Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Full Speed Ahead
Greetings All:
Full speed ahead these days. Busy inducing serendipity and business building. Wanted to pass along recommended read if you are a builder/leader of almost any type of business, organization or department where innovation matters.
Thoroughly recommend Collins and Poras Built to Last. In the book they speak of (and give examples and processes around) terms such as planful opportunitism and purposeful evolution.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887307396/002-5166312-7215227?v=glance&n=283155
This book explodes with ideas and sensemaking (and business building) lenses. If you near a book store and could use some inspiration, even a quick skim will send you positively on your way.
Gotta run!
Thanks as always,
Ric
Full speed ahead these days. Busy inducing serendipity and business building. Wanted to pass along recommended read if you are a builder/leader of almost any type of business, organization or department where innovation matters.
Thoroughly recommend Collins and Poras Built to Last. In the book they speak of (and give examples and processes around) terms such as planful opportunitism and purposeful evolution.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887307396/002-5166312-7215227?v=glance&n=283155
This book explodes with ideas and sensemaking (and business building) lenses. If you near a book store and could use some inspiration, even a quick skim will send you positively on your way.
Gotta run!
Thanks as always,
Ric
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Now We're Cookin!!
Greetings!
One of the recurring themes you're gonna find here is me trying to unravel how things happen... You've probably already seen this in/on some of my earlier posts. Cause and effect... Like "how'd that happen" kind of thing. And more likely than not, it's the good things that happen that I'm trying to figure out. Bad stuff is sometimes a little more easily figured out.
But good stuff happening seems to be more rare. (Like number of businesses that actually survive - if anybody has any recent stats on this, would love you to come on board with'em so we can post this for everybody else visiting here...). So the more we can lock in on the cause of the good, the better the effect....... We can make it happen time and again. That's gotta be good...
So along these lines, there is one cause - one mechanism - for sure I will lock in on for now that I know of yields positive effect. Let me come at this this way...
You ever heard of chile or chile con carnie (did I spell that right?). Anyway, here's the drill... Cook chile in the morning and serve it at noon. How's it taste? Exactly,..... not bad. Now, cook it in the morning and serve it that night (or the next day for lunch for that matter) and how does it taste?
Exactly!!! It tastes awesome. Same thing with:
a) ideas we have
b) talks we give
c) essays we write
d) letters we write
e) tough decisions we have to communicate
f) blogs we want to post...
Point is, if we let them simmer - get started and let it sit for a while, let our thoughts distill.... if we let things incubate (which is the formal term to "ideation" which is what we are really talking about here), our end product (no matter what that end product is) is almost always guaranteed to be better.
I've seen it a gazzilion times work that way. I'll come back to this time and again because it's such a powerful positive outcome-generator but wanted to get it posted asap.
Now is a good time to do anything. Especially incubating.
Now we're cookin!!!
Speaking of which, I have got to run to Christmas dinner!
Take care and thanks,
Ric
One of the recurring themes you're gonna find here is me trying to unravel how things happen... You've probably already seen this in/on some of my earlier posts. Cause and effect... Like "how'd that happen" kind of thing. And more likely than not, it's the good things that happen that I'm trying to figure out. Bad stuff is sometimes a little more easily figured out.
But good stuff happening seems to be more rare. (Like number of businesses that actually survive - if anybody has any recent stats on this, would love you to come on board with'em so we can post this for everybody else visiting here...). So the more we can lock in on the cause of the good, the better the effect....... We can make it happen time and again. That's gotta be good...
So along these lines, there is one cause - one mechanism - for sure I will lock in on for now that I know of yields positive effect. Let me come at this this way...
You ever heard of chile or chile con carnie (did I spell that right?). Anyway, here's the drill... Cook chile in the morning and serve it at noon. How's it taste? Exactly,..... not bad. Now, cook it in the morning and serve it that night (or the next day for lunch for that matter) and how does it taste?
Exactly!!! It tastes awesome. Same thing with:
a) ideas we have
b) talks we give
c) essays we write
d) letters we write
e) tough decisions we have to communicate
f) blogs we want to post...
Point is, if we let them simmer - get started and let it sit for a while, let our thoughts distill.... if we let things incubate (which is the formal term to "ideation" which is what we are really talking about here), our end product (no matter what that end product is) is almost always guaranteed to be better.
I've seen it a gazzilion times work that way. I'll come back to this time and again because it's such a powerful positive outcome-generator but wanted to get it posted asap.
Now is a good time to do anything. Especially incubating.
Now we're cookin!!!
Speaking of which, I have got to run to Christmas dinner!
Take care and thanks,
Ric
Saturday, December 24, 2005
I Hate Peas
But I love P's. Especially P's like these ones.
Which ones? The new 4 P's - Prudently Patient Polite Persistence.
First, some context. We all want to get things done, make things happen. Sometimes we are successful. Sometimes we fall short. So what is the difference between the times that we get to where we want to get and the times we don't? And what seems to be the difference between those who more times than not, get where they want to get and those who don't?
One contributing factor may very well be the active deployment of these four P's as a belief system or approach to taking action - sort of like operationalized fire in the belly. A way of making the old IFITISTOBEITISUPTOME adage play out in a way where we can achieve our goals and realize our objectives.
I can't remember where I first came across the term polite persistence, but it seems like a great term to capture the "stickwithitness" we need to get from A to B. I then added the next two P's...
So to help get from our A to our B ( and again, I have really found this to work), I offer up being prudently, patiently, politely persistent.
As we know, the core of this is staying with it. No matter what "it" is! So if B is what we are after, then B it is. Be persistent, relentless, dog's teeth in the pant leg-focused, dogged, determined, singleminded, mono-focused. First P= persistence.
Now, so that those we need help from to get us from A to B don't dial out, clearly we need to be polite. Just makes sense. This is about feel. Again, loose contact,....quick follow up, don't wish to be a bother type thing...
Third P, and this is a tough one,...patience. We all want immediate turnaround on what we want. Real time. Move, move, move type thing. Like "Gee, I sent that email three days ago, where's my response?" So we hit'em again. And they dial out. Gone. Goodbye. Too much too soon! So patience is a virtue. Even when it takes all we have (and more sometimes) to hold off.
Tip here... it is far easier to hold off contacting that "one person" when we have more than just that "one person" to occupy our head space - more than one ball up in the air, more than one path from A to B. As we all know, it is also far easier to be in a positive head space, when we have more than one way to make happen what needs to happen.
However, as a wonderful colleague of mine says, "Patience is a virtue, until its not!". And I'm with him. So give it a reasonable period of time, then chase it down. Be patient, but prudently patient. At some point, we need to get to No. And once we do that, we move on.
As I may have mentioned before, I run a high tech start up. And I'm not sure the exact statistics, but many if not most of these don't get funded. We now have five separate seed funders/investors. How did that happen? We have a great team, huge potential markets and some very cool technology being developed. What our team deploys though throughout (our engine, in every endevour, whether it is the scientific advancement or the pursuit of funding or parnters) is prudently patient polite persistence. We are all over that. And it works.
So before I dial out, let me come back to those peas I mentioned....
Yup, they are not my favorites. But sometimes I eat'em. Why? Because I know they're good for me. Same thing with the 4p's. The polite part is not a problem. The patience though some time is. And the persistence? Sometimes you just go, can I do this? Can I eat these peas. Well, if I want to get from A to B, I better.
Same drill here.
The 4 P's. They've been great for us. I offer them up to you.
Many thanks,
Ric
Which ones? The new 4 P's - Prudently Patient Polite Persistence.
First, some context. We all want to get things done, make things happen. Sometimes we are successful. Sometimes we fall short. So what is the difference between the times that we get to where we want to get and the times we don't? And what seems to be the difference between those who more times than not, get where they want to get and those who don't?
One contributing factor may very well be the active deployment of these four P's as a belief system or approach to taking action - sort of like operationalized fire in the belly. A way of making the old IFITISTOBEITISUPTOME adage play out in a way where we can achieve our goals and realize our objectives.
I can't remember where I first came across the term polite persistence, but it seems like a great term to capture the "stickwithitness" we need to get from A to B. I then added the next two P's...
So to help get from our A to our B ( and again, I have really found this to work), I offer up being prudently, patiently, politely persistent.
As we know, the core of this is staying with it. No matter what "it" is! So if B is what we are after, then B it is. Be persistent, relentless, dog's teeth in the pant leg-focused, dogged, determined, singleminded, mono-focused. First P= persistence.
Now, so that those we need help from to get us from A to B don't dial out, clearly we need to be polite. Just makes sense. This is about feel. Again, loose contact,....quick follow up, don't wish to be a bother type thing...
Third P, and this is a tough one,...patience. We all want immediate turnaround on what we want. Real time. Move, move, move type thing. Like "Gee, I sent that email three days ago, where's my response?" So we hit'em again. And they dial out. Gone. Goodbye. Too much too soon! So patience is a virtue. Even when it takes all we have (and more sometimes) to hold off.
Tip here... it is far easier to hold off contacting that "one person" when we have more than just that "one person" to occupy our head space - more than one ball up in the air, more than one path from A to B. As we all know, it is also far easier to be in a positive head space, when we have more than one way to make happen what needs to happen.
However, as a wonderful colleague of mine says, "Patience is a virtue, until its not!". And I'm with him. So give it a reasonable period of time, then chase it down. Be patient, but prudently patient. At some point, we need to get to No. And once we do that, we move on.
As I may have mentioned before, I run a high tech start up. And I'm not sure the exact statistics, but many if not most of these don't get funded. We now have five separate seed funders/investors. How did that happen? We have a great team, huge potential markets and some very cool technology being developed. What our team deploys though throughout (our engine, in every endevour, whether it is the scientific advancement or the pursuit of funding or parnters) is prudently patient polite persistence. We are all over that. And it works.
So before I dial out, let me come back to those peas I mentioned....
Yup, they are not my favorites. But sometimes I eat'em. Why? Because I know they're good for me. Same thing with the 4p's. The polite part is not a problem. The patience though some time is. And the persistence? Sometimes you just go, can I do this? Can I eat these peas. Well, if I want to get from A to B, I better.
Same drill here.
The 4 P's. They've been great for us. I offer them up to you.
Many thanks,
Ric
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Moving Meetings
Greetings!
Putting together some thoughts around our weekly Tuesday meeting and thought I'd share some of my thinking around meetings. Thoughts to create "moving" meetings! One's that get results.
And interestingly, what we have found is that to get the best results all around - individually and collectively - it sometimes means moving the meeting.
Here's the thinking...
Most of us have certain times during the day when we are most productive. Times when we are absolutely cooking. Great ideas. Sailing through our stuff. There are others times during the day conversely, where our feet drag a bit. Just natural. Just the way we are constructed it seems.
And the norm is to have morning meetings. Well, for me anyway, that is prime time! The time when I like to write, communicate, connect etc. And it has been my experience the same holds true for many of us. Not exclusively though to be sure.
As a result, it may be counterproductive, or at least not optimally productive, to arbitrarily set "morning meetings" - to have everyone tied up in a meeting at the very time when we might be otherwise most productive. And frankly when we'd much rather be getting our work done. Pretty direct huh?
So what we do (and this is also a function of schedules) is have our weekly get together (in our case, it is a conference call) every Tuesday at 4:00. In fact the name of the meeting is Tuesday at 4:00.
The agenda goes out the day before the meeting by 6:00. It lets us "incubate" (that'll be another post), gives us lots of time to accomplish things pre-meeting to be able to report on, and is done at a time of day when everyone is best prepared to, and actually looks forward to getting together!
So to find (and possibly move to) the optimal time for your team, consider sharing this note to find the best time for your group.
Moving your meeting time may make your meetings move.
Will leave with you...
Many thanks,
Ric
Putting together some thoughts around our weekly Tuesday meeting and thought I'd share some of my thinking around meetings. Thoughts to create "moving" meetings! One's that get results.
And interestingly, what we have found is that to get the best results all around - individually and collectively - it sometimes means moving the meeting.
Here's the thinking...
Most of us have certain times during the day when we are most productive. Times when we are absolutely cooking. Great ideas. Sailing through our stuff. There are others times during the day conversely, where our feet drag a bit. Just natural. Just the way we are constructed it seems.
And the norm is to have morning meetings. Well, for me anyway, that is prime time! The time when I like to write, communicate, connect etc. And it has been my experience the same holds true for many of us. Not exclusively though to be sure.
As a result, it may be counterproductive, or at least not optimally productive, to arbitrarily set "morning meetings" - to have everyone tied up in a meeting at the very time when we might be otherwise most productive. And frankly when we'd much rather be getting our work done. Pretty direct huh?
So what we do (and this is also a function of schedules) is have our weekly get together (in our case, it is a conference call) every Tuesday at 4:00. In fact the name of the meeting is Tuesday at 4:00.
The agenda goes out the day before the meeting by 6:00. It lets us "incubate" (that'll be another post), gives us lots of time to accomplish things pre-meeting to be able to report on, and is done at a time of day when everyone is best prepared to, and actually looks forward to getting together!
So to find (and possibly move to) the optimal time for your team, consider sharing this note to find the best time for your group.
Moving your meeting time may make your meetings move.
Will leave with you...
Many thanks,
Ric
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Inducing Serendipity and The Birth of a Diablog
Busy week per usual. Same no doubt for you! And what a week it was.... including the birth of this dialogue; more appropriately, this diablog - as I look forward to hearing from you and connecting.
I also continue to marvel at how good things happen. Just luck or serendipity induced? Is there a pattern? I think there is. Yup, luck happens, but I also believe we make our own. We CAN induce serendipity! Here is my take how:
1. Just Show Up: Mix, mingle, get out there. Not easy for some of us I know (Jung's work on types, Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Kiersey's book Please Understand Me related to same topic and Tieger and Barron Tieger's work, Do What You Are all touching on introversion and extraverison and how for some it is easy as can be to show up at large gatherings or even small ones while for others, this is a real challenge). Nevertheless, head out there!
2. Go With A Purpose: And that purpose should be to listen and help. Be a resource and a connector (gotta love The Tipping Point). Think give, not get. If we go in with a helping mindset, it is amazing how that comes back many fold.
3. Connect: Once you're there, connect. Again, not easy for some, but meet and greet.
4. Follow Up: Once you meet and greet, follow up and thank. Will never forget being at trade show years ago and this guy sat across from me and he said "You know Ric, sales is nothing more than just follow up, follow up, follow up!!!" Did that burn into my memory? It did, as you can tell.
But this isn't necessarily about sales. This is about inducing serendipity. Maybe not now, but sometime down the road. It is simply about creating dots that somehow connect (seemingly fortuitously later). Steve Jobs talked about this in a commencement address at Stanford. Creat dots (connections) that can connect or be connected later on. So once we make a contact, follow up to thank - whether it be for the time, the advice, the opportunity to chat - no matter what - follow up. You abstract reasoners will love this.
In fact, doing that very thing absolutely induced the birth of this blog. I listened to a terrific speech by Synnex CEO Jim Estill at a Communitech luncheon (Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge Ontario based Technology Triangle high tech trade association) this past week, chatted with him about the blog concept, followed up to thank him for his talk and advice, and sure enough, here we are. Luckily.... and with huge thanks to Jim (whose blog is Time Leadership and Life of a CEO at http://www.jimestill.blogspot.com/)
And the good fortune didn't stop there. Same thing (more serendipity-induced) happened (or blossomed) a second time this week! I attended a CEO Peer to Peer meeting a few months back where we go around the table and talk about our companies. One of the CEO's approached me after the intro's as we were doing the plant tour that followed the intro's. He wanted to introduce me to someone in his group to help our company. That follow up meeting just took place. Was a huge benefit to us (a company's value proposition is always more clearly understood and more powerful when someone from "outside" articulates their perception of what that is versus us imagining what it might be - the meeting I had did that for us).
Next step.....
5. Be A Resource - It's always better to give than receive. Far better to listen than to talk. Far richer to offer than to ask. Good things inevitably happen. Good things will come back our way. Seems the more helpful we are, more folks wish to reciprocate.
6. Act on the Advice - And when those good things come back our way, when people offer assistance or advice, act on all of that. Don't just let it be. To into practice what you learn or are offered.
7. Don't expect perfection. This comes back to the whole just show up thing. The longer I go, the more I realize I'm never going to get it just right. But moving forward is never a bad thing even if we get a few bumps and bruises a bit as we go.
The result? Serendipity induced! And the recipe? Show up, follow up, thank, listen and operationalize, put into practice and realize we may not get it just right the first time. And good things will happen!! For you and for others you just "happen" to run into.
I'm a big fan of trying to unravel what seems to be random. I'm a terminal pattern finder. What have you found? Serendipity - plain old luck or is it induced? You have my vote. Seen it time and again - and no doubt will recount more and we go on. For now though, seems like (as someone once said) the harder we work (and the more we connect) the luckier we get.
Gotta run for now. Feel free to connect.
Talk to you soon, and thanks!
Ric
I also continue to marvel at how good things happen. Just luck or serendipity induced? Is there a pattern? I think there is. Yup, luck happens, but I also believe we make our own. We CAN induce serendipity! Here is my take how:
1. Just Show Up: Mix, mingle, get out there. Not easy for some of us I know (Jung's work on types, Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Kiersey's book Please Understand Me related to same topic and Tieger and Barron Tieger's work, Do What You Are all touching on introversion and extraverison and how for some it is easy as can be to show up at large gatherings or even small ones while for others, this is a real challenge). Nevertheless, head out there!
2. Go With A Purpose: And that purpose should be to listen and help. Be a resource and a connector (gotta love The Tipping Point). Think give, not get. If we go in with a helping mindset, it is amazing how that comes back many fold.
3. Connect: Once you're there, connect. Again, not easy for some, but meet and greet.
4. Follow Up: Once you meet and greet, follow up and thank. Will never forget being at trade show years ago and this guy sat across from me and he said "You know Ric, sales is nothing more than just follow up, follow up, follow up!!!" Did that burn into my memory? It did, as you can tell.
But this isn't necessarily about sales. This is about inducing serendipity. Maybe not now, but sometime down the road. It is simply about creating dots that somehow connect (seemingly fortuitously later). Steve Jobs talked about this in a commencement address at Stanford. Creat dots (connections) that can connect or be connected later on. So once we make a contact, follow up to thank - whether it be for the time, the advice, the opportunity to chat - no matter what - follow up. You abstract reasoners will love this.
In fact, doing that very thing absolutely induced the birth of this blog. I listened to a terrific speech by Synnex CEO Jim Estill at a Communitech luncheon (Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge Ontario based Technology Triangle high tech trade association) this past week, chatted with him about the blog concept, followed up to thank him for his talk and advice, and sure enough, here we are. Luckily.... and with huge thanks to Jim (whose blog is Time Leadership and Life of a CEO at http://www.jimestill.blogspot.com/)
And the good fortune didn't stop there. Same thing (more serendipity-induced) happened (or blossomed) a second time this week! I attended a CEO Peer to Peer meeting a few months back where we go around the table and talk about our companies. One of the CEO's approached me after the intro's as we were doing the plant tour that followed the intro's. He wanted to introduce me to someone in his group to help our company. That follow up meeting just took place. Was a huge benefit to us (a company's value proposition is always more clearly understood and more powerful when someone from "outside" articulates their perception of what that is versus us imagining what it might be - the meeting I had did that for us).
Next step.....
5. Be A Resource - It's always better to give than receive. Far better to listen than to talk. Far richer to offer than to ask. Good things inevitably happen. Good things will come back our way. Seems the more helpful we are, more folks wish to reciprocate.
6. Act on the Advice - And when those good things come back our way, when people offer assistance or advice, act on all of that. Don't just let it be. To into practice what you learn or are offered.
7. Don't expect perfection. This comes back to the whole just show up thing. The longer I go, the more I realize I'm never going to get it just right. But moving forward is never a bad thing even if we get a few bumps and bruises a bit as we go.
The result? Serendipity induced! And the recipe? Show up, follow up, thank, listen and operationalize, put into practice and realize we may not get it just right the first time. And good things will happen!! For you and for others you just "happen" to run into.
I'm a big fan of trying to unravel what seems to be random. I'm a terminal pattern finder. What have you found? Serendipity - plain old luck or is it induced? You have my vote. Seen it time and again - and no doubt will recount more and we go on. For now though, seems like (as someone once said) the harder we work (and the more we connect) the luckier we get.
Gotta run for now. Feel free to connect.
Talk to you soon, and thanks!
Ric
