Capacity is a company’s ability to respond to opportunities. Shifts in context help businesses acknowledge their biases. By nurturing a working environment which bolsters capacity, companies can learn from, and seize the opportunities presented by these bias-busting moments. The technology used to be something you learned to use to do your job. Increasingly, technology and people learn from one another.If culture is the heart of a company, capacity is its brain.

Understanding Capacity

The “S-Curve” macro-process demonstrates the learning generations in four stages: Explore, Experiment, Execute and Expand.During third-generation acceleration, the first two phases, Explore and Experiment, occur more frequently than during the Execute and Expand phases. Design thinking helps because it grants companies deeper understanding and problem-solving capacities and builds user empathy and solution matching practices. It places the user at the centre.

The S-Curve Macro

The days when the shareholder is king and workers are merely a cost that companies seek to minimize are almost over. Maniacal reliance on quarterly earnings is a poor long-term strategy for any enterprise. Leaders need to be more mindful about where they lead their people and how. The idea that a leader’s job is to extract value from processes and people is phasing into Fourth Industrial Revolution reliance on adaptability and learning faster than your competition.

Leaders Must Adapt To The New World

An evolutionary biologist tested a strategy for producing the most eggs from the best laying hens among nine flocks by putting the best together in one cage. Of the nine top producers, only three survived, having pecked the others to death. The better option: spreading out all the hens from the highest-producing cages. Within a few generations, egg-laying improved 160% and no hens murdered another. The lesson? Searching for the “best” candidates from the “best” schools and making them compete for the highest-ranking positions guarantees counterproductive conflicts.

Experiment 2: The Super Chicken Paradox

The new work environment requires soft skills – such as working well with others. Employees must also possess less obvious capacities such as a willingness to learn and a capacity for understanding their purpose within the larger organizational framework. In a world where “the pivot is the new business model,” mental agility, feeling safe admitting ignorance and monitoring self-awareness are no longer optional, but vital. Workers must have social and emotional intelligence, creative thinking, communication and judgement skills, along with “sensemaking” ability and empathy.

The Job Requirements Of The Upcoming Era

People differ from animals by their “pedagogical learning stance:” an ability to take what they have learned and apply it to different situations and problems. Continuous learning and disruption is uniquely human and enables people to adapt to changing circumstances. Humans are creative, generate ideas, make connections between unrelated phenomena and see things from different points of view.

“Silicon Cognition” Cannot Replace the “Organic Cognition” of Humans

The world is undergoing three “climate changes” – in the environment, in the market and in technology – which are forcing people to become more adept at adapting. Jobs change so quickly that your current job may not exist in 18 to 24 months. Artificial intelligence (AI) will likely transform 100 percent of jobs in 10 years. The world is on the cusp of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, in which cyber and biological systems will combine to create a completely digital economy.

The Big Change

Open and connected systems help learners recognize the signals of change and respond appropriately. These systems encapsulate three organizational learning generations. <ul><li>The first focuses on acquiring knowledge and storing expertise. </li><li>The second observes product life cycles and optimizes for efficiency, while simultaneously anticipating new iterations. </li><li>The third encompasses the autonomous learning loop in which the learning rate accelerates and builds new efficiencies and iterations in real time. </li></ul>

The Three Learning Generations

Kids need foundational knowledge that helps them put data in context. They also require fundamental literacies in traditional reading and quantitative skills, digital intelligence, creativity and collaboration. The popular online learning site Khan Academy, for example, organizes students by independence instead of age. By untethering learning from preconceived identities, youth will become more adaptable. Young people must understand identity as a constant negotiation between internal beliefs and observations and social and cultural forces.

Kids Learning In A New Way

From a group of three people, one is randomly selected to lead. They receive four cookies to share. Each takes a cookie. Almost every time, the leader took the remaining cookie. When a person feels powerful, they stop caring what people think and lose their sense of empathy, fairness and collaboration. It is not surprising, therefore, that CEOs consistently score lower on Emotional Intelligence (EQ) tests.Leaders must learn to let go of the cookie.

Experiment 1: The Cookie Monster

A good job posting should start with a description of your organization. Describe the ideal candidate, not the job. Explain how you want the applicant to embrace the job. Building adaptive teams means embracing adaptive hiring strategies. The best leaders hire for mission and mindset but can be uncomfortable with people who think differently than they do. Cherish alternative points of view; they bring cognitive diversity to your organization.

The Job Posting Ad

Young graduates can expect to work in 17 different jobs during their lifetimes. Don’t ask a child what they want to be when they grow up, ask what they want to do. Children need to learn how to adapt, build resilience and cultivate agency. By the time students finish university, the career they want may not exist or may have changed dramatically.Whatever you do now unless you are closing in on your target retirement years, is unlikely to be your last job.

Not Jobs, But Skills

<ul><li>Technology is transforming the world of work faster than ever.</li><li>Technological augmentation, atomization and automation mean you must upskill and reskill for the future.</li><li>Don’t tether your identity to your job; rather, think in terms of skills.</li><li>Businesses must change their focus from extracting value to creating new value through learning.</li><li>“Silicon cognition” cannot replace the “organic cognition” humans have evolved over 3.8 million years.</li><li>Hiring only the best might result in top performers turning on one another.</li><li>Culture and capacity define the workplace.</li></ul>

Key Takeaways From The Book

Market climate change is on the horizon. Currency, collaboration and contracts, among other transactions, will all become digital and move at the speed of light.The three climate changes will reshape ethics, community, geopolitics, politics, work and education. A “left” and “right” political choice will give way to governments that are responsive, adaptable and swift. People may feel changes within the realm of work most keenly, because work is very personal: It provides people with a sense of identity and purpose. The straight line from education to career to retirement will disappear.

No More Straight Line Career Paths

Three forces drive work in the modern age: Automation – This work is repetitive, inexpensive, low complexity and of lesser value.Atomization – Predictable and discrete, this work is medium cost and of moderate complexity and value. Human and Augmentation – This work is ambiguous, complex, higher cost and of greater value.Computers have transformed humanity’s relationship with physical labour.  Algorithms will “unbundle” complex jobs into component parts. They can then automate or atomize these parts and distribute them to the cloud where humans will compete for them.

Upskilling And Reskilling For The Future

Companies that were once “containers” for jobs will become “platforms” that combine human and technological know-how. They will require five types of talent:“Foundational” – People who operate a company.“Rotational” – People who do work required only periodically.“Contingent” – People who do work specific to a specialized need.“Transformational” – People who help a company navigate change or develop strategy.“Executive” – People who organize other talent for a company or an event.

The Future Of Jobs

In the past jobs were about muscles, now they’re about brains, but in future, they’ll be about the heart.

Instead of focusing on what your company produces, focus on the conditions in which you create and produce. These conditions are culture and capacity. Culture is a sense of purpose and value and which companies create either intentionally or accidentally. Workplaces with intentional cultures offer benefits that mirror company values.Accidental culture occurs when culture evolves without intention and almost always proves toxic. Every great culture has a sense of purpose that the company and its leaders must model daily. Identify and eliminate anything anti-culture.

Culture and Capacity Define the Workplace

The job description and organizational chart no longer matter. Fit springs from aspirations, not qualifications. Hire people for their capacity to learn, rather than for what they already know. Companies might resemble film and television projects, bringing people in for a limited period of time to perform certain tasks. They can apply what they learn from that experience to their next “tour.”

Build adaptive teams that are purpose-built to deal with a particular challenge or goal. For example, a team could have specialists – engineers, designers, project handlers – who rotate frequently, and a research group that scans the horizon for new opportunities. Your teams need “clear eyes focused on an unclear horizon” while leaders raise the bar to meet new expectations. How can leaders encourage fearlessness when the future is so uncertain? Pay attention. Let go. Move fast. Make the future what you want it to be.

Adaptive Teams

McGowan and Shipley posit a future in which humans share knowledge and build meaningful workplace cultures.

A guide for individuals and organizations navigating the complex and ambiguous Future of Work Foreword by New York Times columnist and best-selling author Thomas L. Friedman Technology is changing work as we know it. Cultural norms are undergoing tectonic shifts. A global pandemic proves that we are inextricably connected whether we choose to be or not. So much change, so quickly, is disorienting. It's undermining our sense of identity and challenging our ability to adapt. But where so many see these changes as threatening, Heather McGowan and Chris Shipley see the opportunity to open the flood gates of human potential—if we can change the way we think about work and leadership. They have dedicated the last 5 years to understanding how technical, business, and cultural shifts affecting the workplace have brought us to this crossroads, The result is a powerful and practical guide to the future of work for leaders and employees. The future can be better, but only if we let go of our attachment to our traditional (and disappearing) ideas about careers, and what a "good job" looks like. Blending wisdom from interviews with hundreds of executives, The Adaptation Advantage explains the profound changes happening in the world of work and posits the solution: new ways to think about careers that detach our sense of pride and personal identity from our job title, and connect it to our sense of purpose. Activating purpose, the authors suggest, will inherently motivate learning, engagement, empowerment, and lead to new forms of pride and identity throughout the workforce. Only when we let go of our rigid career identities can we embrace and appreciate the joys of learning and adapting to new realities—and help our organizations do the same. Of course, making this transition is hard. It requires leaders who can attract and motivate cognitively diverse teams fueled by a strong sense of purpose in an environment of psychological safety—despite fierce competition and external pressures. Adapting to the future of work has always called for strong leadership. Now, as a pandemic disrupts so many aspects of work, adapting is a leadership imperative. The Adaptation Advantage is an essential guide to help leaders meet that challenge.

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Career

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Corporate Culture

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Books

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Leadership & Management

A guide for individuals and organizations navigating the complex and ambiguous Future of Work Foreword by New York Times columnist and best-selling author Thomas L. Friedman Technology is changing work as we know it. Cultural norms are undergoing tectonic shifts. A global pandemic proves that we are inextricably connected whether we choose to be or not. So much change, so quickly, is disorienting. It's undermining our sense of identity and challenging our ability to adapt. But where so many see these changes as threatening, Heather McGowan and Chris Shipley see the opportunity to open the flood gates of human potential—if we can change the way we think about work and leadership. They have dedicated the last 5 years to understanding how technical, business, and cultural shifts affecting the workplace have brought us to this crossroads, The result is a powerful and practical guide to the future of work for leaders and employees. The future can be better, but only if we let go of our attachment to our traditional (and disappearing) ideas about careers, and what a "good job" looks like. Blending wisdom from interviews with hundreds of executives, The Adaptation Advantage explains the profound changes happening in the world of work and posits the solution: new ways to think about careers that detach our sense of pride and personal identity from our job title, and connect it to our sense of purpose. Activating purpose, the authors suggest, will inherently motivate learning, engagement, empowerment, and lead to new forms of pride and identity throughout the workforce. Only when we let go of our rigid career identities can we embrace and appreciate the joys of learning and adapting to new realities—and help our organizations do the same. Of course, making this transition is hard. It requires leaders who can attract and motivate cognitively diverse teams fueled by a strong sense of purpose in an environment of psychological safety—despite fierce competition and external pressures. Adapting to the future of work has always called for strong leadership. Now, as a pandemic disrupts so many aspects of work, adapting is a leadership imperative. The Adaptation Advantage is an essential guide to help leaders meet that challenge.

Chris Shipley

Heather E. McGowan

The Adaptation Advantage

The Adaptation Advantage: Let Go, Learn Fast, and Thrive in the Future of Work

Our beliefs about how we feel we need to "show up" for others can cause extreme collaborative demands and burnout.  For example, a desire to help others can lead us to jump into a project. Fear can prevent us from saying no to a collaborative request we are unable to do. Guarding against common beliefs will help you reclaim your time and refocus your contributions where they can add the most value.

The exessive need to collaborate with others

The desire to influence others and be recognized can drive excessive collaborative demands back to you. Expertise can become a trap of its own: Focusing on your own can prevent you from developing it in other people. Don't look for status in your expertise. Be mindful of the ways you comment in meetings or email threads that make people believe they need to defer to you or get your input.

"My desire to be influential or recognized for my expertise"

Research found that collaborating more purposefully can increase efficiency by 18 - 24%. Three categories of behaviours can increase purposeful collaboration:<ul><li>Identifying and challenging beliefs that drive us to collaborate too soon. The need or fear to "show up" for others account for 50% or more of the overall problem.</li><li>Adding structure to our work can prevent unproductive collaboration.</li><li>Changing our behaviours can create more efficient collaboration.</li></ul>

Reducing collaborative overload

Helping gives us a sense of purpose and fulfils a deep need to be useful. But if we jump in too quickly or too often or solve others' problems without building their capability, we become the regular go-to for requests. <ul><li>Be clear on your priorities and get comfortable saying "no".</li><li>When you do jump in, don't solve people's problems directly. Instead, connect them to the right people, point them to the resources they need, or coach them to solve the problem.</li></ul>

"My desire to help others"

FOMO can drive unproductive choices, like jumping into new collaborative projects. You may end up in projects where you feel overburdened and that are not well aligned with what you want from your career. Ensure your emotions don't drive your plans. Cultivate relationships with people who know you well and ask them to help you avoid making a decision based on FOMO.

“FOMO drives me to engage in collaborative work"

The satisfaction you get from doing something can be addictive and detract from focusing your energy on where you add the most value. Avoid routine and often mindless activities that give you a sugar rush for accomplishment's sake. For example, going through all your email rather than using that time for more taxing work.

“My sense of fulfillment from accomplishment"

Feeling discomfort with ambiguity makes you feel that you don't have enough information, a clear-enough process, or a clear plan. Consequently, you always search for more data, processes and strategy that consumes hours of your time. Instead, be open to adapting ideas and plans as new information comes in. Then, instead of spending hours on getting the most accurate solution, look for a productive solution in 20 minutes to help you move ahead.

“My discomfort with ambiguity and managing adaptation as a project unfolds"

Your need for control keeps you from delegating tasks or connecting people. In turn, team members feel that their autonomy has been diminished. Draw a line between high-risk tasks that really require your expertise and lower-risk work you can delegate. Build capability in others to free up time to engage in greater value. Don't point out how you would have done it differently. Instead, celebrate others' solutions.

“Fear of losing control of a project/a belief that I am the most capable person"

Overemphasising completeness for completeness's sake creates unnecessary stress for your team members and drives them to chase the wrong objectives. Remind yourself that an empty email inbox or closure should not be a high priority. Put off non-priority work or requests or leave it all together.

“My need for closure results in communications that create unnecessary work "

Worrying about being labelled a poor performer makes it impossible to say "no" to a request. Don't think saying "no" is your only option. Offer choices, such as "What order would you like me to do these?" Create transparency in the volume of demands you are already facing, then discuss the real needs. See if you can accomplish the request in a different way.

“My concern with being labeled a poor performer"

The need to be correct creates unproductive activities, pushing people to spend hours preparing for meetings, writing perfect emails, and creating excess work for others. Instead, admit that you don't know the exact answer but are willing to quickly find out. Being open about your limits and having the courage to ask questions reduces unproductive activities.

“My need to be right"

teamwork

Teamwork

Where We Go Wrong with Collaboration

Most of us are in the business of solving external problems. We provide insurance or clothes or soccer balls. If we own a restaurant, the external problem we solve is hunger. The external problem a plumber fixes might be a leaky pipe, just like a pest-control guy might solve the external problem of termites in the attic.

External Problems

Successful brands, like successful leaders, make it clear what life will look like if somebody engages in their products or services. <ul><li>Nike promised to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete.</li><li>Starbucks offered to inspire and nurture their customers, one cup at a time. </li><li>Men’s Wearhouse promised, “You’ll like the way you look,” and they even guaranteed it.</li></ul>

StoryBrand Principle 7: Articulate Your Benefits

The more simple and predictable the communication, the easier it is for the brain to digest. A story helps because it is a sense-making mechanism.
Essentially, story formulas put everything in order so the brain doesn’t have to work to understand what’s going on.
<ul>
<li>The first mistake brands make is they fail to focus on the aspects of their offer that will help people survive and thrive.</li>
<li>The second mistake brands make is they cause their customers to burn too many calories in an effort to understand their offer.</li>
</ul>

Being Seen, Heard and Understood

A large problem most of our clients face is they want to include three villains and seven external problems and four internal problems, and so on. <ul><li>Stories are best when they are simple and clear. </li><li>We are going to have to make choices.</li></ul>

Too Many Cooks

Starbucks was delivering more value than just coffee; they were delivering a sense of sophistication and enthusiasm about life. They were also offering a place for people to meet in which they could experience affiliation and belonging. Starbucks changed American culture from hanging out in diners and bars to hanging out in a local, Italian-style coffee shop.

The Starbucks Story

Customers should be able to answer these questions within five seconds of looking at our website or marketing material:<ul><li>What do you offer?        </li><li>How will it make my life better?        </li><li>What do I need to do to buy it?</li></ul>

Your Brand Story

Making a purchase is a huge step, especially if our products or services are expensive. What customers are looking for, then, is a clear path we’ve laid out that takes away any confusion they might have about how to do business with us. The StoryBrand tool we will use to create this path is called the plan.

SB7 Framework: The Plan

If we really want our business to grow, we should position our products as the resolution to an external, internal, and philosophical problem and frame the “Buy Now” button as the action a customer must take to create closure in their story.How Tesla Does It:       <ul><li>Villain: Gas guzzling, inferior technology        </li><li>External: I need a car.        </li><li>Internal: I want to be an early adopter of new technology.        </li><li>Philosophical: My choice of car ought to help save the environment.</li></ul>

Identifying The Problems

There are four easy ways to add just the right amount of authority to our marketing:
<ul>
<li>Testimonials</li>
<li>Statistics</li>
<li>Awards</li>
<li>Logos.</li>
</ul>

Brand Authority

What is the chief source of conflict that your products and services defeat? Talk about this villain. The more you talk about the villain, the more people will want a tool to help them defeat the villain.The three levels of problems heroes (and customers) face are: <ul><li>External Problems</li><li>Internal Problems</li><li>Philosophical Problems</li></ul>

The Villain In The Customer Story

The problem is the “hook” of a story, and if we don’t identify our customers’ problems, the story we are telling will fall flat. As soon as the conflict in a story is resolved, audiences stop paying attention.The villain is the number one device storytellers use to give conflict a clear point of focus.The villain doesn’t have to be a person, but without question, it should have personified characteristics.

StoryBrand Principle 2: Solve Internal Problems

<ul><li>Financial Advisor: “A Plan for Your Retirement”         </li><li>College Alumni Association: “Leave a Meaningful Legacy”         </li><li>Fine-Dining Restaurant: “A Meal Everybody Will Remember”         </li><li>Real Estate Agent: “The Home You’ve Dreamed About”         </li><li>Bookstore: “A Story to Get Lost In”         </li><li>Breakfast Bars: “A Healthy Start to Your Day”</li></ul>When you define something your customer wants, the customer is invited to alter their story in your direction. If they see your brand as a trustworthy and reliable guide, they will likely engage.

Storybrand Principle 1: The customer is the hero, not your brand

<ul><li>Inspiration: If an aspect of your brand can offer or be associated with an inspirational feat, open the floodgates. Brands like Red Bull, Harvard Business Review, Under Armour,</li><li>Acceptance: Helping people accept themselves as they are isn’t just a thoughtful thing to do; it’s good marketing. Not unlike the Dove campaign, American Eagle turned heads when they launched their Aerie campaign.</li><li>Transcendence: Brands that invite customers to participate in a larger movement offer a greater, more impactful life along with their products and services.</li></ul>

The Need to Reach Our Potential

<ul><li>The villain should be a root source. Frustration, for example, is not a villain; frustration is what a villain makes us feel. High taxes, rather, are a good example of a villain.        </li><li>The villain should be relatable. When people hear us talk about the villain, they should immediately recognize it as something they disdain.        </li><li>The villain should be singular. One villain is enough. A story with too many villains falls apart for lack of clarity.        </li><li>The villain should be real. Never go down the path of being a fearmonger. There are plenty of actual villains out there to fight. </li></ul>

Four Characteristics of a Good Villain

By limiting our marketing messages to only external problems, we neglect a principle that is costing us thousands and potentially millions of dollars. That principle is this: Companies tend to sell solutions to external problems, but people buy solutions to internal problems.The purpose of an external problem in a story is to manifest an internal problem.

The Market Is In Internal Problems

Direct Calls to Action<ul><li>Order now        </li><li>Call today        </li><li>Schedule an appointment        </li><li>Register today        </li><li>Buy now</li></ul>Transitional Calls to Action<ul><li>Free information</li><li>Create a white paper or free PDF educating customers about your field of expertise.</li><li>Testimonials</li><li>Samples</li><li>Free trial</li></ul>

Direct And Transactional Calls To Action

Brands that position themselves as heroes unknowingly compete with their potential customers.Their subconscious thought pattern goes like this: Oh, this is another hero, like me. I wish I had more time to hear their story, but right now I’m busy looking for a guide.

SB7 Framework: The Guide

Your brand is helping people become better versions of themselves, which is a beautiful thing. You are helping them become wiser, more equipped, more physically fit, more accepted, and more at peace. Like it or not (and we hope you like it), we are all participating in our customers’ transformation, which is exactly what they want us to do.

The Brand Is A Catalyst

The whole point of creating a plan is to alleviate customers’ confusion. Having more than four steps may actually add to, rather than reduce, confusion. The key is to simplify their journey so they are more likely to do business with you.An agreement plan is best understood as a list of agreements you make with your customers to help them overcome their fear of doing business with you.

StoryBrand Principle 4: The Brand With The Plan

<ul><li>Reduced anxiety: For years, brands that sell basic items like dish detergent and glass cleaner have almost comically positioned their products as anti-anxiety medication.</li><li>Reduced workload: Customers who don’t have the right tools must work harder because they are, well, incomplete.</li><li>More time: For many customers, time is the enemy, and if our product can expand time, we’re offering to solve an external problem that is causing internal frustration.</li></ul>

The Need for Something External to Create Completeness

Your customers are bombarded with more than three thousand commercial messages per day, and unless we are bold in our calls to action, we will be ignored. If our calls to action are soft, they will not be noticed.The reality is when we try to sell passively, we communicate a lack of belief in our product. When we don’t ask clearly for the sale, the customer senses weakness. They sense we’re asking for charity rather than to change their lives. Customers aren’t looking for brands that are filled with doubt and want affirmation; they’re looking for brands that have solutions to their problems.

StoryBrand Principle 5: Making Customers Take Action

Place a gap between a character and what they want. Moviegoers pay attention when there’s a story gap because they wonder if and how that gap is going to be closed.When we fail to define something our customer wants, we fail to open a story gap. When we don’t open a story gap in our customers’ mind, they have no motivation to engage us, because there is no question that demands resolution.Once a brand defines what their customer wants, they are often guilty of making the second mistake—what they’ve defined isn’t related to the customer’s sense of survival.

The Story Gap

Once we identify who our customer is, we have to ask ourselves what they want as it relates to our brand. The catalyst for any story is that the hero wants something. The rest of the story is a journey about discovering whether the hero will get what they want.

SB7 Framework: The Character

A one-liner is a new and improved way to answer the question “What do you do?” It’s more than a slogan or tagline; it’s a single statement that helps people realize why they need your products or services.If you use the following four components, you’ll craft a powerful one-liner:        <ul><li>The Character        </li><li>The Problem        </li><li>The Plan        </li><li>The Success</li></ul>

The One Liner For Your Brand

Brands that help customers avoid some kind of negativity in life (and let their customers know what that negativity is) engage customers for the same reason good stories captivate an audience: they define what’s at stake.Everybody wants to be taken somewhere. If we don’t tell people where we’re taking them, they’ll engage another brand.

SB7 Framework: From Failure To Success

If we sell lawn-care products, they’re coming to us because they’re embarrassed about their lawn or they simply don’t have time to do the work. If we sell financial advice, they’re coming to us because they’re worried about their retirement plan. It may not be dramatic like in the movies, but the premise is the same: our customers are in trouble and they need help.Almost all companies try to sell solutions to external problems, but as we unfold the StoryBrand Framework, you’ll see why customers are much more motivated to resolve their inner frustrations.

SB7 Framework: The Problem

<ul><li>Offer access: My wife loves using her Starbucks membership card because it gains her points, which gains her status and the occasional free latte.</li><li>Create scarcity: Offering a limited number of a specific item creates scarcity, and owning something that is scarce is often seen as a status symbol.</li><li>Offer a premium: Most companies earn 70 percent or more of their revenue from a small percentage of their clients.</li><li>Offer identity association: Premium brands like Mercedes and Rolex sell status as much as they do luxury.</li></ul>

Winning Power and Position (The Need for Status)

Brands that don’t warn their customers about what could happen if they don’t buy their products fail to answer the “so what” question every customer is secretly asking.What will the customer lose if they don’t buy our products?What negative consequences are you helping customers avoid? Could customers lose money? Are there health risks if they avoid your services? What about opportunity costs?

StoryBrand Principle 6: Avoiding Failure

The key is to make your company’s message about something that helps the customer survive and to do so in such a way that they can understand it without burning too many calories.What we often call marketing is really just clutter and confusion sprayed all over our websites, e-mails, and commercials. And it’s costing us millions.

Clutter And Confusion Vs Clarity

Here is nearly every story you see or hear in a nutshell: A CHARACTER who wants something encounters a PROBLEM before they can get it. At the peak of their despair, a GUIDE steps into their lives, gives them a PLAN and CALLS THEM TO ACTION. That action helps them avoid FAILURE and ends in a SUCCESS.

The Secret Weapon: The Hero's Story

<ul><li>Either alone or with a team, brainstorm all of the literal and metaphorical villains your brand takes a stand against.        </li><li>Brainstorm the external problems your brand resolves. Is there one that seems to represent the widest swath of products?        </li><li>Brainstorm the internal problem (frustration or doubt) your customers are feeling as it relates to your brand. Is there one that stands out as a universal experience for your customers</li><li>Is your brand part of a larger, more important story? Is there a philosophical wrong your brand stands against?</li></ul>

Making Customers Listen

Remember, the greatest enemy our business faces is the same enemy that good stories face: noise. At no point should we be able to pause a movie and be unable to answer three questions:        <ul><li>What does the hero want?        </li><li>Who or what is opposing the hero getting what she wants?        </li><li>What will the hero’s life look like if she does (or does not) get what she wants?</li></ul>If these three questions can’t be answered within the first fifteen to twenty minutes, the story has already descended into noise and will almost certainly fail at the box office.

The Blockbuster Movie

The fatal mistake some brands make, especially young brands who believe they need to prove themselves, is they position themselves as the hero in the story instead of the guide. A brand that positions itself as the hero is destined to lose.Once we’ve identified our customers’ internal problems, we simply need to let them know we understand and would like to help them find a resolution. Scan your marketing material and make sure you’ve told your customers that you care. Customers won’t know you care until you tell them.

StoryBrand Principle 3: The Guide

A call to action involves communicating a clear and direct step our customer can take to overcome their challenge and return to a peaceful life. Without clear calls to action, people will not engage our brand.

SB7 Framework: The Call To Action

Your customer should be the hero of the story, not your brand. This is the secret every phenomenally successful business understands.

New York Times bestselling author Donald Miller uses the seven universal elements of powerful stories to teach readers how to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses. Donald Miller’s StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their businesses. This revolutionary method for connecting with customers provides readers with the ultimate competitive advantage, revealing the secret for helping their customers understand the compelling benefits of using their products, ideas, or services. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching readers the seven universal story points all humans respond to; the real reason customers make purchases; how to simplify a brand message so people understand it; and how to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media. Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.

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business

Business

More than half-a-million business leaders have discovered the power of the StoryBrand Framework, created by New York Times best-selling author and marketing expert Donald Miller. And they are making millions.If you use the wrong words to talk about your product, nobody will buy it. Marketers and business owners struggle to effectively connect with their customers, costing them and their companies millions in lost revenue.In a world filled with constant, on-demand distractions, it has become near-impossible for business owners to effectively cut through the noise to reach their customers, something Donald Miller knows first-hand. In this book, he shares the proven system he has created to help you engage and truly influence customers.The StoryBrand process is a proven solution to the struggle business leaders face when talking about their companies. Without a clear, distinct message, customers will not understand what you can do for them and are unwilling to engage, causing you to lose potential sales, opportunities for customer engagement, and much more.In Building a StoryBrand, Donald Miller teaches marketers and business owners to use the seven universal elements of powerful stories to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses.His proven process has helped thousands of companies engage with their existing customers, giving them the ultimate competitive advantage. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching you:<ul><li>The seven universal story points all humans respond to;</li><li>The real reason customers make purchases;</li><li>How to simplify a brand message so people understand it; and</li><li>How to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media.</li></ul>Whether you are the marketing director of a multibillion-dollar company, the owner of a small business, a politician running for office, or the lead singer of a rock band, Building a StoryBrand will forever transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do, and the unique value you bring to your customers.

Donald "Don" Miller is an American author, public speaker, and business owner. He is the CEO of StoryBrand, a marketing company. He is also an author of personal essays and reflections about faith, God, and self-discovery.

Donald Miller

Building a StoryBrand

The main benefits from applying the practices above are:&nbsp;<ul><li>The percentage of projects completed went up from 16% to 35%.</li><li>Team work: with the daily meetings and a weekly goal all members started to collaborate more with one another&nbsp;</li><li>Before the Red Hots tracking, the forecast was the coordinator’s task. Now everybody knows what is happening with every single project of their teams.</li><li>Managing risks before deadline: the number of critical situations decreased as we anticipated problems&nbsp;</li><li>Avoid overload: the more we anticipate the projects the fewer we’ll have accumulated in end of the month&nbsp;</li></ul>

The Results

Agile divides the deliverable result into pre-cycles of deliveries. This way it is possible to break the project down into smaller parts, which you constantly evaluate and partially improve upon as you work towards your final deliverable, using an iterative and incremental approach in order to enrich your process and produce a better and faster result.

How the Agile Method Works

<ul><li>It took 3 months to make all the team understand the steps and get into it.</li><li>Autonomy: all the processes will only work with good, prepared contributors that are committed to the whole process.</li><li>Feedback: Sharing feedback about the process allowed it to improve — and it is the key for all the future changes we will make&nbsp;</li><li>All the team believed and got committed was it possible to shift the processes.</li></ul>

Notes From The Process Implementation

The main issues are:&nbsp;<ul><li>A large volume of projects&nbsp;</li><li>The difficulty of measuring the project progress&nbsp;</li><li>Lack of communication — ISMs were not working as a team&nbsp;</li><li>Different levels of maturity/complexity: how to identify accounts in which the ISM needs to be more dedicated or less to deliver the same First Value&nbsp;</li></ul>

How To Use Agile Principles to Deliver Success During the Onboarding Stage

Some best practices of Kanban and Scrum are already part of the reality of the Implementation Success Team at RD. See how Agile practices are improving our results during the onboarding stage.

startup

Startups

The performance of the campaigns varies depending on the parameters such as weekdays — weekends or day and night. At this stage, campaign performance can be increased by using bid settings. What needs to be done is to increase the bids of the campaigns that work well and to decrease the bids of the campaigns that not work well

Day Or Night

I think it’s a user scenario that most of us have experienced. You worked all day, your product is ready, the logistics side is Okay, your ads are excellent, but you had the opportunity to win the user you tried to contact during the day with paid ads in the evening. You are enduring the cost of the ad, but you are not directing sales to your users.&nbsp;

Day - Hour Optimization

&nbsp;Google ads offers the opportunity to compare spending and revenue Metrics for our campaigns by days and hours and to optimize them. The most general purpose of day — hour optimization is to extinguish our campaigns that cause unnecessary costs. We can define unnecessary cost as Non-Converting access cost. At this stage, campaign performance can be increased by using bid settings. What needs to be done is to increase the bids of the campaigns that work well and to decrease the bids of the campaigns that not work well.

Extinguish If Unnecessary!

We have come to the end of another tiring day. You brewed your tea, your snacks are ready, you are watching the Survivor with your family, at the same time you follow to twitter stream. 🏠 After your…

The Adaptation Advantage: Let Go, Learn Fast, and Thrive in the Future of Work

Where We Go Wrong with Collaboration

Building a StoryBrand

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

How To Use Agile Principles to Deliver Success During the Onboarding Stage

CURATED BY

The Adaptation Advantage: Let Go, Learn Fast, and Thrive in the Future of Work

Where We Go Wrong with Collaboration

Building a StoryBrand

It's time to Read like a Pro.

How To Use Agile Principles to Deliver Success During the Onboarding Stage

CURATED BY

It's time to
Read like a Pro.