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Welcome to the World of Work podcast where job seekers and leaders come together
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to build winning cultures and fulfilling careers. My name is Tim Dick,
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and I am hosting today. And just like last time, when
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everybody said, wait a second, that's Tim's voice coming in and not Jody or
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Katie's voice coming in, it's because Mike Simmons is back again. Mike, how are you
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today? I am doing great. How are you doing, Tim? Well, you know, our
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mutual friend, Jody, would always say, don't timestamp your podcast. Make
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them timeless. Don't talk about current events. But I'm doing okay because
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as many people know, when you and I get together, we go into the world
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of hockey for a little bit. And my team won their first game of the
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playoffs. I've got my Winnipeg Jets car flag on my car. You know,
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it was a good comeback win to show some resilience. So,
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hey, we are okay today, but game two is tonight and that could change in
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hours. My mood could change quickly. How about you? Well, my team
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is not in the playoffs, so so I don't really have a dog in the
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hunt or dog in the fight. And I am, gonna enjoy
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the next number of weeks of playoff hockey, especially
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this first first couple of weeks when there are multiple
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games on every night. So I'm doing pretty good. It's playoff hockey
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time. Now did you purposely use the pun
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not having a dog in the fight because not only are you an Islanders fan,
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but you live in the Phoenix area and your desert dogs, the Arizona
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coyotes, are literally no longer a dog in the fight. Was that intentional?
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No. And I don't but I don't really wanna talk about it because that one
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hit me a bit harder. I am actually still thinking about who my West
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Coast team is gonna be. I don't know if I go back to the
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California thing and be a Ducks fan again
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or what? But I am I am in the market for a
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West Coast team. Vegas is close, so it's
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easy to get up there. There is no way that I would
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ensure for the that hockey club in Tanner's
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neck of the woods. And so it's gonna be it's between
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Vegas, the Ducks Vegas and the Ducks, I think, but we'll
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see. I'm a I'm an Islander fan through and through, though. We'll figure it out.
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Okay. Well, anyway, that to say, Mike is back cause we've been talking a little
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bit about fractional when Mike is here. We've been talking a lot about fractional
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leadership. Right? We talk about, on this podcast, winning cultures and a lot of that
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could mean employing or or making use of fractional leadership to get
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traction, right, on things that are gonna benefit the people in your organization or your
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customers. And so Mike and I are going to chat a little bit more about
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fractional, right, because we are working together on helping
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people find fractional help that they know is going to move the needle. And one
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of the things that we want to talk about is that, you know, right now,
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the world of fractional, there's a lot of people that are hanging a shingle on
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it or putting their hat on the fractional front, for lack of a better
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term, and it's become a bit of a wild west and that's also leaving a
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lot of clients with not a great taste in their mouth after the experience is
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over. And so Mike and I were were chatting the other day about
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what are some of the things that are frustrating, that cause uncertainty for
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people or questions that people have or objections that people have to the
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fractional world that we hear commonly or or things that go
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wrong, right, in these relationships because we're trying to understand that. We're
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trying to make sure that we are providing a solution, right, that
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looks at those things and and gets ahead of them. So that way, it doesn't
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happen to you in the fractional space. So we're gonna talk about that, and
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I think I'll start it off. And I think we touched on this quite a
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bit last time, but the biggest thing is that I think sometimes you don't
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know, right, if the person that you're bringing on
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really knows what they're doing. Right? And I think, you know,
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AI and chat g p t have allowed a lot of people, you know,
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to pretend like there's something that they're not. Right? And I think you've seen that
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too, Mike. But I think the biggest thing that I hear about fractional is, right,
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are you really somebody that knows what you're doing? Right? Do you hear that too?
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Yeah. And and we can point people back to that conversation that we had on
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the Find My Catalyst podcast around that experience and expertise
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and some of the pieces that we talked about. And we talked a little bit
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about, you know, like running out of gas and, some of the things that
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happened in that in that journey. And I'm sure you can include a link there.
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It is one of those things where we're seeing more and more of
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it. It's kind of like the pool guy that you might have in the
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neighborhood. And I don't know actually, this time of year, it's getting to April, so
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your pools might be getting ready to open up in the
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North. No. Not yet. Oh. So if you have a
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pool and you've got someone who takes care of it, you know that the
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barrier to entry to open up a pool
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cleaning service is pretty low. You get a truck, you get
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some tools, you put a name on a on the side of
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the truck, and that's what you can do to
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access it or create it. It's the same kind of thing that happens in a
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lot of these fractional roles or consulting roles and some of the things that
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are out there. And I think it's important for people to be really clear
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about where they are in that journey because there's
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even if you're just a little bit ahead of somebody, you could really help that
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person get to where they want to go. Mhmm. But
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don't mislead them, making them think that you're so much further
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ahead when you're not really. And I think, you know, it just
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kinda comes back to, let's you know, be honest on both sides, honest
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around what fit is both from a client side
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and from a solution provider side of things because sometimes
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clients are a little bit off in what their expectations were too. Well,
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let's talk about that. Right? So, like, I think too one of the things that
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I hear a lot about where, maybe fractional doesn't work out or we
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hear these horror stories in it. And I wanna be clear, fractional should never
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be a horror story. It should be something that works. Right. But we just
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didn't get what we were hoping for. We just didn't get what we needed
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or wanted or there was misalignment. And I think one of
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the things that really can go wrong in a fractional arrangement, if you're not
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clear about it, is guideposts, right?
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Or where are the river banks? Where are you sailing together? Like, setting up
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expectations, alignment. What do you need? What are the deliverables? What's the work
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plan? You know? And I find I find a lot of people are probably left
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with a sour taste in their mouth because that wasn't defined. Right? I don't know
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if you've you know, but I have. Yeah. Well, and I know
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instances where even with documenting things really well,
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expectations have been misaligned or misunderstood
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or misperceived. I I ran into a situation where the feedback I got
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after wrapping up a a three month engagement
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was that the organization was disappointed that I didn't
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do more on the outreach side to bring
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in potential customers given my network. I
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Mhmm. Walked them back through the scope of the agreement and said, that was
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not in the scope of the agreement. This is what was in scope and that
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was out of scope. Yet, that expectation, because of my reputation,
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because of my experience, because of who I know in the area, my network, they
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had expected that I would go out and do some of the
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business development work that they were looking for, which was not in
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scope and not documented. So there was clarity
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there in the agreement, in the statement of work. However, there was a
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misperception from an expectation standpoint on the client side. So they would actually
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say that they weren't satisfied with the agreement, yet we
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did everything that was in the scope of the agreement,
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which is kinda interesting. Right. And so interesting. So how did
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you, like, how did you rectify or resolve that? I mean or do you? Right?
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It's kinda like this is or this is what we agreed to. Right? Yeah. Well,
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we didn't we did not continue the relationship, which was fine. And I
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I'm that's part of how I design things. I don't want to continue a
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relationship in perpetuity. We didn't continue the relationship
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and the owner of the business didn't provide a testimonial, which is
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unfortunate because we did the things that were necessary
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and in scope. But again, perception is reality.
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And sometimes even with the best things in place,
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you'll have a situation where sometimes there's a lack of alignment on
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expectations and that will create a poor experience from the
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perspective of either the client or the consultant or fractional person
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who's doing the work. Yeah. Which leads me to another point too. I think
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one of the things that I often see go wrong in fractional relationships
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is there is no discussion about how it land, right, before it starts
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and let's get real or there's a fear of maybe ending,
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how do I put it, ending the relationship when it shouldn't continue
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for many reasons on both sides. Right? And I think, you know, I think it's
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very, very, very important that, you
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know, upfront, you have stipulations for, you
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know, how will this end? How do we assess, you know, frequently if
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this is the right fit or if both sides are getting what they need, not
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just, you know, like, once a year? But I think, you know, checking in every
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two or three months is smart. But I see, like, a lot of
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people do not They don't put those things in there. I know,
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Mike, one of the things that you and I have talked about is that as
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we build out our service offering around pairing up
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organizations with the right fractional person for them is that we've talked about a
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preliminary discovery sprint. Right? I mean and the purpose of that sprint
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is to understand, like, what are your needs and can we deliver on them
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so that we don't have these sour relationships? And then also, you know, that can
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be used to put together that work plan with those checkpoints, with
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future, you know, future looking how do I put it? But
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thinking about how it'll end, right, or understanding how it'll end before it begins, I
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think, is super important because you could have a relationship
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fifty years, but the reality is it will end. Right? And you always have to
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be mindful, like, everything in life will end at some point. And if you don't
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plan for how it will end, then you really are
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setting it up for, I think, even failure as you work through it before it
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ends. Right? Yeah. This is one of the reasons why I think it's important
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in these roles to operate using a sprint,
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based approach. So a ninety day
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program might look like six two week sprints
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to carry out over the twelve week period. And then there's clarity around
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what is gonna happen in those first two sprints, that first thirty days, the
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next two sprints around where we're gonna go in the middle, and then the last
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two sprints. And at the end of the sixty day period, it's
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important to use that period to level set and determine,
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hey, are we actually making progress toward the things that we said we were going
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to, or does it make sense for us to wind things down
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because there's not something else that there's not an extended agreement that
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needs to go into place, whether that's another ninety days or it might be even
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a six or twelve month agreement at that point in time. But you always give
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yourself that thirty day period to wind things down so that
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it doesn't feel like an abrupt stop. And I've been involved in
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instances where it's been an abrupt stop and then there's this level of
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uncomfort that happens there. Now in those instances, what I'll
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do is I'll set the expectation of, hey, I'm always available. Like, you've
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got my cell phone, ask the question, do those things. I'm not gonna
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continue to do work on your behalf, but I will make sure that
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you're in a better place than you were when we first started working with each
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other. And I think having that thirty day buffer at the end of each
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of the periods of time or having some kind of buffer at the end of
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each period of time becomes is a helpful thing on both
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sides, both to help the service provider who is leaving the
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situation, leaving in a good place, and
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help the customer make sure that they've got all of the information that they
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need. Think of it as a planned two week notice or a
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planned four week notice or a planned whatever to help
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make sure that those things that you accomplish the things that you want
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to and end the agreement on the right terms. Yeah. Exactly.
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Just good fences, good clarity. I think I mean, there's always a theme in all
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these things. Right? It doesn't matter what you're doing or what you're you know, what
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discipline or what work situation you're in. Clarity always wins. Right? Clarity
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is king. And that's what it's really all about. Now we've talked a little bit
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about the sprint. What do you think well, let's let's talk about what the sprint
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is, and let me define it first. So the sprint is, you know, you spend
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ninety days in the organization, you know, as a fractional, understanding
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what's going on, you know, in that subject matter area. So for you, you
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know, you do different things around revenue and things like I do things around people,
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recruitment, HR, but just getting the lay of the land, right, and understanding
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what that client might need and then coming up with a
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plan after seeing that and hearing that or observing
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that. What do you think makes for a good sprint?
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What makes for an effective sprint? One that leads to success afterwards.
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You talked about it a little bit earlier. You know, the importance of clarity.
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And anytime that we're communicating, I think it's important to remember there are things that
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are said, there are things that are heard, and there are things that are remembered.
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And very rarely are all three of those things the same. And if you go
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back and watch a recording of this or listen to it and you can see
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everything, Look at the transcript. It'll show you everything that was said. It doesn't mean
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that everything was heard nor does it remain mean that all of the
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things that we're talking about will be remembered. So
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said, heard, remembered as you go through it. When it comes to
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a sprint, the things that are most important to me are
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objectives. My preference is no more than three. I'll
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extend out to five if necessary, but those five need
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to be prioritized. And the first three are the ones that are in focus and
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we'll get to the other two if we've got the time or the
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capability to do so. So objectives, no more than three. Once those
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objectives are agreed to and our understanding
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is aligned, then you move into methods. Those
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methods will help determine both the scope
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not only the scope of work, but the things that are gonna be
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how the work is going to be done inside the organization. Does
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this mean multiple calls per week? Does it mean being on-site? Does it
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mean delivering a report out? There's going to be a
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methods component. So you have objectives, you have methods. Then the third piece is
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deliverables. The deliverables are the actual pieces of information that are going
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to be shared, the outcomes that we're moving toward.
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So objectives, methods, and deliverables. And if you
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have those three things, then you can build out a proper sprint. That sprint might
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only be a single two week sprint. It could be a couple of two week
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sprints or in extreme instance, I would look
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at six two week sprints or what ultimately ends up being a ninety
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day engagement. Yeah. And I think you're right. And I think, you know, like, we've
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both seen and heard poor stories, right, on the fractional front. And I
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think everything that we have talked about and heard about, you know, a lot of
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times, I think the sprint can really help, you know, mitigate a lot of
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that before it happens. Right? I think, you know, all these things that we've talked
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about getting clarity on the front end and all that stuff and actually understanding if
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you're a fit, and it gives both sides the opportunity to see if they
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work well together firstly to make sure that they have alignment, to make sure that
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everything is set up in place and that the investment is protected in your time
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on both sides. And it makes a huge difference and I, you know, I've done
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different engagements before where there is a preliminary kind of we use a different term
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than sprint, but we call it discovery phase, but same thing. And
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it's made a huge difference. Right? Even though there's a little bit of investment on
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the front, instead of it just being an open ended agreement to do something nebulous,
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there's clarity. Right? And there's, do we understand the problem and can we solve
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it? And if we can solve it, then we can probably find somebody who can
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and make sure that they're getting the right Right? So it makes a huge difference.
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Yeah. Well and and don't think of the sprint as the thing that
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starts things. It's not just the start. There the
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sprints can operate for an extended period of time.
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I've got a client currently where we extend
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every ninety days or so we extend an additional ninety days at this point in
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time and it just makes sense to do that. I've got another one where we've
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got it extended throughout the year. We've got a couple of different ways to work
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through each of those. The benefit of the sprint is there's a high
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level of clarity around what an objective is, what the methods are, and what the
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deliverables are so that you never go an extended period of time with
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a view of saying, What's working? What's not working? And where
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are we stuck? Like, we should never get into a situation where we don't know
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the answers to those three things. And a sprint
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might be, at first, an initial understanding. And then another sprint
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might be actually building out processes. Well,
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another one might be adding people into it, but the
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sprint helps keep things focused over a specific period of
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time. So there is complete clarity and there are on both
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sides relative to expectations, deliverables, and
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the desired outcomes of what's happening. So I
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operate in the context of sprints on all of the work that I'm
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doing, primarily to help keep a level of focus
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in the work that we're doing now. Yeah. Super smart. Super smart.
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And as Mike and I work more together on the fractional stuff, you're going
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to see more stuff from us. You're going to see stuff on websites and stuff
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like that too. But one big thing that you're going to see about how we
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will help people, you know, get clarity in the world of fractional is
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that, you know, there will be a focus on the sprint. There will be a
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focus on, you know, making sure that there's alignment along the way and different
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guideposts and that you're getting the right help for what you need. And I think
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that that is vitally important and it and it touches on all these things. Right?
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You know, what do you need? Is the person qualified? Are they motivated? You know?
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All these things are gonna be integral and vital to your
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success. So all that to say, I think this is a good place to
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leave it off. Mike, how can people get ahold of you or us and our
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fractional and, you you know, all that stuff? How can they find out more? Best
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place to go, for me is findmycatalyst.com. You can find your
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catalyst there. So go to findmycatalyst.com. And
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the fractional specific information is
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findmycatalyst.com/fractional, and that's
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located in the footer of the primary website. And there are
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links to other episodes that Tim and I have recorded
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related to the world at work in the context of fractional.
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I love it. And then they can find us, obviously, as always,
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bestculturesolutions.ca. We are, you know, again, not to
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timestamp this podcast, but on our end, we're working on, you know, a brand new
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revamped website in the coming months, and you'll see more on factual there from our
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end as well. But you're always welcome to reach out to Mike or I at
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those respective spots. Links will be in the show notes as well. But other than
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that, thanks for listening to the World at Work. We'll see you next time.
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Welcome to the World of Work podcast where job seekers and leaders come together
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to build winning cultures and fulfilling careers. My name is Tim Dick,
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and I am hosting today. And just like last time, when
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everybody said, wait a second, that's Tim's voice coming in and not Jody or
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Katie's voice coming in, it's because Mike Simmons is back again. Mike, how are you
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today? I am doing great. How are you doing, Tim? Well, you know, our
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mutual friend, Jody, would always say, don't timestamp your podcast. Make
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them timeless. Don't talk about current events. But I'm doing okay because
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as many people know, when you and I get together, we go into the world
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of hockey for a little bit. And my team won their first game of the
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playoffs. I've got my Winnipeg Jets car flag on my car. You know,
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it was a good comeback win to show some resilience. So,
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hey, we are okay today, but game two is tonight and that could change in
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hours. My mood could change quickly. How about you? Well, my team
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is not in the playoffs, so so I don't really have a dog in the
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hunt or dog in the fight. And I am, gonna enjoy
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the next number of weeks of playoff hockey, especially
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this first first couple of weeks when there are multiple
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games on every night. So I'm doing pretty good. It's playoff hockey
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time. Now did you purposely use the pun
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not having a dog in the fight because not only are you an Islanders fan,
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but you live in the Phoenix area and your desert dogs, the Arizona
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coyotes, are literally no longer a dog in the fight. Was that intentional?
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No. And I don't but I don't really wanna talk about it because that one
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hit me a bit harder. I am actually still thinking about who my West
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Coast team is gonna be. I don't know if I go back to the
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California thing and be a Ducks fan again
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or what? But I am I am in the market for a
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West Coast team. Vegas is close, so it's
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easy to get up there. There is no way that I would
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ensure for the that hockey club in Tanner's
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neck of the woods. And so it's gonna be it's between
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Vegas, the Ducks Vegas and the Ducks, I think, but we'll
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see. I'm a I'm an Islander fan through and through, though. We'll figure it out.
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Okay. Well, anyway, that to say, Mike is back cause we've been talking a little
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bit about fractional when Mike is here. We've been talking a lot about fractional
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leadership. Right? We talk about, on this podcast, winning cultures and a lot of that
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could mean employing or or making use of fractional leadership to get
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traction, right, on things that are gonna benefit the people in your organization or your
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customers. And so Mike and I are going to chat a little bit more about
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fractional, right, because we are working together on helping
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people find fractional help that they know is going to move the needle. And one
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of the things that we want to talk about is that, you know, right now,
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the world of fractional, there's a lot of people that are hanging a shingle on
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it or putting their hat on the fractional front, for lack of a better
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term, and it's become a bit of a wild west and that's also leaving a
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lot of clients with not a great taste in their mouth after the experience is
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over. And so Mike and I were were chatting the other day about
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what are some of the things that are frustrating, that cause uncertainty for
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people or questions that people have or objections that people have to the
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fractional world that we hear commonly or or things that go
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wrong, right, in these relationships because we're trying to understand that. We're
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trying to make sure that we are providing a solution, right, that
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looks at those things and and gets ahead of them. So that way, it doesn't
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happen to you in the fractional space. So we're gonna talk about that, and
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I think I'll start it off. And I think we touched on this quite a
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bit last time, but the biggest thing is that I think sometimes you don't
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know, right, if the person that you're bringing on
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really knows what they're doing. Right? And I think, you know,
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AI and chat g p t have allowed a lot of people, you know,
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to pretend like there's something that they're not. Right? And I think you've seen that
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too, Mike. But I think the biggest thing that I hear about fractional is, right,
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are you really somebody that knows what you're doing? Right? Do you hear that too?
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Yeah. And and we can point people back to that conversation that we had on
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the Find My Catalyst podcast around that experience and expertise
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and some of the pieces that we talked about. And we talked a little bit
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about, you know, like running out of gas and, some of the things that
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happened in that in that journey. And I'm sure you can include a link there.
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It is one of those things where we're seeing more and more of
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it. It's kind of like the pool guy that you might have in the
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neighborhood. And I don't know actually, this time of year, it's getting to April, so
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your pools might be getting ready to open up in the
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North. No. Not yet. Oh. So if you have a
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pool and you've got someone who takes care of it, you know that the
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barrier to entry to open up a pool
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cleaning service is pretty low. You get a truck, you get
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some tools, you put a name on a on the side of
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the truck, and that's what you can do to
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access it or create it. It's the same kind of thing that happens in a
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lot of these fractional roles or consulting roles and some of the things that
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are out there. And I think it's important for people to be really clear
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about where they are in that journey because there's
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even if you're just a little bit ahead of somebody, you could really help that
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person get to where they want to go. Mhmm. But
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don't mislead them, making them think that you're so much further
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ahead when you're not really. And I think, you know, it just
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kinda comes back to, let's you know, be honest on both sides, honest
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around what fit is both from a client side
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and from a solution provider side of things because sometimes
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clients are a little bit off in what their expectations were too. Well,
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let's talk about that. Right? So, like, I think too one of the things that
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I hear a lot about where, maybe fractional doesn't work out or we
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hear these horror stories in it. And I wanna be clear, fractional should never
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be a horror story. It should be something that works. Right. But we just
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didn't get what we were hoping for. We just didn't get what we needed
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or wanted or there was misalignment. And I think one of
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the things that really can go wrong in a fractional arrangement, if you're not
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clear about it, is guideposts, right?
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Or where are the river banks? Where are you sailing together? Like, setting up
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expectations, alignment. What do you need? What are the deliverables? What's the work
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plan? You know? And I find I find a lot of people are probably left
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with a sour taste in their mouth because that wasn't defined. Right? I don't know
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if you've you know, but I have. Yeah. Well, and I know
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instances where even with documenting things really well,
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expectations have been misaligned or misunderstood
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or misperceived. I I ran into a situation where the feedback I got
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after wrapping up a a three month engagement
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was that the organization was disappointed that I didn't
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do more on the outreach side to bring
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in potential customers given my network. I
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Mhmm. Walked them back through the scope of the agreement and said, that was
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not in the scope of the agreement. This is what was in scope and that
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was out of scope. Yet, that expectation, because of my reputation,
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because of my experience, because of who I know in the area, my network, they
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had expected that I would go out and do some of the
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business development work that they were looking for, which was not in
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scope and not documented. So there was clarity
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there in the agreement, in the statement of work. However, there was a
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misperception from an expectation standpoint on the client side. So they would actually
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say that they weren't satisfied with the agreement, yet we
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did everything that was in the scope of the agreement,
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which is kinda interesting. Right. And so interesting. So how did
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you, like, how did you rectify or resolve that? I mean or do you? Right?
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It's kinda like this is or this is what we agreed to. Right? Yeah. Well,
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we didn't we did not continue the relationship, which was fine. And I
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I'm that's part of how I design things. I don't want to continue a
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relationship in perpetuity. We didn't continue the relationship
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and the owner of the business didn't provide a testimonial, which is
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unfortunate because we did the things that were necessary
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and in scope. But again, perception is reality.
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And sometimes even with the best things in place,
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you'll have a situation where sometimes there's a lack of alignment on
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expectations and that will create a poor experience from the
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perspective of either the client or the consultant or fractional person
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who's doing the work. Yeah. Which leads me to another point too. I think
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one of the things that I often see go wrong in fractional relationships
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is there is no discussion about how it land, right, before it starts
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and let's get real or there's a fear of maybe ending,
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how do I put it, ending the relationship when it shouldn't continue
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for many reasons on both sides. Right? And I think, you know, I think it's
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very, very, very important that, you
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know, upfront, you have stipulations for, you
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know, how will this end? How do we assess, you know, frequently if
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this is the right fit or if both sides are getting what they need, not
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just, you know, like, once a year? But I think, you know, checking in every
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two or three months is smart. But I see, like, a lot of
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people do not They don't put those things in there. I know,
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Mike, one of the things that you and I have talked about is that as
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we build out our service offering around pairing up
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organizations with the right fractional person for them is that we've talked about a
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preliminary discovery sprint. Right? I mean and the purpose of that sprint
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is to understand, like, what are your needs and can we deliver on them
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so that we don't have these sour relationships? And then also, you know, that can
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be used to put together that work plan with those checkpoints, with
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future, you know, future looking how do I put it? But
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thinking about how it'll end, right, or understanding how it'll end before it begins, I
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think, is super important because you could have a relationship
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fifty years, but the reality is it will end. Right? And you always have to
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be mindful, like, everything in life will end at some point. And if you don't
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plan for how it will end, then you really are
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setting it up for, I think, even failure as you work through it before it
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ends. Right? Yeah. This is one of the reasons why I think it's important
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in these roles to operate using a sprint,
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based approach. So a ninety day
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program might look like six two week sprints
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to carry out over the twelve week period. And then there's clarity around
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what is gonna happen in those first two sprints, that first thirty days, the
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next two sprints around where we're gonna go in the middle, and then the last
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two sprints. And at the end of the sixty day period, it's
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important to use that period to level set and determine,
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hey, are we actually making progress toward the things that we said we were going
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to, or does it make sense for us to wind things down
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because there's not something else that there's not an extended agreement that
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needs to go into place, whether that's another ninety days or it might be even
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a six or twelve month agreement at that point in time. But you always give
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yourself that thirty day period to wind things down so that
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it doesn't feel like an abrupt stop. And I've been involved in
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instances where it's been an abrupt stop and then there's this level of
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uncomfort that happens there. Now in those instances, what I'll
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do is I'll set the expectation of, hey, I'm always available. Like, you've
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got my cell phone, ask the question, do those things. I'm not gonna
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continue to do work on your behalf, but I will make sure that
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you're in a better place than you were when we first started working with each
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other. And I think having that thirty day buffer at the end of each
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of the periods of time or having some kind of buffer at the end of
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each period of time becomes is a helpful thing on both
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sides, both to help the service provider who is leaving the
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situation, leaving in a good place, and
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help the customer make sure that they've got all of the information that they
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need. Think of it as a planned two week notice or a
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planned four week notice or a planned whatever to help
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make sure that those things that you accomplish the things that you want
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to and end the agreement on the right terms. Yeah. Exactly.
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Just good fences, good clarity. I think I mean, there's always a theme in all
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these things. Right? It doesn't matter what you're doing or what you're you know, what
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discipline or what work situation you're in. Clarity always wins. Right? Clarity
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is king. And that's what it's really all about. Now we've talked a little bit
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about the sprint. What do you think well, let's let's talk about what the sprint
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is, and let me define it first. So the sprint is, you know, you spend
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ninety days in the organization, you know, as a fractional, understanding
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what's going on, you know, in that subject matter area. So for you, you
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know, you do different things around revenue and things like I do things around people,
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recruitment, HR, but just getting the lay of the land, right, and understanding
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what that client might need and then coming up with a
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plan after seeing that and hearing that or observing
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that. What do you think makes for a good sprint?
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What makes for an effective sprint? One that leads to success afterwards.
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You talked about it a little bit earlier. You know, the importance of clarity.
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And anytime that we're communicating, I think it's important to remember there are things that
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are said, there are things that are heard, and there are things that are remembered.
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And very rarely are all three of those things the same. And if you go
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back and watch a recording of this or listen to it and you can see
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everything, Look at the transcript. It'll show you everything that was said. It doesn't mean
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that everything was heard nor does it remain mean that all of the
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things that we're talking about will be remembered. So
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said, heard, remembered as you go through it. When it comes to
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a sprint, the things that are most important to me are
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objectives. My preference is no more than three. I'll
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extend out to five if necessary, but those five need
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to be prioritized. And the first three are the ones that are in focus and
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we'll get to the other two if we've got the time or the
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capability to do so. So objectives, no more than three. Once those
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objectives are agreed to and our understanding
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is aligned, then you move into methods. Those
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methods will help determine both the scope
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not only the scope of work, but the things that are gonna be
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how the work is going to be done inside the organization. Does
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this mean multiple calls per week? Does it mean being on-site? Does it
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mean delivering a report out? There's going to be a
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methods component. So you have objectives, you have methods. Then the third piece is
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deliverables. The deliverables are the actual pieces of information that are going
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to be shared, the outcomes that we're moving toward.
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So objectives, methods, and deliverables. And if you
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have those three things, then you can build out a proper sprint. That sprint might
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only be a single two week sprint. It could be a couple of two week
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sprints or in extreme instance, I would look
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at six two week sprints or what ultimately ends up being a ninety
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day engagement. Yeah. And I think you're right. And I think, you know, like, we've
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both seen and heard poor stories, right, on the fractional front. And I
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think everything that we have talked about and heard about, you know, a lot of
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times, I think the sprint can really help, you know, mitigate a lot of
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that before it happens. Right? I think, you know, all these things that we've talked
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about getting clarity on the front end and all that stuff and actually understanding if
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you're a fit, and it gives both sides the opportunity to see if they
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work well together firstly to make sure that they have alignment, to make sure that
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everything is set up in place and that the investment is protected in your time
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on both sides. And it makes a huge difference and I, you know, I've done
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different engagements before where there is a preliminary kind of we use a different term
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than sprint, but we call it discovery phase, but same thing. And
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it's made a huge difference. Right? Even though there's a little bit of investment on
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the front, instead of it just being an open ended agreement to do something nebulous,
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there's clarity. Right? And there's, do we understand the problem and can we solve
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it? And if we can solve it, then we can probably find somebody who can
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and make sure that they're getting the right Right? So it makes a huge difference.
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Yeah. Well and and don't think of the sprint as the thing that
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starts things. It's not just the start. There the
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sprints can operate for an extended period of time.
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I've got a client currently where we extend
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every ninety days or so we extend an additional ninety days at this point in
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time and it just makes sense to do that. I've got another one where we've
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got it extended throughout the year. We've got a couple of different ways to work
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through each of those. The benefit of the sprint is there's a high
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level of clarity around what an objective is, what the methods are, and what the
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deliverables are so that you never go an extended period of time with
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a view of saying, What's working? What's not working? And where
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are we stuck? Like, we should never get into a situation where we don't know
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the answers to those three things. And a sprint
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might be, at first, an initial understanding. And then another sprint
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might be actually building out processes. Well,
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another one might be adding people into it, but the
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sprint helps keep things focused over a specific period of
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time. So there is complete clarity and there are on both
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sides relative to expectations, deliverables, and
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the desired outcomes of what's happening. So I
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operate in the context of sprints on all of the work that I'm
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doing, primarily to help keep a level of focus
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in the work that we're doing now. Yeah. Super smart. Super smart.
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And as Mike and I work more together on the fractional stuff, you're going
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to see more stuff from us. You're going to see stuff on websites and stuff
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like that too. But one big thing that you're going to see about how we
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will help people, you know, get clarity in the world of fractional is
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that, you know, there will be a focus on the sprint. There will be a
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focus on, you know, making sure that there's alignment along the way and different
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guideposts and that you're getting the right help for what you need. And I think
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that that is vitally important and it and it touches on all these things. Right?
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You know, what do you need? Is the person qualified? Are they motivated? You know?
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All these things are gonna be integral and vital to your
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success. So all that to say, I think this is a good place to
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leave it off. Mike, how can people get ahold of you or us and our
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fractional and, you you know, all that stuff? How can they find out more? Best
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place to go, for me is findmycatalyst.com. You can find your
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catalyst there. So go to findmycatalyst.com. And
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the fractional specific information is
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findmycatalyst.com/fractional, and that's
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located in the footer of the primary website. And there are
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links to other episodes that Tim and I have recorded
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related to the world at work in the context of fractional.
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I love it. And then they can find us, obviously, as always,
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bestculturesolutions.ca. We are, you know, again, not to
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timestamp this podcast, but on our end, we're working on, you know, a brand new
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revamped website in the coming months, and you'll see more on factual there from our
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end as well. But you're always welcome to reach out to Mike or I at
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those respective spots. Links will be in the show notes as well. But other than
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that, thanks for listening to the World at Work. We'll see you next time.
