Heard this poem yesterday on the radio. What a wonderful mind that wrote this I thought. What if this kind of thinking could be applied to innovation. And why not?

Progress

They say that for years Belfast was backwards and it’s great now to see some progress. So I guess we can look forward to taking boxes from the earth. I guess that ambulances will leave the dying back amidst the rubble to be explosively healed. Given time, one hundred thousand particles of glass will create impossible patterns in the air before coalescing into the clarity of a window. Through which, a reassembled head will look out and admire the shy young man taking his bomb from the building and driving home.

Alan Gillis lives in Belfast and is a lecturer at the University of Ulster.

What poem could you bring to your next brainstorm?

A client of mine recently asked for a list of questions she should consider before entering a business/strategic planning process. I sent her this extensive list to help stimulate her thinking. They might be of use to you if in a similar situation.

Past

1. If you were to write a story about the history of ABC in terms of it’s achievements and failures, what titles would you give the chapters? and what would the headlines be for each chapter?
2. Where have you added most value to you customers and why?
3. How would you describe the market landscape over the lifetime of the business? (again if it were a book what would the chapters be called?)
4. Who have been your most challenging competitors and why? what are their strengths?

Present

1. What title would you give the present chapter of ABC?
2. Where are you and other partners (if any) personally with the business?
3. What are your SWOT’s (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) relative to your vision for the next 5-10 years? (see vision question below)
4. How would you describe your value proposition? i.e. value you propose to offer the market.
5. What is your USP? (Unique Selling Point) i.e. why would customers want to spend their money with ABC as opposed to someone else (or do it themselves)?
6. Where is ABC making & loosing money? how could it improve?

Future

1. What’s your vision for yourself? and your partners? (in the business context)
2. What’s you vision for ABC?
3. What are your thoughts on the best strategy to achieve this vision (business & personal)?
4. What are the top five most critical challenges in achieving the above visions?
5. What are your financial targets for ABC over the next 5 years? revenue, net profit, NWV (Net worth value)
6. What are your funding requirements? where will that come from?
7. Is there one or more opportunities that you would love to go after but don’t presently feel ABC are up to it?
8. Is ABC sellable? are you interested? Has anyone ever approached you?

Had a discussion with my mechanic yesterday when picking up my car from a service. I was complaining about the cost of maintaining a car etc, bla bla bla.
He asked me did I really need a car?
I thought this was a really good question. Now much and all as I would like to give my mechanic the credit for such a good question, where he was coming from was would I consider a commercial vehicle since I’m usually the only one in the car 99% of the time. And that question has merit too. But the way I interpreted his question initially was questioning the obvious. It got me thinking about how often we question the obvious (more like how seldom), for example does your business need to continue manufacturing widgets and hopelessly try to sell them to people who don’t want them or would switch to another supplier at the blink of an eye. I laughed at an offer of yet another loyalty card yesterday. Doesn’t loyalty go out the window when everyone offers loyalty cards? I have two major supermarket loyalty card swobs on my keyring. I’d guess others have more!

Anyway back to questioning the fundamentals!
There is so much power in good questions. I’m intrigued at the moment with ‘Powerful Questions’. Let me know if you have any?

Here’s a few I’ve come across that I like (in the context of strategy and coaching – my area of interest)

What makes that important to you?

Where do you know you/the business is stopping short?

What is the worst thing / the best thing that could happen?

What inspires you about you?

What can you control in the situation?
 What can’t you control in the situation?
 What might you control that you haven’t been?

What’s the problem in a nutshell/in one sentence/in one word?

If you knew that people would follow you where would you lead them?

What is the one question you are not asking yourself?

and finally one I love,

What advice would you give yourself?

What questions can you and your team come up with that would make for useful conversation?

I’ve been fascinated with how ineffective most meetings are. I’m researching and exploring how they can be more effective.
Where I’m at so far can be summarised as follows. Consider you are a chef baking a cake. It’s all in the preparation and the best ingredients.

There are five ingredients required to bake a great meeting:

1. Good facilitation/chairperson skills (I prefer the term facilitation or host as it implies what the job does)

2. Synergy (healthy relationships & collaboration)

3. Process (1,2,3: before, during & after)

4. Discipline (lots!), and

5. Culture – the foundation which is necessary for effective meetings to take place.

I’m fascinated by Verne Harnish’s (Rockefeller Habits) Meeting Rhythm. Verne recommends a Daily huddle (15 min) with a 3 point agenda (What’s up, Daily measures & Where are you stuck). Then there’s a ‘Weekly’ 30-60 mins (Agenda: Good news, Numbers, Customer & Employee data, Collective Intelligence, One phrase close) with action minutes circulated. He also recommends a monthly (4 hours) and a quarterly (day long off site) and an annual 2 day off site. Together this gives you a  rhythm or routine, and as Verne says ‘Routine sets you Free’! (I agree big time).

A useful learning or evaluation tool I have introduced some of my clients to is the 3 question whip around to close each meeting”

1. What went well?

2. What could be improved?

3. Did we achieve our purpose? (this ensures (for any savvy facilitator) that there is a clear purpose stated and agreed at (or in advance of) the beginning of the meeting).

Like the best tasting cakes it’s all in the ‘right ingredients’ and ‘adequate preperation’.  Enjoy your baking.

PS. I have developed a training programme based on the above and have had excellent feedback and results. Contact me if you want to know more.

Finally, something I came across on the WSJ regarding ‘Stand Up’ meetings. (3.28 mins)

I’m currently reading David Allen’s book GTD Getting Things Done. Here’s David explain what it’s all about at Do Lectures in Wales (32 mins, You’ll get the principles in the first 10 mins!)

Well done to all at Windmill Lane Pictures who did all the special effects for this new movie to be released April 20 2012

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers …

This is taken from my flagship personal/professional development programme called  Personal leadership – leading  yourself first before leading others. It is a very interesting  exercise that can be completed over two or three hours over the Christmas Holiday in a quiet  place! Can be done on your own or with a friend/partner. If you have any interest in my  Personal Leadership programme and when it will next be held then contact me.

Click image to download your free Workbook.

A nice simple easily understood model (called Two Loops) of old and new paradigm systems. Applicable to any system including organisational systems & cultures. If you are interested in culture change/development have a look at this video (almost 7 mins). I don’t know Deborah Frieze (Berkana Institute) but my impressions from watching this video is that she can teach us a thing or two. She will be coming to Ireland in Nov 18-20 for a workshop with Chris Chapman & Davie Philip at Cloughjordan eco-village, details here. Unfortunately I won’t make it myself but would love to go!

The ‘Team of the Month’ award for September goes to a client of mine  Carbon Group (Chemicals, Food Ingredients, and Paint & Equipment). Carbon are smart. This week they arranged for all their staff to meet some key customers. This formed part of a quarterly forum that the company has held for over a year now. The client has three sites in Ireland (Cork, Dublin & Belfast). It’s management team are that committed to developing an innovation culture that amongst many other things they join with their staff in a forum using the World Cafe (WC) process at both Cork & Belfast every quarter. The WC’s have proven to be very effective in terms of better communication, deeper understanding of the company strategy (in fact initial WC’s were used to get staff inputs into developing the strategy), improved relationships & morale, actionable outputs, and most of all a culture change that will help the company to double its turnover and increase profits exponentially over the next four years.

Brenda from Norvatis

Listening Staff in Cork

This week two customers (Norvatis & Janssen Pharmaceuticals) met with the Cork staff, and a customer of the Belfast site (Maine Surface Finishing) met with staff in Belfast. The customers were asked to speak about their business and how they perceive Carbon Group, how they compare, how they could improve, etc. This was followed by three rounds of table discussion on what was heard, what were the opportunities, and how do the Carbon five values fit in with what was heard. Finally the staff were introduced to the brainstorming technique for the first time. The outcome was six ideas to be implemented in Cork and three ideas in Belfast (less staff). Volunteers at both locations offered to facilitate the implementation of the actions and report back at the next WC.

Eugene in Belfast

World cafe Discussions in Belfast

The events proved to be extremely informative (how often to you get the undivided attention of your customer? how many of your customers do you have the kind of relationship with that will prepare a presentation/talk and take time out of their busy schedule to meet your staff AND be very honest and open?). Not only was it very informative it was also very powerful in that staff heard directly from the customer. The questions asked showed the level of active listening by the staff, they want to understand their customer, they want to add more value and they want a Win Win. Finally, if nothing else this initiative was fantastic customer relationship building. All three customers walked away feeling they were listened to, they understood what Carbon has been doing over the last 18 months to develop its strategy, culture and business model to improve customer satisfaction, they learned about the hard work Carbon have put in on their three Strategic Focus Area projects to implement the strtategy. Most of all the three customers went away feeling good! Now that has to be good for customer relations. Well done to the management team at Carbon lead by Brian Walsh and to all the staff who have/are working very hard to build a better future.

Brainstorming Outputs

Brainstorming Outputs

Brainstorming Outputs

Why not be smart like Carbon Group and invite your customers to meet your staff.

If you’d like to know more about the World Cafe process contact me.

World Cafe