Blog by Tiffany Chepul, Gazelles Systems Rhythm Coach
Every quarter, my team and I complete a Start Stop Keep exercise to get us thinking. It's a valuable process that forces me to think: What should I Start, Stop, and Keep doing in the next 90 days?
Here's how it works:
The week before the Company Quarterly Planning Session, the facilitator sends out the Start Stop Keep Tool to the executive team. It's three seemingly simple questions:
1. What should we Start doing? (Starts are things we should consider doing that we are not doing now. What are some opportunities to improve?)
2. What should we Stop doing? (Stops are things that are not working and need to be scrapped or fixed. What is ineffective that we can stop doing to save our energy and bandwidth for other opportunities. These are items that can "dehassle" your team.)
3. What should we Keep doing? (Keeps are things that are working well and we should continue doing. Focus on bright spots: Items that are working well that may be replicated across the company.)
For each question, participants should provide their top 3 answers that pertain to them and their department. Answers should be specific and actionable.
For even further insight, members of the executive team can have their direct reports do a Start Stop Keep, too. Exec team members can then use feedback from their entire team in their own Start Stop Keep.
Prior to the Planning Session everyone returns their answers to the session facilitator who compiles them into a clean list with duplicates removed. The feedback is then discussed during the "Review & Learn" portion of the Planning Session Agenda.
Jeff Thull, author of "Mastering the Complex Sale", was my guest speaker at the Taipan Masterclass 2012 in Manila Philippines. I first heard Jeff 3 years ago at Verne Harnish's Sales and Marketing Summit. What I love best about Jeff's methods, is his reference models. Instead of selling, his reference models are professionals that ask more questions such as doctors, lawyers and detectives. Instead of selling, Jeff suggests that you ask more questions.
Here are a few thought provoking key thoughts from Jeff Thull's session in Taipan:
- Budgets are irrelevant. Money will flow to the best return. They will rob Peter to pay Paul. Let's make sure we are Paul!
- Rule of integrity. If you were your customer, knowing what you know about your space, products and competitors, would you recommend what you are about to recommend?
- You will gain more credibility through the questions you ask rather than the stories you tell
- The purpose of a proposal is to reinforce a decision that has already been made. So do not give a proposal until the customer has decided to change.
- And finally… Stop presenting!
I just came back from speaking at the Taipan Masterclass 2012, held in Manila Philippines. We had a blast! My hosts in Manila were such warm and wonderful people. There where 49 companies with a total of 149 executives that did a deep dive for over 3 days into the following topics:
- Strategic selling
- Topgrading
- Execution for High Performance Teams.
If you want strong business execution, you must start with a strong team. There is no better way to recruit than using
Topgrading, by Brad Smart. I invited Brad to Taipan this year, and I came away with a few thoughts:
- "A" Players would be more productive and happy if they were not cleaning up after other non "A" Players.
- Consider interviewing with a partner. Tandem interviewing or group interviewing achieves 80%-90% success in getting "A" players.
- Ask candidates to set up reference calls for you with their past employers. "A" players would be glad to do it while "C" players will run for the hills!
At Gazelles Systems, we have been using Topgrading for the last few years with great results. We interview in a group of 4, and can testify that the shared observations of every member of our interviewing group helps us to only hire the best. Our group interviews protect us from one of our team members "falling in love" with the candidate that we are interviewing. Many times when one or two of us got "sold" by a candidate, the other two in the group would be able to pull us back with good objective data and observations.
The cost of replacing a poor hire can be as much as 15 times the person's base salary. That's a lot of waste. Strong business execution should increase speed while lowering waste. Better to hire right and slow than hiring fast and wrong.
Blog Post by Tiffany Chepal, Gazelles Systems Rhythm Coach
It’s Week 7 and your star Sales Director just quit, your biggest customer is asking for a discount (or else) and your General Counsel just informed you of a new pending lawsuit. Has your quarter just imploded and threatened to derail your focus? Here are a few steps to get you and your team back on track:
1. Start by getting yourself focused on what you need to do for the remainder of the quarter. Look at your Personal Priorities (and any Personal Priorities of exec team members who have left the company unexpectedly) and decide what HAS to get done. Add Personal Priorities if needed. What Priorities can someone else take? What can be deferred for next quarter? Get yourself down to 5 Personal Priorities or less and rank them by order of importance. Much like an emergency landing, parents should put on their oxygen masks first before helping anyone else.
2. In the next Weekly Meeting with the Executive Team, use the Update Status page instead of the Energy Map to review each person's Priorities individually. Follow the process above for each person - reprioritize and recalibrate as needed. The goal is for each person to be clearly focussed on what needs to happen in the remaining weeks of the quarter. Discuss Yellows and Reds as you go.
3. Make sure the Weekly Meetings are happening at the Group level with consistency. This becomes even more important when leadership changes. The Groups need to feel secure in their routine and know that they are still going to be held accountable. Facilitate these yourself, or appoint a Group member to facilitate the Weekly Meeting.
4. Go ahead and schedule the date for your Quarterly Planning Session for the next quarter. It should happen 2-3 weeks before the end of the quarter. This will give the team a light at the end of the tunnel, and make sure the team hits the ground running with a new plan in Week 1.
Blog by Kristi Burns, Gazelles Systems Rhythm Coach
Verne Harish notes in his book “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” that the difference between organizational vision and organizational alignment as drivers toward success is a whopping 99%. He demonstrates that vision = 1%, while alignment = 99%.
Think about the power of that assertion for a moment. Why is it that organizational alignment is exponentially more important to success than vision?
The majority of strategic goals and results involve a holistic view of the organization and are “touched” by multiple, if not all, functional hands (departments). As a result, it is imperative that every individual of the company be able to recognize the interdependencies that exist around any work effort that takes place.
Recognizing that everything done at both a group and individual level impacts another group and/or individual is key to achieving organizational alignment. It is key to achieving organizational goals and successful strategy execution. Organizational alignment is the cornerstone of maximum goal attainment.
So, what are some things that you can do to promote organizational alignment within your company?
1. Share both long-term and short-term goals and objectives (priorities) with the organization. Be transparent about who you are and where you want to go.
2. Develop a system for keeping everyone on the same page. To do this, ensure that you start with the executive team to establish:
- Priorities (what we are going to focus on when)
- Data (how we are going to measure our progress / result)
- Rhythm (the frequency and habit of meeting to review, discuss, and solve)
3. Drive this thinking and these habits down to the very front lines of your organization.
- Make sure every person in the entire company knows what the focus is for the next quarter, the next year ….
- Ensure that each individual is able to connect with one or two larger priorities (group / company) and create actionable activities for themselves that support those larger priorities.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate, to keep everyone on the same page at all times.
At Gazelles Systems, we work to help clients achieve organizational alignment through the execution of these habits in order to reach longer term goals. We also love to hear from our readers, so feel free to post any challenges or share your alignment success story!!
Greg Slamowitz, a long time client, has done a great job implementing a strong and disciplined meeting rhythm that works well for his company. Learn how he has achieved success with his meeting rhythm.
Click here to read Good stuff, Greg!
Rhythm Mobile for the iPad was just released a few weeks ago. We just made business execution mobile for our customers. I am thrilled for a number of reasons.
- As an Apple fan, I am still pinching myself that we finally have Rhythm for the iPad. I actually use my iPad more than my Mac these days.
- I am thrilled because a number of clients have shared with me that they are enjoying Rhythm on their iPad as they are mobile.
- I have learned that Mobile does not necessarily mean travel! Mobile could be in and around the office, a working lunch, a meeting, etc.
Here are some comments from our Rhythm clients:
I love it as I review action items on the iPad when I walk into a team members office.
It is actually easier to use the iPad app. For a first release, you have hit SuperGreen in my book. Congrats!
Easier to get to my KPI Dashboards with Rhythm Mobile
Rhythm Mobile is available through the Apple App Store at no cost to our customers. As it's part of the Rhythm Coaching Program that provides strategic coaching systematized with Rhythm, it will work only as a complement to the Rhythm Coaching Program.
Q2 has already started. We should all be off and running on our 13 week race. Strong business execution needs a good rhythm. I like to think of every quarter as a 13 week race. Set a strong goal, coupled with a handful of priorities or big rocks, and go knock down those big rocks in your 13 week race. Do this quarter after quarter with discipline and you will have world class execution!
Unfortunately, some of us are in such a hurry that we build our business execution plan without dealing with the biggest baddest issues that need to be dealt with. These are the elephants in the room. These elephants will cause your team to be ever so slightly mis-aligned, but mis-aligned enough to get blindsided.
At a recent Execution Planning session, my client noticed that there was not total alignment on whether they should have the #1 goal focused on growing top line revenues or winning new customers. They had the discipline to slow down to discuss, debate, and then agree on whether they should focus on revenues or winning new customers. It is such a subtle difference. "Aren't both the same thing?" you might ask. No, they are really not. There are multiple ways to get to a revenue goal. You can either get there with larger deals and fewer customers, or smaller deals and more customers. After much debate, their team agreed on the #1 goal being to win more new customers. Now the team is totally aligned on their #1 goal for the quarter. I got so excited that I had goosebumps! This is world class business execution!
The takeaway lessons:
- In your execution planning sessions, listen and be aware of any mis-alignment in goals. You need to listen well as the mis-alignments are in the nuances, the little things.
- When you encounter a mis-alignment, slow down to discuss. Slow down to be effective versus focusing on being efficient.
- Discuss, debate, agree
- Then go out there, congratulate your team for taking the time to get fully aligned, and have a great quarter!
Leadership is often one of the surprising missing elements in business execution. You can have the best ideas and a strong desire to execute on these ideas. However, unless you are able to lead your team, your business execution will be poor.
Here are 4 steps to provide leadership in business execution:
- Provide a clear execution vision. If your team cannot see or visualize the desired outcome, your probability of success falls.
- Provide clear instructions and boundaries.
- Get out of the way. Give them the autonomy to execute.
- Inspect what you expect with a consistent rhythm.
Some of us misunderstand inspection, thinking of it as micro-management. No, in fact, as a leader, you should inspect so that you know how to be helpful to your team member. Inspect to learn how you can help them problem solve and get unstuck quickly so they can be successful. As a leader, you become successful through the success of your team. So, lead them!
Blog written by Tiffany Chepul, Gazelles Systems Rhythm Coach
When anyone on the executive team leaves, transition can be tough. No matter the circumstances, the rest of the team can feel unsettled and uncertain.
How do you maintain the team dynamic, keep everyone focused on strategy and set up the new hire for success?
- Maintain execution habits. In times of transition, everyone gains comfort from routine. Make sure the rhythm of Quarterly Planning and Weekly Execution remains consistent. Weekly Meetings should happen without fail. Annual and Quarterly Planning Sessions should continue on schedule. Even if the strategy changes with new leadership, planning and execution habits should remain the same.
- Use your Core Values. Before a new hire's first day, they should already know your Core Values from the interview process. This is their first opportunity to see your strategy in action. Make sure you are using Core Values in your onboarding process as well.
- Educate new leadership. A great first step is for the new hire to read Mastering the Rockefeller Habits (Harnish) and Execute Without Drama (Thean). This provides them background on the methodology and introduces them to the language and terms (BHAG, Daily Huddle, etc.)
- Review the 1 Page Plan. As part of your first Weekly Meeting with the new hire, review the 1 Page Plan as a team. Have one person on the exec team present Core Values, someone else talk about the Brand Promise, etc. This reinforces that the plan was a team effort and that everyone is aligned around strategy.
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Join Patrick for his next webcast "The Most Important KPI's to Drive Your Strategy Faster Than Your Competition" April 26@ 1:00 EST
