Billionaire’s Advice; Raising Resilient Children; Open Office Results; Amsterdam Events Nov 6-7

"...insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES: (Adam Grant fest!)

Nov 6 - 7 Amsterdam -- Join us in The Netherlands for two full days of executive education. More info below, but first...

Sept 21 Hotel Room Cutoff -- our discounted hotel rate for the ScaleUp Summit Oct 16 - 17 and Scaling Up User Conference Oct 18 ends tomorrow, Friday Sept 21. Please click here to reserve your hotel room.

Open Offices Decrease Face Time; Increase Email -- this reputable Harvard study published in The British Psychological Society Research Digest showed that moving from cubicles to a fully open office setting reduced face-to-face time by 73% while email and instant messaging increased 67% and 75% respectively. Working in an open office plan, people find ways to close-down (headphones, for instance) and rely more on electronic communication. On the surface this sounds negative, but it could be a good thing in that people interrupt each other less and can focus more. For me, the key to making open offices work is the daily huddle which gives teams structured time to get face-to-face while eliminating the need for a lot of these emails/texts. Please take 1 minute to read - and thanks to Adam Grant for sharing.

Key to Complex Problem Solving -- Intermittent Collaboration - another Adam Grant recommended piece of research - this time around effective complex problem solving. This Harvard Gazette article summarizes that the individuals on teams need both alone time and group time to work on complex problems. This seems obvious, yet all the new technologies seem to keep everyone "on" and connected all the time. Notes the article:

Groups whose members interacted only intermittently preserved the best of both worlds, rather than succumbing to the worst. These groups had an average quality of solution that was nearly identical to those groups that interacted constantly, yet they preserved enough variation to find some of the best solutions, too.

There are similar implications for the open office setting where both "agile" daily huddles balanced with quiet phone booth like spaces are important in team work. This article is worth another minute.

Key Question to Raise Resilient Children (or Associates)? -- Adam Grant, in this 3-minute interview on the Today Show, shares quick hints on raising happy and resilient children. Besides having the guts to say "no" more often, try asking your children for their advice when you're facing a tough situation/decision. Adam did this with his daughter as he prepared for his TED talk. Her advice later helped her perform on stage. Adam is always worth the time to read/listen to.

Questions to Ask after School -- do you struggle as a parent wondering what to ask your children (young and old) when they come home from school? I had lunch Sunday with the famous Kathy Kolbe, the 74-year-young creator of the Kolbe Index. It assesses the natural way each person takes action (I'm a 5-3-8-4). Anyway, we were talking about our children (her son is CEO of Kolbe) and it drifted to great questions. Here are the two questions she suggested work (have fun with variations) - and she's right. I tried it with my 11-year-old son Quinn and it was a fun conversation:

1) If you could do something over today, what would it be? 2) What was the dumbest thing you saw?

Billionaire Sara Blakely's Fatherly Advice -- Kolbe's questions reminded me of the CNN 4-minute interview with billionaire Sara Blakely of Spanx fame who shared how her dad encouraged her and her brother to fail i.e. he would ask them at the dinner table how they failed that week - and if they didn't have anything he was disappointed. Sara describes this in the first 15 seconds of the interview - and the entire 4 minutes is worth watching.

Nov 6 - 7 Amsterdam -- on Nov 6 our Dutch partners are hosting a one-day "Master Coach" class led by Gregg Thompson, author of Master Coach. This course gives leaders the coaching skills they need, now that managing has pivoted to coaching. The course includes an excellent segmented list of questions you can use in any coaching situation. On Nov 7, I'll be leading a master class on Scaling Up along with special guest Joss Milner who will go deep in the cash flow aspects of business and our new cash tool called The Power of One. Both courses are in English.

CEO-BOOTCAMP: spend 3.5 days with Verne, serial entrepreneur John Ratliff, and 6 other CEOs in a beautiful retreat setting, addressing the constraints holding back you, your business, and your industry. October 2 - 5; January 15 - 18, 2019.

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? Contact us at [email protected] for more information or visit https://coaches.scalingup.com/.

TECHNOLOGY:

Create Accountability - Drive Execution with Align, cloud-based software designed to scale up your Rockefeller Habits implementation. www.alignwithgazelles.com - on your computer, tablet or phone. Click here to watch an introductory video.

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.