Mill House Colleague Doinks
I joined Mill House in September 2000, the same time as Andrew Jones who I had also worked with in Harvester. It was at Mill House, however that we developed our "Jonton" models which turned our doinks into an education opportunity. There were several but the most important was the Relationship Triangle which was based on the communication triangle but focussed on the challenge of building effective commercial relationships.
The Relatonship Triangle has 6 levels which are:
Level 1: Social
Level 2: Information
Level 3: Trust
Level 4: Added Value
Level 5: Feedback
Level 6: Peak
To build a truly effective commercial relationship - and the word commercial is key here - you need to get to peak but this can only be done by moving up through the triangle. Many business relationships do not get past level 3.
We also developed this model further to use to analyse relationships across the organisation and help people understand how to manage them at the level they are at or move them forwards. Relationships can be analysed as Red, Amber or Green but what a good job looks like is to get to Green.
When I joined Mill House Andrew Knight had already been there for a few years. I needed to get information (level 2) on previous activity so asked him lots of questions. My doink was that because I did this it moved us through level 3 quickly as it created trust. This meant I got added value (level 4). I hadn't previously realised that asking questions is a trust building activity but it definitely can be.
Another very simple but important doink that links to the relationships triangle came from Richard Ullman. Richard's definition of a great team is one where at a meeting or when you sit down for a meal you don't mind who you sit next to. I have worked with many teams who believe they are teams but when they sit down for a meal they form cliques. To have the attitude Richard described probably means that the team is at Peak in the relationships triangle.
Another doink linked to the relationship triangle came from Helen McGregor. Helen joined the team later than others when relationships were already strong. She went through her induction as anyone would but, she said that the moment when she relaxed into the team was when we explicitly said that we trusted her - she didn't have to earn it but she must not betray it. This moved her through level 3 much quicker than if we had waited for her to earn the trust - and she never betrayed it.
Debee Timbrell really made me doink aboiut how powerful "anchors" are. Anchors evoke good or bad memories and can include things like music or places. For Debee two of her most powerful anchors are a yellow shirt & new shoes. The reason for the anchors are not important but the power of them several years on has helped me to understand how powerful they are and I really appreciate Debee helping me to understand this so I can use to postive effect.
