STRATEGY CENTRAL

Who is your product designed for?  And before you object to the idea that you’ve got a product…get over it!  We all have products.  Doesn’t matter whether you’re a non-profit or a service business…you still have a product line.  The question is, "Who is your product designed for?"

I also realize that you might have a kind of legacy product; one that you more or less inherited.  It may seem crazy, but this is an even more relevant discussion for you!  After all, if you’ve got a legacy product it might be designed for people who’ve been dead awhile!

Back to the question.  Maybe even the question behind the question.  Is your product designed with someone in mind?  If so, who?  If not, why not?

I love this Steve Jobs quote from a recent interview with Fortune magazine, senior editor Betsy Morris.  When asked about Apple’s connection with the customer, Jobs said:

It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s
not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We
figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the
right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are
going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do.

I wonder how often we’re figuring out first what we want and whether anyone else would want it, too?  Or how often we’re simply keeping our head down, working at a task that no longer really meets the existing demand?  Or how often we’re perpetuating a product for a customer that isn’t even around anymore?

Thoughts?

You can check out the whole article right here.

Have you changed any of your own treasured opinions or assumptions about the world lately?  Have you ever imagined what the world might be like if it were the exact opposite of how you think it is?  Beyond Booked Solid

I’m finding that I’ve got lots of patterns of behavior that are part of the way I’ve become.  Some are good.  They’re part of the
explanation for how things are going in general.
Other patterns are not good.  Even unhealthy!

Are you aware of your own patterns?

I set an alert in my phone to remind me every day to really
listen to the people I talk with.  Why?  I’ve discovered that there are
times when I’m planning what to say next instead of listening as
someone else talks.  And I’ve concluded that’s not a good thing.  I
want to change that pattern.   

Today’s question comes from Beyond Booked Solid: Your Business, Your Life, Your Way.  I’m finding a lot of very provocative, soul-searching material in it.  Depending on the business you’re in, you may find it helpful as well.

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This is the third in a series of questions I’m asking myself.  This one is from Beyond Booked Solid: Your Business, Your Life, Your Way.  Want to follow along?  Sign up for the next question right here.

First day of Daylight Savings Time here in So Cal. Celebrated with the purchase of jalapeno seedling. Hopin’ that it’ll give us what we need to make lots of Mark’s Jammin’ Salsa. If you’re out this way be sure and stop by for a taste!

Not sure if you’re a fan of Daylight Savings Time.  Got the scoop on its history in an interesting article over at the New York Times today.  The mockingbird that sings at the crack of dawn on the chimney next door even seemed to have gotten the word.  He started singing about an hour later than normal this morning.  Big problem for me?  How do you show the time on a schedule?  Is it PDT and EDT?

Ever been part of an organization that desperately needed to change?  Most of us have had that experience and found ourselves looking for other organizations that needed to change and then figured out how to do it.  I was only at Lake Avenue Church a few days when I realized it was a very different place than Fellowship of The Woodlands.  Fellowship was just 10 years old when I left.  Very intentional about how it did what it did.  Exponential growth over a very short decade.

And then I walked into Lake Avenue.  108 years old when I arrived.  Very different and awkward leadership structure.  Virtually nothing designed to have impact.  The difference was incredible and very hard to adjust to.  I found myself losing a lot of sleep trying to figure out how to help change happen.  It got to the place where I bought a couple 2 Liters of Coke and put them on my desk as a kind of living parable.  You can read the Coke story here.  Tough times.  I finally came to the conclusion that changing a 108 year old organization is really harder than turning an oil tanker.  Or at least in the case of that particular change project it was more like trying to pull the Exxon Valdez off the rocks and then turn it.  Which brings us to the Girl Scouts.

Need an example of how an organization that desperately needed to change actually got around to changing?  Great example in this video post by Bill Taylor about changes at the Girl Scouts.  If you’re in a place that needs to change you need to see this video.

By the way, when I’m checking out the latest on the blogs I read there are some that I check out first.  There are some that I look at only if I’ve checked everything else out already.  And then there are some that I wait until I’ve got enough time to give them the time they deserve.  The Mavericks at Work blog falls in the 3rd category.  The book, Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win, is without question the best book I’ve read over the last 5 years (and I read a lot of books!).  The blog is now supplemented by an occasional video blog post over at Bill Taylor’s Game Changer Blog, part of Harvard’s Discussion Leader network of business blogs.
 

Like most of us, you’ve spent time developing your purpose/mission statement.  Maybe you’ve even worked through your vision and values.  And they’re really cool, well thought out, even sound very good.   You might even be proud enough of the statements to have them framed and hung on your reception room wall.  But like many of us, when you slow down long enough to think deep thoughts…you know that your organization doesn’t always live out what you’ve got on the wall.  You’re careful to maintain a good public posture.  But in your heart you know the truth.  And you even wonder sometimes if you’re the only one who can see that the emperor has no clothes.  But what can be done?  After all…you’ve already hung the plaque!

I love what David Maister has to say about the whole mission, vision and values argument in Strategy and the Fat Smoker:

Whether you’re talking about purpose, mission, vision, values, goals, objectives or almost ANY of the traditional concepts that people use, the only practical way to make them real is to do two (simultaneous) things:

1. Stop talking about the future destination, and start thinking about the rules you would have to live by in order to get there.
2. Translate the generalities of the organization’s purpose, mission, values or principles into what it would mean for individuals and confirm that the organization’s members are, in fact, prepared to be held accountable and live by those individual rules.

Ready to make vision (or mission and values) real?  Then get ready to do these two things.  Otherwise…it’s just a plaque. 

Dreamers always lose to pragmatists.  Do you believe that?  Maybe it needs a little more explanation.  When I say "dreamers" I’m referring to the kind of person who wants to integrate one more idea before we launch…as opposed to the pragmatism of "it’s good enough right now."  One of the blogs that I really like the tone of is Note to CMO.  Do you know it?  Stephen Denny keeps coming back with some really good stuff.  It’s one I would definitely suggest that you check out.

Want more on the idea that "dreamers always lose to pragmatists"?  You can get it right here.

The process of building a team is something that many of us have led…or at least attempted.  At a minimum we’ve been part of it as a participant.  How’d it go?  Back in December I referred to a book about to be released by David Maister, Strategy and the Fat Smoker (unusual name, great metaphor).  It’s out now and I think you might find it helpful.  Short chapters; each one packed with a definite take-away.

This morning’s chapter made me think about many of the times I’ve been part of an organization that valued teamwork…but struggled to make it happen when it came right down to it.  I think I see why it didn’t work.  Check out my version of a diagram that details the struggle many of our organizations face.

Here’s the gist.  There are two basic kinds of people.  Interdependent team players and independent solo artists.  And then there are two basic motivations: immediate needs and future needs.

The challenge in any organization is the attempt to help the basic kinds of people (with two possible motivations) to link arms and cooperate as members of a team.  Can it happen?  Can you imagine the day when the mountain lion lays down with the beaver?  Or maybe the human?  How about the wolf pack and a beaver or two?  I think you’re getting the same point that I did!

There isn’t a diagnostic (like a Myers Briggs) to test for type, but I think the categories are self-evident.  So if you looked over your office, what do you think your breakdown is?  What type are you?

Want more?  You might want to pick up a copy of this one.  You can get your’s Right Here.
 

"Do I listen, really listen, to people who disagree with me?"

I like this question…and I don’t like it.  I like it because listening is an essential component if I hope to become more innovative.  To be already convinced of how it works is to miss the doorway to the edge of the envelope.  It is in the moments where someone else’s idea slips past my guard that I see the what’s possible in a new light.

I don’t like it because it’s very hard.  It’s very hard to be open to the idea that there might be a better way.  It’s also very hard because I’ve trained for years to be a talker and not a listener.  I’m having to unlearn the habit of planning my response instead of really listening.

And yet I believe that I can become the kind of person who listens really well.  Pauses long enough to really hear.  I read yesterday about a leader who had the practice of taking a bite of a sandwich just as he was asked a question, forcing the time to think about his answer.  Don’t remember where I read it.  Would be a great habit to develop.

The question is, "How will I develop this habit?"  I’m thinking I’ll need to do be intentional.  So ingrained is the habit of not listening, I’ll need to counteract with intention.  How will I do it?  For starters I just set a daily alarm on my phone.  Ask me in a week if I’m making progress.  Ask quietly.  See if I’m listening!

"Do I ever change my ideas?"

I’m somewhat known as a stubborn person.  Oh…I love new things and I can’t wait to try the latest and greatest.  But there are a lot of times when I’m pretty sure I’m right.  Fortunately or providentially, depending on your world view, I’ve learned to be open to the idea that there might be a better way.  It took a long time to get to this place…and I still have plenty of times when I’m arguing my case like I’m Jack McCoy…but more and more I’m open to changing an idea if it turns out that your idea is better.

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This is the first in a series of questions I’m asking myself.  This one is from Beyond Booked Solid: Your Business, Your Life, Your Way.  Want to follow along?  Sign up for the next question right here.