Please
select a category for action ideas:
Talent
Ambition
Performance
Experience
Brand
Execution
Architecture
Top Tips
Talent
The talent is the organisation... Everybody works on
ways to attract, develop, stimulate, engage and reward
a wide array of talented people; fostering a community
where a diverse group of people have the freedom to
excel in what they do, in ways that are unique to them.
To
get going…
Conduct
a talent assessment exercise – with your team,
create a comprehensive list of all the skills, experience
and knowledge that your team possesses – not just
work related – draw out all the talents people
possess. Ask yourselves to what extent are you using
the talent available? Ask yourselves how you can help
each other to excel…
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Ambition
The
shared ambition is what galvanises all other activity.
If the ambition is truly unique and demonstrates how
the organisation will make a dramatic difference through
common values, people will sign up to be a part of the
cause.
A
soaring ambition, described expressively, will attract,
energise and retain the talent needed to deliver.
To
get going…
Make
‘our uniqueness’ an agenda item at your
next team meeting. Together with your team, discuss
what you think your business/team/department does that
makes you unique. Draft a short statement that you all
support that describes your distinctiveness - keep it
rough. Get your team to talk the statement through with
anyone and everyone. At the following team meeting share
what you have learned from your many conversations.
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Performance
The output. The measurement of the progress towards
the ambition, where talented people take pride in executing
their personal accountability and continually add value
through discipline, hard work and continuous learning.
Goals,
targets and rewards focus talent on the performance
parameters that will deliver.
To
get going…
With
a few like-minded people create a list of all the performance
measurements you use. Analyse what type of behaviour
the measurements reward. Ask yourselves if the rewarded
behaviour really helps to achieve your ambition. If
it does; do more of it. If it doesn’t; challenge
your assumptions of having it as a measurement. Start
a discussion on how you could measure the real value
added of your business/department.
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Experience
Winners create ‘relational’ experiences
with their customers/clients (as opposed to ‘transactional’).
There is a true understanding and desire to seek and
create partnerships with extraordinary customers/clients
to enable everyone to achieve their ambitions.
Creating
great client/customer experiences provides talent with
personally and professionally rewarding challenges.
To
get going…
Ask
a group of clients/customers to join you for lunch –
ask them to describe their experience as a client/customer.
Ask ‘if they were king, what would they wish for
as a customer/client?’ Really listen to the ideas
– take them back to your team and work out how
you could make it happen. Collect and relay stories
of when it happens.
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Brand
The description of what you stand for. A brand, described
in an engaging and emotional way, can retain existing
clients/customers as well as reach out for new ones.
Everyone in the organisation understands their role
in bringing the ‘brand’ to life - ‘lovemarks’
are consistent and inherent throughout the whole of
the organisation.
Brand
values can attract the right talent and provide them
with a framework for their input and efforts.
To
get going…
What
does your Brand really stand for? Try asking customers/clients
to give you three words that describe your reputation.
Ask the people in your organisation to give you three
words to describe the organisation’s reputation.
What do the two lists tell you about the Brand?
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Execution
Talented
people focus on work that matters; work that will create
outstanding value for the client/customer. Talented
people proactively work together to constantly look
for new and better ways of delivering their commitments
in the pursuit of their ambition.
The
execution element provides talent with the day to day
platform on which to display and properly apply their
skills and knowledge.
To
get going…
Consider
what would turn your internal or external customers/clients
into raving fans? Create an extensive (and honest!)
list of what your team delivers. Then create a column
along side this labelled ‘could be’. For
each item on your delivery list come-up with the best
that item could be. Make each ‘could be’
as wild as possible; agree with your team how you’re
going to work together to make the ‘could be’s’
happen.
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Architecture
The structure/framework that supports
the ongoing relationships between all the elements that
enable people to pursue the ambition in accordance with
their shared values.
Systems
and processes provide talent with value adding tools
and create a positive and creative work culture.
To
get going…
Conduct
a review of your business architecture and identify
which components are enabling talent to do a great job
and those that are getting in the way. What can you
do about this?
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Top
Tips
After
many years of helping our clients to apply Tom Peters’
lessons in practice, here are our top tips from Tom
Peters Company for getting your ideas from Tom's work
into action.
1. Do something right away. Go back
to your office and tell someone what you heard. Go to
lunch with someone different and tell them. Have your
team meeting outdoors instead of in the usual place
and tell them. Reframe your tasks into WOW! Projects
that are exciting and energising. If you want WOW! outcomes,
you need WOW! targets at the outset. Choose your language,
written and spoken, very carefully. Be daring. Use hot
words, words that stretch the imagination – your
own and others’!
2. Work out precisely who you must recruit
to the cause as co-conspirators, activists, and sponsors.
You will need strong players in all three categories
if you are going to get serious about executing on your
daring ambition. Who do you need to do things, with
you and for you? Who can give you advice and guidance?
Who can be a source of energy or resources? Who can
contribute those crazy ideas that will stretch your
ambition even further? Set about winning converts, champions
and allies in all key constituencies.
3. Chunk up your big ambitions into
small, defined and manageable WOW! Projects –
and start working on them NOW! Now that you’ve
arrived at your list of projects, tell everyone who
is important to you, at work and in your private life,
about them, and do this right away. Public commitment
will kick you into taking action in those difficult
or awkward areas that desperately need addressing! Appoint
someone you know and trust to be your “deadline
dragon” to keep you on track and bone honest with
yourself on progress.
For a more structured planning tool, using the Future
Shape of the Winner, click
here.
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