Designing the "Alliance Experience"

Secret #2: "Fit"

Our members bring intelligence, experience, wisdom and a healthy sense of humor to the Alliance—along with the humility to believe that great ideas can come from anyone. Most importantly, they are willing to share their knowledge and collaborate with each other.

Not every CEO is willing to do this, which is why we get to know every potential member before inviting them to join. Each group is carefully crafted to create the best environment for each individual member. There are private Alliance groups for members who lead companies ranging from small, private companies to global, public enterprises. And, because business is dynamic, members are able to transfer between groups when situations change.

We consider three primary design factors when "fitting" CEOs together:

• Trust is absolutely critical. Alliance members must feel comfortable talking about virtually anything with their private group – particularly their most sensitive and strategic situations, such as acquisitions and competitive threats. Without openness and candor, group members are unable to dig deep into the most important issues. It's amazing how quickly trust develops when you bring the right CEOs together in the right environment.
• Respect. Each member must feel they can contribute knowledge or experience to the group and also learn from the other CEOs. As CEOs get to know each other, respect is earned in a variety of ways – by sharing past experiences, their current challenges, their visions for the future and their unique ways of thinking.
• Diversity is by design. A core philosophy of the Alliance is the "power of diversity." We learn faster from leaders who think differently, so we intentionally seek members who lead companies in every industry and market sector. Different perspectives also come from having leaders who took different paths and solve problems dissimilarly. We're fortunate to have members who have grown up in more than 50 different countries. Confident leaders welcome alternative points of view because they realize most innovations come from ideas generated outside their own industries.

Secret #4: Method

The Alliance has created a unique methodology that taps neuroscience principles to enable CEOs to think more deeply and creatively. We ask members to avoid their natural tendency to address the immediate problem and offer a solution. Instead, we ask them to imagine sitting in the seat of another CEO and take responsibility for making the decisions to navigate the company forward. They often identify deeper underlying issues or opportunities and generate fresh approaches with far greater impact.

The approach involves three steps:

• Framing – Individual members frame their strategic challenge or situation with just enough information to enable other members to imagine what it's like to "sit in their seat."
• Exploring – All other members collectively ask questions to dig into the root cause of problems and gain a deeper understanding of all critical factors. It's very educational to observe how different CEOs explore various aspects of new situations.
• Deciding – No CEO has access to complete and perfect information before making decisions. Therefore, once the group has gathered as much relevant information as necessary, we ask each member to decide what they personally would do if they were the CEO. Although we certainly value ideas from those with the most relevant experience, often the most creative and fresh approaches come from CEOs with the least experience in a particular industry.