Just Thoughts #2 - An Operating Model and Goal Setting Practice + Joining deidei.
The Second issue of Just Thoughts covers the outline of an Operating Model I've imagined, and since I've pulled down my previous writings, I've made a summary for you here.
The content in this article is “handwritten” - and only co-piloted with Grammarly’s tune copyediting and spell-checking. The content is free to read; if you want to support my writing work, you may buy my poetry collection on Gumroad here.
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The highlight of the week:
I joined deidei, a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultancy, as an interim Operations Manager this week! I discuss the reasons and what I aim to achieve.
In this week’s publication, I discuss my goal-setting practices and how I’ve implemented them. One of the most-read articles of all time was on the search for balance and purpose. It provided a few analogies and practices related to goal setting and personal alignment. I revisited the basics and shared my output.
Furthermore, I covered an operating model I’d imagined that scales with any team and is easy to grasp. It’s meant to be a frame for giving “The name of the game” to your team or your business. It’s especially effective when integrating new team members into your organization or team. Additionally, it’s designed to be easier to grasp than teaching your average global citizen what OKRs are. Some may want to simplify things and say, “We help our customers succeed”, but that makes you no different than the rest of the world’s business organizations. Albeit, it’s nice to have a total addressable market, which is the entire world.
On the subject of helping customers succeed, I mentioned in the previous article I’d work on the client side for a while to implement some of the imagined ways one would launch no-code ventures. Hence, as Interim Operations Manager, I’ve joined one of RadicL’s partner organizations, deidei. I cover my reasoning concerning my goals and a few highlights from the company. From now on, I’d likely add a section in each publication from the projects I work with to avoid feeling guilty for not sharing content from the projects I work with.
Headlines in this week’s edition of Just Thoughts:
Goal Setting: Using Ikigai to calibrate goals around the purpose
Operating Model: The Heart Beat Hustle
Joining deidei: Why and what you need to know
1. Goal Setting
There is an analogy around life balance I learned from a fellow former startup event organizer a decade ago. However, it was likely around 2017. Depending on what study you're looking at, they say event organizing is pretty stressful, so it's only fitting that two event organizers at what felt like the end of an era got together to discuss how to maintain balance.
He concluded that you should view balance as a spinner rather than a scale. The spinner maintains its balance by moving, whereas the slightest imbalance in the surroundings or touch much more easily tilts a scale. In Finnish, the saying "Liike on Lääke" roughly translates to "Motion is Potion," which fits well with this analogy.
I've developed on this further and drew from the "ikigai" concept translated from Japanese to a Western context to be something like "One's purpose roughly". You find "ikigai" when you feel you are at the intersection of the following:
a) What do you love?
b) What are you good at?
c) What can you get paid for?
d) What does the world need?
In the spinner analogy, your ikigai is on the point of focus of the spinner. It takes practice and a bit of skill to get it to spin on that one focus point, and when it does, it has the most power to keep balance.
What adds to the force of the spinner is its ability to be upright and not wobble around. The straight axis comes from having your priorities in the correct order, and the force with which you set it to spin comes with practice. The trick is to know where you want it to spin and when to pick it up before it falls, as it eventually always will.
I've practiced this quite a few times with more failures than I care to admit, but maybe someday I will get it right. To elaborate, here's me a few years ago interviewing the human aspect, telling the world how I pivoted my life for the better. I've seen myself in better shape and worse after that interview. Nonetheless, I usually do my self-reflection exercise every year around my Birthday (as opposed to yearly New Year promises). It feels more appropriate to calibrate your purpose in reflection against the years you've been on this earth instead of a lunar, solar, religious, fiscal, or whatever other cycle people use to find meaning in their lives.
The process I go through follows the following steps:
Write an ikigai reflection
Calibrate the purpose statement (skip this step if it is the first time)
Write an identity reflection essay
Create or revise your L.I.F.E. - document
Set up goals for the cycle. (+ Create a purpose statement if it’s your first time)
Write an ikigai reflection by answering the four ikigai questions. Here's an example with a few of the items from my list.
What do I love?
Writing
Snowboarding
Good food with good friends
Meaningful discussions
Occasional travels
Listening to music
Reading and listening to books
…..
What am I good at?
Writing
Creating events
Creating meaningful interactions
Conceptualizing
Learning and teaching
Understanding people
Cooking food
…..
What does the world need?
More compassion and love
More curiosity towards people from a different background and with different experiences
Less loneliness
Solutions towards climate-positive economies
Better global politics
More meaningful interactions
Better leaders
….
What can I get paid for?
Writing
Doing events
Running company operations
Thinking
Business planning
Facilitating training
Coaching
Recruiting
….
Calibrate your purpose statement. I do this at this point of the process as it fits with ikigai better, but if it's your first time doing this, you can figure out your definition at the very end of the process. A good purpose statement in my mind consists of "what" in verb form, combined with a "by" + "how" you aim to achieve the former.
My Purpose Statement
Curing loneliness by creating communities.
[What in verb form] "by" [how to achieve the former]
Mine has been quite a few things over the years.
" Helping organizations, teams, and individuals be their best."
" Curing loneliness by making you feel you don't walk alone."
" Curing loneliness by being an artist in the startup world."
I am trying to find the right focus point for my spinner. A dangerous thing about spending too much time on purpose is that "seeking purpose," by its very definition, makes you reflect on the past and contemplate the future. Hence, you may completely lose sight of the present.
Write an essay with the title "I am….". The point is to ground yourself in how you see yourself today. In your own words, who are you? What do you write about yourself? During my worst years, I talked so badly to myself that I couldn't finish this exercise. It's a pretty clear sign that something is wrong, as there isn't a reason a person should talk to themselves in such a manner that it pulls them down. Furthermore, I used to start the essay with the title "Who am I…?"- but I stopped that as I read Tasha Eurich's book on self-awareness and thought it's better to ask “what…” statements about yourself, as opposed to endless introspection by asking “why?”.
Here's a snippet of my own as an example
I am… Feb 2024
Nicolas Thor-Kristian Dolenc. A writer by heart and doer by nature. I am on a personal mission to cure loneliness by creating communities. I aspire to work for a future where I'm happy to raise my children. I tend sometimes to take radical actions because the world is never waiting for more of the same. However, consistency can yield the same results as pulling the right lever at the right time.
I identify as a cisgender heterosexual white male who is a Swedish-speaking Finn, born and raised in Finland in a multicultural family. I'm a father of two children…
… Professionally, I've been part of Slush, Smartly.io, and Singa and helped quite a few other organizations acting on both a for-profit and non-profit basis. However, I think of organizations as "for-purpose" at best. I'm the founder and CEO of RadicL Consulting, a company I've created to function as a means to an end, a reminder that I always need to do right by myself. One day, it'll grow, but for now, it functions as a way to walk between organizational lines. I hope to one day build a home for radical thinkers, creators, and builders, but I am happy to share my thoughts with those who care to listen, writing them weekly on Just Thoughts….
Leaving out some personal details, but you get the point. It can be however long you like it to be.
The fourth part includes updating my L.I.F.E. - Document.
Creating or Revising my L.I.F.E. - Document. The letters stand for Learnings, Ideas, Feelings, and Expressions, and the idea is to imagine what people would say about your legacy in these four categories in your eulogy. Here's an example of mine. I share the full version with those I work with as a leadership learner. Hence, the first paragraph.
The following text is my example. Please hold me accountable and provide feedback on when and how you think I'm failing at the points described in this document. I'll do the same for you if you dare to be held accountable.
Lessons: What vital lessons do you hope others will say you have passed on?
"For example, she taught me to face adversity gracefully and determinedly."
My lessons;
He taught me how to take action when in doubt.
He taught me to find solutions where there seemed to be none.
He taught me that the most excellent tools of leadership come from self-reflection.
…
Ideals: What ideals—values, principles, and ethical standards— do you hope people will say you stood for?
"For example, he stood for compassion and service to others."
He stood for the following priorities:
If need be, prioritize health, people, and business when holistically prioritizing your life.
If need be, prioritize "more time on earth," "more time to walk the earth," and "making our time on earth joyful" in business.
Learn, Execute, Teach.
He stood for the following principles:
Taking care of yourself is your responsibility and your duty to yourself and those around you.
It's the majority's responsibility to care for the needs of the minority.
Great power comes with great responsibility; ignorance is a choice, so it is no excuse for not taking responsibility.
…..
He stood for the following values:
Diversity is best created with radical inclusion.
Empathy is intuitive, and compassion is feeling with someone.
To live is to learn, so live to learn, and you'll learn to live.
…..
He stood for the following ethical standards:
Everyone is equal when stripped of titles.
A computer is only as valuable as the user's ingenuity.
Honesty is a virtue, and integrity is non-compromisable.
Respect the artist over the art. A true artist will always create more of it.
….
Feelings: What feelings do you hope people will say they have/had when being with you or thinking about you? For example, she always made me feel I could do the impossible.
He made me believe in things bigger than myself.
He made me feel loved.
He made me feel I don't walk alone.
He made me feel seen.
….
Expressions: What lasting expressions or tangible and intangible contributions will people say you left to them and others yet to come?
"For example, you can see his legacy in the thousands of young people he taught, who achieved great things."
You can see his legacy in the millions of next-generation leaders who chose to build companies for purpose, not just for the problem.
You can see his legacy in his writings; however, scattered, they aspired to be timeless.
You could see his legacy in the wider entrepreneurial scene from Finland that aimed to set the global standard of entrepreneurial endeavors.
….
Set Goals. Before setting the goals, I typically read through all my previous exercises, including the goals. There were a few years when I had also written the prior year's goals on paper; I put it in an envelope and closed it to only look at it again in a year. If my goals aligned with my purpose, they would've been achieved without me constantly thinking about them. However, my practice has varied, and now I write as many goals as I feel are sensible and suitable, to essentially only pick one out of them.
One year, the goal was to run 1000km; one year, it was not to break a meaningful relationship. This year, I will write and release a weekly Just Thought article. Some might deem that a good leader can prioritize goals in three sets. I agree with this notion; however, when it comes to goals aligned with a single focus point, your ikigai, picking just one, makes it much easier to focus.
As for the purpose exercise, and if you haven’t tried to define it before, I’d turn to Simon Sinek’s teaching, “Find your why.” In its simplicity, reflect what gives you pride and what gives you joy.
2. Operating Model: The Heart Beat Hustle
Suppose you'd run sports or war analogies to describe what organizations' operating models are about. In that case, you'd say, "We play football," the Americans may have a completely different mental model of what that means than the Europeans. Furthermore, someone would say, "We employ the teaching of the Art of war," and the pacifist would think, "This is not for me."
The point is if, then, in business, someone says, "We run OKR," someone from an academic background will be completely oblivious to what that means. Hence, I've framed a structure that draws from the more mundane and the more human while adhering to the core principles of war and sports and some fundamental business principles. Additionally, it aims to be a scalable model that fits your activities as a team of a handful of people and an organization amounting in the thousands.
I call it “The Heart Beat Hustle”. It puts some of the core aspects of any chosen operating model into a new frame, making it easier to manage change, as you give the people experiencing the change a new perspective to look at their current predicament.
The Heart
"The heart" is your values and principles. The heart defines what kind of blood your organization supports. It is to say that no values are inherently wrong, but if you have significantly differing values, this heart may not be for you. Additionally, your principles, such as your policies, code of conduct, or the like, may make one organization a better fit for some blood over another.
By defining your blood type, you also make it a lot easier for others to help you and for you to help yourself. Furthermore, this analogy includes the fact that specific blood types (O-) fit all hearts (a talent that fits most organizations). Additionally, whether you like it or not, your organization will have values and principles regardless of their definition and whether you’ve explicitly written them.
The Beat
The beat is how you get your blood flowing—the rhythm of your organization or team. Additionally, you need to use some metrics to understand the beat better; that’s why there are monitoring devices that can tell you if you are beating or in beat. You could also draw on a music analogy here and say some people might hear it’s off-beat, but I’m not a musician, so I shouldn’t use such an analogy.
That said, your beat is your weekly, 1-on-1s, team dinners, company offsites, learning sessions, planning cycles, or other similar events. Additionally, the beat includes your metrics. That is what metrics your company is concerned with, and when do you look at those metrics during your “gathering rituals”? Furthermore, the metrics can be monitored in the room the same way you’ll have a heart monitor next to the patient.
What most organizations and teams get wrong is that they'll have metrics, but nobody ever looks at them, or the team doesn't look at them in the correct forums. The other is that they don't spend time thinking about a suitable beat for our organization and copy exactly what someone else is doing because they don't understand what purpose "the beat" actually serves. Without going into the details of this, Patrick Lenciones's "Death by Meeting" is likely the best book describing the subject.
The Hustle
The hustle is the output of what the body (the organization) achieves, with the heart getting the blood flowing. The hustle is the output = the goals and the “activities” we think will give us those goals. If we aim to run a marathon (output), the “activities” are our practice routine.
Now the operator will go, “Aah, this is OKRs,” but packaged differently, and I could say yes. However, this model makes even the agile methodologies of Kanban and Scrum fit in this frame, and therein lies its power. It’s simple enough to capture any model within it, so if you want to change the model used, you can first make the team or organization see it this way and then change it to something else. OK.
What this model still lacks and is helpful in an organizational context is;
Purpose statement and North Star metric
What metric categories should exist regardless of the nature of the team or the business?
How do you go about defining the content a.k.a. the values and principles for your “Heart,” the suitable “Beat” for your company and “The Hustle”?
Some practices around the fact that it still requires trust, transparency, and feedback loops to make it work.
What helps in getting this right is that each individual with some self-reflection exercise like the above can set the foundation for the three points above to create a culture of excellence and make the art of business as damn near as automatic as breathing for the team.
In the following article (next week), I explain how this model fits the previous organizations I’ve been a part of and how we’re implementing them for the organization I’ve chosen to join.
Joining deidei: What You Need to Know
My reasoning for joining, along with what I've explained in the previous post, is the following:
Matters of DEI are mission-critical for the world's short and long-term challenges.
Technology is pushing the boundaries of what consultancies are and can be. I find this intriguing.
I'm to stand outside my comfort zone and endure the uncomfortable. Both in terms of addressing my privileges and where I need to grow professionally. If I ever successfully grow something, I want to be aware of matters of DEI.
+ I help my existing network by creating a completely new one. What good is a meal if my people can't eat, and what good is first class if my people can't sit?
To give some business perspective and not just the ideals, The sector is valued at about 10B Globally, growing at about 13% over the next ten years to 30B, with significant shifts in enforcing new and existing regulations in the EU alone.
Not to mention 83% of the next generation of workers highly value matters of DEI when choosing an employer, companies putting effort into the subject perform better and employ better decision making, with lower risk to name a few added benefits of investing in the matter.
Additionally, the industry is highly fragmented, and standards among practitioners vary widely. I don't aim to be an expert, but working with those willing to "eat their dog food" sets deidei apart from the nearest collaborators. Whenever there is fragmentation, it provides an opportunity to consolidate or to take on thought leadership.
The challenge is not the opportunity, interest, or resources to address this issue at large; the challenge in the corporate world is how to align the customer's strategic needs on matters of ESG, not just matters of DEI. The problem is so apparent in the startup world that it's baffling. Here's a pretty analysis made by Unconventional Ventures, on the demographics of the VC backed teams last year in the Nordics. The gender diversity among teams whom received investments from VC’s doesn’t seem to have moved anywhere the past five years. After five years and all the work, the needle does not seem to have moved anywhere. How is that even possible? Something needs to be done.
Who is deidei?
Deidei has been around since 2021, forged out of an urge to improve on matters of DEI in society at large, without compromising on the values internally. The near-term goals are to expand beyond the current service offering that is as follows;
Data-Driven DEI:
- State of DEI Snapshot
- DEI Current State Assessment
- DEI Maturity Assessment
Strategic DEI Development:
- DEI Approach for your organization
- DEI Strategy
- DEI OKR’s
- DEI Onboarding for Leaders
DEI Learning & Development:
- DEI Keynotes
- DEI Trainings & Workshops
- DEI Coaching
- eLearning
DEI Change Management:
- Extended DI Consultant or Lead as a Service
- DEI Consulting
- DEI & Internal Communications
- DEI Coaching for Leadership
It’s a tightly knit team, with exceptional customer satisfaction scores from clients from all facets of society. A recent new customer’s reasoning for choosing deidei was as follows;
They thought that deidei’s approach is very understanding and empathetic, yet we are highly professional at what we do. They felt that we approach DEI with a positive mindset, even if the issues are difficult. They felt that we create a space where you are not blamed for making mistakes, but are encouraged to learn and instead we can help you to become better.
They also thought that deidei is a great fit for the companies culture, they thought that deidei really understand them and their realities. "relaxed but energetic and competent" was how they described deidei.
They also liked the new and fresh ideas we were able to suggest to them during the sales process
They had asked for a client reference during the process, but in the end they didn't end up contacting them, because they felt sure about deidei even without talking to another client
They also said that this is not just for one year, they want to make a continuous contract and want to offer deidei’s trainings in their internal academy for years to come
...and last but not the least, the new client already had a partner they had worked with for 2 years, and still they decided to choose deidei
I’ll dedicate a headline for deidei’s updates as long as I work with them. If you’re curious to learn more reach out or;
Acknowledgements
I've studied the teaching of the likes of Russel A. Ackoff, Peter Drucker, Simon Sinek, Brené Brown,
, Steve Barlett, Patrick Lencioni, Ben Horowitz, Mårten Mickos, Karri Saarinen and Marty Cagan regarding leadership, organizational design, as well as, business and product development. I've read hundreds of books on the subjects, and completed a Master’s degree within the topics listed above. This is not to say I know anything, it’s just to express that I’ve had an interest towards the subject over the years.Additionally, I've been lucky enough to learn directly from the likes of Katri Junna, Timo Ahopelto, Moaffak Ahmed, Ilkka Kivimäki, Robin Haak, Kristo Ovaska, Miki Kuusi, Atte Hujanen, Anssi Rusi, Otto Hilska, Jukka Lindström, Sami Honkonen, Marc Siles, Roni Ström and Niklas Lahti. Not to mention having the privilege to work alongside some other exceptional individuals. There are too many to list everyone. The attention over the years has humbled me, and I am grateful for the richness of the learnings gathered. However, as organizational psychologist Adam Grant put’s it along the lines of “It is not our job to make those who proceeded us proud, it’s our job to make those who succeed us proud.”
According to Rick Rubin, one of the most famed music producers of all time, the most significant pieces of art come from those who learned the game's rules to a point they can see past them or those who never knew them. After all this studying, I may not be close to the likes of Frank Martela or Hintsa, nor do I really aspire to be. If I’m good at this subject it certainly hasn’t been reflected in my wealth or my bank account.
Nonetheless, I feel I may be on the brink of seeing past the game's rules. However, what clouds my judgment in finding the perfect model for the future is my lack of understanding in matters of DEI. That is why working with deidei feels like a meaningful challenge. As the list of individuals I’ve learned from have quite distinct characteristics, regardless the few exceptions, as you may have noticed.
Until next week! Remember to subscribe for more thoughts every Sunday and get access to an exclusive community of daily “Just Thoughts”!
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