Over the past several weeks the topic of “authenticity” has been showing up more and more in our work. In requests for content, within our business simulations, and in business leadership workshops more leaders are asking for help in developing the skill of authenticity. During this past weekend, I had the opportunity to start scripting a new business leadership simulation on coaching and the client has requested that we use Authenticity as one of the scoring mechanisms. Several of the other scoring metrics include Empathy, Accountability, and Developing Others.

I will transparently share that at first, I was uncomfortable with these metrics, especially Authenticity. I know you can assess authenticity, but is it possible to teach it? Aren’t you as a human being either authentic or not? How do you train for it, especially in a business environment?

So, I did some research including conducting 15-minute interviews with three Fortune 1000 executives I trust and who I think are very authentic in their approach to business leadership. They were excellent conversations and provided three interesting insights into the answer to my question.

As the United States heads into the 4^th of July holiday weekend, the storm clouds of recession and inflation are dancing on the horizon tantalizing business leaders with a strong need to respond as they plan for the second half of 2022 and beyond.

For the first time in more than a decade, rampant inflation has become a critical business issue and something every level of manager is facing directly or indirectly.

It is impossible to predict how long this cycle will last but a majority of the experts believe it will last for several years. One indicator of the length of this cycle can be found in the meeting notes of the Federal Reserve where they continue to raise interest rates in an effort to cool off the inflation. From their actions, it doesn’t look like this is a short-term thing.

“My biggest learning from the SaaS business simulation experience? Oh, that’s easy and something I am going to take back to the job tomorrow; the company that launches first has the most strategic advantage, and gosh darn it, we should have had that minimum viable product (MVP) before our competitors.”

The concept of using the minimum viable product approach to test a business model is one of the most important concepts to hit the business world in many years. It was a very valuable lesson for my SaaS simulation participants, so I figured it’s nice to do a refresh on the MVP from a Business Acumen perspective.

The Basic Concept: The Minimum Viable Product

In doing some research, I discovered that the concept of a "Minimum viable product" in Business Acumen is a term coined by Frank Robinson and popularized by Eric Ries, founder of the Lean Startup methodology. This is one of my favorite books as the concepts lend themselves to simulation-centric learning. Eric Ries also invented the concept of “persevere or pivot” which we use in every Advantexe digital business simulation round.

This has been an extra special week. I’ve had the opportunity to interview and survey almost 100 different business leaders about their perspectives on business acumen and business leadership as we start building their digital business simulations that will be part of their fall 2022 virtual and in-person training initiatives.

As so often is the case, we engage in deep dialogues about the topics of the day and the skills needed by today’s leaders to execute strategy. One of the questions that I asked in the interview is, “Which is better, to have great processes in your organization or a culture of great preparation?”

The answers were interesting and worthy of a little thought-provoking blog.

There is no “playbook” for the new work environment. As we head toward the end of the second quarter and the end of the first half of the year, everything is different, and the challenges are greater than ever. The work environment is in flux with some companies demanding employees “come back to work” while others are telling their employees to stay remote.