Time Core · Golden Opportunities · Module
Recognising them
How an unusual opportunity gets noticed and raised, given that it arrives inconveniently and usually to someone without a route to escalate.
The idea
How it works
Exceptional opportunities arrive looking ordinary. A competitor in difficulty, a key person available, an asset for sale, a regulation changing — none of it announces itself as exceptional.
They are usually seen first by someone close to the market and far from the decision. Whether they reach anyone depends entirely on whether a route exists.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Describe what one looks like
Concrete examples, so that someone encountering one recognises it rather than deciding it is not their concern.
- 02
Give it a route
One named person who can be told directly, without a form or a hierarchy.
- 03
Respond to every raise
Including the ones that are not opportunities. A raise that is ignored is the last one that person makes.
- 04
Ask the people closest to the market
Sales, support and delivery see things first and are rarely asked what they have noticed.
One level in
The components of recognising them
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
A raise that is ignored is the last one that person makes, and they saw the next one too.
The other modules in golden opportunities
Qualifying
Establishing quickly whether it is what it appears to be — on a shorter process than the standard one, since the standard one takes longer than the opportunity lasts.
LearnCapacity to act
Whether the organisation can actually move — people who could be released, money that is not committed, and authority that does not require a cycle.
LearnThe record
What was taken, what was declined and what happened afterwards — the only way to know whether the organisation’s judgement is any good.
Learn