Self-Management Community

From the desk of nationally recognized
management consultant Lanny Goodman...

Find the Hidden Gold Mine in Your Organization and Enjoy Growth, Profit and Huge Free Time

Science now makes available the secret to massively accomplishing more, and astonishingly, with far less effort than ever before, if you are alert enough to seize the opportunity...

Dear Friend,

If you run a company or any other organization, you are being pressed to the max to survive and prosper in today’s tough economy. If I’m wrong, and you’re working less than ten hours a week and making more money than ever before, then you can quit reading now and go enjoy the rest of your day.

But if you go home at night exhausted, feeling at times like you’re running a day care center, amazed at the dysfunctional behavior you see around you, then read on. I’m going to change your life.

Right now, here‘s my story in a nutshell. If it makes sense to you, I’ll back it up with plenty of information.

Traditional business practice is crippling the ability of companies to adapt to wildly changing times. That means business failures, entrepreneurs losing everything they’ve spent a lifetime creating. It means more unemployment, foreclosures, pain and suffering for sincere, capable employees who have worked hard all their lives only to see their careers implode.

Managers are struggling to do the jobs that two, three even four people used to do.

The reason for all this is simple.

The whole process of management insures that your employees never deliver more than a fraction of the value of which they are capable of delivering.

I know, that’s a serious statement. Let me explain.

Management was invented 100 years ago. The problems the people who invented management were trying to solve were:

Break down complex tasks into simple steps so cheap, unskilled workers could collectively do the work that only master craftsmen had done before

Measure and set performance standards based on what people and machines were capable of producing, not what they felt like producing.

The management discipline that was created accomplished both these things amazingly well and revolutionized business.

But there were problems.

The breakdown of tasks meant the workers faced a lifetime of mind-numbing, dehumanizing working conditions.

Optimizing production meant designing companies to function like machines, with each person a carefully designed cog in the machine. But people aren’t cogs, don’t behave like cogs and as a result, an army of managers were necessary armed with the carrot and the stick to make sure the cogs behaved as specified.

These were considered acceptable costs for the productivity gains that were accomplished.

But, it’s absurd to think that running our organizations with a set of processes invented 100 years ago would work any better than a 100 year old washing machine or car. It’s just been the only game in town and virtually no one has ever experienced anything else so traditional management just drags on and on...

Organization design for today’s world

Even in a tight labor market, good workers today have options. If work is mind numbing, they’ll look for something more interesting. Only the employees with a high tolerance for mind-numbing will stay behind, the ones with the least value to deliver to the company.

The army of managers required to keep the machine running is an expense companies can no longer afford in the endless race to function faster, better and cheaper.

Every leader also knows the endlessly dysfunctional ways in which employees behave in companies, all of which rob leaders of time and focus, so essential to survive and prosper in the no-holds-barred economy. What do we do?

Science shows the way.

In the 1980s a new science base born: the science of complex systems. It’s central theme is that all systems have a natural propensity to self-organize.

What that means is that if we knew how, we could design organizations that would self-organize to get things done, without the army of expensive managers.

Leaders could free up huge bandwidth for themselves to think, plan, do those few things that only the leaders can do and have more time to enjoy life, family and personal pursuits.

You’re a smart person, so you probably picked up on the phrase I used a minute ago, “...if we knew how...”.

I know how.

I’ve spent more than twenty-five years learning how and I want to teach you so you can reclaim your life, accelerate your organization to accomplishments you can’t even dream of now. Here's the secret...

The hidden gold mine in your company is your people.

But to unleash their full potential, you’ve got to change the ecosystem in which they work. That means the whole system of organization structure, feedback systems, incentive compensation, education, training and orientation.

In the traditional model, managers try to manipulate people with the carrot and the stick. They don’t provide employees with the information with which they could exercise good judgment, and employees are criminally ignorant of business beyond their areas of job responsibility.

So if you think, “my people ain’t any kind of gold mine”, think again. Their whole careers, they’ve been told what to do. They haven’t been encouraged to look beyond their cubicles, be creative, take initiative, color outside the lines. They have been treated like cogs in the machine.

The situation is so ridiculous that business has spawned a multi-billion dollar industry of consultants trying to “fix” the people so they would behave in nice, cog-like ways.

Traditional management was never designed to draw out the full potential value employees were capable of bringing to their work. Quite the contrary. But that doesn't mean that potential value isn't there. Our employees are capable of functioning at much more strategic levels than have ever been asked of them. We just have to create a structured space into which they can expand.

Traditional management practice is well beyond the end of its useful life. Business needs to be reinvented and it needs to happen now.

But I’m going to share with you a secret that hardly any business leader knows, much less how to leverage...

It’s not the people, it’s the system.

Let me clarify. Biologically speaking, human beings are the consummate generalists. We don’t run very fast, see or hear very well, climb very well relative to more specialized animals. But we have two unique features that have made us a great success as a species: our cerebral cortex and our opposable thumbs. The ability to reason and the ability to grasp and use tools has given us he one skill that has been responsible for our success: we adapt better than any other species on the planet.

What that means to you is, take an employee and put them in a different organization, culture, ecosystem, and they will adapt. In a business, they may adapt into a new culture or adapt out and go work elsewhere. But they will adapt.

You can absolutely count on it.

It’s what human beings do.

Business is ultimately about behavior isn't it? Our job as leaders is to get people to behave in ways that satisfy their customers both internal and external.

Any experienced manager knows we have very little direct control over the behavior of our people. But if people skillfully adapt to their ecosystem, if we want to change behavior, all we have to do is to change the ecosystem and the people will adapt. Do we have control of the ecosystem? Yes, almost complete control.

Where’s the leverage here?

You now hold the keys to the gold mine in your hand.

Conceptually, it’s simple. In practice, more complicated and it takes time and specialized knowledge and experience to implement. But just keep asking this question...

“If the universe is self-organizing, why does it take an army of managers for human beings to get anything done?”

It doesn’t, and I’m going to show you how.

Here’s how it can be:

Eliminate up to 90% of the demands on your time.

Build a Leadership Team that runs the business day-to-day

Grow and develop your employees so they understand business, know how to take care of customers, identify profitable opportunities and constantly work to reduce costs

Create an organization structure that will quickly take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace

Create a company of employees who think and act like owners

Create a robust leadership process that makes higher quality decisions than even you would make on your own

Employees hold each other accountable for excellent performance

Employees ruthlessly seek out hidden wasteful costs to make them visible and eliminate them

Employees are treated like adults and they respond appropriately. Management “parenting” is eliminated

Employees learn to think strategically, well beyond the narrow limits of their jobs, fostering creativity and innovation

Employees have a systems view of the business and understand how work flows to them from upstream and how their behavior impacts others downstream from them to maximize planning, coordination and effective execution

Forecasts and budgets are continuously kept in balance so that expenses align with real revenues

Employees have no structural limits on their professional growth, which attracts and retains top talent

The organization is designed as an engine for growth with the leadership talent groomed and ready to take on new responsibilities as opportunities emerge

Even in a major downturn, the organization’s planning processes result in controlled scaling back to minimize financial impact and prepare the organization for the rebound when it comes.

Would these qualities be beneficial for you and your organization?

I thought so. And it’s much easier than winning the Lottery.

Let me give you some examples from my files. I’m not sharing names because these are real clients and I have to protect their privacy but these are factual case studies. Then I’ll explain how you can get these benefits in your organization.

Case Study Number One - Turnaround

A technology services company was in trouble. An innovator in its field, the firm’s market dominance had been overtaken by a couple of competitors. The CEO, a terrific leader but who acknowledged little skill or interest in day-to-day management, had always relied on a COO to handle the management chores. His COO was a big company veteran who never really understood entrepreneurial culture. After five years of struggle, a recession hit and the company came very close to going under.

I approached the CEO with a plan to build a Leadership Team that would eliminate the COO position and put the CEO back in touch with his people so he could exercise his leadership skills leaving the management details to his Leadership Team.

Once the Leadership Team came together, the CEO started taking Wednesday afternoons off to play golf. Other than meeting with his Leadership Team members one-on-one for an hour or so each week, he had little to do.

In the first two years, the company generated thirty-five percent compound annual growth, paid off a seven figure debt, and delivered record profitability.

The CEO, then in his mid-fifties and observing a lot of consolidation going on in his industry, put the company in play. In ninety days, it sold for a seventy percent premium over what the CEO thought it was worth.

The premium was earned in part because unlike so many entrepreneurial companies, the company was demonstrably not dependent on him.

Case Study Number Two - Robustness

Would you survive losing eighty percent of your revenues over eighteen months? This company not only survived but lost virtually no money and on the rebound, blew away their competition.

Another entrepreneur in the technology services business implemented the Self-Management model over a two year period during which the company went from several years of flat revenues to forty percent compound annual growth during the two year implementation period.

When the dot com bust hit, over an eighteen month period, eighty percent of their business had disappeared. However, because of their planning process, they had anticipated the downturn, systematically reduced their costs as revenue fell, and scaled back to their core Leadership Team and a few other senior employees.

When the market began to turn and their competitors had been decimated, they were poised for the rebound. Another eighteen months later, they had recovered sixty percent of their previous revenues (remarkable given a much smaller market after the tech crash) and the CEO was taking home seven figures and working three days a week only because he felt guilty if he didn’t come to work at least that much.

This case illustrates how robust a self-managed company can be in the face of catastrophic loss of business.

Case Study Number Three - Growing the Smaller Company

A married couple in a medical services business had started in their back bedroom. Over the years and with a lot of hard work, the company had grown to about $3 million in revenue.

Margins, however, were non-existent, employee problems rampant and they realized they needed a model on which to build their business that would give them long-term financial security without the business killing them along the way.

Adopting the Self-Management model and building a Leadership Team, profits quickly materialized, strategic initiatives provided focus, direction and traction. Problem employees were repositioned or left, some voluntarily, some not.

A systematic hiring and training process was put into place to shorten the time between hiring and profitable production from their professional staff, which allowed them to assert leadership in their market, setting the standard for professionalism and consistency in their services.

A two week sailing vacation in the Caribbean and out of phone contact with the office, was an easy decision with a proven Leadership Team to run the business and maintain momentum on their strategic initiatives.

To get results like these, you need a System...

If you were to hire me as a consultant to help you accomplish all this, the cost would run well into six figures, and I’ve had many such clients over the years. Now I’m making that knowledge available for a tiny fraction of the cost.

You may be thinking, “If Lanny could be so well paid, why is he offering this valuable information for so much less?”

The answer is simple.

One consultant cannot work with enough companies to create the kind of critical mass necessary to change forever how we lead, manage and design our organizations. So I’ve put my knowledge and experience into a twelve month program for leaders like you, who know in your bones organizational life should be different and better but don’t know how to get there.

Here’s the program to open the gold mine: The Self-Management System is a structured process that takes you step-by-step through the systems and process that will make your company self-managing.

It starts with a thorough review of the whole process so you know where you’re going and why and have the tools to discuss the project with your people.

Next is your personal life planning. When you and your spouse or partner are clear about what you need and want from life and understand your business or career as a vehicle to help you accomplish that, you are building your planning on a foundation of bedrock.

You will then receive a new video each month for twelve months. The first video will help you convene your Leadership Team. Each additional video will present a specific process for you and your Leadership Team to implement over the next month or so.

Since people have different ways in which they best assimilate knowledge, along with a DVD each month, the audio portion will be included as well as a written transcript. That way you can listen in your car or while you’re working out, or read at your convenience.

It may take more than a year for your team to fully implement the Self-Management System. That’s fine. The System is designed to be self-paced and you will be seeing benefits every step of the way. You and your team can throttle back as you feel the need to fully implement each phase, knowing that the next phase is sitting on the shelf whenever you are ready.

Specifically here’s what you will get with The Self-Management System Package:

The Starting Package:

How to Run a Company That Runs Itself Video - An overview of self-management principles and practice. This is a big picture look to orient yourself and your team. It lays out the rationale for a different management model and goes through each of the components of self-management you and your team will be implementing in the coming months.

Strategic Life Planning Video - This is the foundation for your planning and business design work. The principle is simple. Business is about living. Life is not about business. Intentionally creating a fabulous life is the purpose of your career. Owning or leading an organization is a means to that end.

Strategic Life Planning is a structured process for you and your spouse or partner to do together. The output of the work is a common dream, clarity about what you must have and experience in the time that remains in your life.

This process creates the design specifications for your business or career, what it must become in order to support the life you and your spouse or partner have envisioned. With those specifications, you can develop your vision for the organization along with the plans to accomplish that vision to share with your Leadership Team.

Twelve Monthly Videos with Strategic Projects

Your Leadership Team - The Key to Freedom - Critical to your success is putting in place your Leadership Team. This video tells you how, in detail, including: Who should be on your Leadership Team, meeting timing, structure, agenda, setting strategic priorities, and tracking action items
The Breakthrough Model - Mastering change, strategic planning, process improvement & problem solving
Self Managing Organization Design - structuring internal customer/vendor relationships and the end of job descriptions
Opening the Books - How to plan and rollout open books for your employees including training in accounting basics and key performance indicators (KPIs)
Designing a Profit Sharing Plan That Works - Creating a culture where employees have real skin in the game and worry about profit as much as you do
Internal Customer Feedback - The end of the traditional performance review and the critical feedback mechanism to support self-organizing behavior
Teams That Hire & Fire Their Own Members - Your employees will weed out the under-performers with the proper processes and training
Education, Training and Orientation (ETO) Part One - Defining the company specific knowledge your people need to deliver maximum value
Education, Training and Orientation (ETO) Part Two - Defining the non-company specific Core Curriculum for all employees
Setting Salaries - Giving your employees the opportunity to act like entrepreneurs
Employee Equity - Creating ownership opportunity for your employees
Long Term Strategic Priorities - Developing the continuous strategic planning process for your Leadership Team

But that’s not all...

I have three important bonuses for you as well. With your Starting Package, you will get two additional videos:

1. Bonus Videos

The End of Decision Making - Video on how running experiments continuously generates information, minimizes risk, and reveals opportunities, quickly and cheaply and how to create a culture of experimentation in your company.

The Fourfold Path - Video on the four critical strategic priorities for all companies for the next ten years.

And there’s more...

2. Strategic Audit

The Strategic Audit is a questionnaire you fill out online, which produces a customized report for your team with specific suggestions for Leadership Team attention. It is focused on the critical strategic priorities for business for probably the next ten years.

And there is still more...

3. Membership in the Exclusive Self-Management Community Forum

You will have ongoing access to an exclusive members-only community of like minded CEOs who are working on the same issues and challenges as you so you have a peer group with whom to share ideas, brainstorm and learn from each other.

You get all this for an investment of only $2997.

Please note this is the introductory price, which I will guarantee only for the first one hundred customers.

There is an added bonus for the first hundred customers as well, which I’ll reveal in a minute.

When you order the Self-Management System, your first three videos on DVD will be mailed to you along with a CD with the audio portion and written transcripts. You will receive your login and password into the Self-Management online forum. Each month, you will receive an additional DVD, CD and transcript package for you and your Leadership Team to watch and integrate into your planning and execution.

If you need support, a variety of levels of support is available, so you’re never far from assistance if you need it.

The Self-Management System Guarantee

What happens if you are not happy with the Self-Management System or in the unlikely event you decide it’s just not for you?

The guarantee is this. Study the materials in the Self-Management System Starter Package carefully. Do the Strategic Life Planning. Pull your Leadership Team together and do the work in the first three monthly packages.

If at the end of the third month you want out, just return the materials with a letter explaining why you are opting out of the Self-Management System and we’ll promptly refund your money and close your membership in the Self-Management forum. You can keep the two bonus videos as a thank you for trying the System.

Fair enough?

Of course, if you don’t use the materials, you won’t get the benefit.

Survival and prosperity in the 21st century is being driven by different rules than what we have experienced historically. Now is the time to apply the science of complexity and the principles of sound organization design to create a company that is adaptive, responsive and that fully leverages the capability of your employees.

You benefit, your customers benefit, your employees benefit, your community benefits, the economy benefits. What could be better?

Now is the Time to Act...

It takes time to fully implement the Self-Management System. But by the time your competitors discover your secret, you will be light years ahead of them. How will they ever catch up? You won’t be slowing down. If anything, your employees will be driving your company forward faster than ever.

Click the order button below and you’ll be taken to the check out system where you can pay either by credit card or on your PayPal account.

Be one of the first one hundred CEOs to purchase the Self-Management System and you will be a Charter Member of the Self-Management Community.

Earlier, I promised a special bonus for the Charter Members, the first hundred CEOs to take advantage of this extraordinary offer. Here it is:

I will personally call you to discuss your business and answer any questions you have about the Self-Management System Package and how to get the most benefit from it.

My assistant, Dinah Gihring, will call to make the phone appointment with you at a mutually agreeable time. This will give you time to write down all your questions for me and so you can pick my brain.

Remember, this special bonus is only for the first one hundred members. Click the order button now.

This is very likely the best investment you have ever made in your career.

Sincerely,

Lanny Goodman, CEO
Management Technologies Inc.

PS. Join with me in building a better business community where employees are excited, engaged, learning and taking real ownership and responsibility for helping your company be stronger, more productive, innovative and profitable.

PPS. The business world has never been more uncertain and dangerous. The market is a very unforgiving place. Safety lies in having a company full of engaged and competent employees who are working together to maximize everyone’s job security, yours included.

PPPS. Remember you have three full months to watch, listen, work with your team and to be sure the Self-Management System is right for you. Your satisfaction is fully guaranteed. Order now and chart a course to a richer, more fulfilling future. LG

The Hidden Gold Mine in Your Organization