Last updated: August 19, 2020
These are my notes from the first ever 10X Bootcamp, a follow-up day of learning held after the quarterly 10X meeting with Dan Sullivan. It was held at the Strategic Coach offices in Toronto on December 6th, 2016 from 9am to 3pm. Approx 40 attendees.
9am Introduction
Shannon and Kristi introduced the day, letting us know that we’ll be working on Unique Ability, Activity Inventory, and the Time System.
Questions and Answers (30m)
Lots of questions from the audience about how Dan Sullivan uses Impact Filters and his daily schedule. Some answers that I saved:
“The Production team knows that they cannot take Free days on the week that Dan is in town because he is often changing things last-minute and creating new things on the fly based on what he is reading.” Kristi
“Dan says all the time that with his 2 score on Fact Finder and 2 of Follow-thru, he has no business in telling others how to implement things. He uses Impact Filters to get clarity for himself and communicating with other people.” Shannon, who I think is Dan’s Innovation Manager. “I saw a dramatic increase in the power of Impact Filters when I left Strategic Coach and started working remotely.
Awesome quote:
“The #1 quality that all entrepreneurs want in a team member is the ability to read our mind.”
Advice for integrating an Impact Filter into your business: Start small. Let the team know this is a new process that we’re going to try out. Make it more practical and real: it helps people. Especially millennials, who want to know WHY they are working. Don’t underestimate the importance of the Best and Worst part of the Impact Filter.
Positive Focus 9:45am
What good things have happened for you so far this quarter?
We divided a page into thirds, adding these headers up top:
Personal – Professional – Team
We took 2 minutes for each category to write stuff down, then shared.
Tool introduction: The Positive Power-Up, a mini version of the Positive Focus.
On this sheet, we took the biggest win from each category above and then wrote: Experience/Achievement, Importance, and Next Progress.
Then we broke into groups to share out.
Compliment: After the 10:15am break, when we paired up to talk about our Positive Power-Ups, I was taking longer than usual to get back into the room. I had made a phone call, was getting some food, sort of doing my own thing and avoiding the group work. When I walked back into the room, I was immediately SURROUNDED like a pack of wolves by Strategic Coach staff and told to GET A PARTNER! They forced me into a three-some share-out. I’m so glad they forced me to do this. I hadn’t chatted with either of those 2 people before, and I’m glad we all shared.
Unique Ability 10:40am
“If you’re looking for a multiplier strategy, this is it.”
Taught by Shannon.
Entrepreneurial Time System
I loved the slide that said, “Any day can be a work day!” This was a major key for me.
Any day can be a work day
- One day is the same as another
- Always thinking about work
- Strain between work and home
- Money the only reward for being productive
- Continual sense of fatigue
- Constant “stuff” and messes
- Success loses its meaning
- Need crisis to be excited
- No need to be more productive
Activity Inventory
We wrote down all types of things that we do at work: reading email, Slack, opening mail, talking to direct reports, manager meetings, etc.
Then we categorized them all: (A) activities that are Irritating, (B) activities that are Okay, and (C) activities that are Fascinating and Motivating.
The ABC Breakthrough
We picked the Top 3 activities for each A, B, C section. Things that I find irritating: email triage, Slack notifications. And things that I find Fascinating and Motivating: my Friends Newsletter, meeting VIPs, and new marketing ideas. Then we estimated how much of our week is spent in each A, B, and C category. I listed 40%, 40%, and 20%, respectively.
The Strategy Circle Snapshot
A quick tool for helping us take action on one specific goal. Mine was, “Have high-quality, strategic free days.” We filled out our desired result (success outcomes), and then wrote down obstacles and our strategies to get around them.
Take-Aways from Audience (End of Day 2:45pm)
What was the most meaningful part of this for you? Each person shared out. Here are some things I heard:
- Intentionality around Free Days
- Impact Filter, Impact Filter, Impact Filter
- If annoying, then delegate!
- Agreeing w/wife about what a Free Day really means
- Free days like oxygen
- Clarity on Unique Ability, sense of relief from realizations around this
- Using the Weekly Planner, getting more info on Focus / Free / Buffer days
- Schedule 2017 now
- 80% of what I want to do, and get rid of the rest
- Commitment to “Let it go”
- At the first meeting, I learned a lot about concepts. Now I’m going to share those with my team to hold myself accountable.
- Block out the whole quarter.
- Hire 2 innovation managers for 2 important projects
- “I like the idea of planning a year ahead, including for vacations.”
- Operating with intention, Impact Filters
- Need to hire a COO
- I’m not as good at delegating as I thought I was
- Making an Impact Filter and getting strategic about my Free Days (me)
- Intentionality in everything that we do
Misc Notes
Observation: Room of 87% male CEOs being taught by 100% female facilitators (40 CEOs incl 5 women, 7 Strategic Coach staffers all women). Not a critique, just an observation. Museum Hack has gotten critical comments about our lack of diversity, among our tour guides and among our traveling facilitators. So I’ve been thinking a lot about diversity in my own business and what I can or should be doing to increase different perspectives. I remember in the Strategic Coach Chicago signature program workshop, 24 clients, all but 1 were white males. Not sure I should be modeling this, but it makes our diversity initiatives (or lack thereof) decent.
Observations: At one point in the day, as I looked around at all of these other CEOs committed to learning and development, I had a warm feeling. This really is executive education. I liked that the day started out with Q&A and that there were three people on stage, like an impromptu panel. I wish there was a bit more discussion, more push-back. The high point of the day for me was the morning of Q&A, the breakout groups when we got to share with partners, and lunch. (Maybe more, but I forget.) Overall, this day-after session is feeling great to ruminate, soak in ideas, etc as a buffer between the 10X workshop and my “normal life.”
Compliment: Strategic Coach staff in the room are very quick to pass out paperwork! Thank you. For the Activity Inventory, other papers, staff was always super quick to jump up and pass them out to tables.
Video Transcript
Strategic Coach CEO boot camp filled with worksheets and motivational quotes and other CEO’s all thinking about how to improve their
business. We met up in Toronto after the 10x workshop. Strategic Coach headquarters. Two things I always love in the morning here. First, the motivational quote to think about my business and the breakfast. I love the breakfast. We had some great facilitators who taught
us new tools and techniques. We started out with a Positive Power-Up, then split into groups. We always split into groups and it’s so active. This things really stuck with me and I thought about it a lot. I love the individual discussions, but sometimes we talk for too long and then…Here’s my friend Chad and Simon from Vancouver. Marilynn, what’s up!? This is my first ever Strategic Coach video. It’s great to meet all the people at these workshops. This has been a tour of the boot camp day at Strategic Coach 10x workshop. Thank you for watching!
Links to my other Strategic Coach Posts
Comments
- Justin Evans: Thank you so much for sharing Nick! This is extremely helpful