The 4 Questions I Use To Innovate In My Business
First published on November 4, 2020
Twice this autumn, I've shared new ways of working with clients in my business. Both are variations on what has come before, but both are also new. As part of launching the second of these, the new Coach's Journey Community, I really got thinking about how I create new ways of working in my business.
Perhaps originating in my background as an undergraduate mathemetician, I love elegant solutions that solve several problems all in one go. When I start trying to solve one problem (you can read 'solve a problem' as 'take advantage of an opportunity' if you like), I love finding ways to make the solution to the first problem also solve other problems in my awareness.
When thinking about these two new ways of working, I realised that there are four fundamental questions I ask myself when I come up with new ways to work with clients. This means, in essence, that these are the questions I am asking myself when I innovate.
1) Do I love it?
As far as I can know at the point of launch, I want the answer to this question (and indeed to the other three questions) to be yes. It was part of a shift in my work a few years ago when I really started to zone in on this one. How do I not just do a lot of good work, but have the greatest impact I can by doing the work which I am uniquely suited to do? Focusing on only doing work like this - the work in my Zone of Genius - enables me to say No more, it enables me to support my clients better and it enables me to have a better time doing it. If I won't love the new way of working - or at least if I don't think I will, as we don't always know how things will turn out - I don't launch it.
2) Does it meet a need in the world?
Often but not always in my coaching business, I am responding to a need I've seen with clients. It might be that the way I'm structuring my coaching engagements isn't serving the people I'm working with, or that I can see that there are a bunch of people who love a particular piece of my writing and might want to hear more about what I have to say on that. For The Coach's Journey Community, several coaches choosing NOT to work with me this year made me see the possibility that there was a group of coaches for whom my group programme was either too intense or too expensive for them right now. That's why I designed the community to allow far more flexible, ongoing and more affordable support (and then I got interested in solving another problem: the problem of making my coaching really accessible, regardless of financial situation. That's why membership of the community starts from around £10/month).
3) Is it good for my business?
Of course, this should almost always be true in some way - they're all new ways of working. But I'm playing the long game here, and I want any new way of working that I have to contribute to the long term sustainability of my business. I don't want it to be cannibalising other parts of my work.
4) Is it good for my life outside of work?
In some ways, this should be top of the list. But it comes at the bottom because this autumn is really the first time that this question has formed a key part of my reason for innovation. Usually, it's just a final check. Indeed, both the more intense one-on-one engagement that I offered this autumn and the Coach's Journey Community solve problems for me outside of work, both based around the fact that my wife and I are expecting our first child in January. The intense engagements allowed me to work with new clients and finish those engagements ahead of my paternity leave (also solving another problem - income to support that leave most comfortably) and the community allows me to continue to support coaches (helping my business) whilst not having to launch a group coaching programme when our baby is just a couple of months old (which can be hard on the non-work parts of my life).
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If the answer to those four questions is Yes, then there's a good chance I'll launch the new way of working (although, of course, that doesn't mean Resistance won't get in the way). These questions are the compass I use to know that I'm moving my business in the right direction. Remember, the goal here isn't just creating great work in the world (although it is that), it's about doing it in a sustainable way, in harmony with all parts of my life. These questions hold me on the right path, elegantly solving four problems at once, whilst not letting my workaholic tendencies or interest in shiny new things drag me too far in the wrong direction.