Why You Should Think Like a Startup With Nothing to Lose

Most established companies struggle to innovate, not because they lack smart people, but because their own success traps them.

As a strategic coach, one of my primary objectives is to drive innovation within leadership teams. The problem is that most established companies struggle to innovate, not because they lack smart people, but because their own success traps them. Current investments, relationships, and processes create invisible constraints that limit strategic thinking and decision-making.

I’ve run a strategic innovation exercise with dozens of growth-stage teams, and the results are consistently eye-opening. The exercise is simple but uncomfortable. Teams temporarily abandon their attachment to what they’ve built and think like a startup competitor with nothing to lose. The concept comes from Clayton Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma. Established companies get disrupted because they’re too focused on existing customers, current investments, and established relationships. Meanwhile, startups enter unburdened by these constraints, free to reimagine how problems get solved.

Here’s how it works: I break the team into small groups, we agree on seed capital, and give them thirty minutes to develop a business plan for a startup that would take down their company. Each group presents its attack strategy, revealing vulnerabilities and opportunities. When teams stop defending and start thinking like attackers, constraints become optional, investments become liabilities, and relationships become anchors. The exercise surfaces six key areas where assumptions limit innovation.

1. Underserved segments you’re ignoring

When teams design their startup attack, they consistently discover customer segments they’ve been ignoring. Established companies naturally optimize their operations around their most profitable customers, building processes, pricing, and delivery models that cater to this core group. But this focus creates systematic blind spots around smaller segments, newer markets, or customers with different needs. The startup teams immediately identify these underserved groups because they’re not constrained by existing infrastructure or worried about cannibalizing current business. A professional services firm might realize it has ignored companies willing to spend $5,000 to $15,000 annually because all their systems are built for $50,000 clients.

2. Key talent that competitors will poach

The exercise forces uncomfortable conversations about talent vulnerability that leadership teams typically avoid. When thinking like a competitor, teams quickly identify the individuals who hold critical knowledge or capabilities. They realize that extracting just a few key individuals could replicate competitive advantages without rebuilding entire organizations. This reveals how much companies take talent stability for granted while failing to document knowledge, cross-train capabilities, or understand what makes key roles vulnerable. A manufacturing company might recognize that hiring three senior engineers would transfer its entire proprietary production process to a competitor.

3. Underutilized assets sitting idle

Teams consistently discover how much complexity they’re carrying that doesn’t drive competitive advantage. The startup attack reveals which assets, relationships, and capabilities truly matter versus those that exist merely because of historical decisions or relationship commitments. When designing the lean competitor, teams identify the minimum viable version of their business that could compete effectively. This ruthless prioritization reveals how established companies often maintain underperforming locations, carry slow-moving inventory, or service marginal accounts, simply because unwinding these commitments feels more complicated than keeping them. A distribution company might realize that a focused competitor could operate with a fraction of their warehouses, suppliers, and product lines.

4. Technology advantages you’ve ceded

The exercise surfaces how legacy technology creates competitive disadvantages that companies rationalize as acceptable. When designing the startup, teams realize that new competitors will deploy current cloud platforms, modern tools, and integrated systems that deliver superior functionality at a lower cost. This forces an honest assessment of whether defending sunk technology investments makes strategic sense or feels easier than change. Teams recognize they’ve been justifying outdated systems based on switching costs rather than competitive advantage. The gap between what customers expect and what legacy infrastructure can deliver becomes impossible to ignore. A logistics company might confront the fact that its twelve-year-old warehouse system lacks the real-time tracking and integration capabilities that competitors would launch today.

5. Thinking that’s blocking innovation

Teams discover that their current approaches persist not because they’re optimal, but because they’re familiar, and changing feels risky. The startup design reveals how competitors could challenge industry norms around pricing models, engagement structures, or service delivery that customers prefer. This shows how companies prioritize maintaining existing approaches over serving customer needs to protect operational predictability. The exercise forces an examination of which business model elements exist for internal convenience versus those that provide a competitive advantage. A financial services firm might realize clients prefer month-to-month agreements with real-time dashboards over annual contracts with quarterly reviews.

6. Operational flexibility you’ve lost

The exercise reveals how processes designed to ensure consistency have sacrificed speed and adaptability. When teams design the startup competitor, they identify which procedures exist to manage risk versus which prevent past problems that may no longer be relevant. This exposes accumulated operational weight that slows response time and limits flexibility. Teams recognize that competitors unencumbered by these procedures could move faster and adapt more readily to client needs—the gap between process as an enabler versus process as a constraint becomes clear. A software agency might realize that its structured methodology, with defined phases and approval gates, could be challenged by rapid iteration and flexible scope adjustments.

The most valuable insight isn’t just identifying vulnerabilities; it’s also understanding how to mitigate them. It’s recognizing how assumptions, investments, and relationships limit strategic thinking. When you think like a startup with nothing to lose, you see opportunities you’ve been missing and constraints you’ve accepted as unchangeable.

Teams that benefit most use discoveries to drive decisions. They launch pilot programs, challenge assumptions about customer segments, accelerate technology modernization, and streamline operations. Your biggest threat isn’t the startup you haven’t heard about. It’s your blind spots, unquestioned assumptions, and constraints you’ve accepted as permanent.

What customer segments have we systematically overlooked because they don’t align with our current business model?

Which of our current processes exist to prevent old problems rather than solve current customer needs?

If we were starting this business today with seed capital, what would we do completely differently?

Why Your Biggest Threat Isn’t Your Competition – It’s Your Blind Spots

Hook: Most leadership teams think they know their vulnerabilities, but they’ve never systematically explored how a smart startup would actually attack their business. “The Takedown” exercise forces senior teams to become their own disruptors, revealing defensive blind spots and innovation opportunities that normal strategic planning completely misses.

Why This Matters Now: The innovator’s dilemma has accelerated – established companies get disrupted faster because they’re too attached to existing investments and approaches. Leadership teams that regularly challenge their own assumptions through competitive threat modeling stay ahead of disruption while others get blindsided by more agile competitors.

Key Framework: The “Strategic Vulnerability Assessment” – systematic exploration of competitive blind spots:

• Niche customer targeting that reveals underserved segments being ignored

• Problem redefinition that exposes gaps between what companies deliver versus what customers need

• Talent poaching analysis that identifies retention risks and capability vulnerabilities

• Technology acquisition strategies that highlight innovation gaps and outdated infrastructure

• Asset prioritization that reveals resource misallocation and operational inefficiencies

• Startup advantage leverage that forces recognition of organizational constraints limiting innovation

Practical Takeaway: Readers will understand how to systematically examine their business through a disruptor’s lens, identifying specific vulnerabilities and innovation opportunities that transform from defensive insights into competitive advantages through strategic action.

5 Consultant Mistakes That Ruin Innovation

Consultant engagement often fails before it begins because of the way that many businesses structure the relationship.

I hired dozens of consultants when I was scaling my company. And now, as a consultant myself working with growth-stage companies, I see the same predictable mistakes from both sides of the table. The companies that extract maximum value from external expertise avoid five critical errors that doom most consultant engagements.

External expertise can be a powerful accelerator of innovation and a source of competitive advantage. Consultants bring fresh perspectives, specialized knowledge, and dedicated focus that internal teams often lack. But that potential value evaporates when companies make predictable mistakes in how they hire and manage these relationships. These five errors happen before, during, and after the engagement, and avoiding them transforms consultants from expensive report generators into genuine innovation drivers.

1. Starting without defining success

The most common mistake happens before any consultant conversation begins. Companies hire external expertise with vague objectives, such as improving operations or developing a strategy, without defining what success actually looks like. Teams spend weeks or months working toward deliverables that miss the mark because no one established clear outcomes upfront. This happens because urgency to solve problems combines with an assumption that consultants will figure out what’s needed. The pressure to act fast overrides the discipline to get clear first.

I once had a CEO hire me for strategic planning without clarity on whether he needed market analysis, an operational roadmap, or leadership team alignment. We spent the first third of the engagement defining the actual problem, burning time and budget that could have been used to solve it. The companies that get this right invest time before hiring anyone to articulate specific objectives, measurable deliverables, and realistic timelines. They know what done looks like before they start looking for help.

2. Vetting credentials instead of problem experience

Companies select consultants based on impressive resumes, big-name client lists, or polished presentations rather than evidence of solving similar problems. Decision-makers are often dazzled by prestigious backgrounds and assume that past success automatically transfers to their specific challenge. This happens because credentials feel safe and are easy to evaluate compared with validating actual problem-solving experience. It’s faster to check someone’s LinkedIn profile than to research whether they’ve actually tackled a similar problem before.

The consultant with the most impressive pedigree often has the least relevant experience for your specific situation. I’ve seen companies hire consultants with Fortune 500 backgrounds who had never worked with a growth-stage business facing resource constraints and rapid change. The engagement struggled because the approaches that worked at scale didn’t translate. Companies that avoid this mistake focus their vetting on demonstrated experience solving problems like theirs, asking for case studies, calling references about specific challenges, and pressure-testing how the consultant would approach their unique situation.

3. Withholding critical information

Companies often fail to share their political dynamics, past failed initiatives, or real constraints with the consultants they hire to help them. Leadership teams usually withhold information about board pressure, internal disagreements, or previous attempts that have not been successful. This happens because of fear of appearing dysfunctional or a misguided belief that withholding information preserves the consultant’s objective view. Teams want consultants to provide unbiased recommendations, so they avoid contaminating that perspective with messy reality.

I worked with a company that didn’t mention it had tried nearly the same initiative two years earlier with a different consultant, and it failed because of resistance from a key department head who was still in place. We spent weeks developing recommendations that hit the same wall. The breakthrough happens when companies recognize that consultants can’t solve problems they don’t fully understand. Sharing the complete picture, including what hasn’t worked and why, enables consultants to design solutions that account for real constraints rather than theoretical best practices.

4. Treating consultants as outsiders

Companies limit consultant access to key stakeholders, delay information sharing, and exclude consultants from essential meetings despite hiring them to solve critical problems. The external expert gets treated as peripheral rather than integrated into the work that matters. This happens because of internal politics or viewing consultants as temporary resources rather than as strategic partners. Teams protect their turf or assume consultants don’t need the full context.

When I’m brought in to solve a problem but not given access to the people who understand root causes, I’m operating with one hand tied behind my back. The pattern appears consistently—the consultant hired to improve sales operations cannot communicate with the sales team, or the strategist developing market positioning isn’t included in customer conversations. Companies that derive exceptional value from consultants treat external expertise as an extension of their team, providing access to information and integration that enables real impact rather than superficial analysis.

5. Failing to plan for knowledge transfer

The most expensive mistake occurs at the end of engagements, when consultants deliver recommendations and then leave, taking all the expertise with them. Companies focus on the deliverable—the report, the plan, the presentation—rather than building internal capability to execute and adapt over time. This happens because contracts are often structured around outputs instead of outcomes, and no one designs the engagement to facilitate knowledge transfer from the outset.

I’ve delivered strategic plans that gathered dust because the internal team couldn’t execute or evolve them after I left. The company received a remarkable document, but was unable to apply the thinking behind it. The breakthrough occurs when companies structure engagements around capability building, rather than just delivering results. That means involving internal team members throughout the process, documenting not just recommendations but also the frameworks and thinking that generated them, and explicitly planning for how expertise is transferred. Hence, the organization retains value long after the consultant engagement ends.

Companies that avoid these five mistakes transform external expertise from an expensive disappointment into a genuine source of innovation. They get consultants who deliver measurable results because the engagement was set up for success from the beginning. More important, they build internal capabilities that compound over time rather than renting expertise that evaporates when the contract ends.

5 Ways to Integrate AI Into Your Existing Business Systems

Most leadership teams adopt AI tools randomly hoping technology alone will improve strategy. Here’s what to do instead.

My architecture training taught me that the best technology amplifies existing systems rather than replacing them. As a former tech founder who scaled to the Inc. 500, I learned firsthand how systematic integration beats random tool adoption. Now, coaching dozens of leadership teams on strategy, I consistently see high-performing teams use AI to systematize the most critical and complicated parts of strategic planning and implementation.

These teams don’t just use AI as assistants—they embed it into their strategic thinking and replanning processes to accelerate decision-making cycles and improve execution quality in ways their competitors can’t match.

1. Competitive intelligence acceleration

Traditional market research happens quarterly and delivers insights too late for strategic advantage. AI integration transforms this into continuous competitive awareness by automating data collection and pattern recognition across multiple sources. Set up AI systems to monitor competitor announcements, industry trends, and customer sentiment shifts, then feed this information directly into weekly strategic planning sessions. A leadership team implemented this approach and discovered a competitor’s pivot strategy three months before it became public knowledge, allowing them to adjust their product roadmap and capture market share the competitor had targeted.

2. Decision-making bias correction

Leadership teams consistently fall victim to confirmation bias and groupthink during strategic planning. AI integration addresses this by generating alternative perspectives and challenging assumptions through structured questioning.

Configure AI to review strategic proposals and generate counterarguments, alternative scenarios, and questions the team hasn’t considered. During planning sessions, use AI-generated prompts to force examination of blind spots and unstated assumptions. One team I worked with used this approach when evaluating a major market expansion and discovered they had overlooked regulatory risks that would have cost millions, ultimately choosing a different expansion strategy that delivered better results.

3. Strategy translation clarity

High-level strategic vision often fails because teams struggle to translate broad concepts into specific, measurable objectives. AI integration solves this by systematically breaking down strategic initiatives into concrete action items and success metrics. Input your strategic objectives into AI systems and generate detailed implementation plans, potential obstacles, and measurement frameworks.

Use AI to identify gaps between vision and execution before they become problems. A leadership team used this method to transform their “digital transformation” goal into 47 specific actions with clear owners and deadlines, achieving their transformation objectives six months ahead of schedule.

4. Risk assessment automation

Most teams identify risks reactively after problems emerge rather than proactively during planning phases. AI integration enables continuous risk monitoring and mitigation strategy development before threats materialize. Build AI systems that scan internal operations, market conditions, and external factors for emerging risks, then automatically generate mitigation options for leadership review.

Configure alerts for risk threshold breaches and predetermined response protocols. A team implemented this approach and identified supply chain vulnerabilities eight weeks before disruptions occurred, allowing them to secure alternative suppliers while competitors faced shortages.

5. Execution monitoring systems

Strategic plans fail because teams lack real-time visibility into implementation progress and course correction capabilities. AI integration provides continuous performance monitoring and automated insights into execution effectiveness.

Connect AI systems to operational metrics, customer feedback, and team performance indicators to identify execution gaps immediately rather than waiting for quarterly reviews. Generate weekly execution reports highlighting progress against strategic objectives and recommended adjustments. One leadership team used this system to identify that their customer acquisition strategy was working but their retention efforts were failing, allowing them to reallocate resources and recover their annual targets.

Action Items

Teams that systematically integrate AI into strategic planning consistently outperform competitors who treat AI as separate tools rather than strategic amplifiers. The competitive advantage comes from enhanced decision speed and quality, not from having better technology.

How Smart Teams Use AI to Stay Ahead of Market Changes

Most teams base decisions on quarterly reports showing where competitors were, but smart teams use AI to track where they’re heading.

My background in architecture and technology, combined with scaling a company to the Inc. 500 and coaching dozens of leadership teams, has shown me that competitive advantage comes from anticipating market changes rather than reacting to them. Traditional quarterly competitive analysis tells you what already happened, while AI-enhanced intelligence reveals what’s about to happen. The teams that consistently outperform competitors have learned to use continuous market monitoring to out-replan their competition, making strategic adjustments before market shifts become obvious to everyone else.

1. Deep company research

Traditional competitor analysis documents past actions and current positioning, but AI enables deeper investigation into strategic patterns and decision-making tendencies that predict future moves. Use AI to analyze competitor histories, leadership track records, and strategic evolution patterns to anticipate their next moves rather than just cataloging what they’ve already done. A leadership team implemented this approach and discovered their main competitor consistently entered new markets 18 months after hiring specific types of executives, allowing them to predict and prepare for competitive threats in three emerging market segments before their competitor made any public announcements.

2. Real-time positioning analysis

Quarterly competitive reports miss the constant adjustments competitors make to messaging, target segments, and market responses. AI-powered monitoring tracks how competitors modify their positioning across websites, social media, advertising, and customer communications in real time. Set up AI systems to detect changes in competitor messaging, pricing strategies, and customer targeting as they happen rather than waiting for formal announcements. One team used this method to identify a competitor’s pivot toward enterprise customers by analyzing subtle changes in their website language and case study selection, enabling them to adjust their own enterprise strategy two months before the competitor officially announced their market repositioning.

3. Leadership team intelligence

Understanding competitor strategies requires insight into the people making strategic decisions, not just the companies they lead. AI can analyze executive backgrounds, career patterns, previous strategic decisions, and leadership philosophies to anticipate organizational direction and capability investments. Use AI to research competitor leadership teams and identify strategic tendencies based on their professional histories and public statements. A team discovered their competitor’s new CEO had a consistent pattern of aggressive acquisition strategies in previous roles, prompting them to prepare defensive measures and identify potential acquisition targets before bidding wars began.

4. Automated market monitoring

Traditional industry reports arrive weeks after significant developments, but AI monitoring captures competitor announcements, partnership changes, regulatory filings, and strategic moves as they occur. Configure AI systems to continuously scan multiple information sources and alert your team to competitive developments immediately rather than waiting for industry publications to summarize changes. This approach enabled one leadership team to identify a major competitor’s supply chain disruption through automated monitoring of regulatory filings and trade publications, allowing them to secure additional market share by accelerating their own supply chain investments before the disruption became widely known.

5. Comprehensive coverage analysis

Single-source competitive intelligence creates blind spots, but AI can synthesize analyst reports, customer feedback, social media sentiment, and third-party assessments to identify competitor vulnerabilities and market perception shifts across multiple perspectives. Use AI to aggregate and analyze diverse information sources about competitors, creating comprehensive intelligence that reveals strategic opportunities and threats traditional research misses. A team used this method to discover that while their competitor appeared strong in financial reports, customer satisfaction scores and employee sentiment were declining, indicating potential vulnerability that informed their competitive strategy and messaging approach.

Action Items

Teams that master continuous AI-powered market intelligence consistently identify strategic opportunities and threats months before competitors using traditional quarterly analysis cycles. The competitive advantage comes from speed of adaptation, not depth of analysis—teams that can out-replan their competition ultimately win.

5 Ways to Get More Out of Your AI Tools During Strategic Planning

Most leadership teams adopt AI tools randomly hoping technology alone will improve strategy and strategic planning. Here’s how to do better.

My architecture training taught me that the best technology amplifies existing systems rather than replacing them. And as a former tech founder who scaled to the Inc. 500, I learned firsthand how systematic integration beats random tool adoption.

Now, coaching dozens of leadership teams on strategy, I consistently see high-performing teams use AI to systematize the most critical and complicated parts of strategic planning and implementation. These teams don’t just use AI as assistants—they embed it into their strategic thinking and replanning processes to accelerate decision-making cycles and improve execution quality in ways their competitors can’t match.

1. Competitive intelligence acceleration

Traditional market research happens quarterly and delivers insights too late for strategic advantage. AI integration transforms this into continuous competitive awareness by automating data collection and pattern recognition across multiple sources.

Set up AI systems to monitor competitor announcements, industry trends, and customer sentiment shifts, then feed this information directly into weekly strategic planning sessions. A leadership team implemented this approach and discovered a competitor’s pivot strategy three months before it became public knowledge, allowing them to adjust their product roadmap and capture market share the competitor had targeted.

2. Decision-making bias correction

Leadership teams consistently fall victim to confirmation bias and groupthink during strategic planning. AI integration addresses this by generating alternative perspectives and challenging assumptions through structured questioning. Configure AI to review strategic proposals and generate counterarguments, alternative scenarios, and questions the team hasn’t considered. During planning sessions, use AI-generated prompts to force examination of blind spots and unstated assumptions.

One team I worked with used this approach when evaluating a major market expansion and discovered they had overlooked regulatory risks that would have cost millions, ultimately choosing a different expansion strategy that delivered better results.

3. Strategy translation clarity

High-level strategic vision often fails because teams struggle to translate broad concepts into specific, measurable objectives. AI integration solves this by systematically breaking down strategic initiatives into concrete action items and success metrics. Input your strategic objectives into AI systems and generate detailed implementation plans, potential obstacles, and measurement frameworks. Use AI to identify gaps between vision and execution before they become problems.

A leadership team used this method to transform their “digital transformation” goal into 47 specific actions with clear owners and deadlines, achieving their transformation objectives six months ahead of schedule.

4. Risk assessment automation

Most teams identify risks reactively after problems emerge rather than proactively during planning phases. AI integration enables continuous risk monitoring and mitigation strategy development before threats materialize. Build AI systems that scan internal operations, market conditions, and external factors for emerging risks, then automatically generate mitigation options for leadership review. Configure alerts for risk threshold breaches and predetermined response protocols.

A team implemented this approach and identified supply chain vulnerabilities eight weeks before disruptions occurred, allowing them to secure alternative suppliers while competitors faced shortages.

5. Execution monitoring systems

Strategic plans fail because teams lack real-time visibility into implementation progress and course correction capabilities. AI integration provides continuous performance monitoring and automated insights into execution effectiveness. Connect AI systems to operational metrics, customer feedback, and team performance indicators to identify execution gaps immediately rather than waiting for quarterly reviews. Generate weekly execution reports highlighting progress against strategic objectives and recommended adjustments.

One leadership team used this system to identify that their customer acquisition strategy was working but their retention efforts were failing, allowing them to reallocate resources and recover their annual targets.

Action Items

Teams that systematically integrate AI into strategic planning consistently outperform competitors who treat AI as separate tools rather than strategic amplifiers. The competitive advantage comes from enhanced decision speed and quality, not from having better technology.

How to Unlock Innovation With the Kaizen and Kaikaku Methods

Growth companies that master both continuous improvement and breakthrough innovation outpace those that only optimize.

Most businesses get trapped optimizing incremental improvements when what they actually need is radical reimagining, or vice-versa. The companies that grow consistently and prepare successfully for exit have mastered a dual-track approach. And that’s where two Japanese frameworks, Kaizen and Kaikaku, come in handy.

Kaizen—the practice of continuous improvement through small, steady changes that compound over time—has become widely known in business circles. But most leaders remain unfamiliar with its complementary methodology, Kaikaku, which focuses on breakthrough innovations that fundamentally restructure how work gets done.

The distinction matters because growth companies need both—deployed strategically and in rhythm with each other. I learned this when scaling my own company into the Inc. 5000.

The challenge is that most organizations default to one approach or the other. They either pursue endless optimization of existing processes or chase constant disruption without building systematic improvement. The strategic answer lies in establishing regular rhythms for both methodologies, creating a dual-track system that knows when to refine and when to reimagine.

Why optimization alone creates strategic plateaus

Companies reach a point where incremental improvement delivers diminishing returns. You optimize workflow, streamline processes, and eliminate waste, yet revenue plateaus and competitive advantage erode. The problem is not that continuous improvement stopped working, but that you have hit the ceiling of what optimization can deliver within your current business model.

This happens because Kaizen improves existing systems rather than questioning whether those systems should exist in the first place. When market conditions shift, customer needs evolve, or competitive dynamics change fundamentally, optimizing the old approach only perfects obsolescence. A service business might streamline delivery of an offering that the market no longer values, achieving operational excellence in an irrelevant domain.

The comfort of continuous improvement becomes dangerous when it prevents leaders from recognizing that the entire foundation needs rethinking. Teams celebrate incremental gains while missing the fact that competitors are building entirely different business models that render current operations irrelevant.

When incremental improvement becomes a trap

Several patterns signal that Kaizen alone will not solve strategic challenges. Results plateau despite ongoing improvement efforts, indicating that the existing approach has reached its natural limits. Market disruption introduces new business models that cannot be matched through incremental enhancement of legacy systems. Competitive threats arise from companies employing fundamentally different operational approaches, rather than merely executing the same model more efficiently.

External forces often demand responses that optimization cannot provide. Regulatory changes, technological shifts, or evolving customer expectations sometimes require wholesale transformation rather than gradual adaptation. When your strategic goals require capabilities that do not exist within current systems, no amount of process refinement will close the gap.

The sunk cost fallacy amplifies this trap. Organizations continue to invest in optimization because they have already invested heavily in their existing systems, infrastructure, and processes. A manufacturing company might perfect production methods for a product line, only to find that the market shifts toward entirely different solutions that require new production capabilities.

Kaikaku is the breakthrough engine

Kaikaku means radical change or reform. Unlike the gradual evolution of Kaizen, Kaikaku involves fundamental restructuring of core systems, processes, or business models to achieve quantum leaps in performance. This is not about tweaking existing approaches but about challenging core assumptions and building something fundamentally different.

The methodology incorporates several principles adapted from manufacturing for general business applications. Throw out traditional concepts and question whether current methods should continue simply because they have always worked that way. Think about how new approaches will succeed rather than focusing on why they might fail, shifting from risk avoidance to opportunity exploration. Deny the status quo entirely, creating permission to start fresh without being constrained by existing systems.

Kaikaku accepts imperfection in implementation, recognizing that acting quickly with incomplete solutions often yields better results than waiting for perfect plans. A fifty percent implementation done immediately creates learning and momentum that analysis cannot provide. Mistakes get corrected the moment they appear rather than being studied endlessly. Problems become opportunities to apply creative thinking rather than reasons to retreat to familiar approaches. The emphasis is on collective intelligence, recognizing that ideas from diverse perspectives are more effective than individual expertise.

These principles work across any business type. A professional services firm might radically restructure its service delivery model rather than incrementally improving project management. A technology company should reimagine its go-to-market approach rather than optimizing existing sales processes. The key is the willingness to disrupt yourself before external forces impose that disruption.

The strategic integration of both methodologies

Successful companies use Kaikaku to create breakthrough change, then deploy Kaizen to refine and sustain those improvements. The radical transformation establishes a new baseline with fundamentally better performance, competitive positioning, or operational capability. Continuous improvement then optimizes from that elevated foundation, extracting maximum value from the new approach.

This integration prevents two common failures. Companies that only pursue Kaikaku experience constant disruption without ever achieving operational excellence or consistency. Organizations that only practice Kaizen risk optimizing themselves into irrelevance, perfecting approaches that no longer serve their strategic objectives. The combination creates both innovation and execution excellence.

Toyota’s development of the Prius illustrates this integration. The company utilized Kaikaku to fundamentally reimagine automotive powertrains, introducing hybrid technology that necessitated the development of entirely new engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain capabilities. Once that breakthrough existed, Kaizen drove thousands of incremental improvements to battery technology, production processes, and system integration. The result was both revolutionary innovation and world-class execution.

The same pattern applies to any business transformation. A company might use Kaikaku to restructure from functional departments to cross-functional teams, fundamentally changing how work flows and decisions get made. Kaizen then continuously improves communication, coordination, and performance within that new structure. The radical change creates new possibilities; the continuous improvement realizes that potential.

Building the dual-track capability

Organizations need different rhythms and approaches for Kaizen and Kaikaku. Weekly improvement cycles are effective for Kaizen, enabling teams to identify problems, test solutions, and implement changes rapidly. These short cycles create momentum and engagement while building improvement capability throughout the organization. The focus is on bottom-up participation, where people closest to the work drive enhancement.

Quarterly strategic reviews provide the right cadence for Kaikaku opportunities. These sessions step back from operational improvement to question fundamental assumptions, assess market changes, and identify opportunities requiring breakthrough innovation. The focus is top-down strategic thinking about whether current approaches will achieve future objectives or whether radical change is necessary.

The team composition differs between these rhythms. Kaizen engages frontline employees who understand operational details and can implement incremental changes immediately. Kaikaku requires leadership involvement and cross-functional perspectives to question core business model elements and authorize fundamental restructuring. Both need psychological safety to challenge existing approaches, but Kaikaku demands even greater willingness to abandon sunk investments.

Success requires building organizational capability for both mindsets. Teams must develop a comfort with continuous refinement while maintaining a willingness to discard everything when circumstances demand it. This dual capability becomes a competitive advantage, enabling companies to optimize their current operations while simultaneously preparing for breakthrough innovations that redefine their market position.

The competitive advantage of dual-track innovation

Companies that establish both Kaizen and Kaikaku rhythms create adaptive cultures that neither stagnate through endless optimization nor destabilize through constant disruption. They extract maximum value from current approaches while building capacity for transformation when strategic circumstances demand it. This balance drives sustainable growth and prepares businesses for successful transitions, whether through scale, market expansion, or eventual exit.

Which rhythm is driving your business right now—and which one are you missing?

Where have we optimized our current approach to its natural limits without questioning whether that approach should continue to be pursued?

What would we need to fundamentally restructure if we were starting this business today with no legacy systems or sunk costs?

When was the last time we questioned our core business model rather than just improving how we execute it?

What to Do When Your Business Strategy is Stalled: The Hidden Lean Methodology Most People Don’t Know About

Hook: Most leaders know about Kaizen for continuous improvement, but they’ve never heard of Kaikaku—the breakthrough innovation methodology that rescues stalled strategies. While businesses get trapped optimizing incremental improvements, this lesser-known lean approach helps leaders recognize when they need to abandon optimization and pursue radical reimagining instead.

Why This Matters Now: With AI disruption, economic uncertainty, and accelerating market changes, strategy stagnation has become the silent killer of growth companies. Leaders who master both Kaizen and Kaikaku create adaptive cultures that know when to improve versus when to innovate, preventing the common trap of perfecting the wrong approach.

Key Framework: The “Dual-Track Innovation System” – integrating both methodologies into regular business operations:

• Weekly Kaizen rhythms for systematic continuous improvement across all organizational levels

• Quarterly Kaikaku reviews for breakthrough innovation and strategic repositioning

• The 6 Kaikaku Triggers that signal when incremental improvement becomes strategic suicide

• Root cause analysis vs. big picture exploration – knowing which thinking mode to deploy when

• Cultural integration strategies that prevent teams from defaulting to comfort-zone optimization

Practical Takeaway: Readers will understand the critical difference between these complementary approaches and recognize the six specific situations that demand stepping back from optimization to pursue breakthrough innovation, transforming stalled strategies into competitive advantages.

6 Ways True Innovators Stress-Test Their Customer Assumptions

Most companies start with solutions that they assume customers need. But true innovators make sure they’re solving real problems.

As a founder who built an Inc. 500 company and coached dozens of teams on innovation strategy, I’ve learned that the biggest innovation failures come from false confidence in customer understanding, not from lack of good ideas. My systems thinking background taught me that breakthrough innovations emerge when teams systematically challenge their own assumptions rather than trusting their expertise.

The most successful innovation teams I’ve worked with share one trait: they’ve learned to be systematically suspicious of their own insights and use adversarial methods to stress-test customer assumptions before committing resources to solutions.

1. Red team exercises

Assign team members to actively attack your customer assumptions and innovation strategy from a competitor’s perspective. Create a dedicated session where half your team argues against your current customer understanding and proposed solutions, forcing examination of vulnerabilities you haven’t considered. This adversarial approach reveals blind spots that supportive brainstorming sessions miss completely. Have the red team identify which customer segments you’re ignoring, what needs you’re misunderstanding, and how competitors could exploit gaps in your customer knowledge. This exercise consistently uncovers assumption gaps that teams discover too late during market testing.

2. Premortem analysis

Before committing to innovation decisions, imagine your customer research and solution development has failed spectacularly and work backwards to identify what went wrong. Conduct systematic failure analysis by asking what customer assumptions would have to be false for your innovation to completely miss market needs. This reverse engineering of failure reveals hidden risks in your customer understanding that forward-looking analysis misses. Teams that regularly use premortem exercises identify customer assumption failures before they waste development resources, consistently avoiding innovation disasters that confident teams experience.

3. Devil’s advocate rotation

Systematically assign different team members to challenge each major customer assumption rather than having one person always play the negative role. Rotate the devil’s advocate responsibility across team members and customer insights, ensuring every assumption faces rigorous scrutiny from multiple perspectives. This prevents both assumption groupthink and advocate fatigue that occurs when one person always challenges ideas. Each team member takes turns arguing against specific customer insights, forcing deeper examination of evidence and alternative explanations for customer behavior patterns.

4. Assumption stress testing

Take each core belief about customers and deliberately test scenarios where it’s completely wrong, exploring what would be true if your fundamental customer understanding is false. Create systematic tests for your most confident customer insights by investigating contradictory evidence and alternative explanations for customer behavior. This approach reveals when teams are interpreting customer data to support existing beliefs rather than discovering genuine insights. Teams that regularly stress-test customer assumptions discover market opportunities that confident competitors miss because they never question their customer expertise.

5. External perspective injection

Bring in people from completely different industries and backgrounds to review your customer assumptions and challenge insights that seem obvious to your team. Use outsiders who don’t share your industry biases to examine customer research and question conclusions that insiders accept without scrutiny. This outside perspective consistently reveals customer insights and market opportunities that industry experts overlook due to shared assumptions about normal customer behavior. External reviewers ask questions that teams immersed in industry thinking never consider, uncovering customer needs hidden by professional expertise.

6. Anonymous assumption audits

Use anonymous surveys and feedback systems where team members can challenge customer insights and innovation directions without fear of social consequences or seeming negative. Create systematic processes for team members to question customer assumptions, research methodologies, and solution directions without revealing their identity. This approach encourages honest scrutiny of customer insights that team dynamics and social pressure typically suppress. Anonymous audits consistently reveal team concerns about customer understanding that never surface in group discussions, preventing innovation failures that confident group consensus creates.

Teams that master systematic assumption challenging consistently discover breakthrough customer insights while competitors remain trapped by false confidence in their expertise. The competitive advantage comes from systematic doubt about customer understanding, not from better research methods or deeper industry knowledge.

Here’s Why You Don’t Want Your Teams to Get Along All the Time

Most leadership teams prioritize cohesion and cultural fit, but this approach kills innovation. Here’s why, and how to fix it.

When I was building my company, I discovered something surprising about building teams: The good ones don’t get along. At least not all the time.

Our best strategic decisions, the real breakthroughs, came from heated debates between team members with fundamentally different perspectives—not from meetings where everyone quickly agreed.

And when it comes to the leadership teams that I coach, the ones that consistently generate superior strategic options share one trait: they’ve deliberately designed productive tension into their composition while maintaining alignment around core values and company purpose.

Here’s how to build that healthy tension in to your team.

1. Industry experience diversity

Teams composed entirely of industry veterans develop blind spots because they share the same assumptions about what’s possible and normal. When everyone thinks customer problems should be solved the same way, we miss breakthrough approaches that adjacent industries use successfully. Audit your team for cross-sector representation and deliberately include members who can challenge industry orthodoxy with fresh problem-solving approaches from different sectors.

2. Cognitive style variation

Analytical thinkers, intuitive decision-makers, and creative problem-solvers process information differently and reach different conclusions from the same data. Teams dominated by analytical minds excel at optimization but struggle with pattern recognition and breakthrough thinking. Assess your team’s thinking patterns and ensure representation across analytical depth, intuitive insight, and creative solution generation to avoid strategic blind spots.

3. Cultural background differences

Different cultural perspectives shape risk assessment, hierarchy expectations, and communication approaches in ways that reveal strategic assumptions teams don’t realize they’re making. Homogeneous cultural groups miss market opportunities because they assume their perspective represents universal customer behavior. Evaluate your team’s cultural composition and consider how different cultural lenses might challenge current strategic assumptions and reveal hidden market segments.

4. Generational perspective ranges

Different generations bring distinct perspectives on technology adoption, work values, and market evolution that fundamentally impact strategic planning effectiveness. Groups skewed toward one generation miss emerging trends or overestimate technology adoption rates in their target markets. Review your team’s generational spread and ensure representation across different technology comfort levels and workplace expectations that affect strategic decision-making.

5. Geographic experience spanning

Urban and rural perspectives, along with different regional market contexts, create fundamentally different assumptions about customer behavior, distribution challenges, and operational requirements. Teams with narrow geographic experience develop strategies that work in familiar markets but fail in different contexts. Assess your team’s geographic diversity and include perspectives from different market contexts relevant to your strategic expansion or customer base.

6. Company size experience mixing

Startup, enterprise, and mid-market operational perspectives create different approaches to resource allocation, risk management, and growth strategies that significantly impact strategic effectiveness. Individuals with similar company size backgrounds miss operational insights that could dramatically improve strategic execution. Evaluate your team’s company size backgrounds and ensure representation across different operational scales to optimize strategic approaches.

7. Risk tolerance level spectrum

Conservative and aggressive decision-making preferences balance strategic options between sustainable growth and breakthrough opportunities, but teams skewed in either direction miss critical strategic possibilities. Those that are risk-averse miss competitive timing advantages while risk-aggressive teams overlook sustainability concerns. Audit your team’s risk tolerance distribution and ensure representation across the risk spectrum relevant to your strategic objectives and market position.

Action Items

Leaders who master strategic diversity create teams that generate more strategic options while maintaining operational effectiveness through shared values and purpose. The competitive advantage comes from superior strategic thinking, not perfect team harmony—breakthrough ideas require productive tension.

If Your Team Is Struggling to Find Good Solutions to Hard Problems, Try These 3 Steps

Many executive teams struggle with addressing issues quickly and effectively. Here’s how the best ones avoid drama and get better results.

As a leadership team coach, developing a good decision-making process is one of my main areas of focus. And while many teams are good at simple decisions that come up frequently, these same teams can be challenged by new and complicated decisions that come up when the company starts to grow quickly.

The key to getting good at decision-making is to have a process that everyone knows and has had experience using. While it’s true that every decision is different, the process you use should be the same. Here is the one I coach my teams to use.

1. Define

First, I have teams start every decision-making process by clarifying the problem in front of them.

In this step, it’s fairly common to discover that the decision on the table is simply the presenting problem and there is, in fact, a deeper, more important problem hiding underneath the surface layer. By getting to the core problem, we will not only address the surface issue we’re having but we will also be able to address other issues on a more systematic basis.

For example, one team I was working with recently had a problem with low sales numbers during the previous two months. Their first reaction was to spend more on marketing. However, it became apparent that one of the sales people was on maternity leave for three months and hadn’t been replaced. The real issue was not having a good process for covering people while they were on planned leaves, a problem that would not have been solved with more marketing dollars.

2. Debate

Once the team has defined the problem well, I have them develop criteria for the options they want to consider. The goal here is to get clear on the definition of solved and all the possible ways they could address the problem.

For the criteria, I’m looking for objective tests we can apply to all of the options to evaluate and sort them. For simple problems, this might be things like cost, speed of implementation, and/or measure of impact on the problem. For more complex problems, you might have criteria that address risks, organizational change, or undesirable collateral impact.

Creating as many options as possible is critical to a good problem-solving process. If there’s only two or three options to choose from, a team can easily become stuck with a less than ideal outcome. Create time and space to brainstorm ideas. Suspend judgement and generate as many ideas as possible. Often times the winning idea comes late in the game and starts out as an off-handed comment.

3. Decide

Once you have your criteria and your options, the team can start the final decision-making process. Use the criteria you’ve developed to evaluate and rank the options you’ve generated. For some criteria, the budget for example, might be easy to calculate and apply.

On the other hand, it might be harder to quantify things like risk and undesirable collateral impact, but taking some time to discuss is important. In the end, I like to see absolute numbers, scales of one to five, or high/medium/low for each criteria and for each option.

However, all of this only works if people are free to speak their mind and share what they know and see without fear of judgment or shame. If people hold back, you’ll miss key insights.

Most of the time, one of your options will float to the top as the most desirable choice. On occasion however, you might find that two or more options seem good for different reasons and it’s not obvious which one to choose. In these cases, try to develop a trade off value between the criteria.

For example, if one solution costs more but is faster to implement, decide how much a week or day of schedule is worth in dollars and then discount/add it to one option to compare them head-to-head. You can do this for many types of criteria and effectively normalize options to reduce the complexity.

While you won’t always need to create complicated matrices to compare and score you options, when the stakes are high and the issues complicated, it’s a good approach to have in your toolbox.

Good decision making is a core skill for every leadership team. It takes training, practice, and experience to build that muscle. But once you have achieve that capability and honed it, your work will become much faster and easier, and you’ll have better outcomes to celebrate.

Ask Your Team These 7 Questions to Jumpstart Innovation

Growth companies that break through competitive barriers ask impossible questions that force teams beyond conventional thinking patterns.

After scaling my software development company to the Inc. 5000 list five consecutive years and coaching dozens of leadership teams on strategy and innovation, I’ve learned that competitive advantage comes from asking different questions, not finding better answers to the same old problems.

The breakthrough moments happen when teams stop thinking within normal business constraints and start exploring impossible scenarios. This constraint-breaking approach consistently generates innovative solutions that competitors can’t replicate because they remain trapped in conventional thinking patterns.

1. If money was no object, how would we approach this?

When teams operate under budget constraints, they automatically filter out ideas before exploring their potential. This question forces separation of resource allocation from strategic thinking, revealing what your team actually believes would work best. Give your team five minutes to brainstorm without budget considerations, and you’ll notice ideas become immediately more ambitious and creative. A client’s marketing team used this prompt and proposed creating an industry conference, which led to a scaled-down summit that generated more qualified leads than three years of traditional marketing.

2. If we had to solve this and launch tomorrow, what would we strip away?

Nothing kills innovation faster than endless refinement cycles. This constraint forces teams to identify the absolute core of their solution, revealing essential elements versus nice-to-have features that complicate execution. Set a literal timer and give teams ten minutes to design something implementable within 24 hours. One CEO used this when his team debated features for a new service. The constraint forced identification of three core capabilities delivering 80 percent of value, allowing them to launch quickly and gather real customer feedback.

3. If we had access to the most brilliant mind in the world on this topic, how would they solve it?

Every organization develops blind spots based on industry experience and internal capabilities. This question breaks teams out of knowledge constraints and encourages borrowing insights from adjacent industries or academic research. Have team members research how experts in completely different fields approach similar challenges. A manufacturing client researched quality assurance methods from aerospace, pharmaceutical, and software industries, leading to statistical process controls that reduced defects by 60 percent.

4. If we never had to make money, how would we approach this?

Profit requirements often constrain innovation because teams filter ideas based on immediate revenue potential rather than long-term value creation. This question reveals what your team believes would create the most genuine value for customers. A software company used this approach for customer onboarding and designed an intensive training program. While they couldn’t implement the full version, the insight led to a hybrid model that improved customer retention by 40 percent.

5. If we had to 10x this company within three years, how would we do it?

Most teams think incrementally about growth because they’re trapped by current capabilities and market position. This question forces consideration of fundamental business model changes rather than optimization improvements. 10x growth can’t happen through efficiency gains—it requires entirely different approaches. A consulting firm used this exercise and realized massive growth required shifting from custom services to scalable training products, leading to certification programs that now generate 40 percent of revenue.

6. If we could read anyone’s mind, what would we want to know to solve this problem?

Innovation often fails because teams operate with incomplete information about customer needs, competitive strategies, or market dynamics. This question reveals which information gaps actually constrain decision-making. Use this prompt to prioritize research and data gathering efforts. A product development team realized they were guessing about customer feature preferences, leading to systematic feedback collection that fundamentally changed development priorities.

7. If we could break any regulation or law, what solution emerges?

Industry regulations often prevent teams from considering the most direct solutions to customer problems. This question helps identify which constraints are protective versus traditional barriers to innovation. A financial services client used this exercise when designing advisory services, envisioning AI-powered personalized advice. While they couldn’t replace human advisors, this insight led to AI-assisted tools that improved advisor effectiveness while maintaining regulatory compliance.

Action Items

Teams that master constraint-breaking prompts consistently generate breakthrough solutions while competitors remain trapped in conventional thinking patterns. The competitive advantage comes from asking fundamentally different questions that reveal possibilities others never consider.

Want to Get Good at Accomplishing Your Goals? Master These 6 Skills

Setting and achieving powerful goals requires more than one skill. Here are the six skills that great goal achievers have mastered.

As an executive and team coach, I help individuals and teams set goals every day.

And while all teams are very different and have very different goals, the ones who are most successful share six key skills–skills which you can use to accelerate your success, too.

1. Polish your crystal ball.

The first thing to develop is your ability to see the future. Having a powerful imagination that gives you a clear vision of yourself in your future success will drive motivation and inspiration. Great goal setters spend time carefully envisioning themselves in the future having already achieved this success.

Visualizing future success sets up a cognitive dissonance in your mind. And since the mind doesn’t like it when thinking doesn’t match reality, it begins to take action to change reality, driving our unconscious thinking towards reaching your goals sooner.

2. Get good at planning.

Great goal setters know how to think through the steps needed to reach their objectives. They see the tasks that need to be performed and the order they need to be performed in. Good plans create a path to success by connecting the dots between where you are now and where you want to be.

But don’t get attached the plan itself. As Eisenhower once said, “plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” Great planners know that the value comes from the process of thinking through your options, developing a good strategy, and assessing risks. Highly successful people take action, get feedback, develop insights, and then re-plan quickly.

3. Just do it.

If you want to achieve your goals, you can’t spend all day looking at your navel. Yes, you need to think and plan, but even more importantly, you need to take action. Action not only moves you forward, but it also gives you feedback.

I often use the analogy of when you first turn on your phone’s GPS and it’s confused about which direction you’re facing. While you could wait there and let it think, the quickest solution is to just take a few steps forward and it will quickly adjust your position on the map.

The same goes for working on your goals. Sometimes, you just need to do a few things and then see if you’re making progress, or if you need to turn around and go in the opposite direction.

4. Master the juke.

Great running backs learn how to juke to avoid tackles by dogging, weaving, and spinning to avoid defenders. They know that trying to square up and bash through them will not usually be successful and will almost always hurt.

The same is true for those who are highly productive. When faced with an obstacle, these high achievers don’t put their head down and drive into it with brute force. They find a way to avoid it and move around it. Even if the obstacle adds a little time or wasn’t the path they originally planned, they know that maintaining forward progress is more important than sticking to a plan that isn’t working.

5. Discover your inner zen.

In the late 1970s while researching why artists get so absorbed in their work to the point of not eating for days, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered that these people entered a physical-mental state of hyper performance which he named flow.

He discovered that anyone can get into this highly productive state. And when they do, they can achieve up to ten-times their normal level of performance. Not only that, but people report having a euphoric experience of blissful satisfaction where time passes without notice.

Finding your flow state is critical to being productive. Choose the right day of the week, time of day, environment, and frame of mind to make yourself hyper productive. For some it’s a nature retreat, and for others it’s a noisy coffee shop. Experiment to discover what works for you.

6. You can do anything you want, just not everything you want.

The fact is, we all have real limits on time and energy. We can’t work on everything at once. Great achievers know that it is better to focus on one priority at a time and drive it to completion before changing course.

It’s good to have a few different projects going so you can switch gears when you’re stuck or frustrated, but keep this variation to a limited few. And don’t try to multitask between them. Bigger blocks of dedicated time will allow you to get deeper and tackle bigger, more complex challenges.

While there are other skills that will improve your ability to set and achieve great things, these six are your core building blocks for success. And like most skills, there is always room for improvement. Getting better at goal setting is a lifelong pursuit.

Is Your Team Struggling to Agree on Performance Metrics? Here Are 6 Key Definitions That Will Help

Measuring effectiveness is an important aspect of growth. Here are 6 key definitions that will help your team get on the same page.

There are many terms around measuring the effectiveness of management and execution that can be confusing. Without a clear, shared definition, leaders can often get stuck in muddy discussions that result in misalignment. While there are no absolute definitions for many of these terms, these are the ones I suggest for the leadership teams and executives I work with.

1. Key Performance Indicator

Let’s start with the infamous key performance indicator, aka KPI. These are often confused and conflated with many of the other terms on this list. Put simply, a KPI is a way of measuring something. It’s an evaluation unit regarding some aspect of business performance.

It’s important to note that while there are many ways to set KPI’s, these settings are simply units of measure, not the actual results your seeking. I like to say that the KPI is the tape measure, not the measurement itself.

2. Critical Number

I often use the concept of a critical number with leadership teams to elevate one or more KPI’s. A business has dozens of KPI’s across many aspects of the business that give leadership insights into how the business is performing. By elevating one or more KPI’s to the status of critical number, it provides focus and priority to areas of the business that need senior-level attention.

A critical number is generally tied to a strategic priority or organizational objective and drives alignment. If larger orders is a key goal, then a critical number might percent of orders over $50,000 each week. Often this is tied to a theme which can further drive motivation and cohesion.

3. Balancing KPI

Sometimes, when we set a goal and only focus on one aspect of the business, we skew our action to meet the goal, while inadvertently hurting other parts of the business. For example, it’s easy to increase the close rate on a sales funnel by lowering the profit margin and selling contracts at a loss. However, that doesn’t help the business overall.

A balancing KPI adds a second unit of measure to the strategic focus that prevents people from gaming the system to hit one goal by trading off another goal and hurting the business overall. Think of it as the check and balance to the main goal.

4. Metric

The vast majority of things you can measure in a business are not ‘key’ to the business but are needed to track or monitor performance. These are simply metrics. They describe how parts of the business are doing without becoming things that require senior leadership attention. A metric is simply a performance indicator, but it is not a key indicator.

5. Target

If you’re a long jumper, the goal is to get as much distance as possible between the line and the back of your heel where you land. Therefore, the KPI is the distance cleared and the units are in feet and inches. The target is what you are striving to achieve. It is specific to an individual and may change over time. If you’re a state high school competitor you might start the season with 20 feet and and work your way up to the state record of 25 feet 3 inches. Targets are set based on your strategy and goals.

6. Forecast

Forecasts are similar to targets in that they are specific results or measures related to a KPI. The difference is a target is something that you’re trying to achieve based on a strategy and a goal, whereas a forecast is a prediction on future results. The key to any good forecast is not just the number, but also the confidence level of that number from the person/group issuing that forecast.

A forecast without a confidence level is not very useful and can lead to confusion and failures. For example, say the sales team says they are forecasting Q4 revenues to be $1.2 million and the company budgets their expenses based on that number. But then late everyone realizes that the $1.2 million is a stretch goal and the team is only 20 percent confident they will hit that number which puts the company at risk of overspending.

While the difference between all of these terms might seem academic and too subtle to spend time discussing, I’ve found that executives, who invest the effort, reap the benefits of clarity and alignment when it comes to successfully executing on strategy and management. If you’re in a dynamic, high-growth situation, this can often mean the difference between predictable success and a company spiraling out of control.

Good Business Strategies Aren’t Just Documents You Hang on Your Wall. Here’s How to Make Yours Better

Many companies struggle with creating an effective business strategy. Here are six ways to get yours right.

While I enjoy all parts of growing and scaling a business, creating an effective scaling strategy is one of my favorites. I love running sessions and helping a leadership team collect information, develop insights about their market, and decide on their unique course of action.

However, many teams get strategy wrong. Here are the most common mistakes I see and suggestions on how to avoid them. Get these right and you’ll not only improve your success, you might just have more fun.

1. Don’t compete to win, compete to be unique.

Many people frame business strategy as one company pitted against another in a battle of force and will to decide who will dominate a market. And while that might make for a good movie, it’s not a good approach to business.

The reality is that most markets are multifaceted; there are plenty of customers for you all to have a reasonable slice of the pie. The trick is to create an approach and niche that will be reasonably profitable and that will allow you to efficiently sell to your target customers.

Instead of seeing strategy as a race to win, see it as a race to be different. An effective strategy is one which clearly defines your niche in the market based on your unique strengths and weaknesses as a company.

2. It’s not about motivation, it’s about making choices.

Another common mistake people make is to see strategy as rallying the team to put in extra effort and long hours. They string together inspirational quotes to excite people about the future and the wonderful things that will come with success.

Instead, I find that a good, effective strategy should make things easier. A good strategy clarifies who will be targeted with what product/service. This clarity helps you make decisions and allows a company to simplify their processes to do just those few things really well.

3. Know what you’re not doing.

Strategy is fundamentally about choice. It’s about reducing the areas of focus to a carefully chosen few. Unfortunately, I see many companies that define their strategy in such a way that still leaves them trying to sell everything to everyone, everywhere.

One technique I use is to have a company list all of the prospects they are not targeting, products they are not offering, and locations they are not servicing. If this is a long and clear list, I know that company has a clear strategy which focuses on doing a few things well. If it’s short and vague, I send them back to the drawing board.

4. Don’t chase the puck, get out ahead of it.

Another thing I often see is a company developing a strategy in reaction to a specific market event, competitor move, or industry situation. While companies need to respond to events and changing markets, that is not the core of business strategy. Your strategy should guide you on how to respond, but it’s not the response itself.

A strategy defines a set of choices and a series of policies on how you are going to make decisions and what you are going to prioritize. By design, strategies are long-term plays based on a logical analysis of the trends in the market and where future opportunities are likely to exist.

5. Strategy is worthless, if it’s not communicated.

Often times, companies spend weeks developing a sophisticated and smart strategy, but then they put it in a binder and leave it on the shelf. At best, a few people on the leadership team can recall the content months later, but the vast majority of the company has forgotten or is oblivious of the work.

Strategy needs to be simple to understand and easy to communicate. The fact is that everyone in the company needs to know the strategy as they are the ones implementing it. Your front line workers make more decisions on strategy each and everyday than any executive. It needs to be simple and it needs to be communicated frequently.

6. Strategy is a regular process, not a document.

Too often I see teams create a great strategy and then frame the final document on the wall. They check the box and get back to day-to-day business. The power in strategy is the discussion and application not the document. Great teams talk about strategy weekly and grapple with strategic decisions on a daily basis.

Strategy is not easy, but it doesn’t need to be hard. The trick is to make it a regular process and routine inside your leadership discussions. And while strategies should be simple to be effectively communicated, they need not be simplistic in approach. Much like writing a good letter, the more concise a strategy is, the longer and harder a team most likely worked on it.

These 12 Common Business Terms Seem Redundant, But They Have Practical Differences

If you’re involved in any goal-setting effort, you’re bound to run into a host of terms that all seem to mean the same thing. Here’s how to keep them straight.

When working with leadership teams and executives on strategy planning, we often throw around a lot of terms. Some of these terms can seem to mean the same thing, and they often end up meaning different things to different people. Here are some definitions I’ve coalesced and use in my work to keep things clear.

Purpose

I use this to describe what an individual or organization is meant to do in their heart of hearts. It’s something they can spend their entire lives pursuing and has infinite room for success. Some examples are: to rid the world of hunger or improve our lives through technological innovation.

Mission

I like to think of the purpose as the why, and the mission as the what. A mission defines what we want to achieve at the highest level. Some examples are: give every child three square meals a day or make tomorrow’s technology available today.

Vision

A vision describes a future state in rich detail. We use a vision to create a compelling view for what our success will look like once we’ve achieved our goals. Generally, this is written in prose over several paragraphs and provides key details and taps into core emotions.

BHAG

Coined by Jim Collins in his book Built To Last, BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal. I look 10 years in the future, but some people go as far as 30. There are different types of BHAGs, but they are always compelling and time-bound. Good BHAGs will move you into a new league of play and should invoke the slightest bit of fear.

Priority

Priority defines the one thing you are dedicating the majority of your time to. Your priority is the thing you do prior to working on other tasks. It is often helpful to have a list of things that you are deprioritizing in return. Priorities are generally set for a year or quarter and can involve multiple tasks or projects.

Focus

Your focus is similar to a priority, but slightly more general. I think of a focus as a topic of interest or concern for a group or individual. A focus might be customer service, whereas a priority would be reducing the wait time for priority customers.

Initiative

I generally use initiative to describe a group of projects, often across departments, that achieves one or more key results in an organization. Some examples might include: improve safety to reduce shop floor accidents. This one initiative includes human resources, operations, facilities, and logistics.

Objective

Objective is defined as an area of focus that is clearly aligned with the long term strategy, reasonably narrow in scope, and compelling to the team. For example, a quarterly objective might be improve project management skills for all delivery staff.

Goal

A goal is similar to an objective but smaller and more specific; it also has a clear deadline and timeline. If the objective is improve project management skills for all of our delivery staff, then a goal might be have all delivery staff score over 90 percent on the PMI project management skills assessment.

Target

Used in conjunction with a key performance metric (KPI), a target is a specific number or measurement you’re looking to achieve. If your KPI is number of orders per day, your target might be over 200 orders a day for five consecutive days.

Key Result

If you’re using OKRs, then these are the specific, measurable, actionable things you are doing to move forward on your objective. Each key result is an independent task that adds value, not a series of steps in a project plan.

If your objective is improve project management skills for all delivery staff then your a key results might be 1) run three project planning workshops in March, 2) have two people go to the PMI certification class, and 3) hold a project retrospective on our last three projects.

Action Item

An action item is a commitment to do something. It has a ‘who’, a ‘what’, and a ‘by when’. With any action item, I want to know what I will have in my hands or see with my eyes that will tell me it’s complete. When running my weekly team meetings, I’m focusing on what actions people are committing to for the next meeting so that I can hold people accountable to what they’ve signed up to deliver.

I’m sure there are other terms that get thrown around in these types of sessions, but the ones above are the core terms that are good to know. While I like mine, they are not gospel. What’s most important is that everyone on your team agree to each word’s meaning so everyone has the right expectations.

3 Common Roles Found in Any Workplace Drama, and How to Rewrite the Script

Team drama takes on many forms, but it’s rarely effective. Look for these patterns and use these techniques to flip the script.

As a team coach, I often get brought into situations with a lot of drama and dysfunction. Sometimes drama is too ingrained and systemized to resolve and the team needs to be disbanded and rebuilt.

In many cases, however, we can turn the ship around by recognizing patterns and the roles people are stuck in. The most common pattern I see is the Victim-Villain-Hero triangle.

In the late 1970s, psychologist Stephen Karpman identified this common Victim-Villain-Hero pattern in many dysfunctional families and relationships. These roles caused the members involved to get stuck in a downward spiral. As it turns out, we can apply this same analysis to professional team situations.

Team members might switch roles at various times, but these three roles are key to the pattern. The resulting drama triangle between these roles causes the individuals to stay stuck.

The Victim

Feels powerless and feels that everything is happening to them. They act stuck and unable to make decisions or have control over the situation. Generally they are unhappy and ashamed of the situation they are in.

The Villain

Feels they are logically correct and morally justified in their actions. They are generally blaming, critical, and demanding in their behavior. They are generally focused on doing what they feel is right and fair to the larger group or community.

The Hero

Feels the need to rescue the victim from the villain. They will often act in a caring, supportive, and self-sacrificing manner to support the victim. However, the hero is often not addressing their own obstacles or bigger issues and instead diving in to save the victim so they, the hero, can avoid harder conversations and/or avoid addressing the villain.

When I start working with dysfunctional teams, I often see this drama triangle playing out. In complex situations, and workplaces there are often multiple triangles between multiple people and situations where a person can be a victim in one triangle and a villain in another.

The first step in changing the situation is making the team aware of the pattern they are in. I give them feedback on their behavior based on specific interactions, and I help them see how they are playing out a certain role. Sometimes, just this awareness is enough to change the dynamic.

Once we expose the pattern, I can start coaching them on how to react to these situations differently. For each role there is a different, and more empowering approach they can take to improve the situation.

The Victim can help solve the problem.

When someone feels themselves slip into victim mode, I suggest they shift to problem solving mode. Rather than wallow in their situation, they should brainstorm options. This might include resources they have and people who can help. I also suggest they shift from seeing the other person as the villain to instead seeing them as someone trying hard to live up to a high standard.

The Villain can focus on clear results.

When someone sees themselves becoming the villain, I encourage them to focus on the results they want to achieve and shift the blame and criticism. They should become a champion of higher expectations and desire and assert what they want rather than attacking the other person. I want them to ask for the other person’s help and commitment to reach their shared goal. A good champion will make the other person part of the solution.

The Hero can clarify their goals and expectations.

Being a hero can feel great. You get to put on your cape and pull the victim to safety. However, this is a not a sustainable approach. Instead, I encourage the hero to think more like a coach and to help the victim generate options he or she can implement themselves. I also encourage the hero to work with the villain to help them clarify their goals and expectations.

While not all drama is the result of the victim-villain-hero triangle, and not all triangles can be successfully turned around, knowing the patterns and trying these approaches can change the dynamic when you see a team in trouble. More importantly, being aware of the tendency can help you realize when you’re stuck in one yourself.

If Your Team Sets Goals, But Fails to Successfully Deliver Them, You Need This 1 Meeting

Teams can set a solid strategy and create great goals but then miserably fail on the dehttps://www.inc.com/bruce-eckfeldt/5-simple-ways-to-improve-accountability.htmllivery. Here is the one meeting that will make a difference.

Nothing is more frustrating than having a great planning session and coming up with a breakthrough plan for the quarter, only to have the team fall short on their targets. This shortcoming not only means lost time and increased risks, it’s hard on team morale, too.

Left unaddressed, this accountability problem slows down the team considerably until people leave or management steps in and shakes things up. To break out of this cycle, there is one aspect I focus on that helps rebuild the team’s planning and execution capability and morale.

That one thing is the weekly planning meeting.

The weekly planning meeting is when the team looks at its goals and their individual commitments to the team and figure out what they are going to focus on and accomplish over the next seven days. Seven days is the core work cycle of the team and all it takes to rebuild a team’s momentum.

The agenda for the weekly meeting is simply five questions:

1. What did you commit to for this week?

2. What did you accomplish?

3. What did you learn?

4. What do you commit to for next week?

5. What is your action plan?

For the first two or three weeks, I just ask the questions. I don’t probe too deeply, I just make sure I’m clear on what they are committing to, what they are learning, and what actions they are planning. My goal is to understand the situation and the dynamic. There are a several common patterns I find within these meetings; all of which have simple fixes.

1. Focusing on too many priorities in a week.

This happens when people feel pressure and are desperate for results. They hope that committing to lots of work will offset the lack of delivery. Instead, I try to take the pressure off and just have them focus on a few simple, but highly important, tasks. Once they have success and confidence, we can rebuild to a reasonable volume.

2. Focusing on something other than a key priority.

This can happen because there is an obvious obstacle they don’t know how to address or a fear of tackling something highly important and then failing. By refocusing on the main thing, breaking it down to simple set of tasks, and focusing on learning something, rather than finishing something by the end of the week, we can begin to make progress in the right direction.

3. Not having a clear sense of the goal.

Too often people make commitments that are vague and fluffy. Which means that they don’t really know what they are going to do or work on which in return means they can’t deliver at the end of the week. One of my favorite terms is definition of done. What am I going to see with my eyes or hold in my hands at the end of the week? Only after answering this question can we ask if that work product really helps us advance towards our goal.

4. Not planning time to do the work

This happens when someone hopes to find the time during the week to do the work they committed to, but then gets overwhelmed with day-to-day tasks. In simple cases, I help them set aside time to dedicate to the work. In severe cases, we focus on rebuilding their daily schedule and delegation plan to free them up to make time to work on weekly priority commitments.

5. Starting too late in the week.

This is a common case of procrastination. They push off the work until day five or six and then get caught waiting for someone else to reply or get back to them before they can finish. Here, I suggest the “eat the frog” approach to task management, whereby you start each day tackling the hardest, least fun task each morning so that you can get it off your plate and move on to something easier and more fun.

6. Spinning wheels on an obstacle.

Sometimes people report that they hit an obstacle quickly and then struggled with it for the remainder of the week or just shut down and stopped working. My best advice in these cases is that when you get stuck, raise your hand. One of the main reasons most businesses work in teams is so that you have multiple brains on a problem. By suffering in silence, you’re undermining your team. Instead, talk to someone and get some help.

While other situations do come up, these are by far the most common, and the most addressable. Usually after a few weeks of course correction and rebuilding, the team gets back into a productive grove. And, over time, by focusing on good, realistic habits and continuously improving on process, a team can overcome and makeup for lost ground.

Coaching Is a Powerful Management Tool, but Not Everyone Can Be Coached

Whether you’re a top executive or a recent grad, coaching could be a huge boost to your career. But it could also be a waste of money.

The professional coaching industry has exploded over the last decade. Today, I hear high-powered executives bragging at cocktail parties that they have not one but two or three coaches who help them with everything from leadership to public speaking to mindset.

As a leadership coach, I’m thrilled that so many people are hiring professional like me. However, like any trend, some people rush into hiring a coach who maybe shouldn’t. Here are a few questions I ask people who approach me about coaching and questions I suggest you ask yourself before you hire a coach.

1. How self-aware are you?

While this is a difficult question to ask yourself, it’s key to the coaching process. If you’re not willing, or able, to objectively look at your own thinking, behavior, and actions, then coaching may have limited impact. Those who get a lot out of coaching are highly aware of how their behaviors impact others and situations.

Check the language in your thinking. When something bad happens, do you immediately start blaming other people and finding excuses of why the external world conspired against you and put you in a bad situation? If so, you might want to first work on seeing how you contributed to the outcomes, too.

2. Are you ambitious?

Coaches can help develop great strategies and paths to success, but they can’t do the work for you. If you’re not driven to make changes and not willing to put in the hard work to implement the action plans, you might not get much out of coaching. You need to want the outcomes enough to do the hard work. If not, you might be wasting your money.

3. Do you hold yourself accountable?

Many people come to me looking to be held accountable and for me to drive the process. I have to explain to them that I can’t make them do anything. I can only help them get clarity on what they want, why they want it, and how they are going to get it. But they need to be in charge of doing the work.

If you’re not willing or able to take personal accountability for your commitments, then even the best coach in the world will not be able to help you succeed. That doesn’t mean you need to be perfect; failure is part of the process. But you need to “own it” and be willing to be self-critical. Don’t blame your coach for not making you do your work.

4. Do you have a growth or fixed mindset?

A lot of research has been done in the last decade regarding how your thinking can impact your ability to create change. Carol Dweck’s book Mindset presents this as the concept of fixed vs growth mindset. Which one you have will impact the effectiveness of your coaching considerably.

Put simply, a fixed mindset is one that believes your skills and abilities are innate and determined at birth. A growth mindset believes that while you have many natural gifts, you also have the ability to learn and grow through persistence and focused effort.

If you have a fixed mindset, you will not get much out of coaching. If you have a growth mindset, you will see change and improvement by working with a guide who can help you accelerate your learning process.

5. Are you curious to learn?

As a parent of four kids, I can say that one of the most difficult stages of parenting is going through the why phase. They want to know and understand everything. Ever answer is follow by the same question: …”but why daddy?”

While exhausting to me as a parent, this attitude in the people and teams I coach is an augur of success. People who are willing to ask why, and then why again, and then why a few more times, are much more likely to find root causes and make fundamental changes to they way they behave and think.

6. Can you keep things in perspective?

A big part of the coaching and development process is getting feedback, often a lot of it. Some of it will certainly be critical, and at times it will be difficult to hear. Your ability to take things in stride will determine if you are able to gain insight or if you close up and get defensive.

While you don’t need to answer all of the questions perfectly, know that you’ll be challenged in many ways by a good coach and being prepared to do the hard work will help you get the most out of it.

Want to Improve Your Leadership Skills? Focus on Critical Thinking

Highly successful leaders are exceptional critical thinkers. Here are five ways to improve your approach to strategic problem-solving and decision-making.

As a strategic business coach, one of my core responsibilities is leveling up leadership skills on the senior team. I like to say, if you want to grow and scale a business, you have to grow and scale its leadership. And one of the key skills I focus on is critical thinking.

As a business grows in size, so does the complexity and scope of its problems and challenges. Without good critical-thinking skills, leaders will make poor decisions and fail to take advantage of strategic opportunities. Very often, what holds the business back from reaching its true potential is a lack in the leadership of foresight and effective problem-solving skills.

Here are five key things I focus on when working with leaders to improve their ability to identify, analyze, solve, and implement effective problem-solving strategies.

1. Gather more and better data

The first thing I emphasize is that most teams try to make decisions with limited and poor-quality data. Good critical thinkers start by collecting as much high-quality data as possible. They don’t take things at face value. They question summaries and dig to make sure that they really understand what’s happening on the ground and maximize the raw information they have to work with.

This includes both structured and unstructured data as well as quantitative and qualitative information. It’s also important to look at history and trends and to compare the data you’re looking at with other benchmarks and norms. Good thinkers don’t rely upon summaries and averages; they go back to the source and get the raw information.

2. Learn how to separate fact from inference

Once you’ve collected information, it’s key to understand the difference between facts and inferences. Too often leaders will make an assumption about what’s really true and treat it as a fact when what they are really dealing with is an inference. This creates a shaky foundation for any future thinking and decision-making.

A fact is objectively observable by other people. An inference is something that includes an assumption or an opinion that may or may not be true. If you literally drive from New York to L.A. and it takes 58 hours, that’s a fact. If you use a map to calculate the distance and estimate an average speed to get to 58 hours, that is an inference. Don’t confuse the two.

3. Break things down to first principles

I encourage leaders and teams to think in first principles. These are the fundamental building blocks in thinking and decision-making. They are the core elements that are true regardless of situation and context.

They generally are found by asking clarifying questions, considering alternatives, and testing assumptions. Once you have a good set of first principles, you then have the elements you need to start creating new options and new solutions that you can be confident in.

For example, the first principle in tennis is that a ball hit with topspin will fall faster than one hit with backspin. A good tennis player knows how to use this in different scenarios to create strategic effects. By combining this with other principles, an expert player can make plays that leverage their strengths and exploit their opponent’s weaknesses.

4. Develop effective models

Another tool that can be very effective for teams and leaders is thinking in terms of models or analogies. While these are an abstraction and reduction of reality, and therefore wrong at some level, they can be useful for simplifying a situation and quickly finding alternatives and strategies.

For example, economies of scale is a model for how price changes with volume. While a specific situation may not follow the model perfectly, it can help a business figure out how to gain efficiencies by increasing the volume while holding costs the same.

The trick with models is to know where and why they work and how they can fall short. Models can help you quickly generate insights and strategies, but you need to be aware of their limits and not get lulled into a false sense of security about reality.

5. Continuously challenge your assumptions

Maybe the most important thing I focus on with leaders and teams is to create ways of testing and validating their assumptions quickly. If left unchecked, an assumption can lead to poor thinking and bad decision-making. This can be avoided by quickly going out into the real world and seeing if what you’re assuming holds up in the field.

By developing your critical-thinking skills, you’ll improve your decision-making and ultimately get better outcomes and long-term results. And while some of these steps may take some time and energy, they are good investments and will yield strong returns.

Why the Secret to Fast Growth Is to Sell Fewer Things to Fewer People

Growing your business quickly requires you to focus your strategy. Here are five steps that’ll get you there.

As a strategic coach, I work with companies to figure out how to go from a couple million to a couple hundred million in revenue, which is a very challenging phase of growth. The key to getting to that next level is zeroing in on a strategy that is both effective and highly scalable.

The irony is, the faster you want to scale a business, the more you need to focus your strategy. This includes choosing a specific product or service that you are uniquely good at as well as identifying a specific customer whom you serve particularly well.

That said, here are five key steps you can follow to identify a strategy that will allow you to scale more quickly and with less drama.

1. Identify your core customer

The first thing to do is figure out exactly who your best customer is. Clearly identifying the segment where you are most successful will allow you to focus your sales and marketing efforts and optimize your spending.

The fact is, most companies try to sell to too many types of customers and water down their efforts. Find the one that works best and double down.

The best way to identify your core customer is to look at your current customer base and ask three key questions: Who are your most profitable customers? Which customers are easy to serve? Which customers will promote you in the industry or have a reputation that allows you to sell more effectively?

By asking these three questions and seeing which customers rise to the top, you’ll begin to identify what types of customers you should go out and find more of.

2. Shed any and all bad fits

The next step is difficult for most companies but critical for scaling a business. Once you identify your customer you need to stop doing business with everyone else. This doesn’t mean you need to fire all your non-ideal clients tomorrow, but you do need to potentially raise rates, stop offering discounts, not provide extra services, and limit the time and energy you spend on them.

It also means you need to set up filters and qualifications in your sales and marketing funnel to remove prospects who do not fit your core customer profile. While it can be hard to say no, it will free up space for you to search for, find, and close better leads.

3. Hone your products and services

Once you’ve identified your core customer, you begin to see which of your current products and services create the most value for their business. By slimming down your portfolio and focusing on just those offerings that are the highest value, you can simplify your operations.

While there are many products and services you could provide, the fact is that you have limited time, energy, and resources. You should only focus on those that create the most benefit and that allow you to charge the highest prices to make the highest profit. Doing otherwise is just leaving money on the table.

4. Standardize your processes and procedures

The other benefit of limiting the products and services that you offer is that you can simplify your business. With a limited set of offerings, you reduce the complexity of your processes and procedures as well as the breadth of skills and experiences that you need on your teams. Focusing allows you to simplify and streamline many aspects of your operations.

5. Create a brand promise and guarantee

Now that you’ve identified whom specifically you sell to, what product or service you offer them, and what value you create, you can hone your marketing message. By creating a brand promise that clearly communicates to your target customer what it is you do and what benefit they will gain, you will make it much easier to generate leads and close deals.

A brand promise guarantee shows your prospect that you’re willing to put skin in the game and back your product or service with a meaningful and significant commitment. For example, Domino’s knew that delivering on time was so important that they would give you your pizza for free if it wasn’t there in 30 minutes. The rest is history.

Like many aspects of a business, identifying your core customer and core offering is not complicated, but it’s not easy. It takes focus and willingness to make tough decisions and not get distracted by shiny objects.

6 Ways to Develop Better Leaders That Won’t Cost You a Dime

Leadership is critical, yet most companies fail to invest in their people. Here are six ways to develop talent that won’t break the bank.

Leadership is critical to a company’s success. This is twice as true for high-growth businesses. Without enough leaders, scaling a business is next to impossible. It’s easy to find people who want to work, but without people to organize, inspire, and manage people, you’re setting yourself up for lots of drama with little productivity.

Many companies try to hire for leadership. This has two big downsides: first, it’s expensive. Direct and indirect recruiting and hiring costs will quickly add up. Second, it’s risky because a cultural ‘mis-hire’ can do real damage to an organization.

Instead, the best way to increase your company’s leadership is to grow it from within. Developing your current people as the next generation of leaders is your best bet. Investing in them will be cheaper than paying for recruiting costs and higher salaries. And your current team members are much more likely to already be a good cultural fit.

As a business coach, one of my favorite programs to work on is a company’s leadership development program, commonly known as an LDP. While each program’s content should be tailored to the companies industry and needs, here are six strategies you can use to create an effective program without needing to spend much, if any, budget dollars.

1. Have your senior team mentor.

Your senior folks have a vast amount of knowledge and insight into the business. Tap this resource by having them spend one hour a week with a rising star to help them understand the business and what the leader does to be successful. This could be in one-on-one or small group formats. Keep it mentoring, not training.

Let the junior person drive the conversation around what they want and/or need to know. The best part of the these types of programs is that the senior people often learn just as much, if not more.

2. Offer extra time off for learning events.

For those who are keen to get ahead and are willing to drive their own learning, offer a few extra days off each year to attend a conference or workshop to sharpen their skills. There are many free and inexpensive learning opportunities out there and often employees are paying to go to these events already, just give them the time. To help justify the investment, have them come back and host a morning seminar or lunch-and-learn to share with others what they learned and how to apply it to the business.

3. Hold weekly lightning talks.

Pick one lunch each week where a different person in the company does a 15-minute presentation on any topic they want (within reason). Give 15 minutes for Q&A and then have people score and give constructive feedback on the presentation as well as takeaways. This will not only distribute knowledge, it will help develop presentation and feedback skills. And it’s fun too.

4. Invite in outside speakers.

If you do a little searching, it’s not hard to find people who would be willing to come in and speak for little or no cost. Look for consultants who would jump at the chance to build a relationship. Another great strategy is to invite your customers and partners to come in and present their expertise and business. You can also reach out to authors and professional speakers who might be willing to do a discounted presentation if they’re already in the area.

5. Start a book club.

Many of the leadership teams I coach use this strategy to help them develop new skills as a group. Pick a book a month to reach and then spend 30-45 minutes discussing a few takeaways at your monthly meeting. If a full book is too daunting, find a summary to have everyone read. You can also find articles to read as a group. Many authors (like me) will provide discussion guides with their content for team discussions.

6. Recognize effort and accomplishments.

One of the best things you can do is make sure the people and teams, who are dedicating themselves to learning and showing measured progress, are recognized. This could be privately and/or publicly within the company. Recognizing success will both reward those who are already advancing as well as inspire those who may need a little nudge.

Like many initiatives, the most important thing about a learning program is to try something quickly, learn and get feedback, and then pivot quickly. The best companies succeed because they learn how they learn best and then fuel what works for them.