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Are You Left Brained or Right Brained?

August 10th, 2012

During our training courses in areas such as emotional intelligence and communication, the issue of our brains often comes up. A common starting point is when a participant says something like;

“I’m very ‘left’ brained, which makes it difficult for me to communicate with my boss who is very ‘right’ brained.”

The left part of your brain is often considered responsible for emotion and language, while the right is concerned with reason. The reality though appears to be far less straight forward. To find out more, have a look at the following animation from the RSA.

Breaking Down the Elevator Pitch into Words

May 10th, 2012

In a blog post earlier this year, I wrote about the importance of the ‘Elevator Pitch’ - the ability to explain what your organisation does (and why it is important) in just a few seconds.

Are there benefits in being even more concise? Can your organisation be summarised in just a few words, rather than a few sentances?

mch believes there is value in trying to be more concise. To this end, we continually ask all our clients to nominate just three words which they believe best describes mch. We have summarised all these words in a word cloud, which can be viewed below. In essence we have found it very useful in finding out how we are perceived by those that really matter - our clients.

Can you explain what you do in just a few seconds?

February 2nd, 2012

A current client of mch’s is the international mentoring organisation Mowgli. Last month it was a great pleasure to assist in Mowgli’s first mentoring experience in the South West of England (and only its second ever programme in the UK). At the end of the three day experience, the entrepreneurs involved gave their ‘Elevator Pitches’. For those unfamiliar with the term, an elevator pitch provides a short summary of one’s organisation, product or service and ideally outlines why it is needed/valuable. Having its origins in America (hence ‘elevator’ rather than ‘lift’) it is based on the following scenario;

You are waiting for an elevator and the door opens. Standing in front of you is your ideal investor/donor/person you would like to work with. It’s the chance of a lifetime, but it only lasts the length of the elevator ride.

Consequently, you have a very short amount of time to make a sufficiently positive impression that the person wants to continue speaking with you when they reach their floor.

There are many different ideas as to what makes a great elevator pitch. In general terms, my own views are it should:

1. Answer some of the basic ‘W’ questions that someone is likely to have e.g. What?, Who?, Why?, Where?, How?, When?. You’re unlikely to have time to address all of the ‘W’ questions, so initially you need to make a considered guess as to which are most important. It’s then a case of testing your guess by practicing it out on people.

2. Be simple. To put it another way, have a zero tolerance approach to assumptions: do not assume the person knows your sector and the associated jargon that goes with it.

3. Focus on the problem that your organisation alleviates or the benefit it brings. This is because at the most fundamental level, people are drawn to things that either bring them pleasure or alleviate pain.

Specifically though, I have found hearing/reading the elevator pitches of other organisations to be most useful in developing an elevator pitch. Consequently, here is mch’s:

We work with third sector organisations….

Who are struggling in areas such as clarity of direction, staff performance, or the delivery of high quality services.

We help these organisations by providing management consultancy, staff development or non-executive director support.

Such help leads to an organisation’s:

• Beneficiaries receiving improved support
• Staff and volunteers being more skilled and motivated
• Donors receiving a greater return on their donation

Ultimately this means our clients generate the positive impact they desire.

As a final thought, an elevator pitch should be considered in a similar light to a CV/resume, in that it should be tailored to different audiences and continually refined.

In the interests of ‘paying it forward’, please share your own elevator pitches by using the comment option below.

Training Preferences within the Third Sector

October 13th, 2011

During the Summer of 2011, mch hosted a poll which asked:

Generally, do you prefer e-learning to other methods of learning?

From the 27 responses the results were as follows:

• Yes - 18.5%
• No - 78%
• Not Sure - 3.5%

On the one hand, such results are not surprising as many people I speak to often state how much they value the face to face element of training and particularly the spontaneous discussions that can develop in such an environment.

On the other hand, when you consider the range of training options, the fact that almost 1 in 5 voters prefer e-learning perhaps shows that this training format has really come of age.

Given the huge array of features e-learning can now incorporate, a problem with such a poll question could be that it is too broad. i.e It depends what type of e-learning you are talking about.

At the recent World of Learning Conference, I attended a seminar entitled:

‘What Learning Methods do Leaders and Managers Really Prefer?’

The seminar outlined the findings of a study by Towards Maturity and supported by LMmatters. A key finding was that the type of learning method varied considerably according to seniority (and by implication age) with the more junior levels favouring online methods.

The Business Practices Debate

October 13th, 2011

Recently mch held a poll which asked the following question:

‘Should Third Sector organisations adopt the language and practices of successful, sustainable businesses?’

The results from the 32 respondents were as follows:

• 62% agreed
• 19% disagreed
• 19% were not sure.

In addition to their vote, one voter provided some personal insights into the differences between the two sectors. Key extracts are as follows:

“The 3rd sector should have compassion at the heart of what its does rather than the pursuit of profit. This is probably and overly stereotypical view of both sectors….but what I would say is that the 3rd sector could really learn many valuable lessons from successful businesses when it comes to professionalism.

In my experience [service users’] personal files are routinely left out on desks. Curiously, low level stationery is locked up, suggesting there is a higher value placed on this than on personal information.”

During the course of the polling, I became aware of a similar debate that was administered by a former employer of mine, McKinsey & Company. The question they posed was:

‘Should social entrepreneurs adopt the language and practices of business?’

Many of the resulting comments were illuminating and you can read them all by clicking on the link at the bottom of this blog post.

One comment that particularly struck me was;

“The false dichotomy of business-model versus a social-impact model is a vestige of a dying world.”

Around the same time, I read Jim Collins’ monograph entitled:

‘Why business thinking is not the answer – Good to Great and the Social Sectors’

A key line from the book is;

“The critical distinction is not between business and social, but between great and good. We need to reject the naïve imposition of the ‘language of business’ on the social sectors, and instead jointly embrace a language of greatness.”

When I think about all the excellent organisations that I know, whether in the Third Sector or Private Sector (and dare I say it in the odd government department) I am indeed struck by how similar they are in the way they operate.

Consequently, perhaps the original poll question was the wrong one to ask! A better one may be:

‘What does it take for any organisation to become great?’

Here, I think the previously outlined resource by Jim Collins is a really useful starting point. As an outline, five of the key ingredients identified by Collins’ research include:

1. Excellent Leadership - Leaders with “a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.”
2. First ‘Who’, then ‘What’ - Devote time to getting people with the right motivations into your organisation (and the wrong people out of it). Do this before spending too much time on what your organisation is going to do.
3. Confront the Brutal Facts (yet never lose faith)
4. Apply the Hedgehog Principle - Work out what lies in the overlap between: (i) What you’re passionate about (ii) What you can be the best at (iii) What drives your resources (time, money and brand)
5. Build and maintain a culture of discipline

To review all the comments from the McKinsey debate, click here.