Rick Gagner’s Post

LEAN OUT YOUR PROCESSES Be sure to deliver only what the customer wants and values. Everything else is waste! “Companies in the ScaleUp stage are often fraught with waste simply because growth has outpaced development of standardized operational processes… [and that waste] most often takes the form of performing work that no one, especially a customer, is asking for or needs.” Excerpt From What a Unicorn Knows Matthew E. May and Pablo Dominguez

FREE, BUT NOT CHEAP “The best things in life are free, are they not? The air we breathe is not sold by the cubic foot. The water which flows crystal clear from the mountain stream is free for the taking. Love is free; faith is free; hope is free. We can’t reject God’s grace on the ground that it is too cheap, for the most precious things in life come to us without money and without price. Only the cheap, tawdry things have a price tag upon them. Salvation is free—but it is not cheap!” ~Billy Graham

WHAT DOES AN EXPERT LOOK LIKE?

THE GAP AND THE GAIN “The only way to measure the distance you’ve traveled is by measuring from where you are back to the point where you started, not from where you are toward the horizon.” ~ Dr. Benjamin Hardy When we measure our progress (at work, leisure pursuits and hobbies, relationships and family, in life) by the gap, and we’ve all done this, we often measure from where we started to a distant horizon - the illusive ideal that is beyond our reach. We will be forever pursuing that ideal but never achieving it, making us discontented and generally unfulfilled, unhappy people. The only meaningful way to measure progress is from where we stand today back to where we started, a fixed point in time. That’s the gain we’ve made, and it is worth celebrating, perhaps recalibrating and keep going after our passions and pursuits. It is ok to have big goals, 10X even. We should have big goals worth pursuing. Just don’t measure your progress along the way from the gap. Look at it from the gain.

PROMOTE WITHIN OR HIRE EXTERNALLY? “Advancement is a reliable logic bet that delivers better outcomes than hiring externally: more often than not, outside hires perform worse on the job, leave their post sooner, and cost more.”

WHAT ARE YOU SEEKING TO GAIN? ‘A generation ago, Jim Elliot went from Wheaton College to become a missionary to the Aucas in Ecuador. Before he was killed, he wrote, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”’ ~Unto The Hills, Billy Graham

When was the last time you asked this question within a town hall or leadership team meeting? “Who has a different perspective?”

THE SPEED OF TRUST I’m sure you’ve heard this reference before, and it originates from the book of the same title by Stephen MR Covey. It is further empirically validated by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss in “Move Fast and Fix Things”. Consider: “The most effective leaders solve problems at an accelerated pace, while also taking responsibility for the success and well-being of their customers, employees, and shareholders… How do they do it? In short, they invest as much time and energy into building trust—and, yes, sometimes rebuilding it— as they do into building speed. Speed unleashes your organization’s energy and reveals where you’re going. Trust convinces your stakeholders to come along for the ride.“ Most leaders intuitively understand the need to solve problems quickly to build and accelerate momentum and growth. Not many, however, are willing to slow down (except the successful ones) to do the most important work - build trust as a foundation to effective teamwork. As an F1 enthusiast the connection between fast and slow is obvious. To go fast, as fast as possible, you have to slow down for the corners. Similarly, to go fast and fix things in your enterprise, you have to slow down and build trust. You never stop working on trust! If you want to go faster, slow down! Build trust, strengthen trust, and you can go as fast as you like. Easy to say, I know, and hard to do. But that is what it takes.

FINALLY!… https://lnkd.in/gMA8JmUh

Couldn’t agree more Sean.