The Sense Makers

Some years ago, I put a slide deck together expressing who I was and what I wanted to do.  In the end, I created a matrix that read, diagonally, from top left to bottom right:

• Engages organisational creative capacity 
  • Brings true structural, process and leadership challenges to the surface 
    • Develops clear direction choices and highlights restrictive constraints 
      • Quick, predictable  and profitable response to changing customer needs.

People I exposed this matrix to had one of two robust reactions: they really liked it and thought CEO’s would instantly relate to the possibilities; the majority felt it was too ‘ambitious’ with some feeing it bordered on ‘arrogant’.

Here is the first and hardest lesson in life: choose what you want to do and go at it with your whole mind, spirit and body. As Steve Jobs said in his Stanford commencement address- stay hungry, stay foolish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc.  I chose the easy way and tried to conform to dogma so I would ‘fit in’ – exactly what Jobs counselled against!

I continued to be uncomfortable in my skin.  A business partner challenged me to do an executive coaching course at Royal Roads University.  As part of my personal preparation for the journey (I was very apprehensive of what I might find out about me during the process), I listed all the work I had done over 30 years and asked my wife where I had been least of a bear to live.  Fully expecting a serious reflection of carefully weighing up the good years versus the bad, I figured I had a few days to before an answer came back.  Surprise!  In three nano-seconds the answer shot back – here, here, here and here.  Four spots in thirty years…..

A cursory analysis gave the game away; a detailed analysis confirmed the fact: I was at my best helping people help themselves in a business context.

How was I to achieve this? How would I market myself?  What would the message be? Being a member of CAPS (Canadian Association of Prfessional Speakers) I thought I would set up as a speaker.

Casting about for a niche market brought me into contact with TEC (The Executive Committee) and one thing led to another – I became a Chair of a group of CEO’s in non-competing industries: a privileged position where we get to uncoer all those dreams that never see the light of day either through work pressure (busy  work) or though lack of self-confidence.

As I listen to quality speakers challenge us to be better than we think we are; as we process business issues and find the original ‘problem’ to be symptom, we are able to make a real difference in the life of every CEO.  We come up with sugestions that are genius in simplicity; that are generated by a different lens from different industries; that harness the wits, skill and energy of very, very intelligent people.

We generate strategies to engage the creative capital of fellow CEO’s who take the learning to their organisations; we bring leadership challenges to the surface; break down constraints and focus on aligning the organisation to the customer needs

We hold each other accountable for the changes and results.  We kick against accountibility but it makes the difference between doing the ‘same old, same old’ and doing something new and different. We create a ‘safe-fail’ environment where a strategy that does not work becomes a learning event for all of us.

What satisfaction we all experience when a strategy works and what an incredible sense of satisfaction when a failed strategy is analysed, tweaked and works better than dreamed. What a sense of accomplishment!