Transcript

January 23, 2002 - 5:00 p.m. EST
Thomas Leonard, Session Leader

TJL: Hello, fellow coaches! My name is Thomas Leonard and with me is….

DB: Dave Buck!

TJL: Dave buck is here! We have about 10 other folks who are study group hosts on this call. Dave and I and the group will talk for about 10-15 minutes about what a virtual R&D team and how you can benefit from it, and what you can work on with them. After we're done setting up the stage for this, your study group hosts will tease out the topic with you and help identify a project you might wnt to work on - e-zine, a teleclass, an e-book, or one of many other projects. The study group host will work with you later on, to actually buddy up and come up with some ideas.

We know how valuable an R&D team is - Coachville wouldn't be here without one, or wouldn't be very productive without one. A lot of people have emailed me that they love the idea, but don't know what they'd work with one on. Today we're going to be talking about that. There's no real trick to run one - you're the host of a group with a common interest; it's very simple. I'd like to start with Dave - you've launched your own recently and we'd like to hear about your experience.

DB: The reason it's worked well for me is because whenever I'm creating a new program or new teleclass - I used to try to come up with all the ideas in my own head. I thought I had good ideas, but many times, they didn't work. Then, I started using an R"&D team of people interested in me and my subject. When I used the team, the quality of my ideas got significantly better, and gave me the opportunity to cast off all the ideas that weren't so good. I could much more quickly get to the right idea.

TJL: If you're a creative person, you're going to have a lot of ideas but not know which ones are good ideas, and the R&D team can help you figure that out.

DB: That's exactly right.

TJL: Because you're going to want to create something someone else is going to want to buy, or should buy….

DB: Or something you think is really neat!

TJL: It's important to use your R&D team to weed out those ideas that just aren't that interesting. The team can also really polish your product.

DB: Yeah! There's another little piece I found is that - in most businesses, 50 years ago people made stuff, but now we don't make stuff, we make choices. We're now making hundreds of choices every day, and the R&D team is here to help you make the right choices.

TJL: Well said, and rather than waiting for the quality team to come in after the engineers have done their work, you want to bring them in right up front. You can not only share what you've created, but share the creating with them. For me that was a real ego brush! It's great for all the folks to share with you, for example, all the books they've read. That's been great for me, especially, because I don't have time to read all the self-help books out there.

DB: I think the biggest thing out there is the perfectionism trap - people don't want to share things until they think they've got them perfect. In this situation, you want to share it before it's almost an idea. For a lot of people, that's the hardest thing.

TJL: And the most important thing - rather than hording the ideas you have, you can use the R&D team to realize not only those, but a ton more. There are also other ways in which you can use an R&D team. Somebody can just make an offhand comment in an email, and Boom!

DB: That's another key thing about this - we talk about needs and environments. If you have an R&D team, you're always surrounding yourself with new ideas. Like you said, an offhand remark can really trigger something. Having an R&D team is like having a group of collaborators that are interested in your and your topic, and that creates this whole ecology of ideas and makes you more productive. Not only do you have more ideas to choose from, but the quality and value added will be increased because you'll be in touch with the marketplace.

TJL: Yeah, and often creators are in touch with the mountain top! You also mentioned earlier about evolution and environments; they really do becoming an evolving environment. Those evolving environments are going to evolve you individually as well, as long as you're open. Dave, how did you make the leap?

DB: It's a very interesting thing. Part of being a good R&D receiver is - I think it's being welcome and open to all kinds of input. I've found recently that when they tell me an idea stinks, it's actually kind of welcome. It's like, 'I'm glad I fund out now, rather than spending so much time on this idea!"

TJL: Yes, it doesn't mean you're not going to do it, but you just have to find a way to make it work.

DB: Another thing is that the team doesn't say it stinks too often, but they do say, 'I haven't a clue what you're talking about!" (laugh)

TJL: And that forces you to be what? (laugh)

DB: Much more clear! That brings me back down to earth.

TJL: Yes, they're a lot like translators that way. The creative process is messy, but you can get better with the R&D team.

TJL: I agree. You also need to manage yourself in terms of how you respond to things. Some people are good at being organizing and being affected by a lot of input, while others really tend to get to 'overwhelm'. For some people, you have to grow a new capability of handling lots of input - sifting through lots of emails, organizing, and collating.

We're not really used to getting 200 emails on the same subject within 24 hours!

DB: Yes; it's not a normal thing!

TJL: And you can hire someone to go through and organize it, or what I do is, go through the first 50, look for the one key thing in each email - which takes about 15 seconds- and then just delete, delete, delete! You're really looking for the gold among the ore. Also, for some other personal benefits - besides more and better products - that I've experienced. There's a certain virtual comfort in people sending emails on things I'm interested in. I'm never short on ideas, and I'm never short on things to toss out to them because of it. And you know what? 9 times out of 10, there are at least 5-10 percent of the people in my group online at any given time, so often, I'll get at least 5-7 responses back within just a few minutes! If you don't get any email, you know it's a REALLY bad idea! Any personal benefits of your experience?

DB: On the personal side, the biggest thing for me was being able to share ideas before I thought they were perfect. It's about not being so much of a solo operator - it's just a big thing.

TJL: And a lot of creative people are solo operators - they're not really collaborators, and you can really develop it through the R&D team. Another professional benefit is that you can become known better; I've become known better and I know Coachville has too. If you're creating intellectual property, you're going to be developing and enhancing your own reputation. You want people to know what you're up to - you're going to get business from it, and people are going to be forming positive opinions about you and looking to you for leadership in a particular topic.

Why not start with an R&D team and have them educate you about what you don't know? You'll become an expert in a hurry. You don't have to be an expert in a topic to start an R&D team.

DB: That is true - when I first started working on branding, I didn't know much about it, so I led free teleclasses for 50 weeks. I didn't call it an R&D team, but that's really what it was for me - I learned so much about the subject.

TJL: That's great! We're going to have the study group hosts to lead their group at this point lead the folks in their group through a few exercises that are in their manual. We'd also like to suggest if you're listening to this on Real Audio, we'd like to think abut having your group work on this one question - What would I like to work on that would merit having an R&D team? Most folks will really be attracted to your topic, not just you. What would be so exciting for you to learn about or create that you'd want to start an R&D team?

Dave, thanks for being with us. We'll have the study group host turn off the Real Audio player, and we'll wait for just a moment while that's done.

(Thomas asks Dave to take over the group for a few minutes at this point)

DB: Well, how is everyone doing? Okay, why don't we work on that exercise for a bit? What would be something that would compel you to start an R&D team?

Donna: I'm actually in the process of creating both a workshop and an e-book on making yourself over from the inside out. I think an R&D team would be really valuable for the workshop and workbook portion of that.

Yes, very good! That's a great example.

Joyce: I'm just starting to do teleclasses on feng shui and I want to switch that into an e-book. I think starting an R&D team would really help me with the e-book.

XXX: I'd join that R&D team

DB: I think a lot of people would - it's an interesting idea! For example, if you were doing a teleclass, they could help you with the title of the class. That's the key t get people signing up for the class.

Joyce: I got that from taking your class. Someone in the group came up with the name for me! I'm doing my first 5-day next week. Basically, your class served as the R&D team.

DB: I appreciate you saying that. One thing I hope to accomplish in that class is to have people set up an R&D team for all aspects of a program - the title, the slogan, the description, and the content. All that, you can come up with it yourself, but it's great to have an R&D team. That's a wonderful thing to use an R&D team for. And, the next level of this is that if you get into the practice of using an R&D team in your first teleclass, then you can just make that process the way you do things. Part of your process of inventing things is the R&D team.

TJL: Dave, I'm back. 

DB: We were just talking about what we'd use an R&D team for.

TJL: Great! if anyone else wants to come up with an idea, and you want us to walk you through the process, we can do that with you. We can also do a Q&A for managing the process.

DB: We went through with Joyce on how to use the R&D tea, so that would be great.

XXX: How would you respond to someone who's interested in the concept but has the fear around somebody taking their idea and running with it?

TJL: And you've got a client that you'd like to suggest an R&D team idea to?

XXX: Well, as a study group host, I'm thinking there might be some participants - I'm on one of your R&D teams myself so I see how it really works, but it's an interesting question on how you're able to share so much and still really own it.

TJL: Well, ideas really aren't copyright-able. Often, I've had people working on the same idea I was and neither of us knew it. The 2nd thing is that if someone is going to take the execution ideas and re-format it, that's a legal issue. Are you talking about how someone doesn't want to release something because it's going to be the cornerstone of their business?

XXX: Yes, and sometimes people will seek out your advice, but won't give you any details to help them. They want to just horde the information.

TJL: If they're coming from that place, I wouldn't bother. They'd have so far to go to really embrace the R&D team concept. If you're open to the idea, you understand that you have lots of ideas so you won't worry so much about just one. It's just human nature, so I wouldn't push it. An R&D team is really for someone who wants to create something in a hurry and have it be good. My focus is really never on the idea or the product; it's really on the end-user. If you can get them to switch their focus, that may take them off the control issue. Who else has any question about the process?

XXX: My big question is that I have a big list of people I email regularly, but it's not in the hundreds. How would I add people for my R&D team?

TJL: I would start with people you know and give them an incentive for joining. Find a topic that they would be excited about, and let them know you're going to be working on it for about 6 months. You'll give about 5-10 percent of your list to come in with you, but make sure they have a real reason to join. Make sure they see the benefits to them. Also, one of the resources we'll have for this module is a document on understanding the benefits of an R&D team that you can include in your letter. I think you can be passionate about the idea, but always be coming from their perspective.

XXX: Great; thank you.

TJL: Who's next? 

Allison: How do you make sure that your R&D team is representative enough of your target market so the feedback is truly valuable?

TJL: It's almost always truly valuable. You can certainly pre-qualify people who come into your team, but I generally don't try to do that too much. I think if you get a wide range of folks on your team - those with lots of knowledge and those who don't have a clue - you never know who's going to give you the best advice. 

Allison: Do you ever find yourself second-guessing the feedback from your team?

TJL: What does that mean?

Allison: Maybe you really have a sense of where you want something to go and the feedback is challenging that, do you have a sense that you still know better?

TJL: Yes. You can tell in how they're phrasing their comments where they are on the continuum of evolution. I've got people on the team that when they really hate something, I know it's going to be a huge success - and it always works! Some people just don't get it, and they never will, but they're great to have on the team. On one topic, I got 35% negative, which is unusual for most of the team. I knew I was going to move forward with the project, but I am also mindful that it's going to turn off a lot of people.

Allison: So you don't just accept all the feedback you get?

TJL: Yes, it may be useful, but it's not gospel.

Susan: If you start your R&D team around a product, and it has a shelf-life and you want to move on to something else, do you invite them to a new team or find new people?

TJL: I generally just have one team that's an ad-hoc group. What you can do is invite them to join the new team, and offer them the opportunity to either stay on or opt-out.

XXX: Thank you.

Katie: Could you talk a bit about converting an existing group to an R&D team? I have a focused group that I've been using for a couple of years as an informal R&D team, but I'd like to use them much more in that way. Can I move into R&D with them, or should I just continue using them informally like that?

TJL: Okay, they've been acting as an R&D team, but you haven't labeled them as such?

Katie: Not really, because the kinds of things I share have been few and far between. 

TJL: I would make a big deal out of the fact that you're starting an R&D team and invite them. Let them know if they'd rather not, that's okay, but that you'd love to have them. Maybe you could educate them in their new role, too.

Katie: I think the quality of responses would be better too.

TJL: Yes, and they're really competing with each other to get your attention - that is part of what's happening. They want to be recognized, make their point, and change your mind. Talk about evolution!

Katie: Thanks!

TJL: We have just a couple minutes left; I'd love to get feedback from you about the notion of R&D teams.

Donna: I think it was very helpful to think about the benefits to them, as opposed to just yourself.

TJL: Great; who's next?

XXX: I have more clarity in how to communicate to others about an R&D team.

TJL: Thank you. Who else?

Joyce: I like the feedback I got on my idea.

Katie: I like the idea of being more formal with the R&D team - that helps me understand and focus my thinking even more.

TJL: Yes, and they'll be able to talk about it better too! It gives them a more formal role.

DB: I just wanted to highlight the same point about helping them understand the benefits of being on an R&D team.

TJL: Yes. We need to educate them on why they'd want to bother at all. Thank you for joining us - bye now!

END