Monthly Archives: May 2015

Posted on

Five Simple Steps To “Kill A Stupid Rule” And Boost Your Business

“Policies are organizational scar tissue. They are codified overreactions to situations that are unlikely to happen again. They are collective punishment for the misdeeds of an individual. This is how bureaucracies are born. No one sets out to create a bureaucracy. They sneak up on companies slowly. They are created one policy – one scar – at a time.” Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

How many stupid rules do you have in your organization that are costing your company money and hurting employee morale and productivity? As the quote from Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson suggests above, rules or policies can be organizational scar tissue! They were probably created with good intentions as the organization attempted to deal with some issue it was facing but then they morphed and changed into catch-all policies that are outdated, restrictive and unproductive.

Posted on

If It Ain’t Written, It Ain’t

I have done a lot of work in Texas over the last 17 years . Besides the warm weather, one of the things I’ve enjoyed about Texas is picking up some of their slang expressions. Things like;

  • Y’all – used in place of “you all” or “you guys”. This can also take other forms like “all y’all” just in case you need to make a plural even more of a plural!
  • Fixin’ tuh’ – this means “about to”
  • Don’t kick the sleepin’ dog – this means that there is a sensitive issue and its not worth bringing it up and getting everyone worked up about it
  • Ain’t – used in place of “are not” or “isn’t”
  • Big hat, no cattle – this means “all talk and no action”

However, the most important slang expression I learned in Texas has huge business implications;

Posted on

Why You Need to Kill Your Company

“Sometimes you have to destroy your business in order to save it.” James Surowiecki

What sort of insane person would suggest that you should kill your company? This seems like the most stupid idea ever but . . . I believe the concept of killing your company has a lot of merit.

Of course I am not talking about literally killing your business or organization. Rather, I am suggesting that you and your leadership team brainstorm to define all the ways you could kill your business or all of the events that could potentially happen that would kill your business. You then take these company killing ideas and events and, rather than implementing them, you build strategies to fortify your business against them.

Posted on

What Does Ray Dalio Have To Do With Your Business And Why Is It Important?

Ray Dalio is the founder of the investment firm Bridgewater Associates. He had an estimated net worth of $15.4 billion in 2014 according to Forbes! So, what does Ray Dalio have to do with your business?

Probably nothing directly. But, based on his net worth, Dalio knows business so we should learn from him! He came up with a simple model that describes a business or an organization that has worked well for him over the years. I would suggest that understanding his simple model is critical to the success of your business. The model is shown in the picture for this blog post (note that I have exercised my artistic license and added a few items for clarity!)

As business leaders, each of us is responsible to produce results in our organizations. Results drive our businesses. Without achieving positive results, a business is really worthless. Dalio‘s model illustrates that a business starts with a Vision and then delivers business results or Outcomes through a Machine. The model stresses that the Outcomes are a direct result of the Vision and the Machine (both of which are defined below);