About Eran Geffen and “Half an Hour of Inspiration”
Eran Geffen is the founder of G ^ Team, a strategic consulting company that helps managements and CEOs develop new growth engines. Has experience working with leading companies in Israel and around the world, including Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Kimberly-Clark Strauss, Walt and Soda-Stream. By Wix. Geffen runs the “Half an Hour of Inspiration” podcast and author of the book “Creating Growth – How to Make Business Creativity a Work Plan.” This list is based on a chapter in his book.
This list is based on a chapter in the book by Eran Geffen, founder of G ^ Team
“Can I invite you to a role play?”, That’s how I opened the meeting with 13 board members. They of course were in a kind of shock. It was a start-up conversation of a process for creating growth engines in a large and successful company, and among those who embarrassed me were the CEO and chairman.
I asked them that instead of doing a regular introductory round (where everyone swells in their own ego), they would present themselves as a different character, according to a list I presented to them, characters representing all stakeholders in the company: different customer types, suppliers, partners, prospects and even One regulator.
To my delight they recovered, very quickly everyone invented a story for themselves according to the character they got, I was surprised at myself how quickly they got into the role. To see experienced, opinionated, successful managers, considered in their own eyes, become another character in one second – it’s just awesome.
One went into the form of a frustrated customer who still gives the company a chance, the other a satisfied customer, the third a business that operates on their platform and its revenue depends on them. It was fascinating and enriching and it was clear to me that with such a strong start, the next few months in the process would also be excellent.
Role-playing is one of the most powerful tools when you want to get management out of its own #%. Here are some of the benefits I discovered while using it:
Get out of the ego that knows everything
One of the most significant diseases of successful organizations and individuals is that they are expected to be the ones who know, the ones who give the smart and cutting answers. Precisely as soon as you are put in the role of someone else, you automatically approach thoughts and conversation in a cleaner way, you realize that there is a situation where you are wrong.
Their ego and that of the participants is much calmer, because in essence ego is an excessive identification with the “I”, and here it is not you, it is someone else. This means that if someone objects to something you said, you are referring to the nature of the argument that you have nothing to defend about the character, it is fictional anyway.
Get into the shoes of the customer (or any stakeholder)
Organizations have a tendency (even if they deny it) to engage first and foremost in themselves, and in successful companies this is already a significant disease. Much of the focus is first and foremost on the interest of the company, or that of the executives, in what they already know how to do or want to continue to profit from.
Probably in difficult times, so the organization in general goes into survival mode and takes care of itself first. Even if we are talking about something external, the perspective is always from the inside out – what we got out of them.
Role-playing allows or actually forces us to see the world through the eyes of the stakeholder. Once we represent him, get into his skin, tell his story and even argue sitting in his name, we reach the highest level of empathy.
A much more logical discussion
In a complex world like ours, making a strategy is a bit like playing chess in three-story 3D. Conducting a multi-participant discussion that deals with future planning in a world of many stakeholders, is a sure recipe for chaos. Everyone with an opinion, jumps from topic to topic, from one stakeholder to another.
Model a new product or service like this, or hone a strategy
It’s like solving an equation with five vanishes. Just like in war games in the military, precisely when it is clear what the role of each player is in the discussion – it produces order and built-in logic.
Open the creative mind
How I hate the phrase out of the box. Whenever you say it it sounds like the best box there is. In the end the intention is for mental flexibility and it is very, very (very) difficult for all of us to create the same mental elasticity. We are captive to our thoughts, to our worldview, to everything that surrounds us, so we need great help to think differently.
Once we are given a role, to play a character, and there is a game, suddenly the chakras open up to us. We connect with the boy and girl we built, in the spirit of playing with self-humor – and then can really think differently.
Suitable for a multiplayer world
We live in a world of platforms that need to serve a lot of stakeholders. If once the goal of a company was one and the same, “to make a profit for shareholders”, today it is clear that there are many more stakeholders who need to serve and give them value in order to be successful. In a world like this, which is multiplayer, everyone needs to be represented, a way must be found to put everyone into the process of creation, discussion and selection.
Neutralizes organizational politics
Here’s the beauty: In any discussion or organizational process, there are two conversations going on in parallel. On the external stage this is the professional conversation, but beneath it there is the position of the actor, our interests and the relationship within this fabric. It is natural and human and the truth is that it is almost impossible to break away from it.
But when you put people in a different character, they will already have a hard time speaking from their position. It makes the conversation much more matter-of-fact, and from there the process more creative. One of the language coins that took root even after the end of the game was “Who are you? As who are you talking to?”.
It started because during the discussions people would walk out of the figure back into position, and other participants reminded them. But it continued even later, in the out-of-game strategic process, when someone presented an opinion and was asked “Who are you? On whose behalf are you speaking?” That is – from what position are you claiming it?
Avoiding clichés
Language produces reality, and many times the words that executives use are meant to create a semblance of professionalism, but often they move away from the customer at the end. “I want to buy innovative products and have a relationship with you,” no customer ever said. One of the nice things about role-playing is that when you are forced to speak the name and language of the client, you are committed to avoiding managerial clichés and start speaking the truth.
So, can I invite you to a role play?
Eran Geffen is the founder of G ^ Team, a strategic consulting company that helps managements and CEOs develop new growth engines. Has experience working with leading companies in Israel and around the world, including Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Kimberly-Clark, Strauss, Walt and Soda-Stream. An earlier company he founded was bought by Wix. Geffen runs the podcast “Half an Hour of Inspiration” and the author of the book “Creating Growth – How to Make Business Creativity a Work Plan.” This list is based on a chapter in his book.
gefen@gteam.org