We'll get together and have some fun writing songs, right? It's a perception that many have when they hear about Face The Music's offerings. But out regular clients know that there is a lot going on, and an opportunity to make a big impact in what their organization is looking to achieve. You've got security clearance, so here we go...
Here are some of the underlying concepts that they enthusiastically engage to support their work:
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Complexity—Our programs create a simple, yet complex assignment to complete, where we intentionally introduce some chaos and ambiguity. This "business simulation" offers a rich review/debrief on clarifying the mission and goal, being creative with generating possibilities, how decisions are made (communication, decision making process, work flow), how leadership emerges, how time and resources are managed, etc.
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Re-framing—In the design process, discussion questions are designed for teams to focus on the issues that are being addressed in the larger work (training program, organizational initiative, etc.). The process of putting the team's input into lyrics automatically re-frames the issues as they are molded into lyrical content—associations explored, flow of the lyrical story, searching for rhymes, making a chorus that expresses the main theme(s), introducing humor, etc. The song and the performance become an event and a statement to their peers of their considered perspective.
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Meet Mitchell
Goozé
Mitchell Goozé (honored speaker at the
Commonwealth Club) is the president and founder of Customer Manufacturing Group. His broad scope of business experience ranges from operations
management in established firms, to start-up and turn-around situations and mergers. A seasoned general manager, he has headed divisions of large
corporations and been CEO of independent firms, always focusing the company strategy on the most important person in business ... For years he
has used his Who, What and How assessment methods to help companies define what their customers are buying that they can't get from anyone
else.
Whole-system perspective—Although each team creates a song on their own, the "concert"—the performances—create a group statement of the themes on the table, and collectively are an "album" of the groups' creative process, developed perspectives, and energetic expression of them as a whole.
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Contextual shift—Fear to personal and group accomplishment is the common arc. The surprise and concomitant performance anxiety are transformed by the team process and co-creation, where the common fear of singing in front of an audience takes a back seat to collective ownership and the excitement of performing their creation. This can be a powerful metaphor for the change process in the work environment.
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Resonance and rhythm—One definition of resonance is a sound or vibration produced in one object that is caused by the sound or vibration produced in another; it's a harmonizing that has a contagious and amplifying effect. The creation of music together engages a primordial experience that aligns people through harmonic and rhythmic means. It opens the door and invites them to engage parts of themselves that may not have come in to play in their worklife before. True collective resonance allows a real multiplication of all the personal energies and creates the ideal conditions for the surfacing of ownership, creativity and emerging solutions. Click here for Resonance article.
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Assumptions and unconscious bias—Because of the unfamiliarity most participants have with the songwriting medium, personal and cultural bias and assumptions are automatically introduced in the starting frame of reference for the assignment. The process can be powerful in helping to bring these to light for reflection and reconsideration.
We love that our clients have fun and connect during our programs... AND there's a lot going on and many opportunities to do interesting, engaging, cutting-edge work.
If you choose to divulge these FTM secrets, the office manager will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
Q&A with Mitchell Goozé
Mitchell Goozé (honored speaker at the Commonwealth Club) is the president and founder of Customer Manufacturing Group. His broad scope of business experience ranges from operations management in established firms, to start-up and turn-around situations and mergers.
www.customermfg.com
Q. We're a Boutique company, what areas should we be addressing in our annual planning meeting? Any tips for process?
M. No matter the size of your business, creating a plan to help you achieve your goal(s) is critical. As they say, if you don't know where you're going...We recommend an approach we call Strategic Execution. It is a planning process that connects everyone and everything back to achieving your goal(s). It is graphically illustrated below:
1.
Business Goal(s) are set by the owner(s) of the firm. You need a goal. Could be to achieve a level of revenue; get acquired, achieve a market share position, etc. Everything else is tied to achieving this goal.
2.
The Strategy is how you are going to achieve the goal. The strategy must leverage those external influences in your favor, plus your company's strengths, while mitigating those external factors that might hurt you, and minimize your weaknesses.
3.
Critical Success Factors are those few things that if you do them, the Strategy will be executed. And since the Strategy achieves the Goal, these Critical Success Factors are exactly that: critical. There won't be that many of them. Probably less than 20.
4.
The Key Activities are what you and your people have to do to achieve those Critical Success Factors.
5.
The KPIs are how you measure to make sure your Activities are making progress towards those Critical Success Factors.
The beauty of this approach is that everything everyone does can be tied to the Goal or to a government requirement. If not, the activity is not necessary.
What event, initiative or challenge do you have coming up that Face The Music can add value to?
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We'll get together and have some fun writing songs, right? It's a perception that many have when they hear about 
We love that our clients have fun and connect during our programs... AND there's a lot going on and many opportunities to do interesting, engaging, cutting-edge work.
