The Partner Channel Magazine_Winter 2018

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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
is a process of being willing to address openly the “pink elephants” in the room. It’s about being willing to answer the hard questions and make the hard call. It has been my experience that as a leader, your team is READY for the hard decision because they are often ahead of the senior leadership and just don’t want to stay stuck anymore. Comedy: There is a small business in Fargo, North Dakota called CoSchedule. Not only do they have deep talent, a great business, and happy customers, but they also are very comedic. They have a culture that embraces “having fun”, and they have added comedy to their story. Do you have a culture that is too serious? Do you have a leadership team that is above the fun and the funny? Do you take time to have fun with your customers and laugh together? (Did you know that laughing increases endorphins that help you live longer?) Years ago, one of the plot lines we were struggling with at my place of employment was “taking ourselves too seriously during acquisitions”. Two cultures were at war. One of the champions of comedy and culture, Tracy Faleide, dressed up in a cow suit with a Microsoft employee in front of the entire company. Do you need someone to dress up in a cow suit to break the tension, make a point, and just have people laughing from the audience? Voyage and Return: According to Liz Bureman, the voyage and return is very common in children’s literature because it generally involves a journey to a magical land that pops up out of nowhere. The magic element is pretty sunny and light to start with, and then the darkness shows up for the hero to conquer. Once it’s vanquished, the hero leaves the magical land and returns home, probably having learned a valuable lesson, or having discovered something about himself/herself not known before. The voyage and return is a cousin to the quest; however, it differs because you scale back and return to your roots, but as a changed person. Joseph Campbell would call this the hero’s journey. If voyage and return is one of your plot lines, you are probably experiencing a declining market. Maybe it is Microsoft Dynamics GP on-premises because everything went to the cloud. At MSUM, our voyage and return plot line equates to online learning. We ventured into a magical land, unfamiliar to most faculty, called online teaching. The darkness showed up in online learning in the type of processes your business needs to accommodate an online learner. THEPARTNERCHANNEL.COM | WINTER 2018 55
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Page 4 and 5: Paperless AP Processing? No sheets,
Page 6 and 7: WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS for
Page 8 and 9: CONTRIBUTORS adrianne machina EMAIL
Page 10 and 11: EVENTS UPCOMING EVENTS? Going somew
Page 12 and 13: ON THE HOMEFRONT End THE OF THIS Be
Page 14 and 15: LEADERSHIP 14 WINTER 2018 | THEPART
Page 16 and 17: Here are five reasons businesses sh
Page 18 and 19: PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING...OR THE PR
Page 20 and 21: MARKETING 8 BRILLIANT WAYS TO MAKE
Page 22 and 23: DIMENSIONAL MAILERS Dimensional mai
Page 24 and 25: INTERVIEWEES Claude Watson (CEO) an
Page 26 and 27: SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT - ADVERTISEMENT
Page 28 and 29: THINK FORWARD StockIQ is a supply c
Page 30 and 31: LEADERSHIP Storytelling story by BI
Page 32 and 33: “First impressions are vital for
Page 34 and 35: SALES HOW WILL ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGE
Page 36 and 37: Initial chess playing programs quic
Page 38 and 39: MARKETING Journey A HERO’S story
Page 40 and 41: 2. A Clear Mission Based on their l
Page 42 and 43: HEROES Alan Tyson, CEO, and Marcel
Page 44 and 45: LEADERSHIP CLICKING TOWARD YOUR Rea
Page 46 and 47: The first obstacle is about a compa
Page 48 and 49: FEATURE 48 WINTER 2018 | THEPARTNER
Page 50 and 51: As a professional writer for the pa
Page 52 and 53: MEMBERS ONLY CORNER Member Profile
Page 56 and 57: Imagine how different education wou
Page 58 and 59: Industry INDUSTRY A erospace Arbela
Page 60 and 61: INDUSTRY Integrated Software, Inc.
Page 62 and 63: INDUSTRY Panatrack, Inc. www.panatr
Page 64 and 65: HORIZONTAL Solver www.solverglobal.
Page 66 and 67: HORIZONTAL Malibu Commerce www.mali
Page 68 and 69: HORIZONTAL Encore Business Solution
Page 70 and 71: HORIZONTAL Red Maple www.redmaple.c
Page 72 and 73: HORIZONTAL Tax Avalara, Inc. www.in
Page 74 and 75: SharePoint Development DynamicPoint
Page 76: When it comes to PROCESS MANUFACTUR
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