People like us do things like this

“People like us do things like this.” – Seth Godin’s definition of culture.

I should have either grown a beard 🧔🏻or remembered my sunnies 😎 to look as cool as the rest of the Raise N’GO gang.

“Building The Future” is something all companies should do. What was different about it?

🍩A really candid retro on the last fiscal year.
Founder Tiago Carmona reviewed the last year celebrating wins and lamenting losses (sorry I had a small chuckle at the image of Conan the Barbarian scene and am glad I didn’t try to emulate the ‘lamentation of the women’ 🤭).

He talked about what went well and what didn’t – and opened it to the group to share their own stories. What was unusual was that he truly encouraged them to speak, for example asking new hires what they thought of the onboarding process.

This culture of safety and openness is unusual, and it allows the group to feel secure in their place.

🍩”Here’s this ship I am on, and this is why we are doing what we do.”
Raise N’GO is a #SalesforcePartner that focuses on helping non profits enhance their fundraising process in order to really make an impact.

Tiago walked through his vision and mission for the company and the big WHY of the whole business.

The things they’ve done for their clients (my heart melted a little when I found out the about some of the charity and non-profits they’ve served 🥹)

I felt like I was indirectly helping to make the world a better place, and it made me feel good about myself.

🍩 Focus on culture and core values
I ran a session on culture, and the group workshopped the core values together to define “Who we are” and “What we do”, understanding that it’s exactly those attitudes that created the culture we wanted to be a part of.

– Responsible relationships based on Trust
– Client’s objective first, Technology second
– Only Win-Win journeys
– Be a part of the solution
– Respect for everyone

🍩Looked forward to challenges
Streamlining internal support processes and moving from NPSP to NPC (and what it means for existing and future clients).

This is an example of an organisation that really care about making a difference – to the clients it serves and the people who work there.

Having spent a few days with these genuine people with big hearts, I could tell that they love the work that they do, and are so proud to be a part of this journey. ❤️

Happy 8th birthday, Raise N’GO!
To many more! 🥰

Microsoft Certified Muppet

Microsoft Certified Muppet 🤭

Found this during tidy-up.

I’m sure I got this when my company won the Microsoft Partner of the year in 2008 for some cracking work we did with the on-premise MS Dynamics CRM 3.0 (cough cough cough not sure if mentioning this neutralises the humble bragging 😝)

Hazy memories in Houston of an Armadillo race party and The Incident With The Personal Alarm at the Keynote, amongst announcements about Hyper-V, SQL2008 and Windows Vista confuses my noodles … 😵‍💫

Jem Ward Nick Welburn what do you remember from that trip??

Ouch my poor braincells… 😁

Even though I’ve been in the #salesforce world the last 10 years and being amongst many MacManiacs, I still haven’t been converted from my Windows laptop though!

I like that little cheap thrills when I can cmd and mstsc and appwiz.cpl and reminisce about how I totally owned the config.sys and autoexec.bat RAM optimisations in the days of dinosaurs so don’t take it away from me! 😌

What (outdated thing) do you hang on to and why?
#OnThePeiroll
#BlastFromThePast

📢HELP WANTED

📢HELP WANTED: Are you a Freelance or Contract Salesforce consultant?
I need your questions for my next LinkedIn Live on Friday 5 April at 4pm UK Time. 🕰️

I’ve interviewed and recruited contractors.
I’ve also been one myself. 🙋🏻‍♀️

And as a #RealProjectManager who is all over the RAIDD log and identifies all the risks that could impact a project 😬 (understanding risk level is part of my DNA!) I frequently have discussions with new contractors/freelancers on what they need to think about when engaging in work as a prime or a sub-contractor.

When hiring, I need to protect my project and my client by ensuring
🍩ways of working
🍩data privacy/security
🍩quality in deliverable

A freelancer/contractor needs to be cognizant of things that might go wrong and how to safeguard against them. These include:
🍩insurance
🍩legal contract/statement of work
🍩clear ways of working
🍩data security and handling policy

More than “can this person do the job”, we need to take into account a lot of other things to make sure the partnership and project goes swimmingly.

Tena Stromgren you mentioned wanting this topic on the next LI Live, so you are going to get your wish granted 😊

DM me your questions or pop them in the comments below 👇🏻

#OnThePeiroll

We can’t do it all.

We can’t do it all.
Ever. 🙅🏻‍♀️

Not without dropping something once in awhile.

The key is to understand which ball will bounce back and which will crack.

We are always juggling conflicting demands of family, friends, work, hobbies, outside obsessions, leisure, etc.

Not being clear with our priorities and treating our balls with the right care will result in pain and shards that will make our tootsies hurt so bad. 👣😭

Or you duct tape your glass balls or wrap them in some bubble wrap to protect from cracks if they slip through your juggling hands.

(Don’t you just love my amazing metaphors 😁)

I do this by making sure that the time they are in my hands, they get quality time.

Having been away quite a bit the last few weeks, I’m home with my ninja clan.

After finishing the family duathlon races (which the smallest ninja was grumbling about this morning but which she performed admirably) this Sunday morning, I’m looking forward to an afternoon of chilling and playing Diablo II with them. 🎮😍

By making my time with them intentional*, I hope to duct tape my glass ball 🔮 to withstand any roughing up it might receive when my focus shifts to work – training, writing, travelling etc.

Let’s see if my strategy works. 🤞🏻

Ask me again in 30 years.
If I answer from an old folks home, you’ll know the answer 😆

There are a lot more balls but I can’t fit them all into the picture.

What balls are you juggling?
And which one are you duct taping?

#OnThePeiroll
#TimeManagement
#ICantJuggleForNuts

* sometimes achieved through gratuitous bribing 😁

Sometimes I get so busy

Sometimes I get so busy I rarely get a moment to introspect, but this little note from my colleague

Miguel Cintra at Raise N’GO poked my heart a little bit. 🥹

Just closed out 3 weeks of travelling for conference and work

🍩 Incredible road trip from LA to San Francisco on the Pacific Coast Highway with

https://www.linkedin.com/in/realvanessagrant/

🍩 Talked about the 7 habits of success for the AwesomeAdmins at hashtagTDX24

🍩 Ran workshop on ActiveListening and NinjaSkills for consultants at CampTalentStacker in Dallas

🍩 Led workshop on Culture and CoreValues at a “Building our Future” company onsite with my amazing team at Raise N’GO in the beautiful seaside location at Praira de Vieirain Portugal

Travelling, hanging out with cool people, talking about topics I’m crazy about and being paid to share lessons I’ve learned…

I can’t help feeling so very very lucky.

I usually try to post and share my learnings and thoughts, but today’s one – as I’m sitting at the airport in Lisbon waiting for my flight home, is one about gratitude.

And I’m particularly grateful to be going home to my family, who I hope will have missed my cooking enough to give me a few weeks reprieve before providing “constructive feedback” on my culinary skills 😅

What are you grateful for this weekend?

The Song of Significance

The Song of Significance, by Seth Godin 🌔
How to do project work that matters, with people who care.

Very few #SalesforcePartners understand this.

They are not unkind on purpose… they kinda just became that way ‘organically’.

The Professional Services that bills by the hour or by the day or week, reduces a human being into a unit of resource.
And that’s the crux of it.
That’s the heart of being unkind.

When we do the emotional labour by honing our craft to deliver art (and I have seen this in the projects that my team has delivered) – we bring something amazing into the world.

We start by treating people as humans, not as resources. 🙅🏻‍♀️

We start by saying to the client:

“Here. We can do this for you better than anyone else.

“Yes we cost more, but we will deliver value which will exceed what you have paid for it.

“You will know that we have built it with care, because doing great work matters deeply to us.

“And when you see the finished product and how it has changed the lives of your end-users and your organisation for the better, you will know why we are the best at what we do.” 🌹

Billing on a Time and Materials (T&M) basis does not lend itself to this way of thinking, as the team will worry about how long they are spending, as opposed to innovating or being creative in the problem solving approach.

I believe that offering a Fixed Price (or Flat Fee) for the completed delivery is the way forward.

This depends on understanding the business, process and technology landscape – and doing what’s commonly called a discovery, a blueprint, or a scoping exercise.

Do this, and you’ll find that great talent will flock to you, as will your ideal customers. 💞

I’m working with a few partners who share this belief, and I can see the amazing things that are happening for them.

#ChallengeTheStatusQuo
You’ll be surprised by what you find.

What do you think?

#OnThePeiroll