Here is a question cluster for you to help you innovate. The outer questions start a conversation. The aim is to get the answer of the central question. The outcome is that you will know what you really do, not  what you think you do. once you know that, you can innovate more effecti

What do you find easy?
You find it easy and you can't understand why others don't.  Guess what' that's a core strength.

What are you passionate about?
If you are excited about it, then it will be easy, fun and rewarding to do. it won't feel like work.

If you closed your business tomorrow what would you be remembered for?
What would people say, when they remembered what the business did well?

What does your industry find hard that you find easy?
Just because others find it hard doesn't mean that you have to.

What was your #1 reason that you set up this business in the first place?
Hopefullythe reason is more than just making money.

If I asked your best client about you, what would they say was the reason they chose you?
Try asking them and write down their answer.

Your answers will point you to what you do brilliantly. Build a busienss around that. Innovate around that.  In the next blog I will talk about the two different ways that you can innovate. One is much easier than the other.

Business can be colour coded into three areas, red(admin), blue (revenue) and black (strategy). I have moved most of my coaching business red work to the cloud now.

I love the cloud. I continue to do blue and black work face to face but am pushing as much of the red work up to the cloud. Most of the time all I need is my iPhone as cloud applications usually have an app. Here are some examples.

Backup
I use www.Carbonite.com to back up my laptop. It took a few days to do the first backup. Now I don’t even notice or have to think about it. My files are 100% secure on the cloud. I can also access them through my iPhone. If I am out and about I can view any document and email it if necessary. In Windows explorer I know what has been backed up because it has a little coloured icon.

Accounting
I now use www.Xero.com for all my bookkeeping. The big change is that all my bank transactions are automatically fed into Xero by the bank. Xero learns what a transaction is for and the process of reconciling gets faster and faster. Because it is web based I can give my accountant access and they can make changes remotely. When I send out invoices Xero matches the payment. If you need a xero expert to shift you across and take some of the load then I recommend www.accountabilityfinancial.com. Contact Terry Howard and say Bill sent you.

CRM
I use www.Box.Net as a central repository. I share this with all my fellow coaches. We each have our own area and a shared files space. Box.net integrates with Outlook so I can attach a file from box.net to an email I send.

Telephony
Viber is a great tool for making free long distance phone calls when in a wireless network. The big difference to Skype is that you use your telephone number rather than a user ID.  Any of your contacts in your phone book who are already on Viber just show up as soon as you register. It’s a bit like having an extra sense or being invited to a party you didn’t know was going on.

How did the interview go? the one I wanted to give, the one I gace, or the one I should have given. These are my notes for the interview I just gave to the ABC. Some of the points ended up in the actual interview.

I became aware of global warming in 2009. I realised a few things. First, a political solution is very difficult. There are several reasons. The timeline to turn global warming round is measured in decades. Political leaders are lucky to be in power for a few years. So there is a mismatch. Political leaders are elected to act in their constituent’s best interests. But global warming does not respect borders. So the benefit of a lot of the work will just drift offshore. Third, there are no effective international mechanisms. We can’t even stop Somali pirates. 

Second, the scientific method, is against us. You cannot as a scientist say that global warming is a 100% certainty. The scientific method means that all you can say is that this is the best theory that fits what we know today. When I tell you that I am 99% certain I am going to buy your house, what do you hear?  You focus on the 1%.  

Third, the debate has become a moral one. Telling people that what they have been doing for generations is wrong or unhealthy, gets up their nose. People still smoke.

So my view is that we need a business climate change. Instead of focussing on what to do differently in this book I explore the how.

So when I work with clients I help them to become aware of the language that they use. I used to think that language first and foremost described reality. Through the conversations I had when writing this book I saw that language creates reality.

So there is one word that has shaped our civilisation over and above any other, in the past 200 years. That word is change. We treat the world as a problem or puzzle to be solved. Our brains are problem making machines.

What persuades us to change? Three things. Better, faster, cheaper.

However when you embark on change there is a price to pay. You have to limit the scope. That means you have to ignore everything else.

While it seems common sense that every problem has a potential solution, what is less obvious is that every solution creates a problem.  You could say that a problem is just a solution grown up.

So over the past 200 years humanity, as a whole,  has seen dramatic improvements in health and wealth. While there remains many who do not enjoy these benefits every trend is upwards. The lifestyle of most Australians today is better than any king would have enjoyed 200 years ago. But the thing that we ignored is the environment.

Now I am not a pessimist. Quite the opposite. I think that we will look back on this decade and call it the Age of Transformation. So what is the difference?

I want to speak of just one quality and that is the acid test. How do you know when you are creating transformation?  Surprise. Transformation always opens up possibilities that you could not conceive of. Change, on the other hand, engenders boredom. 

In the climate change debate there are two groups. One group is on the supply side. They are making products and services which are designed to mitigate climate change.  For example, battery powered cars or thorium powered reactors. The other group is on the demand side. They are creating the demand for these products through persuasion, tax breaks, funding legislation, carbon trading and taxation schemes. 

However both groups are relatively small. The rest of the world just gets on and does what it has always done.  

I look at this issue from a different perspective. My strength is in association. I can see connections in seemingly unrelated areas. The result was the book - Turning up for Life. The book is a collection of conversations I had with some incredible people around the world in many different industries and societies. I just got on a plane with no plan other than to find the people I needed to speak to. And as soon as I got on that plane the adventure started. I found myself sat next to the head of marketing for Greenpeace and we debated the basic premise of the book.  Later, I met the founder of the first Internet café in the world, the director general of the International Olympic Committee. I almost got killed in a terrorist explosion in India. It was a remarkable journey and one that changed me for ever.

So how do you create a business climate change? My proposal is that if you look closely we relate to each other in one of three ways: sexual, loving or compassionate. I am talking about us as individuals. However when people work together they bring their personal communication styles into business. The language changes. In business we talk of transactional organisations. They are the ones that dominate our society. They focus on getting the product to the client. They use persuasion to get us to buy stuff we perhaps don’t need. They don’t care much about the customer and they don’t care too much about their staff.  So why would they care about the environment. It’s a very unconscious way of working.  The loving organisations invest in the relationship and through building trust they sell products and services.  The indicators are very strong. According to Gallup, caring organisations are 27% more profitable, have 38% above average productivity and have 50% higher customer loyalty.

So if we can encourage business to switch from transactional to loving then the unintended consequence is a positive impact on the environment. You can’t treat people with grace and respect and the environment in which they live as a dump. Your staff won’t let you. Your customers won’t let you.  But the argument is not, “you naught wicked business, you must change.” It’s do this and become more profitable. Again there is a price to pay. But this time the price is one that is worth paying.

Let me finish by speaking of the characteristics of a compassionate organization.  Again there is an acid test. We have all heard of 6 degrees of separation. In the world of compassionate organizations that shrinks to 3. Compassionate organizations are incredible networkers.

In Tasmania, BlueLine Laundry is a compassionate organization. You walk into BlueLine and you see a bunch of people working. You cannot tell who is intellectually disabled. They compete in the market place and win contracts based on their commercial expertise.  BlueLine is the new breed, a social enterprise. A social enterprise is one that competes commercially and has a social intent. They are not dependent on government funding and that is healthy.

Met with Ross Copping on my social media strategy, or lack of. First thing to do is create a new, clean, simple website. The heart is the blog and we add links from twitter, facebook, google+ and linked in. So here goes.

Watched Lesley Symons deliver a master class on Clean Coaching today at the University of Tasmania. It was part of the Applied Coaching Skills course offered as an elective.

Clean langage is so different from any other coaching technique. The format is strange and unfamiliar and yet amazingly powerful. 

Has this happened to you? You explain what you do to someone in a large business and they get really excited. You spend a lot of time developing the relationship, giving them free stuff. They tell you that a deal is getter closer. But it never goes anywhere. What went wrong?
A mobile phone needs three satellites in different parts of the sky before you know where you are. You need the same. One person may be a champion or early adopter but they probably won't be able to make a deal. Unless you have three people in different parts of the organisation who all see the benefit, you are probably wasting your time. So have your champion introduce you to two people in different roles, preferably as far away from them as possible.

Have you ever asked the question, “How do rejected job applicants feel about our organisation? Are they going to be our champions?” When you start to see recruitment as a process of engaging with the community from which customers, suppliers, partners and employees come , disappointing all those people doesn’t look very smart.

Recruitment. Now there’s an interesting word. The original meaning of company was a group of companions. Only later did it take on its more modern meaning which still has the overtones of a company of soldiers. So too with recruitment. The original meaning was the beautiful and energetic phrase to grow again but with the shift to the command and control hierarchy of the military it is understandable that recruitment took on the current corporate meaning more akin to enlistment of soldiers. Why re-cruitment and not just cruitment? Either the war got more intense or you lost soldiers (desertion, capture, wounded, killed).

Why does this matter? Because who we are is what we say. Organisations do not exist in the physical world. They arise out of language. What we think is less important. Much is a mad jumble of nonsense. Close your eyes and watch the stream of thoughts that pass. Start thinking about the shopping and within seconds you are reliving an argument from yesterday before planning your next holiday. The internal sound track to life cannot help us transform.

The language we use when we speak shapes our reality. It is not accidental that a person of integrity is someone who keeps their word. Objectifying people by calling them human resources, treating an organisation as if it is some kind of military machine and then enlisting troops to win the war against the competition is going to have some consequences to how life occurs to us.

The current paradigm of recruitment is a defensive play. We send up smoke signals that there is a job available. However we then set in place a whole series of defences that are designed to prevent the right person from getting the job. Instead of meeting all the potential candidates we insist that they write about themselves. Then we shortlist based on who has written what we think is the right answer. Paper speaks to paper. Often we are inauthentic. We don’t tell people what the job really involves. We advertise jobs that are already filled. We hire based on expertise and experience rather than vision and values. We ask for leaders when we want managers.

Could we create a better way? To get the conversation going, try this on for size. Let’s change the context. Instead of recruit let’s make it relationship (original meaning to bring back or restore). Have a regular meeting where anyone who likes what we stand for can come and meet us. They may be partners, customers, suppliers, current or potential employees. It’s a staff meeting on steroids. We can get to know them and they can get to know us. Instead of powerpointing, let’s create an interesting and informal space that encourages conversation. Share stories of what the organisation is doing. What are we like at our best? What is the future that we are creating? Through this process of mutual discovery we understand what the other party stands for and what they are passionate about.

In Think Feel Know™ the current recruitment process starts with Think (advert, position description, selection criteria, application) and then moves to Feel (short list, job interview, rejection) and then Know (successful candidate) and back to Think (reference check, term of employment).

In the revised process we start with Know (we share the same values and vision), then move to Feel (we like and respect each other and want to work together) and finally to Think (summarise and confirm relevant experience, expertise, reference checks and terms of employment). By changing the context, notice that rejection disappears as content. All the millions of hours spent writing job applications for jobs that you will not get, disappear. In its place comes an authentic relationship. You may not get a job but you will feel that you have been invited into the organisation. Some other role may develop.

Organisations are conversations. They have no physical reality. Perhaps by reversing the process we will be more likely to create the conversations that attract the people that we want to share our business lives with.

PackT offers free chapter Wednesday, April 27th, 2011 To promote Open Text Metastorm ProVision 6.2 Strategy Implementation, PackT has made Chapter 7 - obtaining buy in available for free. Just click the link (no registration required).

Are you getting the most from ProVision®? Finally a book that takes you above and beyond the technical details and shows you how to engage and inspire the key decision makers in your business. This is a must read for all enterprise architects and CIO’s using or contemplating ProVision®. Start building models that win hearts and minds.

I recommend this book to all current and intending users of the toolset.
Ken Goerg, Director - EA Product Management, Open Text Inc.

It’s the first book ever published on ProVision® that focuses on how to design a strategy and get it implemented.
Tom Foster - Owner, Business Views LLC

A blueprint for designing an organization that is truly customer centric.
Ray Brown - founder ClienteerHub.com

Moves you beyond the “red ocean” of survival and into the “blue ocean” of abundance.
Jeremy Scrivens - founder TheEmotionalEconomy.com

Will fast track your ability to get the most from ProVision® . Highly recommended.
Andrew Mackenzie - CEO Shirlaws.com.au

Transformation changes nothing. That is its power. That is its beauty.  Transformation invokes surprise. The shadow of change is disappointment. Either the change you anticipated happens the way you expected or it doesn’t. Transformation always includes elements that you did not anticipate. This is because change is a mental concept, whereas transformation comes from your being. Change relies on the past.  Change means to change the past, to improve the past. Transformation arises from the present, it arises out of nothing. That is why transformation changes nothing.

In the world of business the quality of transformation which is of real interest is that it is dirt cheap. Change is expensive and takes time. Transformation can happen super fast because it does not depend on any physical change.  Change can only be implemented by persuasion or coercion. Neither will ever be fully effective. However persuasive, some people will disagree. However forceful some people will resist. Transformation cannot be done.  You can neither manipulate nor demand transformation. Change is active. Transformation is passive. Transformation is an invitation.

In the UK the Conservative Lib Dem Coalition is a transformation of UK politics. Prior to the election it was inconceivable. There was no serious discussion of the possibility. Whilest it was known that no party might gain an overall majority the conversation was about a ‘hung’ parliament.  With a transformed government there is a possibility for transformative policies. In fact there is no alternative. If all the new government does is cut spending, which it must do, then it will not last. However if it also puts in place transformative policies then it has a real opportunity.

Here is a practical example. Where communities become dysfunctional the change mentality might focus on coercion. Changers will propose legislation, extra policing and new security measures.  The hilarious thing about security is the more security measures the less secure you feel. Coercion takes time and is expensive.

A transformation approach looks at what is required to make the community functional again. The heart of a community is play.   Create a playful environment and who needs security?

Play England has been quietly transforming playgrounds around the country from the grotty depressing to places where kids want to be.  The new playgrounds recognise the needs of children over the age of 8 who are not enamoured with bouncy chickens.  Supporting organizations like Play England to extend their work will save millions in security. The infrastructure is in place. A transformed government will support initiatives that work irrespective of who initiated them.  After all it is better to be playful than childish.