Intrapreneurship - The Big Bang Partnership

How to Facilitate a Strategic Visioning Workshop

Jo North — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 13:38:11 +0000

A strategic visioning workshop benefits every organization or significant project, whether at the beginning of a new phase or to adjust as your internal and external worlds shift. It’s one of the most frequent and important types of workshop that we facilitate for our clients.

In this article, I share why every organization or project needs a strategic vision, along with an agenda and tips for how to facilitate a successful strategic visioning workshop.

What is a Strategic Vision?

A strategic vision is a shared vision and long-term goal that drives every decision in the organization or project.

When charting the course for an organization or a pivotal project involving numerous stakeholders, having a clear direction is essential. This direction, often referred to as the “North Star,” embodies the organization’s or project’s strategic vision.

A great strategic vision stems from a well-defined problem statement, pinpointing where the opportunities and challenges lie, and setting the direction for overcoming them.

A strategic visioning workshop helps define that guiding North Star for your organization, and establishes the vision, goals, and targets essential for your strategic development plan.

Whether you’re steering the entire organization, bringing together a community to make decisions together, or working on a crucial project, understanding and defining your shared vision is the key to future success.

Examples of Strategic Visioning Workshops

Here are just a few examples of the kinds of strategic visioning workshops that my team and I have run for our clients:

Corporate visioning, setting a medium or long term vision for the business.
Scaleup businesses looking to breakthrough to their next level of growth. This includes getting investment ready and developing a communicable vision that connects with funders and other key stakeholders.
Startups wanting to achieve positive impact through their products and services.
Social enterprises and charities wanting to extend and deepen their impact.
Brand, product and service specific visions, for companies with a portfolio of customer propositions.
Academic researchers leading collaborative research projects with industry and communities to optimize impact.
Communities coming together on a shared project or decision, such as how best to spend funding, or increase biodiversity in their location.
Bid teams wanting to create a compelling vision for a significant client proposal, contract or tender.

Why is Strategic Visioning Important?

Crafting a clear vision for your project’s or organization’s future direction requires some thought. It demands creativity, clear focus, and courage

Setting intentional bold, meaningful, and enduring goals is your gateway to superior performance and sustained outcomes.

At its core, strategic visioning is about pinpointing the common ground. It’s the intersection where your organization’s mission, vision and values align with the aspirations of your target customers, valued employees, and key stakeholders. This alignment fosters a shared understanding and a common goal, propelling everyone forward with a unified purpose.

Start with “Why?”

Simon Sinek famously emphasized the importance of understanding your “why.” Before diving into the “what” or “how,” you must “start with why.” It’s this fundamental ‘why’ that shapes a compelling and clear vision, guiding actions and decisions in the direction of collective success.

The strategic vision serves as a catalyst, shaping the plan’s aspirations. It helps to turn opportunities into tangible objectives, breaking down challenges into specific goals and targets.

Simon Sinek Start with Why

Who Should Attend Your Strategic Visioning Workshop?

We work with our clients to make sure that the right mix of people participate in the event.

Executive Teams

As the primary decision-makers, executive teams from both the organization and the project need to be present. Their combined insights will shape the broader goals, ensuring alignment with the strategic direction.

Team Members

From the organizational to the project level, these individuals play pivotal roles in executing the envisioned strategies. They bring hands-on experience and offer a granular perspective, ensuring the vision is rooted in reality.

Staff Members

Beyond the decision-makers, staff from both the organization and the project can provide unique insights. With their intimate understanding of daily operations, they can pinpoint areas for improvement, innovation, and efficiency.

Project-specific Attendees

For projects, it’s essential to include representatives who understand its unique challenges and nuances. Whether they are engineers for a tech initiative or field managers for a grassroots project, their specialized knowledge will enrich the strategic visioning process.

Key Stakeholders

Engaging both organizational and project stakeholders is vital. These may be investors, clients, or any major entities deeply vested in the initiative’s success. Their perspectives help in fine-tuning the vision to cater to external expectations and market dynamics.

It’s sometimes advisable to have an internal strategic visioning workshop first, before you invite others for their perspectives. This depends on your organization’s specific context.

Sustainability in Visioning

Building sustainability into your strategic vision is a necessity.

Integrating sustainable practices and strategies into your visioning workshop will ensure your organization or project’s longevity and resonate better with the growing eco-conscious segments of your stakeholders.

Balancing Profit and Planet

It’s essential to find a sweet spot where the organization or project is not just profitable, but also environmentally responsible. This balance can influence business decisions and project implementations, ensuring a win-win for both the company and the environment.

Stakeholder Expectations on Sustainability

Now more than ever, stakeholders, be they consumers, investors, or employees, are leaning towards eco-friendly innovations. By addressing these expectations in the workshop, you ensure that your strategic vision aligns with the demands and values of those you serve.

Sustainable Innovations

Exploring innovations that are sustainable can open doors to new opportunities and markets. Whether it’s a product, service, or methodology, sustainable innovations can set you apart from competitors and future-proof your initiatives.

Strategic Visioning Workshop Preparation

Preparing adequately for your strategic visioning workshop can mean the difference between a successful event that yields actionable insights and one that falls short. Proper groundwork ensures that all attendees are aligned and have the necessary context to contribute meaningfully to the discussions.

Engaging Executives and Stakeholders Early

One of the first steps in workshop preparation should be to interview key executives and stakeholders. Their insights, based on their unique vantage points within the organization or the project, can provide crucial context and direction for the workshop. By engaging them early, you also ensure that they have a sense of ownership and commitment to the workshop’s outcomes.

Setting the Agenda and Pre-work

To ensure all attendees come prepared and aligned, it’s beneficial to share the workshop agenda in advance. Additionally, providing them with specific pre-work can set the stage for deeper and more informed discussions. Here are some areas you might consider for pre-work:

Understand the Landscape

Ask participants to delve into the industry or sector your organization operates within. They should explore recent trends, identify gaps, celebrate successes, and pinpoint opportunities. This will give them a broader context of the external environment.

Customer and Stakeholder Insights

Encourage participants to engage with or research customers and other stakeholders. They should aim to understand changing needs, aspirations, and any emerging trends that could impact the organization or project.

SWOT Analysis

Before the workshop, attendees should familiarize themselves with the organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT). This can provide a holistic view of where the organization stands and where it could potentially go.

With these preparation steps in place, you’ll make sure that everyone gets maximum value from the time and energy you invest in your strategic visioning workshop.

Agenda for Your Strategic Visioning Workshop

Introducing the Purpose of the Workshop

When organizing a Strategic Visioning Workshop, setting a clear, structured agenda is crucial. Not only does it provide direction for the participants, but it also ensures that all vital topics are covered in depth.

Make sure that everyone is super clear on the purpose of the workshop, and what you are aiming to achieve together.

Key Sessions

1. Defining Opportunities and Challenges: The First Step

Begin the workshop by diving into opportunities and challenges for the future. A major component of this segment should be verifying if your target customers are still aligned with your current offerings. Have their needs evolved? Is there a pivot needed in your approach or services to remain relevant? Sharing the pre-work done in this area can provide valuable insights, setting the stage for informed discussions.

2. Current State Analysis

Understanding where you stand today is vital. Dive deep into the organization’s or project’s current performance metrics, strengths, weaknesses, and unique selling points.

3. Stakeholder Perspectives

Consider the expectations, challenges, and aspirations of all stakeholders. Their feedback and insights can greatly influence the strategic roadmap.

Consider using some of the stakeholder mapping tools from my article here for this pre-work.

4. Competitive Landscape

Understanding your competitors and the broader market is crucial. Identify potential challenges, market trends, and areas where you can carve out a niche.

Here are some tools and activities you can use for your competitor analysis.

5. Envisioning the Future Landscape

While you’re planning your strategy execution, it’s essential to keep an eye on the future. This includes understanding potential challenges and opportunities on the horizon, identifying where competitors might be headed, and ensuring your organization remains agile and adaptive.

6. Future State Visualization

Once the current state is clear, it’s time to envision the future. What does success look like? How has the landscape changed, and where does your organization or project fit within it?

7. Reimagine Your Purpose

After establishing the external environment, the next step in the strategic visioning process is to reimagine the organization’s purpose for the upcoming years. What drives your organization forward? What do you stand for? Crafting a common vision statement during this phase ensures everyone is aligned with the overarching mission.

8. Impact Assessment

Now that the purpose is set, it’s time to delve into its implications. How will the newly imagined purpose affect target customers? What changes might key stakeholders anticipate? And critically, how will employees, the human core of the organization, be impacted by this shift? Group exercises can be particularly effective here, allowing participants to brainstorm, discuss, and collaborate on potential scenarios.

9. Bridging the Gap

Brainstorm actions that will bridge the gap between your current and target future states. Prioritize your ideas to get the best return on resources, time, and effort. Get clarity on what needs to happen after the workshop to make sure that progress continues.

By delving into these topics during your strategic visioning workshop, you set the stage for a comprehensive plan that caters to all aspects of your organization or project, ensuring a robust and future-ready strategy.

Top Tips for Facilitating a Strategic Visioning Workshop

Facilitation Best Practices

While every workshop is unique, there are universal facilitation best practices that can enhance its effectiveness. Clear communication, active listening, and managing group dynamics are all integral to achieving the workshop’s core objective. Remember, the goal is not just to generate ideas but to ensure they align and contribute to the broader strategic vision. Have a look at my guide to being a great facilitator here.

Encourage Creative Thinking

One of the primary goals of any workshop is to encourage out-of-the-box ideas. To do this, it’s crucial to create an environment that fosters creative thinking. This means ensuring participants feel comfortable sharing even the most unconventional thoughts without fear of judgment. The richness of different visions can be the catalyst for breakthroughs in strategy.

The Power of Small Group Working

Instead of always working with the entire group, consider breaking participants into smaller teams for specific tasks. Small group working can help introverted participants voice their opinions and allow for more in-depth discussions on particular topics.

If you’re working online, here are some tips on how to use breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams and in Zoom.

Using Graphic Guides

People often process visual information faster than written or spoken words. Introducing graphic guides or visual aids can help participants grasp complex concepts quickly. Whether it’s a flowchart, infographic, or even a mind map, the right tool can enhance understanding and engagement.

Perfecting the Workshop Setting

The physical or virtual environment plays a significant role in the success of the workshop. Ensure the workshop setting is conducive to focused work and open dialogue. This could mean selecting a quiet room with adequate seating and lighting for physical meetings or ensuring a stable internet connection and user-friendly platform for virtual and hybrid sessions.

Welcoming Different Visions

While the aim is to arrive at a cohesive strategic vision, it’s essential to remember that different perspectives can enrich the final outcome. Rather than seeing divergent views as challenges, view them as opportunities to refine and bolster the overarching strategy.

By integrating these tips into your approach, you’ll be well on your way to facilitating a successful Strategic Visioning Workshop that yields actionable and forward-thinking results.

How to Progress Your Strategic Visioning Workshop

After laying the foundation and facilitating fruitful discussions, the next challenge lies in ensuring the outcomes of your Strategic Visioning Workshop are actionable and drive results. Progressing the results of the workshop involves turning abstract ideas into concrete steps that bring your powerful vision to life.

From Vision to Action

Having a powerful vision is crucial, but the real challenge lies in turning that vision into reality. It’s essential to convert the insights and strategies discussed during the workshop into tangible action plans. These plans serve as the blueprint for the subsequent stages, ensuring that everyone knows their role in realizing the vision.

Project Management at the Forefront

Once the action plans are drafted, the principles of project management become indispensable. Leveraging project management tools and methodologies ensures that plans are organized, on track, and align with the goals set out during the workshop.

The Role of the Team Leader

In progressing the outcomes of the workshop, the role of the team leader is paramount. The team leader is responsible for ensuring that the final decisions made during the workshop become actionable steps. They also play a crucial role in monitoring progress, providing feedback, and ensuring the entire project team remains aligned with the overarching vision.

Assembling the Project Team

Behind every successful vision is a dedicated project team working tirelessly to bring it to fruition. This team is composed of individuals from various disciplines and expertise. They are the ones who take the strategies and decisions from the workshop and put them into practice, ensuring that every step aligns with the established goals.

By focusing on these elements, you ensure that the insights and strategies derived from your strategic visioning workshop are not just theoretical but are transformed into real-world results that move your organization or project forward.

Next Steps for Your Strategic Visioning Workshop

After understanding the importance and intricacies of a strategic visioning workshop, the next step is crucial: deciding who will guide you through this transformative process. An external facilitator can provide a fresh perspective, unbiased insights, and the expertise required to navigate the complexities of crafting a strategic vision.

Why Work with an External Facilitator?

Why should you consider working with an external facilitator?

An external facilitator adds a layer of professionalism and objectivity to your event. The role of such a facilitator is to ensure that the discussions remain focussed, productive, and aligned with the workshop’s objectives. They bring a wealth of experience from different industries and can offer solutions and strategies you might not have considered.

For strategic visioning, my team and I have a track record of success and a deep understanding of the intricacies of business strategy workshops and strategic innovation. We can guide your organization through this transformative journey.

If you’re considering embarking on a Strategic Visioning Workshop, please do get in touch with me here for a no-obligation chat. I’d love to hear from you.

About the Author

Founder and CEO of The Big Bang Partnership Ltd & Idea Time. Innovator. Author. Business Coach. International Keynote Speaker & Facilitator. Director Technology & Transformation at Port of Tyne. Leader of the UK’s Maritime 2050 Innovation Hub. Non-Executive Director. Associate in Business Innovation and Creativity at University of York.

The post How to Facilitate a Strategic Visioning Workshop appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

Brilliant one-to-one meetings with your team or line manager

Jo North — Sat, 19 Aug 2023 06:46:00 +0000

One-to-one meetings from both perspectives

This week, my blog about how to get the most out of your one-to-one meetings is inspired by two people I am coaching, each from a different business.

I have been working with the first client to develop their leadership skills, informed by feedback from the 360 activity that we had completed. There was a clear theme in the feedback that the one-to-one meetings they’ve been having with direct reports are not working as well as they could.

The second coaching client feels that she’s not getting the outcomes that she wants or needs from her one-to-one meetings with her line manager, and really doesn’t look forward to her fortnightly sessions.

In this article, I will give you my top tips for making the most of your one-to-one meetings, whether you are the direct report or the line manager. You can also click on this link to download your free one-to-one meeting plan.

What is a one-to-one meeting?

A one-to-one meeting is a regular opportunity for a line manager and direct report to discuss progress, key projects, development needs and opportunities and how the employee is feeling at work. It’s an important opportunity for the line manager and direct report to connect. The line manager can provide feedback, coaching, mentoring and support. The direct report can share successes, concerns and gain insights and fresh perspectives on their work.

In a one-to-one meeting, the focus should be on the employee rather than on a specific project or set of tasks.

One-to-one meetings and successful employees

In the classic management book, First, Break All the Rules, by Buckingham and Coffman, research by the Gallup Organization shows that the most successful and productive employees can answer ‘yes’ to these questions:

Do I know what is expected of me at work?
Do I have the equipment and material I need to do my work right?
At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?
Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?
Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
At work, do my opinions seem to count?
Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my work is important?
Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
In the last six months, have I talked to someone about my progress?
This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

One-to-one meetings are a great opportunity to help generate a resounding “yes” to these questions and build a strong workplace capable of attracting and keeping top performers at every level.

How effective are your one-to-one meetings?

One-to-one meetings can be really valuable, for both the line manager and the direct report. Yet, in so many cases, I hear from both sides that the experience is less than ideal. There is too much focus on the immediate workload, and neither party does much preparation or planning for the meeting in advance. Plus, there is often very little guidance or training given by organizations on how to make the most from the potentially precious one-to-one meeting time.

But before we dive in, take a few moments now to think about your own one-to-one meetings. Give each statement below a score between 1 to 5, with 1 being strongly disagree, and 5 strongly agree.

My one-to-one meetings are usually collaborative and productive.
We actively listen to each other and take each other’s perspectives into account.
Both of us seem to enjoy our one-to-one meetings, most of the time.
Both of us are always well-prepared for our one-to-one meeting.
We usually agree clear, specific actions and next steps in the meeting.
We’ll often discuss development needs and opportunities, as well as the day job.
We show appropriate concern and interest in each other’s wellbeing.

Why one-to-one meetings are important

When one-to-ones are done well, they bring mutual benefits.

From the line manager’s perspective, they offer a great opportunity to motivate, coach, develop, enhance productivity and loyalty, and gain feedback and insight into how things are going. The goal for the line manager is to connect the direct report’s work to the wider business and team strategy, provide appropriate situational leadership, develop a highly effective working relationship, help their colleague develop and make sure that their ideas are heard and considered.

From the direct report’s point of view, one-to-ones provide precious, valuable time with their manager, create the chance to discuss challenges, opportunities and options, get guidance and clarity where it is required, and receive feedback on their work on an ongoing basis. The goal for the direct report is to showcase their work appropriately, develop a great rapport with their boss, provide ideas and potential solutions for problems and risks, and align their activities to what the business, and their boss, need.

One to one meetings and organizational culture

One-to-one meetings can be a really effective part of how you create and nurture a culture of innovation in your business. My own doctoral research shows that a dynamic environment in which people feel their ideas are welcomed and heard, even if they are not ultimately acted upon, can contribute to a more entrepreneurial approach from employees.

One-to-ones are essential for high-performance.

Hybrid working and one-to-ones

If your organizations is either going completely virtual, or introducing hybrid working following the pandemic, it’s important that you continue to invest time in one-to-one meetings. I’ve created a Guide to Hybrid Working for Teams here and an article on Leading Collaboration in Remote Teams which you’ll also find useful.

With back-to-back meetings on line, it’s all to easy to let one-to-one meetings slide, but they should be one of the most important activities that you do.

8 top tips for getting the most from your one-to-one meetings

Here are my 8 top tips for getting the most out of your one-to-one meetings, whether you are in the seat of the line manager or the direct report.

Schedule your meetings as a regular event – and stick to the schedule, unless there’s a real emergency

You can review the frequency of your sessions together, and adjust to more or less often as needed. But, only on rare, exceptional occasions should you cancel the one-to-one, especially at the last minute. Nor should it be rushed.

Prepare the things you want to discuss in advance

Jot things down in the days or week before your one-to-one as they occur to you, so that you don’t forget anything.

When you’re in the meeting, start with the most important things first, so that if the discussions take longer than you think they will, you will have at least covered the priorities.

Make sure the discussions go beyond the immediate day-job issues

Simple status updates are a waste of face-to-face time, and can be done outside the meeting. Use the one-to-one for higher value discussion that will enhance performance and contribution, as well as building your working relationship.

Consider using a simple actions list

Committing to take action as a result of your conversation is really important to generate momentum. It turns your discussions into meaningful progress. Making sure that you visibly write these actions down, do what you promise and then update each other once you’ve completed your actions, by email, for example. This supports mutual support, collaboration and respect.

Be fully engaged

Really listen to each other, rather than just waiting for the other person to finish talking so that you can say your piece.

Be aware of your body language, and use an open and interested posture.

Put your phone or laptop away and eliminate or at least minimise the potential for interruptions, such as other people coming and going, or the phone ringing.

Say thank you and recognize achievement and great work

Bosses appreciate well-deserved positive feedback and thanks too, so this one if definitely for both of you.

Look for opportunities to say a sincere thank you or well done in the meeting. Don’t overdo it, though, or be insincere, or the words lose their significance and impact.

Appreciating each other and recognising each other’s achievements appropriately will help you strengthen your rapport.

Seek to understand and be curious

This tip is especially useful if you find that you are not agreeing with each other on something. Aiming to understand and empathise with your colleague’s point of view will empower you with insight that can help to influence a better outcome for both of you.

Curiosity is a state of active interest or genuinely wanting to know more about something. It allows you to embrace unfamiliar circumstances or perspectives. Studies such as the one here by the University at Buffalo finds that the degree to which people are curious directly relates to personal growth opportunities. It also determines how deeply people become connected.

Make sure your one-to-one meeting ends well

At the end of your meeting, make sure that you end well by doing these 2 things:

Review the decisions and actions you’ve made to make sure you’re both on the same page.
Reflect on the experience and on whether the time was well spent. Identify anything you think would help you make it better next time, if that’s relevant.

More challenging relationships and situations

These 8 top tips will help take an ok or positive relationship to the next level, and enhance the productivity of both the line manager and the direct report. Sometimes, though, relationships, discussion topics or performance issues mean that robust and challenging conversations are necessary. I will give you some approaches for dealing effectively with these more challenging relationships and situations in an upcoming article.

How to prepare for your one-to-one meeting

I’ve created a free, downloadable one-to-one single page planner for you to use. Just click here for your one-to-one meeting template.

• Use the discussion theme prompts in the one-to-one meeting template to prepare in advance:

General update on how things are going, how the direct report is feeling
Key priorities for discussion
Feedback on important projects
Team and company goals – check in
Identifying and resolving any roadblocks
Successes and milestones
Questions / items needing clarification

You don’t have to include every theme at every meeting, of course, just the ones that are most useful
to you at the time.

Use the one-to-one meeting template both as a prompt to make sure you cover everything you want to, and
also to capture your notes, actions and the key decisions that are taken in the right hand column.

Summary of the Benefits of One-on-One Meetings

One-on-one meetings are a great way to connect with your team members on a personal level, provide constructive feedback, and track their progress. They are also a great way to identify and resolve any problems early on.

Round-up: How to Run Effective One-on-One Meetings

Here is a round-up of tips for running effective one-on-one meetings:

Set clear expectations. Before the meeting, let your team member know what you hope to achieve. This could include discussing their goals, providing feedback, or simply catching up.
Be an active listener. Really listen to what your team member has to say, and ask open-ended questions to get them talking.
Give and receive feedback. Constructive feedback is essential for employee growth. Be sure to give your team member specific feedback on their work, and be open to receiving feedback yourself.
Celebrate successes. Take some time to celebrate your team member’s successes, big or small. This will help them stay motivated and engaged.
Follow up. After the meeting, take some time to write down the key takeaways and next steps. This will help you stay on track and make sure that the meeting was productive.
Use a meeting template. A meeting template can help you stay organized and ensure that you cover all of the important topics.
Be flexible. Don’t be afraid to deviate from the agenda if needed. The most important thing is to have a productive conversation.
Make time for one-on-one meetings. One-on-one meetings are a valuable investment in your team members’ success. Make sure to schedule them regularly and stick to the time slots.

Reminder: The Importance of Regular One-on-One Meetings

Regular one-on-one meetings are essential for building strong relationships with your team members and ensuring their success. Aim to have one-on-one meetings with each of your team members at least once a month.

One-on-one meetings are a great way to improve employee engagement, performance, and development. By following the tips above, you can run effective one-on-one meetings that benefit both you and your team members. Remember that one-on-one meetings can:

Be used to discuss difficult conversations, such as performance reviews or feedback on personal behavior.
Help to identify and resolve problems early on, before they become major issues.
A great way to build trust and rapport with your team members.
Used to gather feedback on your management style and the employee experience.
An opportunity to discuss career goals and development opportunities.
A good time to celebrate successes and provide encouragement.

Today’s Fast-paced Work Environment

In today’s fast-paced work environment, the importance of regular meetings cannot be overstated, especially when it comes to one-on-one conversations between an employee and a line manager. These are not just any meetings; they’re some of the most important meetings in any professional setting. The article delves deep into the best way to conduct these regular check-ins, offering a perspective from both the employee and the manager.

For employees, the first one-on-one meeting can be daunting, but with the right meeting agenda and talking points, it becomes the perfect opportunity to discuss career development, long-term goals, and pressing issues. Reflecting on the previous meeting can provide continuity, ensuring that key topics are addressed and progress is made.

Strike the Right Balance

For line managers, especially new managers, it’s crucial to strike the right balance. Great managers know the significance of dedicated time to understand an individual contributor’s day-to-day work challenges and career path. Embracing best practices and utilizing my one-on-one meeting template can pave the way for productive meetings. Moreover, managers should consider the nonverbal cues and be prepared to handle negative feedback, understanding that open communication goes a long way.

Remote employees present a unique challenge. While face-to-face meetings in a conference room might be the gold standard, regular 1-on-1s via digital platforms can still foster a strong relationship, as long as the meeting questions are well-thought-out and there’s a shared agenda.

Regular, Direct Feedback and Listening are Crucial

“Andy Grove had a mantra at Intel that we borrowed to describe leadership at Apple: Listen, Challenge, Commit. A strong leader has the humility to listen, the confidence to challenge, and the wisdom to know when to quit arguing and to get on board.”
Kim scott, Radical Candor

Consistent with Gallup’s latest State of the Workplace research, this article emphasizes the need for regular feedback, addressing both individual and team performance. Whether it’s making small talk about personal life or diving deep into professional development, achieving the right balance makes all the difference.

It Starts from Onboarding

Furthermore, a great place for managers to initiate these regular check-ins is during the onboarding process for new hires. It sets the tone for open communication, ensuring that the employee feels valued right from the outset. And as they transition from the past week’s tasks to the next meeting’s discussion points, the continuity of regular check-ins keeps the conversation flowing.

Keep Notes and Build Continuity

My article also suggests it’s a good idea to maintain meeting notes for future reference. With the recurrent nature of these meetings, reflecting on the last time you met can offer better insight into the pressing issues at hand and help set common goals. Whether you’re having a hard time in your personal life or seeking clarity on your professional development, the dedicated one-on-one time provides the perfect setting to address these and more.

Make sure you track action items from one-on-one meetings. Followed up on them to ensure that you’re making progress.

So, whether you’re an individual team member aiming to produce your best work or a manager striving to improve the work environment and relationships, embracing the principles and best practices of a successful one-on-one conversation will undoubtedly lead you to a great place at work.

The post Brilliant one-to-one meetings with your team or line manager appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

How to Improve Your Influencing Skills for Innovation

Jo North — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 10:30:18 +0000

Influencing Skills – How to Influence People who can Make or Break Your Innovation Plans

Why Influencing Skills Matter for Innovators

Influencing skills are essential for innovators. Whether you want to get that big promotion at work, get the funding or resources you need for an innovation or entrepreneurial growth, or change the way things at work are done, there are usually some decision-makers who you need to win over.

These people might be from inside or outside the business, for example bosses, shareholders, colleagues, employees, investors, key customer or suppliers, amongst others.

Being able to shape and implement effective influencing strategies will help you to get to where you want to be, more quickly and successfully. Influencing skills are an essential part of your business skillset.

Read this article to learn, step-by-step, how to create a targeted, practical and ethical influencing action plan that will increase the probability of you getting the outcomes that you want. As an added bonus, download my free influencing playbook here.

What is the Meaning of Influence and Persuasion?

The definition of Influence and persuasion is getting others to do things by showing that there is a real and genuine advantage to them in moving in the direction you want.

Having influencing skills means that you have the ability to affect a person’s beliefs or actions, reaching agreement by discussion.

Influencing with Integrity

My choice of the word ethical in the introduction above is really important. This is not about manipulation, or Machiavellian manoeuvres. In my view, unethical motives benefit no-one in the longer-term, and are neither a rewarding way to do business, nor a sustainable way to develop your relationships, especially with those who really matter to you.

At the heart of the approach that I am sharing here is high integrity. It is perfectly possible to be very influential at work, whilst also considering the needs of others and striving to achieve a win-win for yourself and for them.

Influencing and Communication Skills

Influencing is necessary, though, because too often people don’t get what they want due to their failure to communicate effectively. They do not put themselves in the shoes of those key individuals whose support they really need.

The consequence is that, by not taking time to understand the perspective of others, they don’t explain themselves in way that other people can really get, and understand what’s in it for them. So, I am going to take you through a step-by-step process that you can use to make sure that you optimise your chances of success, using my Innovation Influencing Mix.

Have a pen and paper ready, preferably some sticky notes as well, and also download my free influencing playbook here. You can fill it in as you read through this article, thinking about something significant that you want to achieve that needs the active support of other people.

The Innovation Influencing Mix

Successful influencing at work requires a combination of skills and a great understanding of how other people think and make decisions. It’s actually a complex process, but I’ve broken it down for you here, based on the Innovation Influencing Mix (copyright Dr. Jo North, 2023).

Innovation Influencing Mix copyright Dr. Jo North 2023

Step 1: Goal clarity – be clear about what you want to achieve

If you’re not clear about what you want to achieve, you can’t expect others to understand what you want. Starting by articulating for yourself exactly what your target outcomes are will help you to align your influencing approach to achieve your goal. For example:

I want to become a director in 3 months, increase my salary by 20% and qualify for the company profit share, company car and private health schemes.
My goal is for the Board to see the potential of my new product development idea, and give me the go ahead to progress to the next step.
I want to raise $x of funding to launch and sustain sales of new product y as outlined in the business plan I’ve created.
I’d like my team to adopt these new, leaner and more agile ways of working that make the best use of our new technology, improving quality and efficiency.

Take a moment now to write down your own target outcome(s).

Step 2: People clarity – identify who can make or break your plans

The next step is to write down all the names of your stakeholders. Your stakeholders are the people who can really make or break your plans.

Also write down why and how their support matters to you in this situation. It is important that you identify who the stakeholders are in your project, which stakeholders are important and why. You’ll then be able to create an effective stakeholder engagement plan.

Either make a list of people, or write each name on a separate sticky note, to help you with the next stage.

Think as widely as you can, using these prompts as appropriate for you:

Family
Shareholders / investors
Bosses / leaders
Associates
Peers
Other departments / functions
Direct team
Employees
Customers
Suppliers
Other key stakeholders

Stakeholder Mapping

Now it’s time time to start your stakeholder mapping. Place each stakeholder onto the grid below. Either write names directly onto the grid, or attach each sticky note where you think it sits.

Grid for Stakeholder Map

The grid has two axes. For each person, use these axes as follows:

Importance of support. Decide how important having this person’s support for your plans is – low to high.
Level of support. Decide how supportive of your plans this person is right now – low to high.
Then place the name of the person where your decisions for 1 and 2 intersect.

Once you have worked through all your names, literally just plotting them onto the grid, identify who influences your most important stakeholders, i.e. in the medium-high category.

For each of these high importance people, think of who they listen to and are swayed by. Make sure that you add the names of those people who influence the influencers to the grid as well. Locate them appropriately in terms of importance and support.

Active Listening

The best way to ensure your point of view resonates with others is to become a good listener first. Active listening, a valuable skill, ensures that you genuinely understand the concerns, insights, and perspectives of those around you. This fosters mutual respect, an essential component in relationship building.

But remember, being a good listener isn’t just about the words spoken. Body language is a key part of interpersonal skills. Savvy innovation leaders are attuned to the non-verbal cues of those they interact with on a daily basis.

You can download my free, advanced listening skills workbook here to learn more.

Analyze the Communication Needs of Internal and External Stakeholders

You now have a really useful, visual map of where you believe your decision-makers sit.

Just seeing this on paper, rather than carrying all the information in a disconnected way in your head, is incredibly helpful in itself. It allows you to step back and assess so that you can plan your route to success.

Work through these items now, making sure that you:

Put yourself in the shoes of each person. Do your best to see things from their perspective, even if you don’t agree with their views; and
Strive to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome.

1. For each of those people in the high importance, high support category.

Write down the actions that you will take to keep their support levels high on an ongoing basis. This is important. Complacency or lack of attentiveness to supporters is risky. It’s better ad easier to maintain support than it is to regain it once it’s been lost.

2. For every individual in the high importance, low support category.

Write down the actions that you will take to increase their support levels.

3. For every individual in the low importance, high support category.

Write down how you you will maintain their support and use it productively.

4. For those in the low importance, low support category.

Make a mental note to keep an eye on things, just in case anything changes.

Step 3: Create a Compelling Case for Change

The next step is to create a compelling case for change. Paint a picture of the difference that your innovation or ideas will make. Make sure your it connects with your key stakeholders on an emotional level, as well as making great business sense.

Thinking about the emotional connection to the change you want to make skyrockets your influencing skills to the next level. Remember that humans make decisions and take action based on how we want to feel. We then explain them to ourselves based on logic after the event.

To achieve this emotional connection, find the common ground where your goals overlap with those of your stakeholders.

“People don’t buy WHAT we do, they buy WHY we do it.”
Simon Sinek

Use the power of data and evidence to support your assertions and build your innovation business case. Be clear how you will measure your innovation success.

Create a vision of what your innovation will achieve, and how you will get there, through storytelling techniques and principles.

If you’d like a definitive guide to becoming a successful change maker, you’ll find my article and videos here useful.

You may also find my guide to successful presentations helpful, too.

Step 4: Improve your Influencing Skills through Emotional Intelligence

Working on building your emotional intelligence will lead to better working relationships and increased self confidence. Plus, the ability to understand how you can adapt your behaviour and approach to influence others.

You’ll also be able to take on board feedback from your colleagues and business decision-makers with a growth mindset. This will help to strengthen your innovation plans. Diverse perspectives contribute to reducing potential risk and blind spots.

Before you interact with your key stakeholders, take the time to check in with how you feel. Adapt your mindset if how you feel isn’t helping you to get the impact and outcome that you want.

Once your mindset is in a good place, you can then bring your influencing skills to the fore. You’ll be in a better position to truly listen to and empathize with your stakeholders. You’ll be able to communicate clearly, directly and sensitively, increasing the probability of influencing for a win-win outcome.

Cultivating Leadership Qualities and Soft Skills

A strong leader doesn’t solely rely on their leadership abilities in direct tasks. Soft skills are an equally important part of their arsenal. In the course of action to becoming a successful influencer, one should focus on:

Positive Attitude: Approach situations with a can-do spirit. A positive attitude can have a positive impact on the work environment.
Good Communication Skills: Not to be mistaken with mere talking. This encompasses clarity, understanding, and mutual benefits.

Step 5: Use the 6 Universal Principles of Influence and Persuasion

Robert Cialdini‘s research identified these 6 Universal Principles of influencing and persuasion. You can use these appropriately to strengthen your case for change and enrich your influencing skills.

The 6 Universal Principles of influencing and persuasion are:

Reciprocity
Social proof
Scarcity
Authority
Consistency
Liking

1. Reciprocity

People repay in kind. Do good things for others, and they are more likely to do good things for you in return.

2. Social proof

People follow the lead of similar others. Enhance your influencing skills by identifying people or businesses that your stakeholders respect. Show that they have had great results from doing something similar to the idea or innovation that you’re proposing.

3. Scarcity

It’s human nature to want more of what we think we can’t have. Let your stakeholders know that they are special, that this is a unique and important opportunity. Also, that there is a short, optimal window of time in which you need to take action to get the best results.

4. Authority

When unsure about something, people defer to experts. Your influencing plan will be more effective when you demonstrate that experts support your ideas and innovations.

5. Consistency

Stakeholders support commitments and causes that are consistent with their own goals and values. Use your influencing skills to show how your proposals connect with your stakeholders’ priorities.

6. Liking

We are more likely to listen to people who we think like and appreciate us. Find the positive in everyone. Demonstrate your respect and appreciation, even if they hold very different views to your own.

Step 6: Use the Trust Equation to Strengthen your Stakeholder Relationships

When you’re asking someone to collaborate with you, or buy into your ideas, you’re asking them to trust you. Use David Maister’s trust equation to identify how you might strengthen trust in your key stakeholder relationships.

Trustworthiness is a combination of credibility, reliability, intimacy (also called openness) and a balanced approach to self interest. This means self interest that also prioritizes the interests of the other party, for a win-win outcome.

You’ve now got a really useful, actionable high-level plan. Use it to begin gaining more support for your target innovation outcomes. All that’s left is for you to go and make your plan happen! Keep your grid updated as things change, so it always reflects the latest situation at all times.

Innovation Leadership

To innovate in today’s rapidly-changing world, the critical steps involve mastering the art of persuasion and refining interpersonal skills. It’s also about understanding that there are no truly wrong answers, just new ways to approach problems. Building mutual respect and discovering common goals will strengthen your relationships. This will, in turn, support your innovation process and open up a new way of addressing challenges collaboratively.

Great leaders, or those with great influence, aren’t just born. They’re made through daily refinement of their skills, role-modeling a good example, and most importantly, understanding human beings. It’s not just about the technicalities of leadership positions or the opposite effect of bad leadership. It’s about being a good human being, one who recognizes the needs, desires, and potential in others. This creates a win-win culture, that is mutually supportive.

Influence by Elevating Others

To be a good innovation leader, be a good influencer. And to be a good influencer, always aim to understand, respect, and elevate those around you.

What Works for You?

I will post more on specific influencing techniques for different people and situations in future articles. I’d love to hear what you think in the meantime. Where are your challenges, and what works for you?

As always, if you’d like any one-to-one support and advice, or would like us to run an online or in-person Influencing Skills training programme for your business, please do get in touch with me direct via the contact us form here.

The post How to Improve Your Influencing Skills for Innovation appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

Tips & Techniques to Improve Your Presentation Skills

Jo North — Sat, 22 Jul 2023 08:15:59 +0000

Are you ready to captivate your audience and leave a lasting impression? Whether you’re a seasoned presenter or just starting out, improving your presentation skills is essential for success. In today’s world, being able to communicate effectively and confidently is a valuable asset. Fortunately, there are proven techniques that can help you unleash your inner speaker and take your presentations to the next level. From mastering body language to crafting compelling narratives, this article will guide you through practical tips and techniques that will elevate your presentation skills. Get ready to engage your audience, inspire action, and make a lasting impact. Let’s dive in and discover how you can become a more confident and influential speaker.

The Importance of Effective Presentation Skills

Effective presentation skills are crucial in various aspects of life, whether you’re delivering a business proposal, pitching an idea, or speaking at a conference. When you have the ability to communicate your message clearly, concisely, and with confidence, you instantly become more influential and persuasive. Strong presentation skills not only help you convey information effectively but also ensure that your audience remains engaged and receptive to your ideas.

To become an effective presenter, it’s important to understand the key elements that contribute to a successful presentation. These include body language, voice modulation, storytelling, visual aids, and audience engagement. By mastering these techniques, you can captivate your audience, convey your message with impact, and leave a lasting impression.

Dr. Jo North presenting at The Future of Innovation, York, UK

Overcoming Fear and Nervousness

One of the biggest challenges in public speaking is overcoming fear and nervousness. It’s natural to feel anxious before a presentation, but with the right techniques, you can manage your nerves and deliver a confident performance.

Firstly, preparation is key. The more you practice and familiarize yourself with your content, the more confident you’ll feel. Rehearse your presentation multiple times, focusing on your delivery, body language, and timing. This will help you become comfortable with the material and reduce anxiety.

Secondly, positive self-talk and visualization can work wonders. Instead of dwelling on negative thoughts, focus on positive affirmations and visualize yourself delivering a successful presentation. This will help build your confidence and reduce anxiety.

I used to be a nervous wreck before presentations. I was so bad that a senior colleague pulled me to one side and needed to sort it out! And that’s what I did. I studied presentation skills, and took every opportunity I could to give a presentation. Making sure that I was presenting often, so that the exposure simply got me used to doing it, helped immensely. I rehearsed, videoed myself and got a great presentation coach. That was a good number of years ago now. Today I look forward to presenting. I still get a few butterflies before a big, important event, but I now know how to manage them and use them to elevate my performance.

I’m also focused on interesting content and audience engagement over perfection. Remember that mistakes are a part of the learning process. Even the most experienced speakers make mistakes, so don’t be too hard on yourself. Embrace the opportunity to learn and grow from any mishaps and remember that your audience is often more forgiving than you think.

Understanding Your Audience

To deliver a compelling presentation, it’s essential to understand your audience and tailor your message accordingly. Start by conducting research to gain insights into their demographics, interests, and expectations. This will help you align your content and delivery with their needs and preferences.

Consider the level of knowledge your audience has on the topic and adjust your content accordingly. Avoid using jargon or technical terms that may confuse them. Instead, use language that is clear, concise, and easy to understand. By speaking their language, you’ll be able to establish a stronger connection and ensure that your message resonates with them.

Additionally, be mindful of cultural differences and sensitivities. What may be acceptable or relevant in one culture may not be in another. Adapt your presentation style to suit the cultural context, ensuring that you respect and engage with your audience on a deeper level.

Coffey Unlimited Event, Ireland

Crafting a Compelling Narrative

Humans are wired to respond to stories. Crafting a compelling narrative is a powerful way to engage your audience and make your message memorable. Start by outlining the structure of your presentation, ensuring that it has a clear beginning, middle, and end.

In the beginning, introduce your topic and establish its relevance. Grab your audience’s attention with a compelling opening that sparks curiosity or emotion. This will set the stage for the rest of your presentation.

In the middle, develop your main points and arguments, using examples, anecdotes, and data to support your claims. Weave these elements into a cohesive narrative that builds momentum and keeps your audience engaged.

In the end, summarize your key points and provide a strong conclusion that leaves a lasting impression. Consider using a call to action to inspire your audience to take the next step or make a change based on your presentation.

Remember to structure your narrative in a way that is easy to follow and understand. Use transitions and signposts to guide your audience through the different sections of your presentation, ensuring that they can follow your line of thought effortlessly.

Preparation is key

Using Visual Aids Effectively

Visual aids are powerful tools that can enhance your presentation and help convey complex information in a digestible format. When used effectively, they can reinforce your message, make it more memorable, and increase audience engagement.

Choose visual aids that are relevant, visually appealing, and easy to understand. This can include slides, videos, infographics, or props. Make sure your visual aids complement your spoken words and do not distract from your message.

Keep your visual aids simple and uncluttered, using clear fonts, colors, and visuals. Use bullet points or key phrases rather than lengthy paragraphs of text. This will ensure that your audience can easily read and comprehend the information without being overwhelmed.

Remember that visual aids should support your presentation, not replace it. Use them as a tool to emphasize key points, provide visual examples, or illustrate data. Avoid reading directly from your slides or relying solely on visual aids to convey your message. Your words and delivery should always take center stage.

Practicing and Rehearsing Your Presentation

Practice makes for great performance, and the same holds true for presentations. To deliver a confident and polished performance, it’s crucial to practice and rehearse your presentation multiple times.

Start by creating a dedicated practice space where you can focus and eliminate distractions. Set up your visual aids, if any, and simulate the actual presentation environment as closely as possible. This will help you become familiar with your surroundings and reduce any surprises on the day of your presentation.

Rehearse your presentation out loud, paying attention to your delivery, timing, and body language. Practice transitions between slides or sections to ensure a smooth flow. If possible, record yourself or ask a trusted friend or colleague to provide feedback on your performance.

As you practice, be mindful of your body language and nonverbal cues. Stand tall, maintain eye contact, and use gestures that reinforce your message. Practice breathing exercises to help manage nerves and project your voice with clarity and confidence.

The more you rehearse, the more comfortable you’ll become with your material. This will allow you to focus on engaging with your audience and delivering a compelling presentation.

Confident Live! Meetings and Presentations

Nailing Virtual Presentations: Tips for Online Meetings and Video Calls

In today’s digital age, business professionals frequently find themselves presenting to groups of people over video calls, conference calls, or in a virtual presentation setting. The good news is that this online format offers easier access and more flexibility. However, it also demands a unique set of presentation skills. The most important thing to remember is that the right presentation skills, whether in-person or online, can leave positive impacts, advancing your career or achieving positive change.

Know Your Tech

The first step in preparing for an online presentation, such as a job interview or a project update to senior leaders, is to become comfortable with the technology. Familiarize yourself with the platform you’ll be using, understand its features, and know different ways to present information. Whether you’re using Microsoft PowerPoint or another tool, make sure you know how to navigate your slide deck, share your screen, and troubleshoot common technical issues. With practice, this will become second nature.

Craft Your Presentation

Next, craft your own presentation. The use of visual aids such as graphs, infographics, word clouds, or even simple bullet points in serif fonts can dramatically enhance the retention of key takeaways. A great idea is to divide your presentation into small, digestible sections. This makes it easier for your audience, be it team members or senior leaders, to follow along and comprehend the material. It’s also a good idea to include a written report or summary for reference, as this provides an opportunity for those who had a hard time following the discussion to review the points made.

Be Clear, Concise and Engaging

An important skill in online presentations is managing the flow of information. In virtual settings, it’s common for the presenter to lose the audience’s attention due to screen fatigue or distractions. Therefore, keep your slide deck clear, concise, and engaging. Informative presentations need to balance being detailed enough to cover the subject matter, yet simple enough to keep your audience engaged.

Verbal communication skills are vital, but nonverbal communication can be even more crucial in a virtual presentation. Simple actions such as looking into the camera can simulate eye contact, giving your audience the feeling of a more personal connection. Moreover, your expressions, posture, and gestures can also add depth to your message, making your presentation more dynamic.

One of the top tips for good delivery in a virtual environment is to engage your audience. Unlike in-person presentations, where you can see immediate reactions and adjust your approach accordingly, online presentations can often feel like you’re speaking into a void. Therefore, periodically asking for feedback, conducting polls, or simply opening the floor for questions can be highly effective. This strategy not only encourages participation but also ensures your important points are well-understood.

Get Off to a Good Start

The start of the presentation is a vital part of the process. Use this time to present the agenda, define the presentation format, and set expectations. Let your audience know how and when they can ask questions. This can range from leaving questions to the end of the presentation to asking questions as they come up.

Practice Makes for Great Performance

Lastly, practice makes for great performance. One common way to improve your presentation skills is to practice in front of a mirror, record yourself, or present to small groups before the main event. This will help you to spot areas of improvement and become more comfortable and confident with your presentation material.

With the right presentation tips and practices, you can master the art of virtual presentations and make every online meeting count. This not only helps in your professional growth but also contributes to better and more efficient remote working cultures.

Stage Presence in front of a Large Audience

It’s interesting that some people prefer presenting to small audiences who they know at work, whereas others feel more comfortable in the comparative anonymity of a large audience from a big stage.

The subject matter of a presentation may be of paramount importance, but what captures the hearts of audience members often is the presenter’s stage presence. Just think of the best presenters you’ve seen, perhaps during a TED Talk, where the speaker’s charisma, energy, and connection to the audience made the information resonate on a whole new level.

Maritime Innovation Week Audience, 2050 Maritime Innovation Hub

How to Elevate Your Stage Presence

One of the soft skills that play a crucial role in shaping great presentations is the speaker’s stage presence. Being in front of an audience can be daunting, and it’s not uncommon to experience stage fright. However, the great way to confront and overcome this is by being thoroughly prepared and practicing the presentation until you become a more confident individual. Your future career may well depend on these moments of public speaking, as it’s often a means to demonstrate your knowledge, ability, and leadership skills.

The most important thing to remember while delivering a presentation on a big stage is that your audience is your target. You still need to tailor your presentation format and content to their interests and level of understanding. But even with the perfect slide deck, a good delivery requires more than just stating facts and figures.

Verbal communication skills are, of course, essential, but your hand gestures, facial expressions, and body language also contribute to how your message is perceived. Research suggests that the majority of our communication is non-verbal, so hand gestures can help emphasize important points or express passion about your topic.

Additionally, your stage presence can be significantly improved with emotional intelligence. Knowing when to raise or lower the volume of your voice to highlight key points, or sensing when your audience needs a moment to absorb the information, demonstrates a deep understanding of group dynamics.

A personal story or anecdote related to your topic can also be a great way to connect with your audience. Stories not only make your presentation more relatable but also make the data and information you present more memorable.

Dealing with Stage Fright

Dealing with stage fright is a common concern for many. One effective strategy to combat this is taking a few deep breaths before stepping onto the stage and throughout the presentation. Deep breathing can help to calm your nerves and maintain your composure, allowing you to deliver your presentation with confidence and poise.

Remember, mastering the art of stage presence for persuasive presentations is a journey. With each presentation you deliver, you learn something new and get a step closer to becoming one of the best presenters. Take every opportunity you get to present in front of an audience as a chance to improve and perfect your skills. With determination and practice, your stage presence can significantly impact your future career and personal growth.

Engaging with Your Audience During the Presentation

Engaging with your audience is a crucial aspect of effective presentations. It helps build rapport, captures attention, and keeps your audience invested in your message. Here are some techniques to engage with your audience during your presentation:

1. Start with a compelling opening: Grab your audience’s attention from the start by sharing a relevant story, asking a thought-provoking question, or using a surprising statistic. This will set the tone for an engaging presentation.

2. Use interactive elements: Incorporate interactive elements into your presentation to keep your audience actively involved. This can include asking questions, conducting polls, or encouraging small group discussions. This not only keeps your audience engaged but also provides valuable insights and perspectives.

3. Encourage audience participation: Invite your audience to share their thoughts, ask questions, or provide feedback. This creates a two-way dialogue and fosters a sense of collaboration. Be open to different viewpoints and actively listen to your audience’s input.

4. Tell relatable stories: Share personal anecdotes or real-life examples that your audience can relate to. This helps humanize your presentation and makes it more relatable. When your audience sees themselves in your stories, they become more engaged and invested in your message.

5. Use humor strategically: Appropriate humor can break the ice, lighten the mood, and create a memorable experience. Incorporate relevant jokes or lighthearted anecdotes to keep your audience entertained. However, be mindful of cultural sensitivities and avoid offensive or inappropriate humor.

Remember that engaging with your audience is an ongoing process. Continuously assess their reactions and adjust your delivery accordingly. Pay attention to their body language, facial expressions, and verbal cues to gauge their level of engagement. Adapt your presentation style in real-time to ensure that you maintain their interest and attention.

Mastering the Q&A Session: Tips for Handling Difficult Questions and People

Anticipate and Prepare: One of the best strategies for dealing with a Q&A session after a presentation is to anticipate potential questions. During your preparation, try to identify any areas in your presentation that might provoke questions or seem unclear. Prepare comprehensive answers for these possible questions to feel more confident during the Q&A. Adopt a growth mindset to help you listen and avoid becoming defensive.
Create a Safe Space: Encourage your audience to ask questions by creating an open and accepting environment. Make it clear that all questions are welcome, even challenging ones. This creates a two-way dialogue and ensures everyone feels comfortable contributing to the discussion.
Listen Carefully: When a question is asked, listen attentively. Understand the core of what’s being asked before you start to respond. If the question is complex, it’s perfectly fine to paraphrase it back to the person to ensure you’ve understood correctly.
Stay Calm and Composed: Dealing with ‘difficult’ people or questions can be challenging. Maintain your composure and treat every question with respect, regardless of how it’s delivered. The way you respond to a challenging situation can set the tone for the rest of the Q&A session.
Don’t Rush Your Answers: Take a moment to think before answering a difficult question. It’s better to pause and formulate a thoughtful response than to rush and potentially provide an inaccurate or incomplete answer.
It’s Okay Not to Know: If you don’t know the answer to a question, it’s fine to admit it. Honesty is appreciated, and it’s better to say you don’t know but will find out, rather than trying to bluff your way through.
Control the Narrative: If you get a confrontational or off-topic question, don’t get derailed. Politely bring the discussion back on track. You might say, “That’s an interesting point, but let’s focus on the subject at hand. We can discuss that further after the presentation.”
Use “We” Instead of “I”: When dealing with difficult questions, try to use “we” instead of “I”. This can help diffuse a tense situation and foster a sense of collaboration and shared understanding.
Follow Up: If a question requires a detailed answer or if you need to check some facts before you can respond fully, take the person’s contact details and promise to follow up. This shows your commitment to providing accurate information and leaves a positive impression.
Conclude Graciously: Finally, conclude your Q&A session on a positive note, thanking your audience for their active participation and thought-provoking questions.

The Q&A session is a valuable opportunity to further engage your audience and deepen their understanding of your topic. By managing this session effectively, even when faced with ‘difficult’ people or challenging questions, you can reinforce your message and leave a lasting, positive impact.

Additional Resources for Improving Presentation Skills

To further enhance your presentation skills, here are some additional resources that you can explore:

– **Public speaking courses**: Enroll in public speaking courses or workshops that offer structured training and practice opportunities. These courses often provide valuable feedback and guidance from experienced instructors.

– **Books on public speaking**: There are numerous books available that provide insights and tips on improving public speaking skills. Some popular titles include “Talk Like TED” by Carmine Gallo and “Presentation Zen” by Garr Reynolds.

– **Online tutorials and videos**: Explore online platforms such as YouTube or TED Talks for tutorials and videos on public speaking. These resources can offer valuable tips, techniques, and inspiration from renowned speakers.

– **Join public speaking clubs**: Consider joining organizations like Toastmasters International, where you can practice and improve your public speaking skills in a supportive and constructive environment. These clubs often provide opportunities for networking and feedback.

– **Seek feedback from peers or mentors**: Share your presentations with trusted peers or mentors and ask for their feedback. Their insights can help you identify areas for improvement and refine your delivery.

Remember, improving your presentation skills is an ongoing journey. Continuously seek opportunities to practice, learn, and grow. With time and dedication, you can unleash your inner speaker and become a confident and influential presenter.

Next Steps

In today’s fast-paced world, effective presentation skills are a valuable asset that can open doors, inspire action, and make a lasting impact. By mastering techniques such as overcoming fear and nervousness, understanding your audience, crafting compelling narratives, using visual aids effectively, practicing and rehearsing, and engaging with your audience, you can take your presentations to the next level.

Remember, becoming a confident and influential speaker is a gradual process that requires practice, dedication, and a willingness to learn. Embrace the journey and take advantage of the resources available to you. Unleash your inner speaker, captivate your audience, and leave a lasting impression.

If you’re ready to elevate your presentation skills to new heights, remember – transformation is only a conversation away. My team at The Big Bang Partnership Ltd and I have a wealth of expertise, tailored approaches, and innovative strategies waiting for you.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to presentation skills, and we are here to provide you with the specific tools and techniques that best suit your style and needs. From conquering stage presence to mastering virtual presentations, we’re committed to helping you present your best self, every time.

Don’t hesitate to take the first step towards becoming an exceptional presenter. Your audience is waiting to be captivated by your presentation prowess, and we’re here to guide you on your journey. Reach out to us at The Big Bang Partnership Ltd today, and let’s unlock your full potential together. The next chapter of your professional growth starts here!

About the Author

The post Tips & Techniques to Improve Your Presentation Skills appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

How to Stay Motivated to Achieve Your Goals: 10 Easy Tips

Jo North — Sun, 28 May 2023 08:26:57 +0000

How to Stay Motivated to Achieve Your Goals

Knowing how to stay motivated to achieve your goals will make or break your success. Setting career and business goals can be a wonderfully creative and inspiring process. But goals without actions are only dreams.

It can be hard to get started on your big goal, especially from scratch. And sometimes just as hard work to keep going – especially when life throws you a curve-ball, or your career or business long-term goals seem to be slipping out of reach.

Here are 10 science-based, evidence-backed, practical and easy tips to help you to stay motivated to achieve your professional, career and business goals. They really are some of the best ways to keep your intrinsic motivation driving you forward.

I’ve used all of these tips many times to achieve goals such as:

Completing my MBA and PhD part-time, whilst working full-time
Making the transition from a six-figure earning leadership role to starting my own successful company
Writing and publishing my book, Idea Time

And many more accomplishments and ambitious goals besides!

Jump to links:

Tip #1: Time – You Have 168 Hours in a Week
Tip #2 The Essence of Strategy is Deciding What Not To Do
Tip #3 Get Real About Focus and Distraction
Tip #4 Understand Your Procrastination Drivers
Tip #5 Get Clear on Your Game Changers
Tip #6 Pre-empt the Things Will That Stand In Your Way – Mental Contrasting
Tip #7 Get Skilled and Confident at Saying “No”
Tip #8 Beware the Planning Fallacy
Tip #9 Break Your Game Changer Actions into Micro-actions
Tip #10 Surround Yourself with a Great Support Squad

Start with a Positive Mindset

To keep motivation alive, it’s crucial to start with the right mindset. Consider this as the first step to achieve your new goals. Develop positive self-talk and foster a positive mindset, which can powerfully alter your nervous system and boost your mental state. External motivators are useful, but avoid negative motivation. Having the right mindset allows for a successful outcome, as it nurtures positive energy and good vibes, which will increase your energy levels.

If you’re at the early stages of setting and working towards your goals, you’ll also find my articles on how to set intentional goals, how to facilitate a goal setting workshop, and growth mindset for goal achievement super helpful. You do need to be super-clear on what your end goal is in the first place, so maybe start with one of those articles first.

Tip #1: Time – You Have 168 Hours in a Week

Time is the one resource that you can’t recreate or get back. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

We each have 168 hours available to us in every week, no matter who we are.

One of the most common things I hear my coaching, training and consultancy clients say is that they simply don’t have the time to do all the things they want or need to do.

Author Laura Vanderkam strongly disagrees with this contemporary narrative, arguing in her book 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think that 168 hours is enough for a well-balanced, rewarding and healthy career, family and social life without compromising our sleep, leisure time or exercise.

How To Gain Control of Your Free Time – Laura Vanderkam

Now if you’re starting to feel a bit grumpy about the idea that you do in fact have more time than you think, at least give some of the ideas and strategies in her book a chance. After all, Vanderkam’s recommendations are based on direct, quantitative research. She studied the time-keeping records of real business leaders to arrive at her conclusions.

Keep Track of Your Time

When we look at how much time we think we spend on an activity versus the reality, our perceptions are usually incorrect.

The human brain is designed to think we spend more time on things we don’t like doing, that bore or stress us, or that we find very tough, than we actually do. The opposite is true for things we enjoy doing – time seems to fly by, and we remember the duration less well.

Tracking your time for a couple of weeks will give you a more objective view of how you spend your time in reality, rather than relying on how you think you spend your time.

I use the Toggl app to do this. It’s super easy, with a free version. If you choose to pay for more bells and whistles it’s still really inexpensive. You simply select the task and hit ‘start’ when you begin and activity and ‘finish’ when you end it. Toggl will do all the analysis for you, and show you super clearly exactly how you’re investing your time.

Use Your Time Tracking to Be More Intentional with Your Time

You can then use the insights from your time tracking to make intentional adjustments to how you are spending your time. You’ll find more of the space you need to work consistently towards your big goals. Carving out dedicated opportunities in this way will help you to stay motivated to achieve your goals.

Vanderkam’s study showed that many of us spend ‘busy time’ on low value, low priority activities. We could invest that time better in other things, strengthening our momentum and positive motivation.

Balance Your Professional and Personal Goals

For all human beings, balancing personal goals with professional ones is a crucial, yet often overlooked, aspect of everyday life. Incorporate different things such as social events and even a few minutes of exercise into your schedule to enhance your mental health. Also, remember that each day is a new opportunity for progress, so set goals for every single day.

Tip #2 The Essence of Strategy is Deciding What Not To Do

“The essence of strategy is deciding what not to do” is a great quote by leadership expert Michael Porter.

It’s also echoed in the premise of one of my favorite books, Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. If we live to the age of 80, we will have four thousand weeks in our lifetime. This is a short amount given the history of the planet. We will never be able to do all the things we want to do in that lifetime. So, Burkeman recommends that we make intentional choices about what we will choose not to do.

Now, I know that in tip #1 I said that we have more time than we think. That’s still true. We have more time than we think, yet still not enough time to do everything! We can usually make much better use of the time we have.

Burkeman’s advice isn’t about ramming that time with high productivity activities, striving to achieve as much as you can, however. He recommends that you embrace your limitations. You will never be able to do it all. By confronting this, you can begin to focus on what matters.

If you have taken steps to ensure that you’ve set your career and business goals with intention, this advice helps. It enables you to cut away the things that would be nice to do, but that matter less. This will give you more space, energy and motivation to achieve your goals.

Getting clear on your real priorities and focusing on those is key for you to stay motivated to achieve your goals.

Tip #3 Get Real About Focus and Distraction

In 1925, Hugo Gernsback invented the ‘Isolator’, which was “A Helmet For Insulating The Senses Against Distraction”. (The Journal Science And Invention, Vol. 13, No. 3, July 1925).

The Isolator, Hugo Gernsback

Even back then, before the age of social media and video games, Gernsback found it hard to focus. He wanted to do what Cal Newport just a few years ago referred to as “Deep Work“. Gernsback’s helment invention was an attempt to block out external distractions so that he could concentrate better and for longer.

But, as Gernsback soon learned, external factors are only around half the problem when it comes to preventing focused work. He observed back in 1925 what Killingsworth & Gilbert, Harvard University later corroborated through research. That is, we spend about 47% of our waking hours thinking about something other than what we’re currently doing.

Maybe you sometimes get yourself ready to work on your goal, only to be distracted by something else? An email pings in, you take a call, you do a quick check of your social media… And before you know it, the time has been gobbled up on other stuff?

There is increasing evidence to show that using mindfulness techniques and practising meditation can help you to focus, stay motivated and achieve your goals.

Practise Getting into Flow

My own preferred technique is to get myself into what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called a state of flow. This is when I’m stretching myself to achieve a task or complete an activity, using lots of skill. It means that I have to focus.

This is that wonderful experience of being so engrossed in what you’re doing, that you lose track of time. It seems to stand still. You feel like you carry on forever, almost, and not even notice the time passing.

Source: The Cabot Learning Foundation

To get into flow, decide on a challenge related to your career or business goal that you want to accomplish. It needs to be one that you have the skills to achieve, but it will take effort and some concentration.

How to Use “Flow State’

Locate yourself in a productive setting. Somewhere comfortable and with the minimum external distractions.

Adopt the mindset of looking forward to the challenge – then get started.

If you wind up feeling bored, increase the challenge.

If you start to feel anxious, tap into your skill.

To counter a lack of enthusiasm, up the difficulty of the challenge and the level of skill needed.

Knowing how to get yourself into flow will help you to stay motivated and achieve your goals. It will make your journey towards your goals more enjoyable. You’ll also see great progress and personal growth, which will spur you on.

Use a Vision Board to Stay Motivated and Achieve Your Goals

A vision board, also known as a dream board or a goal board, is a physical or digital tool used to visualize and focus on your life goals and aspirations. It is essentially a collage of images, pictures, affirmations, quotes, and other elements that represent whatever you want to be, do, or have in your life.

The images and words chosen for the vision board serve as tangible representations of your dreams and goals. They could be related to your career aspirations, personal growth, financial prosperity, health goals, relationships, travel, or any other area of your life where you desire improvement or achievement.

In the context of business and professional goals, a vision board can be especially valuable. For example, if you’re an entrepreneur or a startup founder, your vision board might include images or symbols representing the growth of your company, the expansion of your team, successful product launches, meaningful partnerships, or achieving a certain revenue goal.

Example of a Digital Vision Board

It can serve as a visual representation of your goals and aspirations, serving to program your subconscious mind towards a positive direction.

the images and ideas we focus on the most are the ones we subconsciously work towards and attract into our lives. By placing your vision board in a place where you see it daily, you’re likely to do more to achieve those goals, even subconsciously.

How Vision Boards Work

Vision boards work in several ways:

Clarity: Creating a vision board forces you to become clear about your business and professional goals. It compels you to think about what success looks like for you.
Visualization: A vision board serves as a constant, visual reminder of your goals and aspirations. The act of visualizing your success can boost your confidence and motivation to work towards your goals.
Inspiration and Motivation: Seeing your goals visually every day can serve as a powerful source of inspiration and motivation. It helps to keep your ambitions at the forefront of your mind, driving you to take steps towards them.
Reinforces Positive Thinking: A vision board filled with positive images and words can help to promote a positive mindset, essential for overcoming challenges and setbacks that may come your way.
Encourages Action: Every time you look at your board, you’re reminded of where you want to go, which can spur you to take action towards achieving your goals.

A vision board can play a significant role in helping you stay focused on and motivated towards achieving your big business and professional goals. It’s a tool that brings your ambitions to life, making them more tangible and real.

Tip #4 Understand Your Procrastination Drivers

Procrastination can be demotivating, and obviously gets in the way of you smashing your big career and business goals.

The word ‘procrastination’ comes from the Latin for putting things off until tomorrow.

And it’s not usually a symptom of laziness.

By understanding the potential root cause behind your own procrastination, you can use intentional strategies to work with it.

Main Reasons for Procrastination

Here are some of the main reasons for procrastination.

Present Bias:

As humans, we often have present bias. This means that we prioritize immediate gratification over long-term rewards.

Perfectionism:

Perfectionism, or the fear of making mistakes, can lead to avoidance of tasks. You want to do the task really well, and it’s important to you. But the fear of failure and not doing it well enough puts you off getting started.

Overwhelm:

Large tasks can seem daunting, causing you to delay starting. Sometimes, you might not know where to start.

Lack of Motivation:

If a task isn’t personally meaningful or rewarding, you’re more likely to put it off.

Decision Fatigue:

Too many choices or decisions can lead to avoidance of making any decision at all.

Task Aversion:

If you see a task as boring or unpleasant, you’re more likely to procrastinate on it.

Low Self-Efficacy:

Self-efficacy is your belief in your ability to complete a task. If you doubt your ability to complete a task, you’re more likely to delay it.

Some main causes of procrastination

Strategies to Combat the Causes of Procrastination

Here are evidence-based strategies to combat each of the causes of procrastination:

Present Bias:

Use “temptation bundling,” i.e. pair a task you’re avoiding with something you enjoy doing, to make it more appealing.

Perfectionism:

Embrace a growth mindset, focusing on learning and improving rather than being perfect. Practice self-compassion to help alleviate fears of making mistakes.

Overwhelm:

Break tasks into smaller, more manageable parts. This approach, known as “chunking,” makes tasks seem less daunting.

If you don’t know where to start, randomly pick something to do and start there.

Lack of Motivation:

Connect tasks to your larger goals and values to make them feel more personally meaningful. Hopefully, you’ve done this with your intentional goal setting activities. If not, now’s the best time to do it.

Decision Fatigue:

Limit the number of choices you have to make in a day, streamline decisions where possible. Make important decisions earlier in the day when your mental energy is higher.

Task Aversion:

Use techniques like the “Pomodoro Technique.” This is where you work on a task for a set amount of time (e.g., 25 minutes). Then, take a short break. It can make an unpleasant task more bearable.

Low Self-Efficacy:

Build self-efficacy through setting and achieving smaller goals, seeking support and feedback, and visualizing success.

Tip #5 Get Clear on Your Game Changers

A Game Changer is an action, task, or strategy that makes a significant impact toward the achievement of your goal.

To identify your Game Changers:

List all the potential actions you think you could take to achieve your goal
Evaluate the potential impact and effort of each of those actions
Prioritize them – the high impact actions are your Game Changers. The low effort, high impact Game Changers are your quick wins. The high effort, high impact Game Changers are your future stars.
As you work through the priority actions, measure and adjust as you learn more and get closer to your goal.

How to identify your Game Changers

Tip #6 Pre-empt the Things Will That Stand In Your Way – Mental Contrasting

Facing brick walls is a part of the journey. The important part is to keep going. Persistence – also known as grit – is an important factor. Sometimes, the third time is the charm. Maintaining fitness goals, for instance, can be a real challenge when you’ve got a lot going on at work, but with the right attitude and a little bit of perseverance, you can overcome any obstacle.

Mental Contrasting is what Gabrielle Oettingen calls the skill of pre-empting the things that will stand in your way.

To stay motivated and achieve your big career and business goals, there will be numerous challenges and hurdles ahead. If your goals were easy and straightforward, they wouldn’t be big goals!

Gabrielle Oettingen recommends that you use the WOOP technique to identify potential blockers, and create a plan before they happen. This is so that you’re ready for them with your plan when they do pop up.

WOOP stands for:

Wish. Which goal do you want to achieve? Make some notes about it.
Outcome. How will it feel when you reach your goal? Take some time to imagine it.
Obstacle. What are your main obstacles? Write them down.
Plan. Make a plan for how you will tackle each of the obstacles, if and when they happen. Write these plans down.

The WOOP Model – Gabrielle Oettingen

Research shows that people who use the WOOP mental contrasting technique have more success in making sure they stay motivated to achieve their goals.

Tip #7 Get Skilled and Confident at Saying “No”

To create the time and capacity you need to achieve your big career and business goals, you’ll need to get skilled and confident at saying “no”. Even better, if you can pre-empt and plan for some of the situations where you know you’ll need to say “no”, using mental contrasting, you’re likely to have even greater success.

Present bias can often mean that we say “yes” to people because we don’t want to feel uncomfortable in the moment. Even when we know that we have neither the time nor the inclination to do what the other person is asking.

So getting ready with strategies to help you say “no”, in the right way, when you need to, will be a big help.

Here are some tips on how to say “no” without damaging your relationships or reputation:

Don’t Respond Immediately

Remember that you usually don’t have to answer straightaway. Don’t say no until you’re sure you need to. The important thing is that you don’t impulsively say “yes” in the moment. Use words such as:“Leave it with me, I’ll need to have a look at current commitments. I’ll get back to you.” These will give some time and space to reflect and respond appropriately.

Consider Potentially Acceptable Reasons for Saying “No”

When you’re saying “no”, you don’t always have to give a reason or explain yourself. But sometimes at work it can be helpful to do so. Feeling that you have a valid reason for saying “no” will also make you feel more confident and comfortable with it.

Some examples of potentially good reasons are:

•The timeframe doesn’t work – eg unachievable deadlines

•You’ll have to neglect other important work

•It’s not within your skillset or professional development plans

And ask yourself:

•Am I the only person who can do this?

•Will this project move me closer to achieving my top priorities and longer-term goals?

•If I don’t do this, will it matter in a week, a month, or a year from now?

If you answer any of these questions in the negative, a strategic ‘no’ is likely in order.

Practise saying “no” in low risk, low stakes situations and build up from there

Practise saying “no” in low risk, low stakes situations is a great way to build your skill confidence. If you’re usually the person in a group who goes with the flow on choice of restaurant or film to watch, start stating a preference, for example. Then build from there.

Tip #8 Beware the Planning Fallacy

To stay motivated and achieve your goals you need to be realistic about how long things will take. Optimism is awesome, but expecting overnight success usually isn’t practical or realistic.

The Planning Fallacy is a cognitive bias that leads us to consistently underestimate timelines, despite knowing that similar tasks have taken longer in the past. This prediction bias springs from our sense of optimism, but events don’t usually unfold as we imagine. Instead, we tend to run into unexpected obstacles, delays, and interruptions.

To limit the effects of this mental error, add a buffer of 20% into your plans for achieving your goals, and when planning for your other work, to be pragmatically realistic about your time management and productivity.

Tip #9 Break Your Game Changer Actions into Micro-actions

Break your Game Changer actions down into micro-actions.

Setting new goals is only the beginning. To go a long way in reaching them, you need to break them down into smaller pieces or smaller chunks. This method makes your big dreams seem more manageable. Instead of focusing solely on the end result, concentrate on the smaller steps that lead there. This can act as a great motivator and is one of the key ingredients to maintaining momentum. An action plan broken down into smaller parts will not only give you a good start, but also ensure you’re well-positioned for the long run.

If you get one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.

The 1 Percent Rule states that over time the majority of the rewards in a given field will accumulate to the people, teams, and organizations that maintain a 1 percent advantage over the alternatives.

The One Percent Rule – JamesClear.com

You don’t need to be twice as good to get twice the results. You just need to be slightly better.

Consider SMART Goals

Consider SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) as they are a good way to refine your objectives. If you are a startup founder, aiming for a new job or looking to acquire new skills, SMART goals can be helpful. Moreover, set aside time in your daily routines to work on these goals. It’s important to schedule time for this task on a regular basis. An online forum or online courses can provide support and further skills development.

Tip #10 Surround Yourself with a Great Support Squad

Be intentional about the people you call on to support you on your journey towards achieving your big goals. Shape a great support squad. Ideally your support squad will feature people who will perform the following roles for you. Bear in mind that one person can perform more than one role. They may or may not have similar goals to yours. The important thing is that you surround yourself with positive people. Successful people, like-minded individuals who will help you find effective ways to make progress towards your ambitious goals.

Goal Achievement Support Squad Roles

Sounding board
Network connector
Voice of experience
Idea generator
Devil’s advocate
Whip cracker
Motivator / cheerleader
Expert

The importance of a support network or support system should not be underestimated. Whether it’s a best friend, a mentor, or a group of like-minded individuals in an online forum, these networks provide different ways to stay motivated.

Also consider how you can pay it forward, and think about what role(s) you can play in helping others to stay motivated and achieve their goals too. It would be great if you could share this article and these tips with them!

Next Steps to Stay Motivated and Achieve Your Goals

Achieving goals is not always about a straight path or an uncertain reward. It’s about finding a balance in your professional goals and personal life, and understanding the bigger picture. Through this process, you can gain new skills and insights that can be applied to different areas of your life. Keep in mind that small steps lead to big changes.

Remember to enjoy the journey towards your goals, expect and plan for likely challenges, use these tips and strengthen your own skills by helping – or even mentoring and coaching – others.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

– Nelson Mandela

When you look back on the work you did to achieve your goals, you’ll see just how much you’ve learned, grown and accomplished.

If you’d like any support with intentional goal setting and achievement, do check out my Power Hour one-to-one coaching option. I’d love to help you to accomplish the career, professional and business goals that are meaningful to you.

The post How to Stay Motivated to Achieve Your Goals: 10 Easy Tips appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

How to do Competitor Analysis

Jo North — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 07:30:14 +0000

How to do competitor analysis

When launching a new product or service, or updating your existing product or service portfolio, conducting a thorough competitive analysis is a crucial first step in developing a successful business strategy.

Competitive analysis involves identifying and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of competitors and the competitive landscape in which your business operates. By conducting a thorough competitive analysis, you can gain valuable information about your own product offerings, customer experience, and marketing efforts, as well as those of your competitors.

This article is packed with practical tips on competitor analysis for your business and how to use competitor to support innovation and growth in your business.

What is competitor analysis in business?

Competitor analysis evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors’ current strategies to help identify opportunities and threats for your business to enhance your own strategy.

When seen through a customer-focused lens, competitor analysis is not about head-to-head comparisons, instead, it’s about assessing how much better or worse a product or service is at helping your customer get a job done.

Why is competitor analysis important for your business?

Competitor analysis can help you to sharpen and define our value proposition. It can also help you level up and do an even better job for your target customers.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear a hundred battles.”

Sun Tzu

Staying ahead of the curve

The world around us is always changing.

As social needs, technology, the economy, politics and environment change, so do customer needs and competitor activity. It’s essential that your business stays current, relevant and competitive. Watching for emergent trends and changes is vital for sustainable business business.

Examples of how the world around us is changing for 2023

Let’s take a quick look at some recent trends from the Mintel Global Trends Report for 2023. These trends are what today’s consumers are expecting and aspiring towards in the marketplace. It’s worth checking out the full, free Mintel report for yourself. You can download it here. As a summary, the trends for 2023 include:

Me Mentality

Consumers will be eager to re-focus on themselves and brands can help them take centre stage.

Power to the People

Brands have to make room for a new ‘c’ in their c-suite as, consumers are investing, co-creating and voting for change alongside brands.

Hyper Fatigue

Consumers will try to cut through the noise and connect with what matters to them.

International Localism

Buying local will be a way consumers can protect themselves financially, environmentally and psychologically, and feel that they are giving back.

Intentional Spending

Factors like flexibility, durability and sustainability will play increasingly important roles in consumers’ value equation.

Why are trends important?

So, why these trends are important? Because the world’s always changing and so are your customer’s needs! Customer activity is changing, and your business needs to keep innovating and changing in order to respond appropriately.

Competitor analysis sits in the context of the change around us.

If we don’t look at what’s going on around us, we start to drift away from where we need to be in the marketplace. This is called “strategic drift”. It happens to businesses that are complacent, inappropriately traditional, similar to many others. Customers aren’t wowed with the products and services, and there is alack of innovation and change.

Disrupt, or be disrupted!

Some benefits of customer analysis

By looking outwards and around at what your competitors are up to, you’ll get important insights that will help to achieve all of the following for your business:

Nail down or create your unique selling proposition (USP)
Better understand current market trends
Better target your current customer base
Uncover untapped markets that your competitors aren’t selling to
Gather benchmark data to measure your growth against
Find errors and gaps in your competitors’ strategies
Identify your Unfair Advantage

Video: How to Find and Use Your ‘Unfair Advantage’

You’re looking for learning to create opportunity.

Customer analysis is not about copying – it’s about outperforming, finding gaps and opportunities for innovation and growth.

Customer analysis is all about healthy learning, a growth mindset, and looking at where you can realistically do better.

Be savvy.

Avoid comparisonitis! Sometimes competitors’ performance might look much better than it really is, especially on their own websites and social media posts. Take what they say with a pinch of salt, as the reality is that nothing is ever perfect in business.

Get started with my 7-step competitor analysis process

Here’s how to do a competitor analysis for your business in 7 steps:

Identify your competitors
Review how your products & services compare with those of your competitors
Work out what additional intelligence you need on your competitors and why
Get the competitor intelligence you need
Combine the competitor intelligence with customer needs and trends
Identify gaps and opportunities for innovation and competitive advantage in your own business
Create and communicate competitive differentiation for your own business

We will go through each of these steps in turn now.

1. Identify your competitors

I see many businesses dive into doing a competitor analysis, yet they’ve not considered who they’re competing with. Which competitors do you need to analyze, and why?

To conduct a competitive analysis, the first step is to identify the main competitors in your geographic area, market segment, or industry. This can be done through a Google search, market research, or by analyzing the market share of your industry’s top competitors. Once you have identified the list of competitors, the next step is to gather information about their product features, marketing strategies, sales volume, customer satisfaction, and online presence.

To get a closer look at competitors, visit their websites, review their product offerings, and read their customer reviews.

Include indirect competition in your analysis

In addition to analyzing your top competitors, it’s important to consider indirect competitors and similar businesses or brands that offer similar products or services. This can be done through a thorough competitive analysis framework or a competitor analysis template.

Think of this in terms of 3 of Porter’s Five Forces.

Porter’s Five Forces – the stars show the focus for your competitor analysis

The first of the 3 areas to analyze is direct rivals.

Who is in your market already? Who are your competitors?

Let’s say you have a pizza restaurant that also offers takeaway. Ask yourself who your direct rivals are. In the pizza business, they may be other pizza takeaways that operate in the same location or environment.

You also need to look at what substitutes are available to your customers. A substitute is something that your product or service could be replaced with. In the example of the business business, this could be be a supermarket pizza cooked at home, an Indian or Chinese takeaway, or a pub meal.

Next, think about who the new potential competitors are that are entering the market. Is there a new pizza restaurant or other food and drink provider opening up in your locale?

And last, but not least, look to see if you are in a ‘blue ocean’ market. This is a space that is wide open. You enjoy an unrivalled market position that none of your competitors are in.

We can also look at it this way…

Primary, secondary and tertiary competitors

Primary competitors

These are direct competitors. They are targeting the same audience or have a similar product as you — or both.

Secondary competitors

These competitors may offer a high- or low-end version of your product or service, or sell something similar to a completely different audience.

Tertiary competitors

These competitors offer products and services related to yours that are trending. They include businesses that it may be beneficial to you to collaborate with further down the line.

Again, looking at the pizza restaurant as an example…

The primary competition is other takeaways.
The secondary competition might be the lower-end pizza restaurant, or the five-star Italian restaurant.
The tertiary competition are potential collaborators. In this example, it could be the businesses selling wine, or an ice cream parlor. You could collaborate and have an offer around pizza, wine, and ice cream! Yum!

Where do you stand in relation to your competitors?

I find it helpful to use Gartner’s Magic Quadrants to carry out a competitor analysis that shows where a business is positioned in relation to the wider market. It’s designed for technology products, but works for many other product and service sectors, too.

Gartner’s Magic Quadrants for Competitor Analysis

In this image you see on the horizontal axis is for the completeness of vision that your competitor has, and the vertical axis is the ability of your competitor to execute that vision.

This drives out different categories of competition, so this can be used to determine how you can classify your competition.

A visionary has a really well-developed vision, but is still working out how to get there. They know where they’re going, but they haven’t nailed it yet in terms of putting those ideas into practice.

Leaders, on the other hand, have that completeness of vision. They know where they’re going and they’re leading the pack.

Apple is a great example of this. They have a complete, clear and compelling vision. They also have the money, time, resources, processes, marketing, and so on to get behind that vision and make it happen.

A niche business is where one that has a smaller, very specific vision, as well as a limited ability to execute in a way that influences and disrupts the wider market.

Challengers are those that have got a good power behind them in terms of their operations and resources, but they’re not as visionary as the others. They do, however, have the ability to deliver.

We’ve seen this with Samsung over recent years. While they didn’t have the original vision, they had all the resources and technology to create a vision and compete with Apple and have come out as strong challengers.

2. Review how your products and services compare with those of your competitors

On occasion I have a business tell me that they do not have competitors, that nobody else is doing anything like they’re doing. This causes me to think that one of following applies…

They have not looked properly.
They’re really onto a winner. If nobody’s doing it, and there’s a cracking space there, go for it!
There may not be any demand for it, and it will be very hard to create any demand for it.

If there’s no competition around, ask why that is. Have you looked and thought about it properly? Is it a real opportunity? Or is it a situation where there is no demand for what you’re looking to create and sell. Test it to find out if there could be some demand or not.

Structure your analysis

Do a structured analysis of how your business’ products or services compare to your primary competitors.

Perform a comparison on price, quality, innovation, customer service, and speed using specific evidenced information vs. just your perception.

3. Work out what additional intelligence you need on your competitors and why

To gain a better understanding of the competitive landscape, it’s also important to research industry trends, upcoming threats, and new trends in the market. This can be done by reviewing press releases, case studies, and industry reports.

When conducting a competitive analysis, it’s important to take a comprehensive approach and analyze all aspects of your competitors’ products, marketing campaigns, and marketing efforts. This includes analyzing their social media presence and social media competitor analysis, as well as their share of voice in the market.

Identify your information gaps

Start by identifying any gaps in your information on your competitors.

Is there any additional intelligence on those competitors that you feel you need? Make a note of that and determine how you might obtain that intelligence.

When you’re thinking about customer analysis, think about the customer journey from beginning to end.

How is that business is making itself known?
In what ways is it getting customers interested?
How are they hooking them in and getting them into the sales funnel so that customers will buy?
What is the purchase process is like?
How are they retaining their customers?
How are they getting customer recommendations, testimonials, and referrals?

4. Get the competitor intelligence you need

There are multiple ways of getting easy access to useful intelligence for your competitor analysis. Here are just some examples. Use a combination of sources to get a really rounded picture of what your competitors are up to and how well their strategies are working for them.

Industry research – public and paid
Websites and social media channels
Annual reports
News mentions
Online customer support threads and reviews
Networking – with customers and peers
Customer research
Sales team feedback
Mystery shopping
Subscribe to blog posts, newsletters, etc.
Monitor recruitment
Niche organisations and online communities such as Facebook groups

5. Combine the competitor intelligence with customer needs and trends; and 6. Identify gaps and opportunities for innovation and competitive advantage in your own business

It’s also a good idea to conduct a SWOT analysis of your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This can help identify their competitive edge and potential threats to your own product or service.

At this stage I actually like to do a S.O.A.R. analysis.

S.O.A.R. stands for:

Strengths
Opportunities
Aspirations
Results

It’s a nice alternative to a SWOT. In a S.O.A.R. analysis, the opportunities absorb the weaknesses and threats from a S.W.O.T.

SOAR is strengths-based, consistent with an approach known as ‘Appreciative Inquiry’. This focuses on achieving successful change management by identifying what is working well and then doing more of it, because people (and therefore organisations) will grow in whichever direction people focus their attention.

When conducting a SOAR analysis, the basic questions you need to answer are:

What are my/our greatest strengths?
Where are my/our best opportunities?
How would I define imy/our preferred future, or aspiration
What are the measurable results that will tell me/us, I’ve/we’ve achieved the vision of the future?

Look at your SOAR analysis in the round. Select the items that would make the most significant difference to your business, and that have the potential to become a motivational innovation and growth goal resulting from your competitor analysis.

7. Create and Communicate Competitive Differentiation

Step seven is all about creating your competitive differentiation. Look at what you can improve, how you can level up and then put the plan that you’ve created in steps five and six into action.

As you create and implement your plan, make sure to ask yourself these questions about your own competitive advantage:

Can you sustain it?
Is it distinctive?
Can it be communicated clearly?
Do customers value the distinction enough to pay for it?

It is important to note that with competitive differentiation, what you do must be sustainable. So, if you’re going for it, make sure that you can keep it up for the duration.

Finally, using the information gathered from the competitive analysis, the next step is to develop a marketing plan that targets potential customers and captures the audience’s attention. This can involve developing marketing strategies that differentiate your product from competitors’ products and highlight your company’s strengths.

By conducting a thorough competitive analysis, you can make informed business decisions and develop a business strategy that leads to business success. Utilizing the best competitor analysis tools, such as Momentive.ai, Similarweb, Brand24 and others, periodic competitor analysis, and following the best practices for competitive intelligence in this article, you can gain a competitive advantage in the market and promote your product or service in a way that meets the needs of your target audience.

As well, why not have a look at my earlier show that I did on How to Create Your Value Proposition which will help you with that as well.

Next steps

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article on how to do competitor analysis and found it informative and helpful. Do let me know what you think and ask me any questions on the subject using the comments area. I’d love to hear from you!

You might also like to check out the many free resources that I have here. Browse the free content studio and get the items that interest you for free!

The post How to do Competitor Analysis appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

Facilitation Ideas – Business Goal Achievement Workshop

Jo North — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 13:40:14 +0000

Business Goal Achievement

Are you and your team excited and ready for your business goal achievement in the year ahead?

Have you got clear plans in place to achieve them, with contingencies mapped out in case other things get in the way?

In this article I’ll be sharing evidence-based insights, tools, and approaches on how to facilitate a goal achievement workshop for your business, or a mini “retreat” if you’re working on your own.

Facilitating a goal achievement workshop for your team will de-risk your important business goals falling by the wayside as the year progresses!

I’ll help you to act smarter, build and maintain momentum over weeks and months, and identify strategies for likely obstacles before they happen.

You’ll get a full agenda and activities for a time-efficient team workshop or individual away day that will give you clarity and greater motivation for sustained action.

Plus, check out my article here for additional, practical, evidence-based on how to stay motivated to achieve your goals.

Video: Facilitation Ideas for Your Goal Achievement Workshop

Why Goal Setting is Important for Your Business

Goal setting is important for your business because it creates and communicates direction, which over time helps you to achieve your organization’s purpose and vision.

If you haven’t set your business goals yet, please have a look at my detailed article here on how to facilitate a goal setting workshop for your business and start there. Then, come back to this article. You will need to have identified your goals before you and your team progress to the activities I share here.

How to Achieve Business Goals

To achieve your business goals, you will need to ensure that the following critical success factors are in place:

Your team has goal clarity. Goal clarity simply means that everyone involved in pursuing them has a crystal-clear understanding of what the goals are, why they are important and what the measures of success are.
The focus is on activities that make a meaningful contribution to goal achievement. The term I use for these activities is power moves, because they propel progress and add up to a significant step change. Focus on agreeing the highest potential power moves instead of creating a long list of indiscriminate, mainly inconsequential actions.
Convert your power moves into micro actions, with defined timescales. Use the compound effect to optimize your goal achievement as a team.
Forecasting the likely internal and external obstacles ahead. Create a plan for how you will handle them before they happen. Psychologist Gabriele Oettingen refers to this as mental contrasting. She created the acronym WOOP for it, standing for the process of Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan.
Remember that what gets measured gets done. Also, that our actions go where our focus lies. To maintain team motivation, momentum and consistency, measure, review and discuss progress and performance against your goals frequently. Work in agile project format, so that you regroup as a team every couple of weeks to assess you actual vs target performance as a team, and course correct as necessary.

Why a Goal Achievement Workshop is Important

Of course, once you have defined your business goals, the next step is for the team to develop strategies and plans to achieve them.

Facilitating a goal achievement workshop for your business brings important benefits.

Benefits of a Business Goal Achievement Workshop

Goal Setting and Motivation

Setting new business goals often feels fresh, dynamic and motivational, even if those goals are challenging. But once the novelty wears away and we get back to the reality of the day-job, enthusiasm and focus can wane. Our best laid plans are sometimes frustrated by events that are difficult for us to control. In addition, automatic routines and old behaviors can just take over. It takes time and effort to instil new habits.

You can integrate the scientifically-supported tools and techniques that I share here into your workshop to create goal achievement strategies that maintain motivation and momentum. You can also successfully foresee and plan to overcome likely obstacles in advance.

Team Collaboration

A well-planned and facilitated goal achievement workshop will support the development of your high performing team. Working together, your team will be able to spot synergies, reduce the risk of duplication and identify ways to help one another. Everyone will have a shared understanding of who will be doing what to make your business goals happen.

Using Neuroscience to Achieve Goals

For a really deep understanding of the neuroscience of setting, assessing, and pursuing goals, the Huberman Lab podcast video below is a great resource. It explains the neural (brain) circuits that underlie goal setting and pursuit.

Using Science to Achieve Goals – Huberman Lab Podcast

You’ll also find my article here on intentional goal setting very useful as well.

Agenda and Activities for Your Business Goal Achievement Workshop

Here is the outline agenda and ideas for facilitation activities for your business goal achievement workshop:

Getting Started
- Welcome, introduction, purpose and warm-up
Goal Clarity
- Refresher on the goals and KPIs set for the year ahead
Goal Achievement Planning
- Idea generation, prioritisation and development
  - Facilitation ideas: Sticky note clustering; Lotus blossom
Overcoming Obstacles
- Mental contrasting
  - Facilitation ideas: Bullet-proofing; Stakeholder Mapping; Help and Hinder; If…., then…
Next Steps
- Power moves, agile project planning and micro actions
  - Facilitation ideas: Blockbusters; Power Moves

Goal Achievement Workshop Agenda

Getting Started

The first agenda item in your goal achievement workshop is of course the introduction and welcome. Remind everyone of the purpose of the session. Go through the agenda. Use a well-chosen icebreaker or warm up to help get your team’s focus on the workshop content and activities.

Goal Clarity

Revisit the goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you have set. Check in with how you are doing so far against where you wanted to be. Make sure that everyone is clear on what the goals for the year are, and why they are important. I suggest you do this through a simple presentation.

Goal Achievement Planning

The next phase is for the team to generate ideas for how they might achieve their goals. Choose from one of two facilitation techniques here – either sticky note clustering or the lotus blossom creative technique.

Sticky Note Clustering

Ask people to focus on each of the business goals. If you have a number of business goals and a large enough group you might want to get smaller breakout groups to each work on a different business goal.
Explain that the activity has a couple of key stages and that you will explain each as you go along.
Each person is to work individually at first. They will take a pile of post-it notes and a pen, and get as many ideas for how to achieve the business goal(s) down on the post-it notes as they can, writing only one item on each post-it note. Make sure that people don’t put more than one item on a post-it note.
After a short period everyone will have a pile of written sticky notes in front of them.
Ask your delegates to work in small groups to “cluster” their ideas on the sticky notes into similar themes on the flip chart paper or virtual whiteboard, a bit like playing the card game “Snap”. They should place ideas that no-one else has as a cluster of one item.
Ask the groups to put a ring around each cluster and give it a name that summarises the content.
Ask each group to feedback on the contents of their clusters. Note similarities and differences. Vote on the priority and / or most productive ideas for achieving each of the business goals, writing out the final list for everyone to see.

Lotus Blossom Creative Technique

The lotus blossom creative technique is such a favorite of mine that I have created a dedicated how-to guide and video for it! Here is the article on how to facilitate the lotus blossom workshop activity. I’ve inserted the video for you below. Ask the team to work in smaller breakout groups to create a lotus blossom grid for each goal.

Video: Lotus Blossom Activity

When everyone has completed their lotus blossoms, ask each group to feedback. Note similarities and differences. Vote on the priority and / or most productive ideas for achieving each of the business goals, writing out the final list for everyone to see.

Overcoming Obstacles

Facilitation ideas for overcoming obstacles to achieve your business goals are:

Bullet-proofing
Stakeholder mapping
Help and hinder
If…then…

Select one or more of these for this business goal achievement workshop agenda item.

Bullet-proofing

This activity will surface the risks and potential opportunities for the ideas selected in the earlier Goal Achievement Planning task.

Ask delegates to work in breakout teams to complete both risk and opportunity versions of the template below for each selected idea, adding in a potential risk mitigation or opportunity building action for every significant item.

Bullet-proofing Template

Stakeholder Mapping

A stakeholder is anyone who has an interest in, or will be affected by, your business goals.

Creating a stakeholder map will help the team to think about who they need to engage, influence and collaborate with.

The approach is based on the Winstanley et al. Stakeholder Power Matrix.

First ask your team to work in small breakout groups to brainstorm all the stakeholders who are interested in, or affected by, each of the business goals. They should write the name of each stakeholder on a separate sticky note.

Still in breakout groups, the team should then draw a 2×2 grid, like the one shown below. On the horizontal axis they should write “Stakeholder interest / commitment”, and on the vertical axis “Stakeholder influence / authority”.

The next step of for the groups to discuss where each of the sticky notes should be on the grid:

High interest / High influence – for stakeholders who can make or break the successful achievement of the goal AND who are highly committed to supporting it
High interest / Low influence – for stakeholders who have less say over if or how the goal is achieved, but have a strong interest in the process and / or outcome
Low interest / High influence – for stakeholders who can make or break the successful achievement of the goal AND who ARE NOT highly committed to supporting it. They may even be against it.
Low interest / Low influence – for stakeholders who are neither interested nor influential.

Stakeholder Mapping Matrix

The final step is for the teams to shape communication and engagement plans as follows:

High interest / High influence – how to maintain stakeholder support
High interest / Low influence – how to keep interested stakeholders appropriately up-to-date
Low interest / High influence – how to influence stakeholders for greater commitment and support
Low interest / Low influence – how to monitor this group for any changes

Help and Hinder

Help and hinder is a nice alternative to the bullet-proofing activity above.

Ask the team to make a list of all the the things that are helping them to achieve the business goals. They should make another list of all the things that hinder achievement of the business goals. You can use a version of the Help and Hinder activity template below.

The next step is to rank each of the items in the lists, highlighting the most important ones.

Finally, focusing on the priority items, the team thinks about how they will proactively use the things that will help, and either overcome or get round the the things that will hinder. Make sure they write their plans down.

Help and Hinder Activity Template

If…then…

To facilitate the if…then… activity, first ask the team to brainstorm all the things that are likely to happen (helpful and unhelpful things) as they work towards their goals. For example, they may see budget cuts ahead, or foresee winning a new business contract. Again, they need to write each item down.

Then ask your participants to put these likely or potential events into the following sentence, using the If…then… structure. They will create a plan of action that they could take if and when each event actually happens. For example:

If we have budget cuts [the event], then we will do the graphic design for the programme inhouse [plan of action].
If we win the new XYZ contract [the event], then we will hire an interim project manager [plan of action].

Next Steps

You’ll need to leave with some clear next steps, so that everyone in the team understands what they need to do to achieve the business goals. Use the Blockbusters followed by the Power Moves facilitation techniques here.

It is important that you ask everyone to review and consider all their work so far as they complete the following activities.

Blockbusters

If you’re UK-based, you may remember the 1980s quiz show called Blockbusters? Teenage contestants had to get from one side of the game board to the other by answering questions. (I confess to appearing on the show myself!).

This technique is based on a similar (sort of!) principle, and it is really useful for action planning and helping delegates to visualise moving from where they are now to where they want to be.

First ask delegates to write down the key aspects of where they are now on sticky notes (one item per sticky note) and put them down the left-hand side of a piece of flipchart paper, landscape, or virtual whiteboard.

Then delegates are to place the business goals and KPIs, this time placing the sticky notes on the right-hand side of the paper or whiteboard, each one aligned to a relevant note on the left-hand side. For example, if they have a sticky note that says ‘struggling for sales’ on the left, they might have one that says ‘increase turnover by 35%’ on the right, both positioned level with each other.

The final step is for delegates to fill in the space between with the 5 key actions for each item that will get them from where they are now to where they want to be. These can be different and separate actions, and don’t have to be in chronological order.

Make sure delegates add in target timescales and owners for each action as well.

Power Moves

For each of the five moves – Power Moves – per business goal from the previous Blockbusters activity, the team will create a hierarchy of actions.

Power Moves Activity Template

Break each of the five Power Moves down into three specific actions.

Then break each of those specific actions into actions that need to be completed in a few months’ time.

Finally, create micro actions, or small, immediate actions, from those that need to be completed in a few months.

Make sure the team captures who will be accountable and responsible for each action, and the target completion dates.

Agree when the team will meet again in the future to begin an agile approach to business goal achievement.

Need Some Help with Your Business Goal Setting and Achievement Workshops?

If you have any questions, or if you’d like us to design and facilitate your business goal achievement workshops, please do get in touch. We are very happy to hop on a no obligation Teams or Zoom call with you to discuss what your need and help in any way we can.

The post Facilitation Ideas – Business Goal Achievement Workshop appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

Your guide to making better business decisions

Jo North — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 18:15:00 +0000

Better business decisions

The business decisions you make are the stepping stones towards achieving your vision of success. And some business decisions are more challenging than others.

Are you a business leader that has arrived at a crossroads and isn’t sure which way to turn? If so, you are not alone!

When faced with a difficult business decision or dilemma, if you’re like many successful entrepreneurs you’ll probably struggle to think about anything else. After all, the importance of growth-focused business decisions means that they can potentially sculpt the future of your entire business, ultimately deciding whether it has a sustained future or not. The pressure to make the right decision is huge, which is why strategic planning is crucial.

Several key growth-focused business ideas fall into the category of proposals that require serious consideration. Moreover, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, all business decisions need to consider the risks versus rewards. Given that every company is surrounded by its individual circumstances too, there could never be a single right or wrong answer.

I’ve coached and supported many leaders, just like you, in working through their big business decisions. I’ve also made countless decisions of my own in the thirty years that I have been developing and growing businesses.

Which business decisions require strategic planning and analysis?

As an entrepreneurial leader, you are faced with hundreds of decisions every single day. Every choice you make can influence the day’s productivity, which can also impact your business journey. However, as long as you’re following a business plan strategy and have effective and efficient operational routines, the majority of those daily habits can run on autopilot.

There are several key business decisions that will have a bigger impact than most. Some of the more important questions that you may ask of your business include:

Should I pivot my business to take it in a different direction?
Should I invest significant sums of money into scaling the business and taking it to the next level?
Should I grow the size of your team by recruiting new employees, agency staff, or contractors in a bid to boost capacity and productivity?
Should I take the operation into the digital world in a bid to reach more people as an online business?
Should I launch a new product that will require a huge investment of time, money, and effort from my team?
Should I rebrand the company as to increase the appeal to a far wider demographic and potentially larger audience?

Contemplating those major changes that could potentially alter the company’s fate can feel very overwhelming. However, by adopting the right mindset, using your commercial awareness, and considering all contributing factors, you will substantially increase your probability of success.

Which elements should help form my business decisions?

Take each of the following items into account:

The current business climate, especially in your industry and geography.
Current trends and projected changes.
The status of your brand, including its place in the market.
The working capital levels that you have available.
The stability of existing business elements.
The timescales and financial investments required.
The competition you’ll face.
The legal requirements that must be accepted.
The impact any proposed idea could have on existing elements of your business.
The potential business strategies that could follow.

Ultimately, then, it’s a case of weighing up the pros and cons of each possible avenue. Only then can you make the right decision and choose the perfect time to incorporate any changes that may be required – whether it be new acquisitions, recruitment, or products.

Making business decisions: science versus intuition

I can’t emphasise enough the fact that in business there is often no single right or wrong answer.

Even if you decide that the idea is a good one, the fact that you’ll have analysed and considered it in detail will allow you to act with greater confidence. Conversely, if you decide that the reality of your proposed idea isn’t quite as promising as your initial thoughts suggested, the time that you’ve put into exploring it more fully before launching will payback many times over. The earlier you find out that a new avenue isn’t viable the better, because you will minimise the cost, effort and attention that you invest in it overall.

There is no fail-proof recipe for business success, but using whole-brain thinking – that is, getting the best from data and evidence (sometimes called ‘left-brain thinking’), intuition and gut instinct (‘right-brain thinking’) will help you to read a new business opportunity with maximum insight and give you the best chance.

Emotions drive decision-making

Humans make decisions subconsciously, based on emotions – how we feel, and how we want to feel. We then justify those decisions to ourselves and other people using logic and rationale.

The metaphor of the elephant and the rider, which you can read about here, illustrates the role of emotions in decision-making brilliantly.

There is no fail-proof recipe for business success, but using whole-brain thinking will help you to read a new business opportunity with maximum insight and give you the best chance.
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To sense-check your decision-making, there are some straightforward steps that you can take to bring as much objectivity into your thinking process as possible, by using data and seeking evidence.

Use data for strategic decisions

The use of statistics in business can be dated back as early as the 8th century (1). Data can be used to drive your decision-making to provide insight into the current situation as well as to help create sensitivity and scenario models and forecast the future performance of the business.

The challenge is often having too much or too little of the right sort of data. I’ve worked on decisions for corporate clients ranging from literally multi-millions of pounds through to tens of thousands for smaller businesses. To be honest, the only difference between the two is the scale and value of the money involved. The importance is the same – a few thousand pounds to an entrepreneur is often a big, big spend for them. The process I use is the same too, because it really works in terms of thinking things through, whatever the level of investment and whoever is making it.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to making better business decisions.

Step 1. Define the questions

The first step is to define the questions that you need, or would like to have answers to, to inform your decision. Without taking this step, any subsequent data analysis is likely to have limited impact on the decision-making processes.

Write down all the things you want to know about your decision, using these questions as prompts:

What do I need to know in order to make a sound, well-informed decision? Why do I need to know these things?
What information would I like to have, but don’t know how to get? Who could I ask to help me with that? (If you’re stuck, get in touch with me via our Contact Us page, and I will do my best to help).
What information would I love to have, but know that I am not going to get? What can I do to get round this?

Step 2. Define your measures of success

Define what success looks like and how you will measure that success in practise. What do you intend to realistically achieve, and by when?

You can ask yourself how achievable these goals seem to be and look at any past performance you may have experienced as an informative comparison.

This may seem early, but please do consider profit margins as soon as you can in your decision-making process. A business idea is only a good one if it enhances your company’s performance.

At this stage I recommend that you use a quick, high-level break-even analysis to take the costs of production, marketing, tax, and sales revenue into account. I love this free, easy-to-use break-even analysis tool here.

Completing your break-even calculations will provide far clearer insights. Simply stating that you need to sell 10,000 units to make a profit is far different to knowing the magic numbers. You will need to do much deeper, more detailed analysis later, but this should give you an early view.

Step 3. Go and get the data together

Collect the right types of data and information from the right audiences. Don’t rely on just one data set or one perspective. You need to see your opportunity from different angles in order to select the optimal route.

Make sure that the any briefs, surveys or other methods are designed to:

Answer as many questions as possible to the questions you defined in step 1; and
Help you, wherever possible, to assess how realistic the goals are that you have set in step 2.

Studies show that companies using consumer behaviour insights outperform those that don’t use them by 85% on sales growth (2) and 25% on gross margins. Collecting this data can help you forecast how a new product is likely to perform with your existing clients, or how new demographics may respond to the business, for example.

Look out for growing trends in your industry or for specific products. This can go a long way to pinpointing the right solutions when looking at different product development options. Netflix (3) does this when evaluating content development choices.

Tip: look inside as well as outside your organisation

Please don’t forget, as some entrepreneurs do, any data that exists within your business already. There is usually a lot of untapped, potentially illuminating insight to be found by looking at recent historic sales and profit trends for products and services and doing a deeper dive into segmenting and really understanding your existing customer base. We can be so keen to move ahead to the next thing that sometimes we don’t use the goldmine of information that’s right under our noses.

My final point about this step is to explore timings. Even when a good idea is a good idea forever, insights gained from the right data (5) can offer clarity in many areas, such as the right month or quarter to launch scale the business or the right time to launch a new product. This includes internally – consider resourcing, cashflow, other events – as well as market responsiveness.

Step 4: Turn data into usable insight

Analyse the data by manipulating it in a way that can shed light on the issues that you set out to answer in step 1 of the process. This is turning data into insight. If you’re not great at this, it really is worth asking for some expert help. Remember that a small investment in making the right call now can save you a lot more money in the long run.

Step 5: Interpret the data

Use the answers to those original questions as a form of guidance as to which decision should be made, as well as proactively looking out for any new issues that may have surfaced. At this stage, do your best to put any personal bias, feeling that you know best, and individual beliefs to one side. Listen to what the data is telling you as objectively as you can. You will have the opportunity to overlay your own views later on.

In addition to providing insight that aids you and your team, your groundwork will go a long way to satisfying shareholders and other financial backers if you need to get their support.

Use data in hindsight for descriptive analysis of what happened as well as diagnostic analysis of why it happened. Also use it to gain insight and foresight through predictive analytics of what might happen and prescriptive analytics of how things might be made to happen. Usually, persisting with ‘blind’ decisions that are not supported by any data is truly relying on as much luck as it is judgement.

Usually, persisting with ‘blind’ decisions that are not supported by any data is truly relying on as much luck as it is judgement.
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Listen to your gut instinct

The big, big limitation on data is that it cannot guarantee the outcome. History can inform us on what is likely to happen in the future, but it cannot predict it with 100% certainty. It can only ever be, at best a guide, but it’s a great complement to our intuition.

Data can only ever be, at best a guide, but it’s a great complement to our intuition.
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Self-confidence and business decision-making

Data-centric insights can guide us to smarter, more calculated decisions, but nobody knows your business better than you do. The ideas you had and the decisions you took grew your business to its current position.

Knowing how to leverage your self-belief and trust your instincts is essential, because ultimately any big decision requires a significant leap of faith, a driving commitment and sense of confidence that you will make it work – even if that means figuring it out as you go (which it usually does – and that’s ok!).

As entrepreneurs we need a very important type of confidence called self-efficacy. This is our belief that we will be successful in an endeavour, even if we don’t know how. If you’d like some tools and techniques on building your entrepreneurial self-confidence, have a look at my article How to become more self-confident.

Decision-making and mindset

Daniel Kahneman’s best-selling book Thinking, Fast and Slow focuses on a central theme relating to two main systems of thinking and how they can have a big impact on how we make key decisions.

While you undoubtedly use them both on a daily basis, usually intuitively, understanding each these two main systems is hugely beneficial.

The first system relates to the fast, automatic, and often unconscious decisions that we make. These are the simple thoughts that your brain naturally formulates without even thinking, which could include automatic reactions to business ideas. To save time and brain energy, we create thinking short-cuts for ourselves. These are known as “heuristics”. Because they are an often-used short cut, we can often believe that our approach is the “right” one, even when it isn’t!

The second system defines the slow, calculated, and conscious decisions that require thought and time. This includes basic calculations using data as to whether the idea has a commercial future.

If you feel hesitant, even when the data collected suggests that a decision is right, there’s probably a good reason for it. You are picking up other signals from elsewhere that are usually worth paying attention to.

Tune in to how the decision makes you feel

Despite the fact that you don’t want to disregard the data, you also shouldn’t ignore your emotional responses. The key is to know when your self-confidence is just having a wobble, and when the emotion is rightly drawing your attention to a real issue. Only you can know that. Self-doubt could prevent you from unlocking the full potential of your business. Not listening to your gut could also work out to be an expensive mistake. Self-awareness, and tuning into what you’re thinking and feeling are key.

Don’t make business decisions in a vacuum -seek other perspectives

In addition to your individual thoughts, speaking to trusted colleagues, peers, customers and supplier partners can be very useful. They may see things from a different perspective that highlights why the idea might succeed or fail.

For example, it may be that while you think solely about the numbers, they may consider the logistical risks or know of industry news and developments that could alter your decision. On a side note, engaging your staff whenever you can and building an inclusive environment can support your business growth irrespective of what decision is taken.

You know that all of the big names such as Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, and Sir Alan Sugar all took risks. There’s no doubt that drive and passion can help defy the odds. On the other side of the coin, many business owners have pulled out of ideas even when all extensive research suggests that it’s a great idea.

Data insights can only go so far. Don’t be afraid to listen to your intuition.

So, what next?

You already know how important it is to make the right decision.

Being stuck in your current predicament can be frustrating.

When weighing up the risks and rewards of any business decision, try to use both hard evidence and intuition. After all, your knowledge of the industry and the business itself counts for a lot – but having the data to back up your initial thoughts is equally essential.

As long as you enter the process with an open mind, and can be flexible in your approach, you will have your best probability of success. Crucially, though, you need to look at all the new projects and developments you’re working on in your business to maximise productivity and profitability and see where this decision fits in.

I would love to help you to work through your big business decisions, and to make them a success when you’ve decided to go for it. If you’d like a trusted sounding board, mentor, expert advisor, critical friend and cheerleader all rolled into one to help you to succeed, do get in touch. I’d love to help you build the amazing business and lifestyle that you’re working to achieve.

References:

1: https://www.talend.com/blog/2016/12/19/the-role-of-statistics-in-business-decision-making/

2: https://towardsdatascience.com/using-analytics-for-better-decision-making-ce4f92c4a025

3: https://neilpatel.com/blog/how-netflix-uses-analytics/

4: https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=computerscience_studentpubs

5: https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-gb/blog/25-01-17-how-to-use-data-analytics-to-drive-better-business-insights

6: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/books/review/thinking-fast-and-slow-by-daniel-kahneman-book-review.html

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Innovation Process for Your Business

Jo North — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 11:43:13 +0000

The Innovation Process

The innovation process is important for all businesses. Structure helps business creativity and innovation, as long as it’s so not constraining that innovation and entrepreneurial thinking become hard work.

I hope that this article helps you to think about how you’re innovating, how you’re capturing ideas, and how you’re taking them forward in your organization.

It walks through the innovation funnel, also known as the innovation filter, showing how your innovation processes can make the most of everybody’s ideas, help you decide which ones to take forward, and get a much higher success rate from your business innovation activities.

Supercharge Your Innovation Process Video

What is an innovation process and why do you need one?

Ideas are like butterflies. If we don’t capture them, they fly away, never to be seen again.

Without any process, there’s no way to harness and prioritize ideas. We risk investing time, money and energy in low potential initiatives, rather than backing the innoovations that are going to make the biggest difference.

The invisible mountain of unrealized potential gets bigger and bigger. Imagine how big that mountain of unused, high potential ideas might be in your business!

Not only are innovation processes important, but they’re also liberating. The thought of having an innovation process may feel structured and confining, at first. It’s about having just the right amount of structure, the right amount of process so that it’s not too bureaucratic, and so there aren’t too many hoops to jump through. Having some structure creates time and energy to focus on innovation.

Lack of innovation process contributes to innovation failure

Solverboard research shows that the three root causes of innovation failure are:

1. Lack of innovation process methodology

Lack of innovation process methodology means that the innovation process is inconsistent. It’s fragmented, poorly defined, and people aren’t measuring their innovation. When innovation isn’t properly defined, it’s therefore very hard to measure.

2. Lack of innovation process alignment

As a result of innovation not being properly defined and consequently hard to measure, this also means that there is a lack of alignment between innovation efforts and where the organization is heading.

3. Innovation needs to be integral to the day-to-day business

Having an innovation process aligns innovation to the business’ day-to-day activities. It saves time and money, and improves the success rates of any innovation initiative.

So, stop now and think about an example of a recent innovation that went smoothly, what were the success factors? Why did it go smoothly?

Now, think about something that didn’t get off the ground, or maybe it did but it didn’t succeed. Think about the barriers that were in place, considering what went right with your innovation and what didn’t go right?

Depending on which sort of example you’ve picked, now think about how typical these examples are of your innovation projects. Whilst having brilliantly managed innovation projects doesn’t guarantee positive results, it significantly enhances the probability of success. This is because you’ll do the right work, make sure that you’re solving the problem in the right way for customers, develop and test your ideas before you launch them.

What is an innovation funnel?

The innovation funnel, sometimes called the innovation filter, is the core of the innovation process.

Innovation Process: Overview of the Innovation Funnel

The funnel looks like a beautifully smooth end-to-end process. However, in practice, projects move backwards and forwards through the funnel in iterative cycles.

As ideas move through the innovation funnel process, not all make it to the next stage. Some ideas won’t be as promising as first thought, others might need extra work or resource that you don’t want to commit to right now. The point is that the innovation process prevents all ideas moving forward so that you can prioritize and focus on the innovations that show the most promise.

Key principles of the innovation process

Key principles of the innovation process are:

having ideas and capturing them
assessing those ideas
developing the ideas that you’ve chosen to progress. testing and the ones that have survived the development process
launching

It is important that only just enough work happens at each stage of the innovation process to learn whether it’s worth progressing to the next phase.

Definition of stage-gates or decision-gates in the innovation process

Stage-gates or decision-gates are where one stage of the innovation process ends, and there is a ‘gate’ to go through to determine if work on the innovation should continue to the next stage.

People in the organization have ideas and capture them. Assessment takes place to decide which ideas to develop. Once these ideas have been developed, they go through a decision-gate, and the ones that make it are tested. Those that survive the test process progress to the launch phase.

The innovation funnel facilitates the selection and de-selection of ideas, avoiding wasted time and money. The innovation process helps to de-risk, accelerate and structure the innovation.

Main stages of the innovation process

The main stages of the innovation process are:

Stage 1 – Have ideas

The first stage is to come up with ideas to go into the beginning of your innovation process.

Stage 2 – Capture ideas

Capture all ideas and keep them in a single location, ready for the next stage.

Stage 3 – Assessment

Use your decision-making criteria to prioritize your innovations, based on their potential benefits and feasibility.

Stage 4 – Development

Strengthen your ideas, ready to test them out in a real-world or simulated environment.

Stage 5 – Test

See how your innovation works for your customers in practise, in a low risk, fast and effective way.

Stage 6 – Launch

Launch for real when your innovation is good enough to satisfy customer needs.

The fog of uncertainty in the innovation process

Innovators tend to move backwards and forwards through the different phases of the innovation process. As we learn something new, we might have to go back a step or even two before we can move forwards again. The result is often the fog of uncertainty, in innovation terms.

When we start on the innovation process we often think that we have got some clarity about where our innovation is going. As new information comes up, we often realize that it’s not as straightforward as we first thought, and the fog of uncertainty descends.

The solution is to move through that fog. It is important to keep trying new angles and problem-solving. Eventually, clarity will emerge. We’ve just got to keep going and understand that the fog of uncertainty is a normal part of any innovation process.

If you’ve ever facilitated or participated in an innovation sprint, you may know that around the middle of the sprint is often referred to as the groan zone. This is because for the first couple of days, teams usually think they’re doing really well and making great progress. Then, suddenly, reality hits and teams realize they’ve got a few things to figure out and that it’s not going to be quite as smooth as everybody first thought. They need to push on through to get to the other side. It’s the same, too, in any innovation process. We’ve got to persevere rather than give up, and understand that it’s a necessary part of the process and problem-solve our way through it.

The stages of the Innovation Funnel

Stage 1 – Have ideas

The first step of the innovation process is to have ideas. There is no innovation without the ideas that come in at the beginning of the funnel.

Innovation Process: Have Ideas

Sources of ideas can come internally. They could also be from the customers, the community, suppliers and other external sources.

Your organization might be part of a bigger innovation ecosystem. For example, you might work in an open innovation environment where you’re working with a number of other businesses and sectors to solve similar challenges.

Having ideas can also come from serendipity and pure inspiration, seeming almost to come out of the blue. An example is the discovery of new food product Incredo, a sweetener / sugar alternative, featured here on Netflix documentary series Explained.

We can generate new ideas through targeted innovation sprints, workshops and working on specific challenges.

The more ideas that you have, the more likely you are to have good ones. Therefore, having lots of good ideas are important to go into the innovation process.

Stage 2 – Capture ideas

Ensure that you’ve got some sort of process in place to have plenty of ideas and to capture those ideas. Don’t let them be like the butterflies that fly away. Capture the ideas, make sure they go somewhere central that you can access, and that everybody in your business knows how to contribute their ideas.

Innovation Process: Capture Ideas

There are some great tools available that you can use to capture your ideas. You can either use paper-based spreadsheet and database tools. There are also some apps and digital means out there as well. Create an innovation funnel online so that you and your team can track and capture ideas and move them through the innovation funnel in a structured and easy way. Look into online tools such as Hype, Solverboard and others. You can use things like Slack and Trello boards and Asana to set up boards to track your innovation. You don’t need any flash solutions, just the right, light touch of process, the right, light touch of structure and these can free you up to think about the things that are important to you to get creative with those innovations and make them happen.

Stage 3 – Assessment

The third stage of the innovation process is to assess which ideas have the most promise and should move through to the development stage.

Innovation Process: Assessment

Base your assessment on clear criteria. My free Idea Sorter tool provides a structure and criteria for you to adapt and use in your own organization. Download my Idea Sorter tool now for free.

Idea Sorter

Give every idea a score out of five for:

How much value it will bring for customers
The fit with your organization’s strategy
Doability

Then, from the calculated scores, decide what your decision is going to be:

Are you going to progress with the idea or not?
Do you need to modify the idea before you progress it?
Or do you need to park the idea for now and come back to it later?

Also think about what the next action for each idea is going to be:

The idea may just not be a go-er, and the decision is simply not to proceed.
Is this a simple idea that is straightforward, and you can just get on with it as Business as Usual (BAU)?
Perhaps the idea is so amazing, you’ve got to pursue it as soon as you possibly can, but need to set up a project structure to deliver it?
Maybe it’s a great idea, but you just don’t have the capacity or funding to deal with it right now, so need to park it for the time being?

Keep whoever came up with the idea informed all the way through the innovation process, including when you’ve chosen not to pursue the idea. It is important to show respect and appreciation for the idea and the person who came up with it, so that you’re managing expectations appropriately and encouraging the sharing of other ideas in the future, building your innovation culture.

Stage 4 – Development

Once you’ve assessed your ideas, the next step is to develop them, ready for testing. This means working on your idea to give it the very best chance of success. You can now start to go into more detail into the next stage of design; conducting more research, firming up costs or doing some bulletproofing to work out what the risks and the opportunities are. It may mean investing a bit more and exploring different options.

Innovation Process: Development

A lot of people go from idea to implementation straightaway without completing the development stage. Based on work by Puccio on individual preferences for different parts of the innovation process, those of us who enjoy the development phase are not in the majority. Only 21% of us have ‘Developer” as part our innovation preferences.

If developing ideas is not a strength, work with others who do enjoy it and are good at it.

Beware that some people can get stuck at the development stage of the innovation process by trying to get everything perfect before they move forward. Remember, don’t innovate in a vacuum. If you keep your innovation to yourself and you try to make it too perfect before it goes anywhere, you’re not going to be getting any feedback that will enable you to move forward. So, don’t get stuck in this development phase of the innovation process. Do just enough, all the way through, to move yourself through the funnel, and into the next stage.

Stage 5 – Test

The test phase is where you try out the idea in a small, low risk, low-cost way before you go big. Action small trials just to test the idea, then decide how you’re going to tweak it and do it bigger and better next time. You might want to do a prototype or a proof of concept, or POC, as it’s also known, to test with some research or focus groups.

Innovation Process: Test

Alternatively, you could do a soft launch where you run your innovation, but you don’t promote it. You’re simply making sure that it works properly, doing a low-profile dry run.

Take a look at my article here on how to validate your business ideas.

Work to the principle of Minimum Viable Product (MVP) all the way through the testing process. This means doing just enough to test your idea and get the feedback that you need. For your test to be meaningful, involve the customer as well to obtain some low cost, low risk, quick feedback, and then go again. Test fail fast, learn fast, go again, and keep doing that in small ways to move you forward. Be rapid, smart, and strategic in your test process.

Stage 6 – Launch

Once you’ve tested your idea and you’ve moved yourself all the way through the innovation process, this is when you’re ready to launch.

Here are my top tips to help ensure a successful launch.

Next steps

Think about the innovation process in your business.

Do you even have one?

If you do have one, how well does it work?

It starts with having ideas and capturing them, then assessing them to decide which ones you’re going to do something with, park for now, or develop. The next stage is to test ideas that make it through the development gate in a really low risk, fast, effective way to see how they work in the real world. All the way through this, of course, you’re checking in with customers, being agile, and going back to what the customer wants, and how you can solve the customer’s problem in the best way possible. That way, you’ll keep moving the best ideas through the funnel through to a successful launch.

If you’re interested in more content on innovation, you might like my articles here on innovation strategy and business innovation. I was also interviewed for an article on innovation strategy here by Raconteur, The Times Online supplement for business leaders.

I’ve got lots of free resources available on the innovation process. Have a look at these free articles and YouTube videos that I’ve created for you.

If you’d like to know any more the innovation process for your organization, then please do get in touch, I’d love to hear from you.

My purpose is to help you innovate and get you to where you, your team and your organization want to be.

I hope you’ve found this article useful, thank you for taking the time to read it.

The post Innovation Process for Your Business appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

Power Up Your Innovation Mindset

Jo North — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 20:47:07 +0000

Power up your innovation mindset

What is an innovation mindset?

Why is an innovation mindset important to you and your business, and how can you develop and strengthen yours?

These are the themes that I cover in this article.

One of the reasons I wanted to write about innovation mindset is because it’s at the heart of all innovation. When you think about it, it’s at root of all the ideas that we have, how we feel about those ideas, how we work with them, and how we put our ideas into action.

Power Up Your Innovation Mindset

What is innovation?

Innovation is coming up with great new ideas and using them to make a positive difference to the world.

The world needs all the thought leaders and positive change makers we can get to move things forward for the greater good. An effective innovation mindset is what makes it all happen.

What is mindset?

Our mindset is how we think, the attitudes and disposition that we have towards situations. Mindset means the beliefs we have, through which we interpret the world around us.

What is an innovation mindset?

Having an innovation mindset means having the disposition for openness to potential opportunity and the capability to follow through and access that opportunity successfully through problem-solving thought processes, emotional intelligence and tenacity.

The importance of thinking differently

Steve Jobs famously said that creativity is just connecting things.

We need creativity before we can innovate, because innovation is turning creativity into purposeful action, joining up the dots.

Innovative thinkers are really good at finding distinctive connections between things that other people might have missed or not even been aware of.

And of course, to join the dots, we need to have useful dots to join in the first place!

So, one of the first things that you can do in terms of powering up your own innovation mindset is to intentionally create good dots!

How do you develop your innovation mindset?

To develop an innovation mindset, think differently, expose yourself to new experiences and practice making unusual connections between things, because that’s how great ideas happen.

We’ve got absolutely trillions of neurons inside our brains working all the time, and an idea happens when some of those neurons connect, when different pieces of insight come together to form a new creative thought.

These new ideas are the very root of all innovation. Work on becoming great at creating dots, individually and as a team.

To create those dots, feed your mind with great stimulus that might create all sorts of unusual, interesting and useful ideas for your business innovation. Here are sixteen tips to help you to develop your innovation mindset.

Sixteen tips for developing your innovation mindset

1. Think big, be ambitious

Incremental innovation is useful but expand your innovation mindset to think bigger and be more ambitious, too. Create big, ambitious, meaningful business goals, then innovate to achieve them. Don’t get stuck just playing small. Get out there and shoot for more impactful, purposeful innovation, too.

Think Big

2. Grow your curiosity

Curiosity is a trait demonstrated by successful innovators. An enquiring mind learns more, digs deeper, listens more effectively, which can lead to greater originality of thought.

3. Fail forward to inform your innovation mindset

Innovation means doing new things in new ways. It involves navigating unchartered territory, so the route to success is not always clear or straightforward. Expected to encounter ‘the fog of uncertainty’ that’s an intrinsic part of the innovation process. To successfully progress from uncertainty to clarity it’s necessary to become comfortable with discomfort.

Develop an innovation mindset that considers every step to be a calculated experiment that will provide feedback and help you to ‘fail forward,’ deliberately trying out new things to get the insights that will help you to succeed.

Reframe failure as learning, intelligent action and investment in getting to the final solution.

4. Look inside

Look inside yourself and reflect on your own experiences and inside your own organization and your team and challenge what might be done differently, and how.

Observe, sense and listen. Intentionally tune in to what’s going on inside your own environment.

5. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes

Put yourself in the customer shoes, and physically experience, step-by-step, what the customers experience when they do business with you. Don’t just map it out it hypothetically on a piece of paper or software, get out there and experience it for yourself. I guarantee you will see things from your customers’ point of view that you hadn’t spotted before. You’ll be able to see innovation and competitive differentiation opportunities that will create a better experience, product or service for your customer.

6. Look at the periphery

Stay tuned into what’s going on at the periphery of your industry. Explore the edges, spaces that nobody else is looking into to see what’s going on there.

7. Explore the intersection

Find areas where your business sector has the potential to intersect with others. Great innovation often happens when two trends, approaches, solutions overlap and intersect. For examples, think fusion food; the smart phone that brings the desktop, phone, gaming console, camera and more into a single device; fast food chains, which combine food manufacturing processes with a restaurant concept. If you’re interested in learning more about this innovation mindset technique, The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures by Frans Johansson is a good book to read.

8. Review your supply chain

Look up and down the supply chain. Whatever industry you’re in, it’s interesting to see how your suppliers what suppliers are doing and tap into their innovation expertise. There might be ways of pulling some of that innovation upstream and using it in a different context, in your own business environment.

9. Explore new sectors

Explore innovation beyond your own sector, because if you only ever look to the best in class in your own industry, then all you’ll achieve is replication of what already exists. For example, if you are in logistics, you could look at banking; if you’re in banking, you could look at manufacturing, and find some of the innovations that are happening there. Then think of how you could transfer them into your industry and into your sector and be inspired by that.

10. Be prepared to collaborate

Working with great collaboration partners enables you to learn from each other and stretch your innovation thinking. There is some fantastic work going on in universities and in colleges through collaboration. You can also collaborate in different industry groups, and within your own sector too in non-competitive space.

11. Take time to reflect

So, in order to join the dots, we’ve got to create the dots for an innovation mindset. And to create the dots it means thinking differently and looking outwards all the time, and really spotting those opportunities that others might not see quite as readily.

12. Use trend forecast resources to fuel your innovation mindset

Use some of the freely available trend forecast resources, such as these 2022 Global Consumer Trend Reports from Mintel, Deloitte, Qualtrics. These help you to look outwards, think about how the world is changing and what that means for you, your products, services, business, and team.

Use Trend Forecasts

13. Ask great questions

Great questions lead to great thinking, which leads to great ideas. Examples of great questions that will help to develop your innovation mindset are:

What’s likely to happen?

What’s possible?

What if…?

How might we…?

Play around with different scenarios and possibilities.

Ask Great Questions

14. Practice divergent thinking

With practice, you can get better at divergent thinking, which means making creative connections. People practice convergent, logical thinking by doing Sudoku, wordsearches and crosswords, to practice and strengthen their logical thinking and problem solving, but you can also strengthen your innovation mindset using random stimulus techniques. Think about how many different, unusual uses you can come up with for a random item, for example.

Divergent Thinking Technique

15. Use your innovation mindset to make the right choices

Developing your innovative mindset isn’t just about creativity, it’s also about making the right choices, thinking commercially, exercising judgement, and using analysis and data to evaluate opportunities. Be flexible and able to move from divergent thinking to convergent, thinking which is then taking the best of your ideas, finessing them, working out which ones have got the most promise and the most possibility, analyzing how to progress them, making well-judged choices throughout your innovation journey.

This is whole brain thinking. The innovation mindset isn’t just creative. It takes advantage of the whole brain and its different modes.

16. Be tenacious and courageous

The path of innovation is never completely straightforward, you will need to problem solve as you go, and create clarity from uncertainty. Taking an idea from concept to reality requires courage and tenacity. Build grit and the ability to persevere.

Being a successful innovator starts with having a positive innovation mindset

An innovative mindset does mean hanging in there, keeping faith with the idea and continually trying different things, testing fast, failing fast, learning fast, and going again.

Co-creation underpins a lot of successful innovation. To succeed, innovators need strong emotional intelligence, not just to influence and communicate, but also to ask the right questions, to learn, collaborate and to surround themselves with a really good team.

I’ve studied innovators, as you know, and I’ve done lots of research. I also have extensive hands-on experience of working with innovators on some broad-ranging innovation projects. Innovation needs courage as well as creativity: the courage to make a difference, courage to fail, courage to give things a go; to be customer focused, as well as commercial. This innovation mindset can be developed with intention, self-awareness, and practice.

Innovation needs to be in our DNA, not just an exceptional activity that we just do from time to time, or on a special occasion. Innovation isn’t an extra, above and beyond the day job, it needs to be the default for how we do business. The world is changing so quickly, and has so many different needs, there’s an infinite opportunity to spot and act on ideas that will be a difference.

Next steps

If you’d like to know any more about innovation mindset, please do get in touch.

My purpose is to help you innovate and help you get to where you want to with you, your team and your organization.

I hope you’ve found this article useful, thank you for taking the time to read it.

The post Power Up Your Innovation Mindset appeared first on The Big Bang Partnership.

Intrapreneurship - The Big Bang Partnership

How to Facilitate a Strategic Visioning Workshop

What is a Strategic Vision?

Examples of Strategic Visioning Workshops

Why is Strategic Visioning Important?

Start with “Why?”

Who Should Attend Your Strategic Visioning Workshop?

Executive Teams

Team Members

Staff Members

Project-specific Attendees

Key Stakeholders

Sustainability in Visioning

Balancing Profit and Planet

Stakeholder Expectations on Sustainability

Sustainable Innovations

Strategic Visioning Workshop Preparation

Engaging Executives and Stakeholders Early

Setting the Agenda and Pre-work

Understand the Landscape

Customer and Stakeholder Insights

SWOT Analysis

Agenda for Your Strategic Visioning Workshop

Introducing the Purpose of the Workshop

Key Sessions

1. Defining Opportunities and Challenges: The First Step

2. Current State Analysis

3. Stakeholder Perspectives

4. Competitive Landscape

5. Envisioning the Future Landscape

6. Future State Visualization

7. Reimagine Your Purpose

8. Impact Assessment

9. Bridging the Gap

Top Tips for Facilitating a Strategic Visioning Workshop

Facilitation Best Practices

Encourage Creative Thinking

The Power of Small Group Working

Using Graphic Guides

Perfecting the Workshop Setting

Welcoming Different Visions

How to Progress Your Strategic Visioning Workshop

From Vision to Action

Project Management at the Forefront

The Role of the Team Leader

Assembling the Project Team

Next Steps for Your Strategic Visioning Workshop

Why Work with an External Facilitator?

About the Author

Brilliant one-to-one meetings with your team or line manager

One-to-one meetings from both perspectives

What is a one-to-one meeting?

One-to-one meetings and successful employees

How effective are your one-to-one meetings?

Why one-to-one meetings are important

One to one meetings and organizational culture

Hybrid working and one-to-ones

8 top tips for getting the most from your one-to-one meetings

Schedule your meetings as a regular event – and stick to the schedule, unless there’s a real emergency

Prepare the things you want to discuss in advance

Make sure the discussions go beyond the immediate day-job issues

Consider using a simple actions list

Be fully engaged

Say thank you and recognize achievement and great work

Seek to understand and be curious

Make sure your one-to-one meeting ends well

More challenging relationships and situations

How to prepare for your one-to-one meeting

Summary of the Benefits of One-on-One Meetings

Round-up: How to Run Effective One-on-One Meetings

Reminder: The Importance of Regular One-on-One Meetings

Today’s Fast-paced Work Environment

Strike the Right Balance

Regular, Direct Feedback and Listening are Crucial

It Starts from Onboarding

Keep Notes and Build Continuity

How to Improve Your Influencing Skills for Innovation

Influencing Skills – How to Influence People who can Make or Break Your Innovation Plans

Why Influencing Skills Matter for Innovators

What is the Meaning of Influence and Persuasion?