Strategy | Brenda Eckstein International

Using models for our business and private lives

March 6, 2012 by Brenda 1 Comment

A business model which has a huge impact on my thinking emphasises that your likelihood of success in a specific type of business is linked to your:

Passion
Skill, knowledge, experience or ‘feel’
Ability to generate the right amount of money in that field.

Some of the questions asked are:

How much does the topic or that aspect of the business energise you?
What is the extent of your skills in this area? What is the depth of your knowledge? How much ‘tacit’ knowledge have you built up?
Will your involvement in this enterprise be able to generate the right amount of money for you in proportion to 1 and 2 above?

These three aspects must be ‘in sync’. Let me give you two examples of what can happen where there is lack of balance.

A friend of ours was an expert in the field of intricate cake icing and specialised in wedding cakes. When she immigrated to another country, she decided to set up a business in this field. When we test her intention against the above model, she had the passion and the skills and experience. However, number 3 was lacking. The hours taken to craft the icing were out of proportion to the monetary amount she could charge for the cakes. Hence, the demand at that price was limited and she could not generate proportionate income to align with 1 and 2.

Another friend used to run an office administration business in our city. But she lost interest after many years. Her passion (1) was gone. She had the skills, the knowledge and experience (2) to continue running a very successful business and it brought in the right amount of money (3). But she did not feel successful because 1 was missing. So, she sold the business and moved to something that brought her success through 1, 2 and 3 being ‘in sync’.

I believe that being aware of the importance of these three factors (and their combined impact) can help us to make wiser decision in our business or professional lives. We can also look at factors similar to this in our private lives. Questions to ask ourselves are:

Are we engaged in those activities which make us feel ‘whole’?
How can we incorporate more of those sights, sounds, smells and kinaesthetic experiences that bring out the best in us?
In what way are we building, conserving and spending our personal energy?
What are we doing to use our existing skills to better advantage?
How are we continuously improving our skills?
What are we doing to ensure that our financial rewards are in proportion to our expectations?
How fair is our monetary compensation in relation to our enthusiasm, knowledge and experience?

So, applying business models can help us to make decisions that are more likely to lead to success. Some models can also be adapted to enhance our private lives. Reflection can help us align and build a stronger future. So, how can you take the above ideas and use to build a stronger future?

Questions regarding your resources

October 26, 2011 by Brenda Leave a Comment

Choose a time period – for example, three years time. Be specific and write down the date. For example, if you have chosen three years as your period and you are answering these questions in August 2011, you would date your answers as August
2014.

The purpose is to paint a picture of what you want your life to look like at that time. Stretch yourself into your vision but be realistic. Are all your answers SMART? (Specific? Measurable? Attainable? Relevant? Time-linked?)

Enjoy this exercise.

Financial
What capital do you wish to have accumulated?
What are you earning?
What income are you generating on a regular basis?
How are you doing this?
How have you invested your money?

Employment
Where are you working?
What are you doing?
What opportunities are there for future growth?
And how are you going to achieve this?

Human
Which people are significant in - your personal life, your business life and your community life?

Time
How are you allocating your time? This is a big question as it covers: personal, business and community

Energy
How are you building your personal energy?
How are you conserving it?
How are you spending it?

Health
What are you doing to eat healthily?
Physically, how are you going about being the best you can be?

Accommodation
Where are you living?
Describe.

Knowledge and qualifications
How have you progressed in the last three years?
What new skills have you acquired?
What new qualifications have you achieved?
What are your goals for the next period?

Transport
What means of transport do you have or use?

Brand
Your personal brand is a resource.
How have you built it?
How are you promoting it?
How congruent is it to your business brand?

Coaching
Yes, coaching is a resource.
What have you done to make sure that you are exposed to the right coaching for you?
How are you benefitting?

Network
Your personal network is a powerful resource.
What are you doing to build and maintain relevant relationships?
How are you improving your skills as a networker?
What are you doing to expand your network in a meaningful way?
What groups of ‘like-minded’ people do you belong to?
What other groups give you a strong sense of belonging?

Technology
How ‘up to date’ are you?
Can you effectively incorporate the latest available technology where beneficial?

Once you have completed these questions, ask yourself what is missing. What other questions should be
answering?

You now have a fairly good idea of what you would like your future to look like. This is part of your vision, but
not the whole thing. If you’d like further help, you are welcome to contact me.

Punctuate Your Life With Purpose

May 9, 2011 by Brenda Leave a Comment

I’m always excited when I hear or participate in ‘quality conversation’. Afterwards I share examples with those in my ‘communication skills’ workshops. Yesterday as we sat having breakfast in a local coffee bar, I was fascinated at the topics I could overhear being discussed by strangers at the table next to ours.

They were talking about the English language and how punctuation can change the meaning of a message. This was of particular interest to me because in my ‘How to get your point across’ workshops, punctuation is an important aspect of the written examples participants work on. The big question is: how do we minimise the gap between the sender’s intention (in sending a message) and the recipient’s perception of the same message? (I have devoted previous blogs to this topic so won’t expand on it further.)

During their conversation, the strangers gave some outstanding examples of how punctuation can alter the meaning of a message. Two that they quoted were (and I have purposely changed names):

Sam says George is mad.
Sam, says George, is mad.

And then the question was posed:

‘What is the difference between a panda and a cowboy?’

The former eats shoots and leaves.
The latter eats, shoots and leaves.

In written communication, one comma can significantly change the meaning of our message.

Let’s look at another area in which punctuation is important. A question we need to ask ourselves is: ‘how is punctuation impacting on the meaning of our lives’?

Life can be thought of as a continuum. Our lives are artificially punctuated in a variety of ways. Each birthday marks a change, an event that often puts us in a different category. That change in age enables us to do certain things and excludes us from other opportunities. It may qualify us for a certain race or prevent us from entering a ‘Miss World Contest’.

Think of your next birthday: what will you no longer qualify for? For example, in my uncle’s case, as a colonel in the army, he enjoyed his work but the army computers were set to recognise people whose ages were up to only 75, so there was no way he could be paid his salary after that age! So, he very reluctantly resigned.

And then what new opportunities will your next birthday present? You may now be able to apply for a driver’s licence. For many of us, it could qualify us for extra tax concessions on medical expenses!

Just as a ‘full stop’ ends a sentence, and if there is a new sentence, it starts after that ‘full stop’, so a birthday marks the end of an age and the beginning of a new era. Similarly, each New Year follows another ‘full stop’ and generates a whole new range of possibilities. For example, if we have used up our Medical Aid for the calendar year, on January 1 we may have our full quota again!

For those of us with different religious or cultural affinities we may also recognise New Year at different times and our celebrations my take different forms. An illustration is that February 3 2011 will be the Chinese New Year which marks the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit and the end of the Year of the Tiger.

Any ‘New Year’ may be a good time to make a fresh start, to strategise our future. But if we do this only once a year aren’t we missing out on other opportunities? Shouldn’t we be setting aside regular sessions to exercise an ‘attitude of positive discontent’? I think of the wonderful story told in ‘Management Mess-ups: 57 pitfalls you can avoid (and stories of those who didn’t)’. The author, Mark Eppler was walking along a pier and saw fishermen with their boats ‘upside down’ on the beach. He was concerned as he realised that by not being out fishing that the fishermen were not generating income. They explained that they regularly ‘punctuate’ their lives by not going fishing and rather spend the day ‘scraping their boats’. He still didn’t understand. They explained that barnacles (small crustaceans) attach themselves to the boats below the water level and multiply at an alarming rate. This makes the boats heavier, slower and less manoeuvrable. In addition, the boats can consume up to 40% more fuel in order for the fishermen to reach the waters where they fish.

Doesn’t that sound just like our lives? Things creep up on us. ‘The deception of the gradual’ is one way of referring to the process. We don’t realise we are being weighed down, burdened by excesses. It becomes harder to achieve our goals and takes us more time because we are less flexible. And the cost of achievement is greater in terms of energy used. So we become less effective.

By creating punctuations in the flow of our lives, we can pause, observe, reflect and then take appropriate action. Regarding our resources, our service and the way we operate, we should assume that nothing is good enough and ask ourselves how we can improve. Of course, after careful consideration, we may decide that something is the best it can be for us at this time, so we’ll leave it as it is. However, even if it is good enough (now), we need to create an opportunity in the future to re-examine and reassess whether it is still the best it can be. This helps us to avoid becoming complacent or forming bad habits.

So, my message to you is: punctuate your lives periodically in a purposeful way. Have a break from routine and carefully appraise every aspect of your life. Are things the best they can be? If not, how could you improve? And then take appropriate action. Implement strategies for success.

Just as the punctuation in written words can alter the meaning of sentences, so the meaning of our lives can be altered considerably by strategic pauses and relevant positive action.

Quality conversation is not confined to coffee shops – although a good cappuccino can help!

New Year Resolutions: The Morning After…

May 9, 2011 by Brenda Leave a Comment

There is hope! Your dreams can come true! Although ‘the morning after’ may make your New Year resolutions seem dismal, it can be the second day of an exciting journey!

The expression, ‘the morning after’ often implies negativity. And that’s exactly what I intended. By the time you read this, you may already have started to wonder why you bothered making ‘New Year resolutions’ or thinking about some positive personal change you could bring about as we entered 2011? Past failures may have conditioned you to think ‘my New Year resolutions never work’ so you may not even try making them. Even if your New Year resolutions have provided some success, why do they fade into insignificance by ‘the morning after’ New Year? - or within the next week? Sustainability is a challenge.

The challenge
‘New Year resolutions’ are often made as ‘stand alone’ intentions. I believe that most people treat ‘resolutions’ as events or transactions, so intentions are not followed by sustainable action.

If we consider our ‘resolutions’ as part of a process we will be more successful. We need to plan, implement and monitor results.

Your vision of your future
I have coined the term ‘resource-centered personal strategy’ for my approach and it begins with an individual’s vision of the future. In other words, where do you want to be in three years? That needs a great deal of careful consideration. And what action plans do you need to work through in order to achieve your vision? Your New Year resolutions will fit in as part of the overall plan.

Critical success factors
Let’s step back. A few years ago, the great business guru, Ken Blanchard advocated that in order to be successful a business needed to be continuously improving, customer driven, ‘fast and flexible’ and cost effective. I worked on this concept at the time and used these principles. As time passed I added another critical success factor, ‘networked’ (which includes relationship building) and I have now added a new component which I’ll call ‘convenient’.

Resources
I believe those same principles or ‘critical success factors’ can play an important part in ensuring personal success, too. For this article, I’m concentrating only on the critical success factor, ‘cost effective’. I use this term to refer not only to finances but to all resources (in the broader context) available to us. How have we accumulated each resource and how are we using or allocating all our resources. In other words, the main question to ask is: What do I want my resources to be in three years time? And how am I going to be using each resource? How effectively will I be getting ‘maximum mileage’ out of each component?

I run many training courses on personal strategy. Participants include adults in a wide range of professions and businesses and they may be at any level in their organisation from CEO down to other levels. These sessions are sometimes run for individuals privately or for groups of individuals. However, each individual develops their own plan.

These courses are always adapted to suit specific needs. For example, each year I run training courses for young engineers (metallurgical, chemical, mechanical) and we look at a three-year time-frame for each individual’s ‘plan’. That is a good ‘chunk’ or time-frame, long enough to plan significant change or stabilisation and yet short enough to work with. I stress that answers need to be realistic, yet stretch people out of their comfort zones. Examples of the questions relating to ‘resources’ that I ask are:

Resource
Question (answers need to be given as though the participant has projected themselves three years into the future)
Financial
What capital do you wish to have accumulated?
What are you earning?
What income are you generating on a regular basis?
How are you doing this?
How have you invested your money?
Employment
Where are you working?
What are you doing?
What opportunities are there for future growth?
And how are you going to achieve this?
Human
Which people are significant in your personal life, your business life and your community life?
Time
How are you allocating your time? (This is a big question as it covers personal, business and community.)
Energy
How are you building your personal energy?
How are you conserving it?
How are you spending it?
Accommodation
Where are you living? Describe.
Knowledge and qualifications
How have you progressed in the last three years?
What new skills have you acquired?
What new qualifications have you achieved?
What are you aiming for in the next period?
Transport
What means of transport do you have or use?
Brand
Your personal brand is a resource.
How have you built it?
How are you promoting it?
Coaching
Yes, coaching is a resource. What have you done to make sure that you are exposed to the right coaching for you? How are you benefitting?
Network
Your personal network is a powerful resource. What are you doing to build and maintain relationships?
How are you improving your skills as a networker?
What are you doing to expand your network in a meaningful way?
Technology
How ‘up to date’ are you?
Can you effectively incorporate the latest available technology where beneficial?
The above are representative of questions covered in the workshops. Not all questions are included here. However, answering these would be a good start!

The process
Please ponder the above questions. They deserve your careful consideration. They will help to shape the picture that you are painting of your life and achievements in three years time.
Picture
A. The process starts by looking at your life in three years time and being sure that you know how you envision your future.
Now
B. Then we say: ‘That is where I want to be but where am I now relating to each of those questions’?
Gap
C. For each resource, look at your picture of the future and your current status. The difference between the two is the ‘gap’ that you are going to use for planning purposes.
Action plan
D. This is where the action really begins. For each resource in your life, in terms of that gap, you can now set three-year action plans covering your goals.
6-month goals
E. Then you need to break those goals down into manageable chunks. In other words, put time frames to each action. If you are looking at three years, a good idea is to have six 6-month periods and decide which of the goals you are going to achieve in each period. By concentrating on specific outcomes for each 6-month period, you’ll be more likely to achieve success.

Watchpoint: Make sure that your goals for each 6-month period are manageable. Sometimes you’ll find it better to spread your goals linked to a specific resource over more than one 6-month period. In other cases, goals relating to a specific resource may not appear in certain 6-month periods as they have been allocated to other periods.

Implement
F. The first period being now. And it doesn’t have to be the official ‘New Year’. This marks the implementation or ‘execution’ of the goals for the first period.
Control
G. You’ll also need to introduce a monitoring and reporting system. I appreciate that mostly you’ll be reporting to yourself. But by diarising each report date (say once a month) and monitoring the progress on each goal, you can deal with deviations as they arise.
Evaluate
H. At the end of the first 6-month period, it will be exciting to see how much progress you have made.
Next cycle
I. You then begin the second 6-month period and repeat the whole process.

So what I’m saying is that you shouldn’t be looking at your New Year resolutions as isolated events or goals. They should form part of the whole picture of what you are going to achieve over a three-year period. That way you have a far greater chance of success.

Summary
There is no need for ‘the morning after’ New Year to seem dismal. It can be the second day of an exciting journey towards success.

In my first book, ‘Networking Tactics’ I combined personal strategy with networking tactics. However, success in applying these concepts with individuals and groups has fuelled my passion. I continue to incorporate new concepts and improve in other ways. Hence my new approach as captured above is my ‘resource centered’ approach to personal strategy. It works!

A Simple & Effective Lesson In Change Management

May 7, 2011 by gary Leave a Comment

Gary is a business consultant and trainer based in Sydney, Australia but operating internationally. He assists organisations in getting business benefits from I.T . Contact Gary, +61 (0)4-1092-3445, gary@eckstein.id .au, http://eckstein.id.au

Kurt Lewin was a German-American psychologist. He introduced two simple yet hugely effective models which are widely taught in good Business Schools:

the Force-Field Analysis and the
Unfreeze – Change - Freeze Model (this is also referred to as the Unfreeze – Change - Refreeze Model).

In this article we examine the Unfreeze – Change - Freeze Model and see how effectively this simple model can be applied to business and personal situations.

What is the Unfreeze – Change – Freeze Model
We know that change is disruptive and that some people and organisational cultures handle change better than others. Lewin studied change and then concluded that by following a three step Change Model, change could be made vastly less disruptive and more effective in reaching its objectives. The beauty of Lewin’s model (the model is actually a cycle as there is almost always a requirement for change in organisations) is that it is so simple to understand and yet so very powerful:

The Unfreeze – Change - Freeze Change Model

Unfreeze: Before any change there is preparation to be done which includes communicating the need for change, up-skilling employees where necessary and so on.

Change: As the organisation is now prepared for change (i.e. the Unfreeze stage has been addressed) the Change itself is now implemented.

Freeze: A period of stability is necessary after the Change for the organisation to adjust to the change. This time for stability is needed for employees and other stakeholders to adjust as well as for efficiencies and effectiveness resulting from the change to be realised.

The basic concept is that for change to be successful, it cannot be ongoing. Periods of stability and preparation for change are necessary.

Example: Change Management in Education
It is interesting that so much of the Change Management theory is seen as business focused. Change however occurs in all professions and spheres of life. Below therefore is an example showing where Lewin’s Unfreeze – Change – Freeze model would benefit a primary school initiative:

In my home state of New South Wales (Australia) the State Government mandated that all Kindergarten children from 2010 need to be assessed as part of the ‘Best Start’ initiative. Certainly the idea is great as described by the Education Minister who states that ‘by sitting down with each student and assessing their early literacy and numeracy skills, teachers can develop learning plans for their students’.

The implementation of the assessment program was left mostly to each school and this is where a number of Change Management issues arose.

Change 1 – Starting school for the first time
Kindergarten in Australia is the first year of Primary School and the children are generally five years old. Many are away from their parents for the first time and for all the children it is a huge Change from their pre-school days.

My daughter’s school did a great job of preparing parents and advising them to get the children ready for the Change (i.e. they did well at the Unfreezing for children attending primary school for the first time). Day 1 of ‘Kindy’ came along and my daughter and others went off for their first day of primary school (i.e. the Change was effected). In the past (prior to 2010) the daily routine would then be the same for a certain amount of time so the children could adjust to the Change (i.e. Freeze).

Change 2 – Best Start Program
My daughter’s primary school decided that the class teacher would perform each child’s assessment of the new Best Start program. This took place from day 2 of the new school year with teachers ‘filling in’ for the class teacher. This meant that for the next seven school days (i.e. days 2 to 8 of the children’s first days at primary school) there was a different substitute teacher each day who didn’t know the children (and the children didn’t know the teachers) and nor were the children familiar with the school itself. There was therefore no period of stability (Freeze) after the first Change.

Many of the children did not adjust at all well and, referring to the Unfreeze – Change – Freeze model it is evident why; a period of stability is needed after Change and this did not occur. The good news is that the school has recognised that there needs to be a period of stability (i.e. Freeze) before the Best Start assessments in future.

The Model Works
A common misconception is that simple models are less effective than complex models. Lewin’s Unfreeze – Change – Freeze model shows that a model that is simple to understand and implement can be extremely effective in various organisations and Change situations.

Try applying this model to changes in your business and personal life and you will benefit.

Use Objectives For Success

May 7, 2011 by gary Leave a Comment

Most of us have personally set or have been provided with objectives. Objectives are commonly used in organizations of all size. However objective setting is often haphazard and objectives are not aligned towards organizational strategy. A framework for effective objective setting is also often lacking.

Peter Drucker, the well known management ‘guru’, introduced and recommended Management by Objectives (MBO). MBO, very simplistically, is about defining and communicating, at all levels of an organization, which objectives need to be realised in order to meet the aims of the organization (strategy, values and so on). Drucker was one of the first proponents of using objectives to meet the goals of an organization, for objectives to be complimentary and for formalising the objective setting process.

Below is a practical and simple guide for implementing the basics of MBO.

Objectives must align with Strategy

The Objective Setting Process
Per the diagram above, lower objectives are set for the specific audience and align to the higher objectives and ultimately organizational strategy. All objectives work towards common organizational goals.

Objectives should be set for departments and individuals. For example, a strategic objective may be ‘Improve market share of supermarket soap sales to 10% by March 2011’. Every sales person may then be given an objective of ‘Sell 500 cartons of soap to supermarkets each month’ (which will result in the 10% market share being reached). Each individual sales person will then be set further aligning objectives; Joe the salesman may be great at selling to existing customers however needs training in attaining new customers therefore may be set an objective of ‘Attend BEI training in personal networking techniques by March 2010’)

So, what makes a good objective?

Good Objectives are SMMART Objectives
SMMART objectives are extremely effective in aligning employees and the organization towards common goals. When setting objectives it is important that objectives are SMMART:

Specific: The objective must not be too broad and must be clearly defined.
Measurable: You must be able to measure success against the objective.
Measured: Measurement of performance against the objective as well as feedback to the person/people to whom the objective was set is critical.
Achievable: It must be realistic to achieve the objective.
Relevant: The objective must compliment higher objectives and strategy and be relevant to the person/department for whom the objective is being set.
Time-based: Don’t leave objectives open-ended. Have a specific date as to when the objective must be met.

MBO in Small Organizations
MBO was originally designed for large organizations. MBO is however often more effective in small organizations (and is usually far simpler to implement). Small organizations may benefit greatly from the entire organization having common objectives. Need assistance with aligning your objectives with strategy? Contact Gary at +61 (0)4-1092-3445, gary@eckstein.id.au, http://eckstein.id.au