Doug Wagner @ Sunwapta

Things Change - Do You Really Notice?

Change is often like the fable of the frog in boiling water.

The frog starts out in cool water and the temperature slowly rises. As the temperature rises the frog should realize the trend and hop out. But because the change is gradual the frog doesn't notice until it is too late; poached frog.

The point is not whether this fable is true (or not or to go try it out).

My Observations

I went to West Palm Beach Florida to attend the Bob Burg Go Giver Retreat in April.

I first met Bob on Twitter. At the time I had around 50 followers (I actually don't like the term followers in social media and think Twitter made a big mistake coining that term; it implies one way communication). Bob had 35,000. Something remarkable happened. He actually went out of his way to connect with me.

I read his blog. Commented. He replied.

I bought his Go Giver books. Liked them, a lot.

I saw a Tweet about the retreat. Looked at the speakers that were lined up. Decided I have to go meet Bob and the people who were connected with Bob (It turns out they all pretty much have some level of friendship with Bob).

I took the Go Giver Accelerator with coach Bill Ellis of Branding for Results from St Louis and he has become a friend as well.

Without Twitter this would not have happened.

Twitter has not been around very long and despite my technical background I resisted the change required to learn the medium and was a somewhat late adopter. Waste of time to hear about someone's choice for lunch.

I was wrong.

A Few More Twitter Stories

One of the people (Tara Rogers, Mojo PR) I met at the Go Giver Retreat travelled all the way from Dubai (yes the one in the middle east). We are now connected on Twitter.

I was jokingly Tweeting to another Go Giver friend in the UK (Lisa Settles, Telcare) about not being able to make The Breakfast Club because there weren't any flights only to find out it was a virtual meeting (silly me) and even though it was midnight for me, I met another half dozen people who meet first thing in the morning to connect.

The world is shrinking and connections that were difficult to make in the past are much easier now.

My Point?

My point is not about the wonders of Twitter, although it is pretty remarkable in its reach it is not for everyone.

My point is not about the wonders of Social Media in its entirety either. Again it is truly amazing but not everyone participates.

My point is:

The world is changing in remarkable ways. Just like the frog we are often too busy doing the things we always do in business (and life) to notice or we take it for granted.

The danger? We don't notice the importance of the change until it is too late.

Takeaways

1. Make sure you take time in your business and professional career to really notice the remarkable things going on around you.
2. If you use social media, use it to connect with people not broadcast your message. Sales is still about people.
3. Make sure you have a plan (strategy) on where you are going and make sure you adjust the plan regularly.
4. Make sure you build innovation and risk taking (willingness to adapt or change) into your business and professional development so you can take advantage of what is happening.

If you don't your competitors will.

What amazing changes have you been a part of or seeing in your business? How are you adapting? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you.

Essential Business Processes and Training for Excellence

At a certain point of growth, every business needs to start formalizing "how things are done here". These are your processes and systems.

In "Predictable Success" by Les McKeown, he pretty much says outright that you can't get to predicable success unless you put enough (but not too much) systems and processes in place (plus some other things).

Too many people think formalizing processes and systems means taking all initiative and creativeness out of business and replacing it with lowest common denominator bureaucracy. Or they think it means everything is handled exactly the same. Or they just don't want to be one of those places with rules and believe that you just tell people the goal and let everyone figure out how to get their on their own. If you hire smart people everyone will just get on with their job. Why take the fun out of work.

They avoid discussing, documenting, improving or systematizing processes at all.

Required Sports Analogy

Can you imagine a professional hockey team that never practiced individually or together? Or forgot everything it knew about how to do things before each game and just winged it? (Yes, some teams do seem to forget.)

So what is practice at the elite level?

Practice is is identifying the individual and team skills and techniques that need to be done over and over again... automatically and with minimal thinking.

They are systematizing and automating the things that happen or should happen over and over again. Players no longer need to think about how to do a slap shot. Or how to pass. Or any of the more complex maneuvers and plays that they practice over and over... thousands of times. This gives players and team immense skill to draw upon.

In the game itself the players can draw on what they know automatically. However, the game is too complex to predict every situation and thinking, adapting, initiative and creativity are very important for successful teams to master; but they know they can rely on the core.

Then they play a few games, see what is working and what is not and then adjust their practice and routines to get a better chance of winning in the future.

Back to Business

The key to systematizing your business is NOT to make it rigid and inflexible. It is not to lower everything to the lowest common denominator.

In fact, working on your business (processes and systems) should follow the following steps:

1. Identify the key processes and systems,
2. Look at how they work today,
3. Figure out the most effective way to get predictable results,
4. Decide what is rigid and where adaptability is useful,
5. Test your process,
6. Train everyone in the skills and techniques of the process and enforce until the skills and habits form,
7. Monitor and measure,
8. Reflect, review and adapt.

Once you understand your processes you can also look at automating or delegating the parts that are repeatable and predictable.

Conclusion

Give your team some leeway to adapt to the current situation. Bring everyone up to the level of your highest performers by leveraging what works, systematizing it and training.

Process, systems and technology are tools to help your people work better; they work for your people. Don't set it up so your people work for your systems.

Above all learn and adapt. Processes and systems are not rigid for all time. Involve the team and other stakeholders into the process of systematization.

Don't develop a policy that punishes everyone because of one case where something doesn't work. Systematization is a balancing act of "just enough" to keep things reasonably predictable while being aware that you can't control everything.

And remember to keep practicing the skills required for the process success and those required to innovate and create to stay competitive as well.

What level of systematization is your organization at? Leave a comment below.

Mission, Purpose and a Video Challenge

I've been taking the words of wisdom from Carrie Wilkerson, author of "The Barefoot Executive" to heart lately. After all, she is a force of nature when it comes to getting things done.

The challenge was simple on the surface. Video blog. One take only. Talk about something you know (extemporaneously) for 3-5 minutes. Minimal editing.

Armed with an HD camcorder, a tripod, and some basic editing software this video is the result. There is something a little nerve wracking about actually recording yourself especially when you have no redo. It is much easier talking to real people, even a small crowd. (I already want to re-do it but I won't.)

So here it is. Rough, raw and ... DONE!

What are you doing to push yourself out of your comfort zone? What is your company mission? Go ahead and continue the discussion in the comments.

The 7 Unspoken Truths About Pay for Performance

Pay for performance normally works something like this. You figure out goals for each employee that ties back to the overall corporate objective and then set the employees variable pay (bonus or incentive) based on the degree to which the employee meets those objectives.

There are 7 unspoken truths about why most organizations fail to make pay for performance work very well.

1. The Planning Horizon is Too Long

Most pay for performance planning cycles are based on a yearly cycle. Business is fast paced and things are constantly changing. If the individual goals become irrelevant or the job description changes you have to adjust or risk confusing the employee or worse, robbing them of the ability to succeed. Remember to tie pay to performance you need to set SMART goals at the individual level. The specific part makes it hard to adapt.

2. Difficult Setting Goals That Flow Up to the Top Objective

It sound pretty easy on the surface, but it can actually be difficult to clearly set individual goals that flow all the way to the top organizational goals. The more layers the more difficult this can be. If it is not clear how an employee's goals tie to the corporate goals you can have both heading off in different directions. Worse, you can actually have individual goals in various parts of the organization that conflict.

3. One Failure Can Ruin the Success Chain

If you do manage to set up good individual goals that flow up to the top of the organization, be aware someone higher up in the chain can ruin the impact of everyone below them. This can also happen on an entirely separate branch of the goal success chain. Say sales meets their goals but oversells the capabilities of operations to deliver? You could have a lot of sales but a bunch of unhappy and unprofitable customers.

4. Individual Goals Destroy Teamwork and Create Silos 

When you tie pay to performance you are basically inciting employees to achieve their goals even if it means destroying teamwork or not applying common sense. I've seen this vividly applied in the real world. It took an entire team to sell a project to the client and the team came together on its own. When it came time to divide up the credit some critical contributors behind the scenes did not get credit. You can imagine the result the next time the team needed to come together (sorry I am too busy). 

5.  Money Is Not (Always) A Primary Motivator 

If money has the same impact on everyone's performance, why do some top performing sales people make way more than others? Shouldn't they all be motivated the same amount? Some people can be motivated by money alone, but most seek motivation and satisfaction in other ways. You would be wise to tailor motivation to the individuals as well as other solid leadership and management principles. Money is a very short-term motivator. Pay your top performers very well, they are gems and you don't want to lose them over pay. But if an employee is motivated by something other than pay you are better off using than than focusing on pay for performance.

6. They are a Variable Expense Whether or Not Company Succeeds

Pay for performance is a variable expense. Yes, you can tie the incentive to overall corporate performance as well. The problem is if a top performer always achieves their targets but the company does not, they will not get the performance part of the pay. Yes, they may feel pretty disconnected from impacting the overall company targets because of the way personal goals are set. For many organizations this becomes a variable expense whether or not the company does well. 

7. They Demotivate If They are No Longer Relevant or Achievable

If you realize your goals cannot be achieved for whatever reason, they become a strong de-motivator. Because they are set at the start of the year, they may become quite disconnected from reality. The opposite can also be true. If I exceed my goals by mid-year, I could coast for the rest of the year and save my discretionary effort (or sales, etc.) for next year's quota. 

Bonus Truth - Excuses and Blame

Pay for performance encourage's defensive work. As soon as a projectstarts people start looking for reason's why it is not their fault and someone else's in case anything goes wrong. In fact you want to encourage teams to be self-correcting and self-improving. Everyone should be looking at ways to make things work better and succeed.

Conclusion

For small and mid-sized businesses without the in-house expertise, pay for performance can be difficult to set up correctly and manage wisely. It can be made to work but also has the problems I outlined above so you need to set it up very carefully.

I am a big fan of paying people well for their expected performance as part of the base and then tying variable pay to a self-funded bonus structure based on overall company objectives. If they don't live up to expectations you can deal with it real time. This offers the benefits of having everyone work towards the same goals as a team and only paying them out if the company meets its objectives. The payout structure can vary by position. The team will point out the sluggards.

This strategy for "profit sharing" means less work and overhead for small and mid-sized business owners and a lot less risk.

I am not at all saying companies should pay everyone the same. I am not saying employees should not have individual goals or be held accountable for performance standards. I just feel strongly that leadership and people management are real time happenings and not something you do once a year.

What is your experience with pay for performance? Leave a comment below.

Our Secret Marketing Plan Revealed (Next Steps)

Last week I wrote a post called "Marketing Yourself Is Your Real World". In it I included a diagram of our "Simplified Marketing Plan For Manifast" which was actually pretty complex even after being simplified.

Well we obviously can't implement everything at once. So I put together the next few things that need to get done in card format in our actual Manifast tool (partial screen shot below) as a project (blue) and outcomes (light yellow). Still pretty aggressive but achievable.

Now it is action time.

 

Know Who You Are (It Simplifies Decisions)

Are you one of those people who chases every business opportunity you see hoping to cash in on the next great thing? Are you not finishing what you start because you are juggling too many things?

Stop it.

The people who make the most money over the long-term focus on one thing at a time and get it finished. They have a vision of where they want to be and single-mindedly pursue it through to success.

Real Life Example

Our business was recently approached with an offer to front another business in the consulting body shopping business and make some easy money on the side with the potential of more opportunities down the road.

When my team came to me with the idea I asked three simple questions:

1. Does it fit our core values?
2. Does it further our mission?
3. Does is support the execution of our vision?

The answer to all three was a resounding "no". My answer to my team was why are you wasting my time and company time then.

Know Who You Are

When you know who you are and what you stand for as a company you don't waste time on ANYTHING that does not match. Only if you have 100% match on all three items do you even have to waste time analysing the opportunity.

Core Values: Those things that are written in stone and you will never bend on. Ethics is one of ours. We won't do anything I wouldn't be proud to tell my mom about.

Mission: How do we serve humanity as a company? If it does not support the mission it is a distraction.

Vision: Where do we plan on being in 3 -5 years? If it does not help us get there it is a distraction.

The wonderful part about clearly defining these things is that you can train everyone in your company and even your partners, customers and suppliers who you are and what you will and will not do.

Kids need consistency when growing up. The reality is that so do adults.

Conclusion

When you decide who you are you don't waste time and effort chasing every rainbow and unicorn that comes along. We are constantly being bombarded with information and the requirements to decide. The easier your decisions are, the more time you can spend on action and results.

Sure your vision and even mission can change over time to adopt to the world you live in. I am not suggesting blinders and running over a cliff like lemmings.

But knowing who you are? It just simplifies decisions and helps you focus on the results that matter.

Question: How do you focus on what matters? How do you keep your team on the same page? Please leave a comment.

Marketing Your Product is Your Real World

12 years ago when we started our company, I thought that branding, marketing and selling were something that someone else would handle. Sure as the president of the company I needed to set direction, but the icky parts were going to be done by someone else and I could focus on the project work for clients; you know, "delegate".

Today I know deep down in my heart that branding, marketing and selling are your business. Building a business means dealing with those subjects head-on. You can delegate the work, but you should not ever delegate the strategy (or the supporting corporate mission, core values, culture and vision). As Chet Holmes states in his book, "The Ultimate Sales Machine", you need "pig-headed discipline" to make sure you stay the course. If you do the tail will end up wagging the dog (actually there will be multiple tails wagging the dog).

This does not mean you can't involve your team and delegate and let your team run with stuff. It just means that consistency of purpose has to come from the top.

In reality I've come to really enjoy Branding, Marketing and Selling. Why the about face?

You get to tell a story. You get to put on a show. You get to build relationships. You get to create an awesome business.

Your business will not matter if nobody knows about it or buys from you.

Our Marketing Plan

Over the past few years I've learned a lot about marketing, online marketing, search engines, paid search, social media, etc. I've read books by the experts and even engaged with advisers that can show me how they got to success and avoid some of the pitfalls (mentoring and coaching).

We have recently launched our Manifast product and I put together a diagram to better understand how everything fits together.

I should disclose that I like technical stuff and studied engineering in university. So when I say this is the simplified version of something, it truly is.

So here is the simplified version of all the components to our marketing plan for Manifast.

Simplified Marketing Plan for Manifast

I'm not at all worried about anyone stealing this or using it against me. You see it is not the plan that matters. It is actually a pretty generic and obvious plan.

What really matters is what you do with the plan. How you implement it. How you engage with people in the real world. 

The story you and your brand lives by.

Marketing your product in the real world is both complex and simple.

Next Steps

From this diagram our action steps become crystal clear to me. We need to pick the important parts and get them done. One at a time, get them done. Build momentum over time. Reach the tipping point.

We won't try to do everything at once. I only put this diagram together so we could understand how all the pieces go together for our situation.

You need to decide what your plan is and then do the work (or delegate it). Just make sure you don't delegate and disappear. You won't like what you become.

Questions: Is your situation this complex? How do you plan and execute your marketing strategy? Please leave a comment below.

An Entrepreneurs Fable

Once upon a time three inspired information technology technicians working for a large consulting company decided to start a business. One was an architect, one was a project manager and one was a developer. One became the CEO, one became the salesman and one became the lead technician.

This was a time of plenty. Everyone was starting a technology business and overnight success was coming to companies that had nothing to show… no products, no customers and no revenue… the gold rush of the Internet. Companies were spending money like there was no end of it… other people’s money (OPM (rhymes with opium))… huge burn rates with no plans to turn a profit until some vague point in the future when they dominate the market… or cashing in on an IPO. Speculators were buying stock because a company had Linux in its name and a vague promise of a grand future.

Then the bubble burst. OPM dried up. Companies were closing their doors and shareholders were left with nothing. Then the events of 911 further dampened economic outlook.

The three business owners and their staff survived these downturns. They were not addicted to OPM, were not selling a lie, were good technicians, had strong ethics, had great staff, had low costs… and most importantly had a few good customers that remained loyal and fed them enough work to survive.

The company continued to grow and then hit a bump. Then it grew again and hit a bump. Everyone was working really hard, mastering their craft and taking care of the clients. But something was wrong. They just could not achieve the growth they wanted, the dream was not happening.

Then five years into the business, the CEO had a dream. Fast forward 10 years in the future…

The company had grown a bit over the years. Very hard work and perseverance had allowed them to survive the rough times and when times were good they expanded a bit, but not significantly. Many employees have moved on. Some have been around a long time, a few since near the beginning. The loyal ones had been rewarded with an ownership stake in the company. Several of the owners (original and new) were ready to move on to the next phase of their lives. But, there was no easy way out. The customers were loyal to the people, not the company. There were too few customers. There were key people that could not easily be replaced. People were getting tired of doing the same thing with no change. There was no way to extract the value out of the company… no way to exit gracefully… only failure or a partial success…and too much pride to fail.

The next morning the CEO awoke with the dream still vivid in his mind. He knew what was wrong. They had spent all those years, working very hard, sacrificing… to create jobs for themselves.

After much reading, reflecting and soul searching the answers became clear. To really become an entrepreneur you have to embrace two fundamental truths:

1. You must work on the business and not in it, and
2. You must work on yourself as much or more than you work on the business.

Being a great practitioner of your craft (what you are selling) merely gets you a job. The limiting factor of any business is the owner (leadership).

You must learn to become a master entrepreneur.

That is your real craft… building something great from nothing… passionate… inspiring shareholders, employees and customers… making a difference… a creator... always evolving … a CEO… a master entrepreneur.

The CEO decides to embark on the journey to become a master entrepreneur. Only time will tell what great adventures the CEO and those who journey with him will enjoy. But with this knowledge the future is much brighter.

The End... and the Beginning.

Update: This is a repost from 4 July 2008. I decided to reshare this post because it is the business need and story that started Manifast, our new product to help business owners avoid this exact situation.

Disclaimer: This fable is only loosely based on a true story and any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental.

How Much Effort Does It Take To Move From Good to Great?

I was asked a question today. It was about our Manifast product which is aimed at allowing businesses to bring strategy, working on the business and developing your people to the same level of importance as working in the business; serving customers and fighting fires.

Roughly the question went like "How much effort is required to setup the tool and maintain the information in it? Is the benefit of doing all that stuff worth it?"

Aside from the context of the tool the question is really more fundamental:

"Is the effort of documenting, planning and executing your strategy, building your business and developing your people worth it? Would I not be better served just taking action and spending the time serving our customers and finding more customers and deal with issues as they come up?"

Is Business Planning and Improvement Worth It?

If you are a one person shop or very small organization you may be able to keep everything in your head. You may be doing some strategic planning and working on the business is really just changing the way YOU do things. Not hard to track.

My experience as well as learning from numerous sources is that the majority of businesses that don't consistently plan and execute on their plans under-perform their competitors significantly. If you are in an industry that is trending upwards you may still be profitable and even seem to be doing well.

However, you are likely leaving tens of thousands to millions of dollars on the table. You may be impeding your ability to grow and sustain that growth. Your business may not be heading in the direction you really want it to and it may not serve your needs as the owner.

Your fire fighting will likely consume more and more of your time as you grow. A great business will fix problems and become self-healing without everything being a force of will from the top. You just need to take the time to build that organization and train the people in it on building a business.

Do You Want to Have a Great Business?

Great businesses have great customers. They attract top talent and top customers much more easily than their competitors. This translates to larger profits and ultimately, a great value on the business itself.

Each company must choose its path. Choosing the path to being a great company (large or small) means doing those things most other businesses chose not to do.

• Consciously choosing your path and taking action to get there;
• Building a strong corporate culture and brand;
• Building the best possible business to reinforce and support the objectives;
• Working on the business and people so the fires don't come back;
• Hiring and developing your people to support your business;
• Building a truly learning, engaged and empowered organization that can move quickly in the market;
• An organization that plans and more importantly executes its plans through action.

Yes, this takes some work. Many people advise that organizations spend 10-20% of your budget on strategy, business and people development (more if you are growing quickly or spending on research and development for new products).

And Using a Tool?

And using a tool to manage all of this? Where were you going to document it all without the tool? How were you going to track everything that needs to get done? How much time would you be spending communicating and coordinating all of that information and keeping everyone on the same page? How much time tracking accountability? How much time conceiving and managing the process of managing all of this and ensuring it gets done?

And the real work is in the execution.

Yes, there is some learning time to master a new tool. Yes, there is some initial setup time and you need to invest in maintaining the tool. The underlying business skills take time to learn as well.

Any good tool pays for itself many times over.

How much effort does it take to go from good to great? Much less over time if you have the right tools and use them well.

Are you looking to build a great business? How are you doing it today?

The Paradox of Referral Fees

Offering referral fees to others to send business your way is a two edged sword at times:

• On one hand you can really increase your customers,
• On the other hand you might not get the customers you really want or need.

Therein lies the paradox.

On The Positive Side

On the positive side you are offering a financial incentive to others to refer business your way. Your customers and "agents" can earn some cold hard cash sending business your way.

You hope that the person doing the referring is looking out for both your and the potential client's best interest in making the connection.

But There Is Another Side

However, this is not always the case. Your "agents" may start sending business your way that is not good for you and even worse, not a good match for the customers.

And once they find out that the "agent" was benefiting financially from the referral they can become bitter to both the agent and your company by association. With the reach of Social Media, this may be a complication you don't need.

There is another issue on the psychology side: monetary incentives alone do not motivate well long-term. Some people are even arguing that pay for performance is causing people to blindly seek the money and game the system.

Giving Amazing Value Instead

For our Manifast product we are looking for business advisers (coaches, mentors, consultants, board of directors, etc.) who would see value in offering a tool to reinforce and add to the value to their consulting work. They get added revenue from helping their clients actually do the planning required and we get the software licensing fees.

The consulting work per client potentially far exceeds our piece. We would also expect to eventually refer work back to the advisers.

Already we are thinking of the tremendous value to both the advisers and the customers.

Raving fans of your product who give referrals out of caring are potentially worth a lot more to your brand than paid agents. As well, many advisers need to remain unbiased in the eyes of their clients so will not want payment anyways.

(And in the future we have even more powerful value propositions in store for both groups.)

So first look for other ways you can give value back to your champions so that referral fees are not necessary. Amazing value.

Conclusion

Referrals fees can work well for certain types of business where an unbiased referral is not a concern and customer matching is easy or straight forward. Commodities like books are like that.

If you are going to use referral fees make sure you set them up to get the customers you really want and need. Also be prepared to deal with the administration of score keeping and refereeing those trying to game the system.

I like the idea of delivering amazing value and getting customers to become raving fans.

Are you using referral fees successfully? Leave a comment.

Are You Too Busy To Add Big Dollars To Your Bottom Line?

• Do you have a company culture of continuous improvement?
• Are you dedicating 10% or more of your time to working on your business?
• Do you delegate parts of your business and have a methodology for holding people accountable for performance?

If you are not, you are impacting your profitability in a big way.

As a business owner this is coming right off your bottom line. If you are losing $10,000 in costs (i.e. profit) and you have margins of 5%, you would have to earn another $200,000 in revenue to make that back.

Business advisors like Jeff Pallister can come into many businesses and easily find $50,000 in savings in a short period of time. He does this largely by tapping into the latent talent and creativity of your existing team.

Our Own Example

Recently I had to step into a business process and get some work done that was languishing. The people currently doing the work did it in short bursts and then did something else; the work was cyclical. Because I wanted to do a large batch all at once the flaws in the process became painfully obvious. Because I am very time constrained I elected to fix those processes. The result was that I was able to do the remaining work in 50% less time, saving 10-20 hours of effort.

The “E-Myth Revisted” by Michael Gerber promotes the idea of the entrepreneur(s) learning and doing each role until they understand it and make it repeatable and efficient. Only then should you hire someone to perform the role. This is part of the idea of running your business as a franchise, even if it won’t be.

Now this is not the only way to do it. But as an entrepreneur you must own the “creation of your business”. You can delegate pieces but you must train, coach, measure and hold accountable all of the people you have delegated the process to.

Over the period of a year we spent 500 hours supporting, upgrading and administering one application. A 10% improvement in overall efficiency could translate into 50 hours of savings a year.

As the president I am an expensive resource as are some others in the company. But once the process is more efficient and predictable you can delegate certain work to less expensive resource without the risk of having it all fall apart. Now you have a double savings; $5,000 becomes $10,000 or more.

This is only one process out of a lot even for our company.

It is likely you are sitting on a lot of lost opportunity as well. Maybe even your ability to grow or become great!

How It Works

There are several things you need to do to successfully work on the business. Other than customers and your product and services; building a great company involves three things that often get overlooked:

1. The strategic plan and execution;
2. Working on the business (processes, systems, tools and infrastructure); and
3. Developing your people.

Working on the business means:

• Defining the things you need to measure (KPIs);
• Defining your business components (processes, systems, tools and infrastructure);
• Aligning the business components with your strategy, values and people; and
• Making your business as efficient and predicable as it can be.

Using a proven methodology is a great first step. Using a tool like Manifast to reinforce the process and streamline the tracking is even better.

What is in it for employees?

Well you could use a percentage of the increase in profits to self-fund a profit sharing plan. Most people also want to be efficient and produce at the highest level possible. They just need to know how to keep score and have the time and tools to do it.

What about you?

How much time do you spend working on your business? How much money might you be leaving on the table?

What action are you going to take? Today?

Leave a comment.

Chain Reaction (to Sustainable Profits)

I read Chain Reaction - A Business Novel by Jeff Pallister a few months ago. I enjoyed the book and found that a lot of Jeff's thinking paralleled our thinking about how business could be.

Jeff Pallister is a speaker, author and management consultant who specializes in applying creativity and teamwork to generate increased profitability.

The book itself is about the company president Ryan Vale who was hired by the founders to get the company back on track. Most of the founders are reaching the end of their careers and want to cash out by selling the company and then enjoying retirement.

One big problem. The business is not worth nearly as much as the owners thought it was because it has some issues:

• Not profitable enough,
• People are leaving the the work is falling to others; increasing stress and problems
• Dependencies on key people,
• No recent innovations and the great products of the past have been copied by competitors,
• No real strategic plan,
• No accountability,
• Not working on the business and fixing the real issues,
• Etc.

Ryan then hires a consultant who guides him through the "12 Best Practices" to turn the company around. I won't spoil the ending. I recommend you get a copy of the book if you are suffering from any of the issues mentioned above.

Chain Reaction and Manifast

Manifast is the software product we developed to help small and mid-sized businesses and organizations find the right balance between: "Strategic Planning, Working on the Business and Developing Your People" and "Working in the Business".

Using a integrated software tool to keep your team focused, accountable, communicating, etc. can add a lot of value and effectiveness to execution of your plans. Using a coach/consultant and software tool together can add tremendous value.

Here is a quick overview of how our tool can be used to support the implementation of the 12 Best Practices in Chain Reaction.

Chain Reaction Practices	Manifast Tools
Tap Into Creativity	Brainstorming Tools
Work Through Teams	Team Planning, Developing People
Lead	Entire Tool
Set a Clear Direction	Strategic Planning Module
Know the Score	KPI Tracking, Goal Setting
Create a Productive Work Environment	Working on the Business, Developing Your People
Apply Rigorous Methods	Brainstorming, Entire Tool
Redesign Processes	Working on the Business
Eliminate Hidden Costs	Working on the Business
Deliver Innovative Products	Strategic and Team Planning
Create Exceptional Customer Value	Entire Tool
Create the Chain Reaction	Entire Tool

Read the book for details on the best practices. Contact Jeff if you would like more information about his services or book.

We are honoured that Jeff chose to work with us and become an early adopter of Manifast for both himself and his clients.

What software tools do you use to implement your business planning and execution? Do you use a coach or business consultant to help your business? Leave a comment.

Are You On Auto-Pilot?

You know that feeling you get when you drive home along a familiar route and afterwards you don't remember any of the drive?

That is what running on auto-pilot is like.

Your brain is amazing. If you've done things repeatedly the same in the past before, you can do them again with little thought or effort required.

The same is true if you are doing something simple or low risk. You don't need to fully engage.

In both cases you can run on auto-pilot and safely get to your destination.

Until something changes suddenly. Or until a danger suddenly appears.

Then you will be present again.

But it just may be too late. The lack of attention may be fatal when the danger become obvious. The sudden whack in the side of the head that you are too late ducking.

You can't afford to live your life or run your business on auto-pilot. You and your customers deserve your best.

You need to have and follow a plan; even if it changes regularly.

You need to work on your business. As well, you need to work on yourself and your people to prepare for the future.

And most importantly you need to have a system that helps you stay focused, even when you could run on auto-pilot.

I'm Not In The Mood For...

The other night I was in a funk and this post almost ended up being titled "Real Men Don't Talk About Depression" but while there is still too much silence and taboo around the topic; I didn't want to take away from the plight of those who are clinically depressed and this post ended up on a different path anyways. I must also credit Carrie Wilkinson of The Barefoot Executive fame for showing me the value of being real (i.e. human) and thus not deleting this post entirely.

As we started the New Year I was both excited and overwhelmed by business and personal objectives. I won't call them resolutions because they are really just continuations of the paths I had set last year.

But there is something magical and crazy about 1 January 2012 as a date. It feels like a new cycle and a chance to instantaneously fix all of the problems you perceive you have about yourself.

So a week into 2012 I was still clearing stuff I was supposed have finished last year and this year's stuff was piling up. Lots of things that needed to get done, lots of people depending on me, and lots of decisions that needed to be made... fast.

Yup, I was pushing myself beyond my comfort zone. Way beyond. And not moving very quickly.

So then I got in a funk. And stayed there. My mood was in a down cycle.

That is not to say I could not function or appear fairly normal. But my spark was gone and I was a little quicker to react negatively to things.

And with it the spark for a thing I value immensely: creativity. For me my creativity is best when I am in the right frame of mind. I don't create on demand.

Being an Introvert

Then last night I remembered reading "The Introvert's Guide to Success in Business and Leadership" by Lisa Petrilli. In her book she uses the most accurate description of an Introvert as someone who loses energy in public situations (crowds, networking, etc.) and needs alone time to regenerate. But that was not it as I was not actually doing a lot of public stuff.

Then I remembered the second part. Introverts often also need time to reflect to make decisions.

I was feeling overwhelmed because I was trying to hold in my head and make too many decisions at the same time without giving myself enough time to reflect. So they were all sticking around and coming back to occupy my attention any time I was not intently focused on something else.

This causes the feeling of being overwhelmed.

I suspect many other business owners, entrepreneurs and people feel this way at times.

The natural defence at this point is avoidance. I just won't do ANY of the things that make me uncomfortable.

Fortunately, There Is A Solution

Fortunately there is a solution and it does not involve quitting my role or hiring someone to deal with everything I don't want to.

It is using a system to get rid of the noise and focus on action.

There are two parts to this system:

1. Break big problems and solutions down into bite sized pieces.
2. Pick your most important item and take action, focus.

If you don't know what the most important thing is or how to break something down, pick something important and take action that you think will move you closer finding the root of the problem or implementing a solution. Build momentum that will boost your mood.

In our Manifast product we are calling this "My Most Important Work". Some people use a quadrant based prioritization system (based on important/urgent). Whatever works for you.

The system helps with analysis, reflection, (and most importantly for an Introvert) decision making and taking action.

Now that I've recognized one of my triggers for a funky down cycle I can use that knowledge and the system I've outlined to recover my momentum faster.

"I'm not in the mood for creativity" may just be a thing of the past, or at least more short-lived.

Resolutions for 2012 - Dream Big

Assuming I set New Year's resolutions I would have the following and more:

• Get more sleep on a regular basis,
• Exercise more,
• Eat better,
• Lose 10 pounds,
• Achieve more business and financial success,
• Balance my time over all areas of my life,
• Have a neater and more organized work space,
• Waste less time on distractions,
• Deal with stress better,
• Travel to Mars.

But if I haven't done those things consistently in the past, what makes me think I will do them in early 2012? Why am I making a big list of things I will likely fail at?

The problem with resolutions is that we tend to focus on the things we aren't happy with... our weaknesses. Oh we can couch them as goals with positive sounding outcomes. Let's face it though, we are forcing ourselves to accomplish them with a big stick approach.

So I propose you look at the things are are doing right and probably enjoy. I hope you have some.

Do more of that.

That is action.

Then make some small positive changes. Bundle the small improvements with the things you enjoy or do the things you enjoy as a reward for the improvements. Focus on a few things at a time. Build momentum.

Set goals, plan and take action regularly throughout the year. Start small and get bigger as the momentum builds. Make your ultimate goals so exciting to you that the work required to get there is worth it. As you get better at it you will be able to set bigger goals and actually achieve most of them.

Just don't save this for a once a year guilt trip. That is why I don't do New Year's resolutions. I believe in working on goals and reflecting all year, not just in December.

Dream big. Everyone should have a big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) they are working on.

Who is to say I can't actually visit Mars (or some other big goal). You might be wrong. And the BHAG gives me focus and reason to take care of the other important things.

Have a wonderful 2012. Dream big and achieve all year.