Image copyright: pipiwildhead! via Flickr

At its simplest, life comes down to a series of choices, or more often, a parallel of choices.

After deciding which new market or new product to go for, two types of choice dominate the day to day: how should we prioritise our time? and, should we go with option A or option B (or C, D, E, or F)?

This is no time to sway back and forth. You have to make decisions.

How do you decide what to do?

As I was looking in to this I came across a speech given by YCombinator founder Paul Graham at the StartupSchool2008 conference last year, he dealt specifically with the “how do you decide” question. His answer?

Do whatever is best for your users. You can hold on to that like a rope in a hurricane and it will save you if anything can. You can pull on that rope and it will guide you through everything you have to do. Figure out what they want, make them happy doing more of that.

Is he right? Absoloodle! Any choices that are best for customers tend to be pretty good for getting customers too. And customers make everything else possible.

If I could though, I’d add “in the long term” to the end of Mr Graham’s sentence. Running any kind of sustainable business, especially one that skips, is about winning in the long term. So doing whatever in the long term is best for your customers feels better to me.

Whether you’re prioritising time or choosing a fork in the road, put the customer front and centre, think long term, and swallow the results.

Neatly filed under Managing,Skippiness on June 5, 2009

Image copyright: Corscri-Daje tutti! via Flickr

Inside any kind of organisation bigger than the land of Me & My Mate, you’re probably surrounded by people who do a job that’s completely different to yours.

What do all those people do?

I’ve been thinking about the doing part of that question lately, rather than the people part. The way I see it, no matter what the job title or department, the doing falls in to one of only five categories:

Making Promises – easiest to think of as all the things that happen in sales or marketing, some customer services and board functions. Anything that makes any kind of commitment on behalf of the company is a making promises action.

Keeping Promises – everything that even vaguely fits into operations: all the tasks that make the product, perform the service, look after customers, pick up, package or deliver the thing.

Measure and control – all the things involving numbers or making sure nothing gets out of hand.

Support – what gets done in order to make everything else function; what normally happens under the headings of IT or HR for instance.

Leadership and innovation – without getting bogged down in book style definitions, leadership is about direction setting and steering to the compass whilst innovation is all the processes that aim to improve things.

These are not departments, they’re functions, and whilst every person spends most of their time in one kind of role, they probably undertake processes in others, if not all. For example, a production worker is mainly employed to keep promises, but they probably also try to innovate to improve things, keep an eye on production rates and quality, put their arm around colleagues when they need it, and continually make commitments within and for their department.

Ok. So what? Is this anything other than yet another way of thinking about organisational structure?

If every process is about making, keeping, ensuring and supporting promises, or improving the way the whole thing gets done, then every job is about the customer.

So what do all those people do? Let’s hope they’re not wasting any time discussing, deciding or doing anything that doesn’t draw a straight line to improving the life of the customer.

Neatly filed under Innovating,Keeping Promises,Leading,Making Promises,Managing on June 3, 2009

There are no rules.

Running a business, moving a new product along the birth canal, change, getting things done – there are as many ways to do stuff as there are people who answer to ‘you.’ Thankfully. That means my way, or your way, are both fine. You’re good. Go for it.

But if you’re in a place where other people are just, you know, hanging around waiting to contribute, why not give them a shot? Running a meeting isn’t like driving or typing or looking in the mirror, it’s not a table for one. The point is to share, to bring along, to hear, to understand, to convince, to check, to develop, to decide.

To communicate, to converse. Two way.

And here’s the thing.

Everybody is talented, original and has something important to say, if only given the chance. Of course, some people have to be invited, “what do you think John?”, whilst others should be invited to allow them space, “that’s fantastic James, thank you. Now let’s hear what someone else has to say. How about you Jane, what are you thinking?”

Everybody is talented, original and has something important to say, if only given encouragement. Creative and independent thought is in everyone, but it is sensitive and easily scared off. Make it feel welcome. Facilitators’ guide books are a hundred ideas on encouraging, they all boil down to, “feel free, be bold.”

Everybody is talented, original and has something important to say, if only given permission. Talking shops and rubber stamping happens when people are afraid to speak truthfully. Push for candour, especially when it’s hard to take – better hear it in this room today than in the market tomorrow.

I have no idea why you called the meeting, but I know for sure it will be better if everyone speaks, and speaks the truth.

There are no rules, but if there were, this would be one of them.

Picture credit: From an excellent series by lou, via Flickr

Neatly filed under Leading,Managing on May 18, 2009

Bringing a new product to market involves the product, the market and the bringing.

At some point on the journey, someone – that would be you then – decides it’s time to write a business plan. Time to crank open Word and Excel? Not yet.

Whether for a new product, a new business or a new period of the calendar, business planning has three distinct disciplines:

1. Data – what can we know?

There’s a lot of data points out there, the idea is to track down everything you can about the market and the competition. Don’t filter. Collect as much intelligence as possible, including: size, share, financials, products, new products, trends, lists, processes, names.

Next look inside. What can you know about your own organisation? Capacity, capability, financials, attention, focus. What are the strengths to build on and the risks to manage?

2. Discussion – what do we understand?

Time to crunch the data and get into detail about why things happen, what might happen and how they’re related. It’s critical to involve the people who will have to do the work. Getting the benefit from all the data demands a full and frank debate – this is no time for happy talk or leaving things unsaid. A robust plan is always based on robust thinking.

3. Decisions – what will we do?

Make decisions and, finally, commit the plan to writing. Words and numbers. Slides and spreadsheets. Powerpoint and Excel.

Anyone raising money (internally or externally) will probably need a longer piece of writing so allow a few more days for that long awaited appointment with Word. Whether you’re writing long or short, the process is identical.

Bringing a product to market actually involves bringing a company along too. A clear, well thought out plan puts the wheels on the bus.

Neatly filed under Leading,Managing on May 12, 2009

What are you doing? Lots of stuff, right?

It’s easy to be seduced by action – doing all the whats of what we’re doing.

Image copyright: annnna

It feels good to be busy. It feels good to do stuff without thinking. To feel wanted. To roll along. To do.

So nice in fact that sometimes we get into things just because we can, or always have, or someone says please.

For one day only, see what happens if you ask yourself and your team, why?

1. It brings the what into focus
2. It defines success
3. We’re likely to be more motivated when we know why it matters
4. It releases creativity – for alternatives whats that get to the why better
5. It creates options and helps prioritise
6. A clear common cause aligns resources
7. Decisions are faster and firmer
8. It can save a lot of work – particularly if there is no why and you can stop, or not start

No getting away with “because I have to” or “you told me to” — to get the benefit you have to go deeper than that. Visit the why-stuff-happened world of root cause analysis to work out why stuff should happen.

The 5 Whys Method.

Legend has it that Sakichi Toyada, founder of Toyota Motor Corporation, invented and systematised the 5 whys method for engineers looking for the seat of a given problem, although anyone who’s been a kid knows that asking a bunch of whys is the way we’ve always learned. You can use his method to determine the future, not just analyse the past. Just ask why (about) five times.

I’m about to drive to Cambridge to attend a conference (the possible action)

• Why? – I need to connect with some people in our market (first why)
• Why? – To find some potential pilot sites for our next product (second why)
• Why? – We like to do live testing before we do any marketing (third why)
• Why? – We’re obsessed with quality (fourth why)
• Why? – The golden rule; treat others as you’d like to be treated. We don’t want to sell anything that hasn’t proved its worth in the real world and we know is up to the job (fifth why, root cause)

So going to Cambridge is the tactic that will fulfil some personal goals and further the strategy and values of the company. If the answer to number 2 was, “I always go, they expect me there”, I’d save myself an awfully long drive.

Whenever you need to commit resources, better know why.

Neatly filed under Leading,Managing on May 11, 2009