Colin (00:01.98)

Hello and welcome to The Growth System, the podcast that looks at B2B growth through a systems thinking lens. I'm Colin Shakespeare.

Chris (00:11.742)

I'm Chris Bayliss and in our day jobs we've worked with some of the world's largest brands as well as some far smaller companies helping them achieve their scaling ambitions.

Colin (00:20.593)

So Chris, Elephant in the Room Time, why does the world need another podcast?

Chris (00:27.906)

Well, I think it's a question we need to sort of front up to, right? Because lots of people would say the world probably doesn't need another podcast, but hopefully you will forgive us putting one more out there because ultimately I think we've got something quite interesting to say, I'm sure everyone does, but what we were not seeing out there is actually the stuff that we work with every day in our day jobs. And that is how...

systems thinking and more broadly systems theory applies to growing businesses and ultimately the operation of growth teams and that's what we want to talk about. And over the course of the first season what we're going to be doing is looking at some unhelpful patterns, metrics, scenarios, situations, call them what you will, that we see within sales marketing and account teams.

and we see them struggling with time and time again, often thinking that they're just part of the day -to -day of doing business. And what we're going to show you, hopefully, is how applying a little systems thinking and a little systems theory can reveal surprising solutions.

Colin (01:38.327)

Okay, that sounds like it's actually going to be quite a lot to unpack. How should we break it down for a podcast then?

Chris (01:46.446)

Okay, so each week we are going to discuss an organizational issue or challenge being faced by growth teams. We're going to unpack it and then we're going to offer some practical solutions on how using a bit of systems thinking you can make these issues go away. We aren't promising they're all going to be easy, but they do work because we see them working day in, day out.

Colin (02:04.495)

think what would be really helpful for everyone, me included to be honest, is if in the first episode, before all that, you could give us a bit of a flavour about what we really mean by a system and systems thinking and how that applies to growth teams. In other words, go into a bit of the theory to start with.

Chris (02:23.118)

Yeah, absolutely. So I mean, we're, we're, we're two and half minutes into the teaser. We've already used that word systems quite a lot. And I think it's really important that we don't assume too much. think it's spending, I don't know, 25 minutes, half an hour, as almost a special episode right up front, just laying out some of those concepts, connecting some of those dots that we're going to keep coming back to as we go and talk through these more kind of operational

dare I say, relatable problems that we're going to be talking about kind of throughout the rest of the show.

Colin (02:58.821)

Great. So after that, what are these organisational patterns that we're actually going to look at? I suspect it's once people actually start to think about these endemic issues with a systems thinking lens that the penny will actually start to drop for the audience.

Chris (03:19.062)

Yeah, absolutely. I certainly hope so. I mean, we've got loads of really good stuff in store. We're going to dive headfirst into some, I think, particularly hot topics, maybe some hot water, some might say, and some things that you might think at face value actually don't really have a great deal to do with systems. And the first one of those after our sort of what is a system special is going to be the humble MQL. Now, what we're going to be doing is making the case for it.

making the case against it, and suggesting some alternatives that we see working out in the wild. And I think what's going to be particularly interesting, from my perspective, at least, is sharing some of the research that kind of underpins the best practices that are out there.

Colin (04:03.428)

I MKLs is going to be an uncomfortable topic for some. Maybe, did I say even some friction between us, Chris? Like you might have to hold me back.

Chris (04:15.876)

Well, we'll see. mean, luckily we are recording many hundreds of miles apart. hopefully there won't be an actual fight, absolutely. You come from the sales side of the fence. I come from the marketing side of the fence, historically speaking, at least. And there is hot water to be waded through, that's for sure. So we'll see how we go there.

Colin (04:20.484)

Ha

Colin (04:39.349)

What's next after you girls Chris?

Chris (04:43.214)

Okay, so we are going to be talking about lots of different topics, but after that, I think we are going to be talking about alignment and specifically sales and marketing alignment.

And that's a topic that I know we're going to be coming back to time and time again, because is such a, know, alignment is such an intrinsic part of talking about systems. You know, the interfaces between different teams, different ideas, different processes, you know, that's, that's really alignment. And for us, it is a miss.

understood or perhaps positively misdiagnosed state because so many people think they're aligned very rarely in our experiences and actually the case. So we're going to set our stall out for the first time in season one about what that means to us. And of course, following the show format we just talked about, we're going to be offering some ideas on how you can make that a lot better with your own organization.

Colin (05:40.458)

And I think alignment just a heads up for everyone should definitely be on everyone's growth system podcast bingo card. So what else are we going to look at Chris?

Chris (05:52.556)

Okay, so very quickly, we're going to be thinking about metrics, process design, things like dealing with distractions or shiny things as we as we like to call them around here and much, more besides. So it's going to be action packed and hopefully it's going to be really, really helpful.

Colin (06:09.358)

think in the research for this series as well we found plenty of cautionary tales of systems thinking failures and catastrophic consequences of that. I feel like that needs a special place in the series, like maybe we should have a special episode on that just for fun or some people's idea fun I guess.

Chris (06:27.51)

Yeah, I think that is going to be a lot of fun. Unless you're listening and you were part of one of these catastrophic failures at the time, in which case it may be a little uncomfortable. certainly a set of cautionary tales that I think really underline the power and importance of a sort of systems mindset.

whatever you do within the organization because when it goes wrong, my God, does it go wrong? And we'll pick out a few of those things and hopefully use it to illustrate the points that have been made in the show so far. And I think that'll be a lot of fun, as you say.

Colin (07:06.563)

Great, well, okay, you heard it here first folks. Make sure you tune in on October the 1st to hear what on earth we mean when we're talking about systems and systems thinking, and more importantly, why you as growth professionals should actually care. See you there.

Chris (07:23.608)

Looking forward to it.