Discipline makes Daring possible.

Musings from The Disappearing Boss on People, Process and Responsible Autonomy for small-business employers.

Month: February 2023

Transforming knowledge into know-how
February 27, 2023

Transforming knowledge into know-how

“Once you publish something, the convention is that whatever you wrote was what you thought before you wrote it. These were your ideas, and now you’ve expressed them.

But you know this isn’t true. You know that putting your ideas into words changed them.

And not just the ideas you published. Presumably there were others that turned out to be too broken to fix, and those you discarded instead.” Paul Graham

This is why composing your Customer Experience Score matters, and why it works.

You aren’t simply transferring your ideal Customer Experience onto paper, you’re (re-)defining it. And then sharing it.   And what you create can be further refined and honed – re-designed if necessary if it doesn’t work or when circumstances change.

That thing you currently carry around in your head can become a tool you and all the people you employ can use to make your business 100 times better than it is now.

 

Discipline makes Daring possible.

Ask me how.

Two thoughts on business success
February 23, 2023

Two thoughts on business success

“Stories are beliefs made manifest.” 

“What you do is who you are.”  

 

Share your true, unique Promise.

Then make sure you Keep it.

Otherwise you’re a liar.

Avoiding infection
February 22, 2023

Avoiding infection

I spotted this from Michele Zanini (co-author of ‘Humanocracy’) back in 2021:

“Our research suggests that the longest-lasting competitive advantages come from innovation in management systems and practices, not from business or operating model innovation.  So diligently pursuing management innovation pays off handsomely.” 

It’s still worth thinking about.

Especially if you’re a small business that hasn’t yet been infected with old-style management structures.

What if you could grow your business without adding overhead?

And take as much time away from it as you wished?

A different way of managing makes it possible.

Ask me how.

Dust
February 21, 2023

Dust

Imagine discovering not only that the universe is absolutely full of dust, but also that there is more of the universe than was previously thought, all of it hidden behind that very dust.

Just by changing the wavelength of the light you’re using to see by.

 

HT to Hayley Gomez and The Life Scientific for ths one.

Off the shelf
February 20, 2023

Off the shelf

When you buy off the shelf, you’re buying from someone who’s producing for people who do what everyone else does, the way everyone else does it.  That’s what ‘mass-market’ means.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t buy off the shelf.  Just that when you do, you should be clear that whatever you’re buying really does serve what you do, the way that you do it.

Otherwise you’ll end up having to act like everyone else.

A shame when there are other options available.

Entropy
February 17, 2023

Entropy

“Entropy: Spontaneous increase in disorder of a carefully arranged system.   An irreversible process, except with the input of energy.”

The energy needed to prevent entropy in your carefully arranged business system doesn’t have to only come from you.

In fact it’s better if it doesn’t.

That way a useful level of emergence is possible.

Discipline makes Daring possible.

Impacting Earth

Impacting Earth

Of course your business doesn’t just impact the people immediately involved in it.

It also impacts Earth, therefore other inhabitants too.   Possibly in ways you can’t currently see.

You may not be responsible for the entirety of the impact, but perhaps you contribute.

Just as, by outsourcing my accounting to an accountant, I don’t employ someone directly, but contribute to the employment of the people who work for my accountant, so, by using a laptop and mobile for my work, I contribute to the pollution and oppression created by a lithium mine.

The point is to be aware.  Then to ramp up the positives and minimise the negatives.

That might mean changing how you do business, or even what you do, to play your part in creating a safe and just space for humanity here on our planet:

 

One thing’s for certain, you won’t be short of work.

Discipline makes Daring possible.

Impacting people
February 16, 2023

Impacting people

If what everyone really wants is something like this:

  • Agency – to make their own ‘me-shaped’ dent in the universe.
  • Mastery – to learn and master (even teach) new skills.
  • Autonomy – to be free to choose how they make their dent.
  • Purpose – to do this for something bigger than themselves, that has meaning beyond the sale.
  • Community – to do all this with ‘people like us’.
    • Status – to know (and for others to know) where we stand in our communities.

Then your impact on people is about how much you help or hinder them in their quest to achieve it.

Do you enable people to earn enough to rise above meeting basic needs?  Do you free their time to focus on finding and following their purpose?  Do you help them to master skills and capabilities that will increase their agency and autonomy?  Do you help them connect to a community that values them?

How could you measure these things?

A good place to start might be to look at what changes when it works.   What are the symptoms of that change?  How few of them could you measure to tell you the effect your business has had?

Of course you’ll want to measure these things for your clients.

Remember to measure them for your team and yourself too.   You’re all involved.

Measuring impact
February 14, 2023

Measuring impact

The final component of feedback that matters for your business, is the impact it makes.  On your clients, your team, your family, your friends, your community and your planet.

Impact is probably also the hardest kind of feedback to measure.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

What ripples is your business pebble responsible for?