Norton Crumlin & Associates - Strategic Management Consultants in Sydney, Australia

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Leaders Unplugged – A tool to help in Business Planning ‘season’

Roger Norton, April 11, 2012

Many people in this group are in the midst of business planning for the forthcoming financial year. At some point you will probably need to present to your direct reports about the business imperatives for the next 12 months (maybe longer). You will want to leave a positive and dynamic impact on your audience. You will also have plenty of content but may need a communication process that sounds and feels different from the past.

Over the years Jack and I have developed the Leaders Unplugged format for senior executives who are in this exact position. We have many clients who have used it and found it has made a huge difference to the impact on their direct reports. As the leader, these Executives have felt very comfortable that the messages they wanted to impart have actually been received. We are bold enough to suggest that if the right preparation is done, a great result is guaranteed!

We have now taken Leaders Unplugged to the next level by developing a website that makes this format available to the world. Simply go to www.leadersunplugged.com.au and begin.

If you are working with us you will receive access to this tool as part of the work we do with you.

We have also created a Leaders Unplugged Group in LinkedIn. This will act as a user group for ideas and suggestions from using this tool. See http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4094671&trk=hb_side_g

Hopefully business planning season this year will be a significantly different experience for you to previous years!

The Courage of one CEO

Roger Norton, Feb 15, 2012

Last week I was running a strategic planning workshop with the Executive Team of a family owned company. This company has been around 40 years with over $100M turnover per year, and over 700 employees. The founder is the CEO and sole owner. It’s a good story of sustained entrepreneurialism and plenty of hard work during good and not so good times.

The CEO had done his Leaders Unplugged presentation which then sparked Day 1 of the planning process. But by the end of Day 1 the team had not come together as it wanted and the output quality was thin. We all knew it. Something was needed.

The CEO provided that ‘something’. He spent plenty of the intervening evening thinking before we reconvened for Day 2. At the outset he stopped proceedings and made a bold statement. He shared with the team that he had come to the realisation overnight that he was probably the cause of the lack of progress on day 1. In fact he may no longer be the person to lead his own company to the next stage of its growth.

What a moment! The courage to think and then express that view was amazing. He could have easily blamed others, continued to express that he knew best, more of the same, I own the company etc. The silence in the room was deafening.

I won’t tell you publicly what happened to the CEO or about the Executive Team’s response. However I will tell you that the impact was extraordinary and the result of Day 2 was a thousand times better than Day 1. I have no doubt that they will achieve their strategic aspirations. The CEO knows that I have written this blog too.

However, the experience of those words made me stop and think back to great moments of courageous leadership I have personally experienced. Not many stand out like that one. Probably half a dozen in my working life, if that.

How about you? What is your count of truly courageous leadership moments you have personally experienced and that have stayed with you for years?

‘Crowd Sourcing’ Strategy

Roger Norton, Jan 9, 2012

You don’t have to do it alone!
I was impressed recently by a presentation from Gary Hamel where he outlined a range of ideas about new forms of management needed in the 21st century. I have covered some of this in a previous Blog. (You can also check out more on this at the Management Innovation Exchange at http://bit.ly/tFLxDh)

One topic that has resonated for me is ‘crowd sourcing’ strategy. I sometimes look into the faces of Executive teams at workshops when the topic of crafting or renewing business strategy comes up. Some leap into this place as it’s a comfortable place to be creative. Others shrink away, struggling to focus on other than the here and now. To help shift that thinking I use the Three Horizons model from The Alchemy of Growth which provides legitimacy for freewheeling opinions in Horizon 3 and specific activity in Horizon 1. (See the link to this book on my LinkedIn reading list.)

One thing we can probably all use more of though is the cleverness of ideas from the ‘crowd’. Here I am thinking of informed ‘crowds’ who have a view of what they might like your future to be. Obvious examples are your staff and also your key clients. A wide range of sources will provide insight across all three Horizons.

Has anyone gone further than the obvious? I ran a session with a State Government Shared Services leadership group in using senior leaders from the IT industry, Federal Government, and media. The positive influences of that session were still evident 10 years later.

Do you have you examples where you have ‘crowd sourced’ strategy from even less obviously connected crowds? Maybe completely unconnected crowds who nevertheless have an opinion about your sector or even your organisation? Impact?

Impressive young designers…great ideas starting with ‘what if…?’

Roger Norton, August 15, 2010

Today I visited the design boom mart at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum. This bazaar style mart is a collection about 30 young design professionals from around the world who share their ideas and make their products available for sale. Amazing array of items – e.g. clothing, household items, jewellery, artwork etc. Almost nothing involving electronics.

I listened to the conversation at various stalls and chatted at length with a few designers. Some of the phrases that I heard over and over included “what if …” “I tested the materials over and over to almost breaking point and then…”,”it didn’t feel right until I tried something different and then…”,”I needed to find a simple solution to …”

And all supported by plenty of passion and persistence. One jewellery designer from Singapore with plenty of demand for her wares uses strengthening material found in corsetry garments. Really out of the square thinking and it took her months of practice to refine her ideas and make some beautiful stuff. See www.vanessaward.com

As I walked away though, I wondered what message I should take to the workplace from the morning. Immediately I realised that I don’t spend enough time ‘exploring’ or ‘what if-ing’. How about in your workplace? Do you make enough time? And do you make enough time for the people around you to explore and ‘what-if’?

Any good ideas or stories to share?

PS. And found new ways of thinking about the GFC – skip finance and economics. How about ‘Gorge Fancy Chocolate’ or ‘Glug French Champagne’ or ‘Give Flowers Constantly’.

Wisdom needed from the experienced…

Roger Norton, July 22, 2010

Last week Mark Ellwood and I ran a program for a client that included a segment on group facilitation processes. Some in the audience had done a reasonable amount of facilitation but many were much less experienced. However they were all likely to have to undertake this role in the not too distant future.

Once Mark had set the scene on the purpose and processes of facilitation really well I added some tips and techniques about succeeding in the role of group facilitator. In preparing this material I reflected on nearly 20 years of being a facilitator in a wide range of organisations. And on a wide range of crisis moments where the best laid plans of workshop design disintegrated in a blink of an eye.

One example that sticks in my mind was a 3 day off site business planning workshop a few years ago. The CEO was 10 minutes into his opening session of Day 1 (exactly as prepared) when an urgent message came through and he had to leave to workshop. No warning – gone! And the audience of about 20 were shocked. Complete silence – and then they turned to me to see what I would do! I was the facilitator after all.

I re-jigged the program on the spot and the workshop went ahead to a successful outcome (and my hours of preparation made perfect sense!). So some of my observations to the group last week were about thorough preparation and resilience in the face of adversity. And that most people will cut you some slack in such circumstances – they are very happy it’s you up there under pressure at the front, not them.

Some of the facilitation ‘novices’ from last week’s course have since signed up to this blog. Thank you.

To the many other expert facilitators reading this blog, can you share a tip or two to help the learning process of the novices? All snippets wisdom will be valued – including reference to other resources that might be valuable.