Get A Grip: An Entrepreneurial Fable . . . Your Journey to Get Real, Get Simple, and Get Results

by Gino Wickman

a different check-in from the one they had learned in earlier sessions. He asked them to reflect on the year and compile a list of “greats”—three business greats, one personal great, and any unexpected greats that happened during the year. He also asked them to share their specific expectations for the entire two-day Annual Planning Session.

“Now I’d like to spend some time really looking back on this last year. What did you learn? What worked? What didn’t work? Let’s get all your comments, questions, and confessions out on the table. This is what helps you get better.”

what we’re doing here is changing the way the business operates—down to the individual staff member—for the better. We’re making our lives easier and consistent excellence more commonplace.

Lencioni’s five levels of team health—trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results—before asking the team to rate itself on each level.

“The key to everything is building trust. If you trust one another—if you’re truly open and honest and you’re willing to be vulnerable in front of your fellow leaders—all these other things become effortless. By building trust and continuing to master the tools in this system, you’ll start to see some very tangible benefits.

Trust is the key, so we’re going to work on building trust, raising it from where it was when you walked in here today to a higher level before you walk out of here this evening.”

“trust builder,” one of several activities he’d discovered that help teams learn more about themselves and one another, which builds team trust. “This exercise is called ‘One Thing,’” Alan said. “It’s an opportunity to share feedback with your fellow leaders, and there are two parts. In part one, we’ll go around the table and tell each leader what we believe is his or her most admirable trait. In part two, we’re all going to think of one thing we want that leader to start or stop doing for the greater good of the company and this team—because by not starting or stopping this one thing, the person is actually hurting the cause rather than helping.”

when receiving feedback, the leaders would simply listen and take notes. He encouraged the asking of clarifying questions only—no defending, no discussing, no debating.

“Vic, if you don’t mind, let’s go around the room first. You’ll get to ask clarifying questions at the end. Okay?”

Remember, just clarifying questions—don’t defend, discuss, or debate.”

free me up to be a true integrator. That means keeping the five of us on the same page, running meetings, driving the team to make decisions, and in some cases making them myself. I’m trying to make sure we are clear so that we can communicate clearly to our people. I’m working hard to instill discipline and accountability throughout the organization and to be disciplined and accountable myself. I’m trying to get better at prioritizing and help other leaders do the same. I’m managing special projects, removing obstacles and barriers—it’s a lot!”

“That exercise alone should have a very positive impact on team health. But if it just ended there—with valuable insight—I really couldn’t sleep at night. Because what really matters is putting it into action, and that’s what we’re going to do next.”

He instructed the leaders to review the constructive feedback they’d received from the team and pick “one thing” they would commit to starting or stopping in the coming year. He then asked them to write down that commitment using language he’d just written on the board: “There is power in words,” Alan said when the writing stopped. “So please state your One Thing commitment exactly as it appears on the board and in your notes.” “In the coming year,” began Vic, “I commit to

“Lest you think making these commitments is enough,” he explained, “know that we’ll be checking your progress every quarter from here on out. At each Quarterly next year, I’ll go around the table and ask each of you to read your One Thing commitments. Your fellow leaders will then rate your performance with one word—‘better,’ ‘worse,’ or ‘same.’ Your goal at next year’s Annual Planning Session is to hear each leader say that you’re ‘better’ with regard to your keeping your commitment. If you do nothing else but honor these commitments you just made, I have no doubt that trust will increase, team health will improve, and you’ll accomplish more next year.

Alan asked each leader to complete the checkup based on his or her own perception of the company’s progress and then went rapid-fire around the room, gathering each answer. Along the way, he helped the team resolve any range of answers greater than two. This ensured that the team concluded the discussion on the same page about the state of the company. Finally, he helped extract key issues from the exercise—areas where the team agreed there was a need for improvement.

Alan moved quickly to the SWOT analysis. He’d placed four flip chart pages marked “Strengths,” “Weaknesses,” “Opportunities,” and “Threats” on one wall of the hotel conference room. He gave the leaders a few minutes to think carefully about the organization and create a personal set of four lists to go under the titles on the wall. Finally, he moved left around the room, compiling responses from each leader. When all four pages were full, Alan addressed the team.

SWOT analyses in my day, and one of the things that always bothered me is how often insight that comes from the exercise seems to go nowhere. To make sure that doesn’t happen, we’ll work through each list to extract relevant issues for the coming twelve months. In other words, which items on these pages are issues that need to be tackled in the coming year?”

Alan read each item, asking the team whether the item was a relevant issue.

smoking out dozens of issues on day one of an Annual Planning Session was the goal. In fact, he asked each leader to think again of every idea, obstacle, and frustration that hadn’t already been captured, and he added those to the Issues List,

Alan asked the leaders to grab the updated copies of Swan’s V/TO that Eileen had distributed earlier. “Our goal in reviewing the V/TO today,” Alan began, “is to make sure you’re all 100 percent on the same page with the vision of the organization, up to and including defining a new 3-Year Picture. With this being the Annual, absolutely nothing is sacred. We’re going to review each of the five sections on the vision page of the V/TO; I want you to challenge everything. We need to make sure we got it right when we first defined your vision ten months ago, given the growing clarity we all have.”

“If you really believe that this is a fundamental issue, we should resolve it now.”

A spirited debate followed, with every leader chiming in. The team had stumbled on a truly complex issue, and everyone had a valid opinion. Alan kept them focused on the issue at hand and, when people began getting redundant, pushed for a conclusion.

“There’s no clear right answer,” Alan explained. “So unless someone has something new to say, it’s time for the integrator to make the call.

“Earlier this year,” Alan explained after a break, “we created the 3-Year Picture you have on your V/TO. With the additional clarity you’ve gained over the past ten months, you’re better, stronger, and faster. So let’s start with a clean slate, move it out another year, and paint a picture of the organization this team plans to build over the next three years. First we’ll predict the revenue, profit, and measurable for that year.”

asked them to more thoroughly describe what the organization would look like in three short years. In addition to their prior 3-Year Picture, he asked them to look at the SWOT analysis, Issues List, vision, and Accountability Chart for inspiration.

Alan carefully explained each item on the agenda and invited questions. Hearing none, he instructed the leaders to check in. “The first thing I’d like to hear from you this morning,” he explained, “is your business highlight from yesterday. Then I’d like you to look back at your expectations from yesterday and restate them for me and the team.”

Moving to the next agenda item, Alan directed the team’s attention to the Issues List and 3-Year Picture. “It’s time to review yesterday’s work with a fresh set of eyes,” he explained. He read through every issue and recited each item in the 3-Year Picture, making sure each leader was clear and on the same page with both. “With your Issues List and 3-Year Picture clear,” he said, “we can now build a solid 1-Year Plan. Let’s begin by predicting revenue for the coming year.”

arriving at the following financial predictions: “Next we need to come up with the three to seven most important things you feel we must do next year to make sure we’re on track to achieve your 3-Year Picture,”

When everyone’s list was complete, Alan reminded the leaders that they’d take the same one-at-a-time approach to setting one-year planning goals as they had nine months ago.

“Now that we’ve developed solid goals for next year,” Alan said after the team completed its discussion, “there are three agenda items to resolve before your 1-Year Plan is finalized. The first is to answer this question: Are your roles and responsibilities clear? In other words, as you look at your Accountability Chart, do you have everything you need to achieve your 1-Year Plan? Are each of you crystal clear on your role in achieving this plan?”

to distribute the Accountability Chart and worked through it with the team. Again the leaders focused first on structure and then on people. Sue described her plans for the marketing and sales department while Alan illustrated those changes on the whiteboard. The rest of the team asked questions, provided some input, and agreed to support Sue’s plan. Tom detailed plans to add a few key resources to the operations department as the year progressed, and Jeff presented his rough plan for building out the finance department.

Once the team members agreed that they had the right structure to support Swan’s 1-Year Plan, they focused on identifying any people issues. Alan added several “open seat” issues to the Issues List, as well as a few people ...

“The second agenda item is your budget,” Alan explained. “Jeff, do you have everything you need to comple...

“On to item number three—your Scorecards. Eileen, can you distribute copies of the leadership team Scorecard so we can review and change it to match our 1-Year Plan?”

“With your 1-Year Plan complete,” Alan said as the session resumed, “it’s time to set Q1 Rocks. Please review your 1-Year Plan and your Issues List, and record the three to seven priorities you think this company must get done in the next ninety days to lay the groundwork for achieving your 1-Year Plan.”

The team quickly settled on financial metrics and five company Rocks. Alan then invited the leaders to select individual Rocks. When all was done, Swan’s Q1 Rock Sheet looked like the document on page 283.

“We’re about to spend the rest of the day solving issues.

with your one-year planning goals and Q1 Rocks, you’ve put plans in place that will make some of these issues go away forever. So before we start IDSing, let’s go through and clean up this list. I’m going to read through every issue, and if you’ll solve it with a goal or a Rock or we’ve resolved it in the session, just say ‘off.’ ‘On’ means it hasn’t been solved and we need to leave it on the list.”

led the team through the discipline of IDS by helping them first prioritize “the one, two, and three most important issues for us to solve here today.”

“First, while it’s okay and healthy to engage with and talk to employees, you can’t solve their problems for them. If you’re going to build an organization full of healthy, productive teams, the leader of each team needs to be looked on as the person with the knowledge and authority to help its members solve their own problems.”

“The second rule,” Alan continued, “is that you have to look to that manager to solve problems, too. When you’re talking with an employee and he or she raises an issue, shares a frustration, or just starts to vent, it’s okay to listen, talk things through, and reassure. Before concluding, though, you have to toss the issue back to the manager. A great way to do that is by simply concluding with the question, ‘So, are you gonna tell him, or am I gonna tell him?’ You have to make it clear that one of you needs to tell the manager. That way you engaged, you listened, and you directed the employee to the right place for help—his or her manager.”

“The ‘yeah, buts’?” asked Tom. “That’s when you have a clear people issue and everyone on the team thinks you need to invoke the three-strike rule,” he explained. “And you just keep saying, ‘Yeah, but he’s really talented and valuable. Yeah, but he’s got some personal problems. Yeah, but it’s almost Christmas, or Easter, or Arbor Day.’ And so he just sits on your Issues List holding you back.”

“Sometimes the extenuating circumstances are good reasons to postpone a termination. Maybe he’s vital to a key project or building a demo that will help you win a new ‘A’ client. If that’s the case, all I ask is that you and the team agree on how and when you’ll put the wheels in motion for his ultimate exit. Are you going to hire another top-notch developer? Are you going to start cross-training other developers and getting them involved in his active projects to soften the blow of his ultimate departure?”

Alan helped get them clear on next steps. He began by compartmentalizing the Issues List, killing those issues they had solved during the session and putting the remaining issues on either the V/TO or the Level 10 Meeting agenda.

After walking through next steps and getting the team clear on its homework, Alan moved to conclude the meeting.

Before we leave for the day, please conclude by sharing four things. First, give us some feedback: Where’s your head? How are you feeling? Then let us know whether your expectations for the two days were met. Third, please be prepared to restate your One Thing commitment for next year. Your rating for the meeting is last. How’d we do over these last two days?”

The team occasionally engaged in passionate conflict, but it did so with no hidden agendas, no personal attacks, and everyone focused on the greater good of the business. As a result, Eileen continued to delegate day-to-day responsibilities and focused a growing percentage of her time on key strategic initiatives.

“Dirty Dozen.” “The first step,” he explained, “is ranking your clients by overall profitability. At the top of the list are the clients who help you clearly define what they’re looking for, consistently provide you access to their people and information you need to keep the project running smoothly, pay promptly, appreciate your work, and become longtime sources of recurring revenue. Conversely, the bottom of the list includes clients who change their scope frequently, don’t engage in the project the way you need them to, don’t pay promptly, etcetera. These are clients whose projects are therefore less profitable and less enjoyable for your people.”

made a habit of identifying their least valuable clients each year and how they did one of three things with the clients at the bottom of the list. “Number one,” he said, “is working with the clients so they learn to play nice. If they can’t or won’t change, number two is raising their fees to make them more profitable. And if those things don’t work, number three is a last resort. You may need to exit them and replace them with more profitable, more enjoyable clients.”