The Unexpected Entrepreneur

You hear it all the time…entrepreneurs are everywhere. It sounds great, but back in 2012, it didn’t seem to have much relationship to the Learning & Development work I was doing in the most execution-oriented company in the world – GE.

But then something unexpected happened and I was asked to manage a new program called FastWorks, based on something called 'Lean Startup'.  There was not much information other than some diverse project teams were coming to GE’s corporate leadership campus, Crotonville, to spend time working with Eric Ries, an author who had impressed our Chairman and our Chief Marketing Officer.  And nothing was the same for me after that.

The opportunities I had to learn and grow - developing and launching enterprise-wide learning materials for Lean Startup/FastWorks, working with senior leaders to enable a company-wide culture change, helping to build a company-wide cohort of FastWorks project coaches, coaching GE’s largest internal Lean Startup project with 200,000+ internal customers -  provided the perspective to bring an entrepreneurial mindset to the work I did for GE, and to my work now with companies that are facing unimagined disruption.

 So, what are the lessons I’m taking with me?

Start with the mindset…..‘It takes a leap, not a step.’  That’s how we described the transition to a new performance development approach in GE, and it sums up what it also takes to adopt a Lean Startup way of working. Testing less than perfect solutions is not something that can be done by playing it safe, and all too often the tendency is to over-engineer and slow things down because it feels more comfortable.

Changing the mindset means changing the question – from ‘Should we built it?’ to ‘Do we really know what the problem is?’. All too often, whether the functional group is in Engineering, Sales or Human Resources, we make assumptions about our customers and their needs.   Corporate success is often based on our presumed ability to ‘know our customers’. Lean Startup shines a brighter light on that knowledge, requiring us to get out of the office and actually talk to people, observe behaviors and test ideas – and accept that as part of the execution-process.

It take an intense curiosity…..The most successful Lean Startup practitioners I’ve worked with have an intense curiosity to learn: about their customers, about pain points and needs, about a vision of success. They understand that going several levels deep in asking probing questions can help the customer focus and define the outcomes they really want.  Yet who could imagine that the hardest thing to do is to teach people to ask questions instead of giving advice or jumping to quick solutions.

I have taught coaching skills to managers and leaders all around the world, and the most consistent challenge is to move them from ‘telling’ to ‘asking’.  Expertise typically becomes visible and credible by solving problems, not by asking questions.  But in a Lean Startup world where we need to stop wasting time, asking the right questions can help you go faster by leading you to solve for the right problems. Iteration with continued improvements is good…..re-work because of poor focus and direction is bad!

Have courage…….Courage in the Lean Startup world can take many forms.  It might be a willingness to push back against something you know won’t work, and offering an alternative approach.  It could be sharing truths with a more senior and risk-averse stakeholder, saying what others are thinking but will not say.  Perhaps you’ll challenge vanity metrics and make the case for learning measures based on customer behaviors.  All of these can seem daunting in an enterprise culture where learning through failure is not typically part of the story.

What It Takes To Transform…..

Enterprise-wide change can be challenging, especially if the right elements are not in place.  Here are some things to consider:

Be Realistic: In launching Lean Startup projects, I'velearned that culturally-embedded behaviors often need to change and that accountability required a new set of systems and structures. Be willing to evaluate and question your own cultural ‘norms’ and consider how they might need to change to support a new way of working.

Be Resilient: Keep the focus on what you learn and not on how you fail - and you will fail!  Remember that there may be many people who will question the need for a new mindset, and who feel more comfortable with the ‘old’ way of working.  Take a Lean Startup approach to change - testing small and fast, learning quickly and making directional changes as needed. 

Be Ready: Be thoughtful about how you launch a Lean Startup initiative.  Look for projects/functions/businesses where you have strong advocacy, a willingness to explore a new way of thinking and working, and the opportunity to challenge old and current assumptions.  Be clear and consistent on how you will communicate the need and the value of a LSU approach and be prepared to over-communicate.  Finally, make sure you have the right infrastructure (training plan, project leads and coaches, funding model, etc) in place to create the environment where the LSU teams can move at speed.

Dilbert says “Change is good…..you go first!”.  If entrepreneurship is a management discipline for dealing with uncertainty and disruption, then facing into the change and being willing to challenge everything can lead to a different and more meaningful kind of outcome.

Coaching with Intention

Many years ago, I ran into the kitchen of my next-door neighbor in floods of tears over the latest breakup with my boyfriend.  She threw her arms around me for a hug and said “There, there, Marilyn….let’s have a nice cup of tea and everything will be all right!”.  I immediately stopped sniveling and burst out laughing.  “Merle”, I said, “you’re an experienced therapist.  You know a cup of tea won’t fix anything!”  “Oh” she said – ‘I wasn’t being a therapist, I was being a friend.”

I wonder how many of you reading this story first became interested in coaching because someone told you that you were a good listener, or that you had a talent for fixing other people’s problems, or that you had a uniquely warm personality. These are great talents to have, and in some cases, may help you to be an effective coach. But I’ve come to recognize that the characteristic of great coaches that brings the most value to a coaching relationship is the personal trait of intention.

Often when people coach, especially ‘in-the-moment’, they coach from a place of intuition – we do what feels right at the time and that’s where we can get by with those good listening skills and a warm heart.  Yet that intuition may not always serve us well in the face of more difficult coaching opportunities – raised anxiety or other emotions, coaching someone more senior, working through difficult feedback.  This is where the intention of being a coach is most important – that ability to focus on the individual and not the emotion in a way that acknowledges the validity of the feelings without taking it on ourselves.

Recently I exchanged emails with a colleague on the idea of whether coaches should have a humanistic approach and ‘love’ their clients in order to be effective.  My point of view?  I don’t need to love my clients but I do need to respect them, be genuinely interested in them and recognize the potential that everyone has to change. And most importantly, I need to love the work I do as a coach and bring intention to every moment I spend with clients.

So…..what are ways coaches can demonstrate intention?

1. Be present, be aware and be focused.  Much of my coaching is virtual, and the ability to listen intently (often with my eyes closed) allows me to hear the subtle differences of tone and energy that I can use with the client as a point of recognition that something has changed and can be explored further.
2. Pay attention to the words and phrases that clients use, especially if they have favorite ways of describing situations.  Many years ago I trained in clinical hypnotherapy, and I learned that reflecting the idiosyncratic language of others can help to build a connection based on trust faster than almost anything else.
3. Know your own ‘hot buttons’. What do you feel uncomfortable confronting in others and where do you need more courage?  What assumptions do you make based on looks or background or other factors?  Where do your own biases get in the way of holding up a mirror to others? The best coaches practice active self-awareness, humility and most of all, a sense of humor!

For me, the joy – and responsibility! - of coaching comes in knowing that helping one person change the trajectory of their goals and achievements is like a pebble dropped into water – the ripples spread out and many others can feel the result. Intention is my way of honoring that responsibility.

What do you think?

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