Weekly newsletter #179
The best of what I've read this week, about operations, training and education, communication, and more
Hello!
I don’t have any personal updates to share, so let’s move on to the curated resources!
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Last week’s most popular link:
Emily Goh writes that the problem is when years of changing requests, tribal knowledge, and undocumented business logic become the source of truth 📝
What I've been reading, watching, and listening to:
LinkedIn
Melody Wilding writes that to advance in your current role, STOP leading with what you want, craft a business case airtight and targeted to what executives are desperate for
Cicely Simpson writes that your culture lives in 3 places: Decisions, Dilemmas, and Trade-offs, and most leaders only see them when something has already gone wrong, and how every senior leader faces the same trap when they reach the top: The work that earned them the title is the same work holding the team back
Sean Adams writes how 84 people used the training before anyone wrote a “training program,” and how if he took over enablement at a big enterprise tomorrow, he’d start by finding out who actually owns adoption. At most large orgs, the honest answer is nobody, and everybody, and how your subject matter experts aren’t a content factory 📝 🚢
Brandi Starr writes that the companies winning with email are not necessarily sending more. They are being more intentional
Leore Spira writes how one of the most dangerous dashboards was also the most beautiful.
Snizhana Sukhoroslova writes that the org chart shows who has the title. The process owner audit shows who has the authority. They are rarely the same document. And it is the most important thing a COO writes in the first 30 days 📝
Rosalyn Santa Elena writes that nobody warns you about the invisible tax of RevOps, the work behind the work, and a few things RevOps professionals should do to own their career growth, and driving change in RevOps is exactly like a sales cycle
Lynne Levy writes that everyone at the next level is expected to deliver. The real question is whether you can help the business decide what matters, and five frameworks to help
Michelle Welborn writes how being a marketing consultant is (not) simple
Alice Helen Ferguson writes that you can’t show someone a video and then assume they’ve “been trained”
Sarah Rilling writes that one of the biggest misconceptions about a Chief of Staff is that we’re simply there to “take things off the CEO’s plate”
Rebecca Callahan writes that careers don’t have to be straight lines. Leaving and coming back isn’t failure
Rosanna Campbell writes about writing on LinkedIn, what works consistently
Jeff Kew writes that fixing backend processes feels productive, but if it does not impact the pipeline during a business crunch, you are not creating visible value for yourself or the company
Lee Densmer writes that when a CMO says they need better content, it almost always means one of two things: “We need more leads”, or “Sales is complaining again that we have no content.”
AJ Juliani writes about the principle that changed everything when managing a remote team: default to async. Meet only when you must.
Courtney Sembler writes about how to make learning content investment decisions
Bree Giannelli writes that asking a candidate to build their own 30-60-90-day plan during an interview is lazy hiring 🚢
Ashley Langford shares red flags for campaign operations
Articles, Reports, Guides, Newsletters
Elina and TK write that Difficult People Aren’t Always the Problem: A two-part approach to working with people who pull a negative reaction out of you
Jane R. Shore writes about The True Purpose of School and the human revolution
James Martin writes about the personal brand trap: Why humans shouldn’t think of themselves as brands
Cécile and Andrea Chiarelli write why Nobody Adopted Your Recommendation: A knowledge worker’s guide to influence without authority
Jade Rubick writes unusual tips to keep Slack from becoming a nightmare
Andrew Ormerod writes about Sharing Your Drafts
Tom McDowall writes about Opening the Needs Analysis Conversation
Mike Rizzo writes about the hidden role quietly shaping modern go-to-market teams
Lisa Massimo Bushka writes about the invisible architecture behind strategic communications
Charles Galunic writes about Aligning Strategy and Culture: The Magic Is in the Middle
Nadine Chucri writes that Customer Success Isn’t Sales: What the Job Title Really Means
Lee Densmer writes about the 5 things missing from almost every content program
Grace Harbinson writes about what you can’t find on the internet about marketing ops that only lives in the minds of people who’ve been doing this longer than they ever thought they would.
May Busch writes about The Mistake High Achievers Make When Leading Change
Sabine Vidrike writes about how to know if your company is ready for RevOps
Amy Mitchell writes that Execution Problems Are Often Workflow Problems: Design workflows that keep product initiatives moving
Ben Stroup shares A Framework for High-Stakes Decision Architecture: Turn Strategic Uncertainty into Repeatable Transformation Success, and Communicating the Why Effectively: Why Most Town Halls Fail and How to Align 20,000+ Employees Around Change
Al Dea writes about Learn and Teach: A Better Way to Build Influence
Nia Martinez writes about how to Build a Learning Project That Actually Runs Smoothly
Darrell Alfonso writes about how to create a martech prioritization framework in Asana or Monday
Podcasts, Webinars, Videos
Andrea Chiarelli and Peter S. Bergeron discuss What’s Actually Going Wrong in Your Business? Most owners fix the symptom and miss the architecture underneath - docs
Bethany Ayers and James Johnson discuss What a Hired Operator Sees That You Can’t
Featured Events or Classes:
July 14: How to Navigate Change with Emotional Intelligence and Strategic Insight
July 15: Built for People: How to Design Work and Workplaces to Unlock Potential
Featured Book:
How to Try Again: An Approachable Guide to Navigating Chaos and Making Change THAT STICKS by Steve Kamb (affiliate link to bookshop.org)
Featured Remote Jobs:
Roles in Customer Success, Engineering, Operations/People, and Sales.
Director, Learning, Knowledge Management & Platform Enablement
A Few Ways I Can Help You
On-demand courses:
Live courses:
The next free RevOps BootCamp session starts in the fall
Participate in the research for the next live course about employee onboarding
Emoji Key:
📝 Documentation | 🚢 Employee onboarding | $ Paid course/event/resource