The e-newsletter from Forrest WorkshopsFrom the pine...The clouds are rolling in, the rain's returning, dark comes earlier, and the motivation to kick off the doona before Rooster call naturally slides. Happy with the rain. Brings the green. Still haven't seen all the leaves turn red yet. Strange season. Anticipated changes are changing. As you've gathered from the pics in these notes (9/10 are mine), I like a hike. Walking by myself is therapeutic, thought-processing and priority clarifying. Walking with mates is also a joy. Chat about crap, bonding over boulders versus brews (better for the belt line). Constantly changing scenery reminding of the nature of change. Seeing stuff that, if you pause and consider just a moment, is deep-down amazing. Part of why I like taking rank-amateur pics with the iPhone. Not just fodder for these flyers, but it's a catalyst to consider the beauty and be awed by stuff you'd otherwise walk right by. Sentiment coming with age. Appreciation coming with pattern recognition and watching variants and chaos forming beauty. The huffing and puffing upsides of exercise, outside, by the side of folk you enjoy. And accepting nothing is fixed, nothing absolute, and knowing that knowing it all is an asymptote you just have to keep working and trying to get closer to. Breathe and reflect tomorrow. Happy trails. Troy Forrest, Forrest Workshops & Strategy Road. Strategic play – The double tripleIf you're clear on your Purpose, Vision and Values, and you've understood and narrowed down the handful of strategic priority dimensions you need to apportion energy and resourcing towards, then the conversation turns to WHAT you need to do and WHEN you need to do it. Consider 3 Horizons and 3 Aeroplanes. 3 Horizons (a variation on the McKinsey construct) is about looking near... a little further out... and further out still. Baby, Mamma and Pappa bear timelines.
I don't think you need to be overly prescriptive with the time horizons - that'll have a bit to do with your market, your organisation and your aspirations - but broadly, think in terms of "now stuff", "soon stuff" and "little further down the track stuff". Make sense? Then, consider 3 Aeroplanes. Landing, flying and launching.
"Launch" activities are all about delayed gratification, about putting disproportionate energy into something to get it off the ground, paying opportunity costs for, that won't pay immediately (but won't get anywhere if you don't get it airborne). "Land" activities are payday - binary outcome realisation (did they work? Deliver?). And "Fly" activities are about someone being empowered to control the flight and keep an eye on the compass to ensure they deliver a little further out. Then? Overlap these two ideas. Categorise the projects into;
By breaking your priority projects into a few time brackets, and thinking about where energy, control and benefit realisation needs to be placed, you're better able to visualise and allocate resources in the right areas. (If I've bamboozled you, give me a hoy.) From "Thriving in the Gig Economy", G. Petriglieri et al, HBR March-April 2018. The Green RoomGood wood from smart guest contributors. This edition…. Deb Trebilcock from Coalmine Canary, with lessons learned from a brutal day pounding the hills surrounding Adelaide.... Customer language guidesIn planning workshops and strategy sessions, we sometimes fall into language traps - talking "us-speak". Internal acronyms, the boss' pet sayings and terminology, themes from our last internal branding events. Nice, but maybe more meaningful to us than anyone else. Take the word blinkers off a moment, and consider the type of language used by your customers;
You will continue to talk and communicate like you, but discussing client terminology and calibrating your language to more closely align with how your VIPs speak and promote is a simple, often overlooked strategy. Adel-anguage. We speak about Fritz and Wine. Not together. But maybe... Workshop observation...Make the room work.a. U-shapes are terrific for teams of 10 - 20 when most of the action is front-of-room, but Seeds3 things to keep in mind when eyeballing a prospect for the first time…
Jets and success. Track-leavers. The Swarm GuideMeet Strategy Road Associate Catherine Wells, a financial strategist & financial planner who specialises in supporting clients with SMSF as well as planning for millennials. Cat and her team support an array of business owners, families and individuals, from Baby Boomers hitting retirement age, to those young enough to get the full lifetime benefit of compound interest. Check out Cat's business Plansure. BloomingReflect & remember...Memorial days are anniversaries of major events with lessons for an entire population to review and remember. Hard-won lessons, by others, their fruits enjoyed by us. Reflecting and remembering is about the very least we can do. The even better play? Doing something with that remembering. Reflecting on the purpose of their actions - their "why" they did it - and honouring it in how you go about your next steps. Memorial days are about the giants, the major moments for which communities need to gather around common touchstones and consider. But there are other, smaller moments - personal moments only you've been the beneficiary of - you can use memorial days to reflect on. Consider the sacrificers and enablers of your success, the drivers and catalysts and supporters. Consider the shoulders on which you stand and the standards set by others we'd do well to remember and apply. Some gave a lot for our success. L W F. Worth a Bo Peep...South by South West (SXSW) is one of, if not the biggest conference on the planet dedicated to ideas, creativity and professional growth. It takes over the city of Austin, Texas, for a week, and brings crazy-calibre speakers together on one bill. Check out some of the back-content - http://sxsw.com. Luft balloons* (imagine...)If - then - else. A computer programming framework from yonks ago. Consider it;
If it happens, then what will happen. Then what will you need to do. Then what comes next? Else? It's your Plan B. There's no single cat skinning manual. You have options. What could they be should the big wave hit? Slide deck specials It's the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. It's the name of a very handy Aussie pop singer & judge on The Voice. And mathematically, it means "variation". Change. It's the biggest concept you want to be confronting, discussing, imaging, regularly. The After-Workshop The whiteboard is full, the brains are emptied, the mood is happy-tired and it's time to thank the contributors, power down the data projector and call it a day. Consider a cherry-on-the-cake act. Post-workshop drinks and canapés? If you can extend the budget and sequester just that much more time from the punters, it serves a range of purposes;
Shared workshop experiences are great ties. Shared post-workshop experiences can deepen and extend a relationship to a whole different level. Cheers to that! The trees for the woods…(tumbleweeds....) 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. NEW! 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. |