Strategy Central

10 Questions Every Change Agent Must Answer

Without question, one of the best reads I've had in the last 10 years was Bill Taylor's Mavericks at Work.  Easily one of the most marked up books on my shelf.  This morning one of his blog posts caught my eye: The 10 Questions Every Change Agent Must Answer

Are you a change agent?  I know...you may not have that title on a business card, but are you in the business of change?  It may be a wiring thing, but it's a rare day when I don't find myself face to face with the debris field where the ideas and strategies of yesterday have collided with the culture and values of tomorrow (or at least today).

One of the great lines from Taylor's article reads:

As Albert Einstein famously said, "Problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them." Or, in the spirit of some unknown Texas genius: "If all you ever do is all you've ever done, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

1. Do you see opportunities the competition doesn't see?  I know what you're thinking.  Get past the word "competition."  The key here is that to be a change agent requires thinking about possibility.
2. Do you have new ideas about where to look for new ideas?  The answers probably will be found in an arena that you're not in.  The game is changed when we're able to look outside our own field.
3. Are you the most of anything?  This can be true of every organization.  It's not about size.  It's about a customized future.
4. If your company went out of business tomorrow, who would miss you and why?  Enough said...this is a great question.  Worthy of an extended discussion.
5. Have you figured out how your organization's history can help to shape its future?  Another fascinating discussion.  Could it be that the best things from your past could serve to shape your future?
6. Can your customers live without you?  This may be why change is scary for many leaders.  I'd say there's no question that many of our organizations would eventually come around to say "yes."  And that might motivate some to change.
7. Do you treat different customers differently?  You've got to read Taylor's comment on this one.  Too good for me to give my take.  "One test of how committed a company is to its most important customers is how fearless it is about ignoring customers who aren't central to its mission. Not all customers are created equal."  Oh my.  That is why this is an important article.
8. Are you getting the best contributions from the most people?  Who is with you?  Are you tapping into the hidden potential of the crowd?  Or only the usual suspects?
9. Are you consistent in your commitment to change?  Again...oh my.  How many of our organizations could use this word?
10. Are you learning as fast as the world is changing?  Isn't it actually the case for many, many organizations that any learning has been over for a long time?  What about yours?

This is one of those articles that you'll want to bookmark or print off and look at again and again.  You can read it right here.

How Not To Engage Key Impact Players

Does the way you ever talk about new ideas this way?

Community, Cause and Corporation - Classic in a New Location

If you've never heard Jim Dethmer's classic talk, Community, Cause and Corporation...come on over to MarkHowellLive.com to check it out.  One of the best ever at a Willow Creek event.  Whether you're leading a church or running a non-profit, this is a talk that will give you a fresh way of seeing your organization.

Where Are You In The "Free" Debate?

No doubt you've already begun hearing bits and pieces of the debate inspired in part by Chris Anderson's soon-to-be-released Free: The Future of a Radical Price.  Yesterday's blogosphere featured a couple interesting new takes.  Malcolm Gladwell took a contrarian view and Seth Godin weighed in affirming the position.  Interesting concept.  Interesting discussion. 

By the way, Tim Sanders tipped me off to the debate.  If you're not subscribed to his blog you can get what you need right here.

Is It Time To Change Your Strategy?

When is it time to take a look at the strategy that drives what you do?  Do you wait until it crashes?  Or do you take a look at it even when it seems to be firing on all cylinders?  Scott Anthony, author of The Innovator's Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work, suggests that "it's always at least worth considering whether it's time to invert your strategy."  In a recent Harvard Business Online article he gives a three question path for examining your current assumptions and a revised set that might drive future growth:

1. What is the critical assumption behind our current strategy?
2. What are distinct assumptions that, if true, would lead to a dramatically different approach to growth?
3. What are ways in which you can test the revised assumptions?

I love these questions!  Can you see how they might lead to a great discussion on your team?  Can you also see how it might pay to bring in a fresh pair of outside eyes?  In fact, Anthony goes on to write:

These questions seem straight forward. However, it is astonishingly difficult for companies to identify the hidden assumption that governs their strategy. Consider bringing in outside perspectives, even if they lack deep industry expertise. Seemingly naïve questions can be great ways to highlight hidden assumptions — and provide opportunities to invert a strategy before it's too late.

Need more.  Take a look at Ready To Go On An Assumption Hunt?

The Inside-Outside Disconnect Challenges An Outside-In Approach

Everyone has a core message.  Sometimes it's a very faint bleating sound.  Other times it's like U2 belting out Pride (In the name of love).  But...everyone has a core message.  Mine, at least in part, is the reality of the Inside-Outside Disconnect.  I first had a name for it when I read John Kotter's A Sense of Urgency.  It is essentially the idea that those on the inside become so preoccupied with their own comforts and "necessities" that they forget about the needs and interests of those on the outside.  In fact, they have a harder and harder time even acknowledging that the interests are different.  It just never comes up.

So...my last post, on Developing and Maintaining an Outside-In Perspective, is just a new manifestation of my core message.  There...I've diagnosed myself.

What's your core message?

Developing and Maintaining an Outside-In Perspective

Ever realized suddenly that you were talking with an insider, clueless to the world outside the organization?  I had a brief verbal sparring match with someone this morning.  He wanted to know why we had a display of classic cars in the parking lot.  "It seems a little bit of a compromise," he said to me.  I stepped to his side and gestured to the homes across the street.  "Across the street and for as far as you can see are men that never step foot in here.  This is one Sunday when they might.  We want them to feel at home if they come today.  They, the over 200,000 people who live within 20 minutes in every direction and aren't here today are the reason the classic cars are parked where they are today."

Loved the line from Inside Drucker's Brain today.  So to the point for all of us.

"The bigger and apparently successful an organization gets to be, the more will inside events tend to engage the interests, the energies and the abilities of the executive to the exclusion of his real tasks and his effectiveness in the outside (p. 181, Inside Drucker's Brain)."

The Movement to Free

How does your pricing model work? Don't think you have one? Oh, you have one. It may not be overt...but you and your organization have a pricing model.

As things develop in the Small Group Ministry space, it's more and more clear that free is the essential next step if I want to have a broader impact.  Maybe you're ending up here too.  I tripped across this video over at ChurchCrunch.com.  You may recognize Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine. He's written a number of key articles on the concept, as well as a soon-to-be-released Free: The Future of a Radical Price.

Gene Appel Lands...in So Cal

In January of 2008 the news came out that Gene Appel had left Willow Creek.  An earlier post I had written on the A2 conference came up very high in any search for news about Gene.  I edited the original post heading to include a link to better info.  Here's a interview I tripped across today that tells where he landed...and good for Gene!  It's in So Cal!

Is It Time To "Scrap Your Job Descriptions?"

What are you trying to do?  Do you know?  Do you have a personal understanding of what a win is for you?

Kem Meyer's blog is one I read on a regular basis.  There are over a hundred on my feed reader.  Her's is one that I read because of posts like this one: We Scrapped Our Job Descriptions.  I think this is really helpful.  Why?  Because it makes personal one of the corporate themes of StrategyCentral.  It makes personal the idea that there is overarching win to which everyone on the team ought to be contributing.

The short story on Kem's post?  Here is the process they used:

1. Answer the question: “At the end of the day, if I’ve done this, then I’ve done my job.”
2. In your answer, remember to demonstrate the benefit to others trumps the task.
3. Keep your answer simple and short enough to easily remember and recite.
4. Include your individual strength theme to help maximize impact.

Isn't that helpful?  Won't that be a good team exercise?  You can read the whole post right here.  I especially loved the Strengths based diagram that they developed.  Very cool.  Check it out!