Brightcoast TECH9 Golf Outing — #3

How do you know when you are getting it wrong, and what is the first thing that you do when you find out?

Wednesday was an interesting day for me as it was one of those days that I wrestled with mortality while I reflected on the life and legacy of my father-in-law who had passed just a few days previous. He was an accomplished Husband, Father, Friend, Doctor, Humanitarian, Writer, Poet, and lover of Neal Diamond. The reason I bring this up is that when someone at 72 passes away with such an accomplished life, I cannot help but wonder how did they do it? How did they stay on course for so long and not give up? How did my father-in-law pivot when he realized he was wrong. Well, I never got to ask him this and in a profession (medical) when decisions and directions can mean life or death, I wish I did as there were lessons there to be learned.

With that said, I will use this missed opportunity to learn by focusing on the many other brilliant people that surround me. It is in the lessons from others and from our own trials and tribulations that shape us and we should never stop seeking those. Life and time is precious and if you are still breathing, then you should still be searching for and listening to the signal. YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!

How do you know you are getting it wrong?

For this outing I had the opportunity to change up my usual suspects and gather a group of leaders whose sole responsibility is to lead their companies by working with all stakeholders assuring that a strategy exists and is maintained in order to align ALL teams, teammates, processes, and culture to work in harmony and service of the their noble cause (Thanks Chuck Longanecker.)

Gary Peterson is the CEO of gap intelligence, a values-led company that exemplifies culture and synchronicity to exact on their noble cause, “To bring Great Freakin’ Data to life for their customers!” I have known Gary for many years and he is someone I look to for inspiration when I am working to increase signal and mitigate noise.

Samuel Moses leads gudTech which is a web application firm that focuses on bringing enterprise-level efficiency to small/mid retail companies. Their noble cause is “Passionately solving real world problems with cutting-edge technology.” Wow, the word Passionately leads the charge here. If you have read the beginnings of my Fist-bump Manifesto, you know who tuned-in to the word passion that I am. I believe you cannot exist without it.

Brett Humphrey started Fairway Technologies in 2002 and has grown it into an award winning software service firm. His passion for technology and making sure that employees and customers alike are happy has allowed for amazing company growth with an impressive customer and delivery list.

So why did I ask these guys out the TECH9 golf outing? If they are not listening to the machinery to hear the gears hum then the entire company runs the risk of falling off-course.

The CEO has the responsibility of seeing the forest through the trees and if there is not a mechanism to succinctly bubble up error or course deviation, their noble cause is in jeopardy.

However, just knowing that something is or may go wrong is only a piece of the puzzle. The steps that you take once you realize, the timing and cadence of those steps, and the stakeholders that are brought in to triage and brainstorm on a solution or change, is paramount to righting the wrong. It is is also the fine line between throwing an idea out with the bathwater or making minor adjustments and getting back on track.

What do you mean by “wrong”?

Gary asked me this and I think it is a great question. In the context of this outing, wrong means, direction, hire, process, metric, criteria, or all of the above. To me getting it “Wrong” is when something that keeps you up at night by thought, comes to fruition by result. How far are you off? I ask myself that all the time and I try to ask my teams this as well.

How Far Are We Off?

I think this may be the first step in realizing that we are wrong. If we have a clear picture of what is Right or what is Successful, and we are in the habit of holding retrospectives where we ask how far are we off, and we have the right people to identify pains, potential values, and a clear opportunity, then we have the ability to lift ourselves back up and back into the air.

What did I learn?

To say a lot would be an understatement. It is amazing to hear these guys talk about the landmines that they encounter on the daily, how they tip-toe through, over, around, and under them. Below is a quick summary of some of the highlights. I recommend grabbing a coffee with either one of these guys if you get a moment and can find time in their schedule as you will walk away with fodder for success.

• Be ready for things to go wrong, they often do, but be even more ready to address them and press on.
• Have a process and stick to it. 90% of the time it is the process that is wrong and it can be changed. Critique the process, not the person. (at first)
• Have thick skin and be willing to say goodbye to things you were once convinced were going to work, i.e. a process, a market fit, a solution, a key hire.
• Idea Attrition hurts everyone. Maybe sure small changes are not needed first to save the idea. Don’t cut your nose off to spite your face.
• Always have the right people in the room. Gary has his team of OG’s and Sam has introduced a Product Steering committee to make sure that changes to ANYTHING are clear and purposeful.
• Think of ways to possibly poll your customers to literally BUY into feature creation. Is there a way to raise money or maybe even loyalty points to champion a new feature or pivot?
• Your people will help you with the heavy lifting. Make sure they are bought in to the noble cause and are willing to be responsible enough to raise up the signal when you are off course. Push them to this responsibility. The life of your company relies on this.

I am thankful for this opportunity and I am excited for the next outing. If you are interested in joining us, please ping me or reach out to me on LinkedIn. If you are potentially getting it wrong, give me a holler. There are quick ways to make small changes and measure the results for success.

Help me to Help You

Part of my process to reprogram is to solicit further feedback from the people in my life so that I can address the noise and amp up the signal. If you have any thoughts or feedback that you think I can benefit from, please Text the word “BIRKY” to the number 24365. I am using RallyCorp’s SMS Engagement Platform as a means for me to gather more input to add to my equations.