Lesson 3 : Working with people ! What is making the difference ? Listen your emotion !

Working with people ! What is making the difference …. Listen your emotion !

Did you ever had the feeling that for your business, something special happen between you and someone : you and you’r boss, you and your collegue, you and one of your team member ? it seems that you are exactly on the same page. You do not need many word to explain what you want and he/she understand you directly. Not one time, not two times, but always ! Strange feeling, but much more appreciated. Of course, this can be the case of course after many years of collaboration, but sometimes, and it’s when it seems very special, it come directly, after first meeting…

First let´s talk about you ! How are you doing ? Do you go fast enough, do you understand directly a request, are you autonomous ?
Take one of the last project your boss gave you to manage : Have you been able to do it directly or did you request meeting ? How much time did you spent in his office to ask question just asking doing that or that… For a detail on some area ….not clearly understood.

Are you independant ?

Ok, let´s come to my point ! Where do I want to go ? Here we are…

In e-commerce business, their is no choice. You have to go fast. If you do not go fast enough, someone else will do it before you ! You cannot build a successful business with people asking you all the time what to do. you need people that understand quickly and go directly from point A to point B. In startup, Ecommerce,  new business you do not know everything. You can go on google, you will find nothing. You can seek in newspaper. Nothing.

You have the task, just do it ! This is how we build successful business. not talking and talking and talking and making plan and plan and plan…. (of course plan is mandatory an talking also …but not only that, you must E X E C U T E.

And now let´s talk about others interacting with you …. Look around you….. What is the main difference between people interacting with you ? It’s not about Social Style, it’s not the about Process Com or about Management training. those point come on top of that. It’s just about Execution Style.

The main difference between people is the ability to go from point A to point B directly or not. In standalone mode !
there are two main Execution Style :

AB Profile :

First Execuion style is for people that go directly from point A to point B with no question. People in AB model do not interrupt you at every question. They do not come back to you with intermediate steps. They do not come back to you to validate option 1 or 2. They lead and come back to you with solution.
Let s call AB profile,

ABCD Profile :
Second Execution style is for people that require intermediate step to point B … and then again, etc ….
Let´s call them the ABCD profile.

You can see in your team very easily who is AB and who is ABCD. Personally, If you like working with AB people, it probably means that you are an AB profile.  You take the point and that’s all.
As an individual contributor, you can be either AB or ABCD, depending of the people you interact with : You can AB profile with someone and being ABCD profile for others. it’s a dual model.

As a manager or Leader, it’s different. It’s a kind of delegation, but not really. because that mean that you fully trust and completely transfert the execution to someone else. (and for delegation, you are still the owner of the task).  At this time you act like an artist and expect a little bit of imagination. (“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.”  ―   Albert Einstein)

You just intiate the idea, discuss few elements and then you got the results. it’s real pleasure to start something with someone in your team just explaining him the B.
Identifying the people in AB model and using them is part of the success of your business. You need to create AB profile : It’s the AB Profilling. This is not only applicable in your team. You can find people working in AB model at your level or also upper.

As if it would be better, it’s really easy to identify people in AB model at recruiting time, it’s more a question of feeling and emotion. During interview you are not really yourself, and try to hide at maximum your emotion.(If you feel that during interview I believe it would be the best interview I would ever done !)

How to create AB profile ?

What you need to find is the people in accordance to your spirit and make sure you can work in AB mode with him. It’s not mathematic, it’s not algorithmic. Nothing scientific, only emotion.
You need to learn …and progressively go more in the AB modeling (just giving the root information). First everything is question of trust. If you do not trust forget. you you trust him and he seems to trust you, just try.

Sometime, you expect from someone to be be in alignement with you in the AB model. reality sometimes is different. AB modeling is not always immediate and easy. sometimes You need time. (but it’s better when it’s come directly…)

I have not met so many AB profile? And if you met one, You will remember for ever … and search for seach relation again and again !

 

Imagine Steve Job and Steve Wozniak relationship : The two talents together created Apple!
s  technical talent were a powerful combination. I really think they were on AB model !

 

Working to your strengths and talents is the first step to great work. Collaborating with differing talents is the step that takes your work from great, to remarkable.
and you then wich profile are you ?

Michael Cohen

Lesson 2 : What you write is what you get : Write you Vision

Something that has always impressed me is the power of the vision. I had to determine in many cases the future of the business after an acquisition or to rearchitect some feature or implement new tools or just work on a simple project. The common thing between those element is the vision of the end state. The success of this vision has always been due to the presence of scenario, plan, steps with more or less complex flows. You will always have what you have written. In all cases, the diagram/vision of the final step has always been my first step. The plan always the second, the share always the third, the fourth, the  comparison to reality and the fifth the adjustement of the final vision or intermediate steps.
…..First thing to do is to write your vision ! Where do you want to go ! If you know it, all your team will go in the same direction and the organization will follow you.

• Write your Vision

Define the target. Define, the better world. where everything is perfect. Define and draw (on powerpoint) what is your best world for your activity. Why ? Defining the long term vision gives you and your team the direction and you know what ?…, when you know where you go, and you are able to explain and show it, your team will know where you want to go, and it’s a big achievement already. But ….It´s not enough !Do we reach goal if we only give the vision ? not really … so what is missing ?

What is missing is the plan. You need to define your target and the different step to reach this goal. Doing that will give your vision a different dimension : the dimension of the reality. A target defined with no plan is like a dream that stay a dream. The plan will make sure that your objective is real and achievable because you know how to do it !

• Add your Starting point

On you initial powerpoint with your vision, just add 1 slide, the starting point. Do not enter too much in the detail. you have to stay at the highest level. Describe the current plateform, process, system. First put boxes and then replace the boxes with nice logo. Be sure that a complex Visio of your system will not be understandable by business. Some nice pics and simple flows will be understood by technology, finance, marketing. Be simple.

 

• Target and Steps

Like for projects (see lesson 1),  the plan will represent the proof of concept of your vision. Now that you have your  current situation and the final situation, start copying the first slide and change few elements. Then copy this step and start modifying the element trying to reach your final step. If not yet achievable, then copy the previous step and then modify few elements. etc …. no more that 8 steps. You’re almost done.

• Do Believe in you Plan ?

Do you believe in your plan ? If you do not change it. If you are fine with your plan, start sharing it with people you trust. ask them question, change the things that you cannot explain. Add some steps if some are too fast. You must believe in your plan.

• Compare to reality and change your plan

As soon as you can, compare your vision to reality and then, make the needed adjustments. If some steps come earlier update your plan, if your reality is different change you plan. but do not change your vision, except if you really think that it need to be changed. Keep a version of your plan. For each loop, you increase the version. It’s always a good surprise to open version 1 one year after, and see that what you get is what you wrote !

I used this method for simple and complex projects. For acquisition or ERP implementation. It has always been a key element in the success of the project. Not only, but mostly.

Michael Cohen

Lesson 1 : 5 tips to be successfull in the E-commerce for Startup

 

• To be Business Oriented to focus on Value

One of the most important thing to be succesfull with E-Commerce in Startup is to be Business Oriented and not only Technology Oriented. Focus on value. being business oriented mean that you have to serve a business not a conceptual ideal process . It doesn’t mean that you are not precise or not doing quality. You have to be precise in the execution.

Try to focus on the business value or project value. If it does not generate business value, spend less time on it.

• To Be Simple, Draw and simulate the process in the detail

Evil is in the detail. Few people are able to understand when it s virtual. First thing to do is to draw a very simple workflow and then iterate as much as needed. Make the process as simple as you can. Reuse existing mechanism, do not reinvent the wheel. First, just draw with big boxes what you have in mind and what you understand from what they explained. And then focus more and more and go in the detail. Do not manage only the easiest cases. As soon as you are more confortable, go in the detail and focus on failure : what to do if something go wrong. Doing the process for general case is important but being able to know what to do if there is a failure is more important ans will solve time in the futur.

Go in the detail, as soon as you can. Don’t stay too high.

• To Decide to unblock situation

In general, it’s not easy to take decision on something not concrete or not visible. And probably less if no materials exists.

To help people to take decision just …take decision and make the most appropriate choice for you. It will be easier to “agree” or “disagree”.  Taking decision and making choices…not easy ! Consider you are the one that decide and make proposals, you will see that it will be easier : Then, it will become concrete and people will be able to agree or not.

If plan A is not working it s not important, just try plan B and then again and again. Be more iterative. Failure is not an issue. On complex problem, the solution is never easy.

 

• To Do it manualy : Proof of  Concept

It s clear that something that cannot be done manually cannot be automated. Sit down next to the business owner and do the process manualy with you. if you succeed you have 50% of the work done. Proof of concept will validate the choice ad make sure you are on the right direction. f something is wrong, just update and iterate.

If you have the choice, Don’t spend too much time on something that you cannot demonstrate manually. It will be painfull and useless.

• To Promote your realisation

Explain to the business what you are doing. Discuss with them to know what they are expecting. This exercice is very important for the team or for you. Nobody know what is unknown…. So let it know.

Promote your activities and your team.

Michael Cohen