Right time, right place.
Great leadership.
Exciting vision.
Phrases like these are tossed around when describing phenomenal success.
Assigned to the likes of Microsoft, Google, Apple, and more recently Facebook, Amazon and Airbnb.
YouTube however, while very deserving to be in this list, has a less talked about factor to it’s success.
Here’s the story:
January 14th, 2005
Nearly 11 years ago, YouTube’s three co-founders registered the domain YouTube.com.
3 months later, on April 23rd, 2005 the first video was officially uploaded to the website (which you can still watch here)…
By 2006, YouTube was one of the fastest growing sites on the Web.
And in little more than 19 months, on October 9th, 2006…
The company announced it would be acquired by Google for a cool US$1.65 Billion!
What a result!
You may remember the purchase making headlines throughout the business world…
However what wasn’t widely reported, was how the company was born, then morphed into what it is today.
Few people realise that Youtube started out as a completely different business.
In fact, prior to rebranding as YouTube, the founding trio had been working on a product called “Tune In Hook Up”, a video dating site.
When interest for the idea fizzled, the founders were faced with a choice.
Would they keep pushing something that wasn’t working?
Now, it’s not likely that you’re faced with such drastic choices as to scrap your entire business model, re-engineer your product set or target a whole new segment of the market.
However, if you’ve been following along with our Growth Series this month…
You will have already done something very important:
By completing the Business Health Check, you will have aligned what you need to do in the next 12 months of business with your vision of your future.
Often when it comes to reaching for our goals and pushing our business to new heights, it requires change.
From addressing poor performers, to recruiting new skill sets, to building the processes to remove things from your to-do list, hopefully you now know where your business needs to evolve to make your goals a reality.
So today, I’d like to introduce you to my 5-part toolkit for introducing change in the workplace, in a way that makes it simple to communicate, easy to buy into and as permanent as possible.
1. What Clearly define what change or project you are trying to activate. Be very clear on the current status quo and the behaviours and practices that you have in place, what you want to change and who it will impact.
2. Why Define why it’s important to change. Look at the benefits (keeping in mind the ‘What’s in it for me’ WIIFM of the audience. This is important in driving motivation to move through change and also to determine if it’s important enough for people to want to change.
3. Barriers Identify any barriers that could stop you from completing the change, and highlight how you will address these if they come up. Brainstorming these at the beginning will help you come up with a better strategy to start with (one that you are in control of, as opposed to having to react quickly).
4. Motivate Make sure you find a way to keep yourself (and others) motivated so you don’t stop if or when things get hard. Consider this: if you don’t have time right now to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?
5. Measure Define how you will measure success and what the end point looks like. Set and celebrate small milestones along the way (behaviour milestones count too!). If you need help with coaching or starting accountable, this is a service BespokeHR can help you with – contact me!
By considering these 5 points, you will prepare yourself to execute real and lasting change in your business.
If you have questions on this topic or any others, feel free to reach me by email or set up a free one-on-one consultation session, or drop me a comment below.
Thanks for sharing!
created with