The Agile Scaleup

Weird Al video; No Bosses - Holocracies; Free Agent Employees; Love 'em or Lose 'em

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:  

To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone.
	Reba McEntire, Singer, Songwriter, and Actress

"Weird Al" Yankovic -- this 4 minute video titled "Mission Statement" highlights everything this is wrong (and weirdly hilarious) with the business guru industry. It's worth watching just before your next quarterly planning session (I'll be showing it to the ProService team in Hawaii today). Thanks to Inc. columnist Kevin Daum for pointing me to this painful music video. Enjoy.

Love 'em or Lose 'em -- this is the title of Beverly Kaye's timeless classic. The 5th edition, updated in 2014, shares 26 specific and simple techniques managers can use to keep employees engaged. It's a perfect primer (training tool) for frontline supervisors and middle managers who are key to retaining your best employees and keeping them performing at their peak. It also provides important reminders to senior leaders as well! GazellesPro and book club members will receive a copy of the book for your library next week. Come hear Kaye keynote, along with Ben Horowitz, Keith Ferrazzi, Liz Wiseman, Salim Ishmail, John DiJulius, and other thought leaders at Fortune's Growth Summit Oct 28 - 29, Las Vegas.

OK to Lose 'em -- In turn, Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, has a new book out this month called Alliance. The serial entrepreneur and now venture capitalist makes the point that people are no longer willing to be "Lifers" at companies who expect loyalty from them, while making no commitment to their professional development. Hoffman suggests rethinking this relationship as an alliance in which both parties agree to go on a multi-year tours-of-duty with a defined end date and specific outcomes. While on this mission, the employee offers her best work and loyalty as long as the company provides the promised experience and training.

Employees Like NBA Players -- When the tour-of-duty ends, you either find a new mission or you let the employee move on in her best interest (free agent). To keep leveraging the relationship or possibly rehire the person later on, the book offers practical advice on how to build a corporate alumni network.

Important Template to Download -- For a quick summary of Hoffman's key points, go to www.hbr.org and search for Reid's 10 page article "Tour of Duty" from June 2013 that nicely summaries the approach. A great take away offered by Hoffman and his co-authors is this template for a Statement of Alliance that you can use to formulate and seal long lasting alliances with your own employees. For an even shorter (and free) summary, take 2 minutes to scan this Fortune article on his book.

No Leaders Needed -- several companies are back experimenting with "leaderless" or "bossless" teams. One term for this new organizational structure is a holacracy. This is becoming more a possibility as technology is able to take over many of the traditional activities of managers - monitoring, feedback, training, and coaching. Here's an extensive article (9 minutes to read) on holacracies and how companies like Zappos are adopting this approach. In my experience, companies still end up having "champions" or "coaches" that fill in many of the traditional management roles. Thanks to Shashi Kaant Bhatnagar, CEO of Mumbai-based BellPepper Animation for sharing this story.

COACHING:

Need help implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

7000 Hired; 18,000 Fired; 80% vs 20% Success Rate; Aug 14 Master Class; GGI Accredited

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:  

"What's worse than training your workers and losing them? Not training them and keeping them."
	Zig Ziglar

Microsoft Cuts 18,000 Jobs -- more on this below, including a link to CEO Satya Nadella's "vision" memo to all employees...but first:

PPR Hires 7000 -- It's better to hire the right people in the first place. Now, imagine having to hire more than 7,000 per year! This is exactly the challenge that Dwight Cooper, CEO of nurse staffing firm PPR Talent Management, and his team face every year while maintaining a culture of excellence. PPR is one of only two organizations that have landed on the national list of America's "Best Places to Work" for 10 consecutive years. And in 2013, PPR was honored to be named the #1 Best Place to Work in America (small business category).

80% vs. 20% Success -- PPR Talent Management, using the Topgrading interviewing and selection process, has achieved an 80% success rate vs. 20% before using Topgrading. This is why PPR recently trained 40 of its recruiters via Gazelles Growth Institute's (GGI) online Topgrading Master Course. Here is a link to their 3 min video case study (scroll down and to the right on the landing page).

15x Salary -- this is the cost of hiring the wrong person. Get one (or several) in your organization trained on Topgrading - right from the comfort of their desk or home. A new Topgrading Master Class session starts August 14th. As a leader, you are painfully aware of the huge costs of hiring people who turn out to be mediocre or worse. Topgrading offers the only hiring method on that routinely triples hiring success, with CEOs consistently saying Topgrading made the company more successful. Topgrading also provides the single best opportunity for Human Resources to make a huge contribution to the company. If interested in the Topgrading Master course -- send an email to [email protected] to request the course syllabus.

Accreditation -- The Gazelles Growth Institute (GGI) is proud to announce it is now an accredited institution for corporate and business learning by AdvanceEd! Starting now, every Topgrading participant for this Quarter 3 session will be sent (by FedEx) an official, recognized, framed Certificate of Mastery in Topgrading for having completed the course. Sign up for the GGI weekly video of the week to keep updated on upcoming notices.

Chamber of Commerce program -- GGI's Chamber of Commerce program is kicking off in full force. GGI now has online education partnerships with chambers including Manhattan, Memphis, Oakville (Canada), and Henderson with more coming onboard to offer their local members first class web-based training and development. Contact [email protected] if you belong to a Chamber of Commerce to discuss the possibilities of bringing the discount program to your area. Program includes monthly free course viewings as well as discounted prices on all-inclusive Corporate Programs. Try out the free screenings we host here:

Microsoft CEO Memo -- 10th July Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent a 3000 word memo to all employees outlining the company's vision. To quote Nadella, "At our core, Microsoft is the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world. We will reinvent productivity to empower every person and every organization on the planet to do more and achieve more." Take 4 minutes to read how someone like Nadella communicates his thoughts for one of the largest companies in the world.

COACHING:

Need help implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

Seeking Advisors; Secret Society; #1 Job for Customers; Carrot Clarinet

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:  

"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have."
	Frederick Keonig

Seeking Advisors/Influencers? -- source TED. David Katz, founder of PlasticBank (love the name), was trying to figure out who might be the best advisors for his new venture. Then it occurred to him, why not search the TED talks (brilliant idea!). There is no better list of the top thinkers and doers in the world. He landed:

• Illac Diaz - a well-known social entrepreneur
• Dr. Mike Biddle - plastics engineer and cofounder of MBA Polymers
• Paul Pollack - author of Out of Poverty

"I've also used TED to initiate other important contacts," notes David, an EOer I met at the EMP program at MIT. He and his partner have scaled up a biz in 18 months that might take others 18 years, while solving a huge problem on the planet. They have branded the term "social plastic"; they are normalizing the price of recycled plastic so people around the world can make a living farming, fishing, and finding plastic; and they are getting companies to agree to only use social plastic. This is a billion dollar venture in the making - stay tuned.

Intuit's (QuickBooks) Brad Smith -- "getting rid of friction" is how Intuit's CEO Brad Smith sees the company's job in serving customers. This is why they've struck deals with many of their perceived competitors. Powerful idea! Please take 3 minutes to scan this Fortune interview. Here's my favorite paragraph - which details something every CEO and leader of a growth firm should do:

"When the company was founded 30 years ago, our founder, Scott Cook, developed a method that we still use today called Follow Me Home. We do 10,000 hours of Follow Me Homes with consumers and small businesses every year. I do 60 hours myself. We're not stalkers - we're invited into their home or business. We observe them for a day, go through things, and we'll observe the things that surprise us. Like, they'll grimace, they'll write a Post-it note to themselves, and then we go back afterward and say, "What stumped you?" Or, "What was it that you were puzzled with?" And then we try to find ways to eliminate that friction."

Go hang out with some customers this month!!

Secret Society for High-Achieving Women -- this Fast Company magazine article details the Committee of 200 (C200), an organization of women business leaders including Denise M. Morrison, president and CEO of Campbell Soup Company and Ellen J. Kullman, chairman of the board and CEO of DuPont. Half the members run companies larger than $400 million. On the other end, they have a Protege Program helping 15 women scale-up their businesses so they can qualify for membership. Though not mentioned in the article when discussing this innovation initiative, Gazelles landed the contract to provide the training, led by our Gazelles International Certified Coach Lisa Ridley. We couldn't be more proud to be helping these women "scale up" over the next several years. Thanks to Mary Naylor, CEO of VIPDesk and C200 member, for championing our efforts. Please take 2 minutes to read about this important organization for women business leaders.

Can Men Have it All? -- speaking of women business owners, Naomi Simson, founder of Sydney-based RedBalloon, has written another insightful "Influencer" piece for LinkedIn. Her rant - why do interviewers only ask women the question "can you have it all?" Can anyone really? The quote at the start of this insight came from Naomi's article as she reminds us "The number one way to experience happiness with your choices is to be present in what you do - not wishing you had it "all". Please take 2 minutes to scan her article and then make some choices.

Carrot Clarinet -- looking for a fun activity with the children? Take 5 minutes to watch this TEDxSydney talk on how to make a clarinet out of a carrot. It's a great way to be "present" with your children and have some fun with music.

COACHING:

Need help implementing the Rockefeller Habits?

More Facebook, More Depression; Salim Ismail; Office Branding; Better Elementary School?

"...keeping you great"

HEADLINES:  (it's summer - much shorter insights)

A great burden was lifted from my shoulders the day I realized that no one owes me anything.
	Harry Browne 1933-2006, Author and Politician

Singularity U -- the Founding Executive Director and Global Ambassador for Singularity University has a new book coming out this fall entitled Exponential Organizations: Why new organizations are ten times better, faster, cheaper than yours (and what to do about it). I couldn't be more excited that he'll be joining Ben Horowitz as the other "celebrity CEO" keynoting the Growth Summit in Vegas Oct 28 - 29.

Office (and company) Branding -- summertime is a great time to spruce up the office environment. See what Texas-based Miner Corporation has done, with the help of Erik Darmstetter and his team at Salesby5, to fully utilize their wall space to bring their vision and values alive throughout their offices - and to brand the company to the public. Consider a similar office makeover welcoming back employees this fall from their summer vacations (Erik can help - he loves doing this kind of thing).

Social Media Branding (Problems) -- Significant changes in how Facebook is managing content means less than 7% of YOUR fans are seeing your messages. This and revelations about other social media sites are shared in a recent Wall Street Journal article entitled "Social Media Fail to Live Up to Early Marketing Hype." What works, as Ritz Carlton has discovered, is quality vs. quantity. Take 3 minutes for your marketing team to scan the article and then discuss at your next marketing meeting. And thanks to Erik Darmstetter for pointing me to this article.

More Time on Facebook, More Depression -- because it can make you jealous. This Fortune article on the "7 Deadly Sins of Googling" is worth the 2 minutes to scan. I've fallen prey to some of these sins. And this pointed warning, to quote the article:

"Social media can lead to envy. It can lead, possibly, to depression. In a 2013 study, University of Michigan researchers Ethan Kross and Philippe Verduyn texted people while they were using Facebook, and found that as time on Facebook increased, a person's mood and overall satisfaction with their lives declined. In other words, Facebook can make you jealous. It can make you feel more alone than connected."

Summer is a great time to go off the grid - try it.

Need a Better Elementary School for Your Children? -- daily huddles, data, and priority setting help drive accountability and engagement at the new Acton Academy elementary school. Kaylie Reed (EOer Sam Reed's wife) is the founding teaching, along with Jeff Sandefer, the founder of the innovative Acton MBA, of this new style of elementary school. This article by Kaylie details the "blended learning" approach they use -- combining leading edge use of technology to deliver content along with highly interactive and student-centered classroom experiences to expand understanding. It's worth forwarding to the principal of your local elementary school (I did) and if unresponsive, Acton is looking for partners wanting to open an academy in their city.

COACHING:

Need help implementing the Rockefeller Habits?