I recently had the pleasure of attending Aptify’s (a tech company that specializes in association management) management planning retreat. I helped their management team identify ways to implement “Rockefeller Habits” into their company in order to achieve their business goals. Since the retreat, I’m honored to say their VP of Customer Care has started a blog series relaying what the company gained from my coaching. Below you’ll find the recently posted “Part 2.” I’ll make sure to keep you up to date as David continues the series.
http://www.aptify.com/blog/12-06-14/The_Rock_Habits_Part_2.aspx
The Rock Habits, Part 2
Thursday, June 14, 2012 | by David Frick, VP Customer Care
In part two of a six-part blog series, Vice President of Customer Care David Frick dives into the Rock Habits, a business management system that enhances team collaboration, targets core values, and maintains a consistent drive toward achieving strategic goals.
Embracing a Simple Approach Around February or March of 2011, during one of our weekly management calls, our CEO asked what we thought about using a facilitator for our next off-site management planning meeting. As I recall, there was an initial stunned silence. I could only imagine the thought rattling around our collective heads, “Really? We’re going to invite an outsider into our inner sanctum? Someone who knew nothing about Aptify, our business, or us?” Actually, I’ve always been a firm believer that hiring consultants or facilitators can bring immense value if utilized in the correct manner. The role of a consultant isn’t to tell you what to do, but rather help you to ask the right kinds of questions and to challenge the status quo by using examples, telling stories, and guiding you in directions that may be uncomfortable or perhaps not previously contemplated. The facilitator in question turned out to be a gentleman by the name of Andy Bailey. Andy is a down-to-earth guy (@AndyBailey01 on Twitter) whose goals are simply stated as: Assist other business owners and entrepreneurs in building the solid foundation for business success. Andy works with a discipline referred to as Rock Habits, which reflects the work of Verne Harnish and his book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What you Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm. In preparation for our first encounter with Andy, I downloaded the Rockefeller Habits book and was immediately taken aback by the simplicity of the approach; yet the testimonials are impressive: “…the most important management tool that we have implemented. It has created clarity and focus throughout our organization. These tools have helped lead us to become an INC 500 company.” “Our organization has become a laser-focused machine.” Or this from Barbara Standbridge, Former President of National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO): “If you are serious about growing your business this information is invaluable…” If I were to try and succinctly sum up Rockefeller Habits, I would use the words disengage, discipline, alignment, and incremental improvement, which I will address in my next blog. Read the first post in the series here.
About David Frick David is the Vice President of Aptify’s Customer Care department, which provides advocacy for the Aptify User Community at an executive management level. David has more than 20 years of experience working within the non-profit vertical from the perspective of an association executive, where his roles ranged from CFO, to Executive Director, to President of a startup PPO. He also served in the role of VP for a consulting firm specializing in the non-profit sector. His body of work includes assisting organizations in their selection of AMS systems, helping groups evaluate and redesign business processes, managing software implementations, and streamlining governance issues to improve the ability of an organization to better serve its members. David earned an undergraduate degree in science from the University of Maryland and his MBA from Loyola College. Follow him on Twitter @dgfrick.
