In your professional life I bet you’ve asked yourself many times questions such as, “How do I get my employees to produce more, to be more productive, to increase quality, service customers better?” I bet you’ve even asked them to help you define how you would differentiate your organization. In this video you’ll be shown a slightly different approach.
Under the night sky, four guys in their late teens pitch the remnants of a rotted tree carcass onto the sputtering flames of a campfire. Impatient with the fire’s lackluster performance, they ponder alternatives. One suggests, “Form a teepee with the wood,” while another offers, “Ball up more paper and throw it in.” A third quietly decides to take a more drastic approach. He makes his way through the darkness to the pick-up truck borrowed from his father and returns moments later with a red gas can. “This should do the trick,” he announces, thrusting the can’s contents onto the fire. Instantly, the flickering embers combust into an extraordinary spectacle, breathing life into the fire and renewing the teens’ spirits.
How great would it be to have an accelerant to throw onto your business or nonprofit for a burst of results?
Actually, one such accelerant exists. You were born with it…but you might have forgotten where you put it. It’s called innovation, and as kids, it comes naturally to us. However, as we grow and develop through childhood and young adulthood, most of our mental “motherboard” becomes deprogrammed for innovation. We learn to forfeit our somewhat innate tendencies to engage Continue reading
How are you differentiating your organization and its offerings from your competition? If you had to list the five reasons why people buy from (or join) your organization, would your reasons be much different than your competitors’? “Superior quality,” “exceptional service,” and “competitive pricing” might keep you in the game, but they’ll never differentiate you enough to guarantee the win.
When I’ve asked clients or audience members to list their five reasons and then swap lists with the person sitting next to them, participants quickly realize that their list lacks uniqueness and that any list in the room could be their own.
In this article, I will give you some practical ways that you can differentiate your organization in both the short term and long term.
SHORT TERM: Improving Your Five Reasons
1. Perform the Five-Reasons-Why Exercise: Write down the five reasons why people currently buy from your organization.
2. Refine the Reasons: Refine each reason by adding specificity. For example, instead of “great service,” try “three-hour response time” or “126% faster service than industry competitors.” In terms of time frame, you may be able to refine some reasons (or discover new ones altogether!) instantaneously, while others may require months Continue reading
If there was one activity that fascinates me the most about leadership it would be forecasting. The reason is that leadership is about the future and the better you can see and understand the inter-connectivity of the world and its future, the better you can make decisions. Yet putting this idea into practice is not as easy as it sounds, especially since we don’t have crystal ball to work with. Forecasting requires discipline, a true desire to understand the future, knowledge of creating models and scenarios, and an ability to connect the dots from countless of pieces of information. And that’s just to start.
This video is about four basic elements you’d need to improve your ability to forecast. Master the activities mentioned on the video, and you’ll be well on your way to creating a better future.
Throughout my working life, I’ve been amazed at the lack of direction I’ve received when discussing strategy while in business, school or on the job. It’s almost as if everyone is winging it. This video is designed to give you an advanced look at what a person who’s Paid to Think is responsible for creating when planning and the specific deliverables they must design. I believe you’ll find the steps outlined to be extremely useful in advancing your career and organization.
Download your own wall copy of the CST Model by clicking on the image below.
In this counter intuitive video you’ll learn a new perspective on how to increase personal and organizational performance by challenging a long held belief that people are the most important part of an organization.
Please comment on the video. I’d love to hear your personal stories and thoughts. This is a simple yet challenging concept and yet when you give the concept some thinking time you’ll see that everything around you is systems and structure that leverages your ability to perform.
