Describe, design and plan your idea

When you need to capture thinking and ideas or test out future ways of working in the business, it can be challenging to work out model, process or thinking tools you'll use.

What? You don't use any model or tool?

There are lots out there - so if you're yet to flip through the book 'Business Model Generation', check it out.

Every week I use the business model generation techniques with entrepreneurs, solo operators and leaders of business units and teams. It's a brilliant one-canvas approach to strategic and entrepreneurial thinking.

Brilliant because you can play, describe, design and come up with ideas about your business model thinking. 

How might this work?
Who would this serve?
How would we get it to them?
What relationships would be needed?

Best of all, when you're testing out business model thinking, you can work with the Business Model Canvas - a pdf to print out and use as the basis of a meeting, workshop or think tank. There's also the app I use on my ipad to invent, discuss, plan and collaborate on business thinking.

And Business Model Generation encourages you to combine the Post-it note and the canvas - woo hoo - you get to move things around, keep it visual, collaborative, innovative and more likely to create outcomes that will have legs. 
 
Check out the book, the model and the approach ... and get greater leverage and impact from your ideas. 

Memo to guest speakers: organise your thinking

Yes, three cheers for a call to conference presenters to have a go at engaging the audience (participants!) and delivering their thinking without the use of PowerPoint.

On Twitter today, I happily retweeted @brown_note and @neil_killick when this was put out there, with a reference to agile conferences:

RT @neil_killick I call on #agile conferences to ban PowerPoint and equivalent. Let's see presenters really present and lead discussion.

Here's the next challenge then - given the Agile Australia conference is set for June, the sold out Scrum conference is next week, and the UX and LAST conferences are also bearing down in August, every speaker has the time to organise their thinking. 

Start now speakers! Get your thinking sorted out now! 

I believe visual agility skills are what's needed - visual skills where you can swiftly and clearly:

1. capture your thinking
2. convey information, and
3. collaborate with others

... using visuals.

What happens is that PowerPoint gets used to capture thinking. And then it's the tool that's used to convey information. (Not as good at collaboration is it?)

A great communicator, leader and conference speaker/presenter can use all three: 

1. Capture your own thinking about what your presentation and key message is;
2. Convey information during the presentation; and
3. Collaborate - get input from others in the session, engage and lead discussion. 

It's not for artistic types or creative folks; it's for normal people and thinking people whose job it is to think, communicate and work well with others. 

I'll be watching next week at the Scrum conference; and I'll be capturing using visuals on my ipad.

I so hope a session I've proposed for the Agile Australia conference gets up; no surprise it's on visual agility - I want to help Agile folks get more visual so they can help people in their teams - and right across the businesses they work with and in - to "get" what they're on about quickly, clearly, and in an engaging and captivating way.

The sooner you're understood, the sooner we can all get on with it. 

What's an important point ... and what's 'waffle'?

When I'm facilitating, leading a team session or working with visuals to capture people's thinking (and talking), some feedback I often get throughout the session is - how did you know what the key point was they were trying to make?

People say a-lot of stuff. Sometimes it's their own thinking, working out their views as they're speaking. Sometimes ideas haven't formed yet. Other times, their opinions are changing as they're speaking. 

But here's how I really know when someone is getting to their gold nugget, their kernel, the essence of their point.... their voice changes. You just need to listen. 

One of my earlier 'careers' was in radio, voiceovers and creating voice characters. I spent many hours speaking into a microphone, hearing it in headphones and then adjusting pace, tone, volume ever so slightly. 

This is the stuff to listen out for - this is when you'll be guided to what people are saying... when they are making an important point and when they are, well, adding to that point. 

• Tone change: it won't be as drastic as from a deep baritone to a high soprano, but people's voices will shift from lower registers to higher (or higher to lower) when they're getting emotional and getting to the point
• Volume change: think of our voices like a volume dial - we have low and soft down at levels 1, 2, 3 and higher at 6, 7, 8. Ten is heavy metal stuff. Listen for when volume increases. A key point will be delivered right there. 
• Pace change: when people s-l-o-w down their speech, there can be emphasis there. When theyarespeedingup, there can be energy, passion and enthusiasm there. Their brains are working faster or slower, there is an important point here for them. 

Listen up. It's all there. Along with the content of what people are saying, listen for how it's delivered. Then you'll be more likely to pick up their important points and those that are further down their list. 

You are the punchline

As my home town Melbourne Australia kicks off the international comedy festival this week, I reckon you've got to ask yourself - "how much fun am I to work with?"

I'm not suggesting you kick off the day with an opening five-minute gig to warm up your colleagues, or deliver a 'lunch time laugh' gig over the public address system.

But I do think you need to 'play well with others' - and often that is about relaxing, laughing and seeing the funny side of things; seeing the funny side of what you've done. 

In this article from Forbes on workplace humour, the difference between false humility and humour that benefits others is a hallmark of leaders with humour. 

In short, you are the punchline. 

Your mistakes, failures, challenges and muck-ups. 

In training teams in facilitation, collaboration and visual thinking skills, I love to share mistakes and challenges. Like the time I tried to draw a giraffe (I have no artistic training by the way) and it looked more like a lama... or when I was guest speaking and left my lapel mic switched to 'on' when it should have been 'off' ... 

Today, these mistakes and challenges make great learning stories and bring laughter to the room, shift the dynamic and impact the environment in a positive way. 

As a leader you're responsible for the environment you're creating in your team. 

How much fun is it to work in your team? Can you handle the hecklers? Do you need some new 'material'?

<Insert applause>

Give good output

"We've got to get input from people on how this service will be designed, structured and delivered", said Jason, a client I met up with this morning. 

But how is that 'input' experience going to go for the business and the project team... and the users?

For Jason and the team, they are keen to get control over the engagement, the collaboration and the 'working with others' that is to come over the next few months.

"It can go sooooo off track," he said. "On the one hand, we absolutely need their input... but it can be such a pain to open up that huge world of possibiliy - they want everything, they want it now."

We both chuckled at the 'Daddy I want an oompa loompa and I want it now' quote from the spoilt child character Veruca Salt in the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film.

To get input into design and delivery, you do want to get it right and be conscious of how it can get out of hand, drag on or never seem to be finished. 

So with Jason, I'll be designing the input, engagement and consultation process in a way that generates great input and is an enjoyable and successful process.

When you're going for input from people, it needs to save time, not steal time.

It needs to engage with 'yowza' not yawn, and it needs to deliver great positioning and awareness of what the project or team is about to embark on.

How you handle this phase of engagement, consultation and development will say so much about how you intend to work with the business over the coming months. 

Plan for good input and you'll give good output.