreme.

The problems are in my new whitepaper - The 7 Problems with Strategy and Teams Sessions... and what to do about them.

Read it and act on it before you get the team together.