What I discovered these titans have in common (More than roundish logo’s that start with G).

I had weird morning last week. When I set out in my earlier career I had a dreams of working with the biggest companies in the world. There’s no rhyme or reason to many of our dreams. Maybe I wanted legitimacy? Maybe I was seeking adventure? To learn from the best? Who knows! Most likely all three.

So on Wednesday morning I was “Back to Back” with Google and General Electric, two of Corporate America’s titans. Mega organisation that have powered a whole nation.

In the humdrum of lockdown home-working it can be easy to miss the magic moments. My mum always says to me “darling… are you keeping a diary of all these stories” and sorry Mum, I’m not. But i did take a few mins to write this blog!

What I found fascinating:

·     Both my calls were with extremely humble people

·     Both my calls involved people keen to learn and wanting to grow and develop

·     Each individual in the organisation had high levels of mastery of their skillsets

·     Both organisations oozed professionalism and that calm, certainty of the confident, but in uniquely different ways.

·     Both organisations were much more interested in their future than their past.

·     Each person was a living representation of their organisations brand, yet a blend with their real self rather than a facade.

The Essence:

Both organisations showed their passion for competency. Competency soon morphs into confidence. And confidence is what drives markets. Is their huge success then any surprise?

In the work that followed the meetings we have explored the commercial value of mastering specific skillsets. What is the value of improving in listening? What is the value of improving in influencing? Both organisations valued those skills, in some cases we identified basic business skillsets could have a 7 figure (at least) lifetime value. Something perhaps as trivial as questioning skills.

Growing feels good. I have a friend who is an ace breakdancer and did large amounts of work in schools. When I asked him what the children made of his sessions, he said “Kids love skills”. It was a pithy, strong expression. Kids do love skills. Whether mastering the shoelace. Swimming. Chess. Or the formal maths, English, science. Yet in business our priority so often becomes misaligned. Rather that learn first, then execute with mastery, we instead become busy with work, and have very limited time for learning.

Tales of Typing

With our GE crew we use touch typing as an example. We worked out that, if we spend 10 hours per week typing, for 45 weeks, that’s 450 hours per year, or 18,000 hours over a 40-year career. If we could just improve our tying speed by 10%, we would save a FULL YEARS worth of work. 225 8 hour days. Mastering touch typing takes about 2 weeks. That’s an ROI of about 25:1 – an INSANE ROI. The definition of a NO BRAINER. Plus, there is the compound effect. If through improvement, you then had a spare week per year, what else might you master, saving more effort, etc.  I love this kind of thinking. My old boss advocated cleaning your teeth in the shower as an excellent efficiency tip. The genius of it just makes me chuckle. It’s become my everyday habit. Similarly, working with friends. Not work friends, but actual, deep friends. Or taking those work friendships to a deeper level. Such serendipitous synergising.

As our commutes decrease right now, we have some spare capacity. Choosing to invest that wisely is the most important decision we can make. Using discipline to ensure we achieve mastery and not it’s damp squib counterpoint, basic competence. Mastery of human connection, rapport, listening, or technical skills? Mastery of marketing, sales, consulting, leadership? Persistent effort. Like a bird building its nest one stick at a time. The cumulative effect proving valuable. You could ask:

1. ?What big goals would you like to achieve in the next 18 months, or 18 years?
2. ?What are the KEY process goals behind these outcome goals?
3. ?How can you systemise those steps to reduce the goal getting effort?
4. ?What key capabilities will support and enable these goals?

Turns out adults’ love skills too. But only when we have mastered something. Learning the basics just doesn't give the same hit. In our company we have learned to work with global organisations to develop commercially valuable skillsets in individuals, leaders and teams. We have learned to deploy agile methodologies to empower fast growth teams and companies. Drop me a message if you want to work with us to build something valuable in your organisation. And who knows. We might discover something together worth blogging about!