Rigor – Its a Challenge

October 22, 2009 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off 

Rigor: The “R” in DRIVE

One of the 5 elements of the RedShift DRIVE Self-Awareness and Change Leadership Model, and key to shifting identity in the logical/philosophical dimension, is Rigor.

Good consultants, coaches and facilitators know that the likelihood of lasting change increases when people find their own answers, decisions and solutions with our help. But what’s less evident is that a rigorous inquiry process, necessary to bringing a hidden belief into the light of awareness, can provoke strong, negative reactions. That’s because every belief that contradicts growth and development has hidden trade-offs and payoffs.

For example, a client may be willing to examine the belief that, despite evidence of an increasing shift to social business, as the seller, he or she has the power over the buyer. The client may grudgingly admit to the cost of the trade-offs of delaying or rejecting social business. Examples of these trade-offs are: late adoption, behind the learning curve, limited customer intelligence, risk of losing market share, lack of social community experience, etc. Consultants generally make recommendations that address the trade-offs. But the results of those recommendations, if implemented, get to the low-hanging fruit and result in incremental change at best or no lasting change at all.

Rigorous inquiry uncovers the payoff. In the example, the payoff to believing in business as usual, “we have the power”, could be individual or organizational self-preservation that mandates total control, invulnerability, and holding all the cards close. In other words, its the contradiction of social business.

There’s a logic to the payoff and its underlying beliefs. Acknowledging that logic is a more effective approach to helping people with change than pointing out its wrongness. Its not the easy path because individual or cultural emotional response to uncovering the payoff can be extreme resistance. Consultants who are fearless and patient enough to hold that space for clients to work through their resistance will recommend the transformational change befitting clients who can finally let go of the payoff that once served them well, but that did so in a world that no longer exists.

Filed under: VRM, change leadership, counter-direction, culture, megatrends, multi-dimensional, self-awareness, shift, social business
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Alignment Pricing Your Professional Services – Its a Conversation, not a Proposal

December 9, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Leave a Comment 


I’m playing around with my business right now. Its one of the great things about being an independent and an entrepreneur. You can try things.

This week an impulse to do something innovative with my fees just took hold. Granted, I’m interested in shifts to buyer power and business models like VRM that have sprung forth from that shift. But it just felt really important to take action as long as what I did passed my basic criteria that it be integral, that is:

  • good for me and my business
  • good for my clients
  • good for my community
  • some kind of greater good

I just feel so strongly that a lot of people need my help and I want to make it easier for them to get it and for me to give it. Its as simple as that; in fact it always has been but our resistance gets in the way of what’s easy and simple and creative.

Since the dawn of professional services we’ve made setting fees difficult and complex because we’re attached to and identified with a lot of beliefs and assumptions about them and the clients who pay them. I’ve decided to not believe, assume or expect that anymore. As a result of that shift, I’ve published “suggested fees” for my programs and will encourage anyone who has concerns or issues with the fees to converse simply and openly and honestly with me to align our:

  • intentions
  • readiness
  • perceptions of value
  • desires

In so many ways, personal, professional and social, we’re starting things over and we’re in it together. That’s why I want aligned partnerships, based on trust and focused on new direction and positive change. So I’ve decided to be that partner and give the fees space. They’ll find their natural level and I’ll have more time to play, dream and innovate.

Filed under: Natural influence, VRM, alignment, disruption, innovation, integral, intention, self-awareness, shift, solo psf
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VRM and latent buyer intention

September 15, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off 

I gave my Intro. to Social Networks for Small Business presentation over the weekend and like to open the workshop describing how the shift in power from seller to buyer has been the driving force. So I’m happy that I’m now following VRM, or Vendor Relationship Management, an emerging buyer centric platform. The ProjectVRM Blog: Developing tools for customer independence and engagement with vendors, provides a good overview. VRM is particularly interesting to me because its tied to the Intention Economy.

The Intention Economy is about buyers finding sellers, not sellers finding (or “capturing”) buyers. (Doc Searls)

Most of the VRM work that I’ve scanned is about how relationship, data, identity and transactional tools will support the paradigm shift to truly open markets, where sellers compete to fulfill the buyer’s stated intention. I’m most interested in VRM development with respect to how it will address not just the obvious, but also the latent, buyer intentions:

  • Are intentions beliefs that direct thought and action?
  • Can intentions direct action that is at cross-purposes to what is wanted?
  • When do thought and action become habitual?
  • Can negative habitual actions be changed as awareness of intentions increases?

This may be an area where conversations matter most to buyers and where sellers have the ideal opportunity to earn respect and trust. I’ll be closely following this work, thinking about latent intention scenarios, and how some of my existing program frameworks may be useful to the VRM Project.

Filed under: VRM, counter-direction, intention, knowledge, self-awareness, shift, social networks
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