December 5, 2023
Roles
“Role: For most of us, the role we play most is the last one. Often without a clear idea of … Read More “Roles”
Category: Employee Ownership
November 27, 2023
Feedback
I’ve been running my own personal Improve Process over the last 6 months or so. Trying to be more active, … Read More “Feedback”
November 24, 2023
Enabling responsible autonomy
Jazz or classical, cover version or original composition, one of the beauties of writing down your music is that with … Read More “Enabling responsible autonomy”
November 22, 2023
Handing over your baby
One of the things that can prevent impact-driven small-business employers from scaling as fast as they would like, is a … Read More “Handing over your baby”
November 13, 2023
Masters and management
There was a time when being a Master was to be an expert. To have experience. To have care for … Read More “Masters and management”
October 20, 2023
From dictatorship to democracy in a single generation
In business, our view of succession is not unlike that of royals. An heir apparent is selected, carefully trained, and groomed to take the helm when we leave.
This approach is fraught with difficulties.
First, as regnant monarch, 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.
Next, the heir we select may not wish to be chosen – even if they are family. They may not wish to shoulder the risk of destroying their inheritance. They may have other ideas on what to do with their life.
The people we’ve overlooked may resent that, and start to at least detach themselves from the business, or undermine it, or worse decide to fight over it.
Finally, there may not be an obvious heir.
There is a more rational, modern approach.
- Build your business around a clearly defined customer experience (an OurScore ), that gives people the confidence to know what they are doing without constraining their personality and individuality.
- Give people clear roles to play. Put all the resources they need to play them well at their fingertips. Including the feedback that will enable them to improve both the customer experience and their own ability to deliver it.
- 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.
It gives you far more options for succession, because anyone who works in it can be your heir, if they want.
Or everyone.
A transition from dictatorship to democracy in a single generation.
That would be a legacy to be really proud of.
Discipline makes Daring possible.
October 18, 2023
A reminder
Why should I write down my Customer Experience Score, when I have good people working for me, who can work things out for themselves?
Because making good people reinvent your wheel over and over again is a shocking waste of humanity.
Humanity that could be set free to invent even better wheels, and even more exciting uses for them.
Discipline makes Daring possible
October 16, 2023
Taking ownership
One day, the child in this photograph might expect to inherit her parents’ motorbike.
She couldn’t expect to use it until she’d learned to drive it safely, keep it in good order and register it with the appropriate authorities. If that seems like too much trouble, she might very well sell it, run it into the ground, or simply leave it to rust.
Handing over your business to your employees (or your children for that matter) isn’t enough to ensure that it will thrive afterwards. Transferring ownership transfers power, but not the ability to use that power responsibly.
Of course your people might have that ability already, but if you’re the boss of a 5 or 10 person business, it’s unlikely that you or they know that conclusively.
After the sale is almost too late to find that out. You’re not the boss any more.
So, if you’re planning to go employee-owned, or to pass your business on to your children, make sure they know how to run it before they take ownership.
- Spell out your Promise of Value, so everyone know exactly who the business serves and what it really does for them.
- Document your desired customer experience with an OurScore , so everyone can see the context of the business as a whole.
- Let people learn and play multiple parts of that score, so they feel how it all fits together.
- Give them responsibility for living up to the Promise in all the parts they play, and the autonomy to interpret it, to enhance the audience experience.
- Automate admin and the collection of feedback from each performance.
- Get everyone used to regular practice at using that feedback to improve both the OurScore and their own playing skills.
This takes effort, but not as much as you might think. Like most things, the sooner you start, the better. But you could do it while the legalities of transfer are being worked out, or even include it as part of the transfer process.
The upside is you’ll have something even more worth handing over, and for all the new bosses, the ability to truly cherish it as your legacy.
Discipline makes Daring possible.
September 25, 2023
The tragedy of markets
“All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.” Adam Smith 1776
Smith thought the ‘invisible hand’ of the market would prevent this in the future.
He was wrong.
Perhaps its time to re-embrace the idea of ‘the commons’?
A resource, owned by no-one, managed by a rolling team to ensure its benefits can be enjoyed by everyone, including non-human communities, present and future.
What if you made your business a commons?
A resource, owned by employees (including you), managed by those employees for the benefit of present and future customers and employees?
It’s not as hard as you might think. And once you’ve commoned your business who knows where you might go commoning next?
Discipline makes Daring possible.
September 18, 2023
9 bad reasons why you might want to disappear from your business
Here are 9 negative reasons why you might want to disappear from your business:
– You fall ill.
– Your partner falls ill.
– Another family member falls ill.
– You get run over by a bus.
– Your partner gets run over by a bus.
– You burn out.
– Your parents need care.
– You have to move house.
– You have to move country.
And here are 3 very positive reasons why you should disappear before you need to:
– You want your business to make a bigger impact now. Serve more customers, better, support more people working in it, and make that work more meaningful and fulfilling for them.
– You want your business to become an asset, not a job. The source of your pension, an income for your family, an income stream for your next venture. To sell it for more money.
– You want your business to take on a life of its own. To become your legacy, continuing to make an impact long after you’ve gone.
Bonus:
– You are still able to do whatever you need to do.
– Your business can continue to support you while you’re away.
– You have a business to come back to if you wish.
A modest amount of Discipline when you’re a team of 3 to 9 people, makes all this Daring possible. More quickly than you think.