Driven by Radical Candor, Root Cause and Building Independence, not dependence - People Focused Solutions & Products.

Designate Your Workspace – TODAY!

We had our eyes opened – and we mean O-P-E-N-E-D – when we got some of our Workspace survey results back.

70% of our former, current and prospective client’s contributors don’t have a designated workspace in their residence. For our medium and smaller customers that number is as high as 80%.

So we’re going to deviate from our “script” today and talk about the importance of having a designated workspace! We address this in our books as well. It’s critical to do so – our bodies, mindsets, psychology – everything – acts and reacts differently based on the environment we’re in – even under the same roof. Stressors impact us differently, relaxation have different ameliorating effects all depending on where we are.

The last thing you want is to wake up and see work stuff, go into your living room, dining area, kitchen, porch and see work stuff. You’re going to be constantly in work mode and that’s going to run you down. It’s amazing we’ve seen the productivity gains we have under these circumstances. Now let’s make sure we keep those up AND increase happiness by designating yourself a workspace.

Find a spot in your home you can delegate. We’ve seen all sorts of areas from nooks and balconies to entire basements. Put all your work stuff in there. Work only in that spot. You get up for a break, you’re walking out of that designated space. You walk into that spot, you’re in work mode.

Your psyche, spirit, soul, your body, your mindset will all thank you for the clear direction. You’ll know and react better and work more effectively. Don’t delay, carve out an hour today, and get started on this. It’s ok if it takes a few days to feel out the right space, but just start.

In fact – the first five folks who respond and want a hand, we’ll help -free – for up to a week to get set up. Drop us a line below. If you’ve already done this and see the results, we would to love hear from you too!

A Waterfall to Agile Story – In Increments!

We’re huge fans of doing things in measurable increments to achieve lasting results – especially when it comes to change.

In our Incrementalism series, we’re sharing a client story today. Our client, regional, worth about $10B, had kicked off a waterfall to agile transformation for their IT & Software teams. Being a big, stable, capable company they had made some really smart hiring decisions in selecting their Agile SMEs. Being a big, stable, capable company they were also, inherently, slow to change. With Agile they expected to see big results, quickly.

Their change efforts were floundering for six months when we got the call to jump in. What the struggle came down to was attempting to change everything over to Agile in one fell swoop. Tools, Processes and People, most importantly, in IT and their business clients were dealing with brand new concepts and methods to transaction business between IT service delivery and stakeholders.

Our plan was to change in smaller increments, one cross-functional team, even one feature team if necessary, at a time, with discrete, measurable goals – and then iterate and build on it.

After overcoming understandable resistance born from six months of no progress, we got traction and got things rolling – showing and doing alongside the teams, then doing in parrallel, then expanding the scope, each time with the same incremental, measurable approach. Folks caught on quick we were using Agile to transform the teams SDLC to Agile too.

We taught the teachers, created internal advocates and won over stakeholders. Six months on, momentum showed the org was on a great track to continue on their own – and to this day, they’re happily plugging along with Agile and looking at how they can use the same methods to transform some of their business processes.

Keep shooting for the moon, but get there in increments.

We would love to hear your change transformation stories – good, bad & ugly!

Incremental Moonshots

Moonshots – great big lofty goals are awesome. We love them.

But you’re not going to get there swinging for the fences every single time.

In all the work that we’ve done, with technology with process with people and with mindsets, one constant has been the need for change.

Change is justifiably scary for most of us. Very few of us thrive on change. Even fewer successfully execute on making the changes necessary.

And that’s because we’re always swinging for the fences. If you’re not speaking for the fences, you’re not really working are you?

Let’s change that mindset a little bit. Realize that change comes and sticks in small increments and with constant commitment, not one huge swings that stand a higher chance of missing.

Start by redefining your goals. Take those BIG changes & decompose them down into smaller, incremental changes that build. Work on one at a time. Commit to it. Remember it takes 21 days to make a habit change, and 90 days to get it to stick. So be patient. Understand if you falter, be gentle with yourself, learn from the experience, then recommit to it.

Hail Marys are awesome for spectating, but they’re not repeatable.

Start small and build on each success. Pretty soon you’re standing on that moon you were shooting for. More importantly you got there without burning yourself out and with a newly developed mindset that’s elastic, resilient and able to face inevitable # disruptions.

Try it. Reach out if you want advice. We would love to hear your experiences.

https://lnkd.in/esaevkH

Wait … Aren’t You a Technology Company?

“Wait… aren’t you a technology company?”

Why yes we are! We also do process work.

“So why are you talking about communications and zoom calls and well everything except for the technical work you do!?”

Because NONE of it is successful unless we dig down to the root cause – and the root cause almost always comes down to communication, resiliency and culture!

We don’t want you to be dependent on us. We want to impart the momentum necessary to get you past this hurdle. And nothing we do ever sticks unless we address the fires we’re hired to put out by also working at the people level.

Story time. One of our clients based out of Asia, fairly large, and had been around for 100 years in one form or another. They went through an acquisition spree and tripled in size. They went from one time zone to eight.

While we worked up a plan to address technology platform harmonization we also started asking questions about culture. Needless to say we got some puzzle looks. Here was a tech company asking about culture and other business related matters…

Academic studies and experience show the vast majority of mergers fail due to cultural cohesion issues. Nothing we attempted would work or stick unless we also addressed culture and mindset and communication class part of any work we did or will do!

This is why we’ve been speaking to those topics for the last couple weeks. All the technical and process brilliance in the world won’t help, unless you have the people on board to carry on the work that you do. And you’re able to imbue them with a resilient mindset.

This is what we do at 1Focus. Yes we’re a technology company. Yes we’re a process company. We’re also a people company.

We make sure our solutions stick by addressing people, mindset, culture and communication as part of every technical or process solution that we put in place.

We teach, we show and we do with you at every step of the way.

We’re 1Focus.

Does it HAVE to be a Meeting?

Yesterday we talked about how one of the ways you can make virtual meetings more effective is by looking into the camera when you are talking in a group session. Today we’re going to talk about does it have to be a meeting?

80% of you if not more – way more – have too many meetings and not enough time to just do. Imagine if you had your day structured such that you had a time for meetings and time for doing. And doing, by the way, is not responding to emails, It’s time to spend actually doing work.

How would that feel? I know it feels amazing to us, as hard as it was for us to get here and commit to structuring our work day.

So ask yourself this question. Do I have a slide deck that am I going to be reading off of? If the answer is yes, then that’s something you can handle asynchronously. Pick a tool, any Pokemon! You’ve got Slack, Teams Google Meet and several others. Pick a tool that allows you to collaborate asynchronously on a work product, connects to a repository you can store work product in, and has some sort of search ability for both work products and conversations. And actually use that tool!

You’re going to want to have a meeting whenever you need an interactive conversation and include a diversity of perspectives to complete a work product or move past an impediment. Sure it’s fine to jot down some notes to reference, but if you find yourself creating and reading off of a deck take it asynchronous. We love using OneNote for meetings! Form follows function and in this case you’ll find making those habit changes easier and more tactile.

But otherwise, it’s work time! It’ll take real effort and coordination to get yourself and your team there but you can do it! We’ve helped our clients get there, we’ve gone there ourselves – and as hard as it was, it was a real game changer!

You won’t be dreading yet another day of meetings. You’ll be looking forward to your work time and yes even your meeting time. You’ll find yourself working more effectively, not to mention the job satisfaction you get from actually getting things done instead of being in back-to-back meetings.

Try it. Structure your day. Ping us if we can help, but above all let us know how this works out for you.

You can do it!

Quick Tip to Reduce Zoom Fatigue

Zoom Fatigue! It’s a Real Thing! Over the last few weeks our customers have been asking us if it’s time to upgrade their audio visual and conferencing hardware and software.

These conversation always include a portion on communication effectiveness. And the answer almost always is a recognition that communication could be more effective, especially as a lot of firms around the world are still doing remote or have settled on hybrid workspaces.

So, it’s not always a question of hardware or software needing an upgrade.

So here’s a small but super effective tip. Look into the camera when you’re talking not at the screen. Every call we used to have, calls that we still see happening with our customers, people are staring at the screen while talking! That’s a great way to reduce the efficacy of your communication and to increase zoom fatigue. We don’t want either!

Both in person and remote, when people you’re talking to are looking at their screens and they’re looking at you and they see you looking back in their eyes and not at the screen, you’re helping reduce zoom fatigue and create those connections, virtually, that enhance conversations. You feel and are present, instead of distant.

Did you catch that? You’re doing it for the people you’re talking to, and when they speak back and they’re looking in their camera, you’ll feel like they’re looking in your eyes as well!

It takes some getting used to as a speaker, but when everyone’s doing it you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much less zoom fatigue you’ll have coming out of these calls.

There’s other tips we’ll be sharing throughout the rest of this week such as “does it have to be meeting” and “why you don’t always need to meet about a deck”. This tip we’ve found to consistently have the greatest impact!

Give it a try let us know how it works out to you, we’d love to hear your experiences.

Innovation in Action!

We had a blast working on a model & survey for Entrepreneurial Markers for teen. It borrowed heavily from our research & modeling work over the last 3 years creating measures for entrepreneurial mindsets.

This is a clear example of finding applications beyond what we set out to do.

What started as an effort to distill the keystones of our success into a research study and apply some psychological science, academic models and experience to creating strengths & opportunities for new entrepreneurs became:

  • Not one but TWO editions of Coping with Crisis for Leaders & Contributors (https://lnkd.in/esaevkH)
  • A product for VC’s assessing potential entrepreneurs
    • We got clear confirmation, VC’s prefer to go with their gut!
  • A product for PE firms to use when assessing the management team of an acquisition
    • Thanks VC’s for the pivot!
  • A product to assess potential board members
  • A product to surface entrepreneurial mindset markers in teens!

When we got an invite to teach a class about entrepreneurship at the 2021 Foundation for Teaching Economics
Entrepreneurship in the Global Economy (EGE) Class to a group of high school teens, we were thrilled. It was a labor of joy to extend and distill our larger models into something approachable and consumable by this audience.

Thank you Don Fell & Lisa Chang for the invite, it was fantastic working with you and FTE in bringing new insights to all those young minds!

We’ve attached a couple of sample reports. If you or anyone you know is interested in these products, drop us a line or take a look at what we can do for your people.

Now that’s innovation in action!

Entrepreneurial Markers for Teens Sample Report

Entrepreneurial Markers for Teens Sample Report

Managing Upwards – Do’s & Don’ts!

In this video series we’re talking about 3 things any organization can do today to increase resiliency in their work space through better communication, starting with the power of 1-on-1’s. The next step from 1-on-1’s is managing upwards. It’s rarely done because it can be incredibly uncomfortable for both leaders and contributors! Done correctly, it’s incredibly liberating for both parties and further enables psychologically safe workspaces that you can have those brutally candid conversations in.

We just posted our final video in this series on this topic.

First, keep in mind that managing up doesn’t mean you’re actually managing your leader. No, what you’re doing is managing expectations, communicating proactively and focusing on information that matters. Much like you expect to be lead – with candor & transparency, managing up is your opportunity to do the same. This is why it’s important to focus on solutions, not problems. As we previously mentioned, it’s completely ok to say “I don’t know,” just make sure to add “and here’s what I’ve done to figure it out …”

Second, you always want to be factual. Certainly provide your first had observations and guesses, but be mindful that you’re not idly complaining or repeating here say. It’s easy for us as humans to focus on the negative – on danger. Our hindbrains are still very much in survival mode still. But there’s no tiger in the bushes waiting to leap out. You have time to stop, breath and reframe your mindset and your thoughts to focus on the possible.

Finally – always lead with candor and transparency. It’s tough especially when you first start on this path of managing upwards, but believe us, stick to it and it will work. Doing so eliminates so much uncertainty and really goes towards adding to that trust bank.

Done consistently, managing upwards is part of the effort in building those critical connections of trust. That trust leads to clearer communication, which reinforces those relationships. When the next crisis hits, the focus will be on coming together and persevering in a way that is mutually beneficial and accountable. This is when, we say, fires end up putting themselves out because they don’t get a chance to consume the tinder and oxygen and grow.

Start managing up if you’re doing 1-on-1’s, and if you’re not doing 1-on-1’s, start already! Take a look at our video, chime in below or drop us a note and let us know about your experiences managing up!