Just Count the Hats
I always wanted to study art.? I read countless books and visited galleries and exhibitions as often as possible.
At Michigan, I took Art History, Ceramics, Fine Art, The Tiny Masters, Surrealism 23, Baroque Ain’t My Brother, Contemporary Art and Which Explorers Never Liked Cubism?
But, it wasn’t until I got deeply into the Abstract Expressionists that I started my journey toward my greatest passion.? I studied Motherwell, Pollock and Rothko.? I knew their histories, their vices and, humbly, I could identify their unique brush strokes while blindfolded and at sea.?
A 2013 trip to the Guggenheim would change everything for me.? Seeing the art in person was fine.? Still’s Jamais.? De Kooning’s Composition.? But alas…the Frame…infinitely more fascinating.?
The variety was endless.?
Clearly, I could go on and on.? I was hooked.??
After minutes of deep contemplation, I dropped out of school and traveled the world to look at frames.? Following weeks of study, I was considered an expert and was asked to join The Obtrusive Frame Yard. better known as Tofy, an organization of giants in the field.??
I soon realized that Tofy’s work wasn’t solely dedicated to the history of Frame, they were indeed doing something far more valuable.? They were changing the board meeting entirely. ?
Tofy understood that there’s never been any kind of map for your board.? No template.? No Frame or framework as I’d come to call it.? The result is that no one really knows what to include in their board materials and therefore there’s a tendency to include everything.
We lived this problem at our first company, Moosejaw.? We had no idea what to include in our deck and we still wanted to look Pro…we wanted to show our board that we had lots of data and that we knew how to make all sorts of stunning graphs, mostly circles.?
So, our decks included just about everything.? Our shortest deck was 134 pages.? That resulted in a pretty brutal board meeting.? No real engagement.? No helpful strategic thinking and very few meaningful next steps.??
And, because our board meetings weren’t particularly productive, in the interest of trying to get better, we always changed ‘em up.? The topics and agendas were inconsistent from meeting to meeting.? I even recall flipping from a strawberry oreo blizzard to just oreo. Always whipped up a little extra though.?
At our second company, CrowdRise, our board helped us develop a better template. Our agenda became more consistent but we still added way too much content.? Too many reports and tables, explanations that were way too detailed and too few specific questions for the board.? And, it's a lot tougher to find a DQ in New York or LA than in? Detroit.?
After Moosejaw and CrowdRise were both acquired I found myself on a lot of boards. I suppose my job was board advisor. And, a part-time breakdancer, of course.??
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Really tough being the only breaker out there still using an old-school cardboard mat while everyone else had flipped to polymers and alloys. No excuse. Just saying.??
Working (gerund) with lots of companies and getting constant feedback from private equity, VCs, CEOs, and CFOs allowed us to develop a pretty kick-ass Framework for the companies that we worked with (ending a sentence with a proposition).? That process - developing the Framework - was the initial catalyst to launching Zeck.??
In the same way that Shopify guides a team building an e-commerce site, Zeck 1) Starts with a customizable Framework and also 2) uses little nudges to help you optimize your board materials and live discussion.? So, two distinct layers to the Framework. The idea is to make it way more efficient for your operating team to tell their story and to share it all in a way that is digestible to your board and spurs engagement.
The Zeck framework for your content, combined with it all living in a mobile-friendly, interactive website is so much better than old-school decks that we feel a little bad.? ?
I’m probably explaining this all really poorly.? So, if you want to see it, please email us and we’ll go at it.? We can do an 8-minute demo and you can hang up on us anytime without saying bye.?
Just so you know, so far, companies and nonprofits are embracing both layers of the Framework and the feedback has been pretty phenomenal.??
“We love the Zeck framework more than anything.? We embraced most of it but it also couldn’t be easier to customize.” - Lonnie Rosdelis, Completely Made Up Customer and Quote
“I’m done making decks. Zeck makes it so much easier. Saved us so much time and our board materials and board meetings are way better. Zeck is a brilliant solution.” - Alli Trowbridge, CEO, Copper, A Real Human Person and a Real Quote
Even if you’re not going to use Zeck, which will result in no one liking you, think about creating a template for your team that goes well beyond sections for your agenda.? Go at least one layer deeper so your team has a specific map to follow as they’re adding their content.??
Perhaps most importantly, when you’ve either embraced Zeck or launched your own system, reach out to Tofy.? You’ll go through an intensive seven-month training but it's worth it.??
One quick hint…When you’re in the Tofy museum symposium, the best way to spend your time is to count the number of people in the paintings wearing hats.? If the number is greater than seventeen, you’re certainly going to fail.
I think that covers it.?
-- Decent Humans at Zeck