Business Analysts Words of Wisdom (part 1 of 2)

    Last November, I had the exciting opportunity to not only attend, but even share my own experiences at the Building Business Capability (BBC) Conference 2013, sponsored by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA).  There were so many wonderful sessions and engaging speakers, it was so hard trying to select which to attend!  In my own experience, certain key areas stood out to me: fostering innovation, facilitating change, leadership skills and collaboration and teamwork approaches.

     Keynote Marty Clarke gave an incredible presentation about “Avoiding Leadership Landmines” to kick off the conference.  He shared great lessons learned we could all benefit by heeding, such as avoiding managing the exception.  Ask yourself if you change a decision, reconsider an approach or completely redirect your strategy for the majority – the most probable outcomes – or are simply letting a one-in-a-million chance derail your hard work.  As he talked about meetings, being a leader – being the one to make a decision and say what everyone is thinking anyways – is not only what is needed, but also remains your job if you are the true leader.  And about these meetings…have as many as necessary and as few as required.  Too much is going on every day that communication at any level can not succumb to outside pressure.  While it may occur faster than ever, the nuances of proper grammar and respect cannot go out the window just because the method is faster.  The message in fact should be shorter and twice the clarity as before.  Consider your voicemails – avoid the endless message.  And emails need to be proofread before sending.  Spell check is NOT proofreading!!

    Focusing on Innovation, I really enjoyed the thoughts that asked us if we felt we do it on a regular basis or its just something that you set an hour of your time aside to do and then go back to your old habits.  Something that I’ve already applied in my work today was how to not only get new ideas but also eliminate the meeting multitasking.  Doing things differently will get you different results and if you want people to not be looking at their phones, get them involved with an activity.  Words and talking do not foster creativity and so facilitate a meeting differently if you want different outcomes.   When someone shares an idea, there are no “no’s” or “but’s” there’s only “and.”  Try next time, when someone proposes an idea, saying “Yes, and…” to get them to think through the idea rather than instantly pointing out the negative.  Give the idea a chance to marinate a little and the true seed of creativity may emerge!

(Part 1 of 2 - more to come next week...)