NAWBO Accelerated Growth Series Recap
By Liz Radivoyevitch
On April 25th and 26th, I had the opportunity to attend the NAWBO Accelerated Growth Series, session 1 in San Francisco. I was drawn to this event by the promise of customized workshop-type educational session that would be tailored to my business' specific issues in terms of growth.
The workshop was facilitated by Yvonne Randle, Ph.D. and Laura Yamanaka.
Before the workshop even began, my employees and myself completed an extensive survey on my company's culture, clients, products, services,operational, management and financial systems. The results would be used during our session to identify our company's strengths and weaknesses within the framework of a successful business model.
When we arrived, we were seated at tables with other WBO's with similar revenues. In all, there were about 20 WBO's at the AGS series from all over the US. We began the first day by splitting into groups for an exercise in Leadership and planning. Each group was given a bag of Tinkertoys, and given 20 minutes to plan and 40 seconds to execute the building of the tallest structure.
We failed miserably.
We spent 20 minutes teaching, finding an architect or builder (why?), and assigning specific tasks... "you get the yellow pieces", "you assemble the base", etc. When it came time to execute, chaos broke out. Our brilliant plan yielded a measly 2 foot structure. Lesson learned: Much like we do in our businesses, we spent the 20 minutes discussing the pieces, and no time at all defining our mission or identifying what success would look like within the parameters given.
We spent the next few hours studying and discussing organizational successes and failures, and Dr. Randle revealed the model the've developed for successful business growth - a pyramid with seven tiers or layers of "pieces". At the bottom were the business basics: products or services, markets, etc. At the top were the corporate culture and management systems such as our planning systems for strategic development. All of these are important and needed for success and smooth transition to the next business level. As businesses, all of our "growing pains" are felt because elements in one or more of the layers is not developed, or isn't effective.
We were then given our survey results. We compared our own business' results with the other WBO's in attendance, WBO's in general, and ALL businesses surveyed by Dr. Randle's company. What was interesting was the trend that Dr. Randle has begun to see. WBO's have a strong ability to develop the culture of their companies, and this is crucial, because it can't be easily taught. WBO's fall short - and I mean WAY short - in understanding, focussing on, and using our financial information to make decisions. Laura Yamanaka stepped in at this point and discussed the need for us to better understand and utilize our financial information. We were assigned with carving out 1 hour a week to investigate some aspect of our statements that we didn't fully understand.
We spent the rest of our time working individually and in small groups breaking down our own survey results and talking through how to address them.
All in all, it was WELL worth the time and cost. I walked away from this two day whirlwind of information with a strong understanding of what my company's strengths and weaknesses are, and an understanding where in the pyramid those items fall. It's now up to me to start tackling each of those items, and put this newfound knowledge to work for my business.
As you read this, I'm back in San Francisco for session 2, which is focussing on taking what we know and working on our strategic plan.
I'll keep you posted!
