THE EVOLUTION OF A ‘POD MODEL’ …

This week’s reflection is about a topic that is taking up a significant amount of my time lately.  I will try to make it generic enough to have a wider application, but no guarantees.  As with all of my blogs, the goal is to have you ask yourself how is this relevant in my life or in my business?

As you know Keller Williams Coastal Properties (“KWCP”) is currently recreating its Company model.  A new vision with several service platforms intended to improve the experience of all customers, including agents, buyers, sellers, employees, service providers and contractors. 

The question is how can you provide a level of services for your employees, partners and independent contractors so that you create a ‘raving fan’ outside the walls of the Company?  Within the independent contractor model this is challenging due to the relationship between agent and broker.  One of the drivers in the new vision for KWCP is the creation of ‘agent pods’.  The genesis behind this idea came indirectly from the book ‘Open Book Management’ by John Case read over twelve years ago.

The KWCP agent pod model is where the agents are organized into teams of 9-10 agents per pod with a total of 28 pods.  The pods will meet weekly for no longer than 90 minutes at a time.  The meetings will be structured to start with themes proposed for the first ten or so until rapport and understanding of the value and goals is clear with each member of the group.  Also, initial pod leaders will be trained as to the vision and goals prior to the first meeting.  There are three critical features to this pod model, we call them the KWCP 3Cs – coaching, collaboration and communication.  The pods are not intended to replace the agent business model, but to augment what the agent is doing and to bring a level of support and services not readily available within the traditional brokerage model. 

So what will these pods look like at Keller Williams or for that matter your organization?  Once each pod overcomes the inherent distrust within the ‘old’ economic model through the sharing of stories there will be several potential benefits for the agent participants.  The first is peer-to-peer coaching (mentoring).  The goal here is to enable vested relationships to form that provide support, experiential guidance, peer mentoring, opportunities for role play, practicing of scripts, mastermind opportunities, and brainstorming about business development, sales and marketing.  Keller Williams does a great job providing formal classroom training and training materials from Keller Williams International.  But for several reasons this training becomes diluted at the field level – timing, relevancy, apathy, schedules, lack of quality teachers, etc.  What is that saying … “experience is the best teacher” … well multiple that by nine and you now have a unique out of class room opportunity for growth and learning. 

This peer-to-peer coaching also has several ancillary benefits.  For example, a few agents drain the Company’s resources dealing with reoccurring questions and issues that come up throughout the marketing and sales transaction that could easily and quickly be disposed of at the pod level.  This will free up the Company resources to concentrate on other revenue generating and support functions.  This will also reduce the disenfranchised feel within the organization – a few agents feel left out because they don’t get the attention, recognition and assistance they require to move forward in their business.  Either they find another source for help or they end up dissatisfied, and eventually leave the Company.  Unfortunately, they don’t typically leave with a good experience and create a negative energy surrounding the Company – the opposite of a ‘raving fan’.

The second feature of the 3Cs is collaboration – the golden egg that has the most significant upside potential (it can also be a train wreck if not managed properly).  Agents typically are ‘lone wolfs’ that are highly territorial with their piece of the pie (agents believe they own or have ‘cornered’ certain market information or contact data).  This mindset gets in the way of true collaboration.  The goal is to have people come together within the pods and look for ways to joint market, collaborate in certain niche markets or micro-markets, share networking opportunities, etc.  By working together agents can reduce their expenses while potentially gaining access to markets they may not have under normal conditions.  Yes, at some level a ‘sharing of the revenue’ is appropriate and the questions involved with that boil down to ‘how do I know the effort extended by each person will be equal?’  The easy answer is you don’t … but the potential of exponential growth is worth the trial.  At the very least this collaboration model will enable a sharing of ideas and market information that will allow each participant to be a better realtor.

The third feature inherent within this pod model is communication.  The broker will be able to efficiently communicate ideas, policies, market trends and training ideas through the pod leaders.  The pods will be able to discuss information disseminated, as well as other information and data collected by the people ‘in the trenches’ everyday.  New ideas or repackaged ‘old’ concepts will bubble to the surface and fed back to the executive team and broker for consideration.  This feedback loop is healthy, nay critical, in any profitable organization.  Throughout this process the Company can determine its ‘holes’ or ‘blind spots’; and then fix them quickly by adapting to evolving markets and customer demands.  Beyond this sales and marketing information can be collected that has financial applications within the Company – i.e., unlike most traditional businesses bean counters can predict cash flow streams due to revenue projections of its sales staff; but in a brokerage model that practice is unreliable because there is no short, medium and long term look into the pipeline because the broker (if they are lucky) only sees or tracks what is in escrow.  There are a few software applications beginning to track more data points within the transaction pipeline from first contact, through list, to sales contract and closing (see KnewVantage).

I encourage you to look at your business model for potential applications.  These agent pods can be adapted to your business model whether it operates within your company or morphs outside involving a group of industry peers.

I hope you enjoyed the reflection, and let me know how you embrace change even through its uncertainty.  Most of all I hope you make it a GREAT day and week!!  If you wish to read all the other Monday Morning Mojos written for you, then visit: http://mondaymojo.blogspot.com.  Or if you or a friend is looking to buy or sell real estate anytime soon, please look us up at www.coastalcommunityhomes.com. 

As always, I welcome your feedback and your reflections (please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts with me).  If I can be of service to you or your friends, please let me know.  And, thank you for your continued support and inspiration … each of you are a cherished gift that enriches my life in ways you will never understand … Thank you!!  Jim Peys

COLLABORATION … AN ELEGANT NEW ORDER WITH LEGS

Recently I crossed paths with a series of articles, books, blogs and business strategies that are causing me to explore the concept of ‘collaboration’ and the notion of “elegant organizations” across several businesses. Participating in an industry driven by competition there seems to be an ambitious allure regarding the potential for business development through the strategic utilization of ‘collaboration.’ This blog is by no means an exhaustive expose of ‘collaboration’ or its potential within your life; and thus I invite your comments and elaboration of its potential. Also, I admit from the inception that the topic or concept is not new; but that does not dilute its value. Regardless the model of ‘collaboration’ offers tremendous potential in the ‘new economy’ that is currently unfolding, and thus is worthy of our consideration.

By this time you are probably familiar with Facebook (everyone reading this blog is affected by members of the 250 million active Facebook users) and to a lesser degree stories about its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. One such story, or possibly myth, is that while Zuckerberg was at Harvard and working to create Facebook, he was unable to attend one of his art classes – allegedly he was unable to attend a single class the entire semester. When it came time for the final exam, Zuckerberg realized that he was going to flunk the class, unless he pulled a ‘rabbit out of his hat.’ So he emailed all his classmates a picture of the various artists discussed during the semester, with a blank text box below each artist’s picture. The tag line along with the email stated that Zuckerberg was organizing a study group for this class and was inviting each of them to participate. This invitation prompted his classmates to fill in each text box with the pertinent information about each artist. Zuckerberg shared all the responses in a series of follow-up emails. Each of the narrative responses were edited by the classmates, until consensus was reached on the pertinent information about each artist. The result was that Zuckerberg and each of the participants (classmates) had concise accurate information about each artist studied in class from which to study. The punch line as you might guess was that Zuckerberg ‘aced’ the exam and passed the class. But the real value was that afterwards, the professor acknowledged the class as a whole performed better on the final exam than any previous class for the same course. Ah, the true value of collaboration in a world that values competition (in an environment graded on a curve), this counter-intuitive model represents the clearest path to realizing each of our professional dreams.

Granted this story is duplicated on a small scale all the time - students gathering to share their class and study notes. That is at the heart of the model though – communities already exist everywhere, but our opportunity is how we organize and utilize these communities for the collective benefit of each of its participants. I challenge you to think beyond … look around you and open yourself to the potential of true collaboration that exists everywhere. I recently picked up a copy of BusinessWeek and the cover story is entitled “The Radical Future of R&D, It’s a New World of Collaboration Across Corporate and National Boundaries.” One of the featured articles (titled “Big Blue’s Global Lab”) describes how IBM (yes, Big Blue) is committed to its largest R&D venture. The basic premise is founded upon creating “radical collaboration partnerships with outside companies, countries, and industries as an essential part of its research” into new technologies that will form the basis of future products and services. You think they are alone … think again … Hewlett Packard, Proctor & Gamble, Eli Lilly, Microsoft, Google, and several other mega-corporations and governments are doing the same thing. Collaboration is all around us, borne from necessity, opportunity, and an array of other reasons that form the basis of a new economic reality (for a different perspective of this new reality – see this KPMG video).

So what does that mean for the small business owner, entrepreneur, or mid-level manager struggling for survival. Each moment is stretched by how to find the next dollar to pay the never-ending stream of bills (fixed overhead – the “atoms” of our effort). Jeff Jarvis suggests in his book “What Would Google Do” that “small is the new big”; and Chris Anderson recommends in his book titled “The Long Tail” to “get small but think big.” Get small … we are small, so now what? Financial, market, time, resource, operational limitations, egos, business visions, etc., provide just a few, albeit significant, road-blocks preventing serious consideration to how ‘collaboration’ could work in a tangible way. Well really … in these times … with the rate of technological and economic change can you afford NOT to consider this model? That is why this model is “counter-intuitive” because for every reason one could think not to consider collaboration and the creation of “elegant organizations” IS the very reason in support of its creation!

Ask yourself a few questions. What business are you in (may not be the obvious answer)? Is your business built on scarcity (basis of competition – if so, take heed the power of the internet is but around the corner), if so, ask how you might manage and exploit abundance? Where is your real value (what is your value proposition)? Who is your ‘customer’ (no really who is your ‘customer’ think expansively – think in terms of every ‘touch point’ in your process)? How do you uniquely serve or anticipate your customers’ needs? Look around you … what do you see? Look at the existing communities you serve. Consider the communities around you – how do you enable them to talk; enable them to share what they know or need to know; enable them to support each other; and enable them to do the ‘business of business’? How can you create a ‘platform’ of services (and or products) that invite your ‘customers’ to sit alongside you to design or co-create services that fit the space they are in at this moment (fill their need as they define it, not as you define their need to be – ah yes, there is the real resistance point – the old economic model is based upon ‘control’, fear, and hoarding)? I think you get the idea.

Ok, so you have asked yourself the questions and are comfortable with your answers … now what and why (I’ll leave the “how” to other blogs and business pundits). The easy answer to the “why” will vary for all of us. In a future blog with the help of a case study involving a networking group (Long Beach Business Professionals Association) and your feedback, I will explore the “why” and possibly the “how.”

The seed of opportunity for forward thinking individuals, networks, communities and companies is NOT one connection, one prospect/lead, one idea, or one deal (as promoted by your typical networks, communities, companies and lead generation groups, i.e., Tippers, LeTip, etc.); but in a collaborative effort involving all its members and all its ‘customers.’ The germination of a ‘community’s’ (defined broadly) potential is held within the notion of leveraging the ‘whole of its parts’ for the exclusive benefit of every person or entity that interacts with the group. I would challenge you to explore how to co-create a ‘service platform’ that enables respective ‘customers’ (defined broadly) to define how to use the service to get what they want, when they want, and for a price that is more competitive than what could be found outside the ‘platform’ (another concept gaining momentum in the blog world is “zero-based budgeting”). In this model, the aggregate whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts, without any prospect of losing each member’s individual identity or diluting individual brands.

The ‘platform’ will take on a dynamic life of its own allowing the group to LISTEN to everyone who ‘touches’ the ‘platform of services.’ As people contribute to the ‘platform’ as either members or customers it enlarges the database (data points) providing better market information and greater access to prospects, products, services and ultimately opportunity. A collaboration of services combined with valuable content that is constantly evolving will add value to the ‘platform’ resulting in greater opportunities for everyone.

The notion of collaboration is a methodology of organizing a community’s knowledge so that the existing community can better organize itself. Creating a network of sub-communities that reach deeper into a community will have more impact and add real value, and therefore offer an array of revenue opportunities along the way for its contributors. But to get there the ‘platform’ will need to “act small but think big”, and view the world with a different lens (from abundance instead of scarcity). Jarvis challenges us in “What Would Google Do” to “release all information bottlenecks and make all touch points more fluid. Stop trying to make money by interfering in transactions.” When I thought about these two statements it struck me as counter-intuitive to conventional business models – old line businesses are structured to create bottlenecks, and then to take financial advantage – i.e., make a transaction more complicated so that you can be the ‘expert’ that clarifies the mess. A model based upon competition and scarcity allows the Internet to shed a different perspective upon it by encouraging collaboration and abundance – and there IS both the flaw (existing models) and the opportunity (for a new model).

We need to ask ourselves what is the world we wish to create and participate in? Personally, the old business model (based upon fear of scarcity) holds no allure for me; and the new order’s call for change is scary being an outsider looking in, but leaves me little choice. So as a dear friend emphatically encouraged me on my trip back East … “just engage, just get in the game Jim.”

I hope you enjoyed the reflection, and take the time to consider how these questions and evolving business models present significant opportunity for each of us. Most of all I hope you make it a GREAT day and week!! If you wish to read all the other Monday Morning Mojos written for you, then visit: http://mondaymojo.blogspot.com. As always, I welcome and encourage your feedback and your reflections (please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts with me). If I can be of service to you or your friends, please let me know. And, thank you for your continued support and inspiration … each of you are a cherished gift that enriches my life in ways you will never understand … Thank you!! Jim Peys