How 'Strong Opinions Loosely Held'​ Can Improve Your Management Meetings

I heard a great quote on a recent podcast from highly successful tech entrepreneur Marc Andreessen.

The position Marc adopts in meetings and discussions is to have ‘strong opinions loosely held’.

The idea is to hold very strong opinions that you argue about passionately until someone else presents a counter-argument or perspective that forces you to reassess or even change your opinion.

A willingness to hold your strong opinion loosely allows you to change your opinion when a better one is presented.

This may seem counter-intuitive but I think it deserves greater scrutiny.

‘Strong opinions strongly held’ would appear to be the default position adopted by business owners.

But here’s Marc’s take.

Hold an opinion and table it…..strongly.

When an audience presents a stronger argument, many business owners adopt a combative stance to defend their opinion.

The thought of surrendering their idea risks a prick to their professional ego. They fear looking weak or dumb in changing their view.

Marc suggest you only hold on to your opinion weakly, so that when a better opinion or perspective is presented, you simply let go of your opinion and adopt a new one.

A better one.

Or maybe the right one.

And here’s the safety net.

If you are not presented with a different perspective, a better argument or new facts – hold on to your strong opinion.

You don’t have to let it go if nothing better is presented as an alternative.

Marc and his business partner Ben Horowitz role play arguing the opposite opinion every time they review a business concept or investment opportunity. They stay in character and have fierce animated debates (some would say heated arguments) until one of them either gives up or changes their opinion.

This is a great tactic to instill and adopt within your management team. 

Trial it for a month and see if this leads to better decisions.

Darren

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I really want you to start creating sustainable success in your business and life. Simply check out my FAQs videos HERE on what business owners most commonly ask about sustainable business success. If they help you, simply sign up and get the other 20x videos free.

Claim your Giveaways now, find out what the Fourth Moon is and reach your goals sooner!

Cheers, Darren K Bourke

Adopt a Morning Ritual to leverage success in your small business

Have you got a morning ritual?

I know. You’re busy.

Don’t worry. I’m not going to tell you to adopt Anthony Robbins’ 5am sauna and ice bath sessions followed by two hours of meditation and yoga.

What I’m recommending you do is adopt a simple achievable addition to your Monday to Friday routine.

This can be implemented in just simple 7 steps. In 30 minutes you are done.

Let’s go.

1. Get up 30 minutes earlier than you normally do. Commit to this Daily Routine.
2. Download the Headspace App and get the starter-pack 10 minute meditation series. 
3. Start your Morning Ritual with a 10 minute guided meditation session on the Headspace App
4. Do 10 minutes of stretches. I recommend Campbell Gold’s 5BX which consist of 5 basic exercises developed for the Canadian Air Force and published in 1961. Just 5 static stretches that can be done anywhere with no equipment. Alternatively, Tibetan Rites are great.
5. Follow your stretches by completing a single page Daily Journal. Allocate 10 minutes for this. List 3 things you are grateful for. List 3 things you want to achieve today. Mix them up. Make them small and big. Include your business and personal life.
6. Shower and enjoy a high protein breakfast.
7. Seize the day.

That’s it.

I’d love to hear your experiences in adopting this routine.

Darren

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I really want you to start creating sustainable success in your business and life. Simply check out my FAQs videos HERE on what business owners most commonly ask about sustainable business success. If they help you, simply sign up and get the other 20x videos free.

Claim your Giveaways now, find out what the Fourth Moon is and reach your goals sooner!

Cheers, Darren K Bourke

Look at your Strategy through a new lens

In Part 1 of this Four-Part Series on Sustainable Success, I want to introduce the overarching metaphor outlined in my book The Fourth Moon.

In the book, I use a powerful metaphor around famous Italian Astronomer Galileo Galilee’s discovery of Jupiter’s Moons. His discovery of four moons orbiting Jupiter disproved the long held belief that the planets revolved around the earth when they of course revolved around the moon. This discovery led to huge turmoil as the leaders of the time fought to hold on and protect their existing paradigm with the earth as the centre of the cosmos.

Holding on to an existing paradigm that doesn’t deliver you sustainable success is just as crazy as the Italians wanting the planets to orbit the earth. Like Galileo, I encourage you to pick up a more powerful lens that magnifies your view of your business. Look through a new lens and adopt a new paradigm for success.

The four moons in the metaphor represent the four stages on your journey to sustainable success – Strategy, Implementation, Maintenance & Leverage. These will be introduced in this Four-Part Series.

Each moon represents an important stage in your journey and requires the abandonment of old habits that no longer serve you and the adoption of new forever disciplines that will take you to new levels of success. The key to the metaphor is the understanding that you need to not only visit all four moons, but to re-orbit them consistently over time as you periodically change your business strategy.

Expanding on the metaphor leads us to the First Moon of Io (the moons are referred to as Jupiter’s Moons or the Galilean Moons with each having its own name).

The first of Jupiter’s moons, Io, represents Strategy in the metaphor. The planet Io is the fourth largest moon and most geologically active object in the solar system with over 400 active volcanoes painting the surface in numerous shades of yellow, red, white, black and green. It is quite fitting that Io is so big and geologically active because so is Strategy. Strategy is vast and is the foundation of our vision. Our Strategy pulls us between the other three moons of Implementation, Maintenance & Leverage.

First Moon thinking around Strategy is about thinking really big and being active.

Business owners typically object to being challenged to devise and document their strategy. Claims such as “It’s in my head” or “Everyone here knows what we are trying to do” are classic objections from time-poor and exhausted business owners who feel they don’t have time to stop and define their strategy, let alone document it.

“What a waste of time” and “We’re too busy” they shriek in denial.

But these objections generally are a smokescreen used deftly to distract them from the need to look at their business calmly, objectively and honestly.  Fear and uncertainty often lies beneath the surface, leading to defensiveness around being challenged to assess their strategy. To see the truth.

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” 

Galileo Galilee

So why do you need to look at your strategy through a new lens?

Because the current one isn’t truly alive and working optimally for you. You must constantly review, develop and document your strategy regardless of how long you’ve been in business. If you don’t, you risk being one of the multitude of business owners that bounce along in a constant blur of chaos and mediocrity. 

Without a clear strategy you will never achieve the rewards you deserve from your entrepreneurial skills, risk-taking and endeavor. 

Stop and think about this question for a moment.

Why would you intentionally spend time, money and resources – effectively your life’s work - on implementing an inferior strategy? 

Take the first step now and allocate some time to reviewing your Strategy and documenting it in a Strategic Plan (or Mission Plan as I refer to it in my book). A great Strategy starts by defining your Top 5 Goals for the year ahead. I call these Mission Goals.

Next is Part 2 of the Four-Part Series in which I introduce the Second Moon of Europa where you will Implement your strategy.

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I really want you to start creating sustainable success in your business and life. Simply check out my FAQs videos HERE on what business owners most commonly ask about sustainable business success. If they help you, simply sign up and get the other 20x videos free.

Claim your Giveaways now, find out what the Fourth Moon is and reach your goals sooner!

Cheers, Darren K Bourke

The Power of Process

The Power of Process

I’m big on the power of process.
Control the controllables to influence the uncontrollables.

A laser focus on process is a critical ingredient of sustainable success.
Winning businesses know this.
The underlying principle of process is to repeat an action, or series of steps, that produces a highly predictable outcome.

Developing Process

Start by listing key processes within your business.
Hit the big ones first.
Define key processes within groups such as:
•    Service/Product operations
•    Personnel
•    Management
•    Sales
•    Marketing
•    Finance
•    Administration

Start A/B testing your processes to see what works best over a 4-6 week period.

When happy with a process, document the process.

Educate the stakeholders (customers, employees, shareholders or suppliers) that are involved in the process.

Nominate an Internal Champion to oversee each process. 

Repeating Process

In educating participating stakeholders, commit to following the process on a non-negotiable basis.

Demand accountability for following the process from all stakeholders.

Refining Process

Seek periodic feedback from stakeholders at every level.

Listen with an open mind and instruct the Internal Champion to compile a summary of feedback.

Request the Internal Champion to make recommendations on changes and enhancements to process.

The simple question is ‘Will a change to process improve the likely predictable outcome for the business’?

Empower Internal Champions to refine the process by updating the process documentation and re-educating stakeholders.

What are some good examples of Process?

Operational procedures on how products/services are supplied to customers from ‘purchase order’ to ‘cash at bank’.

Weekly, monthly and quarterly internal meetings with standing agendas and outcomes.

Sales-based activities scheduled and held each week/month with prospects.

A customer care model that ‘touches’ each customer on a periodic basis.

Scheduled staff reviews and appraisals conducted periodically.

Scoreboard and key metrics reported on a timely and accurate basis.

Shareholder reporting and meeting regime.

Finance procedures documented and followed.

Supplier terms and scheduled periodic reviews.

But what about the uncontrollables?

The prospect doesn’t agree to go with you and chooses a competitor.

A staff member leaves unexpectedly.

There is an economic downturn in your industry.

A key customer leaves you for no apparent reason.

A key person falls ill.

A major item of plant breaks down and interrupts supply.

Many of these external factors are outside your control and you don’t choose the outcome.

But a single-minded focus on process will help control the controllable aspects.

When the unforeseen negative event happens, you have to pivot and move on.

Your dedication to process will create a more rigorous business infrastructure that weathers the storm.

Without the power of focus, you become just another business owner ‘hoping for the best’ when the inevitable uncontrollable event hits you.

The power of process leads to sustainable success that will survive events outside your control.

Commit to the power of process.

If you want to discuss how you can leverage the power of process in your business, email me here.

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I really want you to start creating sustainable success in your business and life. Simply check out my FAQs videos HERE on what business owners most commonly ask about sustainable business success. If they help you, simply sign up and get the other 20x videos free.

Claim your Giveaways now, find out what the Fourth Moon is and reach your goals sooner!

Cheers, Darren K Bourke

Choosing the right channels for your communication model

I often brainstorm with clients on how to develop their communication model.

But even before creating a communication model, you must first have determined the niche you serve, your ideal customer and your product/service offering. There must be absolute clarity around these three tenets to your business.

Communication is futile without a clear message and a target audience.

So let’s explore this.

I’ll assume you have determined your niche (narrower the better), your ideal customer (outlined & documented their profile) and your product/service offering (defined and priced).

Where it gets confusing for business owners is when they are advised to communicate through almost all channels. When I refer to channels, think of Foxtel channels with each channel representing a different communication medium.

Channels for your communication model might include:
•    In-person 1-1 meetings (coffees, meals or office meetings)
•    Group attendance at in-house events (seminars, workshops, roundtables, retreats, training and functions)
•    Hosting people at external events (sport, arts etc)
•    Authorship (books, blogs, white papers, reports, surveys)
•    Recommended external resources
•    Telephone
•    Email
•    Video (TV, YouTube, Online)
•    Website content
•    Webinars (online webinars)
•    Social Media (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
•    Advertising (TV, radio, online,  sponsorship, print media etc)
•    Letters & cards (yes old school but memorable)
•    Other (the possibilities are endless)

With all this noise and the suggestion, or perception, that you have to produce great content using many of these channels is overwhelming.

It reminds me again of Foxtel.

With over one hundred channels to choose from, I’m often overwhelmed as a viewer on the couch.

The best channels on Foxtel have a target niche (genre), ideal customer (viewer) and clear offering (programs).

The History Channel doesn’t have to worry about sport or cooking shows. Fox Sports doesn’t have to worry about politics and drama.

My advice in overcoming overwhelm is to choose communication channels for your business that satisfy just two people.

1.    You
2.    Your ideal customer.

The reason for listing you first is because if you are not interested in the channel, you won’t communicate. You will get bored or run out of inspiration. There is nobody to communicate with if you don’t produce any content. 

The reason you only have to produce content for your ideal customer is because that is who you want to listen and attract. There is no point in communicating in channels that attract customers that are not ideal customers.

So keep it simple.

Just choose channels that please you and your ideal customer.

Think about the channels you are comfortable communicating in and whether your niche market accesses those channels (or will access those channels should you communicate via).

Next select specific channels that you are willing and motivated to commit to communicating in.

Less is more here.

Better to choose a smaller number of channels and create strong rich content that is useful to your audience and make a big bang in that space.

The trick is not to be Foxtel.

Don’t try and have 100 channels.

Pick your channels and draft a communication model of content and frequency. Schedule your channels like a TV guide releasing content on a monthly calendar.

Then create your content and broadcast it on your chosen channels.

I have chosen in-person networking, authorship, email, website content and LinkedIn as my primary channels to communicate with my SME audience.

I’d love to hear what channels you choose for your communication model.

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I really want you to start creating sustainable success in your business and life. Simply check out my FAQs videos HERE on what business owners most commonly ask about sustainable business success. If they help you, simply sign up and get the other 20x videos free.

Claim your Giveaways now, find out what the Fourth Moon is and reach your goals sooner!

Cheers, Darren K Bourke