Project 52: Week 41
Gerald Doyle
Human Centered Design and Innovation: "You know, I believe it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous. Yes, much better. People forgive each other more readily and become more humble, ..." Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
Our reflection and invitation ...
You Do Have the Time
"Start by doing what is necessary, then doing what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
St. Francis of Assisi
Focusing on Fewer, Better Things
"Courage rather than analysis dictates the truly important rules for identifying priorities: Pick the future against the past; focus on opportunities rather than on problems; choose your own direction, rather than climb on the bandwagon; and aim high, aim for something that will make a difference, rather than something that is "safe" and easy to do."
~ Peter Drucker
We are delighted to continue with a year-long offering as part of our Career Services initiative. ~ Gerald Doyle
Project 52: Week 41
WELCOME to Steve Dalton’s Outreach Process
On the foundation of his LAMP list (see related article) of target organizations, Steve Dalton, in The 2-Hour Job Search, offers a highly structured and time-efficient method of reaching out to individual contacts. We recommend reading Dalton’s description in detail in the book, but here are some highlights of his basic ideas:
Dalton has recommendations for finding individual potential contacts by sequentially (and time-efficiently) searching
Dalton groups potential contacts into three segments:
His method is geared toward connecting with Boosters because his experience is that those contacts are the most fruitful for a job-seeker.
Once a list of potential contacts is established, Dalton recommends sending those contacts, in a proper cadence, the 5-Point Email.? The five points (characteristics of the intended email) are:
According to Dalton, the 5-Point Email is best suited to stimulating a positive response from Boosters; it is short and easy to digest, it works to respond to the Booster’s inherent desire to be helpful, and it opens up rather than foreclosing opportunities. It supports his structured tracking process, described briefly below.
Once 5-Point Emails are dispatched, Dalton recommends a disciplined sequential process of following up on responses timed to a particular number of business days after an event occurs. He proposes that creating this discipline reduces stress and anxiety for the job-seeker and gives them specific actions to carry out daily, all targeted to honing in on connections with appropriate Boosters at each of the target organizations in the LAMP list.
Much of the focus of Dalton’s system is aimed at obtaining the opportunity for face-to-face meetings with potential advocates in the target organizations. Dalton calls these meetings “informational interviews.” We sometimes call them Conversations of Inquiry. These sessions are geared toward gaining insights about the organization, the industry, and the careers market in general, but even more toward making connections that can ultimately lead to recommendations and referrals. According to Dalton, these referrals are much more valuable to the job-seeker than having stellar qualifications or a first-rate resume.
领英推荐
We will describe Dalton’s informational interview approach in a subsequent article, and of course, the full details are available in his book.
For people preparing for ministry, these exercises might seem a bit “business-like.” Still, we believe it is highly beneficial for our participants to become familiar with these approaches and begin to practice them well to build and explore networks of people who can support even more inspired, spirit-filled careers. Dalton suggests that those who become skilled at obtaining and holding informational interviews have an enormous advantage as job-seekers over those who do not. We believe this principle holds for those whose mission is ministry and those with more secular ambitions.
As always, I'm ready to help you reach potential contacts and sources of additional learning and referral.
Monday, 2 September 2024, Labor Day
Gerald Doyle
Additional Resource
[Doyle's note: In looking at and reviewing Scale by John Hoffman and David Finkel's and the accompanying SEVEN Principles, join me in thinking about how we might weave these lessons into how we think about building and designing our career trajectories. Let me know how this works for you; Dalton's approach helps to reach our to individuals to learn with and from them. Good luck."
Introduction Scale: 7 proven principles to grow your business and get your life back, by Jeff Hoffman and David Finkel, two consultants that have worked with hundreds of small and medium sized businesses, sharing their insights from those experiences. The Big Idea A truly scalable business has 2 key ingredients: systematized operations, and predictable sales.
First – operations need to be systematized so that the business doesn’t rely on its owner, and someone can be brought in without the business missing a beat. And second – a deep understanding of why your clients work with you so you can position your company uniquely and grow top-line predictably. But almost no business starts this way. So the authors have developed a roadmap to guide entrepreneurs from a startup to a company that inevitably relies heavily on its owner; and finally to an owner-independent and high-growth company that can be sold.
How it works
On the operations side, most entrepreneurs naturally resist the change from doing everything themselves to delegating to new hires. Because as soon as they delegate quality suffers, clients get upset, and the owner retrenches. The issue is that they tried to scale too soon, before they had the right systems and controls in place. The key is to streamlined business processes, organize each step so a new hire can execute with predictable results, and put the right controls in place so you’re not flying blind.
On the sales side, most entrepreneurs are too deep into the day-to-day that they haven’t taken the time to really understand why their customers are doing business with them. As a result, the business is more reactive than proactive and can’t grow.
Tri Cosain materials are developed with my colleague and friend of 40+ years, Scott Downs.
Copyright Scott Downs and Gerald Doyle, 2023-25
Residing in Chicago, Gerald Doyle provides ministry placement research and consulting for Career Services at the Catholic Theological Union ( Herbert Quinde and Christina Zaker ), as well as career services and job search coaching to students, families, and community members at Wolcott College Preparatory High School ( Miriam Pike, Kelly Ramos, and through the The Tyree Institute.
He advises several tech companies, including Upkey ( Amir Badr ) and GetSet Learning (Eva Prokop); he has also joined TSI - Transforming Solutions, Inc. (Dan Feely) as a consultant in their Higher Education and Career Services practice.
Connect with me on LinkedIn to learn more about:
Scott? Downs, a former investment banker, management consultant, and entrepreneur, now works as an Agile coach, seeking to call forward great leaders and organizations based on great cultures. He is a consultant with Expleo Group and is an associate of the TrustTemenos Leadership Academy.
Scott and Gerald are co-founders of Tri Cosain, a practice that weaves inspiration, learning, and career for leadership in life and work. Gerald and Scott co-authored 9 Questions for Leadership in Life and Work, Conversations of Inquiry, and several other volumes in the Tri Cosain series. Their work embraces equity, inclusion, diversity, and well-being as foundations for personal leadership.
Human Centered Design and Innovation: "You know, I believe it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous. Yes, much better. People forgive each other more readily and become more humble, ..." Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot
1 个月Vignesh Sridhar Here's Week 41; ten more lessons to complete the year's cycle.