Build 55 - valuable voices, mining metaphors and storytelling skills

Hey there,

It’s Simon here with your Wednesday dose of Build.

This week I’ve got three fascinating articles that grabbed my attention plus a quick recap from last week’s issue:

​1. What you see is what you get…​

Geoff Marlow has a nice piece on how we use organisational metaphors in business. He explains how the use of four dominant metaphors can affect the emergence of organisations, often without much conscious thought about how this is happening.

My take: I’m a big fan of metaphors in my work with founders. They provide an accessible basis for thinking about the impact of so many of the decisions that have to be made in scaling a business.

This article is a timely reminder of the impact of the metaphors we use on the businesses we build.

​2. Why great stories sometimes start at the end​

This article by Nathan Baugh as it teaches founders about story telling skills. The stories founders can tell help shape culture, establish norms and create directional alignment among teams. And the greater emotional connections they can make in those stories, the greater impact they have.

My take: I read Nathan’s newsletter every time it drops. This piece is particularly worth sharing because it gives a nice practical framework for founders to think about when constructing and telling stories in their work.

​3. How to protect the voices your organisation needs the most​

Founders often struggle to get a good read on what’s really going on as their companies scale. There are more people, there’s more going on and power dynamics mean people don’t always give founders the raw honest truths they need to hear.

This article by Gustavo Razzetti explores this issue and provides a few practical ways that founders can deal with it.

My take: I chose this article for Build as it suggests a range of easily implementable ways to help address an issue that founders are often blind to (whether consciously or wilfully).
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Not all the things Gustavo proposes will be right for every scaling business, but I’m confident it’ll provoke some interesting thoughts.

And finally…

…you might have missed last week’s Build where I shared a longer-than-usual look at OKRs and how founders can achieve alignment in their scaling businesses.

I’ve got mixed feelings on OKRs and have had some good feedback on the alternatives that I’ve been using with some clients that I shared in the article. Check out the full article here.

Until next week,
-sw

ps as a little side project over Easter, I made a free short email course about my journey from being a corporate exec to the world of fractional working - as I get asked about that a lot nowadays. If that’s of interest, you can get it here.