Articles

The Producer Style

The Producer is focused on what to do now and working hard to get it done rapidly. To get an immediate sense of the Producer’s qualities, think of a fast-charging, focused, determined, high-energy person who thrives on working long and hard. That’s a Producer ¹. If you put this person in a rowboat and say, “Row!” What will they do? Well, they’ll just start rowing straight ahead — and fast! They don’t need to ask questions, plan a route, understand where they should go, or even how long they’ll be gone. They just row and keep rowing until you say, “Stop!”

The Producer has a tremendous capacity to work hard to accomplish a goal and takes great pride in winning. That could be winning the new account, completing the project, achieving a goal, or beating the competition. A Producer is decisive and makes decisions based on what can be accomplished now, without waiting for all the information to be in hand. Instead, they figure it out as they go. Our best Producer qualities are our ability to act, lead the charge, overcome obstacles, urge a team to action, and be effective, assertive, and victorious. A Producer is a lot like the engine of a car. The bigger the engine, the faster the organization can go.

The Big P

When the Producer trait is exceedingly strong, we call it a Big P. A Big P is like a hammer. It sees every problem as a nail and the solution is to hit it. Hit it with hard work, more work, and faster work. The Big P comes into work very early and leaves work very late. If they have an office, it’s likely very messy with lots of projects and tasks to complete (and […]

By Lex Sisney|2024-03-13T03:00:58-07:00November 11th, 2011|

The Four Styles of Management

What is your work style and how does it interact with other styles? Who’s on your team and how can you help them to reach a higher level of performance? And what about the style of your boss or your spouse – how can you best influence him or her so that you both get what you desire? These are all million-dollar questions. The answers can be found in understanding how the four forces — Producing, Stabilizing, Innovating, and Unifying — operate within each of us.

Each of us expresses a certain work style – understood in its broadest sense as a mode of operating in the world – that reflects our own unique combination of the Producing, Stabilizing, Innovating and Unifying Forces. All four forces are present in each of us in some form, but usually one or two of them come to us most naturally. In addition, when one force is relatively strong, one or more of the others forces will be relatively weak.

While we may modify our general style depending on circumstances, stepping out of our natural strengths costs us more energy than operating within them. For example, imagine a highly innovative entrepreneur who is forced to do bookkeeping for a week. Sure, she may be able to do it, but she’s also going to feel extreme tedium, effort, and a loss of energy as a result. It’s because of this energy cost that most of us express fairly consistent characteristics that reflect our usual way of managing. Effective management therefore requires understanding your own style and its relative strengths and weakness, as well as that of the people with […]

By Lex Sisney|2021-05-18T05:33:27-07:00November 9th, 2011|

The Secret to Managing Everything

The secret to understanding management is this: Complex adaptive systems (such as people and organizations) must (1) shape and respond to changes in the environment and (2) do so as whole organisms, including their parts and sub-parts. If they are unable to do so, they will cease to get new energy from the environment and will perish.

Intuitively, this makes sense. For example, imagine a family of four. If the family is to survive and flourish, it must shape the environment by getting resources such as money, food, and shelter. It must also respond to the environment, including to changes that are economic, societal, ecological, and so on. At the same time, it must pay attention to the all the parts that make up the family system – things like the act of cooking, cleaning, commuting, paying the bills, and taking the kids to school. It must take into account the different and often conflicting needs of the individual family members. It must also give focus to holistic dynamics so that the family acts like a single, unified whole – for example, making sure that there’s plenty of love, warmth, laughter, support, and nurturing for all of its members.

If the family isn’t able to shape or respond to the environment, or if it loses focus on the parts or the whole, it will quickly run into trouble. If the pattern continues, then the family will disintegrate. Just imagine a family that doesn’t have income, or a family that can’t perform its daily routine, or that can’t respond to new economic changes, or whose members are always fighting among themselves. Obviously, it’s not a family you’d want to be a part of. It […]

By Lex Sisney|2021-05-18T05:34:14-07:00November 5th, 2011|

How Square Went Against Popular Strategic Advice and Won

There’s a popular view among technology startups that a smart business strategy is to build a product that’s designed for the leading industry giant to acquire. It usually sounds something like this: “We’re building the next-generation router that Cisco will need to add to its product line. Our strategy is to build the product, get them to adopt it, and ultimately have them buy us out.” Like a lot of things in life, just because this view is popular, doesn’t mean it’s right. In fact, gearing your strategy towards the leading industry giant is usually dead wrong. Here’s why and how to choose a better strategy.

The Story of Square

You may have heard of a company called Square Payments, Inc. Square is a mobile payment solution company that allows anyone to accept credit card payments using their mobile phone. In just over a year since its launch, the company had nearly $1 billion in processed payments. It has recently accepted an undisclosed investment from Visa, the leading credit card processor. The insider consensus is that, if Square continues to execute its strategy, it will revolutionize how we pay for things in the real world. It could be as disruptive to payments as iTunes was to music. How did this all happen in such a short amount of time?

The story of how Square came to life is a great one. Square was created by Jack Dorsey (Jack also happens to be the co-founder and Executive Chairman of Twitter, but that’s a different story). When you learn the story of Square, it becomes clear that Jack didn’t start out to revolutionize the payments industry. His original […]

By Lex Sisney|2021-05-18T05:34:42-07:00November 2nd, 2011|

The Pre-Startup Checklist

Before a startup ever launches, you should have a checklist of critical items in place. These items have nothing to do with writing a business plan or forming the articles of incorporation. In line with the old saying “well begun is half done,” without these basic requirements, the venture won’t get off to a successful start. Even worse, ignoring this checklist can lead to your investing a lot of capital, time, and energy – only to find out that you’re doing the wrong thing, with the wrong team, at the wrong time.

The Real Difference Between Startup and Pre-startup

I’m going to define the core difference between startup and pre-startup using a single word: commitment. Commitment means that the entrepreneur and founding team have taken a real risk to make the business happen. They are clearly and unequivocally in. It’s Dodge City or Bust. Without commitment, the venture will remain stuck in pre-startup mode – as an idea that will never be actualized.

For example, I recently had coffee with an old colleague who wanted to talk about his new “startup.” He had written a business plan, registered a domain name, and was seeking advice on raising capital and building the technology. He was still working at his day job, where he planned to stay while building on the idea in his spare time. As we talked, I could tell that what he really wanted was someone with whom he could discuss the idea – to explore it further and get another perspective. He was still just trying it on and not yet fully committed.

You can always tell if someone is committed to a […]

By Lex Sisney|2021-05-18T05:35:05-07:00October 31st, 2011|

The Stages of the Execution Lifecycle

Navigating your company up the execution lifecycle ¹ and keeping it in optimum shape is a great challenge. This article will show you how to do it successfully.

The stages of the execution lifecycle become easier to understand with a little pattern recognition. Basically, every business must shape or respond to its environment and it must do so as a whole organization, including its parts and subparts. If it doesn’t do this, it will cease to exist. Recognizing this, we can call out four basic patterns or forces that give rise to individual and collective behavior within an organization. They are the Producing, Stabilizing, Innovating, and Unifying (PSIU) forces. Each of these expresses itself through a particular behavior pattern. The combination of these forces causes the organization to act in a certain way.

Just like the other lifecycles, the execution lifecycle exists within a dynamic between stability and development. The basic stages of the execution lifecycle are birth, early growth, growth, and maturity and, from there, things descend into decline, aging, and death. The focus within the execution lifecycle should be to have the right mix of organizational development and stability to support the stages of the product and market lifecycles. That is, the lifecycle stage of the surrounding organization should generally match the lifecycle stage of the products and markets. If it’s a startup, the surrounding organization is the entire company. If it’s a Fortune 500 company, this includes the business unit that is responsible for the success of […]

By Lex Sisney|2021-05-18T05:37:49-07:00October 28th, 2011|

Lifecycle Strategy: How to Tell if You’re Doing it Right

In my previous post, I introduced the product, market, and execution lifecycles and why a successful strategy must align them. Now we’ll take a look at the four key indicators that will tell you if you’re on the right strategic path. The key indicators, which must be taken into account at each lifecycle stage, are Market Growth Rate, Competition, Pricing Pressure, and Net Cash Flow.

Let’s take a visual walk around the figure above and see how the key indicators work. First, notice that when you’re piloting your product for innovators in quadrant 1 you should be in negative cash flow. The total invested into the product to date should exceed the return. The market growth rate should be low because you’re still defining the problem and the solution for the market. Therefore, the competitors within your defined niche should be few both in number and capabilities. Consequently, the pricing pressure will be high because you haven’t defined the problem or the solution, so you have no ability to charge enough money for it at this stage.

By Lex Sisney|2021-05-18T05:38:26-07:00October 19th, 2011|

Lifecycle Strategy: Product, Market, Execution Fit

Everything has a lifecycle. It is born, it grows, it ages, and it ultimately dies. It’s easy to spot a lifecycle in action everywhere you look. A person is born, grows, ages, and dies. So does a star, a tree, a bee, or a civilization. So does a company, a product, or a market. Everything has a lifecycle.

All lifecycles exist within a dynamic between system development and system stability. When something is born, it’s early in its development and it also has low stability. As it grows, both its development and stability increase until it matures. After that, its ability to develop diminishes over time while its stability keeps increasing over time. Finally, it becomes so stable that it ultimately dies and, at that moment, loses all stability too.

That’s the basics of all lifecycles. We can try to optimize the path or slow the effects of aging, but ultimately every system makes this progression. Of course, not all systems follow a bell curve like the picture above. Some might die a premature death. Others are a flash in the pan. A few live long and prosper. But from insects to stars and everything in between, we can say that everything comes into being, grows, matures, ages, and ultimately fades away. Such is life.

What do the principles of adaptation and lifecycles have to do with your business strategy? Everything. Just as a parent wouldn’t treat her child the same way if she’s three or thirty years old, you must […]

By Lex Sisney|2021-05-18T05:39:04-07:00October 18th, 2011|

Success Goes to the Best Adapted

It’s not survival of the fittest. Success goes to the best adapted.

Every potential business strategy has the same ultimate aim. This is true whether you are trying to sell your business, go IPO, enter a new market, raise venture capital, hire top-notch talent, fend off competitors, manage increasing regulations, win an industry award, or create the next hot startup. It doesn’t matter what the strategy is — the goal is always the same. This goal is also independent of time or context. It’s just as true in recessionary times as it is in boom times. It was true one million years ago and it will be true one million years from now. So what is this goal of strategy?

The ultimate goal of any strategy is to acquire new energy from the surrounding environment now and in the future.

The evidence for this comes from the most fundamental tenet of evolution: adaptation. Before we continue, let me clear something up about evolution. When most people think of evolution they think of Darwin. And when people think of Darwin, they usually recall the term “survival of the fittest.” However, Darwin himself never used that term. Well, that’s mostly true … Darwin only used the term late in his life to refute the notion that success goes to those most fit. Instead, what Darwin made clear is that survival (and prosperity for that matter) goes to those most adapted to their environment. If there’s good adaption or integration with the environment, then the species will flourish. But if the environment changes and the species can’t adapt, it will fail. That’s why you’re reading this – and not some brontosaurus.

Why is adaptation with the environment so important? Because that’s where new energy comes from. […]

By Lex|2021-05-18T05:40:15-07:00October 14th, 2011|

Exit the System – The First Step to Strategic Change

During one cold winter in Minnesota, I worked as a college intern for the mayor’s office in St. Paul. There are two things I still remember about the job. One, my twenty-year-old Toyota Corolla had a broken heater and so the commute from my apartment at the University of St. Thomas to downtown St. Paul felt like a prolonged, icy slap in the face.

The second thing I remember is how totally caught up in the political system everyone was at the mayor’s office – certainly the mayor, but also the assistants, wonks, and even the janitor. Politics at the mayor’s office — who’s doing what, who’s saying what, how the political winds are moving — was all encompassing.

For example, the state newspaper published an opinion piece about some mundane issue… I think it was the style of the new streetlights. If I hadn’t set foot in the mayor’s office, I would never have given this a moment’s thought. I’m sure the rest of the population didn’t care either. But in the mayor’s office, that article caused a flurry of activity, debate, and crisis management fit for a minor natural disaster. At least three, intense meetings were called to address the issue. I remember thinking, “What’s wrong with you all? Don’t you know that no one but you actually gives a shit?”

The same thing is true for any system – including your business, your family, and your life in general. When you’re standing inside the system, small things take on great significance. It’s only when you see them from outside the system that you can put them in the […]

By Lex Sisney|2021-05-18T05:40:53-07:00March 27th, 2011|

Beyond the Traditional “Moral” Code, or How To Know You’re Making the Right Decision

Imagine that one of your clients, who is also a good friend of yours, owes you a good amount of money. You have sent multiple bills, have casually reminded him, and even had an earnest conversation. From your perspective, he seems well off and able to honor his debt. What’s the right or moral thing to do?

Morality is a complex and challenging thing to understand. On the one hand, a society or family can’t function long without a shared moral code. We all support the social norms we believe to be right or just. On the other, we often fight against norms that silence our individual expression. In other words, no one likes to be on the other end of a sermon they didn’t request. In addition, what’s understood as right and wrong actually shifts over time and with changing conditions. Just ask your grandparents.

While the world loves to judge the rightness and wrongness of everything, most of us don’t think about morality too much, nor do we reflect on the nature of our decisions. When we do so, it’s usually motivated by a sense that our life is falling apart. Then we tale a step back, reflect, and seek to make a change. Whatever the change is, it usually involves the development of a new moral code or compass – a set of beliefs, actions, and choices that feel more in alignment with who we want to be – in the hope that our life becomes congruent once again.

If you do a quick scan around the world, you’ll find as many […]

By Lex Sisney|2021-05-18T05:41:36-07:00March 21st, 2011|

Knowingness vs. Analysis

When you’re involved in making an important decision, do you rely on knowingness, analysis, or both?

I’ve been catching up with season four of the hit TV series Mad Men. One scene captured the difference between knowingness and analysis really well. In it, Don Draper, the creative veteran, is in an argument with a Dr. Faye Miller, a psychologist who specializes in researching why people make the decisions they do.

Dr. Miller has just conducted a focus group of young, single women to gather research on a skin care cream. As the women talk candidly, the conversation quickly turns to men and relationships. Dr. Miller’s conclusion is that the product should be positioned as a way to help young women find husbands. Her method is proven, scientific, and verifiable.

But Don Draper isn’t convinced at all. He argues that analysis can only capture what’s been known before. He tells her, “How do you know that’s the truth? A new idea is something they don’t know yet, so of course it’s not going to come up as an option. Put my campaign on TV for a year, then hold your focus group again, and then it will show up in the results.” Throughout the series, Don has proven himself to be a “knower.” When he gets an intuitive hit that the campaign is right, it usually is.

Although Mad Men is set fifty years in the past, I think it’s safe to say that an analysis-based, by-the-numbers approach has grown to permeate much of our culture. It’s prevalent in the standardized testing of our children, in the MBA programs of business schools, and in how we allocate dollars to […]

By Lex Sisney|2021-05-18T05:42:12-07:00March 7th, 2011|

What Warren Buffett Can Teach You About Hiring

Warren Buffett’s 2010 Annual Letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders was recently released. It’s as outstanding as ever and worth a read. There’s a footnote in the report about their hiring a new business manager that I really loved:

“When we issued a press release about Todd’s joining us, a number of commentators pointed out that he was ‘little-known’ and expressed puzzlement that we didn’t seek a ‘big-name.’ I wonder how many of them would have known of Lou in 1979, Ajit in 1985, or, for that matter, Charlie in 1959. Our goal was to find a 2-year-old Secretariat, not a 10-year-old Seabiscuit. (Whoops – that may not be the smartest metaphor for an 80-year-old CEO to use).”

The reason I loved this footnote is that I believe too many businesses make the mistake of consistently valuing past direct experience over transferable skills and upside potential.

By Lex Sisney|2021-05-18T05:43:00-07:00February 28th, 2011|

How to Keep Everyone on the Same Page – The Rule of Three

I met with the CEO of a fast-growing high tech company this week. This company (we’ll call it Company X) has grown from $100M to $400M over the past three years and plans to be a billion dollar business within the next three. We got together to discuss the challenges of keeping everyone in the company focused on the most important things. It’s a classic challenge. In fact, if you ask any leader of a fast-growing organization what are his or her three biggest challenges, you’ll hear “keeping everyone on the same page” as one of the top responses. How you help to do that is the subject of this article. And a powerful answer lies in the rule of three.

In the 4th century BC, Aristotle spoke about the rule of three – how the human mind tends to easily remember three things but forgets four or more. Every great communicator through the centuries has recognized and used the rule of three:

“Veni, Vidi, Vici” (I came, I saw, I conquered) – Julius Ceasar

“Friends, Romans, Countrymen” – William Shakespeare

“Life, liberty, happiness” – Thomas Jefferson

“Blood, sweat, and tears” – Winston Churchill

Notice too how common sayings are also often structured by the Rule of 3:

“Body, mind spirit”

“Tall, grande, venti”

“Learn your ABCs and 123s”

“Reduce, reuse, recycle”

“The 3 Rs – reading, writing, arithmetic”

Similarly, Company X has used the rule of three to help its staff focus on the most important things, as well as to recognize and stop work that isn’t focused on those things. Here’s how they did it.

By Lex Sisney|2021-05-18T05:44:27-07:00February 21st, 2011|

Bam! Ninja surprise! – How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Social Media Era

Two weeks ago, I switched newsletter providers to MailChimp. MailChimp is known as a low-cost SOHO email provider with cheeky humor and copious references to Ninjas.

Over the past few years, they’ve been getting a lot of buzz and customer goodwill. Curious to give them a try, I signed up, dropped my old provider, and hoped for a smooth transition. Setting up my campaign was straighforward. It’s when I pressed “Send” that the trouble started. The MailChimp interface promptly said: “Sending: Started at Jan 30, 2011 10:57 pm” — and there it hung for over an hour.

I re-queued the campaign and tried again. Same problem. Frustrated, I emailed their customer service. A day later, I received a response. The customer service rep politely informed me that they weren’t sure what was causing the problem and the development team would have to investigate. Two days later, I received another email saying the development team wasn’t sure what the problem was either, that they canceled the email in the queue, and that I should try again. Like Groundhog Day, I tried again and got the same problem.

Now feeling very frustrated, I jumped on Twitter and broadcast to the world, “Anyone else think that MailChimp sucks? I’ve been stuck in queue for 72 hours. Is it growing pains?” About 3 minutes later, I received a reply via Twitter from MailChimp. We traded tweets back and forth and they provided some basic diagnostics — all over again. When the problem couldn’t be solved, they asked me to contact customer service using “online chat perhaps?” Now fuming, but deciding to give it one more […]

By Lex Sisney|2021-05-18T05:45:18-07:00February 14th, 2011|

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