Hi Mike! Curious if you have thoughts on the JTBD training offered by Strategyn? Also, a challenge I am dealing with - high level leaders have picked a predetermined solution to a problem I'm not sure is there. I don't really have a way to pause the activity. Advice on uncovering confirming information or dis-confirming information?
Are you referring to the online learning at myStrategyn.com? There is a lot of stuff in the online course that is helpful, but it only takes you through survey construction. Unless it's been updated since I left there is nothing on segmentation, analysis or strategy formulation. So, it's expensive without that.
Since I've decided to adapt the approach and simplify the method for better adoption, a lot of the rules and rigor become less important. The fact that you use a solution-agnostic lens puts you 10 steps ahead of the pack in my opinion.
As for the HIPPO challenge, I would be modeling every situation you come across as best you can, doing some mapping of where you think steps are underserved and align their ideas to them (or not). After a couple of these you might be able to go back and walk them through the timeline and show them your contemporaneous analysis (assuming their ideas flopped). Lead with "you don't wanna flop again do you?" as that always works! LOL
Build a story starting from the problem they are facing with regard to their ideas, and find a way to make your approach compelling and focused on making them look good going forward. I know, that's vague. Every situation is different and so are the personalities
Not sure I fully understand what you mean by "The fact that you use...my opinion." Do you mean the fact that I am already engaged with this methodology puts me ahead of others not engaged with this? Or something else?
Great feedback and advice on the HIPPO challenge!
Another question for you if your time permits... do you have suggestions on professional development courses/trainings? Quick background, I am engaged in a lot of workforce development projects. There are huge gaps between what forecasters say the future job world will look like and the skills that people in my community have. I see a need for helping people upskill and maybe developing more creative ways to accomplish that. Do any trainings or fields of knowledge come to mind that you would suggest? No worries if not. Thanks again!
"The fact that you use...my opinion." I am referring to the fact that as long as you are using a JTBD lens in your problem-solving puts you ahead of the people focused on current solutions.
Tony Ulwick told me they were revamping their training so it appears that what I was referring to is influx. The link you provided looked something like a remote masterclass. I'm not sure how much detail it goes into or what tools they provide.
As for the workforce development, the best thing you can do is develop a model of the space you are in (or could be in) to determine what can tackle with current capabilities, what you could tackle with capabilities that need to be developed, or capabilities that you'd need to acquire. A high-level roadmap based on Jobs research would be a great place to start. I'm sure there are lots of courses and skills development opportunities out there, but first you need to KNOW which capabilities to develop, not GUESS.
This is an interesting question because no two practitioners are going to think of this the same way. This is especially true in consulting, where we are often forced to create bespoke models that are not as pure as we might like. Having said that, in a pristine environment, I would look at steps above the current job as potentially related jobs.
So, as you drive down the roadmap of your primary job and begin to run out of opportunities for growth you look to related jobs. Think of your current job as a step in a higher job, and related jobs occurring before, during (around) and after. Evaluate which of those related jobs are priorities (underserved and within your capabilities) and study them. This will hopefully give you some insights into how to tackle the entire (higher) job in a different and disruptive way.
The listening to music is a great story to think about because the progression over the past 40 years shows this. I have beaten that one to death :)
You can certainly identify related jobs while studying the core job. We often include them as statements in a detailed core job study to see if any of them are areas we should explore deeper at a later time.
I like to think of jobs in a hierarchy, which is why I consider jobs to be a step in a higher job. If you look at your job map, and of the steps could be studied as a job. The lower you go, however, the closer you get to the solution space
Welcome back to the fold ... My question: with all the pressure for time and results, how to convince consultants and clients that everybody gains if we jointly commit to finding the real challenges (JTBDs) and needs before moving to build solutions?
That's the daily challenge. I think we need to begin with the "why" in order to lure them in. Just like a good presentation you need to know your audience and set the stage in a way that is relevant to them. Think of Simon Sinek's golden circle (Why, How What) instead of What and How.
Frankly, I don't like Sinek at all ... his "why" is related to corporate purpose which, for me, is an oxymoron. Purpose is something deeply personal. But, yes, there must be a clear reason (why) JTBD is a necessary step both for clients and consultants.
Ideally, clients would approach us haflway, already presenting their current understanding of JTBD and needs. They must be educated on that.
But who will carry on that education, since the consulting industry (by the way, what a strange word to be associated with consulting ...) is hooked on predefined "solutions"?
I almost ended with your first sentence because I agree with you - I'm not a fan of Sinek (just saw a video and it was there in my mind). I'm not thinking of the why as a corporate purpose, I was shaking my head at that (side-to-side). Why as in understanding the problem as opposed to telling people what the solution is (JTBD) first. You need to lead them from yes to yes to yes
Roger that. Thank you!
Hi Mike! Curious if you have thoughts on the JTBD training offered by Strategyn? Also, a challenge I am dealing with - high level leaders have picked a predetermined solution to a problem I'm not sure is there. I don't really have a way to pause the activity. Advice on uncovering confirming information or dis-confirming information?
Are you referring to the online learning at myStrategyn.com? There is a lot of stuff in the online course that is helpful, but it only takes you through survey construction. Unless it's been updated since I left there is nothing on segmentation, analysis or strategy formulation. So, it's expensive without that.
Since I've decided to adapt the approach and simplify the method for better adoption, a lot of the rules and rigor become less important. The fact that you use a solution-agnostic lens puts you 10 steps ahead of the pack in my opinion.
As for the HIPPO challenge, I would be modeling every situation you come across as best you can, doing some mapping of where you think steps are underserved and align their ideas to them (or not). After a couple of these you might be able to go back and walk them through the timeline and show them your contemporaneous analysis (assuming their ideas flopped). Lead with "you don't wanna flop again do you?" as that always works! LOL
Build a story starting from the problem they are facing with regard to their ideas, and find a way to make your approach compelling and focused on making them look good going forward. I know, that's vague. Every situation is different and so are the personalities
First of all, thanks for the response!
I couldn't get your link to load, but here is a link to the training I'm typing about: https://strategyn-training.litmos.com/self-signup/register/173240?type=2
Not sure I fully understand what you mean by "The fact that you use...my opinion." Do you mean the fact that I am already engaged with this methodology puts me ahead of others not engaged with this? Or something else?
Great feedback and advice on the HIPPO challenge!
Another question for you if your time permits... do you have suggestions on professional development courses/trainings? Quick background, I am engaged in a lot of workforce development projects. There are huge gaps between what forecasters say the future job world will look like and the skills that people in my community have. I see a need for helping people upskill and maybe developing more creative ways to accomplish that. Do any trainings or fields of knowledge come to mind that you would suggest? No worries if not. Thanks again!
"The fact that you use...my opinion." I am referring to the fact that as long as you are using a JTBD lens in your problem-solving puts you ahead of the people focused on current solutions.
Tony Ulwick told me they were revamping their training so it appears that what I was referring to is influx. The link you provided looked something like a remote masterclass. I'm not sure how much detail it goes into or what tools they provide.
As for the workforce development, the best thing you can do is develop a model of the space you are in (or could be in) to determine what can tackle with current capabilities, what you could tackle with capabilities that need to be developed, or capabilities that you'd need to acquire. A high-level roadmap based on Jobs research would be a great place to start. I'm sure there are lots of courses and skills development opportunities out there, but first you need to KNOW which capabilities to develop, not GUESS.
Do we really need to analyse “related jobs” ? They tend to make the analysis overly complicated.
Aren’t related jobs another way to look at job steps ?
Don't over-complicate your life.
This is an interesting question because no two practitioners are going to think of this the same way. This is especially true in consulting, where we are often forced to create bespoke models that are not as pure as we might like. Having said that, in a pristine environment, I would look at steps above the current job as potentially related jobs.
So, as you drive down the roadmap of your primary job and begin to run out of opportunities for growth you look to related jobs. Think of your current job as a step in a higher job, and related jobs occurring before, during (around) and after. Evaluate which of those related jobs are priorities (underserved and within your capabilities) and study them. This will hopefully give you some insights into how to tackle the entire (higher) job in a different and disruptive way.
The listening to music is a great story to think about because the progression over the past 40 years shows this. I have beaten that one to death :)
Thanks for you answer. Sorry, It took me so long to get back to you.
If I understand your recommendations, related jobs will eventually emerge as we solve for the core job.
It reminds me how Google expanded itself on its value chain by solving related job.
Search engine > Browser > OS.
You can certainly identify related jobs while studying the core job. We often include them as statements in a detailed core job study to see if any of them are areas we should explore deeper at a later time.
I like to think of jobs in a hierarchy, which is why I consider jobs to be a step in a higher job. If you look at your job map, and of the steps could be studied as a job. The lower you go, however, the closer you get to the solution space
Following your logic, each job step could have his own job map.
what about desired outcomes?
Aren’t they the lowest step of the hierarchy?
I think of the jobs as objectives, the steps as sub-objectives and the outcomes as performance metrics
Welcome back to the fold ... My question: with all the pressure for time and results, how to convince consultants and clients that everybody gains if we jointly commit to finding the real challenges (JTBDs) and needs before moving to build solutions?
That's the daily challenge. I think we need to begin with the "why" in order to lure them in. Just like a good presentation you need to know your audience and set the stage in a way that is relevant to them. Think of Simon Sinek's golden circle (Why, How What) instead of What and How.
Frankly, I don't like Sinek at all ... his "why" is related to corporate purpose which, for me, is an oxymoron. Purpose is something deeply personal. But, yes, there must be a clear reason (why) JTBD is a necessary step both for clients and consultants.
Ideally, clients would approach us haflway, already presenting their current understanding of JTBD and needs. They must be educated on that.
But who will carry on that education, since the consulting industry (by the way, what a strange word to be associated with consulting ...) is hooked on predefined "solutions"?
I almost ended with your first sentence because I agree with you - I'm not a fan of Sinek (just saw a video and it was there in my mind). I'm not thinking of the why as a corporate purpose, I was shaking my head at that (side-to-side). Why as in understanding the problem as opposed to telling people what the solution is (JTBD) first. You need to lead them from yes to yes to yes