The Flip. p6.Clarity
Clarity: having your counterpart (clients, suppliers, prospects) aware of your claim (what you do for whom) and your purpose (why you do it). Is it clear enough for your prospects, clients and you to articulate what you do and how you can help them solve their pains? Or how you can help them be transformed? → Positioning. When your articulation lacks clarity, it stops people from going deeper —or just go and ignore it. It’s a natural response. When we have cognitive overload, we choose to…
Change
Last couple of years, systemic change has become mainstream. Shows, podcasts, books have been published recurring to the idea that systemic change is needed to stop the decay of the environment or that it will help change how (broken) things work. I agree. However, the lens the vast majority sees systemic change through is of incremental change. They picture it like a waterfall. As if one fix will lead to fix the other one at a time, ignoring (consciously or not) they’re interrelated. That is…
The Earth is flat
You sell time. And time is money. Those statements are the equivalent of saying “the Earth is flat”. Just because some people believe it, it doesn’t make it a fact.
Fit contradiction
You need to stand out —in a place where you’re supposed to fit into. How do you do that? Doing both is a contradiction: If you fit into something, you’re pretty much average in that place. If you stand out, you’re out of that average. Do you find the logic behind “stand out in a place you where you have to fit into?”
Don’t bridge the gap. Own it.
Bridging a gap to avoid going into the depths of it might not always be the best choice. It’d leave too many things on the table. Yes, you might need to bridge gaps some times —yet not every gap needs to be bridged. Imagine the Grand Canyon with lots of bridges all over it. It would only create noise. Owning a gap, on the other side, makes you accept it as it is. There’s nothing to fix, it is what it is. It has unknowns that you can explore. It has potential to do and be so much more than…
Empowerment
“We empower our clients.” Take a moment from how things go and let’s rethink of this word. If you run a team or work with clients and you empower them, it means you *give them power*. And just as you can give power, you can take it away. Best control model. Ever. And if you’re in control, the others are not. What you can do is give them agency and/or authority. You don’t need someone else to “empower you”. People —You, my friend, have power within yourself.
Mapping an ecosystem
Here’s the work of a project led by Philip Kotler: The Wicked 7. It’s a map of how intertwined several (and most times unseen) factors are. It aims to take a systemic approach —or at least gain awareness of how things work… and what could change. With this map, you can have a better picture that taking incremental change (or aim at one-problem) won’t influence the system itself. Taking an overall approach might do. Can you map out your own business ecosystem? Map of The Ecosystem of Wicked…
Incremental v. Systemic
Incremental change Takes how not to disrupt the system in search for (small) efficiencies and improvements. Slow: 1,3,5,10… Small changes to increase. Safe: Keeping what you have (aversion bias kicks in). Short term: Not big changes now. Sales to keep. Revenue to keep. Profit not to lose. Don’t stir the pot. What does it look like? Raise your prices… according to inflation, or by 5-10% Raise your prices incrementally +5%, +15%, + 30%… [Timestamp 14:07] ESG, B-Corp Short-term: how can it…
Canyons
Here are 2 holes in the ground that you can’t (don’t want to, actually) modify. You can’t, either, take things home off it and you can only see —and explore: The Colca Canyon in Peru Colca Canyon – Nad Hemnani and the Grand Canyon in the US. Grand Canyon – Sonaal Bangera 2 big gaps in the Earth. Do they have value? Yeah. They attract a very specific kind of traveler for each of the available options: from no-budget, to low budget, to medium, to money’s-not-a-problem ($7K+/person). They can…
A hole in the ground (with more context)
Yesterday’s question was “What’s the value of seeing a hole in the ground?” Some of the answers were: The amount of money saved by not falling into the hole and breaking your leg. ???? “What’s the sound of one hand ????️ clapping?” [ Enlightenment by Van Morrison —first time I heard it and the lyrics are for another mail (Thanks, Ryan!) ] Not accidentally falling into it? None. It’s a hole in the ground. If it’s an oil well, it might have some value attached to it. It depends. What kind of hole is…