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…
The bends
The bends. A medical condition caused by nitrogen trapped and expanded in body tissue, usually due to an ascent that happened too fast, without giving your body enough time to process the nitrogen out. Besides extremely painful, life-threatening. Here’s Diver’s Alert Network (DAN)’s definition: DCS, also known as the bends, describes a variety of injuries that result from inadequate decompression following exposure to increased pressure. This can occur following uneventful dives within…
The present of the future
It’s about What Could Be. How can you imagine the way things would be different? How can you change what you find non-sense? How can you change the way things are —the What Is? You can only do that challenging what you believe. And what others believe. Seeing a vision (yours or someone else’s) worth pursuing. A clear image of the future —most likely unreachable, yet powerful to get you off bed every day. I’m curious, what do you see?
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…
The gap
It’s like diving a new site. You won’t know exactly what you’ll see, but have a rough idea. You know you’ll be underwater —that’s a good start. ???? You know what’s the water temperature on surface, and can guesstimate what it’ll be as you go deeper. So you prepare accordingly. A wetsuit, a drysuit or just a rashguard. You know you might encounter currents and surges. You’re aware of what changes happen. You know how long you can stay below water, depending on your equipment and depth. What you…
Pricing different
Going into a product-market gap allows you to play a different game from the rest. One thing you can start playing with is Pricing. In a product-market fit “This is how everybody else prices” (eg. costplus) “These are the prices.” Makes you think:How can i make my price “fit” into this place and still make a profit (????) or make it attractive for me to keep at it? WTF [Where’s The Focus] → Yourself In a product-market gap “This is how everybody else prices” (ceg. cost+) “These are the prices”….
Buying clothes
When you’re buying clothes, you need to fit into the clothes. When you don’t, you don’t buy them. And if you do buy them, you’ll feel funny at some point. Like it’s not quite the right thing for you. Same thing happens trying to fit a product into a market. You might get it, but in the long run, odds are you’ll feel funny. You don’t need to fit in when you can stand out.
How to find a gap
First, know what you’re really good at, ego aside. How? Do your personal inventory. A collection of the work you’ve done for clients and in your work life. Good and bad —the worst ones too, actually. Having that will give you a better glimpse of the big picture. This is how you start seeing the hidden patterns in what you do and how you do it. How you actually helped. What your contributions and impact are. In the big picture, they’re evergreen. It unveils the deep you, your core and what…
How to make your inventory
To find gaps, you can use a personal inventory. And that sounds simple… yet, many times it’s overwhelming not to know how to start. Here’s a way to do your personal inventory to figure out what you’re really good at. Client / Employer Industry Project Description → Quickly describe what you were hired to do. Inputs → Time, money, resources Outputs → Deliverables (roadmaps, strategies, papers, docs, software…) Outcomes → What they achieved after the work was done Impact → How impactful was…