“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” — Benjamin Franklin
“Business or science?” Was the question my 17 year old self was asked when I needed to make the big decision of what I was going to do with my life.
I chose business. I was better at the subjects and it seemed the ‘safer’ option. Funny how business wasn’t safe then and is even less now.
I’ve taken 10 lessons from my experience as a corporate resident and explored how they are important in today’s corporate life as much as they are to reinvention.
1. Pareto’s 80/20 rule is almost always true
The principle states that, “for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes”.
80% of corporate output is driven by 20% of its resources; human capital, investment, time and effort.
The rest is generally categorised as waste or non value adding activity. If you work for a large corporation take note where this is evident.
Ensure you’re prioritising tasks, people and activities that will yield the greatest outcomes and/or learning. This includes being able to say “yes” to opportunities and exercise saying “no” for things that do not contribute to this.
Some time ago, on a balcony with the backdrop of dusk behind a beautiful park, I workshopped ways to 10x Reintention. I’ve also learned through short months of experimentation what activities don’t generate value (3 months deciding a name any one?). Reflect, access and change where required.
If you’ve done the same thing over and over and it hasn’t yielded a different outcome? It’s a calling for change.
2. Change needs to be embedded within a culture that supports it
Digital or not, large or small, or dare I say “transformational” change will only be successful within a culture that supports it.
Incubating ideas gives the ability to test different hypothesis and run separate processes (and not be bogged down by large scale bureaucracy). Filtering changes back into the mothership company as well as not siloing the hub too much will avoid an increasing culture gap.
Not doing so will ensure the hub is first to go during organisational change. Some bigwig will say “what value does this area give us?”. Next minute your sexy new centre of excellence is goneski.
With reinvention, culture pertains to the mindset and values you instil. Does your physical, mental and financial environment support the change you’re trying to drive? Or are you with conflicting values and goals?
If you’re fortunate to have a small team or partner, this is relates to the dynamic and communication between your team or partnership.
Is everyone on the same page? Are you working towards the same vision? Or are things vague, getting missed or left up to interpretation? Is there more bad than good?
3. Culture needs to be driven from the top
“Culture is no accident”. While some change can be driven bottom up, it may have felt like “pushing stuff uphill” with a ripple effect.
Culture driven from top leadership and engagement with those below nurtures an environment where buy-in exists on both levels.
Centralised decision making based on motivations of an individual/few individuals is likely to be self-serving rather than evidence based or holistically viewed.
I had to evaluate if I was letting cognitive or confirmation bias dictate my choices in reinvention. Was I really listening? Was I measuring evidence? Or were vanity metrics fuelling decision making? (Ie. I have to ask myself if an embedded cat video really has to do with reinventing, or just an ego booster)
4. Leadership needs to drive strategy AND execution
There is no value in strategy without execution. Leaders don’t only need to pursue the vision, they need to ensue its execution.
In a 2013 study, only 8% of executives were found to be good at execution. Key attributes enabling execution involve commitment to the vision, shaping and translating that vision into achievable actions and getting the most value out of feedback.
Whether you’re building your side hustle or leading organisational change, how have you supported a culture and materialised a vision into accountable and measurable steps?
For me leadership has extended to my outsourced activities with a VA. I need clear, concise and consistent messages to ensure that they understand what I ask for. A success measure could be: the VA transcribes my audio interview correctly with minimal errors.
5. Great leaders are hard to come by
Great leaders are memorable. Even long after they’re gone. Their legacy remains.
When we think of great leaders many come to mind, and here I drew from Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln’s leadership extended beyond many qualities, including the control on his emotions. Despite how he was feeling, he was known to get out his mind and channel his anger. He wrote numerous letters articulating how we felt wrong done by or upset instead of sending them, he stored them away.
A colleague of mine mentioned that after 7 years of corporate residency, he could not recall one great leader. Its a true shame and says a lot about company culture and values.
How this is important to reinvention is because we are all leaders in our own way.
The way we conduct ourselves within our business, role, the way we engage with our families, friends, acquaintances etc… Selfish, self-serving or autocratic behaviour is not conducive to creativity or advancement.
6. Longevity exists when you buy into a vision, not a pay check
When leaders embark on a mission driven by vision this will long withstand any extrinsic motivations.
People are loyal based on your why, not what they receive in return.
I’ve mentioned how intrinsic motivators will achieve greater outcomes (and longevity) as opposed to external or material drivers.
Organisational change highlights those there for a greater purpose or those choosing comfort and lifestyle.
While I am in no position to judge one or the other, understanding those there for a reason, and those there to do their 9–5 is critical to organisational and reinvention success.
Are you reinventing for a flashy pay check, status, entitlement or prestige? Or reinventing because of something greater?
Upon starting Reintention I had to reflect: “was I doing this because I wanted to be famous?” or was I doing this because “someone else wanted to mould me into what they wanted?”. Was I trying to be someone I’m not?
If “fame” was a secondary effect so be it. I started this because of curiosity, continuous learning and impact. I want to grow and help fellow reinventors like you.
7. Short term gains ≠ Long term growth
Organisations that look through a tunnel and not at a bird’s eye view can find themselves shot in the foot.
How? Undoubtedly investor returns and shareholder gains are important right? But how important?
If that is at the expense of your customer experience or employee satisfaction (and therefore commitment) what is the true price paid?
Tony Robbins in his #1 New York Best Seller ‘Unshakeable‘ explains one of four reasons for minimal investor returns from 1985–2015. His reason was due to “selling when the market is bottoming out instead of staying the course through to recovery”.
Sounds obvious right? But what happens in reality? People opt for the short term.
What are the true implications of wiping out a significant number of employees (financial cost) to incrementally improve your Q1 bottom line?
Are you just skinning your books now to have them fattened up later? What are costs in productivity, morale, attrition and churn that are more difficult to measure?
When I explored growth opportunities for this blog it was extremely easy to let external metrics tell a story of success.
We all hear stories of overnight sensations rising to the top. But what don’t you know? What part of the grind, tragedy or hardship is unsaid?
More often than not it’s not a case of overnight superstardom but “Per aspera ad astra” (Through hardships to the stars).
8. Investment should be based on strategy not the other way around
Business funding based on yearly investment cycles will always be short term focused. It is extremely difficult to strategise and execute long term if your financial slate changes year-on-year.
Couple that with diminishing or poor financial results and with the blink of an eye your investment slate has dropped 25%.
How does that kill your strategy?
A small short cut here and a tweak there and your value proposition has died for your customers.
Goal-based investment is an approach where funding is outcome driven rather than based on a ‘bucket’ of money or risk profile.
I am considering taking a number of short courses of the medium term. Instead of making my budget ‘x’ and determining what content I can learn from ‘y’. I’ve moved from the traditional approach to understand what will give me the best value in terms of learning and immediate action.
From there I can set aside money based on prioritised and measurable tasks.
9. Band aids generally fall off
Legislative requirements leave companies scrambling to find ‘quick fixes’ or ways to ‘meet’ new laws.
This generally results in 2 things: a band aid solution or asking for an extension on the timeline.
It is even more dangerous to organisational performance when band aid fixes are left to survive in the long term.
I was shocked to discover excel spreadsheets requiring manual updates (and very easy to break) were used as the financial ‘tool’ to track all project expenses.
In fact the excel solution was something implemented about 7–8 years ago and meant to be short term.
What did that mean? 1. That financial tracking was a very manual and labour intensive process. And 2. Subject to human error.
Worst thing is like a stack of cards, if one component failed, the rest would come tumbling down.
Creating a sub-par solution or short cut around your product design or cost is a risky gamble and puts you in line for failure later.
Spending the time, effort and money exploring solutions and running tests upfront and having a little secret sauce which I call faith will save heartache in the long term.
10. Adversity reveals true advocates
When rising to the top it’s easy to feel that everyone is an advocate and playing on your team. People are loyal and supportive when there is value in it for them.
But adversity whether individually or large scale can reveal who your tribe is.
At a senior level this becomes more evident. Loyalty dissipates and finger pointing arises. Here ‘every man is for himself’ at the first sign of threat to one’s status or position.
On the flip side, unfortunate events can result in unexpected heroes and support from those least expected.
As Seth Godin explains, tribes have unlimited power because they are connected by a cause — the bigger the cause the greater the number of advocates.
Success isn’t always what you can see. Those there to support, empathise and provide perspective through the good AND bad times are the ones to keep. Keep your enemies close, but your tribe even closer!
