Diary of Radish, a tech startup

You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not an event – it is a habit.
Aristotle, 384-322 BC, Philosopher and Scientist

Do you have good business habits? Are your current habits getting you the results you need and want? Those firms using the Rockefeller Habits, as organized by Verne Harnish in his bestseller Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, along with the “Pursuit of Passionate Purpose” principles have an easier time producing great results. Perhaps it is time to take your habits to the next level and as a result take your firm to the top. Here is the 8th Habit that the most successful, fast growing firms have embraced along with an example of its application at Radish Systems.

No. 8 of the 10 Rockefeller habits:

8. Ongoing employee feedback and input is systematized to remove obstacles and identify opportunities
• Employee hassles/ideas/suggestions/issues are being collected weekly
• There is a systematic process for addressing issues and opportunities
• Thank you cards are being written every week by senior management

Radish Systems Case Study.

Have you tried using a Stop / Start / Continue list with your team? Radish now has a monthly all-hands meeting where we, among other items on the agenda, ask what we should stop doing, start doing, and continue doing. At our last meeting, people unanimously wanted to continue this kind of forum. Since our team is spread from CT to NC to TX to CO to CA, we hold virtual meetings using audio and web conferencing. This is one means to get and address feedback.

In weekly meetings each functional team discusses status relative to its Critical Metrics. Additionally, this is the place for team mates to offer additional suggestions to dehassle the organization. Those ideas are either reviewed and immediately enacted in the department, or brought forth to the weekly senior staff meeting for a decision.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I just sent out online Thank You cards to three members of our sales team who are living Radish’s core values and making progress with significant accounts. I also sent a group thank you email to our Launch Team which includes creative and hardworking team mates from development, support, marketing, support, and administration. After defining what needs to be done by when and by whom in a detailed Launch Plan, they are using the “Divide and Conquer” strategy — dividing a big task into smaller pieces and tackling the small piece until it is complete. There is much to do. Yet there is progress. Providing the team a sense of progress builds intrinsic motivation to continue persevering.
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Theresa M. Szczurek, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Radish Systems, is a serial technology entrepreneur. The story of her last start-up which grew from $0 to where it was sold for over $40 million in less than six years is included, along with her strategies for success, in the Amazon-bestseller Pursuit of Passionate Purpose: Success Strategies for a Rewarding Personal and Business Life. www.RadishSystems.com, www.radishsprouts.typepad.com, and @TheresaSzczurek on twitter.