Season 1: Episode 5
Big idea: Learn how to diagnose business gaps in 30mins or less and then focus on the highest value actions.
Transcript
How to diagnose the competency & capabilities of an organization in 30mins or less and then focus on the highest value actions.
00:02
welcome to leadership talk
00:04
the official waymaker podcast where we
00:07
explore
00:08
how your organization can achieve more
00:11
by doing less
00:22
welcome to leadership talk the official
00:24
waymaker podcast
00:26
i am your host craig hyneman and with me
00:29
on sunny queen queensland is stuart leo
00:32
ceo
00:33
founder of waymaker how are you i’m
00:35
great craig how are you buddy
00:37
um very well as i was just saying to you
00:40
just a little earlier it’s
00:42
reached its top of eight degrees down
00:44
here in adelaide
00:45
yeah so um yeah i’m a little rugged up
00:47
that’s not even winter yet
00:49
it’s you know we’ll if you do choose to
00:51
live in
00:52
such a wonderful place as adelaide then
00:54
um they will be the
00:56
the blessings you suffer but
00:59
yeah you know at least you can top it
01:00
off with a shiraz for breakfast
01:04
[Laughter]
01:07
noted people probably don’t know
01:10
that you’re actually on pretty much the
01:12
other side of the country
01:13
um i actually i actually am and through
01:16
the wonders of technology we can still
01:17
have these conversations
01:18
yeah it feels like we’re in the same
01:20
room oh it’s just like yesterday
01:22
this is the beauty of covert fast
01:24
forwarding you know technology
01:26
you know the adoption of new
01:28
technologies like
01:30
decades i mean it is why waymaker exists
01:33
um that was a beautiful segue because
01:38
because society has transformed so
01:40
quickly into
01:42
um working office work from home um
01:45
work remotely they’re all different
01:47
things decentralized leadership
01:50
all that fun stuff and people need new
01:53
tools
01:54
new systems and new skills and
01:57
that is what waymaker is it helps any
01:59
organization wherever they are
02:01
achieve their vision that’s awesome and
02:03
so we want to talk about one of those
02:06
tools
02:09
we want to talk about the waymaker
02:11
diagnostic you want to explain that to
02:13
us
02:13
well sure sure that thanks that was a
02:16
great great opening
02:17
did you like it i should have set it up
02:18
better beautiful setup
02:21
way i make a diagnostic i mean it’s it’s
02:23
actually one of our
02:25
our biggest um and most useful
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um features on the platform it’s it’s
02:32
what waymaker was birthed from and uh
02:34
it’s
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that it really i think we titled this
02:37
podcast um
02:38
how to diagnose the competencies and
02:40
capabilities of of any organization in
02:42
30 minutes or less
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and then focused on the highest and then
02:45
focus on the highest value actions
02:48
i might shorten that for the um for the
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thumbnail
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yeah that’s a good idea on youtube yeah
02:54
yeah how to diagnose the competency
02:57
and capabilities of an organization in
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less than 30 minutes
03:00
and then focused on the highest value
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actions
03:04
that’s not bad yeah i’m sure our
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listeners are appreciating us
03:07
like refining our work as we go along um
03:10
she wants that once more just to get it
03:11
right no but the
03:13
the diagnostic um well gosh it actually
03:16
started i mean we had a consulting
03:18
business before
03:19
waymaker and it really birthed itself
03:21
back in 2014
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um when we when we wrote the first
03:26
versions of it
03:27
and for six or seven years uh we’ve been
03:30
refining this
03:31
and the whole idea is
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how can we more effectively um
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more quickly and more accurately
03:42
put our fingers on the actions and the
03:45
activities that are going to shift the
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needle on this organization
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and and so you know if you can get that
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insight
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if you can answer that question what’s
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the one or two things three things that
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if we did this quarter half would shift
03:58
the needle on the business
04:00
every business leader wants to know that
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and
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you know the promise we make is we’ll
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actually we’ll tell you
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um we’ll tell you more than one or two
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or three things
04:11
part of your job is actually figuring
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out what those one or two or three
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things
04:15
are but the diagnostic is an incredibly
04:18
powerful tool that
04:21
we’ve been focusing and focusing
04:23
focusing on to make simpler and simpler
04:24
and simpler
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but to make more usable and practical
04:28
and we track you know anybody that’s
04:30
taken it you’ll know
04:32
in fact if you took the first waymaker
04:34
version
04:35
um you’ve probably sworn at me because
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you know it was a beast of a
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of a diagnostic and um
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one of the things we did do listening to
04:44
our audience and our
04:45
our um users um our very first product
04:50
improvement was improving the speed of
04:53
that diagnostic
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which yeah um uh 30 days after
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launching waymaker we’ve made that more
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than 30
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faster so which is a cool
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outcome from our our dev team um
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it’s simpler to it’s simple to read
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simple answer but you know
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so what what does it do for you well it
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it
05:14
it helps you understand in third party
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objective language
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where you have clarity where you have
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maturity
05:23
and what activities that if improved
05:25
will it will shift the needle on the
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business and
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and that’s um that’s really important
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because it’s a bit like i often use the
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analogy in fact i think we use this in
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our marketing i’m looking at my watch
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not because i’m checking the time but
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because i use the analogy of a of a
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smartwatch i’ll get that on screen
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yep sponsored by apple today um
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we’re not um but if you’d like
05:48
[Laughter]
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um you know smartwatch listens
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um everything you’re doing your body
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um heartbeat steps um you know
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i’m pleased to say that if i showed you
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my smartwatch for today
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i’m three quarters on the red band i’m
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i’m 130
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on the orange and i’m 60 of the way
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through on the blue
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and if you’ve got an apple watch you
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know what that means you’d be like gee
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stu
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you you are just like the chris
06:19
hemsworth of consulting and coaching
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i on the other hand have barely stood up
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and have done less than one minute
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right of exercise so see you know i’ve
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got 9475
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steps i’ve walked 7.29 kilometers
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it’s telling me i’m just kind of a
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little skype it’s telling me where i’ve
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gone it’s got my weekly summary
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flights climbed and it’s got suggestions
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on
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hey you should do this and you should do
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that um
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so waymaker’s kinda like that it it
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listens to your to you and your people
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and it takes all that data back in takes
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20 to 30 minutes to take that diagnostic
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and then it crunches that data back
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against the experience curve which if
07:05
you don’t know what the experience curve
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go back and listen to some of our
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earlier episodes but it’s the
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it’s the waymakers experience curve is
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the methodology that’s the foundation of
07:15
waymaker it crunches that data back
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against
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the experience curve and in fact against
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eight different ones
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so previous episodes we’ve talked about
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the six systems
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um that make up the business system so
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vision market strategy business model
07:30
customer experience and employer
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experience
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and so all the data crunches back
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against those eight curves
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it’s it’s eight because in customer
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experience we have
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three separate ones sales marketing
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service and then it reveals the
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activities
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at the different stages of maturity and
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each activity is
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is color coded
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to classic traffic lights red orange
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yellow green
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and it shows you where the gaps are and
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now
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it’s it’s showing you and this is the
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important thing
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it’s showing you where the gaps are
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based on the people who are running the
08:08
business
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your people so the
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the basic assumption is this is if your
08:14
people don’t have clarity on how the
08:16
business runs then
08:17
um it’s not looking good for your
08:19
customers
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so if we don’t have clarity and there’s
08:23
a gap in how we
08:25
do something then we should know about
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it and if we can
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find those gaps we can close those gaps
08:32
because one of the mantras of waymaker
08:34
is carl
08:35
uh the enemy is
08:48
welcome to carl our new host of the
08:50
waymaker podcast
08:51
uh hey look i’m gonna i’m gonna charm in
08:53
for carl at this point the enemy is the
08:54
gap
08:58
why the heck did i say that um yeah
09:01
that’s right so
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um the the enemy is the gap that’s um
09:05
me down you team member uh in your face
09:08
carl
09:08
thanks thanks thanks for your service
09:10
craig um
09:14
yeah the enemy is the gap our enemy is
09:17
not a competitor
09:19
or this or that our enemy is the gaps in
09:22
our own business that if we close
09:24
we win that’s that’s the game we’re
09:26
playing that’s the battle
09:28
we’re we’re up against um and it’s a
09:31
battle of the mind it’s a battle of the
09:33
skills it’s a battle of the systems it’s
09:35
a battle of the best practices and it’s
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a battle of activities
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and that is how you set up our framework
09:42
the way you make a diagnostic so it’s a
09:45
different type of diagnostic than other
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people would be
09:48
um incorporating into their
09:52
strategic analysis of business yeah
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yeah yes i mean um when we were building
09:58
waymaker we were
10:00
doing we’re listening to customers and
10:02
also looking at other products out there
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that do strategic planning or
10:05
might do okrs and look there’s there’s
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lots of
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stuff out there that will help you set a
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goal
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you know a basic trello board or a
10:14
simple okr platform
10:16
to more complex um strategic planning
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systems
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um from you know balanced scorecards
10:24
to complex cascading strategic
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initiatives um but
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all of them had one thing in common they
10:33
are
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all empty vessels of nothingness
10:37
[Music]
10:39
that require somebody to go ah i think
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this is the important thing to be doing
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right
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and that was a really interesting
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insight
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because so it was it was a place to
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capture the information but
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had no idea what to do with it perhaps
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like a black hole or something
10:57
well i mean you know we’ve all sat in
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board meetings and
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um around the boardroom table and that
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this marketing meeting or that sales
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meeting or this production meeting and
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and um too often
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um the initiative that gets done is
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what is from whom
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the loudest voice in the room exactly
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yeah yeah either the person with the
11:23
biggest title
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um i’m boss so that’s what i think
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that’s what we’re doing
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the person with the loudest voice um or
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and they’re not good enough reasons to
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be frank um
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and and even frank would agree but the
11:39
[Music]
11:40
um
11:43
[Music]
11:48
flying high from back in the 80s i love
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it i love it and he says
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he says he says can i be frank sure
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frank
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um and and the other great line is
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surely you can’t be serious and he goes
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i am and stop calling me shirley
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i think i think leslie nielsen is
12:04
possibly you know one of the greatest
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gifts
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to comedy
12:13
[Music]
12:15
so you know it’s just not good enough
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that there
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are not more robust methodologies and
12:22
approaches to finding out the most
12:24
important things to do and look i’m
12:26
i’m i’m not being fair to those people
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that do have rigorous approaches and
12:30
they conduct the research and they bring
12:33
recommendations to the table
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fantastic you know that’s wonderful and
12:37
and look um
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you’re probably not our first customers
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i’m sure we can help you as an
12:42
organization but you’re probably doing
12:43
great things already
12:45
but if your organization is kind of
12:48
stuck and struggling around
12:49
man we’re always fighting over the same
12:51
issues sales is always blaming marketing
12:53
marketing’s always blaming sales and
12:56
operations is always late and um
12:59
the ceo just does what he wants to do or
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you know
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dysfunction then
13:06
what we hear from customers is wow this
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is
13:09
objective third-party data you know
13:13
served up in the boardroom that nobody
13:14
can argue with because the inputs came
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from us
13:17
all we’re just doing is holding up a
13:19
mirror in a structured way
13:22
to reveal back where those gaps are
13:26
and that when we connected that with the
13:29
ability to quickly turn those into
13:30
strategic initiatives
13:32
to do that across the holistic business
13:34
not just
13:35
a part of the business that’s when the
13:37
magic started to kick into gear because
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now in in 30 minutes or less wow
13:42
you can figure out where are the gaps in
13:44
our organization
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and that’s helping us nail down what we
13:49
should be focusing on and
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and it’s not just what i think or not
13:52
just what you think because it’s what
13:54
we’ve all thought
13:55
and now that data’s being crunched um
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quite intelligently
13:59
and that’s what if our collective what
14:01
if our collective thoughts are all wrong
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though
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like we’re measuring it up against you
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know so is we make it now just the
14:07
loudest voice in the room
14:08
or how like how you
14:13
you know how do we correct the bias is
14:14
that what you’re asking
14:16
yeah and how do we determine uh what
14:19
are the most important priorities in the
14:21
business now that we’ve collected all
14:22
the information what’s the
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you know yes so just pulling stuff out
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of the air or
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no i mean so one of the benefits here is
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that the data is structured
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we’re asking structured questions
14:34
absorbing that data and structuring it
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back against
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an organized framework so
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as we’re asking some of those questions
14:41
we’re asking the same
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type of question more than once so
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um we’re we’re asking many questions
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around
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say kpis and key metrics and performance
14:53
outcomes
14:54
so if if you’re dummying the answers
14:58
you’re not you know it’s going to become
14:59
apparent what does become apparent
15:02
is that um the the patterns and the
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behaviors appear
15:07
that if you’re looking at say
15:11
the market curve which is all about
15:15
what market do we serve who’s our ideal
15:17
customer what do they value
15:18
what perceptions do we need to build you
15:21
might see
15:22
activities that are low and need work
15:25
and then you might get to the strategy
15:27
curve and
15:28
the same theme might be appearing and so
15:30
there’s themes that are
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across all and that’s really important
15:35
as
15:35
as you begin to look at the curves
15:39
and and go from vision to market to
15:41
strategy to business model
15:43
you know and i must have run dozens and
15:45
dozens dozens of sessions with clients
15:47
around this
15:47
and um very quickly people are becoming
15:51
self-aware they’re going oh
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yeah we suck at our performance metrics
15:55
do we have a
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standard set of metrics that we track
15:58
quarter in quarter out
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if we’re honest no we don’t um and
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the one or two of the c suite might go
16:05
well isn’t it this and that
16:06
and and other people are going well is
16:08
it what is it and there’s clearly a lack
16:10
of clarity
16:11
and we’re seeing seen that pattern and
16:14
so
16:14
so the data is is asked in such a way
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that um
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you know we we iron out some of the bias
16:21
as best as possible
16:22
look if you put in all the wrong inputs
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you’re going to get all the wrong
16:25
outputs
16:26
um yeah yeah that’s don’t bother taking
16:29
it if you’re going to be like that
16:32
so but once you do take it and and
16:36
we are we are balancing things across
16:38
the business system
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which is a system of systems and across
16:42
um
16:43
different themes and the beauty of this
16:46
diagnostic is that it’s actually been
16:48
tested over years and years and years
16:50
like this is
16:53
yeah i mean the as i said
16:56
um i guess we started work on the
16:58
diagnostic six or seven years ago
17:00
um uh does that mean it’s perfect no
17:03
it’s a piece of software as
17:04
i said at the start of this the version
17:07
we released in waymaker 1.0
17:10
is now 30 better in waymaker 1.1
17:14
it it will improve over time
17:17
and so that’s that’s been um
17:21
i mean we practice what we preach there
17:23
around continuous improvement
17:24
and um the whole platform is designed
17:28
for people to practice continuous
17:29
improvement
17:31
and and we’ll see that happening there
17:33
there’s there’s
17:35
there’s benefits to that so so really in
17:38
summary
17:39
excuse me um most
17:42
planning performance systems didn’t have
17:44
data inputs
17:46
excuse me we wanted to
17:49
get one and and front end those
17:53
performance management systems that
17:55
would have structured qualitative and
17:58
quantitative data coming in
18:00
um and and that’s where the smarts are
18:03
that’s that’s what makes it unique
18:05
we haven’t found another platform in the
18:06
world where you can run your business
18:09
and have these kind of strategic inputs
18:11
coming in from all levels of the
18:13
organization
18:16
so that so we take this we take the
18:19
diagnostic
18:20
and then we map this against the
18:22
waymaker experience curve
18:24
do you want to talk a little bit about
18:26
how that works and what we’re looking
18:27
for there
18:28
yeah and i think um i’ll ask this now
18:31
because we’re obviously
18:32
um in production but yeah we’ll put us
18:35
we’ll put a a shot on screen so
18:38
um you should be seen on screen
18:42
either recently or now or very shortly a
18:45
triangle um and that triangle
18:49
is what we call the diagnostic framework
18:51
and it’s it’s really adapted from
18:54
systems thinking and traditional systems
18:56
thinking and the iceberg
18:57
the classic iceberg and this type of
19:00
diagram shouldn’t be unfamiliar to
19:03
anybody um that’s that’s looked at any
19:06
of those
19:06
those management practices
19:10
and so um what we’re looking at is
19:13
um the very very
19:16
base of the thinking
19:20
is the mental models um and the mental
19:24
models are the the way we view the world
19:26
around us
19:27
classic world view um the assumptions we
19:31
hold the beliefs we hold
19:33
how we think and that’s huge
19:36
sitting on top of that because how we
19:39
think
19:39
and how we see the world determines
19:43
what skills and systems we’re going to
19:47
invest in
19:47
what are the structures and the
19:49
practices we’re baking into the
19:51
organization
19:53
um i have a great friend who runs a
19:57
property organization and he’s just a
19:59
mad salesman he just all he believes in
20:01
his sales
20:02
um wonderful guy so what do you think he
20:05
values
20:06
what do you think he’s worth more doing
20:08
a great quality output or
20:10
making a deal clearly making a deal
20:12
because that’s his world view
20:14
doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong that’s
20:16
just the world view so
20:18
so that world view is driving skills and
20:20
systems and from those skills and
20:22
systems
20:23
you can see over time certain trends and
20:27
and behaviors because
20:30
that’s what happens over time if we
20:32
value sales
20:33
more than production over time then
20:36
that’s going to reveal itself in the
20:39
culture of the organization as much as
20:41
the skills and the systems
20:43
and sitting on top of that are the
20:44
activities of what we do so
20:46
how we sell how we market what we do
20:48
those functional activities
20:50
and so and the ultimate result of that
20:53
is what people know about us
20:55
so right at the tip of that little
20:58
triangle is a
20:59
little human character we often use to
21:01
represent
21:02
that’s that’s you the organization
21:04
that’s how people see you
21:06
and and that’s as you evaluate
21:09
as you evaluate this diagnostics
21:11
framework then there are like
21:13
a couple of key principles um
21:16
like of this framework so do you want to
21:19
kind of like talk us
21:20
through those in in light of what we’ve
21:22
just just looked at
21:23
yeah i’m glad you mentioned those um
21:26
the first principle is the depth of
21:29
shift
21:31
increases the level of shift or what you
21:34
can almost say the power of shift inside
21:36
the organization
21:37
so it’s called an iceberg then you know
21:40
classic systems iceberg model because
21:42
what customers see what the world sees
21:44
is you and the general activities you do
21:47
but sitting underneath that beneath the
21:49
surface of the ocean
21:50
are the patterns trends behaviors over
21:52
time the skills and systems you build
21:54
the structures the practices
21:56
which are all framed by your mental
21:57
models and so
21:59
the deeper you create change
22:02
the the the higher the level the
22:05
increased level of change
22:07
you can and so we kind of articulate
22:09
that in in this way
22:12
changing what we do does not change who
22:15
we
22:16
are but changing who we are almost
22:20
always changes what we do
22:23
i’m going to say that again because it’s
22:24
so important and changing what we do
22:27
does not change who we are but changing
22:30
who we are
22:31
or how we think about the world almost
22:33
always changes what we do
22:35
let me give an example yeah is that how
22:38
you ask
22:39
okay so let’s change what we do
22:43
okay so we’re going to
22:47
change what we do we’re going to mandate
22:49
that
22:50
in customer service we’re always going
22:52
to let’s pretend we’ve got some retail
22:54
stores we’re always going to stand up
22:55
and open the door for the customer
22:57
awesome um we’re gonna we’re gonna send
23:00
out a company policy saying that’s how
23:02
you treat customers from now on
23:05
does that change who we are or how we
23:07
think about the world no it just
23:08
changes what we do if we
23:11
teach people to think differently about
23:14
customers
23:15
and let’s say let’s teach our teams to
23:18
think about the retail floor
23:21
like your living room your house
23:25
if you have a guest that comes into your
23:27
home
23:28
do you greet them of course you do do
23:31
you show them hospitality
23:32
of course you do do you care for them of
23:34
course you do do you
23:36
open and close the front door as they
23:37
come and go of course you do that’s just
23:39
general hospitality so if we changed our
23:44
mindsets to saying hey
23:45
think about this shop floor as
23:48
your home and think about people coming
23:51
in as guests
23:53
then we shift thinking we move the
23:56
mental model from
23:58
from being oh their customers to being
24:01
their guests
24:02
and yeah i’m using a really simple
24:04
customer service example here
24:07
and we don’t need to mandate open the
24:08
door in fact
24:10
the minute we shift the thinking to say
24:13
it’s not a customer
24:14
it’s a guest then they’ll have a smile
24:17
there’ll be a greeting there’ll be a
24:19
comment on how nice they look today and
24:21
there’ll be a door opened and a door
24:23
shut and suggestions on what they could
24:25
do
24:26
the individual will be empowered to come
24:29
up with another 20 ways of giving great
24:31
customer service
24:33
and we’ll never have to put that in a
24:34
policy document why because there was a
24:37
mindset shift that happened around how
24:40
we think about the world around us how
24:41
we think about the customer
24:43
making sense yeah and if you want to um
24:45
just take this
24:46
iceberg uh model a little further with
24:48
some of the language that you’ve used
24:50
uh would you say then that those things
24:52
that are seen
24:53
are what we do those uh who we are
24:57
are the things that are unseen yeah like
25:00
brought you to map that against that
25:02
yeah broadly i mean there are things we
25:04
do inside the organization you know we
25:06
we
25:07
build systems we build organization
25:09
structures we create
25:10
teams now they’re things we do um
25:14
they’re things that are rarely seen
25:16
though but they’re felt
25:18
yeah so if we build a system that
25:21
promotes
25:21
um speed of turnaround of customer
25:24
service
25:25
then we may not create a system that
25:27
encourages hospitality
25:29
and warmth sure um it’s hi craig welcome
25:32
what do you want you want a wallet
25:33
fantastic it’s 20 bucks now get out
25:36
um or it’s hey craig welcome so nice to
25:39
see you again
25:40
and and you know and as i talk about
25:42
this it doesn’t matter whether you’re a
25:43
digital business or a physical business
25:44
the same applies
25:46
good digital systems say hey welcome
25:48
back craig last time you were interested
25:50
in brown wallets
25:51
would you like a brown belt to go with
25:53
that this time hey that’s useful
25:56
or hey craig last time you landed on
25:58
this
25:59
travel website you were interested in
26:01
flying to
26:02
the whitsundays would you like to add a
26:06
stay
26:07
at port douglas with that um yeah thank
26:10
you to our sponsors tourism queensland
26:12
um jokes um
26:15
uh you know you get what i’m saying here
26:18
yeah and to point to
26:19
the first principle like obviously the
26:21
deeper down you go
26:23
the more change you’re gonna correct
26:26
yeah so you could look at our diagnostic
26:28
and you go oh we’re weak on crm
26:30
and you could go hey we we should really
26:33
focus on crm or we’re weak on
26:35
a sales methodology let’s focus on that
26:37
and that’s good
26:38
don’t get me wrong that’s good that’s
26:40
improving the business
26:42
but the coach or the advisor that’s
26:44
working with the business
26:45
might also look at the mindset because
26:47
we actually reveal
26:49
not just the clarity on the curve
26:52
um say for sales or marketing but we
26:54
review what’s what we call a growth
26:56
mindset
26:57
and and that’ll be two of 16
27:00
different mindsets so we we have a
27:04
a 4×4 matrix on mindsets that will
27:07
reveal one of 16 profiles
27:09
and that’s not the individual that’s the
27:12
organization so what’s the mindset of
27:14
the organization
27:15
as a whole or in this
27:18
area in in say customer experience or
27:21
employee experience
27:22
yeah cool and the coach advisor will
27:24
look at that and go ah
27:26
actually you know what let’s work on
27:28
that let’s work on that mindset
27:30
let’s and and so there is a layer of
27:33
psychology
27:34
that can be overlaid here that we’re not
27:37
saying we’re going to put into the
27:38
software because
27:39
software does what the software does but
27:41
rather it will reveal back to you going
27:43
we’re not thinking in the way that high
27:46
performance teams think
27:48
and that sure that is unique to anywhere
27:51
anything out there
27:53
so that’s cool so that’s depth of shift
27:54
increases the level of shift that’s
27:56
principle number one
27:57
stu principle number two yes
28:00
so um principle number two is
28:04
organizational alignment is actually a
28:06
four dimensional activity
28:09
so let me just nerd out for a minute um
28:12
organizational alignment is height width
28:15
depth
28:17
of alignment over time
28:21
so um thanks to einstein and his theory
28:24
of relativity
28:25
uh time is your fourth dimension that’s
28:27
right time is the fourth dimension
28:28
you know we all know that time had a
28:30
beginning time has an end
28:32
time is relative to matter and space and
28:35
we know that we have height width depth
28:37
and time and so when
28:41
um when you’re taking this diagnostic
28:44
uh this diagnostic is um taking
28:47
qualitative and quantitative insights
28:49
into structured data that we track
28:52
um you know if you do it every quarter
28:53
every quarter um
28:55
you can go and look at what your team
28:59
achieved last quarter two quarters ago
29:02
three quarters ago last year you can see
29:04
the patterns and trends over time you
29:06
can see things moving and changing
29:08
and that’s really healthy it’s healthy
29:12
for two big reasons one
29:16
it allows us to see where we’re growing
29:18
we can go actually
29:20
hey we did achieve we hey good news we
29:22
did grow
29:23
hey well done man like two quarters ago
29:27
um sales was weak in in clarity and
29:30
maturity and we’ve focused on that
29:32
and now look we’re seeing the results in
29:34
our numbers
29:35
and you know what though that’s not a
29:37
flash in the pan set of numbers from
29:40
a new marketing campaign that’s because
29:42
we’re a better
29:43
stronger you know new and improved
29:46
version 1.3
29:47
and and that’s awesome you can see that
29:50
that’s the first big reason it’s
29:51
encouraging and empowering and wonderful
29:54
the second big reason is um
29:57
it will reveal your stubbornness and if
30:01
you
30:02
if you are ignoring practices
30:05
and behaviors over time they’re going to
30:07
be there and they’re there for everybody
30:09
to see
30:11
and that’s good because um so there’s
30:14
accountability right across the
30:15
organization then right yeah
30:17
that’s the great that’s the best way of
30:19
putting it so
30:21
so um uh your people will tell you
30:25
um hey um why why do we
30:28
after eight quarters still stink at blah
30:31
blah blah
30:34
and it will move up to being one of
30:36
those one two or three things that we
30:38
should improve
30:39
so um you know when when you’re looking
30:41
at a diagnostic you’re not just looking
30:43
at a snapshot of a moment in time now
30:46
but you’re also looking at a snapshot of
30:49
our organization over time and i believe
30:52
that you and i had a conversation once
30:53
about like growth rings on trees and
30:55
that type of thing and just like
30:57
yeah yeah yeah we did yeah right um
31:00
[Music]
31:01
it’s exactly that um and so
31:05
in fact that’s not a bad analogy we were
31:06
talking about in a different context
31:09
on that podcast and
31:12
the context was as the trunk tree grows
31:15
the
31:16
growth rings are growing on the core
31:18
trunk
31:19
and we were talking about saplings and
31:21
distractions and
31:22
um and and that’s all still relevant and
31:25
a good way of thinking about the
31:26
diagnostic is you’re getting a
31:28
you’re getting a shot of growth rings
31:30
and you get to slice the organization
31:32
open
31:34
see the growth rings and then look at
31:36
them over time
31:37
and and that’s healthy so it allows you
31:41
you know when somebody says hey this
31:42
quarter we think we should be focusing
31:44
on building a better
31:45
employee experience or the onboarding
31:47
journey
31:49
you can look back in time and go yeah
31:51
that has been a problem for now
31:52
two three four five quarters it’s now
31:55
it’s we’ve removed other problems
31:57
and more bigger and more important
31:59
whatever they were and now is the time
32:01
to focus on this
32:02
and um so it’s it’s
32:06
it’s helpful in that context i probably
32:07
should also say it’s also helpful in the
32:08
context that
32:10
um it’s not just about what you’re doing
32:13
as an organization
32:14
but what what the world is doing around
32:17
you what your marketplace is doing
32:19
around you and
32:20
and for six quarters we made it we may
32:22
have been awesome
32:23
at um employee experience but
32:25
something’s happened in the marketplace
32:28
and google went to a four-day work week
32:30
yeah
32:31
yeah now that’s standard that’s right
32:35
could could be anything and now we’ve
32:37
got to address that and so
32:40
our maturity our clarity our strength of
32:42
that has gone down
32:44
not because we’ve done anything but
32:46
because we’ve not done something
32:48
and and so that that’s helpful so
32:52
so that’s how they’re the two big
32:54
principles number one depth of shift
32:56
increases level of shift
32:59
changing how we think about things will
33:01
change
33:02
everything just changing the activity at
33:04
the top just changes the activity top
33:07
and you know i love that statement
33:09
changing what we do does not change who
33:10
we are but changing who we are
33:12
almost always changes what we do
33:15
um the second principle organizational
33:18
alignment is a four dimensional activity
33:20
height with depth and alignment over
33:22
time we’re assessing height width and
33:24
depth
33:25
every quarter and then measuring that
33:27
quarter by quarter by quarter and giving
33:29
you that sense check over time which
33:31
gives you
33:31
objectivity it helps you know if you’re
33:34
on course or off course and
33:36
i’ve banged on i think in this example i
33:38
think it’s true
33:39
if it’s not true it doesn’t matter it’s
33:41
it’s applicable but
33:43
um that’s a good way of opening up a
33:45
story isn’t it
33:46
yeah yeah but the the the
33:50
urban legend which i believe is true i’m
33:52
going to dig out the evidence
33:53
is that um when when nasa sent man to
33:57
the moon
33:58
back in 1969 i think
34:01
[Music]
34:04
they were only ever on course for
34:07
four percent of the time
34:10
yet the mission was an enormous success
34:12
because it achieved
34:13
its purpose send a man to the moon land
34:16
him pick him up and bring him back to
34:18
earth
34:18
that was the mission objective
34:21
and and the whole time all they were
34:24
doing was just calibrating
34:26
just going up let’s get back on course
34:28
oh of course
34:29
and that’s you know we we have quarters
34:33
and we have periods of time in in
34:35
organizational life
34:36
and even in life itself when we’re like
34:39
oh
34:39
that we sucked that quarter no
34:42
we we were still on mission we were
34:45
still on purpose
34:46
we were still on goal um
34:49
what we’ve done is just calibrate back
34:51
so don’t look
34:52
back for those last six weeks and go we
34:55
sucked
34:56
look back for the last six quarters
34:59
ten quarters and go wow look how far
35:01
we’ve come
35:03
we can see the moon and it’s like a
35:05
series of micro adjustments rather than
35:07
like desperately you know the first time
35:10
you play a racing car game
35:11
and you just over correct every turn and
35:13
you just end up crashing
35:15
right as you get used to it right you
35:16
just you start making micro adjustments
35:18
and it’s like it’s that sort of thing
35:20
right
35:20
so even if the nasa analogy was not true
35:24
maybe the racing car xbox one
35:27
is all right so you know if you if you
35:30
don’t like my nasa analogy
35:31
go go with the xbox but i like it
35:33
because four percent
35:35
yeah and and so that’s the whole point
35:37
yeah so we want to know
35:39
you know if you’re that rocket ship um
35:43
exiting um the atmosphere
35:47
you want to know for the next short
35:50
amount of time what are the most
35:51
valuable things we can do
35:53
and that’s the point of the diagnostic
35:56
and so if
35:57
if you and your team take that takes 20
35:59
to 30 minutes
36:00
um you’ve got those insights and then
36:03
all you’ve got to do is just grab that
36:05
seven questions
36:06
framework which you get for free and
36:08
it’s baked into the
36:09
software as well ask and answer those
36:12
seven questions and i
36:13
you know in the next few minutes you’ll
36:15
know
36:16
you’ll very quickly see from the
36:18
patterns the trends
36:20
the activities and the mindsets will
36:24
begin to challenge your own current
36:26
mindset um
36:28
and you’ll begin to see that yeah we
36:31
need to
36:31
we need to shift our thinking and we
36:33
need to take some action
36:35
and you know if you do that and you just
36:37
rinse and repeat that then you’re going
36:38
to be ahead of 96
36:40
of all organizations in the world that’s
36:42
awesome
36:43
so our encouragement
36:46
our encouragement to you is to take the
36:49
diagnostic yep
36:50
sign up for a free trial waymaker
36:52
waymaker.io
36:54
it’s free what’s holding you back
36:58
take the diagnostic it will take you
37:00
less time than it took you to listen to
37:01
this podcast
37:03
as desperately as desperately as i tried
37:06
to keep this to 30 minutes
37:08
so we should rename this podcast yeah
37:11
how
37:11
how to diagnose business in 30
37:14
37 minutes and 20 seconds
37:17
do not listen to the podcast go straight
37:19
to go straight to the diagnostic
37:23
so uh so do that we’d love you to sign
37:24
up for a free trial i’ll take the
37:25
diagnostic uh
37:27
and um and start to see some of these
37:29
things um
37:31
in action but um stu great to chat to
37:33
you as always
37:35
yeah and if you haven’t subscribed to uh
37:37
the podcast
37:39
do that now and if you haven’t
37:40
subscribed to our youtube channel if
37:41
you’re listening to us
37:42
you’re watching us on youtube which you
37:44
will be for this one because there’s a
37:46
cool diagnostic framework you need to
37:48
look at we’ll obviously put the notes
37:50
um in the in the show notes but do
37:52
subscribe to youtube
37:54
hit that subscribe send us some
37:57
questions
37:58
uh if you’ve got any and we will answer
38:00
them
38:01
and you know we’re going to get together
38:03
again in another week and talk
38:06
more about how to achieve more by doing
38:08
[Music]
38:16
less
38:19
[Music]
38:24
you
What is the Waymaker diagnostic?
Waymaker’s diagnostic finds the gaps in the organization.
It will reveal the few things that if improved, most improve the organization.
It does this by mapping skills and system activities on the Waymaker Experience Curve.
The diagnostic is a rapid fire survey to all users.
It asks questions relating to the activities across the organization’s ‘systems’.
- Vision
- Market
- Strategy
- Business model
- CX: Marketing
- CX: Sales
- CX: Service
- EX
And, it then looks at the depth and breadth of an organization by looking at:
- Activities for improvement
- Patterns and trends over time
- Skills and systems alignment
- Mental models and growth mindset
A business is a system of systems. We need to look at the system as a whole, we need to look at the individual systems and we need to look at them over time.
This is foundational systems thinking in action.
The diagnostic framework is built on the classic iceberg model of systems thinking.
Diagnose business gaps using Waymaker’s iceberg framework
Waymaker’s Experience Curve is a sense-making framework used to understand the system of the organization and solve problems for growth.
There are two principles in action.
- Depth of shift increases the level of shift
Changing what we do, does not change who we are. But changing who are, almost always changes what we do.
That’s why beliefs & mindset lead to skills and systems, which shows patterns, trends and behaviours over time which ultimately outworks itself in daily activities.
2. Organization alignment is a four-dimensional activity.
That is height, width, and depth of alignment over time.
We need an objective standard measure over time to objectively compare growth, maturity, and clarity whilst things change inside and outside the organization.
The transformation model is explained through it’s layers.
Listen in here:
Activities
What is most seen within or by the organization are the activities the organization does.
These are things like sales, advertising, customer service, promotions, product creation etc.
Within Waymaker, activities are on each Experience Curve and organised by stage of maturity.
Activities and their level of clarity & maturity can be clearly seen in the results of a diagnostic.
Patterns, trends & behaviours
Below activities in the depth of transformation and a little less obvious to the casual observer are the patterns, trends and behaviours over time.
What can we observe over time? What is consistently repeating as a problem?
Within Waymaker’s performance cycle, the diagnostic is taken every quarter. Over time, a data set of insights will emerge which will reveal patterns, trends and behaviours across the business.
These patterns and trends will easily be seen at the business level and on each functional curve.
Every diagnostic is accessible via the dropdown on the diagnostic results pages.
Skills & systems
Even further out of sight are the structures and practices of the organization that surface the skills and systems created.
These structures and practices influence the patterns and trends over time and can be organised into either skills – human competency and systems – technical capability.
Within Waymaker’s Diagnostic we organise every activity into either a skill or a system.
Plus, every functional experience curve can be understood through it’s maturity and clarity levels of skills and systems.
Mental models
The lowest level of transformation is at the mental model. This is often well out of sight but clearly the driver of skills and systems, patterns, trends & behaviours and the final activities.
At this layer sits an individual and therefore an organization’s collective worldview, assumptions and beliefs.
This is how the world is viewed by the organization’s participants. For example, if sales is viewed as ‘order taking’ in the minds of leaders, sales people will be viewed as ‘lower order, lower value’ team members and likely to receive less training and support.
What do you think might be the behaviours and quality of activities of a sales team in an organization with this worldview?
The Waymaker Diagnostic reveals a mental model called a ‘Growth mindset’.
The Growth Mindset is revealed for every organization and at every functional level within the organization.
There are four ‘growth competencies’ and four ‘mindset capabilities’ which create a combined total of 16 possible growth mindsets.
Data from the answers to the diagnostic is processed through the Waymaker algorithm to reveal an overall growth mindset and a growth mindset at every functional level.
To learn more about these – take this course: Waymaker’s Experience Curve
Diagnose business gaps: a working example
This is a screenshot from an Waymaker demonstration instance of the CX:Sales Experience Curve in the diagnostic.
We can see:
The XScore
The XScore is a measure of maturity. A benchmark to track over time.
The XScore includes a Skills and Systems XScore to identify if the Sales function is under or over weighted.
The Growth Mindset
The mindset shown is a ‘Competent’ ‘Dreamer’.
As explained if you were able to view in this app, the team knows what they are doing, is having more wins than losses but they need to turn their daily wins into second nature. The sales discipline is not mature in skills and still needs to think about the daily activities and focus on them.
Additionally, the sales team is overly reliant on systems. They need to focus on improving their skills first and systems second.
So, a good Advisor would challenge the sales leaders to reflect on skills training investment and effort.
The Experience Curve Activities
The activities are colour coded in a traffic light manner red to green. Look for the activities lowest on the curve that are least mature in the team.
In this example, customer feedback, sales methodology, forecasting and sales planning all deserve attention.
This aligns with the outputs of the Growth Mindset above.
A good goal to raise would be:
Establish a sales training program to lift sales skills and increase conversions by x%.
Key results on this objective could include outcomes with feedback loops, planning and forecasting.
Remember, the Experience Curve activities are there to be catalytic, not prescriptive.
Always ask, what does this mean for our context? Personalise and localise the activities of needs.
About Waymaker
Waymaker helps leaders find gaps across the whole of the business, then set clear plans across teams to accountably deliver.
We do this through Waymaker’s Experience Curve Diagnostic which guides users through identify what business activities need improvement.
Users can see specific functional activities and quickly identify gaps in clarity and maturity.
This is done across breadth and depth of the organization.
Waymaker shows an Experience Curve Diagnostic for vision, market, strategy, business model, marketing, sales, service and employee experience.
Data is sourced from all team members, revealing the true picture of insight.
These gaps can be turned into Roadmap goals.
Then, when goals are committed to a quarter, half or year, they are ‘In Progress’ OKRs.
All team members can see the strategic business goal and create their own goals aligning as needed.
Most importantly, teams can see dashboards and drill into what is going on to easily understand progress and what needs to happen next.
If you have not tried out Waymaker, take a free 30 day trial here.
