Continual Relevance—Not a “One-Night Stand”

Balancing business and customer focus

Building up your own Win-Win-House team is not a short-term “one-night stand”. It’s a long-term partnership that requires collaboration. On the one hand, you must fulfil business goals, while on the other hand, you must meet—or even better, exceed—customer expectations. This is a balancing act most of the time.

Keeping focus, momentum, and passion

Based on our experiences and observations, building a successful Win-Win-House relies on GRIT—your ability to maintain passion and perseverance while driving a long-term partnership and collaboration. Something which taps into the very core of you as a leader and human being.

One approach to maintaining focus, momentum, and passion is based on three principles: Plan, Execute, and Follow Up. They are interconnected and supported by various pre-defined templates, timelines, and ownership.

PLAN for success

Benjamin Franklin once stated, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” This still holds true today. Planning for success is the process through which you ensure a strong and common understanding of your business ambitions together with a clear link to the concrete things you want to do.

Here is a practical example:

WHAT: Make sure you know what success look like (the “win” scenarios)

HOW: Aspiration workshops, setting the direction

USE: a briefing document, Pictures of success, and happy customer stories

Here is another example:

WHAT: Get all the right people on board

HOW: Handshaking sessions to ensure agility and minimize setbacks

USE: Debriefing documents, Objective mapping, and a KPI/PI framework

EXECUTE for impact

Winning the customer’s choice through marketing and communication demands you develop a strong ability to turn your aspirations and plans into reality through concrete activities and interaction with your customers. Your ability to implement your planning is the most important capability for you to realize the business impact you are planning for.

World-class implementation consist of several sub-processes that all link together—from master concept/element development to customer/market adaptation to activation of elements (off-line and online).  

Here is a practical example:

WHAT: Make sure you know how to invest

HOW: Development of clear guidelines: “How do we invest?”

USE: Development vs implementation guiding principles. And How to accelerate scenarios 

Here is another example:

WHAT: Make sure you know how to play

HOW: Development and utilization of playbooks

USE: The right mix. of activities, Content element catalogue. Content activation guidelines. Task timelines – when/where. Optimize workflows. Figure out how to work with anti-fragility and optionality in activation scenarios – quickly learn and react (or predict).

FOLLOW UP to improve

One of the best ways to continuously create impact and value for both your company and your customer will be to formalize “STOP UP”. This means establishing a mindset and culture where it is acceptable and a part of your job to stop up and evaluate/reflect on the things you do, learn from it, and correct it where needed. This is the best way to build upon learning, to know if you are creating value, and to work out how to move forward.

Here is a practical example:

WHAT: Make it okay to adjust and correct

HOW: Establish and formalize STOP UP sessions to reflect, learn, and correct

USE: Development vs implementation guiding principles, How to accelerate scenarios  

Here is another example:

WHAT: Make sure what is done has an impact

HOW: Link concrete activities to “pictures of success” and your “win” scenarios

USE: Develop a performance measurement framework  - Develop and communicate concrete impact cases 

Remember—it’s all about people

Even though clear processes and tools can take you far, please remember—at the end of the day, it’s always about people.

Working with people—their skills, capabilities, relations, and mindsets—is probably the most important key to success. Those who experience the most success remain focused on the following:

• Skill and capability building 

• Internal people network and relationship building (both social and professional)

• Mental health and stress-prevention

• People mindsets (fixed vs growth mindset)

• Culture and behavior