Five leaders see five different problems. Put them on the same page, then give them thirty days to act.
The Opportunity for Growth Assessment Program, run as a three-hour session with pre-work and follow-up, for a public room of owners or for your own team.
A room can leave with a binder and no decision
A leadership team meets about growth. The head of sales sees a pricing problem. Operations sees a capacity problem. Finance sees a cash problem. Each is right about the piece in front of them, and the company still does not move, because five people are solving five different problems.
Owners have a version of this. They attend the workshop, fill the binder, feel good for a week, and make no decision. The workshop taught how to do something. No decision was made about what was worth doing.
Before takeoff, a flight crew briefs the same flight plan out loud, so the pilot, the copilot and dispatch are working the same flight. A room needs the same briefing. That is what the three hours are for, and the thirty days that follow are where each person flies their first leg.
What happens in the room
I open the same way each time: “I hope this is the last workshop around how to do something in business that you ever feel you need to attend.” Then we spend three hours on the part that comes before how.
The seat you are in
The problem: most people in the room are doing the work and calling it running the business. A short primer on the four jobs in any company: the one who does the work, the one who directs it, the one who manages the resources, and the one who owns the outcome. I call them the star player, the coach, the general manager and the owner. Each sees a different game. We work out which seat each person is in and which one the business needs.
What growth is
The problem: a team is told to grow and means four different things by it. Growth has four definitions: top-line revenue, margin, equity, and market share or fans. Expansion is the impostor. The room learns to ask growth of what, and to tell the two apart in their own plans.
The Money Question, run live
The problem: plans get sized to what feels safe. A million dollars lands Monday morning and has to be working in the market within ninety days. Each person writes what they would do, through whom, with dates. Then we check at a tenth and at ten times. The room gets quiet, and the silences are the data.
Where the market around you is moving
The problem: decisions get made on what the room assumes about the market. We follow the money in your region. Who is the flagship, who sits in the fleet around it, where money landed last month, and how fast it is moving. Each person leaves with a way to read it themselves.
Before and after the session
The session is the middle of the work.
Before. Short pre-work arrives ahead of the day. Each person writes their top three problems, one sentence each, with the fix they have been reaching for next to each. The room arrives already reading its own situation.
After. For thirty days, the group checks in every two weeks, and each participant gets two private thirty-minute calls with me. The calls are for the specific move you chose in the room, and for what got in its way.
Who it is for
Owners and leaders at any size. There is no revenue threshold, no minimum headcount and no years-in-business rule.
- Owners of young companies, and owners of established ones whose growth has stalled and who have already tried the usual fixes.
- Executives and rising leaders who were handed a growth problem inside an organization.
- Professionals who want to run a career with the discipline an owner runs a business.
I am part of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program team, teaching growth and opportunity to cohorts of business owners.
Bring it in-house
The same session can come to your team. It fits a leadership team, a department, a portfolio of companies, an alumni group, an association or an employee resource group.
- A leadership team that needs one language for revenue, margin and equity.
- A department that has been handed a growth number.
- A portfolio of companies whose leaders want to compare what they see in their own markets.
- An alumni group or an association that wants its members to leave with something to use.
- An employee resource group that wants a shared read on how to move through the organization.
For an in-house session I adjust the pre-work and the examples to your market, and the follow-up to your calendar. Executives usually bring me in because they want movement on revenue, margin or equity, so that is where the exercises point.
Dates and seats
The first public session is [first cohort date]. Dates go to the EEThinkers first, before they are posted anywhere else. In-house sessions are scheduled with you.
Start with the letter
Join the EEThinkers to hear about dates first. One idea a week, five minutes, no noise. Connect with me on LinkedIn as well. To bring the session in-house or to talk it through, the second step is the assessment at /start/. Tell me about the room.
Get the next date
Cohort dates go to the EEThinkers first. Ask for a seat, or for a private session inside your organization.
Is there a minimum size, revenue or time in business?
No. There is no revenue threshold, no minimum headcount and no years-in-business rule. The room is capped at thirty so every person gets worked with. The session fits an owner of a young company, a leader inside a large one, or a department that wants a shared language for growth.
Can the session be held online?
Yes. The three hours run in a room or online, with the same pre-work and the same thirty days of follow-up. For in-house sessions you choose the format that fits your team, and I adjust the exercises to suit it.
What do people leave with?
A shared read of which seat they are sitting in, a working definition of growth they can name, the Money Question answered live, and a view of where the market around them is moving. The thirty days of follow-up are where the work gets applied and checked.
Is one session enough to change a business?
No, and I say so at the start. It is a marathon. The session gives a room the order and the questions, and the thirty days give each person a first move. The book and the coaching go deeper for those who want to continue.