I get a kick out of words.

 

In 2008 Jeffrey Kluger published his book 'Simplexity'...

 

When the words simplicity and complexity were blended they came up with simplexity.

 

You can learn about simplexity at Wikipedia.

 

On the other hand, they could have chosen complicity over simplexity. You can learn more about complicity by Googling the letters “e, n, r, o, n”.

 

Around the same time Jeffrey Kluger was publishing Simplexity, ie, May 2008, I published a blog titled 'Seeking Simple'.

 

I am now reading Kluger’s Simplexity book… actually, I have just started it.

 

When I am done the book, I want to see if it has altered my going-inthoughts…which are along these lines:

• Everything is simple and everything is complex, it depends on how our minds are working when we 'experience' the things
• The way our minds work is heavily influenced by our genetics, our past experiences, and the situation at hand
• Our desires, particularly our short-term desires, influence how we experience things
• To a lesser degree, our longer-term goals influence how we experience things
• Our emotions regularly dictate how we experience things

All that said, we have the ability to choose how we experience things:

• We can choose to view things as complex or
• We can choose to view things as simple.

That's one of the premises that holds up the mini-philosophy I call 'Seeking Simple'.  The other premise is – we can boil things down and find their essence.

 

When we choose to Seek Simple and we boil things down to their essence many experiences become easier: corporate culture, communication, marketing, training staff, problem solving, etc.

 

On June 23rd, Lorie Saxby gave a very-educational presentation to our Kitchener-Westmount Rotary Club.

 

Lorie Saxby, PhD is the co-author of Secrets from the BRAIN and she is President of Working Brain Associates Inc. www.loriesaxby.com

 

Lorie delivers workshops and training to people seeking to improve work performance by tapping into brain science. Based on the many questions asked at the end of Lorie’s talk it is clear her insight will benefit not just business people but also their relatives and friends: for example, consider anxiety around public speaking.

 

In an earlier blog, I wrote about Executive BrainSmarts, the 7 key frontal lobe executive cognitive functions identified by Lorie Saxby: Focus, Initiate, Plan, Organize, Shift, Monitor, and Regulate.

 

In this blog, I will summarize the feedback loop Lorie described during her presentation…and please refer to pages 26-29 of Secrets from the BRAIN …an excerpt from Page 28:

 

“While the Executive BrainSmarts are interrelated, they fall into a continuous and ongoing feedback loop that allows us to gauge our progress and revise action plans accordingly.”

 

The Executive BrainSmarts Feedback Loop consists of 3 phases:

 

 

Prepare: to begin our work tasks we use our Focus & Initiate Executive BrainSmarts

 

Perform: to perform our work tasks we use our Plan, Organize, & Shift Executive BrainSmarts

 

Check: to check the impact our actions and emotions have on ourselves and others we use our Monitor & Regulate Executive BrainSmarts

 

For a copy of this informative book, please visit www.loriesaxby.com

 

As promised, I'm writing to provide a summary of content for a mini business plan. By "mini business plan", I mean something much more like an executive summary than a detailed MBA-style document. I mean paperwork designed to be well-received by potential funders.

 

As a first step, I am forwarding what Guy Kawasaki recommended for a business plan executive summary. The following is an excerpt from his book, 'Reality Check', pages 33-34.

 

1. Problem. What pressing and important problem are you solving or opportunity are you addressing?

 

2. Solution. How are you solving this problem or tapping this opportunity?

 

3. Business model. Who are your customers and how will you make money?

 

4. Underlying magic. What makes your company special?

 

5. Marketing and sales strategy. What is your go-to-market strategy?

 

6. Competition. Whom do you compete with? What can you do that they can't? What can they do that you can't?

 

7. Projections. What are your financial projections for the next three years? What are the key assumptions and metrics to achieve these projections?

 

8. Team. Who is on your team? Why are they special?

 

9. Status and timeline. Where are you now and what are your major, close milestones?

 

Guy Kawasaki thinks these are the most-important things potential investors want to know. And, investors have a very-limited interest in things outside these topics or an avalanche of details at the early stage of discussion.

 

Guy is not that keen on using Powerpoint, however, when it is used for 'funding pitches' he recommends a 10-slide limit.

 

I think it is better to start with brevity...and build content carefully. I'd suggest writing out answers to Guy's questions under each of the 9 topics. Then you can add (selectively add) more details. I suggest limiting the entire mini business plan to 4-1/2 pages...1/2 page for each of the 9 topics. Less is better. And, I suggest leaving white space on each of the pages...make sure about 1/3 of each page is white.

 

I'm suggesting the white space for 3 reasons: (1) it makes it easier for you to highlight most-key points, (2) it makes it easier for the reader to write notes, and (3) it will stand out from the stuff written by others, signalling you have your pen under control.

 

And when this is coupled with a quality personal presentation it confirms you have more to say but don't want to bog others down with unnecessary or untimely details.

 

Later, when you prepare a presentation you can make it align with the mini business plan. If you use Powerpoint then you can have one slide for each of the 9 topics.

 

I have written a number of blogs that cover similar territory, using different words. We ask a lot of questions during our strategic planning training...starting with questions like those discussed yesterday.

 

For example, please visit the series on "7 Powerful Answers". That series is an example of our "CEO Thinking”. When you visit my blogsite – www.activestor.ca – go to the Search tool and type the words “powerful answers”…that will take you to the blogs.

 

You could consider our Spirited questions after you have answered Guy's questions. [or vice-versa] Our questions require more interpretation than Guy's...that is, our questions were designed for one-on-one discussion while Guy's were designed for a book.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Rick