"Strategy without tactics is the long road to victory. Tactics without strategy... the noise before the defeat."
- attributed to SunTzu
Business Analysis & Change
[BECAUSE] sometimes
your company & teams
need help to thrive
B>
RESULTS: Established a 10 person Big Data Science Team to aggregate
For a major market newspaper
and analyze data that created seven seven-figure ($XM) revenue gains.
RESULTS: Helped reset team dynamics for an eight-figure ($XXM) project.
- - Reportable Safety incidents went from Q3 = 10 to Q4 = 0.
- - Internal QA Ratings improved by 20%
- - 1st Pass work approvals went from 35% to 100%
For a heavy industry shipyard
RESULTS: Turned around a B2B startup company via interim management.
For a startup software company
Within 4 months had retired all operational debt and gained profiatbility.
Latest News
[BECAUSE] you need to get out of your own way
Don’t Be Driven By Pride Or Fear - When things are going wrong, leaders can succumb to too much pride and not seek out help or, worse, not admit their mistakes. Leaders can feel that they know better or be too afraid to be wrong. Just like the best lessons come from failure, so to do the best insights come from admitting you don't (can't) know everything. Do Not Hide From The Truth - If you can't find a non-biased opinion in-house strong enough to question your own... find one externally. Educate them on your business & goals and then make a practice of letting...
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[BECAUSE] Kindness is about who you are, not what you do.
Throughout my career - I've been accused of kindness. Oddly enough - never by the people, I was leading. Too often kindness, in business, is seen as a weakness instead of a strength - as this great blog post by one of my favorite Leadership Guru's (Dan Rockwell) points out. In business - NOT being kind is the easy way out. The crisis nature of a good many work environments gives rise to excuses for people to manage in an adversarial way vs leading in a (much harder) servant leadership manner. It's a quick read - and a good reminder that...
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[BECAUSE] you need to get busy optimizing or get busy dying
Note: Spending some time recently with a client, helping them sort through their data aggregation and clean-up, gave me the opportunity to catch up with Randa Minkarah, Co-Founder & COO from Transform Randa and I talked about the challenges that companies are still having regarding not only being “data-driven” but also turning their data into insights to get what they (actually) want – more revenue. Randa details below a few simple steps (and simple home truths) about this process. Enjoy! Pat Generating Sustainable Revenues from Your Data by Randa Mikarah - Transform Digital - @Randam2 There is no question that year after year...
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[BECAUSE] I Love You, But I'm Not Fond of Your Behavior.
Reward Behavior Not Actions When my children were small; I got an excellent piece of advice as to how to discipline them without crushing their spirit. When (not if) they did something that wasn't moving them in the direction that was going to make for a great outcome - it was suggested to me that I should affirm my belief in them first and then condemn the behavior. "I love you...but I'm not fond of (insert action here)." By phrasing it this way they understand that THEY weren't "bad," it was THE BEHAVIOR that needed to be corrected. In essence saying, "THIS...
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[BECAUSE] you can’t bake a cake without cracking a few eggs.
7 things to look at - when things START to crack. #LeadershipMinit - As the old saying goes, “You can’t bake a cake without cracking a few eggs.” Mistakes or failures (cracks) can teach you where you need to concentrate your attention or training. Leading teams is not set & forget. It requires your attention. The first thing to do is observe. How is the team progressing? Note: This is where you need to discount the wins you have been getting in financial metrics, safety, morale etc. and instead watch for any pressures that are building as these will reveal where the cracks...
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[BECAUSE] being the dumbest person is important
#LeadershipMinit - It's an adage - but a good one. One of the best team productivity hacks I've learned is to hire people who are better/smarter than you are. Actively work to ensure you're the “dumbest” person in the room. It allows you to ask questions. Asking questions allows you to both learn and to provide your team with the knowledge that you value their expertise, input, and opinions. A well-formed question is the best flashlight. Questions provide insights that statements will never recognize. Over time being the "dumbest person on the team" has trickle-down benefits - a team that knows you value them, knows you're open to listening to them...
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Bold Enough to Ask. Humble Enough to Kneel.
[Lessons learned by spending a day with an icon of the 20th Century and the photographic icon sent to create a portrait of him.] Many years ago (1980's) I was fortunate enough to be the assistant for one of the great photographers of the last half of the 20th Century - Brian Lanker. I got a call from him saying that we had to go and shoot Muhammad Ali for Sports Illustrated at his home in an exclusive section of LA. Upon arrival, we were allowed a quick look around to see where we might want to take the portrait and...
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"Develop, don't fix"
Great post by Dan Rockwell (@leadeshipfreak) His blogs are some of my favorites on leadership. I especially like to read the comments under some of his posts. That is where I found this gem: "Develop, don't fix." by a commenter (bhall03). Check out Dan's origianl post here: 12 WAYS SERVANT LEADERS SERVE OTHERS SO OTHERS ARE FREE TO SERVE OTHERS
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[BECAUSE] the last thing you need are “List Junkies”
Use these questions to overcome corporate inertia and move things forward Legacy organizations and corporate institutions are filled with inertia; cultures that promote a “Tell me what to do” environment. I once inherited a department where my predecessor had purposely silo'd the department to develop a mystique about their work. Promoting that her team’s work was “black magic, smoke, and mirrors” was how she felt she could best retain her position. The effect of this type of leadership (really managing not leadership) was that she also compartmentalized all decision-making within her role. Making it very clear (via words and actions) that decisions were...
Read more[BECAUSE] a case study is what is needed
#LeadershipMinit "This is one of the most brilliant examples of being America’s national hometown newspaper I’ve seen in digital action. It’s a campaign that offers next to nothing in terms of…
Email: web@patrickscanlon.net
Twitter: @scanlonpj
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