Outside-Force Business Development Firm

Loss of the leader does not have to be a CRISIS! Shawn Wolf, DSL | Outside-Force BDF The burgeoning field of interim leader has emerged to fill the gap created by the loss of the key leader in organizations. The loss of a key leader can be devastating, especially if the leader is the founder or has been an inspirational leader for a significant length of time. A planned succession is, of course, preferable but not always the way things go; utilizing an Intentional Interim Leader may be an effective solution even within a planned succession. The most vulnerable organizations are small to mid-size businesses and non-profits. These organizations may not have the depth to have a solid succession plan, or personnel in place (enough people or the right skills) to successfully manage the void left when the primary leader departs. For many years there have been CFO’s for hire, Marketing specialists for hire, and other roles, which could temporarily fill gaps but the President or CEO...

Bring on the Tension! Dr. Shawn Wolf | Outside-Force BDF  Leaders actively create tension for and with their team by consistently holding before them a new/better future. Good leaders accomplish this by creating and sharing a compelling vision. It’s not enough to simply share the vision of the organization with the team; the leader also creates the vision of a change initiative that paves the way towards the overall vision. People have to become comfortable in discomfort. For many of a leader’s followers their own internal IOS (Internal Operating System), or mental models desire to set in stone how things are done now and they find comfort in sustaining the current state. Yet, all organizations must continue to improve to meet the needs of their customers and stay ahead of the competition. To improve something calls for some kind of change, which means people have to figure out how to be comfortable in discomfort, or creative tension. To effectively initiate and sust...

Observing is Learning in Leadership Dr. Shawn Wolf | Outside-Force BDF   The dynamic of people in the workplace is an interesting behavior to observe; I had the not so enjoyable experience of observing such choices from a gurney. And, yes, I do believe how we behave is a choice. Yep, at a way too young age, I had my right hip replaced… two and a half times!! So, some of it was self-inflicted (way too much running) but going through three significant surgeries, two of which were “crisis” mode, provided the opportunity to observe some interesting human and leader/manager behavior. “How we behave is a choice.” My second and most extensive surgery resulted from fracturing my femur, just below the ball of the bone, which of course triggered my second surgery, and first hip replacement (surgery #1 was hip resurfacing, only 18 months or so earlier). Of course, I ended up in the local emergency room, in extreme pain, and along with numerous other individuals to have variou...

Fostering a Lean Culture Through Your Employees Andrea Vaughan | Outside-Force BDF   While working for a traditional batch manufacturer in the early 2000’s we faced many of the typical challenges - bloated inventory, many interruptions in flow, frustrated team members, missed shipments, cash flow challenges, and so much more. Then we saw lean in action and it changed our paradigm. Be careful not to encourage quality over quantity; and, competitiveness over teamwork. Challenges are inevitable when you begin such a significant transformational journey. The first major impact was to the employees, and it was a doozy; how we paid our team had by using a piece rate system. When we implemented one of the first major changes, it was eliminating piece rate and moving to hourly rates. The team loved piece rate and was not happy to see it go, yet we realized as we learned Lean, that such a structure was adverse to Lean. Piece Rate encouraged quantity over quality and...