Yes! And… Blog # 135
Some thoughts on the future of work…
“The saddest point in life would be going to our grave not having sung our song.”
Penny Power (Social Media Commentator et al)
Daniel Priestley
Have some fresh thoughts?
I have mentioned in the past how peculiar it is when events coincide. Earlier in the week, a colleague and I gave a talk on influencing to leaders in a major bank, using the subject of Dee Hock the founder of the Visa payments system (more of this in a later blog). Yesterday I went to an event called Key Person of Influence.
I approached it with a deal of scepticism, expecting a big sales event, high on selling and low on valuable content. However, I took an open mind and a closed wallet.
I’m glad I took the open mind. It was a terrific event with lots of thought provoking material. Consequently, I thought I would write my latest article on some of the points I picked up. This is not one of my usual structured articles, more a collection of thoughts that I trust you will find interesting.
You can read more in the book Key Person of Influence by Daniel Priestley who turned out to be a role model for his book.
Refreshing for me was the fact that the speakers were mostly millionaires (and aspiring millionaires) who gave of their time to come along and enthuse and inform small business owners.
The organisation is changing
Every radical innovation has a twenty year lag before it becomes mainstream, and dare I say disruptive. Witness TV, air travel and computers. The internet and social media are fast approaching this point and so are likely to become even more disruptive in the next few years, with an explosion in the use of social media providing a global market place for small business to compete, “making them look big”.
This led to the idea that companies of the future are likely to be more like film production crews today. Small businesses will act as the producer, forming short or long term joint ventures with other small businesses.
The importance of pitch
Not another story about how Wembley’s pitch used to be unplayable. This idea is that every small business needs to be able to create a pitch that is clear, credible, relevant and believable underpinned with some grounded enthusiasm. Mike Harris (founder of First Direct and Egg in the UK and now to be found here) explained the importance of the perfect pitch for a small business. He stressed that much learning comes from pitching and being told, “That will never work because….” to help iron out the issues. This led for me to the ideas that A: each person in an organisation should learn to pitch what they do, the project they are working on and / or what the company does. This would provide great clarity for teams and B: each person should be taught to pitch their ideas for innovation, to provide the best possible chance it will be accepted.
Write a book
Daniel Priestley emphasised the importance of writing a book, as this provides credibility and acts as a calling card. Again, I thought what a great idea for larger companies to have their experts write a book. It may not get on the Amazon bestseller list but could be incredibly useful to share knowledge in the organisation and may be the catalyst to ignite enthusiasm amongst long serving staff, who could do podcasts or videos if the thought of writing chilled them.
Create Product
Darren Shirlaw, who helps businesses to increase their value dramatically through productisation, gave an intriguing talk on Product. He talked of us all sitting on a pile of great value formed from our knowledge, skills and experience. We need to make it in to product. In a wide ranging talk, he discussed the need to create a third paradigm in organisations, to add entrepreneur to the concept of leader and manager. The intrigue came from Daniel’s long discussion about the economy and where it is going. Riveting stuff.
Use Social Media
Penny Power, author and social media commentator, gave an inspiring talk on the use of social media and the need to find our true voice (or “song” as she put it in X Factor style). She said that the sales model of “suspect, prospect, client” is changing for many companies to “stranger, friend, follower” using social media. Her key point was that people and companies need to build “social capital”. What is your company doing to achieve that? What is your song?
Importance of Joint Ventures
Steve Bolton, a property franchisor, talked of the value of working with others, whether in joint ventures, franchising, partnerships etc. As he said, nobody becomes a self made millionaire. I liked his point (my words) “to be a brand in your space so that whatever your current income is, add a zero”. His formula for success is Distribution, Brand, Products.
The value of persistence
The main message I obtained from Lara Morgan’s talk was about persistence, the acceptance of risk and the power of creative ideas. The highlight of this talk though was her delivery – she delivered her talk with the timing of a master stand up comedian. Hilarious.
Action
Read back over the article. What resonates with you. What might you do differently?
Have a great week.
To Close
Daniel made a great point that we spend so much time consuming material from others when so much more satisfaction comes from creating material ourselves. [We need a balance so please keep reading this blog!] If you ever attend conferences, I can recommend the idea of writing a blog or article afterwards for a social network or your colleagues. It is really useful for recall of key points. Thanks to Daniel and the speakers for an inspiring and valuable event.
John Brooker I Facilitate, Innovate, Transform.
Read: www.yesand.eu
Call: +44 (0)2 08 8869 9990
To sign up for our regular Gorilla articles, please go to Contact Us
Image to illustrate Creative Gorilla article on how to