Too often strategic planning is something people do periodically. They focus on making plans and then put them away in drawers. Design thinking, with its use of observable experimentation and bias to action, takes them out of the drawer and turns them into initiatives instead of just plans.
Mindset can change the meaning of the values of a culture
One of the interesting insights I’ve gleaned from my recent listen of Carol Dweck’s book Mindset is that things can take on very different meanings when you also consider whether they exist within a fixed mindset culture or a growth mindset culture.
Taking your advice is your customer’s decision not yours
You need to respect your customers decisions, even when/if you don’t agree with them. There is no such thing as one true path – and only fanatics think their way is the only way. Most importantly, part of being a confident professional is that you have the capability to work within this type of framework.
The prospective customers that potentially need us the most are often the ones that understand that the least
If customers already knew the full value of what we offer, they may be getting it from somewhere else or already have solved the problem for themselves. So often, the ones that need our help the most are the ones that see our value the least.
It is as important to develop resilience for the rough times as it is to develop a culture of success
Though we want out businesses to be a steady trajectory of strength on strength, we all know that that in reality it can be peaks and troughs. Goals sometimes missed or delayed. I think we have all seen environments that become toxic under these pressures. With finger pointing and fear permutating the culture, progress slows even more. If you build resilience into your teams, then it encourages the team to stick to the values of collaboration, determination and adaptability under any weather.
In a customer-first culture customer-facing teams are servant leaders
Servant Leadership is often used to describe how people lead internal teams. Leadership that inspires, enables and encourages success. That focuses on removing obstacles. That promotes collaboration. Providing people with what need to be successful and achieve their best outcomes.
