Oh No...

Hello Everyone,
I have joined Excellerate, is that the coaching equivalent of running away to join the Circus?

At the Circus

The Circus came to Kenilworth this week. We went to the first performance and saw dancing horses, a man who looked like David Hasselhof running round the wheel of death and some Mongolian acrobats.

It made me think more about my ideas about the industrial revolution squashing people into roles that were created to serve machines. What if we look at non-industrial working lives that predated the industrial revolution to see how they work? And of course, the circus or at least the idea of the travelling show or carnival, has been around for a lot longer than industrialisation.

The circus comprises acts, and each act is responsible for developing its own skills, people , props etc. The circus as a whole is choreographed so that everything fits together. The clowns keep the audience's attention whilst the next act is being set up and the ringmaster's job is to warm the audience up and stage manage the whole show.

By the way, that's team-work. The structures we see in organisational 'teams' are not teams just because a bunch of people work for the same manager. When they hold 'team building' days the result is a mess with a facilitator struggling to get the group to take his barrels of radioactive waste seriously.

The Mongolian acrobats were amazing, in fact I was thinking of taking the excellerate team to the circus just to see them. At one point, there are three of them on each other's shoulders, then the top one does a back somersault and lands on the shoulders of two standing behind her. She has to know that they will be where they are supposed to be and that they are paying close attention to her, otherwise she could fall and kill herself.

Sales teams aren't teams. Most corporate teams are actually groups of individuals, which is probably why Ascent works so well within the corporate format, with its focus on developing the individual.

Anyway, the point about the circus is that when a new act is needed, they don't advertise for a juggler who can juggle 6 flaming torches whilst balancing on a basketball. What - you only balance on a can of baked beans? Well I suppose we could retrain you...

No - they advertise for an act. They then look at applicants to see which act fits with the overall theme of the circus, for example they probably don't need two lots of acrobats. They make sure that each act complements the others. Other than that, it's up to each act to develop a successful routine using their own skills and resources.

The other interesting thing I noticed is that there wasn't one 'headline act'. The Mongolian acrobats and Bobby Roberts himself with his dancing horses both seemed like 'big acts'. And the guy with the mullett who balanced on tubes whilst juggling, and then ran round the wheel of death was pretty big too. Sure, some of the acts were a bit less impactful, such as a the girl who lay on her back and juggled with her feet. The overall show combined big acts and filler acts, and all were needed to create the 'greatest show on Earth'.

So I thought this was a pretty good role model for the way that we were designed to work together, and certainly for the way that excellerate works.

Who's in charge

The industrial revolution created jobs which created hierarchies which created status which created BMWs, Rolexs and office chairs with arms.

I'm not saying that we can live without hierarchy, because most wild animals that live in a society have a hierarchy with a dominant animal and then an order of command. I guess herds like cows and sheep don't have this structure, and look where that got them.

Anyway, I believe that knowing who is in charge is necessary for our survival, so that in a time of crisis we act uniformly and with common purpose.

Maybe what the industrial revolution did was to make 'who is in charge' synonymous with 'who is important'.

Within excellerate, and within excellerate project teams, there is someone who is 'in charge' but equally, no one person is more important than any other. Symbols of status and job titles are irrelevant.

A team, and the organisation as a whole, therefore is able to act consistently and purposefully without getting bogged down in rules that only exist to protect the hierarchy, such as which job grade is allowed a chair with arms.

The first company I worked in had an engineer's grade of District Engineer and a supervisor's grade of Section Engineer. In one ropey hotel near our head office, the rooms had black and white TVs that had been specially modified with a plug in the back. If a DE stayed in the room, the plug was removed so the TV didn't work. If a SE stayed in the room, he could watch the TV because his grade allowed it.

I suppose that, on the face of it, the people who create the hierarchy have to protect it by having visible signs of status - a better car, an office with windows, a chair with arms, a room with a TV. Perhaps there is another explanation - the DEs never invited the SEs to go out to the pub with them, so all they could do was stay in and watch TV...

What is excellerate? (again)

I just came back from meeting Clay Lowe. We were talking about the future of Ascent and I realised something important about excellerate and it's role in the post-industrial revolution that will change the way we live and work. Even Gordon Brown was talking about it in his budget speech.

Ascent is about achieving our potential as individuals.

Excellerate is about achieving our potential as a working society.

Gordon Brown is reviewing the way that 'managed service companies' operate. Basically, groups of contractors form limited companies in order to pay as little tax as they are obliged to by law and not to get totally ripped off as poor employees are. Ths means something important for the industrial age: the government is losing its ability to track who does what work for who, getting paid what. The portfolio career that I mentioned in a previous post is a stop gap measure to bridge the divide between commitment and choice, but it has to be replaced by a whole new way of working and earning, and the government have to figure out a whole new way to raise public funds from that. With a portfolio career, you might not get a P60 any more. PAYE and NIC will be a thing of the past.

Of course, public funds are only needed because people have to be paid to provide public services, so one day this might be a thing of the past too. Imagine - a true post-industrial society where everyone contributes to public service, rather than just paying money to get laundered through countless layers of admin before it reaches the people it was intended for.

Excellerate is a role model for the business structure of the future. Right now, the government doesn't like it because it doesn't know how to tax it. One day, historians might see us in the same light as the women who chained themselves to railings in order to win their right to vote...

Visitors from the future - the fight for our freedom to work began here.

Team meetings

Check the website for team meeting dates and for a form that you can fill in to register your attendance.

Locations will move around for each meeting, the first one in May will probably be at Cumnor Cricket Club near Oxford.

Clients: their part in the vision

My plan for the way we work with clients has a number of parts to it:

Clients will be welcome to attend our team meetings and social events; building relationships, sharing ideas and being a part of each other's evolution

Clients can second people e.g. L&D staff into the excellerate team so that they get exposure to lots of new ideas from industries that they may not have experience of. They get to see what goes on in the outside world without having to resign in order to gain that experience. A bit like a vocational sabbatical. In fact, what a great idea! A vocational sabbatical.

We can second members of our team into our clients businesses for the same reasons.

By doing this, we get an organic, evolutionary sharing and creation of new ideas without the constant product reinvention that plagues the supplier/buyer relationship.

We're already talking to three major organisations about exactly this kind of relationship.

These are exciting times. In 50 or 100 years' time, historians will look back and give this period of time a name; the something revolution. They'll say it started in the 1960s/70s with the human potential movement, evolved through the decline of communism, the protests about globalisation, culturally through books like The Alchemist and films like The Matrix and ended with a company called excellerate that began a quiet, practical revolution in the way that companies were structured, organised, managed and lead.

Three things that make coaching work...

Intent = having the client's best interests at heart, maintaining focus on the client's own goals and also being aware of what you gain from coaching so it is a fair and equal exchange.

Perspective = you see the client's situation in a different way - just from the outside, or at a different level or whatever. The key is that you are not bound by the client's rules and doubts about what won't work.

Relationship = a medium through which communication can take place. This means both listening properly, and also being able to give feedback that resonates and is accepted rather than bouncing off the client's defensive shield.

Cadbury's

You know, it's great to bounce ideas around like this. Having just spoken to Mike Roberts I have a clearer idea (again) of how these brands coexist. Cadbury's is an ideal example.

Crunchie, Dairy Milk, Double Decker, Wispa, Caramel etc are all very distinct brands with their own unique packaging, advertising and of course taste. Each has its own personality.

Yet each is also clearly part of the Cadbury family. You know that each one will be coated in Cadbury's chocolate, and so you know what to expect in terms of quality and personal preference for taste. You don't have to test each Crunchie to check that you like them (although it would be fun to try).

So let's say you have developed your own personal brand, and that your name carries with it an expectation of service and quality. People know what they get and how good it is. People buy from people, as Chris said.

excellerate is analogous to Cadbury in this example. First and foremost, it's a Crunchie. Because it's a Cadbury Crunchie, you know you will like the taste of it and will prefer the chocolate to, say Masterfoods or Nestle chocolate. You know that Fred Bloggs is a great consultant with just the experience and expertise you need. And you know that because Fred is coated in excellerate chocolate, he comes with a high quality support team, a much bigger capability to deliver, a reliable commercial structure and so on.

This goes right back to one of my first thoughts about excellerate - it's a company that allows you to fully express your individuality, therefore enabling you to do more of what you love and at the same time giving the client an easier way to interact with you and other experts like you within a single brand experience.

So I see these brands as entirely complementary, where our capabilities overlap. Where our capabilities don't overlap as in the case of negotiating or coaching with horses, that's where I see the partnership or joint venture model working.

Look at a Sony Ericsson mobile phone. It's neither an Ericsson mobile phone nor a Sony entertainment device. It's both and neither - a new idea created from the space between two brands who wanted to realise a vision of the future.

That's the way I see excellerate working with partner brands, making opportunities bigger by exploiting the differences between our specialist areas of expertise.

Now what about Kit Kat, Smarties, Milky Bar and Aero? Once again, very recognisable brands, but which brand family do they belong to? Here's another; Mars, Twix, Bounty, Snickers, Milky Way, M&Ms, Topic. Which brand family?

These are like freelancers or self employed consultants or someone with a brand that is really just them working by themselves. Independent, but no family ties. No heritage other than what they make for themselves, and for independent consultants, it's a long hard road with still nothing to show for it at the end, because your business still isn't worth anything, because when you stop working your customers stop buying.

So that's all for now. I'm off to test a Crunchie just to make sure I still like them.