Book Flow

Tim Clark April 25, 2011 at 2:40pm

Thanks, Marieke, I really like what you said here (slightly edited):

"There are very few counselors who actually motivate you to act upon your own dreams rather than dwelling on what caused you to strive."

It would be wonderful to have your keen eyes and mind on the entire text and alert for opportunities to work in the "quick guide" you proposed. Let's make it happen!

Marieke Post April 25, 2011 at 2:16pm

Thank you for your answer. I think it makes good sense for real strivers to find face to face counseling. I would like to think that would be counseling with a BMY character, for there is very few counseling to be found that actually motivates you to act upon your own dreams instead of dwelling on what caused you to strive :)

I just printed out all chunks and will read it the coming week. Hope to be able to give some valuable input before the end of may. Overall, I am really enjoying all i read so far. :)

Tim Clark April 25, 2011 at 12:06pm

Good question, Marieke - by "strivers" we were initially thinking of people who lack enough self-knowledge to have much of a career direction. My feeling is that such people need to see a professional career counselor and get hands-on, face-to-face counseling, or simply take a job and get some work experience, rather than to work primarily by themselves with a book. If we try to meet those needs we will end up with too much elementary material that is inappropriate for our core audience.

But the example you cite is most intriguing, it describes an experienced career-seeker but newbie "striver."

Your larger point I think is to have an organizational principle at work to direct people to the best chunks for their life stage. This makes great good sense.

As you suggest, maybe a "quick guide" following the table of contents, with little vignettes like Max with which readers can compare themselves?

I'm hoping we can complete all the chapters by the end of May, so we have more than a full month to work on stuff like this!

(this diagram above is really out of date :(

Marieke Post April 25, 2011 at 6:37am

Hey Tim,

A Question; I was curious before, but never came to ask. Could you motivate why the book will not be serving strivers?

I really support the idea of continuous renewal and I think the book would be even more powerful written from that perspective. And thus the flow will need to support that. Maybe it would help to add a quick guide that helps the reader (or ' the BMY practicer' :)) identify the nature of a specific status quo and refer them to a specific chunk that supports him or her through a specific phase.

One's potentials, which when developed properly will give us fulfillment, will not easily change. They are a given. But one's state of mind will change. Not only due to our personal actions but also due to what happens in the world around us.We might need to acknowledge that even one who is an optimizer by nature, might become a seeker or even a striver almost over night. One who might 'be ahead' now and able to skip certain exercises, might really find those exercises very useful in a different stage of live. Imagine the optimizer; Max, age 30, silicon valley success story, in love with his career and using this book to finetune his fulfillment. Five years later he falls desperately in love with a woman, 3 years later he has two children and 10 years later he is lost because he loves his family life as much or even more than his career, but does not know how to cope with both and becomes a seeker. His potential is to be a successful entrepreneur, but now the potential of being a good father needs space too. He might need to reinvent himself and find exercises helpfull he hasn’t done before or do some of the same exercises again. How would it be if this book is a tool you grab in such situations, with a quickguide with that will refer you to the right chunks and exercises suitable for a specific state of mind. You would not need to address the details of the specific situation I think. But you would need questions that adress 'universal' states of the mind. States of minds that belong to optimizers and those that belong to seekers.

Tim Clark March 21, 2011 at 6:07pm

Ernest, great to hear from you. I like the music analogy. Yes, it's definitely a never-ending story (or symphony :-)

And yes, I'm open to having three chunks in the Reflect section. Let's discuss more later this week. Right now I'm on vacation with my wife and kids on Orcas Island between Canada and the U.S. to recharge my batteries so I can leap back into action fulltime Thursday when I return.

Karl Burrow March 21, 2011 at 12:00am

I agree with with the assessment Ernest made after reading through Chunk 7 in detail. Apologies for the late into to this,, ( sitting in Tokyo and reeling from the crisis in Japan at the moment).When you ask the question of "Who are you" do you think it is necessary to include the question " Do you live to Work or Work to Live?" within the framework especially & for "Reflect" ;which will spur if a person needs to re-invent themselves.

Still going this will will add more comments.

Ernest Buise March 20, 2011 at 2:14pm

Tim, sorry for my belated reaction. Lot's of balls in the air :)

I agree with your analysis. And I think the new labels for the section headers are great. They communicate in a direct way!

Still I am curious whether the reflection section (3) will deserve two or three chunks. Although not stated specifically, I assume you like the idea of three chunks too. Do you?

Looking at the final section Act!, I imagine their should be some idea of a circle, round-trip or spiral to make the concept of BMY turning into a continuous improvement or renewal method. In music they use the "Dal Segno al Fine" or "al Coda", which instructs the musician to repeat back to the sign, and end the piece at the measure marked fine or Coda (from the beginning would be "Da Capo"). So, the minimum variant could be to end the book with the final command: "Dal Segno al Fine". Your idea's?

You really know how to keep people on board: CSO! Now I have to live up to these expactations :)

Tim Clark March 14, 2011 at 11:41am

Ernest, your comments remind me how much more we learn from disagreeing with each other than from agreeing with each other :-)

Here's a summary of what I see as your key points:

1. The purpose of the book is to deliver a radical learning experience which allows one to see with new eyes
Couldn't agree with you more. Well said!

2. Chunk 7 should address the question "Who Are You?"
I am persuaded by your point. Because many of us define ourselves by the kind of work we do, in its current form the chunk actually addresses this question to a large degree, by helping readers define the role of work in their lives. Seen in retrospect, it is poorly titled.

One thing we've decided to do to address the continuity issue (and avoid the distraction you felt upon reading this chunk) is to have dividers for each of the "Introduction," "Canvas," "Reflect," "Reinvent," and "Execute" sections, each with a one page (or less) text introduction and of course stunning graphics. This will help the readers follow the logic of the book and also prepare them for different approaches to each chunk. I definitely want to keep the journalistic technique of starting with true, in-progress stories the way this chunk does, though not for every single chapter.

We're thinking of revising the five section headers as follows:

1. Start!
2. Model
3. Reflect
4. Revise
5. Act!

What do you think?

3. The chunk lacks universality because it tacitly assumes all readers need to reinvent themselves or redefine their overarching goals
I agree, many readers will be on a good path and do not need to reinvent themselves. This chunk needs to be rewritten with this in mind. The whole book needs to be "universal" in this sense, effectively addressing both "optimizers" and "seekers" (unfortunately we cannot serve "strivers" :-). This is a challenge. One way to address it is to simply tell "optimizers" that they can skip certain exercises, etc.

4. If we can make this book and the concept truly universal and useful tool maximum number of individuals, that would be a fantastic achievement. I think we have that potential in our hands.
Thank you for saying this and for your faith in our work together.

I believe you are now the Chief Science Officer aboard starship BMY :-)

Tim Clark March 12, 2011 at 3:43pm

Wow - lots of thoughtful comments here, Ernest.

I think I'm going to put myself on a "off-site" for the rest of the weekend to absorb and be ready to respond the next week.

Thank you for your fantastic commitment to making our book as good as it can be (or maybe better :-)

Ernest Buise March 11, 2011 at 7:54pm

Stardate 20110312, Data's Log

We have come upon the cardinal point of the co-creation effort to write the book on Business Model You! The middle section "Reflect" turns out to be the cardinal section ideed: make or break the huge potential that lies within the concept.
The first draft of the proposed book chunk 7 "How Do You Want to Live?2" v 1.0.10 has surfaced with the connotation: "This chunk is a departure from previous ones — it's more personal focus is meant to give readers a short respite from "business talk," as well as help them begin to honestly reflect on their career and life goals. Looking forward to your thoughts!".

An earthling, Edward DeBono, has developed a technique called 'Six Thinking Hats' long ago. While going in reflection-mode, let me juggle with those hats and do some PO's (Provocative Operations).

Yes, the chunk is a departure from previous chunks, but departure in what sense?
Reviewing differs from creating from scratch, the sky is the limit when no words have been written yet. When and how will that 1% creativity manifest. What will the 99% transpiration lead to. In particular, respect to the ones that generated the 1% creativity in this context!

Let's reflect on the basics. Where do we come from.
The Business Model Generation Canvas is a metamodel, an ontology and in fact a meta architecture or framework. It is stable and proves to be powerfull to align stakeholders and (re)think... business models. Actual models, new models, reshaped models. It is a communication model that helps business designers/developers/generators, and not solely the CxO's, to find the optimal model in context. Now the word 'context' is an interesting term. The context expands the Business Model 3600 into the Environment of that organization. But that's not enough, it is also embedded in layers, which makes it a central part of a 3600 spheric construct. The topping layers comprise the input for the Business Model(s) -yes, organizations can utilize more than one-. The organization's Vision, Mission and Values are input to the construction, validation or (re)engineering of the Business Model(s). The strategy adds the actionable, organizational, spatial and timely directions to the Business Model. And then we have the enabling layers of realization/building and operation.
Every building block from the Canvas can be put central in typical discussions, whether strategic, architectural, design, realization, operational. Any combination of buidling blocks will prove to be usefull to come up with idea's and constraints.

Here I would also like to think of the concept of the Business Model You! Canvas as a peg. A THING where you can hang your clothes and other things on. But you can also take things away and hang something else on. I use the metaphor of the peg because is makes it easy to show that the peg itself is relatively stable and the use is variable by nature.
In my opinion, the meta purpose of the book is to deliver a radical learning experience which allows one to see with new eyes. The Canvas is proposed as a peg to hang RESOURCES and (combinations of) CHOICES on.

-cont.-

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