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Dan Lok

How Organizational Performance Can Drive Employees To Make Smarter Decisions

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Do you know what the biggest needle mover is for your organizational performance?

It’s the ability to make as many decisions as possible and to make them fast. This strategy doesn’t only apply to you but to all of your employees as well. In fact, employee involvement in decision making should be your company’s backbone and is key to improve work performance. Let’s face it – you can’t keep track of everything that goes on within your company. 

It’s better to trust and have confidence in the people you work with. That way, you can focus on what matters most to you – without the extra stress. 

As soon as you have the instinct to act on a goal, you need to take action immediately. If you don’t, your brain will kill that desire within seconds. 

Sounds crazy, right?

TEDx speaker Mel Robbins wrote a book about this called The 5 Second Rule. She talks about how you can transform your work and life by being confident in the decisions you make every single day and as a result improve work performance.

All it takes is 5 seconds for you to make every decision. After 5 seconds, that’s when you’ll start to hesitate with your ideas. You wouldn’t want that, would you?

It might take time for you to practice making these decisions so quickly. But as soon as you get used to it, your business’s 1-year plan could come a lot sooner.

So if you’ve been asking yourself, “What will help us make smarter decisions?” Count 5-4-3-2-1-GO, and you’ll be happy you did.

How to improve organizational performance

1. Know Your Priorities

Before your company makes any decisions, you have to set your priorities straight.

Priorities can change all the time. What you have planned before might not work in the following months.

As a business owner, it’s your role to make sure everyone in your company understands your priorities. That also means being familiar with your vision and values too.

When everyone is on the same page, it makes optimal organizational performance possible. They will have a clear picture of what their responsibilities are to achieving goals.

One way that will help your employees make smarter decisions is by listening to them more. It’s never been more true when you hear that the art of communication is the language of leadership. If your focus is on employee involvement in decision making, you’ll get more done and this is an important way to improve work performance.

picture of a man on the phone with boats in the background for the ways to improve work performance post

“How much time would you save if you didn’t have to make every decision? What would you do with all that extra time?”

As long as you set priorities for your company, then there would be a strategic plan to execute. Your employees will look for the right decisions to support your goals. 

But if you’re unclear about what those goals are, it’s harder for them to decide what to do next. They’ll have to rely on you to make decisions for them since they want to avoid making mistakes. 

If you want to see how your employees are making decisions, you can compare what they do with what you would do. If that doesn’t match, then that’s something you all still need to work on.

Even the managers in your team need to have the same thought process as yours when it comes to decision making. That way, they can reinforce their decisions to the rest of your employees. 

Not everyone will make the right decisions for themselves at the beginning. It’ll take time for others to understand how to make your goals happen. So, you can always provide knowledge and resources for them to achieve faster.

2. Have a Game Plan to Improve Work Performance

Did you know that your employees can and should go beyond doing their job?

You’re not only hiring them to work for you, you’re hiring them to build on their strengths. You pay them to become the best version of themselves. That way, you can leverage their skills and talents for optimal growth.

When employees get to do what they’re skilled at, they’ll be comfortable with decisions.

Your life changes the moment you make a new, congruent, and committed decision. Click To Tweet

photo of staff making decisions which is one way to improve work performance post

Since all roles in your company are different, you’ll need to come up with a game plan for every role. A plan that works for the designer might not work for the writer for example.

Your team will make smarter decisions when you avoid the one-size-fits-all approach. That means you can’t assume that every business training will help each employee.

What you need to do is match your employees’ abilities with the correct skillful work. This will help sustain organizational performance when no one is under-performing. 

Even if you’ve had an employee work for you since the start of your company, there’s still a lot they might not know. 

For example, if their role is to work in the warehouse, then they won’t know how to function the storefront – and vice versa. Or someone in charge of writing ads might not be skillful enough to take on sales calls too.

It’s better for each employee to stick with that one thing they’re specialized in. This will help them grow in their role and become an expert that others will look up to.

After deciding who’s good at what, you can then pair employees in teams where you see them thriving the most. It could be for content creation, project management, etc.

You can carry out employee involvement in decision making by asking these questions:

  1. What’s the decision?
  2. What information do you need?
  3. Are there any alternatives?
  4. Can you weigh the evidence?
  5. What actions will you need to take?

These questions will become secondhand nature to you every time you make decisions. It creates a process and less confusion when driving out actions fast. Your team will be able to track progress and make fewer mistakes and will lead to improvement in work performance.

3. Coach Employee Involvement In Decision Making

According to the International Coaching Federation, 86% of companies recouped their investment into coaching.

Employees who receive coaching could increase self-confidence, improve relationships, and develop communication skills. These are all necessary for personal development and organizational performance. It will enable your team to bring more results to the table.

Good coaches have these 5 characteristics:

  1. Actively listen: You listen to and understand workplace concerns.
  2. Answer questions: You ask and answer questions that will help your team understand and make better decisions. 
  3. Be non-authoritative: You take on a non-authoritative approach, recognizing the success of a team effort where you work on goals together.
  4. Be transparent: You are transparent in all aspects with no hidden agenda or emotional attachment to situations between employees. 
  5. Provide direction: You give direction with the proper training and tasks to move employees towards success.

group of colleagues discussing an issue or problem

With the right coaching, your company will make fewer wrong decisions. Poor decision making can cost money and time. No business owner would want that to happen.

Instead, it’s a smart choice to invest efforts into successful coaching. After all, it’s the coach who helps a great team make smart decisions. When a leader is inexperienced, it can slow down the workflow.

The only decisions you should make are the ones that impact each department of your business. The managers can decide which tasks to delegate to your employees. As for your employees, it’s up to them and their skills to complete those tasks. 

If your employees need help with bigger decisions, they should reach out to the managers. That’s why it’s important for teams to collaborate and communicate solutions. It’s also easier for everyone to give and receive feedback when you’re working closer together which will lead to improved performance at work.

To become more efficient, employees should always provide the best information possible. They should consider some supportive decisions that may work first. So both managers and yourself will have fewer problems deciding what’s best for the company.

4. Ensure Your Judgement Is Good

Judging isn’t always a negative.

In any business, judgment will help make complicated structures more simple. You will gain more wisdom and experience too.

Without good judgment, you won’t be able to make the best decisions. While making a judgment, you can ask yourself these questions:

  • Am I the decision-maker?
  • How much time do I have to make this decision?
  • Do I have all the facts?
  • Who’s opinion would I want to hear from?
  • How can I get better at making good judgments?

The more opportunities you provide for employees to practice, the smarter the decisions. There will be enough feedback to know how to navigate through any difficult decision. 

A perfect example of this would be employees receiving feedback, guidance, and practice. 

If leaders fail to guide employees, they won’t be able to improve their behaviors. They would never reflect on the mistakes they’ve made or been capable of refining solutions.

Your employees need to see what decisions will and will not align with your company’s goals and promises. This will become a big driver in the workplace.

Former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson said, “One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty councils. The thing is to supply light and not heat.”

When you can adjust to better choices quickly, you’ll improve future judgment by a lot. Imagine how your team’s progress would look without any second guesses? Organizational behavior is essential for improving performance and commitment at work.

5. Track Ways To Make Smarter Decisions

The easiest way to make a decision is to see what’s tracked. 

That means you’ll need to record what happens before and after the results. This tracking progress will increase the effectiveness of employee involvement in decision making.

If you want to improve organizational performance, you’ll need repetitive winning outcomes.

Making decisions can cause employees to procrastinate, lose self-control, and lack quality. That’s why when you take advantage of your business data, it can help you decide what to do next.

Even if some data can’t make decisions for you, it will still narrow down your choices to find the right one. You’ll feel more confident when you’re not guessing what you should do.

To measure your efforts, you can track your company’s KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

You’ll need to find out which metrics are important to you to help you measure the improvement in work performance.

For example, you could measure:

  • Average conversion time
  • Blog subscribers
  • Click-through rate
  • Cost per production
  • Engagement rate
  • Sales revenue
  • Social media traffic
  • Training costs
  • Website visitors
  • And so much more

What KPIs are important for your business?

These metrics are a huge resource for you and your team. Once you have the data laid out, it’ll be easier to make reasonable decisions for the company. 

This is something Dan Lok does when he wants to run ads on his programs. 

Since there are so many platforms to choose from when advertising, it’s best to focus on only a few or even one. For Dan, he tested out ads on Google, YouTube, Facebook, and more.

It seems like most of his students are finding him through Facebook. So, it would make sense to focus more on your ad spend on the platform that helps you create the most results. 

Makes sense, right? Keep in mind, the fastest way to improve is to test and see what works.

6. Optimize Your Progress

After you track your progress, you need to optimize them for better organizational performance.

Every great decision-maker wants to make smarter decisions all the time. To achieve that, you’ll need to keep finding ways to do things better. 

It could be as simple as redesigning your logo or as complex as developing a new website. Either way, these changes can generate more revenue for your business and improve work performance. 

How?

Well, technologies and the internet world are always changing. More people are online now and new apps are available. This means you’ll have to keep up to date on what’s trending. 

If you’re behind in the game, your competition might have the advantage. That’s why it’s crucial for you to keep updating your company’s processes. 

There’s an innovation for almost anything. If you feel that your workflow could speed up, there’s most likely a tool that can help you. 

When you can leverage the right resources, you’ll come across fewer problems in your business. And who wouldn’t want to be hands-off as much as possible?

Your team’s productivity and growth will speed up while performing at a high level. That’s what optimization can do for you when you put your focus towards it.

The ultimate goal should be for you to optimize everything – including your employees.

85% of search marketing professionals will focus more on conversion rate optimization. That means their marketing focus increases by 85%. Can you imagine what the results would be like?

It’s true that companies will have a higher chance of success by testing and optimizing more. You could add a few more zeros in your bank account.

Before you even think about running a new business, you need to optimize what you have first. Otherwise, you’re going to get side-tracked and never fix existing issues. Then, you’ll be able to carry out good habits in all aspects of the business.

7. Take Your Organizational Performance To The Next Level

Having employee involvement in decision making will take your hands off from a lot of things.

You don’t have time to hold your employees by the hand and make decisions for them. 

When there are hundreds of decisions to make every day, you’ll have no choice but to trust your team. You’ll need to rely on them to help make smarter decisions for you.

Sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want and can cause long-term mistakes. This also includes the loss of time, money, and resources. 

So, how can you ensure that mistakes like this won’t happen?

It’s important for you to build confidence in every employee that works with you. You’ll need to track and optimize everything in your business for better results.

The best way to go about this is to give your team the attention they need. 

Once they receive the proper training and feedback, they’ll be able to help you run your business. They can make bigger decisions on the spot. Or, they’ll know to reach out to other team members for guidance. Organizational behavior is essential for improving performance and commitment in the workplace.

As long as you’re transparent and supportive, your team looks forward to honing their skills. When you help them win, they will help you win too.

If you would like to find out how to lead a team to make smarter decisions and improve work performance, Dragon 100™ might be for you. 

Dragon 100™ is an advisory board designed for only 100 qualified entrepreneurs. This isn’t for everyone. It’s especially not for every business.

But, if you have what it takes to scale your business to the next level then this is the right place. Inside of Dragon 100™ you’ll surround yourself with the world’s great decision-makers.

You’ll even get to discover how to add an extra 6 or 7 figures to your business in a short period of time. With Dan Lok’s guidance, you’ll save years from figuring it all out on your own. 

Click here to apply and become a Dragon 100™ member today.

How To Strengthen Your Brand Reputation By Using Disruptive Technologies

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If you ask business owners what they’re doing to strengthen their brand, you might get a variety of answers. Some might think that only the big guns think about branding. Some might have no idea how to even get a brand at all. But the truth is, every company, no matter how big, has a brand.

Now, more than ever, building a good brand is easy. Surprisingly easy. You don’t need to pay expensive graphic designers for logos- you can use an app. You don’t need to put your employees through a daylong session with a photographer – great photos can be taken with phones too.

Template website builders can create websites in hours. Their quality can match what professional web designers do for most users. Unfortunately, this comes with a downside. Now that everyone can be a brand, it’s harder to be number one.

But do you need to be number one to be on top? Do you even need to be the first? The answer you’ll get in this article might surprise you. But here is a quick peek: Perception is reality. You only need to be perceived as superior and consumers will treat you so.

Now, as you will learn, this is not as easy as it sounds. But by the end of this article, you’ll know how to shift perceptions and gain this superiority status. You’ll understand what you need to strengthen your brand and become a disruptor at the same time.

How To  Strengthen Your Brand By Becoming A Disruptor

You’ve probably heard the term disruptor before. But what does it actually mean? Can only startups become disruptors? How do you go about it? Do you need to be innovative?

In this article, we’ll discuss what you need to disrupt an industry. You’ll discover what steps you can take to do so. But let’s begin by defining disruption first.  According to its official definition by Clayton M. Christensen, disruption has five  criteria:

1. It’s a process, not a product or service, that occurs from the fringe to mainstream

Are you hoping that your product will be the new Netflix? You’ll be disappointed. Powerful disruptors didn’t change the game the day they came out. Blockbuster refused to buy Netflix many times before. Few people took Wikipedia seriously as a source of information at first.

Go in with the mindset that you have to work hard and that it won’t be easy. But with the right framework, you have a chance to succeed.

2. Originate in low-end (less demanding customers) or new market (where none existed) footholds

This means that disruptive technologies originally don’t appeal to mainstream demand. They satisfy a need that first occurs in emerging markets or is unimportant to the current market. What does this mean?

A new product or technology doesn’t always have to be the very best. It can be a cheaper solution with fewer features than the current incumbents offer. Not every customer needs a space station’s worth of technology in their pockets. Especially if it costs a monthly salary to buy.

Some people are happy with a $200-$300 smartphone. They don’t need the latest features.

Your solution could also meet demand current incumbents don’t address. Going back to our Netflix and Wikipedia example: You remember,  before them, consumers needed to go to public libraries and video rental stores. It seems ages ago, doesn’t it?

3. New firms don’t catch on with mainstream customers until quality catches up with their standards

This is important. Most disruptive offers are seen as inferior. Consumers won’t buy only because your product is cheaper. Looking back at Netflix and Wikipedia:

Libraries cost a rental fee for books, the same as video rental stores. Wikipedia was free and Netflix charged significantly lower fees. This didn’t give their customers a reason to use them yet, did it?

Netflix needed to step up their game. In the beginning, they offered to send DVD’s to you via mail. They offered a longer return time, so you can conveniently watch them. But only after Netflix became a video streaming service, the market cherished their offer.

In the case of Wikipedia, people didn’t trust the information at first, as everyone could edit it. Wikipedia became a credible source of information after they started monitoring their sources.

4. Success is not a requirement and some business can be disruptive but fail

You might ask: Isn’t the whole point of disruptors to be more successful than their contemporaries? 

But remember, it’s a process, not a product or service. Yes, you might have a solution that would be highly disruptive but the market won’t go crazy over you at first.

To master this phase, excellent marketing and presence in the marketplace are crucial. We’ll tell you about this later on.

5. The new firm’s business model differs significantly from the current industry leaders

This is usually what disruption is known for. The big players were not able or willing to go with the times. As a consequence, they were disrupted by a company that thought outside the box.

We’ll give you an easy process to find a spot to disrupt the market later on as well. But for now, let us remind you that you don’t have to tick off all the boxes to become disruptive or succeed as a new company.  Yet it helps to know those aforementioned influencing factors ahead of time.

Let’s take a deeper look into those criteria of successful disruption and how you can use them to become successful disruptors.

Once you have a clearer understanding of it, you’ll see why the disruption strategy further down might work well for you.

Before You Strengthen Your Brand, Focus on People

Focus on the people in your company specifically. Disruption needs innovators, out-of-the-box thinkers, and leaders.

How can you build a disruptive company without the people to support the process? Not getting traction in the market can be tedious, mentally taxing, and frustrating. It’s easy to lose faith and give up. But with the right team on your side, executing a disruptive idea is easier.

Dan Lok says: An average idea with an excellent team is worth way more than an excellent idea with an average team. But how do you get such an excellent team?

Train for innovators 

Innovation is a learnable skill. So make sure to give your staff the relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities. Look for a strong desire to be the first and prepare them for heavy competition trying to keep you down. This will happen sooner or later and if you’re prepared, that’s one more step towards success.

Change the culture

 Allow employees to explore, experiment, and bring in new ideas. Let them be on the offensive and take initiative on their ideas. Most companies try to play it safe when they start but disruption needs another approach.

Hire for disruptors

Being unconventional requires unconventional methods to hire people. Put a hiring process in place to see their creativity, thinking skills, and problem-solving skills.

With the right team by your side, you can now focus on earning your place in the mainstream. To be truly disruptive, make sure to start from scratch. Don’t just try to work within the boundaries as everyone else. Step completely outside the box and approach from an angle no one else comes form. As Albert Einstein put it: We cannot solve problems with the same mental state in which we created them.

Strengthen Your Brand By Superior Presence

This a powerful strategy that Dan Lok used to build his global empire. Remember, a successful disruptor makes customers feel that the quality of the product meets their standards. Yet, value is very subjective, right? But if you control how people perceive you, there is a good chance you also control how they perceive your offer.

People don’t buy because they understand that you’re better. They buy because they feel understood by you. So get in their daily lives, and be in front of them as much as possible. 

Ask yourself – how can I be constantly in front of my target audience?

You see, it usually takes 5-20 touchpoints until a client considers to buy from you. Why is that? Today’s market is very crowded and consumers get bombarded by different ads constantly. 

So what then if you don’t have a huge advertising budget? Well, this could be a challenge. It’s hard to overcome loud competition and cut through the noise.

This is tough for disruptors especially.  At first, customers don’t know, like, or trust you. Yet, with increasing touchpoints, you gain increasing attention and trust.

What can you use to get exposure? Technology and tools that is accessible to the masses, relatively cheap and free: Content. Use blogs, YouTube videos, webinars, social media posts, podcasts, emails…to just name a few. 

You might wonder – Which of those platforms and tools should I use? The short answer is – all of them. If this is not possible yet, focus on the medium that your ideal prospect is most comfortable with.

Strengthen Your Brand With Content Variety

It pays great dividends to use funnels as well to educate and warmup your clients. A rule of thumb is, for every $1000 you want to charge give them one hour of valuable and relevant content.

What kind of content can you create? Anything you like, but there are two types of it: Paid and Organic.

Paid content entails anything that you pay for like Facebook and Google Ads. Organic content is anything you put out for free, like blogs, emails or social media posts.

You can mix and match them together, to create automated value ladders for your clients. This way, you’ll be able to engage them when they are ready, on their time and on their terms.

This way you will be different and more valuable. Remember,  any company can just put out one ad hoping to get their business. But putting out content is beneficial to you in more than one way:

  • It enhances brand awareness
  • It allows you to prepare your clients.  You can pre-handle objections, filter out unqualified prospects, and more
  • It gives you an authority status.  By creating content on every platform, you’ll gain a stronger status in your industry.

Imagine you’re looking for a product and there are multiple providers.

One of them has thousands of posts, hundreds of articles, and you see their ads everywhere. The others only have a great website and a newsletter. hat would you think if you were the customer?

How To Strengthen Your Brand And Penetrate The Market

How else can you make your audience appreciate you? Make it easier for them to explore your product or service. Show them you truly understand them.

Become your own client. Walk a few miles in their shoes, look for their most pressing problems. A problem is a product, as Dan Lok says.  See what they are using to solve those problems. 

What current solutions can they access? Are they sufficient? If not, what’s missing? That’s where you can come in and give them what they are looking for.

You can use this checklist to do your research:

  • Scan the market for strong demands. Are there certain hot products available currently? Do any of those get criticism for certain missing or unwelcome features?
  • Find that one pressing demand you want to satisfy and map out your ideal audience
  • Become your ideal audience and recreate their lifestyle. What is their life like, why are they using the product or service you want to disrupt? What are possible alternatives and what does your future customer like and doesn’t like about it?
  • If you found the missing piece of the puzzle, now strategize how you can solve it easier. How can you do it cheaper, and more conveniently for your customer?  Ask yourself: Why didn’t the competition address this pain point yet?
  • Once you have your solution, it’s time to become visible. Find a proven formula and strategy to market within your niche. Execute the blueprint with your team

Once you have traction and people are picking up on your offer, it’s time to scale. Use a combination of social media, paid and organic traffic and remote teams.  Remote teams increase your agility and allow you to use employees more efficiently. They don#t spend long times in commute and could even work in different time zone. This way, you can quickly react to what happens in the market. Especially if your competition tries to make a move against you.

Don’t underestimate the power of social media. When you want to strengthen your brand take a look at which social media platforms can help you. If you’re more in the B2B space, LinkedIn might be a good choice to start.

Facebook can give you great insights into your metrics and has a lot of data on your audience. TikTok and Instagram are also very powerful, especially with teenage audiences. Now, some of those platforms still count as low value or low status. This is why the established businesses rarely use them, if at all.

This might be one of the pathways into the mainstream. Appear where your competition doesn’t go. From there, you can build up a powerful following under the radar of the incumbents. As with many disruptors, they might only notice you when they can’t ignore you anymore.

It’s Not Easy To Strengthen Your Brand As A Disruptor – Unless You Know This

If you want to shortcut this path, you might find value in Dan Lok’s program created it for his high-level clients. You see, many companies want to hire Dan for consulting to grow faster, manage their teams better and become crisis-proof.

Yet, he has to reject most of those requests as he has only a very limited amount of time available. This is why he created the High Ticket Influencer Program. It’s a blueprint on how to dominate your industry by becoming the most influential company in the niche.

You’ll learn how to build an elaborate content system to attract clients.  What’s so special about it? It warms them up and sells for you while being fully automated and consistent.

In this program, Dan explains how to leverage webinars and social media to become nearly omnipresent.  This enables you to sell with powerful messages 24/7. Furthermore, you’ll learn how to make your disruptive offers into high ticket offers and l increase your margins. 

As a bonus, you’ll also gain access to Dan’s directors of Copy, Revenue, and Advertising. This way, you get insights on possible weak spots before they become a serious problem. 

But all of this is just the tip of the iceberg.

If you ever wished to have Dan’s influence, reach, and status, then this is the program for you.  It contains the exact, step-by-step blueprint to replicate what Dan did in record time. 

If you want to become a disruptor and strengthen your brand, check the High Ticket Influencer Program here.

Creating A Positive Work Environment: How Your Corporate Culture Can Be Supportive, Harmonious and Flexible

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As a business owner, how do you create a positive work environment? Do you load up the kitchen with snacks? Give your employees a raise? Or give them more vacation than the competitors? These are all good methods to increase team morale. But when it comes to creating a positive work environment, they are not the best long-term solutions.

Successful business leaders know that creating this company culture at its core is important. In fact, having a positive work environment is the most important factor when it comes to building a good company. Business strategy, systems, and management all come secondary.

Reasons To Create a Positive Work Environment

  • When your employees are happy, they are more likely to perform at their best. Instead of cutting corners when the boss isn’t around, they take ownership of their work. This builds trust, which benefits all parties involved.
  • Trust gives you peace of mind. You can do other things knowing your team will produce results.
  • A poor work environment benefits no one. It means that your team members are conflicted with one another. As Abraham Lincoln said: “A house divided against itself, cannot stand.” If your team members are not on the same page, nothing will get done. And if nothing gets done, your business will fail.

creating a positive work environment

 

How to Create A Positive Work Environment

1. Make company culture at your core

Company culture boils down to how employees perform, react, and respond to things when you are not there. Do they have the skills to handle things by themselves? Or do they panic and call you up when something goes wrong? These are indicators that show you what kind of culture you have.

If you want to grow a successful company, you need a good culture. When you have a large organization, you can’t always be there for your team. You have to let them do their job, and they have to let you do the same. You need to trust that they will do their best when you are not there. And trust is about knowing their values.

creating a positive work environment

Values are the beliefs someone has. Someone with strong values will not take shortcuts even though they can. They will be honest in everything they do. Other terms for values are integrity, ethics, or morals.

Creating a positive work environment requires people with the right values. Oftentimes, the people you hire will not have the same values you are looking for. As a result, you need to let them know what values are important to you.

A good culture will help people develop the right values. When they see everyone else acting in a certain way, it will influence them to do the same.

2. Reinforce the values of the company daily

Successful CEO’s know the importance of a positive work environment. In fact, the most successful companies today make work culture a priority. These are the companies that are at and beyond the billion dollar mark.

When you have the right culture, things will take care of itself. Your people will automatically perform and produce results. They will come up with the right strategies.

Here’s an example: if you’ve ever attended a networking event, you may have participated in an icebreaker. This is where people get divided into teams to solve a complex problem.

Oftentimes, the team with the best culture produces the best results. They are able to come up with the answer before anyone else. Or produce a solution that trumps all the other teams. This is because they have good culture. Everyone is on the same page, working towards the same goal. They work together instead of figuring things out by themselves. That allows them to produce results much faster than if they were alone.

This example shows why company culture is number one.  Even though these people do not know each other, they can produce results. They don’t need systems, management, or team leaders. They can figure things out by themselves. 

Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Click To Tweet

3. Educate and Be Transparent

Creating a positive work environment is not easy. It requires a lot of patience and time. This is because people cannot instantly adapt to new changes. They need time to get used to how things are done.

New people that join your team do not understand your culture or values. Oftentimes, they come from a different background with different values and beliefs. As a result, it will take time for them to shift their mindset.

How can you create a positive work environment? Educate the team and be transparent, show them the values of the company and how it affects them. Once the team understands the culture, you don’t have to check up on them anymore. In fact, it becomes a benefit. Now, these people can breed the next generation of new team members. You can put them in charge of drilling the company’s values into the new hires.

So what about people that refuse to conform? What if your employees are aware of your company values but don’t do what you want them to? The only advice we have is to remove them from the team. One bad apple will ruin the whole lot. If even one member of your organization goes Rambo, it affects the entire company.

Understand that there is a difference between someone struggling to conform and someone who refuses to. If it has only been a few weeks, chances are they are still learning. But if it has been going on for months, you are better off finding people who understand your values.

4. Apply The 3 Values To Create A Positive Work Environment

There are 3 values you need to create good culture: loyalty, harmony, and results.

1. Loyalty

Loyalty is important for creating a positive work environment. Let’s say you have an A-player in your company. If they are not loyal to you, they are not useful. They may use their skills to mess up your organization or to stab you in the back.

creating a positive work environment

A loyal team member is a trustworthy one. These are people who are happy to grow alongside you instead of leaving you behind. These are people you want in your company. They understand that everyone prospers when they add value.

2. Harmony

  • Another value that’s important for creating a positive work environment is harmony.
  • Let’s say you had a superstar in your company but this person cannot work with others. They are a lone wolf who no one can get along with.
  • This is an example of someone who is arrogant. They believe their way of doing things is the right way. They are straying from the pack. To them, results are all that matters. They don’t have to buy into culture.
  • You will need people who can harmonize with others if you want to create a good team environment.

3. Results

  • A team that cannot get along cannot produce great results. Imagine your team members as an army. An army must work together to win. If they cannot work together, they will fight with one another and end up straying from the group.
  • Now, you have different groups trying to conquer different things. This is inefficient because most likely they do not have enough strength on their own. But if they focused their efforts as one to conquer a similar goal, their chance of success increases.
  • Creating a positive work environment allows team members to work in harmony. The efforts of many people get multiplied many times when focused.

5. Enforce Your Standards For Creating A Positive Work Environment 

How can you create a great company culture? What if you have conflict? You must be very strict about enforcing company harmony. This means not allowing conflicts or politics in the team. If anyone tries to create drama, they must be removed. Their negativity may create problems that affect other members. This results in a disruption of operations in the business.

Not enforcing company harmony is the same as watching your business burn. This will result in workers getting lazy. Or finding ways to exploit the business. When morale is low, so are the results produced. Internal problems will negatively affect your business.

To avoid this, find people who associate with your company values. People who are loyal, can get along with others, and produce results are the people you want to look for. They will create a great team environment where everyone is happy. And the happier they are, the more efficiently they’ll perform.

6. Everyone Needs To Be On The Same Page

During 480 BC, the Greek city-state known as Sparta went to war against Persia. The Greek army had 7,000 men at it’s disposal; the Persian army had over a million. To delay the Persian army’s advance, the Greeks blocked off a small road known as Thermopylae.

The plan was to have the Persian’s fight in this narrow passageway. From the results of their first day’s battle, the plan seemed to be successful. The Greeks were able to hold off the Persian army with little casualties.

On the second day of battle, disaster struck. The Greeks were betrayed, and the Persians learned of another road they could take. As a result, the Greeks found themselves fighting a battle on two fronts – from the front and from behind. Their focus divided, they could not hold the enemy off, and after three days, they lost the fight.

This example shows how important teamwork is. On the first day of battle, the Greeks had no trouble fighting off the Persians. This is because everyone had the same goal in mind: to hold off the front.

When their focus was divided, suddenly they found themselves struggling. Half their force was occupied with the front. And half of the force was occupied with the rear. They no longer had the same goal in mind. Instead of being united as one, they were now split up.

Some soldiers followed orders and stuck together. Others broke rank and charged ahead by themselves. They were outnumbered and killed. Over the course of three days, these small mistakes added up costing the lives of 7,000 soldiers.

When their focus was one, they were successful. When it was divided, their defenses crumbled. The Greeks represent your business. You want everyone focused if you want to be successful.

Your Company Culture Determines Your Success

Team members who do not know company values need to learn them fast. If even one member strays from the goal, the entire formation becomes broken. This results in the whole team failing.

Like the Greeks, your team members are an army. If they move together as one, they will succeed. Their efforts become multiplied when they work together. They can look out for one another and cover each other’s weaknesses.

But what happens if one of them doesn’t work with the others? What if they go Rambo and do their own thing?

Here’s what happens: your team members start doing the wrong things. Let’s say your company culture values three things: open communication, following the group, and taking ownership for your actions.

Now let’s take these values and implement them into a battle scenario. 6,999 of your soldiers understand these values. 1 of them does not. If this army clashes with the enemy, guess what will happen? The one soldier will not communicate, follow the group, or take ownership for his or her actions.

They may abandon the fight and run off. Charge ahead by themselves. Or in the worst case scenario, do all of the above and influence others to do the same.

If one team member strays from the pack, it influences others to do the same, which then influences more people. And so on and so on. Now, instead of one cohesive unit, you have everyone doing their own thing. Chaos breaks out, and no one knows what to do. As a result, they all get slaughtered.

Business is war. One soldier who does not understand orders will jeopardize the entire group. Make sure your team members understand what they should do, or your company will fail.

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all. - George Washington Click To Tweet

A Checklist Successful Organizations Use To Build A Thriving Company Culture

Creating a positive work environment is necessary for business success, how you create this positivity within the company is down to you as the CEO or Managing Director.

To achieve great things, you need a team of people. These people need to understand company culture if they want to succeed. When everyone is on the same page, they are able to work faster. They’ll be able to use their creativity to solve problems. And create results in your company.

This is why things like business strategy or management come second. When you have good company culture, you don’t need to spend time on those things.  Your team members will be able to come up with their own solutions. They will create the strategies, take ownership, and manage themselves.

You want to create an organization that is independent. They should be able to work without your supervision. If you always need to supervise them, you are not a business owner. You are a babysitter. And a babysitter does not get paid as well.

The most successful organizations in the world all have two things in common. They have a great culture, and they are super successful. If you are looking to achieve the same results, you need to create a positive work environment.

The Dragon 100™ checklist is a summation of these things and more. If you want one you can use in your business, get your copy now.

How to Sustain Organizational Culture During a Global Expansion

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Perhaps you plan on scaling your business: more clients, more sales, more profit?  If you’re trying to figure out how to sustain organizational culture during global expansion, there are a few things you should know. 

Organizational culture isn’t easy to maintain. When the work environment is changing, you can’t expect everything to stay the same. But the truth is – some employees will resist change.

That’s why it’s crucial for you to build a strong organizational culture from the start. When you have this, changes in your company won’t affect you as much.

You can think of this as getting gas for your car. If you put in premium gas, your car will be longer-lasting since it’s higher-quality fuel. If you don’t, your car problems can cost you a lot more in the future.

Here are 7 tips on how you can build and sustain organizational culture during global expansion:

1. Set Your Core Values Straight to Build and Sustain Organizational Culture

It is important to have a clear set of core values from the start. You should mention your values during every hiring process. This actually should take priority over talking about skills throughout the interview. 

Employees need to be clear about core values because it’ll help them make better decisions. If someone doesn’t agree with them, then they most likely aren’t a good fit for your company. They may have the right skill set, but if they don’t follow your core values they won’t align with the rest of your team.

You would be surprised how many companies don’t do this. In fact, 19% of employees either don’t understand their core values or simply don’t know them. How can these businesses achieve global expansion then? But if they are clear on values – the scenario in crisis is quite different. When something goes wrong, employees will take immediate action to protect core values.

There are many innovative and creative ways to remind your team of your core values to build and sustain strong organizational culture. 

The way Dan Lok chose core values for his company is by modeling off his top team members. He listed out the traits he liked the most in his superstars and sorted them by importance: 

  1. Loyalty
  2. Harmony
  3. Extreme Ownership
  4. High-Performance
  5. Client Success
  6. Constant Improvement

 Anyone who has worked with him or been his student understands this and knows these values. You can read more about Dan’s core values here and see why he’s able to create a high-performing global team. 

When every team member is on the same page, that team is unbeatable. Their workflow will be that much stronger too. There are fewer mistakes made, and more results produced. 

Isn’t that what every successful company hopes for? 

2. Open Up Communication Often

Are you confident in your company’s communication enough to grow globally? If you want to know how to sustain organizational culture during global expansion, then you must keep your team in mind. 

If you’re expanding globally, keep in mind that some employees will be in different timezones. Since they work as a team, deadlines will suffer if one doesn’t respond in time. This might cause some bottlenecks and workflow disruptions. 

The best way to handle this is to have everyone practice communicating in a transparent way. That means you should encourage daily updates and feedback. If one employee predicts a project delay, then they need to mention this early on. This will get the whole team up to speed and allow them to troubleshoot ahead of time.

If you want to figure out how to sustain organizational culture while growing globally, then you must use good communication and project management tools. These will allow everyone to stay in touch. When the team is informed, every project will keep a positive consistency.

One way to do this is to hold meetings or video calls often. These meetings are meant to make sure everyone is clear about priorities. They also allow more people to ask you direct questions. 

Not all meetings have to be serious – you could have fun too. People can share their wins of the week, or introduce a new team member. As long as everyone is in the loop, nobody will have to go through the process of reexplaining to anyone.

Your team will appreciate you for involving them more. This makes them feel important to your company and fulfilled by what they do.

3. Hiring Your Dream Team

When you take caution in hiring, you’re already setting yourself up for long-term success. This will ensure that you sustain a strong organizational culture.  Wouldn’t you want a hands-off high-performing team?

Whoever you hire should also be a good fit with your other employees. If that person can interact well with the rest of the team, you can count on team members to help each other out. That way, you’ll be less involved and have more time to focus on your goals.

People are the backbone of your whole company during global expansion. Hiring isn’t just looking at someone’s resume. It’s better if you get to know them on a deeper level. This will help you envision what’s possible in that given partnership. Look beyond the paper and think about this person as a whole. 

In fact, Dan Lok doesn’t look at resumes when he hires new employees. He looks at skills, performance, and if the person will fit well into the company culture. So far, the results have been working in his favor.

Skills can always be taught. Company culture cannot. Click To Tweet

Remember to take your time when hiring people. If you need to hire someone fast, you could give them the opportunity and keep a close eye on them. Set expectations and a time frame; let them know that their team performance has to meet your needs, or it won’t work. 

You wouldn’t want to keep bad apples, would you? This may negatively impact your organizational culture.

4. Feedback is Always Welcomed to Sustain Organizational Culture

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, said “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”

Feedback is a crucial element of any organizational culture. If you’re not receiving enough feedback, how can you expand globally? It’ll be hard for your company to last long if you don’t make constant improvements.

If your company is growing fast, you can expect difficulties in keeping up with feedback. That’s why it’s important to make sure feedback is a part of the workflow. Get your whole team to work with it. 

One way you can do this is by setting up a feedback channel. That way, you will be aware of any issues, as well as the good news. You can communicate through company meetings. If you want to hear feedback from customers, you can send out surveys.

Photo of two work colleagues working together

Here are some ways you can offer feedback to your team as a leader:

  • Focus on how each individual can change
  • Explain the specific behavior you expect
  • Stay factual and avoid being too directive
  • Point out opportunities for growth
  • Talk in private and praise in public
  • Prepare useful and honest feedback
  • Manage your emotions for a better outcome
  • Support and strengthen a person
  • Start by stating what is working
  • Get straight to the point
  • Don’t make broad-based claims
  • Encourage constructive criticism 
  • Discuss the impact and action
  • Use criticism without emotion
  • Show respect and maintain dignity

Whether it’s good or bad, you’ll need constructive feedback for you and your team. It will guide you to better company performance. If you know how to frame and deliver it right, your team will thank you for it. They will appreciate the time you take to show them you care about their growth.

5. No One’s Success Leaves Unnoticed

40% of employed Americans would put more energy into their work if they were recognized more often. It’s a continuous effort to measure success in every organizational culture. Every global company requires commitment from all employees to make a positive impact.

Aside from hitting sales goals, your company should celebrate other types of achievements. This includes accomplishments made by each individual. If you keep your employees happy, they’ll keep your company happy.

Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, said “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

As your company expands globally, employee satisfaction is still as important. With more employees on board, having regular recognition will increase loyalty. When you recognize each individual for their accomplishments, it shows you care. You can also encourage everyone else to celebrate each other’s milestones. 

One easy way you can do this is to make a team announcement. There should be never-ending recognition to keep team encouragement strong. When you do this, employees will strive to go above and beyond for their next accomplishment. 

You could also recognize and celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, or pregnancies. It doesn’t matter how small or big the reward is – it feels good to show appreciation often.

Dan Lok congratulating his students and enforcing the company culture

Dan Lok is always finding ways to recognize his students’ success. You might’ve seen some announcements from his social media channels. 

He even hosts his annual Closers In Black™ event and invites students from all over the world to meet him. Upon shaking their hands, he tells them how proud he is as he hands out awards. 

Whenever a student reaches a milestone, Dan makes it public. He likes to keep rewarding people for their successes. This is the type of encouragement that gets them to stay confident and accomplish more.

Wouldn’t this be something you’d want for yourself too?

6. Create an Unstoppable Support System

Accountability can help you move the needle the most. When you have everyone on your side supporting you, you will easily achieve your goals. 

Working alone may not be as exciting, and it becomes harder to get things done. When you have support, you also have constant encouragement and feedback. When you’re accountable for your actions, you will increase your chance of success by up to 95%.

So, every global organization needs to develop an unstoppable support system. If every employee has someone to turn to for support, most problems will be resolved a lot faster.

As a leader, you can set employees up to help one another. There can be both supervision and peer support. For supervisor support, you could pair up mentors and mentees together. For peer support, you can group a whole department. 

Some employees might fall into the lone-wolf mentality. Having constant support will encourage members of your team to get out of their comfort zones. It’s a great opportunity to let your team build relationships within the company. Working for you would become even more enjoyable.

You should create and keep a work environment in which you’d like to be all the time. Make it as flexible as possible during global expansion. 

Don’t let your employees simply clock in and clock out. They should feel proud of their position. Instead, get them to contribute by sharing their thoughts for better growth.

In a global community, such as Dan Lok’s Facebook groups, you’ll never see a post left with no views. Every voice is heard and responded to with either a like, comment, or both. There’s constant support from people around the world and in all time zones. 

Because of this massive support, Dan’s students feel they have a safe place to express themselves. When you have people who understand your journey, it’s easy to share the steps that get you there.

You’ll see posts about questions, failures, and wins. All these are equally as important because people can learn from each other. If you have an issue, most likely someone else can relate. You might even look like a hero for bringing it up and helping others.

7. Traditions Must Live On

If something is working well for you, do more of it. Then, keep doing more – don’t stop.

Whether it’s the way you host your meetings or your company language – you must keep that tradition alive. These are unique characteristics of your company that you shouldn’t ignore.  These traditions will distinguish you from other companies. They give employees an inclusive experience.

For example, you could rent out a yacht every year and throw a Christmas party. It’s going to be something every employee looks forward to and talks about for weeks. Other people would wish they worked for you if they heard about this.

You can even develop smaller traditions if your company isn’t a big team. The goal is to maintain these traditions and not lose them. It might be easy to lose when there are fewer people; don’t let this happen to you. Keep maintaining tradition no matter how big it gets, too.

When you establish more company traditions, you create a fun and social environment. This will help increase engagement and make a positive impact on company culture. 

Even if you have many locations worldwide, you can get everyone to do something together. It can be something as simple as dressing casual on Fridays or catering for every holiday – whatever works for you.

Sustain Organizational Culture During Global Expansion The Right Way

Things might never be the same again once you’ve scaled your company globally. There is a lot to think about in order to make sure it is a success. 

One thing’s for sure – you must do whatever you can to sustain organizational culture. You should be confident in your team to be willing to make changes with you. If your team’s communication isn’t strong, your organizational culture may fall apart. That’s not a great way to start expanding your business globally.

It’s better to keep everyone on the same page during changes. Otherwise, some employees will have low performance or run into more mistakes. You need to keep in mind that several elements can make your company come together – feedback, support, and strong tradition will help make a better bond. 

Dan Lok always says, “Team culture is the backbone of Team Dan Lok.” Because Dan scaled his global community, it has had a great impact on all his businesses. He’s able to reach more partners, clients, and employees. 

Do you want to know what the best part is? Everyone is familiar with his company culture before even joining him. This is something that doesn’t need to be taught over and over again.

Since his employees all share the same core values, it’s a more enjoyable environment to work in. Wouldn’t it be great to be around like-minded people who only want to see you succeed?

If you’d like to get Dan Lok to guide your company through global expansion, Dragon 100™ might be the place for you.

Dragon 100™ is an advisory board meant for A-players who want to scale their business from 6-figures to 7-figures. This isn’t something for everyone, though. If you think you have what it takes, you can join the rest of the 100 dragons.

Click here to apply for a membership to Dragon 100™.

Systematic Inventive Thinking: How To Facilitate Rapid Cycles of Idea Generation and Solve Complex Problems

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Systematic inventive thinking (SIT) produces an incredible outcome when used for idea generation and problem solving. Leading companies such as Tesla, Amazon and Apple use this strategy to outperform their competition on a consistent basis.

Systematic inventive thinking is changing the way companies create value. Over the last decade, this new thinking methodology has been allowing creativity to take the center stage.

You might be thinking, why not look to my customers for guidance?

Despite what experts have to say, corporate decisions should not be based solely on customer feedback. After all, customers are just looking for an incredible product or service at a great price.

A recent publication by Jacob Goldenberg at Harvard Business Review states: “Marketers will tell you that the best sources of new product ideas are customers, both current and potential. However, we’re seeing that customers lack the imagination to envision innovative products that address their emerging, or even existing needs or desires.” 

So, in order to be truly original and innovative, you’ll have to brainstorm without any restraints. The more ideas on the table, the better. This unique approach helps companies break away from their normal patterns of thinking and come up with great ideas. These ideas are then translated into actions, which then lead to results.

When these ideas are applied to the SIT Formula, amazing things happen.

This formula contains five thinking techniques that marketers have used for many years. It attends to all aspects of an organization’s innovation strategy – from acquiring skills all the way to piloting and deploying new business models.

Before we go over these techniques, let’s cover the correlation between idea generation and problem solving. 

The Correlation Between Idea Generation and Problem Solving

systematic inventive thinking

Einstein famously said, “we can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”.

Idea generation is a procedure by which a company identifies solutions for any number of difficult challenges.

This is the time to brainstorm with no restraint – make analogies to things that have nothing to do with your product, services or processes; stretch as far as possible to reach a breakthrough idea.

Your next breakthrough idea is right around the corner. Click To Tweet

When you come up with many ideas at once, it’s impossible not to get closer to the solution you are looking for. However, it’s crucial that you follow the appropriate guidelines to ensure that you don’t waste your time generating useless information.

Whenever you are facing uncertainty, it’s essential that you have a structured thinking process to guide you. The most successful companies in the world follow three rules when brainstorming:

#1: They work inside a familiar niche.

#2: They generate solutions that are independent of any specific problem.

#3: They use the five techniques of SIT.

Out of the three rules above, Rule #3 is the most important. These techniques are embedded in the products and services you see every day. With their help, you will be able to generate ideas that directly reflect your organization’s goals.

The five techniques are:

  1. Subtraction
  2. Task Unification
  3. Multiplication
  4. Division
  5. Attribute Dependency

With these techniques, there is plenty of room for improvisation. But, as with any art or form, you need to master the basics first. In this article, we will cover how these five techniques may be applied to systematic inventive thinking.

1. Subtraction

systematic inventive thinking: Subtraction

Innovative products and services tend to, with time, lose a certain function.  This could be an element of the system that seemed essential for identifying a new value or benefit.

Here, you are not creating new ideas. Instead, you are working backward to imagine what benefits there are in using only the existing features.

Here is a five-step formula to apply subtraction to systematic inventive learning:

1. List Out Every Internal Component of Your Product or Service

If you are working with a product, list every single component, and its function. If you are working with a service, make note of every function it performs.

2. Imagine What Would Happen if You Removed One

You could either remove an entire component or remove a piece. Either way, think about what would happen if it was no longer there.

3. Visualize the Result – Even if It Seems Strange

It’s always a good idea to visualize the final result. Even if it seems far fetched, it never hurts to see your product or service from a different angle.

4. What are the Potential Benefits and Added Value?

Who would want this new product or service, and how could it help them? What are the benefits of this revised concept?

5. Is this New Idea Feasible?

Can you actually create this new product or service – why or why not? Is there any way to refine the idea to make it more adaptable?

By applying this five-step formula to your business, you will be able to innovate on demand. New ideas, solutions, and theories will overflow your meeting room.

Application of Subtraction: Amazon

A company that took advantage of subtraction to reap great rewards is Amazon.

Amazon is a household name in today’s world of online shopping, and its innovative efforts do not stop short of brick-and-mortar retail.

In 2018, Amazon unveiled one of its newest creations called Amazon Go. Using its walkout technology, Amazon removed the need for checkout lines and registers from the shopping experience.

With the help of the app, buyers can walk into the store, select the items they want off the shelf, and walk out. The app then detects that the items were purchased, and charges the appropriate Amazon account – it’s that simple.

This is a perfect example of subtraction. By eliminating much of the staff needed to operate a store, Amazon is able to keep its costs low and stay ahead of its competitors.

According to Macrotrends, Amazon’s stock price grew by 28% in 2018 –  outperforming the S&P 500 index by more than 35%.

But it doesn’t stop there. Amazon took this a step further and applied the task unification technique to systematic inventive thinking. They collected the data from their customers’ shopping habits so they could provide them with better suggestions.

The benefit? Both parties are happy, and Amazon takes off as a leader in the online marketplace. 

2. Task Unification

systematic inventive thinking: Task Unification

Task unification means to assign a new or additional task to an existing resource.

It is a collaborative process that requires contributions from your entire team. After all, in order to create new functions for a product or service, you need to have a strong understanding of it.  

There are five critical success factors to be mindful of when applying task unification to systematic inventive thinking:

Identify the Obvious Components

Look at the components that are so obvious that they are easily missed. Seek help from others—colleagues, experts, or customers—to identify these components. 

Don’t Play it Too Safe

Believe it or not, non-intuitive components are much more likely to lead to creative breakthroughs. If your ideas sound absolutely insane, you’re on the right track.

Don’t Confuse Task Aggregation with Assigning New Tasks

If your idea presents a new function for your product or service, it’s likely not task unification. Instead, look for creative ways to assign an additional task to an existing function.

Task unification takes multitasking to a whole new level. However, correct use is essential for getting results. By being aware of these common misconceptions, you will set yourself and your team up for success. 

The Power of Task Unification

Cultures that are rich in resources tend to adopt the task unification mindset. For example, Samsung took its new smart TV one step further by integrating two new features into it.

Picture this: you’ve just moved into your new home and you’re trying to decorate it. Do you want to have trendy art, family photos, or a flat-screen TV on your wall?

Samsung’s new QLED TV’s are designed to end that dilemma. The TV now serves two purposes: to provide endless entertainment and personalized decor.

Samsung applied task unification to systematic inventive thinking, in order to overcome functional fixedness.

Solving a problem doesn't always mean you must come up with something new. Click To Tweet 

But it doesn’t stop there: Samsung took this a step further by implementing this technique into nearly all of its products. They now offer a washing machine with a built-in sink, a dryer with a two-part lid, and a dishwasher with an auto-clean function.

This strategy begins with developing a strong understanding of your product or service. From there, you link different functions to provide ideal solutions based on the needs of real people.

Here, Samsung took the initiative to simplify regular processes and improve their customer’s experience. Leading companies like Samsung tend to be conscious of these opportunities, which is why they rise as industry leaders. 

3. Multiplication

systematic inventive thinking: Multiplication

Many innovative products and services tend to have components copied but changed in some way. Usually, these changes are made to remove or edit features that present themselves to be unnecessary or redundant.

Think about it – if you received feedback from your customers that a feature of your product is great, wouldn’t it make sense to invest time into making it even better?

You could take what you have, copy it, and change it in a counterintuitive way. Not only would this minimize the risks of making a bad decision; it would reduce costs, improve speed, and energize employees.

For this reason, multiplication is widely used by many businesses today. When this technique is applied to systematic inventive thinking, the results are spectacular.

Multiply your potentials with your plans and it will be equal to your purpose of existence”. – Israelmore Ayivor

A common misconception that many brands face today is that they believe they should focus on improving the weak aspects of their products or services.

The problem is, by the time they end up solving the problem, they’re already one step behind the curve.

Emerging as an industry leader is not a matter of luck – in fact, it’s far from it. Rather, it’s a scientific approach used by business owners. With a strong understanding of their brand and a deep understanding of their customers’  unmet needs, business owners know what direction to take their business in.

Multiplication in Action: Apple Inc.

Think about multiplication as a jazz piece. Halfway through the song, a musician usually takes center stage and performs a solo.

This is exactly what Apple did for the launch of the iPhone 11 Pro.

The debate between which cell phone brand has the best camera has been ongoing for many years. Each generation seems to have a new feature that helps it stand out from the existing competition.

Apple took this one step further by introducing three rear-facing cameras onto their flagship phone. This shook the entire industry and left their competition in the dust.

According to Newsroom, Apple saw its highest quarterly revenue ever after the announcement of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models.

You might be thinking to yourself, what if no one liked the new iPhone design? How would Apple be able to recover?

Because Apple applied multiplication to systematic inventive thinking, there was little to no risk involved. Since their last generation iPhone had an incredible camera, all they had to do was add a new twist onto an existing technology. The secret is to encourage multiple perspectives during the idea generation process. After all, there is no such thing as a bad idea.

4. Division

Division

Division works by breaking a product into its different components and then rearranging them. This is a powerful technique in systematic inventive learning because it forces you to create new configurations of your product. 

It’s likely that you don’t envision smashing your product into many pieces. After all, you worked hard to create it.

But what if you had to build it back up from the ground? What will likely happen is you will see new ways to use the product that you would have missed, had you try to think of it on your own.

There are three ways to apply the division technique:

1. Functionality

What are the specific functions of your product? How can you simplify these functions by breaking them down further?

2. Physicality

If your product takes up a lot of space, what can you adjust to make it more compact?   

3. Preservability

Is it possible to divide your product into a smaller version of itself, where each smaller unit would still preserve the characteristics of the whole product? 

Division helps to size your biggest challenges down, e so you can see innovative opportunities.

Once you have envisioned a new product, all you need to do is to identify the potential benefits and it’s target market. From there, you modify, adapt and improve the concept.

Digging Deeper with Division

The concept of division starts with something you know and turns it into something new. In the end, we are left with a sense of surprise.

It turns out that some of the most revolutionary ideas are right below our noses. All we need to do is find them.

 The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” ― Rob Siltanen 

Take product functionality, for example. A water sports company took the controls of a speed boat and mounted it onto a water skier. Now, the water skier controls the movements of the boat without needing a separate driver.

Next, let’s look at product physicality. Think about a GoPro camera and its ability to capture video from a variety of different points. Whether it be on a selfie-stick or mounted to the side of your car, it makes for an excellent experience.

Finally, there is product preservability: picture a baking company creating cupcakes that mimic the characteristics of normal-sized cakes. This way, customers can experience their inventions without committing to purchasing an entire cake.

By applying division to systematic inventive thinking, these new ideas emerged into the market. Thanks to this, each one of these companies has found massive success.

These examples just touch the surface of how division can be applied to your products.

5. Attribute Dependency

Attribute Dependency

The final technique to apply to systematic inventive thinking is attribute dependency.

The basic principle underlying this tool is creating dependencies between variables of a product. Here, we are working with variables rather than components.

A variable is anything that has the potential to create values. For example, what are the characteristics that can change within your product?

Furthermore, variables can be internal or external. The internal variables are those that can be controlled by the manufacturer when the external variables are out of their control.

There are three ways to implement attribute dependency:

1. Passive

As the name implies, nothing has to happen for the dependency to take place. There doesn’t need to be an external element or action applied.

2. Active

An active dependency is one that requires an external factor in order for an event to take place. This can come in many different shapes and forms.

3. Automatic

These dependencies are unique because they happen automatically. The product is designed to change on its own in response to a third-party element.

How do you know which type of dependency is best to use on your product? It all comes down to which one will be the most convenient for your customers.

Additionally, you should consider if you want your customers to have the ability to create the change for themselves. Whichever you choose, you will create a fantastic experience for your target audience.

Why Attribute Dependency?

With four other simpler techniques to apply to systematic inventive thinking, why should you look to attribute dependency?

The truth is, this is one of the areas of innovation businesses overlook, and yet one with the most potential to create the next breakthrough.

Take Sun Master for example. They are a professional and reliable solar LED light manufacturer. During the day, the light captures and stores energy from the sun; at night these lights illuminate your garden.

According to Markets and Markets, the solar lighting system market is projected to reach 10.8 Billion dollars by 2024.

This is an example of an automatic dependency.

Here, the consumer doesn’t have to do anything. There are no batteries required, no chords, and no troublesome set-up. The lights are designed to turn on when the solar panels detect that the sun is setting.  

Products with an attribute dependency present themselves as being smart. They know when it’s appropriate to change in response to some other variable – whether it be internal, external or automatic. This creates a simple yet engaging experience for the customer. 

Apply SIT Today

Systematic inventive thinking relies on three key ideas.

The first idea is that you must work within a niche you are familiar with. Secondly, you must generate solutions that are independent of any problem. And, finally, you must apply the five techniques of SIT.

When used correctly, these techniques have the ability to transform the way your business generates ideas. With it, you will be able to create an endless stream of consumable products and services.

SIT is one of the many strategies taught at Dragon 100, an executive club comprised of 7 and 8- figure entrepreneurs.

If you want to learn more strategies that will help you to get where you want to go, click here to enter the Dragon 100 path.

The System On How To Turn 6 Figures Into 7 In Revenue

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Have you seen the popular TV show ‘Shark Tank’? If you haven’t yet, there’s a lot you can learn from it. For example, how to turn 6 figures into 7 for your business. This business reality show will teach you about business, investing, growing your business and more. You can think of it like ‘America’s Got Talent’ for doing business: entrepreneurs pitch their ideas in hopes of winning big investments for their companies.

You’ll see many success stories, and you’ll also see some millionaire wannabes too. You’ll even see people come back on the show, having previously failed. 

Whether you’re a small or mid-to-large size business, you will walk away with loads of value. Since these are real deals, made in real life, you’ll know exactly what will work and what won’t in the market.

People will be willing to invest in your products or services if they buy into what you believe in. It takes a smart plan to convince a lot of people to open up their wallets. 

If you want to know how to scale your way to a 7 figure business, you can follow lessons from ‘Shark Tank’ winners. These lessons will save you from costly mistakes, and guide you towards the right track with your revenue.

What differentiates every entrepreneur is the system they follow in their business. Those who are likely to win have done diligent research beforehand. It is their system that enables them to get to where they are, all within an impressive timeframe.

You too can follow a similar system on how to turn 6 figures into 7 in revenue and grow your business:

1. Position Yourself as a 7 Figure Earner

What got you to 6 figures won’t get you to 7 figures. To reach that level, you’ll have to position yourself as who you want to become.

Here’s a secret: you don’t have to hustle your way to 7 figures to grow your business. 

What you need to do instead is to focus on your time better. Your time is more valuable. Since you only have 24 hours each day, it’s impossible to hustle harder to reach where you want to be. 

You should spend your time bringing more value and impact to your audience; then you will position yourself as a go-to expert in your industry. 

If you can position yourself, sales will happen a lot faster. This will also help you stand out from your competition. 

While on your way to 6 figures, you were testing out the waters of your new business. Now that you know what’s been working, it’s time to share your growth. 

This means that, by now, you should have more credibility and social proof. That’s enough to know that people enjoy your products or services. The next step, then, is reaching new customers. 

Positioning helps with doing this. Even if you’re doing social media marketing, your positioning will expand your reach a lot faster. You’ll even get more people referring to you, as well as more recurring customers.

The biggest benefit is that people start coming to you, instead of you having to chase them in a cold market. You’ll be able to see the difference in opportunities. 

Dan Lok giving a talk about growing your business

There are a few ways you can position yourself:

  • Credibility: Develop authority and provide your expertise to your audience.
  • Messaging: A compelling message on why your audience should care about your ‘why’.
  • Platform: Make sure your message and everything else aligns in all your platforms. (Website, social media, publications, etc.)
  • Social Proof: Have people sell for you through endorsements, reviews, media features, etc.
  • Tagline: Keep a clear, simple tagline that shows who you are, what you do, and how you’re helping.
  • Story: This is what’s going to distinguish you from any other business. Your story is a unique and powerful element you need to share, and have others resonate with. 

Once you change your positioning, you’ll at least 2X your business. The best part? You won’t need to work as hard. That’s because your company will become more superior and produce better results.

You don’t even have to compete on prices to scale – you can charge more without losing customers. All it takes is for you to show that your products and services are of the best quality.

2. Improve Your Marketing to Grow Your Business

If you’re a good marketer, you can pretty much get anything you want for your business. You can find out how to turn 6 figures into 7 by getting more exposure.

Even though some entrepreneurs didn’t win on ‘Shark Tank,’ they still got a lot of exposure from being on the show. They might not have won a deal, but those who like their ideas end up becoming customers. They might even have deals coming in from other companies.

People are often willing to get on ‘Shark Tank’ for the exposure, and not even expect to win. Once you’ve made an appearance, your business will have more online searches.

That’s how marketing works – it means getting in front of people who want what you have. Now, you don’t have to appear on a hit TV show to gain exposure. You can rely on word-of-mouth and visibility through other channels.

Man reading his laptop looking for help to grow his business

Social networking plays a big role in this. Since everyone is using a smartphone nowadays, it’s hard to stay off social media apps. This is how many people stay informed, share news, and connect.

As social media is only growing stronger, it’s getting more difficult to get people’s attention. Your business has to compete with all the other distractions on a daily basis. 

The best way to get people’s attention is by being a little disruptive. What does that mean? It means you have to be creative. That’s how you can make your business famous.

Most people think you have to spend a fortune on marketing. In reality, it’s the content you put out that makes a fortune. 

If you can produce valuable, eye-catching content, you won’t have to rely so much on spending money to make money. Imagine if every post or video you make goes viral – what will that do for your business?

You have to keep in mind that more than 2 billion people are using social media worldwide. To reach more people, you’ll have to ask yourself: “What will get them to stop scrolling when they see my post?”

Another way to get more attention fast is to partner up with more reputable people. You can become a guest on someone’s podcast, or have influencers feature you on their posts. Anything that helps spread the word about your business is effective marketing.

3. It’s Not Better Alone to Grow Your Business

There’s an African proverb that says: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

With that said, it’s wise to build business partnerships. 

There are many successful companies that rely on partnerships: for example, companies like Airbnb, Uber, and Apple. 

Airbnb partners with homeowners; Uber partners with drivers, and Apple partners with app developers. Without these partnerships, their presence in the marketplace wouldn’t exist. Partnerships are what make them who they are. 

The reason why these companies are successful is that they offer a solution to people’s problems. Not only that: they offer job opportunities too. It’s a definite win-win situation. 

2 people shaking hands in front of a contract

The truth is, not every idea you have will turn out great – no matter how exciting it sounds. To test it out, you’ll need other people’s input.

Even if you plan on executing an idea, it’s better to have people working with you. There might be one skill you’re good at, and another you’re not. 

Some entrepreneurs find it hard to trust other people with handling their businesses. But managing all the work on your own is not ideal. The best thing to do is to bring world-class talent into the picture: that way, you’ll have a powerful team to produce only the best.

How to turn 6 figures into 7 by doing this?

Keep in mind it’s not the tools, sales, or products: it’s the people. If you want to scale your business faster, you’re going to have to upgrade your team. Surrounding yourself with like-mind 7-figure earners will do the job. 

Your network is your net worth. Click To Tweet

Since these talented people are more skilled, you don’t have to be present all the time. They should be capable of coming up with solutions without your guidance.

If you stick to a 6 figure team, you’ll still catch yourself getting involved in most projects. They are capable of performing tasks, but theirs might not be the best work you’ve seen. There could be more revisions that push the deadlines back. 

Once you stop micromanaging, you’ll have more time to focus on your business instead – turn to the things that matter more.

Partnerships don’t have to be about hiring new people; you can also focus on your connections. Your business flourishes and will grow when you find the right mentors, industry leaders, and masterminds.

4. The Powerful Thing About Leveraging

There are two main ways you can leverage. 

As we mentioned earlier, you can hire a team. You don’t have to have a big team or spend a lot of money on overhead expenses. If you find the right people to work with, they’ll be able to help you sustain more revenue. 

What helps your team scale faster are successful strategies and execution. When everyone is equipped with the right skills, all your systems will be effective and this will help grow your business.

These systems are built on action steps and learning. They help your team avoid having to repeat the same mistakes again. Your workflow will then become faster.

Two men looking at graphs and discussing growing their business

Another way to leverage is through technology, specifically automation. If you’re wondering how to turn 6 figures into 7 without getting too involved, then leveraging automation is what you need to do.

You can simplify a lot of your tasks by letting technology do the work. Perhaps your sales funnel could be automated, and you’ll be making money in your sleep. 

Whatever it is that’s taking most of your time, try automating it. If there’s a way to do certain things faster, automate it. When you use automation in most of your processes, you and your team will have time to focus on other strengths and that is one way to grow your business .

5. Do You Know Your Numbers – Sales and Profit?

Having an idea is amazing, but knowing the numbers will get you to success. Your idea is useless if the numbers don’t look good. 

Imagine you launch a new product, and then find out that there’s not much of an audience for it. You also have to make sure you’re capable of funding it. These factors will reflect on how responsible you are.

Group of co-workers in a workshop or seminar

You’ll have to prove that your product is well-researched and suitable for serving a great market demand. Also, you’ll need to know about market analyses and sales growth projections.

Here are some helpful questions you can ask yourself:

  • What are my past annual sales?
  • How many customers do I have?
  • What are my next year’s sales goals?
  • My marketing plan?
  • What are my costs that’ll affect my net revenue?

If you can’t answer these basic questions right away, it’s time you go back and do the math. 

Especially if you pitch to an investor to fund your business, you need to be able to answer questions. They want to know how much cash will go in and out of your business. If you’re not confident in your numbers, they might not be as confident in you.

You’re going to need capital. Even if you’re starting out with no money in the bank, your goal is to find capital as a safety net in case of plans failing.

6. Fail Forward as Much as Possible to Grown Your Business

According to INC., 96% of businesses fail within 10 years.

You can still achieve learning how to turn 6 figures into 7 figures – while being the 4% that succeeds. But, you’ll need to be comfortable with failing business first. 

Inventor Alexander Graham Bell said: “When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

Sometimes your ideas aren’t meant to work in the first place, and that’s acceptable. It’s better to stay humble and move on. You must fail forward more to get to your success faster. 

Running a business is an incredible learning process and a journey. You have to expect some failures, mistakes, and rejections along the way. You will get closer to your goals if you’re able to accept these flaws. Instead of trying to make a failed plan work over and over again, you have to learn from mistakes and move on. 

If something goes wrong, take it as a lesson. It might’ve been your performance that needs improvement or failure to communicate. You will do much better the next time around. This will also make you a wiser entrepreneur. Other people will look up to you for knowledge and experience. 

Once you’ve reached perfecting your ideas, you will discover major breakthroughs – some of which many entrepreneurs haven’t experienced for themselves yet.

How to Turn 6 Figures Into 7 Figures Fast

Taking your business to the next level requires you to act a certain way. If you want to earn more than 6 figures, you have to act like you already do.

This will help shift your mindset and make better decisions. Some of these decisions include changing the people in your circle. When you surround yourself with better people, you do better.

Not only that, but you need to know how to work smarter instead of hustling harder. Working smarter involves partnering up with people who can help your business grow. Instead of chasing people, focus on inspiring them to come to you.

If you want to know how to turn 6 figures into 7 figures in revenue fast, High Ticket Influencer™ might be for you. It’s everything you’ll need in one place.

High Ticket Influencer™ (HTI) is where you’ll get Dan Lok to coach you in scaling your business to 7 figures. He will walk you through the same method he uses to scale all his businesses. You’re going to discover how he went from making zero dollars to a million in less than a year. 

It’s not something you’d expect and can find anywhere else. You will have the right resources to start right away, as well as other entrepreneurs to connect with. 

If you’re ready to scale your business while avoiding years of mistakes, click here to find out more about High Ticket Influencer™.

I hope you enjoy reading this blog post.

Schedule an add a zero session™ with our team to see how you can use our time-tested strategies and systems to scale your business now.

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