Episode 847: The Four Knows to Success

Episode number 847. The Four Nose to Success. You're listening to the official B&I Podcast with B&I Founder and Chief Visionary Officer, Dr. Ivan Meisner. Stay tuned for networking and referral marketing tips from the man who's been called the Father of Modern Networking, along with suggestions and insights into getting the most from your membership in the world's largest networking organization, B&I. Hello everybody and welcome back to the official B&I Podcast. I'm Priscilla Rice and I'm coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, California and I'm joined on the phone today by the founder and the Chief Visionary Officer of B&I, Dr. Ivan Meisner. Hello Ivan, how are you and where are you? Well, I'm in Austin today but I'm headed to Southern California so I'll be on the road again this week. Oh great. All right, so what do you have to share with us? Well, I'm going to talk a little bit more about some of the concepts of the third paradigm book and this topic is called The Four Nose to Success and that's Nose, K and OWS. So there are four Nose or Pillars that form a solid foundation for business success as it relates to co-creation. And co-creation, as I've talked about in a couple of other podcasts, is a process in which several parties come together to produce goods or outcomes that serve a common goal. And in the third paradigm, Dr. Heidi Gusto, Dawa Phillips and I outlined five types of co-creation that can result in success for businesses and I discussed them in a previous episode. I'll mention them again later. But before you begin collaborating with outside companies and individuals, we stress that it's really important for you to have a solid understanding of your own operation and we call these Pillars The Four Nose and I'm going to explain why each is so critical to success. No matter which of the types of co-creation that you use, which we talked about in a couple of episodes ago, you'll need to have all four of the following Pillars in place in order to succeed in co-creation and building a successful business. These are the four Nose. One, you've got to know the right focus. Know what to focus on. Two, know the right process. Know what process to use. Three, know the right communication and four, know the right execution. Let's start with the right focus. Here it's about establishing a mutually desired outcome within the organization, in your operation. Here, everyone involved in the co-creative process needs to be rowing in unison in the same direction and this means that everyone needs to be focused on a mutually desired outcome. disaster, absolutely strikes when people fail to work together and we conducted that survey at 4200 business professionals and it was really funny. One respondent shared how ineffective teamwork actually derailed their leaders attempt to mark an event and they said, and I'm quoting them here, we had not been able to communicate the why to them or get their views to make the event a part of the entire team which is ironic because one of our previous podcast was about understanding your why and that's an important piece of understanding the right focus. Focusing on mutually desired outcomes requires that all the team members have a shared why. Co-creation leaders can guide their team through a series of questions that will help them work together efficiently and effectively and creatively even if they're composed of diverse stakeholders. We certainly see that in B&I, our why and B&I is to build relationships with one another and to generate referrals for each other. This process will help identify the right focus. The outcome can't be vaguely defined, it has to be clear, B&I is clear, we help people create referrals for life, we are a referral organization and that's what you have to do in any business. When it is, the co-creation stakeholders will have the necessary shared purpose and intention and once the mutually desired outcome is established, teams can accomplish really unbelievable things. One survey respondent shared this sentiment, quoting them, if the right people with the same goals lifting encouragingly and working together with the same commitment to achieve together are in place wonders can happen. And we don't see that in B&I, I don't know where you see that. You get the right people with the right goals lifting together and encouraging each other, it's miraculous what you see happen in really successful B&I chapters. The next is the right process and here we're talking about implementing a framework. So you have to identify the right process for a co-creative project to ensure that the stakeholders can work efficiently and effectively, it's not enough to have a team that's committed to a mutually desired outcome without an underlying process guiding the mission. And if you don't do that, frustrations mount. B&I has a process, we follow that process and it's that process that helps us become successful and helps us generate millions and millions of referrals, billions of US dollars in business by having a process and following it. So the process of choosing the framework begins by selecting the five types of co-creation that I previously introduced in a previous podcast. And those five were Think Tank brainstorm, that's one, crowdsourcing, open sourcing, mass customization and user generated content. And B&I we've substantially used the Think Tank brainstorming and we've used crowdsourcing in the organization. Now once the co-creation leaders determine the right type, then additional pragmatic considerations are important to understand the overarching framework of the process. So these include determining clear roles and responsibilities for team members. When people don't have clear roles, they end up going down rabbit holes instead of focusing on the things that need to be done. And there also has to be accountability in place. We certainly see that in B&I. And I only works when it's a system of accountability that is in place. And I have said for many years, you know, you apply the rules more like Mandela than Attila, but you got to apply the rules. There has to be accountability. Some of the survey respondents in the survey we did attested to the importance of having the right process. And one person said that all the persons working on a project should be specifically responsible or accountable to some extent. And all the persons should be required to provide input, again, very applicable within a B&I context. Others remarked on the importance of having a good framework for growth in place. Again, so they're very important within B&I. And they need to be clear on the set tasks. And that's one of the reasons why we have a set agenda that we operate on every week. Other aspects are deadlines and people being responsible to either follow up with them or to track the process. And the fourth is the right communication. The right communication is really important and it's important to ensure open communication. Open communication is crucial to a successful co-creation process. And this has to span employees, customers, vendors, and all of the company's stakeholders. Without clear communication, co-creation will absolutely fail. Even if everyone involved is passionate and fully engaged in the project, many survey respondents underscored the importance of having the right communication. Communication is vital. I can't say this enough. The better communication you have with the people who work with you, the more successful, you're going to be in the process and in your company. And companies where ideas are freely shared, a tremendous amount of growth happen. I've been in companies where people in charge didn't want to hear any ideas that weren't their own, so no growth happened there. The larger the organization, the more there is sometimes the lack of communication about strategy and goals, which often results in no direction. There's also a lack of communication about values. It's one of the things that we've really done well in B&I is focus on the core values and repeat the core values starting with givers gain. And virtually everyone in every country understands that. One of the more memorable respondents in the survey said, "Everyone has to be singing off the same sheet of music." Indeed a chorus full of enthusiastic singers, each giving it, they're all will have a miserable time if everyone isn't performing the same song, so you've got to be performing off the same sheet of music. And this means you need to have a strategy of what I call and what we call it in the book, "Communication Saturation." It's an important concept. Communication Saturation. We literally saturate the team with transparent communication methodologies in order to ensure that everyone knows or at least can know what is going on with the project. The last step is the right execution. You have to ensure knowledgeable leadership. Even with everything else in place, the right focus, the right process, the right communication, it'll all be for not if the organization lacks the right execution. So, leaders of co-creation have to lay the groundwork for successful empowerment and execution within the team. So, with this final no, leaders have to have a clear plan and keepably execute it while empowering stakeholders. The entire process is at stake if the co-creative initiative falls short on execution. One survey, respondent in the book, I love this joke, just a joke from a university days. They said, "When I die, I'd like the people I did the group projects with to lower me into the graves so they can let me down one more time." That's awful and hysterical at the same time. With the right execution stakeholders, morale, it soars without disempointment abounds. And one of the most important concepts in the book is that you have to constantly hold the vision, not the obstacles. You have to hold the vision, not the obstacles. There will be obstacles. But if you have the right focus, the right process, the right communication, and the right execution, if you have those critical pillars, you're going to create a solution. It's a successful co-creative process. And I invite people to check out the book, The Third Paradigm. There will be a link here in the podcast for you to go out and check it out personally. That's my message for today, Priscilla. Okay, that's great. It's a great follow up to your podcast that we've released on for number 845, I believe. Is that right? Yeah, and I think the one for that might have been 843. And I'm going to have a couple more. I'm going to have at least two more where I talk about. I know it's a little more academic than some of my stuff, but this can really make a big difference for people who implement it within the organization. It's a great opportunity to find out what you're like as a professor. There you go. That's true. That's true. Okay, great. Well, is that it for this week? That's it for this week. Okay, well, thank you so much for the great information. This podcast is sponsored by MyznerAudioPrograms.com. These audio programs will provide you with the tools and the inspiration to powerfully enhance your B&I experience. So check out the great material that's available to you at MyznerAudioPrograms.com. And then use the promo code Ivan50 for 50% off of everything. All of the proceeds go to the B&I Foundation. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we look forward to having you join us again next week for another exciting episode of the official B&I podcast.