The Agile Scaleup

Role-storming; Top 25 Heroes; Meeting Reminder; Mark Cuban May 20

Hope it’s been a productive and purposeful week.  Here are some insights/opportunities to help you outlearn/outthink our reaction to the virus.

We may be in the same storm, but we’re not all in the same boat. 

Insightful Quotes from Summit 2.0 This Week -- 

• Leaders absorb fear and exude hope. Greg Brenneman

• Resilience isn’t bouncing back; it’s bouncing forward. Michael Bungay Stanier

• Strategic distance, operational distance, and team distance more perilous than physical distance. Keith Ferrazzi

The Importance of Equal Talk Time and Candor --
Just a reminder, as you host various zoom meetings, Google’s famous 2-year study (Project Aristotle) looking at team effectiveness found that equal talk time was one of the key factors.  Please be aware of this – and take moments during the meeting where you “go around” and elicit input from everyone. And use zoom “breakout rooms” to put larger teams into groups of 3 – 5 to ponder “what is not being said that should.” Keith Ferrazzi, the virtual team guru, suggests that candor from all team members is part of the re-contracting we need to do.

Role-storming vs. Brainstorming --
As we engage our teams in coming up with creative solutions, serial entrepreneur, VC, and innovation author Josh Linkner noted at the Summit “Brainstorming leads to mediocre ideas.”  Instead, use role-storming. Have each person assume a fictious person – say Steve Jobs – or like one Sony executive who was quite stoic – once he assumed the role of Yoda, he transformed and became animated with ideas. We’re more likely to think bigger and be less inhibited (and judged!) in a role-storming vs. brainstorming session.

World’s 25 Greatest Leaders: Heroes of the Pandemic --
Fortune released their annual list of the greatest leaders in the world with an emphasis on the virus response. “The Mayors” would be my vote for #1 – at least those taking an active leadership role. Anyway, it’s a strange list from my perspective – worth a glance, but that’s it. 

Mark Cuban May 20 – 3:20pm ET --
Summit 3.0 featuring Mark Cuban, David Gardner (co-founder Motley Fool), Raj Sisodia (Healing Organization), and more May 20 – 3:20pm – 5:20pm ET – more rapid-fire ideas and inspiration – mark your calendar. And for an on-demand replay of Summit 2.0 plus summary notes with recommended resources, divided into 10-min clips (General McChrystal’s talk worth the time alone – plus 9 more) purchase at this link.

Fun 2-minute Musical Summary of Summit 2.0 --
Andy Sharpe’s company SongDivision provided live entertainment on our virtual Summit. Top musicians on-tour, one of them wrote and performed a song summarizing key takeaways from the keynoters. Enjoy!

Wit’s End?; Brutal Sales Facts; Shaquille’s Happiness Coach; Murder Mystery

No time for amateur hour – here’s several #1 resources to help you outlearn/outthink the reaction to this virus. Hope these are useful.

Dr. Lombardo is my ‘Head Coach’ for happiness.
	Shaquille O’Neal, 4-time NBA Champion

Something Fun for the Team? --
Virtual Game Show, Murder Mystery, Clue events for team? See below. But first…

“Brutal Facts” Sales Assessment --
OMG (Objective Management Group) has formerly assessed over 2 million salespeople. As we recover it’s critical to drive sales correctly and thoughtfully – and requires specific sales attributes to be successful (only 26% of salespeople have these). Dave Kurlan, author of Baseline Selling and founder of OMG, has created a $100/salesperson sales assessment tool to help you get this right and quickly. BTW, he’ll share next week during his 10-min the #1 sales opportunity right now – excited to hear myself.

#1 in Virtual Teams – Fast Company Article --
Keith Ferrazzi spent $2 million to research virtual teams; he’s coaching some of the top firms in the world right now (didn’t ask him if I could name); and Zoom has named him the king of virtual. Here’s the best article on the topic outlining the four keys that help virtual teams outperform traditional teams -- in case you can’t make his 10-minute presentation.

Remote Team Resource Center – Re-contract Your Team --
Ferrazzi has also setup a highly useful landing page for remote teams that includes a critical “re-contract” checklist which he’ll explain next week. Please download the “team re-contracting guidelines” – you’ll find them critical either way – and they align with the article above.

Resilience -- Series of 3 Short Podcasts --
The former head of Executive Leadership for Nike; author of The Good Fight; and author of Leading with Gratitude are featured in three 30-minute podcasts with team coaching guru Michael Bungay Stanier. Michael will summarize with three questions to build resilience within your company, teams, and family during his 10-minutes – in the meantime, gain deep insights from his three podcasts from the past week. 

At Wits End?  Head Coach for Happiness Dr. E --
This 5-minute Fox interview with Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo outlines 3 specific strategies for further coping during quarantine (most of us have a few more weeks) – including her 3x5 technique (I’ve been using). Little do we know that we’re suffering variations of PTSD that clouds decision-making. She’ll dig in more deeply next week but wanted you to have this important five minutes. There are also excellent resources on her website for dealing with our own Inner Critic and pivoting to Inner Light.

Free Kolbe Student Aptitude Assessment --
If you have a 13 – 18-year-old, Kolbe (the only assessments deemed legally valid) has a student aptitude assessment that is free until the end of the month. Kathy will discuss the deep impact quarantining is having on our youth and our relationships (she has a great tool to help there as well) during her 10-min talk next week. BTW, my daughter Jade (16) took it last night and she gave me permission to share her results at the Summit. Further down is an insightful article on how teens can best cope right now. 

Why Teens May Never Be the Same --
This CNN piece, from yesterday, does a credible job outlining 8 reasons how quarantining is impacting teens – and strategies for addressing. Kathy Kolbe will address. 

Virtual Murder Mystery, Code Break, and Game Show for Teams --
If you have teams that are working from home and feeling disconnected, Outback Team Building & Training, founded by Scaling Up fan Murray Seward, has 3 new fun "wfh-friendly" morale events to choose from. Clue Murder Mystery, Code Break, and Game Show Extravaganza are run through the Outback app (iPhone and Android), and can be purchased as self-hosted or virtually-hosted by an Outback host (using Zoom or your preferred video conference platform). These events are a great option for your next quarterly theme celebration and are available for any group size anywhere in the world.

Special 50% off discounted prices (I’m getting no commission) vary by group size and start at just $125 for a self-hosted event and $675 for a virtually-hosted event. Click here for details and to request more information and a quote for your team.

Rick Skidmore; 1 Priority; 2 Videos; 3 Complimentary Resources

Hope it’s been a productive and purposeful week. Here are some insights/opportunities to help you outlearn/outthink the crisis.

Excellent summit. Loved it completely. Took notes, prioritized action items, shared with friends and colleagues. Super pumped.
	Steve Siglin

Inspirational Story? Timberlane --
Rick Skidmore, CEO of Timberlane (wooden shutters) in PA. With his core business sales down 75%, he was looking at furloughing 60 employees. Now about 50% are making masks, intubation cases, soon 100% plus hiring more this weekend. Revenue is about $50,000 a day. Check out his website to see how he’s pivoted to medical supplies (along top of website).

1 Priority – Remain Ambitious
Noted Margaret Heffernan on yesterday’s virtual Summit:

Don’t lose your ambition. Situation is unparalleled. Many have the instinct to hunker down, think small. When economies shrink, there are opportunities you will never find any other time.

She went on to explain that you can get people on the phone and do deals you wouldn’t normally be able to do during times like this – so be bold and make things happen.

2 Videos – Get Lean (maybe a week too early)?
Made the tough decisions? Ready to move forward in a leaner way? There is no better time to get lean in everything you’re doing – time to prune!! And best if everyone pitches in during these times. It’s about seeing “waste” everywhere and eliminating it – so when we come back from this mess we’re prepared – luck comes to the prepared. Here are two outstanding videos by Lean guru Paul Akers who beamed in yesterday from Japan:

1. 13-minute video – see what a Lean Company looks and feels like – total flexibility
2. “Lean is Simple” – Paul’s video viewed a quarter million times – the best 97-minute training on Lean

Paul’s team does 30 minutes of training a day – start with Paul’s videos and create the right mindset around eliminating waste!

3 Complimentary “Must Use” SaaS Tools --
Support People – Emplify’s free employee health survey tool – 5 minutes to launch to survey and monitor the overall “health” of your employees

Support Execution – Align’s free priorities, data, and meeting rhythm dashboard for supporting execution

Support Cash – Cash Flow Story’s free Cash Stress Test – 3 minutes to enter six numbers from your financials and then play what/if scenarios with price, volume, A/R, A/P, etc. to understand the impact of COVID-19 on cash