Dare to DISRUPT – Part 7 – Pillar 4 Systems

Pillar 4 pulls together leadership, people and culture into a repeatable SYSTEM that can scale and sustain your success for the long-haul. Continuing with our series, this month’s newsletter will focus on ensuring your industry disruption has the right SYSTEM to accelerate your growth.

If you attempt to inject a certain level of disruption, transformation, and change into your organization without a system in place, chaos will reign. The transformation process is not random, it’s strategically based on critical, fact-based information.

What are the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)? How will the transformation be sustainable? Are there governance guardrails in place? How will a new product be brought to market? How will success be measured? How will ongoing investment strategies be determined? How will failures be received?

There are 4 key parts to the Transformation Playbook that require a structured system:

1. Strategic Direction

·????? Vision

·????? Mission

·????? Values

2. People Foundation

·????? Talent Acquisition and Development

·????? Becoming a Talent Magnet

·????? High Performance Culture

3.???? Growth Engine

·????? Brand Equity

·????? Sales Strength

·????? New Economic Engines

4. Operational Machine

·????? People

·????? Process

·????? Technology

·????? Scalability

We all know about systems—educational systems, communications systems, computer operating systems and even our very own solar system. Systems are essential to almost everything we do, and every organization must develop the systems that are right for them. But the right system only works well if the right people are working the system, as we discussed in last month’s newsletter. ?

How Does One PERSON Become Successful, While Another One Does Not in YOUR SYSTEM?

One of my favorite stories about systems and people is the San Francisco 49ers and the NFL’s Mr. Irrelevant in 2022. Each year, the last player chosen in the NFL draft pick is dubbed, “Mr. Irrelevant.” That honor was bestowed on Brock Purdy when he was the 262ndand final pick in 2022.

Purdy joined the 49ers for the 2022 season as a third string QB behind Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo. Now keep in mind, the previous year the 49ers traded three future first round picks to move up to pick Trey Lance at number three. That is a huge amount of draft capital, not to mention Lance was picked 259 players ahead of Mr. Irrelevant. That same season, both Garoppolo and Lance suffered injuries that took them off the field. Mr. Irrelevant was suddenly the starting quarterback for the 49ers, and everyone expected the season to be over.

Instead, Purdy beat the GOAT (Greatest of All Time), Tom Brady, in his first start and went on to go 6-0 in his first six starts. Brock and the 49ers won the NFC West title, Jimmy Garoppolo was traded to the Los Vegas Raiders and Trey Lance became a trivia question of greatest quarterback busts of all time after he was traded to the Dallas Cowboys and never heard from again. And one year later, Brock had the 49ers back in the Super Bowl.

So how do you know who fits and who doesn’t? Who works well in your culture and who does not? How does one leader master your system, while another bungles it?? Simple – when you build the system, make it repeatable, train people to leverage it, it always becomes about performance – who is PERFORMING and is the ultimate meritocracy – just ask Jimmy and Trey!?

The Strategic Direction

Strategic direction is like the GPS for organizations, plotting the course for long-term success. It's not just about setting goals but creating a roadmap that guides every move and decision. Formulating a strategic direction begins with defining the organization's purpose—vision, mission, and values—and identifying its strengths and weaknesses. Built upon the foundation of that propose, the strategic direction ensures all resources, efforts, and goals are consistently aligned with it.

Leadership Foundation

Leadership foundation is the next component of the system and the ability to drive a high-performance culture, recruit top talent and retain the best and right people. You may notice some cross over with earlier pillars, and you are spot on, there is always cross over in systems.

Growth Engine

As you build your system it is imperative that you have the ability to market, sell and service.? On the marketing front it all starts with developing a strong brand. From there your sales leader must develop sales strategies with a focus on client value and retention in your current state – to keep the lights on, Next you need to develop new economic engines to fuel expansion – product, geography or client segment.? Technology enablement comes into play next as you ensure that you are leveraging the repeatability of your sales engine to ensure consistency for the long-term. And lastly, you must be looking for client feedback and adaptability to the feedback you receive.

Operational Machine

Imagine a business is like a highly tuned racing engine, and to rev up those new growth engines, you need a well-oiled pit crew serving as an operational machine. It's not just about ideas; it's about having the right people, processes, technology, and the scalability to turn those ideas into big wins.

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• People: You need the right people with the right skills, experience, and attributes to build a highly scalable and repeatable engine. Your team is the heart of the machine. Leadership might have the big ideas, but it is the people who bring those ideas to life, and it is the system that makes the good people great, remember Brock Purdy!
• Processes: Think of processes as the gears that keep things running seamlessly. Smooth and clear operations ensure consistency and alignment. As you go through your transformation, there will be times when you “grind your gears” and that is normal and expected. What is important is that you focus on re-designing your processes, so the gears don’t grind to a halt, but instead accelerate through the apex of your growth.
• Technology: Technology is the accelerant to your operational machine that increases its effectiveness and efficiency if you engage it as an enabler to people and processes.
• Scalability: You have a big vision for your company’s future, but you can’t get from here to there in a day, a week, or even a year. You need a plan to gradually scale to reach each new stage of your vision. Scalability takes time, it requires some grinding on the gears, maybe even some duct tape from time to time, but as you build your system over time, your future will come into focus.

As you look to scale your business, one of the keys is to have SYSTEMS in place that allow your people the ability to leverage their attributes and learn new skills. Stay tuned for next month’s newsletter – Pillar 5 INTELLIGENCE.

Dare to Disrupt is the LinkedIn series based on my upcoming book being published this month which outlines a playbook for disrupting your industry and transforming your company.

Live & LEAD FEARLESSLY,

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