How Might We Convert Strategy Into Action

My guest on this episode is Karol Papa, he is a certified Scaling Up coach and I uses Scaling Up Methodology™ to help entrepreneurs create mechanics for predictable growth in their business.

If you grew your business vastly over the past few years, added new clients and employees, but you began to realize that current management methods are no longer sufficient, the chances are your company's reached the next level of growth and needs new mechanisms to fight barriers to scale.

The Scaling Up system was created for mid-market companies to overcome these challenges and set the basis for sustainable business growth. Thus you need to attract and keep the right PEOPLE, create a truly differentiated STRATEGY, drive flawless EXECUTION and have plenty of CASH to weather the storms.

Karol helps companies answer the following questions

- Do I have the right people in the company and would I enthusiastically rehire them all?
- Is our strategy driving results and would anyone care if our business ceased to exist tomorrow?
- How many months in a row have we reached or exceeded our monthly business goals?
- Do we have consistent sources of cash to fuel the growth of our business?

Karol can help you double your cash flow rate, boost your profitability, increase the valuation of your company relative to the competitors and help you climb to the top in a joyful and meaningful way.

 

Karol's Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/karolpopa/

Karol's Website: https://karolpopa.com

 

Transcript:

 

Scott: Hello and welcome to the latest edition of how might we, and this episode is called, how might we convert strategy into action? Now, my guest is Karol Popa, who I met about 3, 4, years ago now. So Carol, would you like to introduce yourself, please?

Karol: Good to see you, Scott. Good to be here. Thank you for the invitation.

Yes, my name is Karol Popa I'm. I'm here right now in Warsaw speaking. You di directly from sunny city. I'm a scaling up coach. I'm a certified gallops trans coach. This is where we've met with Scott. And what I do is I help entrepreneurs to build mechanics for predictable growth in their business. So you can, you can learn more about that on, you know, look for scaling up, scaling up certified coaches, scaling up community on the internet.

You can find a [00:01:00] framework there. It's designed at the MIT university for. Midmarket companies to be able to just grow faster, really how, how to scale.

Scott: Okay. And I think that's obviously a question that's quite at the forefront of most people when their business starts moving is how, how does this get better and bigger?

And I think we were before we came online, it's one of the things, isn't it? That is something to consider at certain points, the way you work, isn't going to work because your company's growing.

Karol: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like Marsha Goldsman said, what, what got you here? Won't get you there. Yeah. So depending on your growth stage of, of the, how big your company is you need to do things differently.

Like the old ways doesn't open that does not open the new doors. Yeah. So we really need to change and adapt to the new situation inside as well as outside of your organization.

Scott: Okay. And then we are [00:02:00] talking about how we convert strategy into actions, a conversation we had, obviously, before we came online, we deciding what we were gonna talk about.

So why did you sort of want to hone in on that aspect of it?

Karol: I think it's one of the biggest challenges out there when you wanna, you know, grow your company, go grow your company, or, or even achieve your personal goals. So you might know what you want. And then you might think you you've got a plan, but when it comes to the reality it'll oh, you know, always, oh, maybe not always, but very often happens that the reality takes all everything, and, and you actually are not able to achieve your goals.

At least as much as you would like to. So what's the what, what's the solution. Yeah. What's how can you how can you tackle this challenge? How can you be victorious about it? So I think it's a good, good subject to have a conversation around it.

Scott: Okay. So you've said it's more [00:03:00] often than not that people struggle with achieving their plans.

And it's about their say strategy interaction is planned into action. So what do you think are the things that. Cause issues where people actually achieving what they're trying to achieve.

Karol: Right. So like at, at the beginning. Yeah. So first of all, you need to know what you what you want. Yeah. And then you need to know why you want it.

So those two things are very fundamental for you and you, and if you. If you try to think what, what the strategy really is. So just to simplify as much as we can, I I'd say the strategy is how you get what you want. Yeah. And then this implicates, those two questions. So what do you want and why do you want it?

So you need to think about that at, at the beginning. And it's important because this is the one, one thing that. That may influence your [00:04:00] reaching your goals, because if you are not clear enough, what you wanna achieve, then you might, you know, it's impossible to achieve it. If you don't want don't don't don't know what it is.

So this is the starting point. Yeah. If you wanna hit your goals, you really need to be perfect. Clear on what they are. And then what, what helps is another step. So you think about why you want it. We we've just talked about a little bit about it before we started recording about the values and about the purpose.

Yeah. So it's, it's why, why, what do you want to change in the world if you think about your goals that way? So if you can tap into this higher purpose, Of why you want to reach your goals. It gives you more energy. Yeah. About, so you stay motivated, you don't need those outside motivators. It's just fire burning inside of you.

So this is something that moves your engine [00:05:00] toward your goal and, and it will definitely help you reach those goals. So those two things, and then there's this next. Which is, if you know what you want, you have a clear vision, you know why you want it, then you need to figure out how you want, how you will get it.

Yeah. So this is this strategic thinking about the situation. Yeah. So it's about what are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What is the situation outside? Yeah, what's the landscape. And who do you compete with? Is there, you know, other people, other organizations, other companies they want the same as you, or are you alone there?

So basically what you need here is the deep understanding about yourself and about the outside landscape and other organisms there.

Scott: Okay. That's interesting. Cause obviously I'll do. When I'm in the middle east and talks, bigger companies. And one of the, some of the things that we talk about is quite the same as you understanding [00:06:00] yourself, like say the C I P D call it being business savvy.

So what's in the business, what's important in our business and what are we trying to achieve? And also the contextual savvy is understanding the context in which we're operating. So you think even, so those principles are applied for if you're a multinational company, or if you are a solo person.

Karol: So.

I think it comes down to, to your individual goals as a, as a person as well, because We know, and we use Clifton strengths and this methodology, or, or this assessment changed my life. Yeah. And, and I know that it has changed lives of other people. So if you know your strengths and you can design your life and your actions on a daily basis around your top five or 10 strands, and you can use it more, you are more efficient and more effective, and then it suddenly Becomes easier to realize your goals.

And it also goes the other way around [00:07:00] because when you know, what your, what, what, what are your strengths then sometimes, you know, your goals change because of that. Yeah. You suddenly realize that something that, that you thought you want it now, you don't don't need it really. There's something else that is more important to you.

Uh, Through the lens of your looking at your strengths. Yeah. So I think it it's, it works the same as for the big international companies, global companies local companies and, you know, down to the individual level.

Scott: It's interesting. You said that what you thought you wanted, you don't need and it's that difference?

What is the difference between something I want and something I.

Karol: Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's a difference, but, but it also is a, it, it cha the, the awareness and understanding of yourself changes your perceiving the world, your, your lens, how you look at at the world around you. Yeah. And it might, you [00:08:00] know, influence you in terms of yeah.

What are your goals really? And what is important for you? That's why, you know, this understanding can change your wants and needs.

Scott: Okay. That's one of the reasons. So the first thing is people not really having that sort of level of insight about themselves, about what's important to me and what really drives and motivates me.

And I, I like the fact that you talked about the intrinsic motivat, this stuff that's inside that keeps our fire burning rather than relying on external things to keep you to keep you going. So what is it? I can never remember the guy's name. Oh, I, I can is the the philosopher. He's not philosopher or he was a psychologist and he talks about flow.

Karol: Bet. yeah, Nick,

Scott: but I'm gonna try and pronounce his surname. Remember? No, no, I think he was Hungarian. I may be wrong, but he talks about flow. So I think that could be a tip for people today. Say, what is it that really drives you? So [00:09:00] imagine you were a time where you were fully immersed in something and time just seemed to zip past said what was going on there?

What was it that was causing. Level of immersion in you that it was, it was challenging, but didn't feel like work type thing. That's a wonder, apart from obviously the strengths that you you and I are involved in is another way of people helping people to identify when is it when they are that productive.

And then start looking around that, that the context of that and say what was going on for me at that time. So I can start identifying potentially some motivators and desires.

Karol: Yeah. And it is also connected with, you know, achievement. When you achieve, you are more motivated, you are more happy, you've got more energy.

And if you don't achieve, yeah. If you struggle all the time, it makes you unmotivated. And then if you think about work, And people coming to work and, and they do things that are not, we're born to be doing. Yeah. And [00:10:00] they actually don't have any results. They don't achieve what they're supposed to achieve.

So it's demoing and suddenly they just come to money for, you know, nine to five and take the, take the money and you know, it's not good for anyone. For them or, and, and for, for the whole team as well. So this achievement is a very, very important also element of of staying motivated. Mm-hmm

Scott: okay. So we've got an idea of what we're doing.

We understand why we're doing like then the combination of that. What do you want and why do you want it two really important questions. And then who else is trying to do the same sort of thing as. So we've got that understanding, which is really, then we start developing the strategy is about how do you get what you want.

So what is it you think that stops that plan turning into reality or actually concrete action is delivering the results that we are expecting.

Karol: All right. Uh, So there's one more thing we need to stop [00:11:00] here before we go to, to what stops the execution? What stops the action. Yeah, really? Mm-hmm so we've, we've got the understanding, but now we need to think how to translate this understanding of the situation into our.

Action plan. So we need to figure out what we gonna do and probably what we gonna do differently than those other companies, teams, people. So we can find the fastest and the most effective route to our goals. Yeah. So this is this another element that you need to have. Complete it really. Yeah. To, to, to put it on paper.

So this is if you only got it, you know, just in your head, it probably won't gonna work as good as it can when you put it on paper. So this is another element and, and there is tons of research that tells and, and shows that once you put your plan on, on, on the paper, you've gotta far more bigger chance of realizing it because it, [00:12:00] until you put it on the paper, It's just your dreams.

Yeah. And then you need to, when you're putting in on a paper, it means that you were, you thought it through and you've got like some ideas you wanna. You wanna, you wanna try? Yeah, really. So it's like, okay, I know what's the situation now. What is the best thing I can do now? There are some, some possibilities out there.

Yeah. So you, you, you've got a list of things that you can do. Yeah. And that, that might be a starting point for your strategy planning and a strategy plan. So this is the another one. And then, then we can try to think how to bridge the gap between this plan. That you've, that you've just put on a paper and how to make it a reality.

Okay.

Scott: Cause I do think, and that, I mean, I, I jumps there as well, so I think we quite often jump to. There's a humanism. We wanna solve problems. So we just jump to action without having. And [00:13:00] so you've, you've, you've, you've talked about having a lot of thought before we even get to thinking about converting what we're doing into anything that's resembling action.

Karol: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, and it also comes down again. I mean it might come down to as well as for, for your strength. So when you look at CU strengths, there is this one called activator, and this is the one that you just, just. Tells you do do it. Don't wait. Yeah. So sometimes your strengths might be your a little bit of a, like an enemy in this situation.

Yeah. So it's good to think it through. And when you've got it on the paper you start, you think you've got a plan and now everything's gonna be fine. But then you know, I remember this, this, this quote, when Mike Tyson was asked by the reporter, whether he was worried about a vendor, holy foods, and his fight plan, he answered [00:14:00] that you know, everyone has a plan until they got punched in the mouth.

So basically what Tyson said is similar to the old saying that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Yeah. And this is something. People forget or are not aware of the, that you need a plan, but then there there's this thing called reality , which is often, you know, doesn't want us to. For our plan to be realized that easily and, and the way we thought it through.

Yeah. So this is another thing we need to remember, and this is, this is the, this is I think this is one of the biggest elements of why, why we don't realize our goals because of the, you know, plan and reality. And there's this gap. Yeah. So how can we bridge the gap is, is a question.

Scott: I think that comes down to, I mean, there's lots of research in it with people when they're planning is the biases [00:15:00] in our thinking that influence our planning because they, it is done in a, although we've done all the research it's still done.

As you said, in a relatively sterile environment of our minds, our thoughts, our processes, and not in the real world as it is where things are usually slightly different. Cuz I say, we look at it through the lens of our awareness, but the reality is can be completely different. So I think the good thing.

Maybe just thinking about what you've said is when you have your plan, before you go to action, it's a sit about, and I would say this isn't about converting this to action. I, I would say. And you think you, you alluded to it earlier when you said, try, this is a way of me testing my assumptions. What assumptions have I built into my plan?

Because they, they may be right. They may be wrong. And if they're wrong, how can I then adapt that new knowledge back into the plan?

Karol: Yeah. I think it's, [00:16:00] it's, you've nailed it. Yeah, because then how can we bridge this gap? It's like, so we need tools. We need processes within mechanics. Yeah. That will help us translate this strategy into action and really stay agile or be able to adapt quickly to the changes around us. Yes. So this process of.

Constant testing and the, the hypothesis we got and what works and what doesn't work and what are, what, what tools out there that could help us. And here comes, you know, those things that, that software programmers use and, you know, like using scrum and being agile methods. And this is really something that comes also from scaling up where, where we have these tools designed.

For the organization to stay agile in the situation and how they can execute and, and, you know, measure the progress and, and be constantly in the known how well we and, and if we are [00:17:00]on the right path to achieving our goals. Yes. So I will go through them in a second, but this is the, this is the one of the solutions to look at the, this problem, the way you've just said, how can we.

Our, our hypothesis about how to get what we want and then what tools can we use on a daily basis that will help us do it.

Scott: Okay. And you talked about agility and sort of that, and there's some techniques you've talked to, companies use like scrum and stuff. So do you think that's one of the key elements to helping you actually realize a plan is to say, yeah, your plan's an idea.

And it, parts of it, work parts. It won't work, but it's how do you, how do you test that and how do you, how do you measure it? And then how can you react quickly enough to adapt so that you can take that new learning? Cause to me, that's what it all is. A plan isn't is an idea, a concept and something happens, which creates new learning, which we need to feed back into our planning stage and adjustment.

So [00:18:00] is that, do you think that is one of the key elements that, where it falls down.

Karol: Yeah, I think it's one of the main elements how you can, how you can nail it, how you can be effective in execution and, you know, achieving your goals and also what is required from you to be able to do it and use those tools.

It's really also about being disciplined. Yeah. It's about the discipline. How, because you need to be doing it on a daily basis. It, it needs, you need to create habits around the way around this agile way of doing stuff. Yeah. So this is about working on yourself and the first starting point really is it's like, you need to be aware where your time goes.

Yeah. And, and it goes for the individuals as well as for the teams for the whole organization. So it's like, you've got a plan, you've got tools, and then you, you say, okay, let's do it. But then if you don't [00:19:00] know, at the beginning, at the start where your time goes, so this thing called reality will crash.

You really? I mean, the more, the more aware the, the, the person is about the time Where they spend their time, their, the, the, the bigger chance they've got for success. Yeah. So the first thing I would recommend is like, really use some tools and do the experiment like for, I don't know, two weeks or four weeks to, to really record your activities in life environment.

Like there's this, for example, toggle track. Application, which is a free desktop time tracker and you, you can use it to, and it's also, they've got, they've got a mobile app and it's very easy to use it. And then after two weeks or four weeks, you, you can analyze yeah. Where, where, what, what, what you did and where, where really your time had gone.

So it's very important to do [00:20:00] it like. To record your time live. It's not like, you know, it doesn't work if you see at the end of the day or at the end of the week and try to remember what you were doing. Yeah. It doesn't work that way. So the only way is to do it. Life do it at the moment of your action, which is really like starting to build, start, start, you, you really start building your habit.

Yeah. This is the first one, the first habit to be aware where your time goes and the, the, so you've got a application, you've got a desktop trucker which seems. Very easy, but the hardest way, at least for me and from my experience is really like remembering that you need to put, you know, push this button right now and change the project you're working on and really be be focused on that.

Because if you, if you like do it, like only in a 60% or 70%, the, the results of your analysis won't [00:21:00] be correct. Yeah. So this is the first time Ask yourself, where do my time go every day? Every minute. Yeah.

Scott: Okay. So the analyzing of that, so you're doing it live and, and again, that start building that discipline in that habit of having a, and I think what you're talking about is a much more evidence based approach as well.

It's data driven. So we've got this, we've got our metrics, we've got our testing, whatever you set up is data driven to help you make those informed decisions. So we've done this, we're doing so we've created our first habit. We've managed for four weeks to remember to click on the button to record our time.

So what types of, what sort of analytics would you encourage people to be doing on that information?

Karol: Yeah. And then, and then you can take a look at all your activities. You can. Group it into, into, you know, you, you can make groups out of them and think which things [00:22:00] are really the most important ones like which are the priorities.

Yeah. So this is the first thing, first things first then we go to, to the next discipline, which is working on priorities. So the funny thing is. Not many people know that, but the word priority came into the English language in the 14 hundreds. Yeah. And it was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing.

And it stayed singular for the next like 500 years and only in the nine, 19 hundreds. Yeah. 20th century. Did we pluralize the term and start talking about priorities? So we. We, we try to we, we try to how you say . Mm. Trick the reality. Yeah. So it was to be a priority and now we've got priorities.

Yeah. And it means something. Yeah. Even, even, you know, when you think about it. So the first thing [00:23:00] first so you've got your list of activities that you really were working on and it's, it, it usually, it, it's usually something different that you would think you. Thought you were working on. Yeah. So this is the first thing, and then you try to think, okay, so I've got my plan, I've got my goals.

So what is, what are the, the activities that would give me the biggest results? Yeah. So there's this. Prior Al if you remember. Yeah. So 20% of our actions provide 80% of results. So if you look at your list and you, and you just try to figure out yeah. Which activities provides the, the greatest results.

And this is the one method for you to try to figure out what is the most important and what is the most important thing you, you should be working on? Yeah. So the idea of analyzing your time is really about what you should stop doing, what you should continue doing and what you should start [00:24:00] doing that you're not doing right now.

Yeah. And then you, when you, when you, when you figure it out, this is the. Level of your effectiveness. Yeah. Because you are now starting to work on the things that will give you the, the biggest results. And that means that you are becoming a more effective person, the more effective executive as you will.

Yeah.

Scott: Okay. So we are now here, we've got our plan. We know what we're trying to do. We've got some idea of the tasks we've identified our time. We're now utilizing our time more effect. And identifying our top priority singular. Okay.

Karol: What next? And the next step is you need to design your data and analytics and measurements.

So basically how will, you know, if you are on the right path to achieving your goals and here. The help of tools like OS [00:25:00] KPIs and you know, those, those indicators that help you track your progress. Yeah. So I use those two method KPIs, which is key performance indicators and OS, which stands for objective and key results.

So KPIs is like for, if you look at your team or your organizations, like you can use them for. Business as usual. So what are, what, what indicators so shows you, how well or how good your company performs and what should you measure in terms of you know, you're trying to realize your goals. Yeah. So thinking about it.

So if, if I wanna achieve something how can I measure my progress toward achieving the. And it, and you know, thinking about it on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Yeah. So when I, so, so just to give you an example for ex, let's say we are now looking at the marketing function in a [00:26:00]company. So if we know what is the goal for the year and what is the goal for the quarter, we should be able to.

Tell what the marketing function results should be. And let's say in our business, the, one of the most important indicators is leads. Yeah, let's say marketing qualified leads, MQs or SQLs sales qualified lead. So let's say the marketing function should provide like 30 leads, leads, sales, qualified leads in a quarter.

Yeah. So you know that monthly, 10 leads and it's around like two and three leads a week. So if you look at this key performance indicators, week after week, you can tell if you are on the right path to achieving your goals. Yeah. So if you've got every week, the marketing comes with 4, 5, 6 SQLs.

It's great. Yeah, but if they come what, like, like with one or, you know, zero, [00:27:00] then you. Quickly, and this is very important. You quickly can realize that something is not working. Maybe your assumption is not good, or maybe you're doing something wrong and you need to change your behavior quickly. Yeah. So this is like KPIs for business as usual.

And if it comes to OKRs, it's another framework or, or method for achieving your goals. Yeah. So I'd say that for me, the essence of the OKRs is like focusing and aligning your efforts or everyone efforts in the team on achieving the most important goals and stretching. For amazing, which is one, one essential part of OKRs.

This is stretch goals and also tracking the progress to stay on course. And, and I use OKRs for those. Those projects or, or those initiatives, there are more like stretch. So if you spot a spot, an, an opportunity [00:28:00] and you wanna, you know, grab it fast, you can put an OTR on, on that initiatives. Or if you spot that something is not working properly or correctly in your business, like for example this marketing function, you can put an OTR and try to fix it, fix it quick as As well as you can test your hypothesis with the OTRs.

So you've got data metrics and analytics, and which is the, the next habit you, you need to develop. Really? Yeah. So you, you think about how to measure the progress toward our goals and how to measure it on a daily or weekly basis to, to be informed if we are on the right.

Scott: I think it just a bit, I'd like to add that.

Just be careful of what you measure. Yeah. So be very clear what you measure and does that align with what you are wanting in your organization to grow? Cause one of the things I say, whatever you measure, and if you build your reward structure around those measurements [00:29:00] generates behavior, and really think if this is what we're gonna reward people on based on these metrics to achieve these goals.

How might they act and is that something we would really want in our business moving forward?

Karol: Thanks. Yeah. And that's, and this a really great point, Scott, you, you just mentioned about, you know, be careful what you measure because what you measure is get done. Yeah.

Scott: Peter drer, wasn't it? What gets measured gets managed.

Yeah. And right. I think it's Peter drer.

Karol: Yeah, it's bit trucker, but it's, what's get, what's get measure, get managed, but as well, what you measure gets done, which is a little bit different, but you know, when you start measure something beware that, you know, it might happen. Yeah. Uh, Faster than if you wouldn't.

So I've got this example of fast food, fast food restaurant, and it was like the management. So did this one. One restaurant was like they, they worked until the midnight and the every day they had a lot of [00:30:00] you know, Wasted food or, or, or like the food they, they would need to throw away because nobody bought it in the restaurant in, in, in the late evening.

So what they come up with was they put this indicator on this measurement that how much. Food we waste. Yeah. So, so the management for the, for the restaurant figure out that if they stop selling fast food, from 10:00 PM to, to 12:00 PM. They wouldn't have this, you know, wasted food. So when, when customers come to the shop to the restaurant, they would, they would need to wait.

Long minutes until they got the the meal, because you know, the restaurant stopped serving fast food from 11 P from 10:00 PM to 12:00 PM. Yeah. And they realized this you know, this goal, they, after like few months, they didn't have wasted food, but. The behavior that, that this, you know, indicator drove in customers [00:31:00] was that they realized that there is no, it's not fast food anymore.

So they stopped coming in. Yeah. And the result was that they lost customers because of this measurement. So it's really about the thing you said right now. Be, be careful what you measure.

Scott: Something I did. Cause it is, it's not what you want people to do, but what people might. What we want people to do and what they should do or could do is sometimes very, very different again. So, and I think sometimes we just see something, oh, we've got bad measurements or we've got eight, an indicator that's poor.

So we're just gonna put another metric in to stop that happening without really thinking it through. And that may be where you're. Okay. Okay. R's coming. That can stretch a different type of performance to rectify that part of the business, rather than saying, just stop having food wastage, which will drive improved performance.

Looking at really ways that we can behave better to achieve that, but not [00:32:00] damage. As you say, damage, the reputation we have with our customers and sort of the consequences, the knock on consequences. Okay. So we're measuring, we're really careful what we're measuring. We're thinking about the behaviors that that measurement was, is likely to generate.

And what's the impact of that. And is that something want, and then we reword one. I'll just go onto, go on. Can I just, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. Thing is one of my favorite KPIs. I've got introduced to this by a guy called LV terms on a previous podcast and this, I think it was from 3m. So this is off the top of my head.

So it might not be a hundred percent, right? So they've got a KPI that 30% of their profit have to come from product from every division have to come from products that are less than four years old. Now, if you just think as a measurement and think what behavior might that start generating an organization?

I think that's an extraordinarily clever KPI.

Karol: Yes. And it's all about innovation. Yeah. And

Scott: it's also because it's every division, it helps collaboration cuz I is every division's gotta be successful. So let's share what we know so we can help each other, but [00:33:00] also it stops holding onto products that stop falling off.

So some of this behavior that we've had in organizations about holding onto things that aren't driving sales and always, we need to innovate today for tomorrow's targets. I think it's a very, very clever

target.

Karol: Yeah. And if you think about the 3m purpose, which is solving problems in the innovative ways, it's all connected and it's all aligned.

Yeah. So it's great. And

Scott: who would've thought the stationary. So

Karol: I'd say it's how you design your your, your communi.

And having ability to work on problems in a collective way to use your brain, like you know collective brain power. So this would be the third element for, you know, just bridging the gap between [00:34:00] strategy and execution, how you design your. Meetings within the company. Mm-hmm so what do you do on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis?

Yeah. And how you design those meetings, who is in, in each of this kind of, of a meeting who is on daily list, who's on weekly, monthly, quarterly, and what's the agenda. What, what the results should be after each of the meetings. So starting with the dailies is, is just. 10 to 15 meeting minutes meeting for your team.

And it's basically about what is the most important thing for the day. Yeah. What's the daily priority and it's, it's about that and the communications. So everyone in the team knows what other people are doing. Yeah. And then you've got weeklys and this is about. Measuring and communicating the progress on quarterly priorities.

Yeah. So that everyone in the team knows if we are on the right track. We check our KPIs. [00:35:00]And if we are stuck somewhere, we've got, we've got time because this is like 60 or 90 minutes meeting. We've got time to solve one or two problems that that made us stuck somewhere. And you should think about it in terms of the year.

So you've got a chance to solve like 50 or 100 problem. In a year that helps you move forward, which is something great. Yeah. Mm-hmm and then you've got monthlys and quarterly, which are more like more strategic, really meetings with more people. And you can think in a quarterly actually you can, you can learn and you can think what went good.

What didn't work. In this period in this 90 days, what you can change to be more efficient and more effective in the next 90 days. And you can plan your next moves. Yeah. So, so this is this medium rhythm. Is this really like the heart rhythm or, or, or, or the beat for your company? [00:36:00] This is the place where you test your hypothesis.

Yeah, mm-hmm does it work? Does it not work? Is it still worth pursuing what we are doing or maybe we should stop doing it because it doesn't make sense anymore and you don't need to wait till the end of the year. To make this decision because of those tools and those processes, you can make it quick and, you know, you can stop doing stuff that, that are not necessary.

And if something has changed, you can adapt quickly. So we all been through the, the, the start of the pandemic here and in business, you know, it was like, like earthquake and companies that had those kind of processes and tools were more able to adapt quickly. To the new situation and the companies that work in the old ways stuck there and, and had bigger problems.

Yeah. So this is all about the communication about solving problems and about doing it in a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly [00:37:00] basis. And, and yeah,

Scott: I like the fact is that you, you've given a very clear definite thing of what a daily, a weekly and a monthly and a quarterly meetings are designed to do.

I think most people just have these meetings about that sort of clear agenda and. Clear understanding of what and why they're having these meetings.

Karol: Yeah. It, it's, it's really important. And you know, the greatest, I mean, maybe not the greatest, but the great thing about this design is also that when you introduce or when you implement such a design into your company, suddenly uh, it makes other.

Meetings irrelevant. And, and, and then that you, you suddenly gain lots of time for real work and working on problems and solving stuff. Then just going to the meetings that are unproductive. And this meeting rhythm one of the results of, of using it is, is this, you suddenly get, get more time. So the, the rule over time is that if you [00:38:00] are not a person, that your work is about meetings, like if you're not a salesperson.

Yeah. But you are, you work on different things and you look at your calendar and there is like more than 25% of your time is in the meetings. So something is wrong.

Scott: I think if, or in some big companies you gave them that they think 25% of my time is outside of meetings and 75% is in meetings. And you think, well, what are you doing about from meeting?

Unless the, and I mean, I remember you was talking to somebody who was a, there was, it was a relatively small company. I think there was about 15 people working in it. They had a weekly meeting, it went on for two and a half to three hours. And I said, what you doing? I said, we have this meeting, but you talk to people why they get us to know, just have this weekly meeting, it's boring.

It takes me and everyone realized it was add, just added no value. So they just swapped it. And they just said, I don't want to know. What's not what the update, just tell me, does anyone need any help? And that's when they changed the whole meeting. So go [00:39:00] around is, I don't wanna know where you are in all your projects you're working on.

Cuz it's quite a project based thing I said, but if there's anything you're not quite where you are, what type of help do you want? And then anyone in the, the else in the room. Can offer assistance based on that stuff that you are telling them. So it became much, much, much quicker, much more informed. And actually, as you say, started solving some of these issues and collaborating cuz every, every department was in that meeting.

Karol: Yeah. And here we are I suppose there's that, that that's the idea how to, how to do it. So, you know, the strategy. How you get what you want. So what do you want, why do you want it and what will you do to get it? And then you come down to, you know, being aware of my strengths, my weaknesses, about the landscape and the other competitors, and then putting my hypothesis into those habits of daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly meetings, measuring our progress to our goals [00:40:00] and working on the most important.

Or the prior thing, which gives the biggest results at the end of the day. And here's the recipe, how you can be more effective in reaching your goals.

Scott: Sounds so simple. Doesn't. Yes, it is. Well, you actually put it in there. It says, and it just seems to make logical sense. Well, you actually do it. So that's bloody obvious.

Isn't it it's seems quite obvious. And then you look at companies, how do you run your companies and not like that, but what I was like, I was thinking also about the meetings. Obviously I work on my own and a working partnership with lots of other people as well is even those things you said about the meeting, you could do that for yourself at the start of every morning.

Okay. What's my priority for. At the end of the week, am I getting on against my key targets? I've got on my, and I know as you say, you've worked out your KPIs and your okays, you know, where you should be. So you're gonna say right, what's on target. What's not on target. And then you can look at what's working.

What's not working. And then, okay. 90 months let's have a more in depth review of what's happened over the last quarter and then planning to Q2 or the next quarter. So it's, even though you say they're meetings, I still [00:41:00] think it's. You can easily integrate these into very, very small teams or even individuals.

I think the whole process is it is quite interesting. Cause you say you're a scale up coach. The whole process is can work from one person to a huge organization. The recipe doesn't change does it.

Karol: Now you can use it for yourself. You can use it for a small team. You can use it for big company.

Scott: You just have to design it differently depending on the size of your organization.

And what's important. How do we measure, who needs to be on these teams? How, who needs to be involved in these decisions?

Karol: Yes,

Scott: that's it. That's amazing. I do. I've never done this. It just seems so simple to me. And I love it when people explain stuff and I go, oh yeah. So simple. So SIM, so it's simple. So, so simple.

There you go. It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you, Carol. It's been an absolute pleasure. So as, as always, we always have a good chin wagon. When we get together talking about holidays and different parts of the country. And when you travel, you try to make me feel jealous because you're in somewhere it's hot [00:42:00] and it's not for me, but I think the.

Tables might be turned over the winter because you were still in Poland.

Karol: Yes, we were. Thank you. thank you for having me and I, you know, I keep your word for coming to the island. You know, I

Scott: will, I will come and say hello. No worries. It's it's a holiday and we're warm. I'll come and say hello. Yeah, I'll pop over no problems.

That will be, be my pleasure. And thank you very much for the invitation. So obviously if you wanna get hold of Carol or speak to him about anything he's discussed, his details will be in the transcripts on here. So please just get the details off him. It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you young man.

And thank you very much for your time.

Karol: Thank you very much. It was pleasure. Thank you.