The Partner Channel Magazine_Winter 2018

LEADERSHIP
WRITER,
BUSINESS OWNER,
LEADER:
ARE YOU
Plotting on Purpose?
story by PAM McGEE illustration by SHAWN OLSON
As a business owner, vice president, director, or team leader, did you ever consider yourself
a writer? Have you ever thought of your plot line, managing your story’s climax, planning
for the fallen action, and what characters you want to develop and introduce? How do you
develop and help your characters (employees) maximize their productivity and satisfaction?
Is there ever rising climax and conflict that need to be sorted out? The similarities abound.
Your business may be a new start-up, mature business, or somewhere in-between. Regardless,
as a leader, you can rewrite the story by applying seven plot lines to your business.
If you are interested in writing or rewriting your business or team’s story, let’s get started. Although I would love
to promise you a best-seller, I can’t, but in the words of James Patterson: “Always write as if it is going to be a bestseller.
Why would you not?”
Your first step is to wrestle with your plot lines. You can have multiple plot lines in a book and in business. Your
plot lines are different than your vision and mission, which are your anchors and somewhat the title of your book.
For example, if your mission is to “transform the lives of students”, your plot lines might be overcoming a monster,
and going from rags to riches. According to Christopher Booker, there are only seven plots in writing: Rags to
riches, the quest, overcoming the monster, comedy, voyage and return, rebirth, and tragedy.
From writing to business storytelling, a great way to apply the seven plot line process is to assemble your team
and have a conversation on each of the seven plot lines. This process could and should be a key input to the strategic
planning process. Sometimes your story lines will range from big bold plot changes to small changes within the
current setting that surprise and enhance the story. Think about it – sometimes the small turn or twist in a book
really has you thinking about that book years later.
Some teams start to write their story by getting together and examining all the plot lines in a multi-day offsite.
Other teams don’t have that flexibility, so they examine their plot lines in an open virtual forum, like Google Docs or
Chat. Other teams examine their plot lines by covering one plot a week, month, or quarter as a senior leader team
and then having town hall meetings or small focus groups with clusters of employees. You can’t write your story in
a vacuum; it needs input, insight, and creativity from all places in the company.
Once you determine your process for examining your plot lines, here’s the content on the seven basic plot lines
to consider in your business.
Rag to Riches: Do you need to create a turnaround situation where you assess the characters, identify the
conflict, and create certain events that lead to a climax in the story where the bottom line looks different? For
example, if you are experiencing a declining margin in your cash cow, how do you market-shift one of your other
product lines to cash cow and sunset (slowly) the declining product (fallen action, as it is called in writing)? Do you
stop taking new customers, sell your current customer base, etc.
The Quest: According to Liz Bureman, “the quest is a search for a place, item, or person that requires the hero to
leave home in order to find it.” In business, do you have to venture into a new line of business? As a team leader, do
you have to leave some of your current leadership practices at “home” to lead the team? What do you have to stop
doing, and where do you have to travel to in your business to create a business climax that is profitable? The quest
is best defined as being willing to leave your fear and go after an adventure.
Overcoming the Monster: This is a conversation that focuses on what are the top three “dragons we need to slay”
that are holding us back. Keep in mind that a dragon doesn’t have to be a big dramatic battle; it could be something
as easy as allowing “work at home” because one of your monsters is your labor pool. It could be going to an unlimited
vacation policy like Kronos did (Harvard Business Review, November-December 2017) because it was a competitive
cultural advantage to hire the best of the best needed to execute on strategy and vision. Overcoming the monster
54 WINTER 2018 | THEPARTNERCHANNEL.COM