Crush them!

Crush your goals, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of your competition!

12 May 2020 — 3 min read

Conan, upon being asked what is best in life, provides profoundly philosophical answer:

Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women! – Conan the Barbarian

Fantastical universes aside, we are lucky to live in the time when there is the least amount of armed conflict since the age of men.

Physical violence is uncommon and frowned upon in most of the developed world.

Still, it is a folly to forget our primordial roots, and how well versed we are in the art of mayhem, chaos, and destruction.

The myth of Shambhala warriors can be comforting, but in the face of real danger, I'd wager they'd fare as well as Moriori did against the Maori.

Competition now mostly happens in the business arena.

Passions are still the same, rules are a bit different, and everything is a bit more civilized.

Perhaps, if Conan the Manager was asked what's best in business, he'd answer:

Crush your goals, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of your competition!

You are most likely familiar with the SMART (mnemonic standing for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) goal setting.

MIT study proposes FAST (mnemonic standing for frequently discussed, ambitious, specific, and transparent) goal setting based on the research of contemporary companies:

Over the past few decades, a handful of leading companies including Google, Intel, and Anheuser-Busch InBev have pioneered and refined an alternative approach to harness the power of goals to drive and align action. To understand how this new approach works, we studied these companies and others, analyzed a proprietary data set of more than half a million goals, and reviewed the academic literature on goal setting.

Here is the visual summary of each principle:

I'm sure that some consultant, somewhere, is plotting how to sell FAST SMART goals.

Whatever goal setting process you use, remember to direct the primordial energy we all have into crushing goals, instead of crushing dreams.

Upcoming growth opportunities with Bruno:

After training more than 200 Playing Lean Facilitators worldwide, Simen Fure Jørgensen and I noticed several recurring patterns.

One of them was desire to learn even more about Lean Startup in the same practical style as are Playing Lean workshops.

Ever since we started, we were quite adamant about sustaining our community roots.

What we do is from practitioners, for practitioners.

No non-sense blabber, only critical theory, and usable materials.

No DRM, lock-ins, walled gardens, or similar tricks.

Today I'm happy to announce the launch of the Business Modelling Facilitator Training.

It is for those who want to run better business modelling workshops.

Here are some of the things we included:

Online classes providing all the theory you need.
Ready made and adaptable workshops for the Business Model Canvas.
Ready made and adaptable workshops for the Lean Canvas.
Downloadable presentations for you to use and adapt.
Downloadable stickers and exercise setups.
References for further study, personal development, and growth.
Discount on all products on playinglean.com.
Discount on other certifications provided by Playing Lean.
Access to the Playing Lean Facilitator Club.

To celebrate the launch we have a number of ongoing offers.

Check them out here.

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