The e-newsletter from Forrest WorkshopsFrom the pine...One of the reasons I love Adelaide (abundant vinous nourishment aside) is the genuinely seasonal climate. Shake off your leaves. Concentrate your energies. Bud & blossom. Then bloom and stretch to the sun. Rinse and repeat. It offers moments of forced seasonal change, of adjusting gears when things are starting to get stale or overwhelming. Wrestling the competing needs to "stick to your knitting" and "mix it up a bit / move with the seasons" is tricky, especially for leaders with one eye on the horizon and one on the tiller. I think aligning change moments, breath moments, run moments, reflect moments, with natural seasonal milestones in your market or part of the world, is sensible. Sure, you want to be there for the client on the day when the 3 competitors are out fishing. But you're no good to anyone if you never leave the shop and you're not continually refreshing and refreshed. Part of seasonality means "shedding old skins" - deleting last year's fashion choices. While you're smelling the blooms, popping a Claratyne or prepping the new fascinator for the races, consider the change moments you can mirror in your professional endeavours through to year end. The long race? Just lots of little races with change opportunities between. Troy Forrest, Forrest Workshops & Strategy Road. Life as a ladder rungBeing of service to others means helping them up. Giving them something to grasp onto. Being the safe and comforting handhold as they summon the courage and energy to move onward. Supporting them as they stretch and take steps higher. Coaching, leadership, facilitation, professional service provision, educating, (parenting) – they’re ladder rung positions. Hand rails, platforms, stepping stones. A means for others to get further, to grow. At some point, if you’ve played your rung role well, they’ll step up and beyond you. Take the pebbles from your hand, finish waxing on and off, and climb to the next level, the level you were so excited about helping them to. Rungs are, after all, temporary. And, more often than not, like Puff the Magic Dragon, once they take that step, their need for you (at least in the capacity you were originally serving) disappears. It’s a mixed bag of emotions in that rung role. Sometimes they grab the rung, and realise it’s not the ladder for them, or the climb isn’t right, and they let go and leave. Sometimes they scramble up, rushing to be far beyond your rung, whacking their size 12s on your attempting-to-help hands, and rapidly disappear from view, not particularly cogniscant or appreciative of the role your rung played. Sometimes they stagnate, standing on the rung, not moving, not progressing, and you realise you’re not the right rung for them to go higher. And if they don't, you have to remove it, to push them off the ladder. And sometimes they realise, and are grateful, and your platform does help them progress, and they encourage others to employ and enjoy the rung, and they find other uses for your support. The thing is, when you elect to be a rung, it means accepting you’ll be employed in different ways for different ends by different humans. Not everyone that places their feet on your steadying foundation or reaches out for something to cling to will fit the dream ascender profile you have in your mind. Not everyone will want it, benefit from it, be grateful for it or encourage others to use it. I don’t think that should be your primary concern. Your concern is to be a rung. The best, most solid, most enticing and encouraging and effective rung you’ve got in you, for those that like the look of your ladder, who like the sort of elevations your rung has been designed to help folk achieve. The worst rung is the one that can’t be reached, that's flimsy when you grab it, or that never gets used. Decorative rungs never employed by others to ascend are dumb. If you’re gonna be a rung, be a grizzly rung. From "Death of the Salesman", In The Black CPA Magazine, July 2018 Forced leanGenerally, strategy sessions and resultant output are challenged by "too much" rather than "too little" on the list. Activities and projects and things-in-play-or-at-least-planning already under the purview of the already-employed... we all fight to get them all recognised and validated by the higher order filters for some rare real estate on the Strat Plan. When your enterprise is challenged - by a tough year, by a drying up of cash, by critical folk leaving the wheelhouse, by a competitor rendering a whole swathe of mooted actions redundant - you've got one of those rare opportunities to cull and strip and concentrate. Once the frustrated clod kicking is done, pull up and back. Critical activities. Critical deliverables. Game changers that won't sacrifice all the cashflow of today (but we're believing in our marrows (research-rich marrows) are going to be the truly differentiating & value-realising projects of tomorrow). The most Purpose-aligned, Vision-contributing, Values-leveraging roads, vehicles and ignition acts... the few, truly worthy. The minutia and "stuff that just gets done"? Doesn't need to be on the strategy map. Employ and empower smart enoughs to get it done. The "once were warrior" projects, processes and functions that now just are faded relics (or about to be)? Be brave enough to call them out and tighten accordingly. And the nice-to's? Have the hard conversation. Will they change the game for us, for the better, in comparison to alternatives, for the long term? If no - done-ski. If yes - are we able to pursue even the pre-amble now while we focus on the tighter cohort of immediately important acts, OR if we have to park them for a period, are we crystal clear (and strong enough) to pull them back into the stream at a defined future point (and have we reconciled the risk of others taking the leap first?) It usually stings when a big challenge wave hits the enterprise. But the upside - forced focus can pull you back to the genuinely critical work, and prune the peripheral distractions. Workshop observation...Sticky note energya. It can feel a bit weird to start, but interactive, 3D sticky note exercises getting a group colliding and collaborating with plenty of noise and argy bargy is a great way to ramp up the workshop dynamic 2 years ago, in an envelope from overseas, I received a free, unsolicited pen in my letterbox, engraved with the name and address of my Parcel Nest business, also etched with "5 year anniversary" (which was close to the mark). Never heard of the company before, don't know where they got my details from, and they were trying to sell promotional pens, but... hey, free pen! Good one. Then today, from the same crew, a pen for a different business I have, etched, still high quality, good promotional pricing deal. And while I'm not in the market right now, this company, with an act of (commercially-focused) generosity, has my attention. Nice work, National Pens! Is your marketing this tailored or generous? 3 apps on my phone, smashing CDs, tape measure makers, spirit levellers and newsprinters. You next? Adjust. Seeds3 for your team or self-leadership mulling…
Anderson Hill Winery The Swarm GuideMeet all of them. The talented swarming team of independent-but-aligned domain experts, professional helpers, consultants & advisers extraordinaire, who come together for the betterment of their clients and to improve their value propositions. From HR they come, from IT and financial health, from design and wellbeing and research and restorative justice and more. They are creatives, diligents, high-level, tactical and operational. In ripped jeans and pin striped suits they come. For your support. To help you grow. Check them out. Better, give them a hoy and meet them. Find them here - Strategy Road Swarm. BloomingOne of the challenges a facilitator has post-workshop is following-up with individual participants, checking in to see how they're going, what they applied, what's working, what's not and what's going to happen next. Sometimes it's the facilitator not being proactive enough, and then the window of follow-up relevance closes, and it gets too hard / uncomfortable. Sometimes it's the participants, not keen to engage / embarrassed they've not done enough with the investment of time. Either way, if it's not done, it's a real missed opportunity on two fronts. First, the embedding and galvanising of the learning (a little rib poke can be a great catalyst to go that bit further, and really start some great new behavioural patterns). But the other upside a facilitator misses is the joyous stories.Earlier in the week, after a follow-up note from me about a sales-related workshop (on Challenger questioning) with a group of regional clients in agribusiness, I got a phone call from old mate. He said..."I'll be honest, when I left that workshop, I'd told you and the group a couple of things I was going to try, but truthfully, I really wasn't going to do them. And I went out the next week, and saw a client without trying that thing, and it was a same-ol, same-ol conversation. And so I thought, ahh, you're being stupid, why not give it a go. But I was a bit toey about it, because it was with a client who is also a really old mate, and I felt like a bit of a dill. So I thought, stuff it, I'll go buy a few boxes of chocolates, and go say "just want to say thanks very much for your business over the years, we really appreciate it, and while I'm here, will you tell me a bit about your future goals for the farm?" Well, b*gger me. It turned into one of the best conversations I'd ever had with him. And so I did it again. And it went really well again. I ended up buying 20 boxes of chocolates and giving this a go, and not only are the conversations terrific, and I'm learning lots and I've locked a few new sales in, but I'm really enjoying it. I didn't think I would, and I am. So I'm going back to by another 20 boxes of chocolates to keep going. So, just wanted to say thanks."Hey? Pick up the phone. Send the note. Ask for it. At worst, you learn something you can improve. And sometimes, you're reminded why you do it. More comfortable in a paddock, but smashing it in a training room. Luft balloons* (imagine...)The power of one.. Imagine there was one thing you could do, every day, without fail, that'd set you apart, that'd lift the bushel so damn high off your superpower-illuminating lamp that there'd be no dimming it ever again. That'd change things permanently... IF you did it.
It's just one. Every day. What's yours? Slide deck specials No matter how compelling your "collective upside" message is, there's always that little "WIIFM" voice chirping in the back of participant brains. Address it - recognise it, then work through what it is. Workshop artefact presentation I stumbled across the below "1 page strategic plan" in a free publication for locals in Melbourne's Southbank precinct while over there for a workshop recently. I've built and delivered a bunch of styles of "Strategy on a page" pieces for clients over the years, and I have the help of a very talented creative who is improving them each and every hit out. But this one I really liked - it captured key aspects of who the organisation was, why they exist, what they're about, what they're going to do, and how they'll know if and when they've nailed it. My head hurts when clients bring out previous Strat Plans that are 50 pages long. It hurts because I know I'm going to have to read it... and I know it's been a long time (if ever) that they've read it. It can be clean. Clear. Sharp. Concise. And all on a page. And just when you think you've nailed it with your own style, it's a great reminder to be humble enough (and smart enough) to continually learn from the great work of others. The trees for the woods…I've got a vault full... 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. 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. |