Topic: Boss-free

Implementation of STM /Stuff That

MATTERS!

“This is all I ‘know’ in the

world!”Tom Peters

I. THE IDEA

“4Fs”: Find a

Fellow Freak

Faraway

World’s Biggest Waste …

Selling “Up”

Recruit [a/a = 1] Friend [in the Boondocks]

Skip [Flip off] the Hierarchy!Recruit [A]nother Friend!Do Some Cool Shit! Fast!

Surround the Bastards [with WOW WINS/ results]!

Heart of the Matter

K2K!*

*Kook to Kook

“Lead” customers!

K2K redux!

Alliance Skills!

Let the [Freak-Pioneer] Customer Pay Part, Own

[Part], and Lead Us - Push Us!

And for the 6-Person Group??

Send one “Cool Dude/Dudette” out

to Find Something Cool, work with a Cool Customer, etc. [The “Micro-Skunkworks Strategy”]

Fact: Skunking/ Starting a Skunkworks is a tactic

available to a junior supervisor … or even an independent contributor.

Create a Personal University of Weird!

II. THE NUGGET

Do Something. Do Anything.

Get Going.Now.

Opportunity ALWAYS Knocks

VFCJ* “Strategy”

*Volunteer For Crappy Jobs

Is It …

“The Oh-Shit-I-Wish-It-Were-Over Memorial Day picnic”

or

“The First Annual Seriously

Kewl Celebration of Our Incredible Staff”

Is It …

Wrestle the damn Safety Manual into line with the ridiculous new OSHA Regs?

Or …

A stealth opportunity to address the War for Talent via … a thoroughgoing review

of how safety and environmental issues contribute to making this a

Great Place to Work?

Is It …

Fix these bloody customer problems that have cropped up with the new 2783B?

Or …

A chance to work with a hotshot, young division GM on …

using the Internet/Internet Speed to revisit the entire process of how we get customer input – before and during the fact – into the

heart of the Product Design Process?

Reframers’ Rules:

Rule 1: Never accept an assignment as given! (Please.)

Rule 2: You’re never so powerful as when you are “powerless”!

Rule 3: Every “small” project contains the entire

enterprise DNA!

Bottom Line …

ANYTHING CAN BE THE RAW

MEAT FOR YOUR CRUSADE!

III. THE TOOL

Prototyping Mania!

Culture of Prototyping

“Effective prototyping may be

the most valuable core competence an innovative organization can

hope to have.”

Michael Schrage

MTTP

5 …..

Days!

“You can’t be a serious innovator unless and until you are ready,

willing and able to seriously play. ‘Serious play’ is not an oxymoron;

it is the essence of innovation.”

Michael Schrage, Serious Play

Think about It!?

Innovation = Reaction to the Prototype

Michael Schrage

“Good prototypes have ‘charisma.’ They create narratives

… tell stories.”

Michael Schrage, Serious Play

Leadership!

“A key – perhaps the key – to leadership is the effective

communication of a story.”

Howard Gardner Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership

“Small Win” = BIG WIN = Demo =

Realism = Track Record =

Attractant/Catalyst

Ready.Fire!Aim.

Ross Perot, Wayne Calloway, Harry Quadracci, et al.

Fail. Forward.

Fast.

High-tech exec, PA

He who has the quickest O.O.D.A.

Loops* wins!*Observe. Orient. Decide. Act. /

Col. John Boyd

Secret:

Creating the …

Rhythm of Prototyping

IV. THE SOFT STUFF 1

Show Up!Connect!

Message: It’s Community

Organizing, stupid!

See: Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals

P.S. …

Mark McCormack: 5,000 miles for a 5

min. meeting.

“It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He

talked and listened to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a

bishop or a college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say.”

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect

Engagement Redux!

“You all know all the notes. But can you make them believe you? Can you play & convey

like love itself? Abject despair?”

Source: Ken Silvia, paraphrasing, on Yo Yo Ma’s Master Class at the World Cello Congress 2000

Engagement Redux!

“He [Yo Yo Ma] performs, he is contemporary, he invites us into

his rich emotional world; we celebrate with him. You sound in pain, like people playing 300 year

old music.”

Source: Ken Silvia, on varieties of “performance” at the World Cello Congress 2000

V. THE PROCESS

Summary

Boss-free “Selling” of a WOW! Idea

Get a Zany [WOW!] Idea/Shop it with a coupla good pals.

Surface [using your network] a list of [operational] folks who might be interested in playing.

Call, visit and choose a coupla prospects.Engage the prospects [they must “own” “it”].

Concoct a rough plan and a prototype schedule. Move forward [Ready. Fire! Aim.].

Keep on recruitin’.Get the Test Customer to recruit some buddies for Round #2 tests [Meanwhile Customer #1 expands

program]

Get going with Round #2 prototypesStart conscious “buzz building” [Let “the word” of

successful tests trickle out]Have the “line dudes” put on a demo for, say, a coupla

“cool” regional bossesEtc.Etc.

Have the growing Network of Converts initiate a Major Program Proposal

Etc.Etc.

Boss Advice: The “Poster Kids”/ “End Run”/“Skunks” Strategy

Chat up a cross-section of the Org.Develop a tentative list of Pioneers/“Skunks.”

Hang with those Skunks, discover their “stuff I’ve long wanted to do”/Encourage

them to “Do it!”Begin to showcase their developing results

[with your public stamp of approval]. Dip deep[ish] and early - promote a Super

Skunk into the [New] Establishment.Incorporate the Skunks’ work into your Vision

Chatter/Welcome ALL aboard!

VI. THE [REALLY] SOFT STUFF 2

You must … Be In Love!

Passion Redux

Rule #1: You Gotta Love It!

Message2000

“The point is the passion!”

Charles Handy

“Create a Cause, not a ‘business.’ ”

Gary Hamel, Fortune (06.00), on re-inventing a company (Exemplar #1:

Charles Schwab)

Brand Leadership!

“A key – perhaps the key – to leadership is the effective

communication of a story.”

Howard Gardner Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership

“Leadership is a performance. You have to be

conscious of your behavior, because everybody else is.”

Carly Fiorina

Brand Leadership:ENTHUSIASM RULES!

“I am a dispenser of enthusiasm.”/ Ben

Zander

Are You a …

Viral Enthusiast?

The greatest dangerfor most of us

is not that our aim istoo high

and we miss it,but that it is

too lowand we reach it.

Michelangelo

Epitaph from Hell … Epitaph from Hell …

Joe T. Jones Joe T. Jones

1942 - 20001942 - 2000

HE WOULDA DONE SOME HE WOULDA DONE SOME

REALLY COOL STUFF REALLY COOL STUFF

BUT …BUT …

HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM! HIS BOSS WOULDN’T LET HIM!

“Death is only one of many ways to lose your life.”

Alvah Simon, North to the Night

Characteristics of the “Also Rans”

“Minimize Risk”“Support the Boss”

“Respect the Chain of Command”“Make Budget”

Source: Fortune on “Most Admired Global Corporations” [10.26.98]

Ann Richards’ Dogma

Show up!

Know your story!

Put yourself at risk every day!