The e-newsletter from Forrest Workshops
From the pine...
Why don't we grab more opportunities?
They're right there, right? In quantum.
Problems to solve. Arms outstretched to clasp. Early signals to read. Stuff that can be done, relatively quickly, affordably, that'll be valuable, done by us. Why not?
Maybe it's that we don't see them for what they are. Because, to paraphrase Edison, they're dressed like hard work. Because we carry a metaphorical version of Retinosa Pigmentosa, progressively blinkered to anything in the periphery, just not seeing so sharply in the dark.
Maybe it's to do with our decision making sequences. First through the brain - "what's the investment?" And when that sounds unappetising, we don't quite make it to "what's the payoff?"
Maybe it's the opportunity cost. "To do A, I have to give up B." And we don't want to give up B, because B's nice, warm, comfy. Known.
Maybe it's because we're just limited creatures. When our dance cards feel full, we feel "that'll do". Because there are only so many hours, only so much we want to give, only a certain rate of growth we're willing to push to achieve. We all have a line beyond which we're "lazy".
Maybe opportunity appetites are curatable, nurturable, grow-able. Maybe its a function of what we expose ourselves to. How hard we work to look at the farthest horizon and imagine what could be on it. Think about the absolute in-the-scheme-of-the-universe unimportance of everything we're fretting over today (and so a dice-roll towards pursuing an exciting or interesting opportunity suddenly feels smarter).
On the dawn of '17-'18, with the abundance of opportunity you are being and will be exposed to, will yours be a year of more opportunity grabbed?
(Thanks heaps for reading this first 1/2 of '18! Really appreciate it!)
Troy Forrest, Forrest Workshops & Strategy Road.
Strategic play – Hybrids
Any strategy is a combination of ambition, analysis, imagining and self-reflection.
- It needs to you aim at something - a goal, a vision, a place down the track you want to reach.
- It needs you to do the homework - figure out what's happened and happening, why things are as they are, what the likely extrapolation of known patterns and what fixed and variable elements you're dealing with.
- It needs you to speculate - where could things go, where might they go, what if this happens and imagine how we could take care of that.
- It needs you to be honest - look in the mirror, and honestly stocktake your limitations, strengths, imperfections, appetites and abilities.
So strategy then is a hybrid melange of wants, knowns, dreams and truths.
A "wants" heavy strategy isn't sufficiently grounded in reality.
A "knowns" heavy strategy doesn't adequately consider change or potential.
A "dreams" heavy strategy is overly speculative and risks the farm.
A "truths" heavy strategy is self-limiting.
When you're framing your paths and gait plan for the years ahead, overlay those 4 elements and ask yourself if what you've put together is an appropriately balanced hybrid of ambition, analysis, imagining and self-reflection.
From HBR April 2016
The Green Room
Good wood from smart guest contributors. This edition…. Tim Standing from Daylight Breaks, showing you how it's done when telling a story with video in agriculture...
Getting on Agribusiness
Agribusiness wasn't my early imagined or deliberately selected consulting arena. 13 years ago, setting up a professional services business after a career in pharmaceuticals and surgical technology, the obvious sandpits were health-related, and those orgs dominated my dance card. As the years rolled on, other industries made their way in by chance & design, and health-related orgs started to diminish. Agri came in via a chance opportunity and an old mate, a legacy of growing up country, and organically expanded to the point where today, we're looking around 50+% of my time.
When I set the consultancy up, my key criteria - pick your clients wisely. Having worked in an interesting industry I was well trained in, with life-saving solutions and nice job perks, my biggest frustration was serving a subset of folk I just didn't love serving. In hindsight, that was a function of different core values. So when you run your own show (assuming you're paying the bills), you've got the opportunity to be a bit selective. Agribusiness, while organically making its way into my life, has continued to fit, primarily because I like the people in it, and our values are pretty well aligned.
Other than "good people, aligned values", agribusiness is exciting for so many reasons;
- Australia is good at it. Hard conditions have bred ingenuity & resilience & smarts.
- We've got a bit of land. 5% of the world's land mass, which while lots is unusable or marginal, still gives us a fair bit of dirt.
- There's lots of mouths to feed. Approaching 10 Billion by 2050. Meat, fruit, veg, grain. And fibre. It's about as future-proof as a marketplace gets.
- It understands seasonality, tough periods and pushing through pain. It will rain again.
- It will benefit from different, external (but committed & interested) voices. As an industry that's "grown up organically", it's seeking different, fresh, value-adding perspectives.
So with some chums, we've built an event (below). One that we (the Strategy Road Swarm of businesses) think will add a truly unique, diverse, interesting and valuable set of insights & ideas to this opportunity rich sector. Backed by some legendary partners. With beer.
If you're in agribusiness, or serve it, and you want to get involved, jump on. Love to have you part of the conversation. #SwarmingForAg.
Workshop observation...
Laptops... yes, or no?
a. Ask why & what they bring - unnecessary distraction, or efficient & effective reference source and action step capture device?
b. Give folk the option - if that's the best way for them to work, no worries. If however they want the full benefit of being fully present in the room, in the moment, old school is powerful.
b. Set the boundaries - so easy to employ for distractions... ask for discipline.
Seeds
3 calls to make to end the fin year…
- Your very best clients - Thank you, we value you, I value you, I want to help you continue to be successful, I'm looking forward to the next steps to making that happen.
- Your team - Thank you, we value you, I value you, I want to help you continue to be successful, I'm looking forward to the next steps to making that happen.
- Your accountant - any more tax deductions to make?
You have time and places you can work. Anywhere. Kinda no excuses left.
The Swarm Guide
Meet Strategy Road Associate Deb Black, Principal of Blackforrest & Associates, a specialist advisory & support firm on matters of workplace conflict, industrial relations, restorative justice, change management and leadership development. Deb focuses on ensuring productive team dynamics, effective communication, and constructive, sustainable working relationships. Check out the services Deb helps clients with here, Black Forrest Consulting.
Blooming
Picking your responses...
Whether you're running the show, or working to put bread on the organisation's table, or just giving your all for a collective upside from any corner of the enterprise, one of the biggest handbrakes to you powering forward is a sense that others are letting you down. Back of house bureaucracy hamstringing front of house initiative. Others not following protocols you're so diligently applying. Folk not sharing your passion or getting behind your lead.
You can gnash and sulk and stew in disappointment and adopt a stuff-em mindset. But it doesn't do much good.
The other way (high atop the moral ground as it sits, trite and unappetising as it feels when you're stinging) is to pick alternative responses.
- When they don't follow the lead, rather than anger, consider curiosity.
- When they drop the ball, rather than frustration, consider support.
- When they aren't reflecting the values, rather than disappointment, consider role-modelling next-level.
- When they aren't appreciating the opportunity, rather than getting miffed, consider collaborating.
- When their actions are aligned with a view of the half empty bit, rather than pointing like a short haired puppy at the liquid in the cup, consider taking up a challenge.
Leadership from a position of feeling pissy and peeved has an odour about it, and it's unattractive. Leadership from a place of "I get it, I know it's hard, I want you part of this, and I accept it's not a smooth run"?
Maybe there's more long-term-valuable followers there.
Swarms are remarkable. A murmuration of Starlings. Bird photo of the year, Daniel Biber, 2018.
Worth a Bo Peep...
A client asked the other day about training course providers. The old faithfuls came to mind with multi-thousand-dollar options. Then this. The world has changed. Suss it out here.
Luft balloons* (imagine...)
The multitude of ways you make an impression on impressionable someones...
- The look in your eyes when they deliver bad news to you that they really didn't want to deliver (what do they see and feel?)
- The pause as you consider and think after their statement is out in the air
- The pitch and timbre and level of commitment heard in your words as you ask the hard question
- Your pace and your patience with theirs
- The furrow of a brow or arching of eyelids or raising of mouth corners exposing teeth or dimples (or exasperated puffs, sighs and mmmms)
- The brevity of your note
- The sugary buttering up feel of your note
- The attention to detail, the care applied that's obvious in your note
- The focus of your words (about them? about their goals? about their immediate pains? Or, somehow, about you?)
- The eye contact, the repeat of a name, the please, the thank you, the real thank you, the generosity in body language and warmth that the coldest humans melt just a little to... or the other side of that coin.
We say so much via so many expressions in so many formats across every moment. It's not all engineerable, but maybe worth reflecting and calibrating against how you want to be considered and remembered.
Slide deck specials
No matter the topic, no matter the group, no matter the outcome (with the possible exception of "here's how we're going to lay off the entire workforce", this is a pretty important reinforcer to whomever you're talking to. If you're going to do it, do it with a bit of upbeat grunt!
When winter motivation flails...
... call them in.
... put on the coffee and lamos.
... reflect. learn. congratulate. imagine. challenge. laugh. plan. consider. inspire.
... when you look out at the rain, remember it's what fuels growth.
... back into it.
The trees for the woods…
Consider fruit for morning tea at the next strategy session. Please. For my sake.
Wanna sign up?
If a mate has forwarded this free e-share to you and you’d like it once or twice a month, click here and type "sign me up, Scotty!" – thanks!
Thank you for reading!
Forrest Workshops custom-builds and facilitates team workshops on topics ranging from strategic planning, leadership and sales practice development, to innovation, customer experience creation and collaborating with your supply chain in an evolving market. Based in Adelaide, serving clients nationally and internationally, from SMEs to Fortune 500s.
Committed to facilitating purposeful teamwork.
Forrest Workshops For One are tailored Coaching & mentoring programs for leaders, business owners, sales and service professionals. High-touch, deep- and long-term impact support.
Contact Troy Forrest from Forrest Workshops on 0430 308963 or troy@forrestworkshops.com.au for a discussion.
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Contact Troy Forrest, troy@forrestworkshops.com.au