Discipline makes Daring possible – Page 99 – Discipline makes Daring possible.

March 24, 2020

Re-balancing

In times of crisis, everything goes out of whack. Work, home, society.

Things we thought were indispensable are jettisoned, things we thought were unthinkable become acceptable, things we believed were impossible become normal.

Some of these will be good things, others not so good, others downright bad.

The important thing will be to keep the changes we found were good after the crisis is over, and reverse those we didn’t.

Which means we need to think and talk about about them during it.

Life will never be the same again. At least let’s change it as far as possible on purpose, in a direction that’s better for everyone.

March 23, 2020

It’s good to talk

As a small business, micro-business or self -employed person right now, there is one person you should be talking to, because they can almost certainly help you to get through this situation.

Your accountant.

There’s far more to them than year-end accounts or tax returns.

Give them a call.

Kudos to all those accountants out there who are already showing what they are made of.

March 20, 2020

Following on again from yesterday’s post, if you know your business is going to be quiet for the next few weeks or months, here are some courses I recommend (I’ve done most of them, some of them more than once).

They could be for you or for your team.

A whole bunch from Akimbo Workshops (Seth Godin and friends)

The Bootstrappers Workshop, ideal if you are still getting your business idea off the ground (which in my case was 5 years after I’d started!)

The Marketing Seminar, will make you think really hard about who you are for, and what you really do for them. Highly recommended.

The Podcasting Workshop, a brilliant thing for graduates to do instead of an internship, and for experts too. (I haven’t done this one, you can probably tell!)

The Freelancers Workshop, Seth calls himself a freelancer, so you’re in good company.

The Story Skills Workshop, with Bernadette Jiwa, a master of daily storytelling.

And if you’re really looking to use this downtime to hit the ground running later, there’s the AltMBA, as it suggests a leadership and management workshop, that is more intense that the others.

You’ll never be the same after any of these workshops. And the brilliant thing about them is that you aren’t doing them alone. The format requires you to interact with your fellow students, to help each other, constructively critique each other and encourage each other. By doing so, you learn far more yourself. And they are not expensive.

If you prefer to work on your own, many of these are also available on Udemy.

Last but by no means least, here’s something a little more local, but equally good: Seeds to Success from Anwen Cooper, of Get Fruitful Marketing starting April. I’ve been working with Anwen for about a year now, and the difference she has helped me to make is enormous.

March 19, 2020

Quiet reading

Following on from yesterday’s post, here are some suggestions for reading when things are quieter. Hopefully the weather will also be fine enough by then to do this out in the fresh air:

What to Do when It’s Your Turn (and It’s Always Your Turn). Seth Godin. Available from Porchlight books.
The Three Ways of Getting Things Done. Hierarchy, Heterarchy and Responsible Autonomy in organizations. Gerald Fairtlough. Available from the Triarchy Press.
Change the Game: Share the Work. Building a business that works better for everyone (especially you). Kirsten Gibbs. Available from The Endless Bookcase. Or come to my virtual book launch on the 7th April, and get your own signed copy!
The Checklist Manifesto. How to get things right. Atul Gawande. Available from Profile Books.
Holacracy. The revolutionary management system that abolishes hierarchy. Brian J. Robertson. Available from Penguin.
A Beautiful Constraint. How to transform your limitations into advantages, and why its everyone’s business. Adam Morgan & Mark Barden. Available from Wiley.

Especially though I like today’s post from Corporate Rebels. The Ultimate Remote Work Policy?

Everything above is about supporting and enabling that, on both sides.

March 18, 2020

Looking ahead

The first priority in times like these is to keep afloat, and help keep others afloat as far as we can.

But there will come a time, not too far away, when what’s needed is to look ahead, and think how to build more resilience into our businesses, so that when the next shock comes, we’re more able to withstand it, or even thrive on it.

Tinkering around the edges won’t cut it. Business recovery plans, and business continuity plans won’t be enough.

Once we’ve been forced to see what can work, we’ll choose to move to new ways of doing things, that might just be better for everyone.

Look out for the paradigm shift.

March 17, 2020

In and ‘Out’

My word of the year is ‘Out’.

It looks like I’m going to be spending the next few weeks in.

So I have to find other ways to be ‘Out’. I have to find ways to be in and ‘Out’ at the same time.

This is going to be fun!

Keep in touch.

March 16, 2020

Succession planning

We usually take a regal, personal view of succession in a business. An heir is selected, carefully trained, and groomed to take the helm when we leave.

This approach is fraught with difficulties. We put off the selection, training and all that, because we’d rather not face our own mortality, and because to do all that takes time out from running the business. The heir we choose may not wish to be chosen – even if they are family. They may not wish to shoulder the risk of destroying their inheritance. There may not be anyone already in the business that we want to be our heir.

There is a more rational, systemic approach.

Build a business around a clearly defined customer experience process, that gives people the confidence to know what they are doing without constraining their personality and individuality. Give people clear roles to play and all the resources at their fingertips to play them well. Train them to perform more than one role, so they can have variety of work, you have redundancy in the system and the customer learns that they can happily deal with anyone in the business.

Built this way, a business more or less runs itself, giving you more options for succession, including sale at its full value. You could even leave it to your employees.

Now there’s a legacy to be proud of.

March 13, 2020

The revenge of Muri

When times are good, or you think nobody will notice, it’s tempting to overload systems, processes and people.

A little cut here, a small increase in workload there. A freeze on recruitment, a delay of re-equipping or upgrading. It has no visible effect on the bottom line. You get away with it. So it becomes tempting to do it again. To ‘keep it lean’, ‘cut no slack’, ‘lean in’, give 110, 120, 150%. And again, and again.

But, when you’ve cut everything to the bone, and built your entire system on just in time, lowest cost, no slack, it doesn’t take much to bring the whole thing crashing down.

It’s not rocket science. We live in a system. All of us. And overloading it is not sensible behaviour.

March 12, 2020

Money trees

Professional gardeners often advise on how to buy the best trees. Choose something healthy and bushy, with plenty of growth potential. Choose a plant that’s actually in flower – that way you know it will look as you want. Check the roots to see if they are vibrant. All good.

It’s the advice that follows that’s harder to take: Take off any flowers or fruit. Trim back the branches. Trim the roots. Keep it weed-free, feed it regularly and prune it carefully until it’s mature.

The idea behind this is that a) the plant is more able to cope with the shock of being moved from pot to garden and b) by sacrificing growth now, we get more, better growth later, and a much better contribution to the garden. Given the right treatment at the start, and the right kind of nurturing as it grows, a tree will embed itself beautifully into its garden and last for years. It will scale. Then it will more or less look after itself.

You could say a business is like a tree – a money tree if you like. A focus on growth (especially rapid growth) can can undermine its health and leave it susceptible to the next hurricane that blows. Much better to spend some initial effort making it scaleable.

Then you can sit back and enjoy it.

March 11, 2020

Participation

Last week I heard of some interesting research about consumers. Which is that people don’t like to be thought of as consumers.

They want to be participants. They don’t want to be one side of a transaction, they want to be pulled into a dance; enrolled on a journey. They want to connect and create a bond between themselves and the people they buy from.

That’s good news for ventures like Sail Cargo Alliance, who are in the business of building communities of producers, shippers and consumers.

Even better news for accountancy firms, because that’s just the change that’s needed to build a thriving practice and a thriving community of small businesses.

Discipline makes Daring possible.

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

Category: Discipline makes Daring possible