Bright Spots for Growth

WHY BRIGHT SPOTS ?
2017 was a year of change in my life
Some sad news about my health led to me
to look at how much time I spend fixing
things going wrong. And more importantly,
how little time I spend building on my
strengths.
This became a chapter in my new book, but
also a personal mission.

What you’ll
find in this
presentaton
1.The rationale for focusing
on bright spots
2.How to make Bright Spots
a reality- A 5 step program

BACKGROUND: THREE YEARS OF RESEARCH…
WITH OVER 300 COMPANIES
7 Key Learnings from the Research
1. Strategic alignment is the cornerstone of successful
innovation
2. If you want to give autonomy, you need to have strategic
alignment first
3. If you get alignment, attitudes and learning orientation in
place, systems will follow
4. The right balance disruptive/incremental is key
5. Proactivity is the one thing you need to reward
6. Walk before you run
7. If you are in a big company or a small company you need
to act like you are in a successful start up
SEVEN DRIVERS OF
INNOVATION SUCCESS
BUT
AN IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE
AROUND MENTALITY

What separates winners
and losers in the game of
innovation is culture and
organizational focus

WHAT WE KNOW…
In business growth projects, the right
mix is:
85% day to day
15% leap projects
Where 50% of the growth comes from
leap projects
Day to day
= Keep Competitive
Leap =
Create Future

It all about getting
the right Balance…

We strongly believe..
There is probably the same
split of results if we look at
the percentage of time
spent fixing weakness and
building on strengths

LET’S START WITH A TEST...
1
2
3
4
5
What are the 5 most important things that you did today?
Description of the Actions
A typical manager spends 80-
90% of his time fixing issues

THE
CHALLENGE
We spend most of our time fixing
what’s wrong.
We have hundreds of priorities.
The right solution is a balance
between strengths and fixing a very

Instead of focusing on what is
going wrong, companies can
consciously choose to focus more
of their time on what is going right.
We call this a “Bright Spots”
mentality.

OUR 4 CORE BELIEFS
1
Bright spots
bring energy,
bright spots
are motivating.
2
No successful
business grows on
it’s weaknesses.
3
When people see
work is being done
on bright spots,
they will be more
ready to fix weak
spots.
4
Bright Spots increase
Employee
Engagement.

FOUR
EXAMPLESLinking Real Examples in the Market to Our 4 Core Beliefs

EXAMPLE #1
Imagine
coming into a company where
everything is going bad...
A Few People were allowed to work on status
updates
THEY GOT EXCITED AND
CREATED A NEW COMPANY
Who is this company ?
Podcasting with status updates…
No one listening to the podcasts
but people liked the status updates

EXAMPLE #1

Bright spots bring energy,
bright spots are motivating.

EXAMPLE #2
The Marketing person
"On our flight from Houston to Las Vegas our customers
are getting hungry. We think that they would appreciate
a chicken salad instead of just peanuts."
The CEO’s reply:
"Will offering a chicken salad on the flight from
Houston to Las Vegas help to make us the
unchallenged low-fare airline? Because if it
doesn't, we're not serving any damn chicken
salad."

No successful business
grows on it’s weaknesses

Jerry Sternin - Save the Children
To fight severe malnutrition in
rural communities of Vietnam.
Tired of “do-gooder” missions
the Vietnamese foreign
minister, gave him just six
months to make a difference…
EXAMPLE #3

90% of Managers
start with what’s wrong
and how to fix it...

Vietnamese Mothers Love Their Kids...
You tell them they’re doing something
wrong...
The response you will get:
"I am doing the best I can"
"You don’t understand"
WHEN

Vietnamese Mothers Love Their Kids...
You tell them they’re doing something
wrong...
The response you will get:
"I am doing the best I can"
"You don’t understand"
WHEN
You tell them they’re doing something
right...
The response you will get:
"Really?"
" How can I do more? "
WHEN

When people see work is being done
on Bright Spots, they will be more
ready to fix weak spots.

EXAMPLE #4
Why it is listed as always one of the best places to work?
GOOGLE - EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
HOW DOES GOOGLE DO IT?
• 20% time for individual projects
• Self selecting teams
• Competition based on
strengths
STRATEGIES RESULTS
Employees see their
Bright Spots every
day

Employees who have the
chance to focus on their
strengths every day, are
six times as likely to be
engaged in their jobs.

Bright Spots increase
Employee Engagement

“ WE CANNOT
SOLVE OUR
PROBLEMS WITH THE
SAME THINKING WE
USED WHEN WE
CREATED THEM
- Albert Einstein
”

CAUSAL vs EFFECTUAL REASONING
FIRST FIRST
GIVEN GOAL GIVEN MEANS
M1
M2
M5M4M3
M1
M2
M5
M4
M3
MANAGERIAL THINKING (causal)
Accumulate means necessary to achieve a
pre-determined goal.
THEN ACCUMULATE
MEANS
ENTREPRENEURAL THINKING (effectual)
Imagine many possible new ends using a given
set of means.
THEN IMAGINE ENDS

EFFECTUATION IN ACTION
“The Bird in Hand Principle: Start With What You Have”
One Way
F in d a re c ipe , g o t o
t h e s t o re …
Other Way
O pe n t h e re fr ig e r a to r, pe e r in s ide a n d
c re a t e s o me t h in g – a new dis h – a n
u n e x pe c t ed bu s in e s s mo de l.

A simplified case
One person not a whole
company…

No correction of weaknesses
2 deliverables
Career Recommendations
A 6 month development plan
1 minute presentation
Discussion

What would you do with this person ?
Areas for improvement
Narcissistic
Poor people management skills
Weak Analytical skills
No formal education
Overbearing / Bossy/ Abrasive
Often breaks rules
Bright Spots
Passionate
Interested and willing to learn
Strong Presentation Skills
Willing to break the rules
Strong design skills
Perfectionist

Who is our mystery
employee ?

Steve Jobs
As CEO he built more market value
than any other CEO
He is perhaps also the weakest
CEO ever in many areas
What he did, he did, by building on
his “Bright Spots’”

The Result
A bright spots focus =
The world’s most valuable company
Normal = Nada
(Probably Bankruptcy)

2 Local Bright Spots Stories
Category Grocery On-line Storage
Company #1 Colruyt Nomadesk
Company #2 Carrefour Dropbox
The obvious
choice
Compete on
experience
Compete on
Technology

FIVE STEP PROCESS
TO MAKE THE CHANGE

STEP #1 FIGURE OUT WHERE YOU ARE
• Slow down before you speed up
• Analyze your strengths and weaknesses
• Ask ‘what is my company really good at ?’
A study by Economist intelligence Unit
312 companies:
Companies that paused at strategic
moments had
40% HIGHER SALES
52% HIGHER PROFITS

What would you say first ?
Innovation Readiness Scores
Try the “Appreciations method...”
90% of managers would start the talk about customer
focus…
Try instead “The Appreciations Method”
Developed by Jay O’Callahan world leading story telling
trainer…
Step #1 Everyone says one positive thing first
Step #2 Then talk and appreciate the positives
Step #3 See if that is enough
Then (if you really need to) go into the negatives

“The first step
to improving anything,
is to know
where you are currently at.”
Jerry Bruckner

STEP #2 UNDERSTAND HOW YOU GOT THERE
• Why are you good at what you’re good at?
• Find out the ‘root cause’
90% of Leaders think a good strategy
has an impact on business success,
but barely 25% of them have a strategy
Strategy starts with understanding

5 Whys
#1 Why are trains in Geneva always on time
Because they never leave late (they have time to arrive on time)
#2 Why do they never leave late
Because they value punctuality more than speed
#3 Why do they value punctuality more than speed
Because the Swiss would rather know they will arrive in 32 minutes than
sometimes arrive in 26 or 45 minutes
#4 Why are they willing to accept longer travel times
They sell, people expect and employees deliver reliability instead
of speed
Root Cause : Expectations drive delivery

Good explanations look
simple, afterwards…

STEP #3 DECIDE WHERE YOU WANT TO GO
• Clear decisions about what you want and what you don’t want
• Why it is important
• Some guidance on how to get there
Only 55% of the middle managers can
name even one of their company’s top
five priorities

“Wendy’s Mission is to deliver superior quality
products and services for our customers and
communities through leadership, innovation and
partnerships.”
POWER OF THE
MISSION
STATEMENT

SETTING COMMANDERS INTENT
HOW DO YOU
KNOW YOU GOT
IT RIGHT?
1. Find a ‘purpose’ (the story) for the organization
2. What do you want
3. What don’t you want
YOUR TEAMS WILL
KNOW WHAT TO DO
WITHOUT ASKING

Healthy
Fast Food

Our tool...
True North

“Wendy’s Mission is to
deliver superior quality
products and services for our
customers and communities
through leadership,
innovation and
partnerships.”
Do people know what to do next?
TRUE Truly Simple Healthy Fast Food
N
Narrative. Why it is
important (the story)
When consumers are looking for ordinary fast food
they have lots of choices; Wendys needs to be the
choice for healthy fast food
O Objective
Better and healthier food that consumers notice is
healthier and better. And they will talk about it
R
Restrictions: We are
not interested in
Being classfied as a health food place. For many
health food = no food
T Tactical Constraints:
The margin needs to be the same as before
H
Here is the place to
start
See Subways: Jared Campaign

STEP #4 MOVE FROM TALK TO EXECUTION
• Build a sense of urgency
• Set deadlines and make decisions
• Eliminate gap between talk and execution
“Strategy without execution
is hallucination!”
Mike Roach, the CEO of CGI

MAKING TOUGH DECISIONS
“Deciding what not
to do is as
important as
deciding what to
do.”

STEP #5 KEEP ON DOING IT!
• Follow up on ‘Key Objectives’
• Set weekly targets
• Being consistent and make sure everyone else is consistent too
Only 16% of top leaders claim
they can keep their company on
track in executing its strategy
Source: Capgemini
CEO Study 2015

What is the most important is not the system, but the
commitment...
METHOD SCRUM AGILE INNOVATION
ENGINEERING
PRIORITY
SETTING
Highest
opportunity
first
POCs
Highest
opportunity first
POCs
Biggest Risk first
Learning Cycles
LEAD Scrum Master
+ Project
owner
Project Lead Black Belt +
Project Owner
FREQ. Daily + Weekly Weekly Weekly
PROJECT
LENGTH
3-12 months 3-12 months 1-3 months
What are you
willing to do
every single
day, or week?

What does commitment look like ?
Objectives
Process
Alignment
A new business / business model in 12 weeks
A weekly learning cycle every week for 10 weeks
A 2-day management meeting to agree «what and why»
Plus basic training: How to build ideas/ the importance of systems
Alignment Every Monday… what are we going to do this week
Build ideas Every Friday… a brain-storming session (with new external people)
Communicate
Check
Real-time research
External experts to validate/ give feedback on all ideas
Systems Identify death threats/ work on death threats
Kill all weak ideas where death threats not resolved in 2 weeks
Every Day A 10 minute standing meeting
2 weeks
10 weeks

“The secret of success
is consistency of
purpose”
- Benjamin Disraeli

WHAT WE
CAN PROMISE
YOU

IF I DO THIS THIS WILL HAPPEN
Say positive things as often as negative things People will feel more appreciated, more
motivated and achieve more
Discover the strengths of individuals You’ll have people doing what they do best
Remove a lot of the negative feedback Employee motivation will increase
If you can show a «Bright Spot» focus People will be more ready to fix weak spots.
Go forward deliberately, step by step And you will be able to make big things happen
Be more positive And you will have more fun at work

A bright spots focus
needs to be sincere and
meaningful

“You don’t sweat much
for a Fat Guy “
is not a bright spots
focus …

YOU WILL
GET IT
WRONG?!

How we
Can help ?

Ideas to action …
As we said earlier… you can do this alone and it is simple…
But simple doesn’t mean easy.
If you would like help, or would you like to learn more about our 5 stage program
which any company can finish in 1 week

5 days to
success
Structured Hypothesis testing Alignment
Assessments System analysis Workshop
Timing Monday / Tuesday Tuesday - Thursday Friday

Execution
o We build the right team for your company
o A bright spots expert
o An industry expert
o A wild-card
o We get management buy-in up-front and if a small
company help find a way to pay for things (KMO
portfolio support)
o We get your team to commit to timings and to do
something
o We follow-up to make sure you have done something

Structured Hypothesis testing Alignment
Assessments System analysis Workshop
Timing Monday / Tuesday Tuesday - Thursday Friday
Objectives Where is your organization Test Hypotheses from survey Share results
(Benchmarking) Understand key organizational Put objectives into stories
What is working well drivers Agree on prriorites and
Build further insight action steps
Methods A survey with follow-up interviews Systems Analysis Pre-workshop preparation
4-10 participants Structured Interviews and agreements with management
Appreciative inquiry A half day workshop
Deliverables Benchmarks Result of hypothesis testing Organizational alignment
Bright Spots Recommendations for 6 True North Cards
First Hypotheses 1. what to build on 2. what to fix Agreement on 6 action steps
What is going well ?
Hypotheses why
Dig into the
hypotheses
Recommendations
Get Buy-in
How with
Your team

“Success is built on small steps
not big dreams “
Steps
Now
Goals
1 month
Dreams
Longer
We can also help you turn intentions into reality

Conclusions

“Somewhere in your organization, groups of
people are already doing things differently
and better. To create lasting change, find
these areas of positive deviance and fan the
flames.”
—Richard Pascale & Jerry Sternin,
“Your Company’s Secret Change Agents,” HBR

Show me the numbers !
Positive feedback delivers more
Samples positive:
“I agree with that,” for instance, or
“That’s a terrific idea”
Negative comments:
“I don’t agree with you”
“We shouldn’t even consider doing
that”

68 slides in 1 slide
If you think something
is good, say it…

THANK
YOU

More Information
Please contact
Bryan Cassady
Bryan@fast-bridge.com
+32-475-860-757