Discipline makes Daring possible.

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

Category: The Disappearing Boss

Thinking together
March 20, 2023

Thinking together

“Think for yourself, but not by yourself.”

My ear caught the phrase on Radio 4 this morning and I was intrigued.  It’s from Julian Baggini’s new book “How to think like a philosopher”  (on my shopping list already, of course).

I don’t know about you, but I am all too often guilty of thinking by myself.   Working things through on my own, running off down blind alleys, diving into rabbit holes, only to end up at a conclusion I could have looked up.

I’d have got there much quicker if I’d talked to other people.

It’s not that other people necessarily know more than I do, it’s that they might, and even if they don’t, going through my thinking out loud, to a group of people with shared values and different perspectives is bound to clarify my workings.

Luckily, when you run your business with a team, you have that like-hearted thinking club ready-made.  Encourage everyone in it to think for themselves, then do your important business thinking together.  You’ll like the results.

Discipline makes Daring possible.

 

Republic
March 16, 2023

Republic

Nowadays we seem to use the Athenian word ‘democracy’ to describe something more like a Roman republic.

In the Roman system, a few ‘responsible’ (and very wealthy) men decided what was good for everyone.

The mass of men (plebs) were eventually represented, but they never got to vote or join in, even though they and their families did all the work.  There was a view that plebs didn’t even need to know the laws by which they were governed.

As usual, women, children and slaves didn’t count at all.

Sound familiar?

You probably left one of these to create your own fair, agile and democratic utopia.

Take care you don’t unconsciously reproduce the republic as you scale.

You can avoid it.

Ask me how.

Lottery
March 15, 2023

Lottery

For an Athenian man who didn’t want to be an idiot, the answer was to put yourself forward for public office.  Appointment was by sortition – a lottery.

The Athenians built lottery machines like this kleroterion to ensure selection was random, because a) they believed all men were equally capable of making decisions with others, and b) they valued the diversity of perspective that diversity of occupation, status, and income would bring.

They also knew that the best way to preserve the Athenian Promise of Value, was to ensure maximum active participation in maintaining it.

Of course they left some people out – women and slaves didn’t count as citizens.  But the mechanism was fair and very explicit and could easily have accommodated this kind of social change, given time.

We small businesses (and modern states) can learn from the Athenians, without making their mistakes.   If everyone in our business believes in the same Promise of Value and knows how to Share it, Keep it and Improve it like a ‘Boss’, from their own and others’ perspectives, we can trust each and every one of them to do the right thing for the people we serve.

That doesn’t just lighten the load for us.  It improves the experience for our clients and our teams.  And most importantly of all, it keeps our businesses truly alive, thriving and able to adapt to whatever new perspectives come next.

Discipline makes Daring possible.

Ask me how.

Worth the effort
March 10, 2023

Worth the effort

What makes all the effort of writing down and sharing your Customer Experience Score worth it?

Simply that you get more of what you really want:

  • Agency – your business has become your ‘me-shaped’ dent in the universe.
  • Mastery – you’ve learned and mastered the skill of designing a business to deliver a unique promise.  You’ve taught others how to use it.
  • Autonomy – you’ve given your business the autonomy it needs to continue without you, so your dent can last much longer than you.
  • Purpose – you’ve designed your entire business around what you are here to do for the people you serve.
  • Community – you’ve created a community of ‘people like us’ – your team, your clients and everyone involved with your business – bonded together by shared values.
    • Status – You’re no longer the only Boss, but everyone knows you are the foundation of your business.

And so does everyone around you.

Discipline makes Daring possible.

Ask me how.

Giant leap
March 9, 2023

Giant leap

Once your team are running the business alongside you, it’s time for them to own it alongside you too.

Discipline makes Daring and Longevity possible.

Ask me how.

Big step
March 8, 2023

Big step

Repeat your Baby Step and Next Step until your entire Customer Experience Score has been written down and can be played as well as or better than you by everyone and anyone in your team.

This will take time, but the payoff is huge.

Your team will be happier and more engaged with the business.   Supported by a clear framework for the least that should happen, they can dare to delight more.  It will feel more like their business.

Your clients will notice the difference.

You’ll be able to disappear when you need to and grow the business further.

Discipline makes Daring possible.

Ask me how.

Next step
March 6, 2023

Next step

The more people who know how to do what up to now only you could do, the better.

So, once you’ve got your first section of Score written down, get the person who helped you to teach everyone else how to play it too.

Then, once everyone is familiar with it, get them to take turns performing it for real.

Collect their suggestions for improvement.   After  week or so, discuss them with your team, and apply only those that enhance your Promise of Value for the people your business serves.

That might mean automating some piece of drudgery that enables the team to spend more time with clients.   It might mean un-automating something to make a client/team experience more human for both of them.

Repeat until you have a section of your Customer Experience Score that truly lives up to your Promise and that anyone can run as well as or better than you.

You don’t have to do this alone.

Once your team are running the business alongside you, it’s time for them to own it alongside you too.

Discipline makes Daring and Longevity possible.

Ask me how.

Baby step
March 3, 2023

Baby step

What’s the smallest step you could take to get started on your Customer Experience Score?

Try this:

  • Choose a job you shouldn’t be doing.
  • Find someone to help you – ideally the person you wish to delegate the job to.*
  • You tell them what needs to happen to complete the job, they write it down.
  • They have a go at doing it, following their notes.
  • You observe, and where it goes wrong, between you, you modify the instructions to get the outcomes you want.
    • You clarify what really happens  (not what you think happens).
    • They suggest ways to make it easy for them to do.
  • They write up the improved version.
  • Save the latest version where everyone can get at it.

Repeat until you have a section of your Customer Experience Score that can be run reliably by anyone who needs to.

*If you plan to outsource the job to another business, get a friend/fellow business owner to help you do this, then hand over the finished Score as part of your specification for the supplier.

Tips:

  • Assume competence.
  • Start with the (usually positive) 80% case.  You can capture major exceptions later.
  • Think ‘Get Outcome’ – what’s true at the end of the process that wasn’t true before?  So it’s easy to tell when you’ve succeeded (or not).
  • Start at the very beginning and carry on right to the end.  You’re trying to capture a transformation that is meaningful to your client and therefore your business.
  • The quicker you test it, the quicker you can improve it.
  • If it feels like you’re trying to fit too much in, you probably are.
  • It’s a prompt, not a novel.
  • Practice makes perfect.
  • Remember, it’s about the process not the people.

And for the visually minded:

 

Even a little bit of Discipline makes Daring possible.

Ask me how.

Start here
March 2, 2023

Start here

Years ago, after a holiday in the North East, where we saw the Great North Run kick off, I decided I wanted to join in.   I’ve never been a runner, and had no clue how to begin training or where to even start.

After a bit of searching I found a handy spreadsheet online (yes it was that long ago), that would take me from 0 to 5k in about 12 weeks.

The first step was to go out, run for 30 seconds, walk for 90 seconds, run for 30 seconds, walk for 90 seconds – and repeat till 20 minutes was up.

Gradually, the proportion of running to walking stepped up, until by the end we were running for the full 20 minutes, and eventually, for forty minutes.  I could run 5k without stopping.

If contemplating 40 minutes of non-stop running when I couldn’t run a step was daunting, imagine the thought of getting everything about your Ideal Customer Experience written down as a score.  Paralysing.

Luckily, you can just get going with with a tiny part of it.   Here are some ideas of where you could begin:

  • With something really simple, almost ‘trivial’, like how you open for business each working day, and how you close.  You’ll be amazed what a difference a clear, shared routine makes for everyone.
  • With the most painful part of your Customer Experience.  Where you get most questions from clients or team members, where you have to intervene most often to put things right.
  • With the easiest part of your Customer Experience.  Where writing it down will enable you to delegate the process to others quickly, so you get the headspace to think about the more painful parts.

Like learning to run, it gets easier as you practice, especially if you have a coach alongside you correcting your stance and your style.

But the most important thing is to start.   Here.  Now.

Discipline makes Daring possible.

Ask me how.

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.