Alright, it’s time to spread some positivity after the last article. If buy-in is so important for collaboration, then how do we get real clear with our teammates about our collective commitment before we embark on a solution? Here are 3 questions we should ask so we can get clarity on the problem, the effort, and the rollout of a solution.
Disagreeing Without Being Disagreeable - How We Can Be Great Dissenters
Groupthink is terrible for decision making, but dissent that make a team go around in circles is probably worse. We’ve all been a part of long meetings where no one agrees but nobody feels they’ve accomplished anything when they leave the room. Break the cycle by disagreeing without being disagreeable. Read on to find out how to dissent for a cause and to be a a great dissenter.
Want to be a Great Trusted Advisor? Start By Being a Great Human.
Intense Training is Important for Technical Teams - Here's How to Do It
Teams that compete and win all have one thing in common: They train. They train hard, and they train often. So, why should our team be any different? Read on to find out how intense team training focusing on developing and improving our synaptic responses can be a great way to spread knowledge and build confidence amongst ourselves and our clients.
What is Pattern Recognition and Why You Should Do it More Often
Why is pattern recognition important for services teams? How does our pattern recognition help our organization figure out anticipatory problems? Where do we get started? We dive into the 3-step process on how professional services teams can take our learnings, make it relevant, and affect positive change for our clients.
4 Tested Ways For Amazing Collaboration with Sales & Product
Part III on our series on breaking down barriers. We all know why it's a good idea to work more closely with our colleagues, and how we all benefit. This week, I lay out 4 concrete exercises that you can run with your sales and product teams to build rapport, learn from one another, and contribute to each other's success.
How Breaking Down Departmental Barriers Help our Friends from Sales, Product, and Client Management
4 Reasons Why We Shouldn't Work in a Departmental Vacuum
3 Reasons PS Work Shouldn't Be Given Away for Free
What happens when we start giving away our work for free? Clients get the wrong idea of the value we bring to our table, commitment takes a hit, and our internal teams start asking questions on how we're contributing to our organization. We look at 3 reasons why we shouldn't be giving away our work, and a tactic to assign value without assigning cost.
The Three Reasons Why Projects Stay On Track, And One Way to Stay Relevant with your Clients
What are the reasons why some projects stay on track while others derail? We look at a couple of factors outside our influence (lack of options and the fear of missing out), and one strategy we can all use (alignment with our client's business roadmaps) to ensure our projects always keep moving forward.
3 Steps to Mine for Anticipatory Pain
Part 2 of the series on Pain. When our clients come to us with immediate pains, it presents an opportunity for us to mine deeper to find out their big anticipatory pains. Forming an agreement that bigger pains exist, correlating anticipatory pains to their immediate hurt, and building a solution that address the short-term first will help you build the trust needed for your clients to come to you with their biggest business problems.
The Three Types of Client Pain, and the One Pain that Every PS Team Should Focus On
My 2 Rules for Great Team Meetings
Great meetings results in consensus built, decisions made, and directions agreed to. Bad meetings not only undermine consensus and decisions, but it also destroys team trust resulting in resentment, grudges, and apathy. Here are my 2 rules to great meetings that help teams leave nothing on the table so they can foster participation, understanding, and cooperation.
