Action Plans Accelerate Results

Collaboration is way more effective with a simple execution plan  

Any time you have a team collaborating to achieve an outcome, an action plan is critical. It guides alignment on a unified approach and accelerates meaningful results. Depending on the size of the initiative, it can be a simple list or it can be a full blown project management system. One method does not “fit all”.  The best approach is the simplest tool for the scope of the work. 

Regardless of the tool, key components to include in the plan:

• Objective (why is this needed, how important is it)
• Goals and success metrics (what does winning look like)
• Defined scope to drive focus (what's in, what's out)
• Pilot (how can we achieve a quick win and accelerate learning)
• Key milestones with one clear owner (what are the big overarching critical pieces)
• Action items with clearly defined outcomes, due dates, and one owner (who does what by when)

Action Plan Best Practices:

• Design a team that has diverse perspectives, strong contributors, and is a manageable size (3-7 is optimal to enable speed and collaboration)
• Review the draft with your key stakeholders. Invite feedback and incorporate their ideas in to the plan.
• Load the document in a shared location that is easily accessible by all team members
• Establish standard status reporting processes and channels, including meeting cadences to drive progress and visibility across all impacted groups (working team, SteerCo, leadership updates, etc.)
• If an item is off track (red or yellow status), include the plan is to get it back to green
• Highlight progress of significant achievements and people that are making the difference 

Finding Your Unique Ability

While reading the book Traction, I was deeply intrigued by the idea of having "the right people in the right seats".  I wondered how you can ensure you're making these decisions based on data rather than ego.   Traction recommends the book Unique Ability.  I decided to give it a try to test the process and learn how objective it was.

The book provides three methods to find your Unique Ability:

1. Survey people you know (send an email to get a written reply to a single question)
2. Take the Kolbe A Assessment (determine your Mode of Operation or how you do things)
3. Take the StrengthsFinder Assessment (measure your natural talents)

I went through all of the above and had some very interesting results.  As I step back and look at the patterns overall, I find it that all methods came out with a simliar response.  There was a key pattern that emerged across all three.  

What's really interesting is that before I started all of this, I jotted down my thoughts on my Unique Ability.  The first few things I wrote were spot on.  So I already knew my answer before going through any of these exercises.  However, going through these practices was a lot of fun and, in the end, helped me to know my Unique Ability with clear precision.  

It was a really fun journey and I highly recommend for you to give it a try!  Hearing feedback from others was most enjoyable and helpful.  I selected 5 of each type of person to give me a well-rounded view: family, coworkers, and friends.  Both assessments gave me good information.  If I had to recommend just one of the tests, I'd suggest StrengthsFinder.  It's a great tool that makes finding this information scalable and dependable.

My Unique Ability Results

Survey Results:  15 people replied with three main themes in the responses; in order

1. Ability to organize a lot of data into a unified, simple plan - and drive progress.
2. Determination to learn, deeply understand, apply, and teach.
3. Compassionate, positive energy.

Kolbe A Results:  My standard mode of operation, how I do things (8-6-3-3); in order

1. Strategize - Gather all the info to understand cause, determine practical approach, and prioritize
2. Maintain - Look for ways to fit the project into the existing system
3. Stabilize - Advocate for what needs to stay the same
4. Envision - Visualize how it could work, ideal solutions

StrengthsFinder 2.0 Results: My Natural Talent (easiest to develop into strengths); in order 

1. Achiever - Work hard, productive
2. Learner - Love process of learning, continuously improve
3. Focus - Prioritize, act, stay on track
4. Connectedness - See links between things
5. Relator - Enjoy close relationships

Reference: 

• Traction by Gino Wickman
• Unique Ability by Catherine Noumra and Julia Waller, based on the concept created by Dan Sullivan.

Passionate Performance

Highlights from the book by Lee J. Colan

Passionate performance is demonstrated by a strong, sustained intellectual and emotional attachment to one’s work.  It is made visible through enthusiasm and seeing results.  People choose to do more because they have fun.  This happens when a person’s intellectual and emotional needs are fulfilled.

Intellectual needs are fulfilled by engaging the mind and result in high performance.   There are 3 intellectual needs that need to be fulfilled.  When a person regularly experiences achievement, autonomy, and mastery, a self-reinforcing cycle of improvement, growth, and high performance is created.

1. Achievement – Outcome: eliminate barriers to achievement and define crystal clear goals
2. Autonomy – Process: improve the process and establish broad, yet clear boundaries
3. Mastery – Specialty: fit person to position for highest, best use and create a learning environment

Emotional needs are fulfilled by engaging the heart and result in passion.  There are 3 emotional needs that need to be fulfilled.  When a person regularly experiences purpose, intimacy, and appreciation, they form strong relationships that result in amazing results.

1. Purpose – Cause: create a compelling purpose and focus on activities that directly support it 
2. Intimacy – Connection: maintain small teams to build strong relations and create team rituals
3. Appreciation – Recognition: find opportunities to express contributions and to be sincerely interested in each person

Implementation Ideas:

• Look for opportunities for your team to master key skills
• Define goals for each person (eliminate the primary barrier to achievement)
• Find a reason every day to recognize someone on your team
• Implement a structured selection process to ensure a good fit between each person and position
• Ask team what changes they can make to be certain we stay focused on our purpose

Conscious Capitalism

Key Highlights from the book by Mackey and Sisodia

1.     Free-enterprise capitalism is the most powerful system for social cooperation and human progress ever conceived.

1.1.   No human creation has had a greater positive impact on more people more rapidly than free-enterprise capitalism.

1.1.1. Afforded billions the opportunity to earn sustenance, improve quality of life, and find meaning by creating value for each other.  

1.1.2. Has lifted more people out of poverty than any other force in history, and has done so through voluntary exchange.  Hundreds of millions of poor people have been able to escape grinding poverty.

1.1.3. In 200 years, world’s population in extreme poverty from 85% to 16%.  Average income per capita has increased 1000% since 1800.

1.2.   Human creativity, partly individual but mostly collaborative and cumulative, is at the root of all economic progress.

1.2.1. The most important factors in free-enterprise capitalism’s success have been entrepreneurship and innovation, combined with freedom and dignity.

1.2.2. Entrepreneurs solve problems by creatively envisioning different ways the world could and should be.  They see new possibilities and enrich the lives of others by creating things that never existed before.

1.2.3. Capitalism is an extraordinarily powerful system for eliciting, harnessing, and multiplying ingenuity and industry to create value for others. 

1.3.   Profit maximization thinking (low-consciousness business) has created a terrible reputation for capitalism. 

1.3.1. Top executives at the helm of many major corporations have rigged the game to enrich themselves at the expense of the company and its stakeholders. 

1.3.2. Confidence in big business has declined steadily for the past 40 years, but is on the rebound.

1.3.3. The average level of engagement for American team members has remained at 30% or less for the past 10 years.

1.4.    Those who recognize and embrace the life-affirming power of free-enterprise capitalism must reclaim the intellectual and moral high ground.

1.4.1. Business is awakening to itself and becoming conscious.  It’s recognizing that it’s a force with enormous power and responsibility.  The Flynn effect shows that overall human analytical intelligence rises at an average rate of 4% every decade.  People are also far better educated worldwide, mostly due to greater access to higher education.  Many more of us are capable of comprehending and acting on greater complexity than ever before. 

1.4.2. People today care about different things and are more informed, educated, and connected than in the past, their expectations from businesses in their roles as customers, team members, suppliers, investors, and community members are rapidly changing.  It’s time for companies to evolve to keep pace.

1.4.3. Conscious firms outperformed in the stock market by a ratio of 10.5:1 over a 15-year period, delivering more than 1600% total returns when the market was up just 150% for the same period. 

2.     The Tenets of Conscious Capitalism

2.1.   Higher purpose and core values

2.1.1. Business has a much broader positive impact on the world when it’s based on a higher purpose that goes beyond generating profits and creating value for investors.

2.1.2. A compelling sense of higher purpose creates an extraordinary degree of engagement among all stakeholders and catalyzes creativity, innovation, and organizational commitment.  Once a person discovers their true purpose, the complexion of daily life and work changes.  They are able to draw on reservoirs of energy and inspiration that they didn’t know existed within.  Work becomes a fulfilling source of satisfaction and joy.

2.1.3. The way forward for humankind is to liberate the heroic spirit of business and our collective entrepreneurial creativity so we can be free to solve the many daunting challenges we face.  There are billions of people whose basic needs are not being adequately met.  We need to see these as opportunities, unlock the natural human creative spirit to address these challenges in a way that will allow us to flourish.  

2.2.   Stakeholder integration

2.2.1. All entities that impact or impacted by the business are important, connected, and interdependent.  The business must seek to optimize value creation for all of them. People must be honored first before treating them according to the role they are playing.   

2.2.2. The purpose of every business ultimately revolves around creating value for customers.  Businesses have to serve their customers by educating them to want what’s good for them, steering them toward better choices over time, and at the same time, giving them freedom to choose. 

2.2.3. In addition to creating social, cultural, intellectual, physical, ecological, emotional, and spiritual value for all stakeholders, conscious businesses also excel at delivering exceptional financial performance over the long-term.  Conscious businesses win, but in a way that is far richer and more multi-faceted than the traditional winning.  All boats rise versus zero-sum. 

2.3.   Conscious leadership

2.3.1. Conscious leaders are motivated primarily by service to the firm’s higher purpose and creating value for all stakeholders. 

2.3.2. In addition to high levels of analytical, emotional, and spiritual intelligence, leaders of conscious businesses have a finely developed systems intelligence that understands the relationships between all of the interdependent stakeholders.  Their fundamentally more sophisticated and complex way of thinking about business transcends the limitations of the analytical mind that focuses on differences, conflicts, and trade-offs.

2.3.3. The leaders of conscious businesses care about service to others because that is ultimately what leads to fulfillment and value creation.  The right actions taken for the right reasons lead to good outcomes over time.  Focus on things we can control, actions and reactions.

2.4.   Conscious culture and management

2.4.1. Conscious businesses use an approach to management that is consistent with their culture and is based on decentralization, empowerment, and collaboration. 

2.4.2. Conscious management seeks to focus creative energies in the most effective way by creating a virtuous cycle of reinforcing organizational practices.  This amplifies the organization’s ability to innovate continually and create multiple kinds of value for all stakeholders.

2.4.3. Businesses should lead the way in raising consciousness in the world.  The larger the company, the greater the footprint, and therefore its responsibility to the world.  

Scrum Events Best Practices

Highlights of key practices to ensure alignment across distant teams

Scrum Events create regularity and enable transparency.  Each event is clearly defined and centers around activities that facilitate inspection and adaptation. 

1.       Sprint Planning – Collaborative meeting where the Scrum Team plans the work to be performed in the next Sprint to deliver a usable increment. 

1.1.    Review the Product Backlog, discuss capacity, and forecast PBI’s

1.2.    Craft a Sprint Goal (brief, clear objective for the Sprint)

2.       Daily Scrum – Daily brief meeting for the Development Team to align on the plan for the day to meet the Sprint Goal.  

2.1.    Review the Sprint Goal

2.2.    Raise any blocking issues

2.3.    Align on plan for the day

3.       Sprint Review – Collaborative working session orchestrated by the Product Owner where the Scrum Team and Stakeholders can inspect the outcome of a Sprint and align on what to do next. 

3.1.    Demonstrate working increment

3.2.    Review the Product Backlog

3.3.    Discuss market changes, timeline, and budget

3.4.    Adapt Product Backlog, as needed

4.       Sprint Retrospective – Private meeting where only the Scrum Team can attend.  This meeting creates a virtuous cycle by reviewing the Scrum Team’s people, relationships, process, and tools to identify improvements that can be made. 

4.1.    Evaluation:

4.1.1.Did we reach our goal of the Sprint?

4.1.2.Did we release a usable increment?

4.1.3.Did we perform code reviews?

4.1.4.Did we follow architectural standards?

4.1.5.How can we improve on achieving our goals?

For more information about roles and artifacts, read the Scrum Organizational Framework.

Lean Startup

My favorite highlights from The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

Develop an innovative product that emphasizes fast iteration and customer insight, a huge vision, and great ambition all at the same time.   

1.     Vision – Build an ideal model of disruption based on customer archetypes

1.1.    Start - Enter the build phase as quickly as possible with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This approach minimizes effort and development time required.

1.2.    Define – Humanize the customer.  Develop a customer archetype that is used daily in prioritizing decisions to ensure they are aligned with customers’ needs.

1.3.    Learn - No matter how efficiently you build something no one really wants, you are going to fail.  Validated Learning is the only type of learning that is valuable in a startup.  Learn what customers want based on empirical data from real customers.  Productivity is measured in terms of how much validated learning we are getting for our efforts.

1.4.    Experiment – Build a sustainable business around teams that perform quick experiments to provide key learning and progress the vision. Explore the value hypothesis (does this product and/or service deliver value to customers) and growth hypothesis (how will customers discover it).  Setup culture and systems so that teams can innovate at the rate of the experimentation system. 

2.     Steer – Launch an MVP to establish a baseline

2.1.    Leap – Identify tremendous opportunity and plan a strategic approach based on a well-informed strategy.  Analyze products, techniques, and the right questions to ask. 

2.2.    Test – Test all assumptions as quickly as possible.  Engage early adopters to provide valuable feedback.  Conduct A/B tests to create true results rather than a need to sell what you have.  Any feature, process, or effort that does not contribute directly to learning should be removed from MVP.

2.3.    Measure – Rigorously measure each step of the way; quickly confront the hard truths that are revealed.  Utilize learning milestones to allow accurate and objective assessments (build model, launch MVP, iterate to get closer to ideal).  Focus on actionable and assessible measurements that are auditable.

2.4.    Pivot (or Persevere) – Getting to pivots faster is the goal during growth periods.  Having the tools and agility to find a better path is key.

3.     Accelerate – Tune the engine to get closer to the ideal

3.1.    Batch – Reduce work in progress by converting to pull methods and reducing batch size.  Figure out what needs to be learned, then work backwards to see what product will work as an experiment to get that learning.  Small batches are processed faster and ensure that issues are identified quickly. 

3.2.    Grow – New customers come from the actions of past customers.  Sources of sustainable growth power feedback loops that become engines of growth. 

3.3.    Adapt – Adaptive processes force you to slow down and invest in preventing the kinds of problems that are currently wasting time.  As these preventative efforts pay off, you naturally speed up again.

3.4.    Innovate – Create an innovation sandbox.  Nurture disruptive innovation by creating small cross-functional teams that can rapidly experiment without requiring a lot of approvals, innovate in the open, and have a personal stake in the outcome.   

The Art of Managing Up

Managing up is the practice of building your relationship with your boss and consistently elevating the output you achieve together.   It includes knowing the requirements well, asking key questions to understand where they want to lead the result, and going above and beyond to elevate the end product. 

How to Manage Up:

·        Make it clear your boss can count on you to deliver. 

o   Take great care of everything assigned to you.  Always ask them how you can help them more and continue to pull work from them as much as possible. 

o   Keep them apprised of your progress.  Understand their preferences for communication and proactively keep them updated. 

o   Move forward consistently.  Don't require their involvement but let them contribute and shape the work that you do.  Carve out time together when needed and to review important milestones. 

·        Set the bar. 

o   Put yourself in their shoes.  Each time they give you work to do, think through how they would approach it and what questions they would ask. 

o   Add a golden touch to everything you work on.  Always elevate the quality and value of the output.

o   Make each item that you deliver simple for all who consume it.

·        Let them know they can trust you.

o   Welcome their input and listen intently when they give it to you.  Write down and save key points for reference.

o   Ask questions to learn more about where they are coming from and why they think the way they do.  Apply their methodology to the way that you work.

o   Speak up as soon as there is an issue they should be aware of.  Let them share insights and hard-earned lessons.

Those who have mastered the ability to manage up add incredible value to the work that their team is responsible for.  When you focus on how you can provide the best service as well as increase value, you take a different level of ownership over the work that you do.  When you are consistently focused on elevating your game in a way that also positively impacts your team, you quantify your ability to create the optimal impact. 

The Beauty in Diversity - Reflected through Spiral Dynamics

Spiral Dynamics is a framework that makes patterns visible.  It is an integral approach to thinking about the complexities of human existence by bringing order to the apparent chaos of human affairs.  It represents the emerging flow of human thinking and value systems that continuously change in the process of life.  It shows how people think about things, not what they think about.

This framework organizes information in a way that makes it easier to see the value of our differences. The spiral shows how waves of consciousness emerge and flow through individuals and groups.  Each level represents a system of core values or collective intelligences, applicable to both individuals and entire cultures.  They detail human development and growth in adaptation to challenges.  Each new level includes and transcends all previous ones.  No level is inherently better or worse than another.  They do become more expansive since each builds on all that came before it.  People are not locked into one single level.  Several can coexist, though one is usually dominant.

Each level has an important role in life and all are needed.  Each has a healthy and unhealthy expression...  The opportunity lies in moving people to the healthy expression in their role, not to become all the same. 

• Warm colors exhibit a focus on the external world and mastering it. 
• Cool colors focus on the inner world and coming to peace within it.  
• As individuals, most of us are mixtures of both as the spiral winds between the individual "I" and the collective "we".  

We are like pieces of a puzzle... each one equally as important and valuable. When we align with these factors, we leverage the value of our differences rather than fight against them.  We increase our ability to thoughfully design our efforts by engaging a person that perfectly fits a particular need and empowering them with the best tools and systems, setting them up for success and increasing our ability to impact the whole.

4 New Agreements for Leaders and Managers

Systems thinking, patterns, and trends.  Awesome content!  These are notes taken from a one-day "New Conscious Systems" training given by David Dibble in San Diego, CA. :)

1.    Learning to master the mind is the only way to create reality as you want it.

1.1.   We are all thinking 40,000-70,000 thoughts every day.  These thoughts are subconsciously but consistently running through our minds. 

1.2.   Masculine Mind: logic, sequence, speech

1.3.   Feminine Mind: creativity, emotions, team work 

1.4.    Spiritual Mind: wisdom, purpose, big picture

1.5.    Authoritarian Mind: rules, beliefs, boundaries

1.6.    The masculine mind is dominant in the typical work place.

1.7.    Balance between the minds is key.

2.    Growth takes the form of waves.

2.1.    There are no straight lines in the universe – not even light.  There are only waves.

2.2.    There are always peaks and valleys but looking at trends is critical.

2.2.1. Wave up – positive growth

2.2.2. Wave that stays static – status quo

2.2.3. Wave down – negative growth

2.3.    Quantum Mechanics and String Theory explain how this applies to everything - from the universe to the galaxy to the planet to an object to molecules.  Everything is a vibration of energy.

2.4.    These trends are created by the mind (thoughts) and systems.  The mind can drag us behind it unless we take control.  It’s terrified of the unknown and thinks it knows best.

2.5.    S Curves allow an opportunity to shift upward, but require a change in your paradigm/thinking.  Without this shift, the trend will begin to decline rapidly.

3.      Emotion is the key to change. 

3.1.    Emotional energy is THE KEY AGENT – it can either be a glue to keep us stuck (fear-based) or can help us release old patterns/grow (love-based).

3.2.    Logic has no power over emotion.  It can only back it up later.

3.3.    Emotion defines the quality of our lives. The amount of change that takes place is directly proportionate to the emotional content of our experience. 

3.4.    The mind filters anything unlike itself.   It sticks with its original thought and defends it.

4.      The Four Agreements at Work:

4.1.    Find your Purpose – this creates meaning

4.2.    Love, Grow, and Serve Others – take good care of your people and your people will take care of you

4.3.    Be a System Thinker – improve the results being created to set people up for higher success

4.4.    Practice a Little Every Day – practice, practice, practice

4.5.    Most of this starts with awareness.  That is the hardest step. Transformation happens when you are aware of energy draining thoughts, beliefs, and memories – you choose new ones based in love. You choose to be less impatient.

5.      94% of the results are a function of the system.  Not the efforts of people.

5.1.    In a stable system, the same result is highly likely within a range regardless of training and performers.  20% of the variables control 80% of the outcomes.  We should work on the critical 20%.  Great leaders identify the critical 20 and have teams focus on it.

5.2.    To create change, you need to change both the system and the people.  All systems are connected.

5.3.    People hold systems together.  If they don’t grow, they sabotage the system’s work – especially management.  The first 15% is the most important.  The rest will follow.

5.4.    The Law of Dissipative Structures:

5.4.1. In a stable system – you put energy in, you get the amount of same energy out.

5.4.2. A change in the system causes stress – more energy is required to put in but the energy that comes out does not increase.

5.4.3. The high stress level creates potential for re-order – gradually over time the system can handle the increased energy in and becomes stable again.

5.4.4. The reordered system becomes stabilized at a higher complexity level – more energy is now coming out! J

5.5. Synergy is the ultimate lever in the workplace.  Not weakened by weakest link. 

5.6. Disruptive Discovery:  By measuring the stresses in people, you can quickly tell where you will get the most return and where people are least engaged.   Work in a couple of areas for quick victories.  Collect data of negative emotional energy and use it to change the system.