How Do I Implement Ideas from a "World Without Email" for a Small Business?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - All right, next question.

00:00:06.080 | We have another mom and she has a question

00:00:08.480 | about how to implement some of your ideas

00:00:10.320 | from a world without email.

00:00:12.000 | - Hi Cal, my name's Madeline.

00:00:16.840 | Prior to staying at home the last five years

00:00:19.100 | to raise my three young kids,

00:00:20.840 | I received my MBA and was an internal strategic consultant

00:00:24.120 | for a large healthcare company.

00:00:26.120 | Much of the work I did was to create quarterly plans,

00:00:28.640 | identify and track key project metrics

00:00:31.120 | and develop and implement process improvement projects.

00:00:34.240 | Very in line with the recommendations

00:00:36.040 | you've laid out in a world without email.

00:00:38.680 | I first wanna thank you for creating a language

00:00:41.000 | and culture around the deep life

00:00:42.680 | and clarifying why this type of structure is important.

00:00:45.940 | Looking back at my prior role,

00:00:47.360 | I sometimes wavered in my confidence

00:00:49.080 | to hold people accountable to the systems we developed

00:00:51.920 | because it felt like additional work for them.

00:00:54.780 | My question is, after being out of the workforce,

00:00:57.480 | I like to re-enter and coach small businesses

00:01:00.000 | on the productivity tools I did in my previous job

00:01:02.520 | and also the theories and recommendations you've laid out.

00:01:05.680 | Do you have any thoughts on how someone

00:01:07.720 | can help small businesses implement your concepts?

00:01:10.420 | I plan to work part-time,

00:01:14.160 | but also I would love to collaborate with other consultants

00:01:16.880 | doing this type of work.

00:01:18.580 | Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

00:01:21.000 | Thanks so much in advance.

00:01:22.460 | - Well, it's a great space.

00:01:25.480 | It's a great space.

00:01:26.360 | This is my read having published "A World Without Email"

00:01:29.320 | is that there is an immense hunger out there

00:01:33.240 | at all levels within companies

00:01:35.640 | to figure out better alternatives to simply,

00:01:40.280 | you're on email, you're on Slack,

00:01:42.880 | let's just rock and roll and hope things get done.

00:01:45.720 | That hyperactive hive mind approach,

00:01:48.000 | the hyperactive hive mind approach I describe

00:01:50.720 | and dissect in detail in my book "A World Without Email"

00:01:54.880 | is not working and people recognize this,

00:01:57.940 | whether we're talking about

00:01:58.860 | the small business entrepreneur

00:02:00.880 | or the CIOs of major corporations,

00:02:04.680 | which in both cases I have had these conversations recently.

00:02:07.480 | So I think this is a great space to get into.

00:02:09.740 | I don't actually have a good process

00:02:13.640 | for helping companies develop these processes.

00:02:18.000 | I kind of wish I did because I get asked to do this a lot,

00:02:20.160 | which is why I'm glad Madeline

00:02:21.780 | that you're thinking about doing this

00:02:22.920 | and that I think this is gonna be a big space

00:02:25.000 | in consulting for lots of people.

00:02:27.800 | There's gonna be a lot of room for this.

00:02:29.720 | Typically what I tell people is I'm an idea guy.

00:02:32.360 | I come in, I study the issue, what's going on here.

00:02:35.240 | I get really deep into the issue.

00:02:36.640 | What are the actual roots of the issue?

00:02:38.720 | And then try to figure out philosophically

00:02:41.360 | what you would have to change to improve this problem,

00:02:46.000 | but I'm not in the world of business.

00:02:47.900 | So you don't want me to come into your business

00:02:49.640 | and start giving specific advice on how your business runs

00:02:52.700 | because I don't know how businesses run.

00:02:54.800 | So I don't have a good process for this,

00:02:56.900 | but I think there are good processes to be constructed.

00:03:00.280 | I think it's gonna be a major sector

00:03:01.840 | of the sort of knowledge work,

00:03:04.680 | management consulting world, that sector.

00:03:09.040 | I think helping companies develop processes

00:03:11.220 | to sidestep the hyperactive hive mind

00:03:12.880 | is gonna be a big deal.

00:03:16.160 | So Madeline, I would say probably

00:03:18.680 | you should have some sort of process you follow

00:03:21.540 | that you're willing to evolve very quickly

00:03:24.040 | as you actually try it out there in the real world.

00:03:27.080 | I would say I've learned you need to probably learn more

00:03:29.920 | about a team than you think

00:03:31.320 | before you're ready to propose things.

00:03:32.760 | There's often very, you have to surface these hidden dynamics

00:03:36.140 | that you don't really know about,

00:03:37.040 | but that are actually driving a lot

00:03:38.240 | of how work actually gets done.

00:03:40.360 | And three, I would say it's important

00:03:41.960 | that you eat your own dog food here.

00:03:43.800 | So make sure that you run your consulting firm

00:03:46.880 | very much aligned with these ideas,

00:03:49.200 | that it's not just, yeah, email me whenever.

00:03:51.940 | Just hit me up on Slack and we'll figure out the contract.

00:03:54.140 | You should have very clear processes that you love,

00:03:56.880 | that you can communicate clearly,

00:03:58.320 | and that clients will enjoy that clarity

00:03:59.880 | because then they will see that you're the change

00:04:02.800 | you wanna see in the world.

00:04:03.780 | They will see you do it and get a sense

00:04:05.360 | of what it's gonna look like when they do it as well.

00:04:09.060 | I might point you towards Ginny Blake's new book,

00:04:13.060 | which is a book, I believe it's called "Free Time."

00:04:15.680 | And it comes out in March,

00:04:16.900 | but I did an interview with her in December on the podcast.

00:04:19.460 | You can go back to that episode

00:04:21.000 | and learn about a lot of the ideas.

00:04:23.380 | But it's a whole book about how to do this

00:04:24.840 | with your small consulting style business,

00:04:26.820 | how to figure out your processes,

00:04:29.660 | what to focus on, what not to focus on.

00:04:31.540 | So read that book, it'll help you with what you're doing,

00:04:34.740 | and it might give you ideas

00:04:35.920 | on how you can help other companies do the same thing.

00:04:39.880 | All right, but that's good to hear.

00:04:41.980 | I do, I mean, Jesse, I think this is gonna be a huge sector.

00:04:46.980 | Doing this type of consulting,

00:04:48.060 | I mean, it makes my eyes bleed thinking about me doing it.

00:04:51.900 | I mean, could you imagine something worse than me,

00:04:55.420 | just individually me being in like a corporate board room

00:04:59.260 | and having these sort of jargon-filled small talks

00:05:01.940 | about how their team, their Q2 quarterly metrics.

00:05:06.180 | And like, I'd be terrible at it

00:05:07.220 | because after like half hour,

00:05:10.140 | I'd be like, "You guys should all just go write books.

00:05:12.460 | "This is crazy, what are you doing here?

00:05:13.300 | "This is a terrible job."

00:05:14.460 | So I would be terrible at it,

00:05:16.660 | but other people would be great at it,

00:05:17.940 | and it's gonna make a lot of people's lives better

00:05:19.860 | if their companies actually get rid of this hive mind.

00:05:22.020 | Just don't ask me to do it.

00:05:24.100 | (upbeat music)

00:05:26.680 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

How Do I Implement Ideas from a "World Without Email" for a Small Business?

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