Be Different or be dead

April 14, 2011

Why 5-year business plans should make you sick and tired

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Why 5-year business plans should make you sick and tired.

Why do organizations still produce a 5 year business plan?

Have you ever seen the 5th year of a 5-year business plan year show up? I haven’t. Next year it becomes the 4th year; following that the 3rd year. And so it goes.

Yet it amazes me how much time and energy people put into trying to make the 5th year (and the 3rd and 4th for that matter) as “accurate”  as they can.

People seem to want to wring out the last 10% of perfection in the latter plan years; it seems to be the guiding principle.

Doesn’t this strike you as a bit dysfunctional? A waste of the most precious commodity we have - time? Who the hell knows what year 5 will look like?

All we really know is that it will be different from what we think it will be from today’s vantage point. So why try to plan with precision in year 5?

Spending a whole lot of time trying to determine with any degree of accuracy what years 4 and 5 look like in any business plan is a waste of time and it keeps you from getting stuff done; from executing NOW!

If you must feed the animals who lust after a five year wild ass guess (because that’s what it is), at least minimize how much time you spend on the outlying years.

Five minutes ought to do it.

Want to invest your time wisely? Reduce your business plan to 24 months and get on with executing.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.14.11 at 10:00 am by Roy Osing
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April 11, 2011

Why storytelling is really needed to make an awesome career

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Why storytelling is really needed to make an awesome career.

Successful people in an organization are usually identified as the ones who push for change. They not only recognize the need for it, they take on the role of communicating passionately for it to anyone who will listen — they adopt the messenger of change role.

Storytelling is a key ingredient to communicate the need for change in an organization and, if done well, helps build your brand as the messenger of change and your career benefits accordingly

To be recognized as a passionate messenger of change, these three actions will serve you well.

Events

Make it an important personal priority to organize events to discuss the direction of the organization and why change is necessary. Make it matter. Start with your own work team and expand to include other audiences.

Organize Bear Pit Sessions with frontline and staff people to get a cross section of commentary going on the direction the organization is taking, and provide feedback to leadership accordingly.

My approach was to have at least one employee event on my calendar monthly. The agenda was simple: remind people of the market forces that require the company to change, describe the company’s business plan and strategy to respond to changes being felt, and ask for feedback and support. My bosses quickly became aware of my actions and were very obliging when I would ask for their participation in the events.

Energy

The great messengers of change understand that’s it’s not all about the content of the message, rather it’s about the energy exhibited when expressing it. Strong emotion behind the business plan tells a story in and of itself: that the messenger unconditionally believes in what they are saying.

Their passion becomes infectious and others quickly buy-in.

I tried to downplay the theoretical aspects of the business plan we were trying to execute; the text book science of the strategy we were on. The audience doesn’t give a rats ass about how the change strategy adheres to microeconomic theory, all they want to know is that the way forward will make the organization successful and that they will be safe.

The messenger’s personal belief — expressed passionately — in the plan will do more to assuage the listeners than their promulgation of the theoretical justification for doing it.

Remember, people will tune you out unless they feel you believe what you are saying.

Use rich language in your presentations. Be visual and use pictures to describe where your company is going. My experience is that most people have to work very hard to interpret words and numbers, but they get it right away when they see pictures and graphs — the analogue world — with rich color and interpretation.

Stories

Pick stories that bring the crucial elements of your strategy to life. If, for example, creating memories for people in terms of their experiences with you is a main part of your strategic platform, sprinkle stories of employees (using their names) dazzling customers throughout the discussion.

If sales plays a major role, add stories of salespeople going the extra mile to build strong intimate relationships with customers.

An effective story communicates your strategy more than any other communications tool; the more stories you tell, the more likely it is that your audience will understand what the organization is trying to achieve.

What if the messenger can’t find a memorable story to tell? Well, that’s a pretty good indicator that the strategy isn’t being executed all that visibly so you have to dig deeper to find one.

Ans as a reminder, be as specific as you can in your story; use real people to express the event. Everyone relates more to stories that involve their particular function or department in the organization and about their colleagues.

Storytelling is a must for the messenger of change.

Include it as an essential element of your day-to-day work plan. Gather stories and find people who are living your strategy.

Develop your story telling repertoire.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.11.11 at 11:00 am by Roy Osing
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April 4, 2011

Why career success happens when you’re the ‘messenger for change’

Source: Unsplash

Why career success happens when you’re the ‘messenger for change’.

To be personally distinctive, you need to be seen as one who is ahead of the change curve.

Establish yourself as the zealot and avid supporter for your organization’s business plan and strategy.

Get recognized as being synonymous with the company’s vision, goals and objectives and suddenly magic happens.

You become recognized as a change leader in the organization who is included in all strategic activities from formulation of the business plan to its execution and you are visible to the career decision makers as a valuable contributor to the company’s future.

Breathe life into your new strategy - communicate it far and wide. Bring the organization’s strategy to life by painting a picture of it and making it real for everyone, so that they can see what it looks like when it is successfully being executed.

“Infect”people with the strategy so they will pour their hearts and souls into seeing it succeed.

I spent copious time holding employee meetings to discuss the strategic plan of the business.

I would do ’Infonet’ tours throughout our operating territory discussing the challenges we were facing and presenting the strategy the executive had developed to meet them.

These sessions were effective for not only communicating strategic detail they were also an opportunity for people to table their comments regarding the strategy and to pose any questions they had. 

For me, this was a regular forum where I could reinforce my brand as the passionate messenger for the organization’s strategy and feedback from the participants confirmed that first, they enjoyed the experience of the Infonet seminars, and second, that I was seen as a leader who loved change.

Career success depends on you relating to and passionately advocating the change strategy of the organization.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.4.11 at 11:00 am by Roy Osing
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