Workspace Design Drivers; Spotify's Squads; #1 Best Place to Work; David Marquet March 15 Webinar

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

David Marquet Webinar March 15 -- with all the controversy surrounding Uber's CEO we asked leadership guru and author of Turn the Ship Around (still one of my favorite execution books) to host a complimentary webinar next Wednesday at 12pm ET. More details below, but first...

100 Best Companies to Work For -- this is the 20th anniversary of Fortune's perennial list. Google is #1 for the 8th time out of the past 11 years with Wegmans Food Markets coming in #2 (so you don't have to be a tech giant). And three companies have made the list all 20 times - Publix, REI, and Goldman Sachs. For more details on their innovative compensation schemes, perks, and other workplace attributes, take a few minutes to explore Fortune's landing page for the winners.

5 Drivers for Workspace Design -- when it comes to being a great place to work, workspace design is an important and often overlooked topic. Yet Jeannie Meister's book The Future Workplace Experience devotes an entire chapter (#2) to the topic detailing 5 drivers of workspace design:

1. Drive culture
2. Enable choice
3. Promote wellness
4. Enhance engagement
5. Nurture community

She and her co-author Kevin Mulcahy go on to share concrete workspace designs for each. GPro and book club members will receive a copy of her book. And Meister will be keynoting our upcoming ScaleUp Summit May 23 - 24, San Antonio. Join over 1000+ CEOs and leaders of mid-market firms learning the latest ideas in scaling their business.

9 More Rules -- Workspace design is just one of Meister's 10 Rules for Mastering Disruption in Recruiting and Engaging Employees - the subtitle of her book. These include:

• Make the Workplace an Experience
• Be an Agile Leader
• Consider Technology an Enabler and Disruptor
• Embrace On-Demand Learning
• Tap the Power of Multiple Generations
• Plan for More Gig Economy Workers

Endorsed by most of the top People Experience (better title than HR) executives around the globe (Cisco, Paypal, GE, etc.), Meister and Mulcahy created a very readable and practical book for getting the people side of the business right. After reading Chapter 2 - go back to the Table of Contents and scan down for topics that interest you. In the end, it's about focusing on and being as deliberate about the employee experience as you are the customer experience.

Quick Teambuilding Exercise -- this 3-minute video demonstrates a teambuilding exercise German coaching partner Georg Laffert uses with his clients to increase levels of trust (through vulnerability) and create connections across companies. Notes Georg:

Although some of these questions I have not asked yet, I do ask questions like "Who still has both parents alive?" and several others from the video.

People have more in common than they think. Give it a try.

How Spotify Balances Autonomy and Accountability -- with over 2000 employees organized in teams (squads) of no more than 8 employees, Spotify is one of many firms designed around the "team of teams" concept. Self-organizing, cross-functional, and co-located, these teams still struggle with the age-old challenge of balancing autonomy and accountability. This HBR article highlights how they do it. One key:

To ensure that the feedback process is effective for individuals as well as for the squads, Spotify redesigned its performance management system to separate salary discussion and performance evaluations from coaching and feedback.

Another key noted in the article:

Alignment enables autonomy - the greater the alignment, the more autonomy you can grant. That's why the company spends so much time aligning on objectives and goals before launching into work.

This is why the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 tools/techniques are so impactful. Please take 3 minutes to scan down through the article for additional tips.

One Billion Votes (Gazelles case study) -- in response to my shout out to the incredible future for blockchain technology last week, Pete Martin, founder/CEO of Cleveland-based Votem, emailed me. A Scaling Up fan and participant in our ScaleUp Summits, Martin noted:

We are developing a platform to allow secure voting on your phone which is built on blockchain technology. We ran a "Fan Vote" for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last December and recorded almost 2 million votes on our blockchain platform. Peter Diamandis mentioned us in his recent article and Alex Tapscott (author of the HBR article on blockchain I pointed to last week) just joined our Board of Advisors.

Martin is rapidly scaling the company as it strives to reach a "moonshot" BHAG of 1 billion votes cast from mobile devices around the world by 2025. Further notes Martin:

We are using Align for our huddles every morning and quarterly review of our One Page Plan!

This is precisely the kind of secure solution for which blockchain is designed.

David Marquet Webinar March 15 -- The lack of genuine and authentic leadership represents an epidemic in business today. What we saw with Uber's CEO should be a wake-up call to the rest of us. Leadership is not about communication or change management. Where leadership has the most impact is in the state of engagement. David Marquet is hosting a Live Webinar on March 15th at 12 pm EST to discuss the three often overlooked components of leadership that will help you increase engagement. Join David Marquet live on March 15th. Seats are limited so please claim your spot here.

EXITING: Thinking about selling the business for $40 million or more? Want to get 25% to 200% more than you thought? Request the whitepaper from the Exit Strategies Summit at Harvard from Denise Richmond at (610) 299-6466 or email at [email protected]

COACHING:

Have you ever wondered if working with a coach might accelerate your company's growth, exponentially? Do you have what it takes to move the dial from good to great? Click here to watch Gazelles International President Keith Cupp describes the four most important attributes of successful clients. Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

And if you're interested in becoming a world-class certified Gazelles International coach, please go to gicoaches.com/becomeacoach for more information. If you determine that we're a fit and wish to join our premier organization, we invite you to contact our Dir. of Coach Engagement at [email protected] or 877.217.2253 ext.700.  

TECHNOLOGY:

Manage Daily, Weekly and Quarterly Huddles
Click Here to Watch a video example.

Always have visibility and insight into the groups priorities Participation creates alignment; everyone knows what's going on and who is accountable. Teams that are held accountable are more likely to act on priorities.

Scale Up your Rockefeller Habits implementation with  www.alignwithgazelles.com - on your computer, tablet or phone. $5.00 per month gets you started.

Better Book Club -- What's your team reading? Increase your books read per team member. Easy, Proven, and in the Cloud at http://www.BetterBookClub.com.