Bright, Bold and Ambitious

I have always been a fan of big ideas and bold initiatives. I discovered Shai Agassi thanks to Garr Reynolds' blog Presentation Zen. Shai Agassi was incumbent CEO at SAP software (we won't hold that against him) when he discovered his new calling - ridding the world of it's dependence of oil for our transportation needs.

This is the kind of out of the box thinking that is bold, ambitious, and after listening to this TED presentation, entirely achievable.

I love great new ideas, clearly and passionately expressed. Shai Agassi doesn't disappoint.

The Department of Homeland Vetting

I propose the creation of a new Government Department - the Department of Homeland Vetting.

Its sole purpose would be to conduct annual ethics audits of all those in powerful government positions. The department would closely look into

• Outstanding (delinquent) Tax Issues
• Pending or current personal litigation
• Immigration status of any personal staff
• Criminal convictions
• Lobbying ties and and significant business investments
• PAC Donations received
• Previous sexual harassment and/or discrimination claims
  

And if you didn't pass the annual vetting - you're OUT.

Am I the only one who's getting concerned about the very high average of nominees for cabinet positions and senate seats who can't seem to pass these tests? How many unpaid taxes and ethics violations are out there among the legislators who weren't considered?

In the past 2 weeks, Caroline Kennedy, Tim Geitner and now Tom Daschle have been caught up in vetting controversies, unrelated to political ideologies or competency.

And these are the people who are considered worthy of nomination!

Perhaps the DoHV should conduct an annual vetting of Congress, our Executive Branch, State Governors and State Legislators.

At least it might get them to pay their taxes on time!

If I get too many traffic tickets the government won't renew my driver's license. Yet we allow ethics violators and those who have long overdue income tax obligations to run our country.

And of course, it's not just Washington. Look no further than Wall St. for examples of private sector moral and ethical ineptitude.

Is it too much to demand that our leaders have an ethical compass?

Business Lessons from an old Sea Captain

It's now time to develop next year's business plan. For many of us whose fiscal year coincides with the calendar year, the planning process begins in October and takes many weeks of negotiation before finally being agreed to.

This year is especially challenging. With the U.S. and World Economy in the tank, you can already hear the excuses from around the company.

"Next year, we'll be lucky to match this year's sales". And, if the naysayers win the argument, it will be a self fulfilling prophecy.

Because you'll be playing defense. You'll try not to lose orders to the competition, instead of winning orders. The "poor economy" excuse will be your emotional safety net. Your team will start rationalizing results against even poorer performers. We may suck - but not as badly as (insert competitor's name here).

In trying times, business leaders need to take a lesson from Sea Captains. In rough weather, experienced Mariners turn their ships into the waves. They take adversity head on. To do otherwise could result in being broadsided by a wave and risk capsizing the vessel.

This year we aren't making plans to protect this year's sales, we're making plans to grow them.

Our captain is steering the ship into the waves.

We're focusing on our opportunities around the world. We're adding to our sales team. We're improving our sales processes. We're mining for gold within our tremendous customer database. We're finding ways to improve and cement our relationships with key customers and partners.

We have all hands on deck.

And we'll survive the storm.

Light a Fire

A friend of mine recently blogged about John Kotter's new book in which he discusses urgency in business. How do you get people to act with a sense of urgency?

I've also heard it described as "lighting a fire under someone".

That's a pretty apt description.

There are three conditions that must be present to start a fire. You need a combustible material, a source of ignition and oxygen.

In business, the combustible material is the talented employee who isn't listened to (or who doesn't speak up). The employee who knows what is wrong and knows what to do to fix the situation - but doesn't feel that they have a voice. They are frustrated that their efforts are being compromised by poor process or ineffective execution of the current process. They clearly see an opportunity to improve, but feel powerless to affect change. They are a tinderbox of great ideas.

The "spark" (ignition source) is the observant manager who identifies the employee and the opportunity - who listens to the idea and puts the wheels in motion to help bring the opportunity to life. Provide the tools to help effect change and empower the employee to get it done. The "spark" could be a small capital investment in equipment, tools or additional manpower. Give a motivated employee the tools to help effect change they believe in and watch what happens. Allow them to own the idea and to make it a success.

The final ingredient is oxygen. Think of this as providing "breathing space" to your employee to work their idea. Allow them to make some mistakes, adapt and succeed. Resist the temptation to jump in and "be a manager". Coach, mentor, encourage, suggest, but don't do. Allow your employee to succeed on their own terms.

Once your fire is lit, watch how brightly it burns.

And start looking for your next tinderbox.

Forget Leadership. Give me Gumption!

There's a great old fashioned word that sums up what many managers look for in their employees.

This noun is rarely (if ever) mentioned in the halls of Business Schools. It never appears in best selling business books. It doesn't appear in the pages of Forbes or on any of the financial news networks.

The word is so old, that arguably it is out of style. And that word is: gumption.

For those of you not old enough to know what it means;

n. Informal.
1. Boldness of enterprise; initiative or aggressiveness.
2. Guts; spunk.
3. Common sense.

Perhaps it's time to reintroduce the word into our business lexicon. I want to work with people who have gumption. I like initiative, courage, common sense - that sense of individual vitality that for the most part is missing from many organizations.

And yet, aren't the people who are most valued withn your company those that have gumption?

But we don't talk about it much. We chose words like leadership (evoking images of George Washington in the bow of a boat crossing the Delaware River) or of Braveheart leading his followers into battle. For most, leadership seems daunting, unattainable - too lofty an ambition. And so, many of our employees don't aspire to be leaders.

Perhaps our organizational development efforts would have better results if we stopped trying to create leaders and started to encourage gumption.

Because gumption is within anyone's grasp.

Photo credit

Secret Weapons

I am working with several business teams at the moment.

I am not a subject matter expert. In fact I know very little about the topics at hand. And part of my job is to help these teams function more effectively. Even though I don't know much about the subject matter, I do have two very powerful weapons on my side.

Ignorance and enthusiasm.

I'm not pushing any agenda. I'm not encumbered by "why the way things are" (or aren't). I hold no bias against any of the individuals on the team. I simply want to know more about the topic and how we're trying to get better.

And so I ask questions. LOTS of questions. And I listen to the answers. And I observe how the team interacts. And generally, I'm impressed. In fact, most times I discover a talented group of people who can be performing at a higher level. They just don't realize how good they can be, nor do they know how to get there.

But I see it.

And that feeds my second secret weapon.

Enthusiasm.

I'm typically a "glass 3/4 full" guy. I look at why we will be successful - not come up with the reasons we won't be. The reason is simple survial. If you think you'll fail, you will. Don't even begin. Will there be challenges? roadblocks? bumps in the road? Sure there will. But we'll work through them.

We will make mistakes? YES.

But we'll learn from them.

My favorite phrases (and they almost ALWAYS come up during initial team meetings) is; "The company doesn't do that." "Or the company won't allow us to try that".

To which I reply; "WE ARE THE COMPANY!"

The only thing holding us back is US.

As long as we view "the company" as an invisible deterrent, we feel powerless. Once we realize that WE are empowered to address issues, it can unleash pent up creativity, energy, encourage change and achieve some amazing results.

4 Powerful Words

I was out for dinner with friends last night. Sid spent some time talking about his former boss who had just moved on to another company. His work experience over the past two years has been frustrating. Sid has well over twenty years experience in HR - mostly within the Organizational Development space.

He was hired for his experience.

He was hired for his expertise.

And in two years, his boss never once asked the question: "What do you think?"

I'm sure the irony was lost on his boss. Organizational Development is designed to improve the performance of individuals across the organization. Much of the time it means finding a way to allow everyone to contribute at a higher level. It means nurturing individuals' commitment to people, projects, strategies, operations, customers...

And all that starts by asking the question: "What do you think?".

Because until you're willing to ask the question (and listen to the answer), you're not going to organizationally develop anything.

Engagement begins with engaging.

Until you're ready to give people resonsibilities instead of defining jobs, you're not ready for Organization Development. Don't even start.

Because giving people responsibilities, means giving them a say. It means allowing them the freedom to achieve, to excel (and to fail and to learn and to grow).

Marketing vs. Leadership

Seth Godin's blog today is about Marketing. No big surprise, that's what he does. Today he talks about "the four words". Here's an excerpt.

Four words:

Make big promises; overdeliver.

If you can define great marketing in fewer words than that, you win.
"Big promises": treating people with respect, improving self-esteem, delivering results, contacting as often as you say you will but not more, including side effects in your planning, delivering joy, meeting spec, being on time, connecting people to one another, delivering consistency, offering value and on and on. Caring.

As I read this, I wondered aloud whether there was any difference in this approach to Marketing and a thoughtful approach to Leadership.

The "Magic" of Getting Things Done

I am continually amazed at how often people fail to demonstrate the ability to "get stuff done".

Some call it a failure of leadership. Some say it's due to a lack of organization. Or maybe it's simply poor implementation skills. Or a lack of a coherent strategic vision.

Truth is, it could be any (or all) of these things.

I am not an expert, but I have learned a few things over the years.

The first, is. If you have ten #1 priorities, you don't have any priorities at all. You simply have a list. And the problem with an unprioritized big list, is that it allows those responsible for the list to "touch" each task, without ever moving any single one forward significantly. The "overhead" it takes to juggle ten initiatives soaks up valuable time you could be spending on completing a task.

So, prioritize. If necessary, trim the list to a few key items. The rest can wait. Truth is, you're not making much progress on them anyway, so where's the harm?

The second rule is to assign ownership to each task. If a "team" is responsible for the completion of a task, no ONE person owns the outcome. And so each team member gains comfort in the thought that a lack of progress is probably someone else's fault.

Thirdly, ask yourself, "Have I engaged the right resources?" For example, if you're undertaking a revamp of your Job Costing processes, do you include shop floor supervisors who collect and assign labor costs? Is purchasing involved? Receiving? Accounting? Do you need someone from payroll to verify that labor hours assigned to jobs balance to payroll hours? Identifying all the process "touch points" and securing the involvement of expertise from all areas, is a basic requirement to move forward in any substantive way.

Fourth, "paint the picture". Help your team understand why this initiative is a priority. Paint the picture of what the future process might look like - what the business benefits of improvement are. Establish buy-in from the team. Remember that these people already have full time jobs. Just because they're on your team doesn't mean you have their support or buy-in. At the end of the day, each participant should be able to understand "what's in it for me?"

Fifth, parse the project. Large change initiatives are scary and daunting. If you can break up your project into manageable and easily understood milestones, you improve team understanding of each task and can easily measure progress. I always think of the old joke: How do you eat an elephant? (Answer: One bite at a time.)

Sixth. Spend your time executing the tasks, not managing the project. Use tools that allow for simple collaboration and project updating (SharePoint, Basecamp, Google Docs) - whatever works for you. This will allow you less time in meeting updates and more time to address issues and make decisions.

Careful observers of these rules will have, by now, understood the "magic" of getting things done. Design your project by providing answers to the questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How?

The Connection Culture

Michael Lee Stallard has written a great manifesto entitled: The Connection Culture - A New Source of Competitive Advantage. available on the ChangeThis website.

Read it this weekend.

I'm not kidding.

He talks about three core values that are essential to the human connection; Vision, Value, Voice.

I've seen teams come together in amazing ways when these values are present. Hopefully Stallard's observations will ring true for you too.

The Battle of O.D. vs. A.D.D.

Many would argue that the I.T. function became more effective after the development of Steering Teams - regular participation by company leaders discussing and debating technology policies and systems development.

The more involved senior leaders are with an initiative, department or function the more commitment, understanding and the sharper the strategic focus. It's all about alignment, expectations and buy-in. And regular exposure to the I.T. function helps foster that.

So why don't we do the same thing with Organizational Development? For many HR departments, the O.D. team is comprised of hybrid "skunkworks" HR people who don't administer policy, explain benefits or manage compensation..

They're out there in the lines of business, working as missionaries, trying to develop momentum behind the principles of succession planning, employee development and nurturing great employee performance.

But these plans seem to be developed within the bowels of HR - then sold to various constituencies within the organization. They act (and are treated) as service providers rather than partners.

Unfortunately for us all, OD efforts are often times seen as the "project of the week" instead of an ongoing (and critical) business process.

It's a battle of O.D. vs. corporate A.D.D. (attention deficit disorder).

From an I.T. perspective, I think we could benefit from a much higher degree of collaboration between I.T. and the O.D. folks. After all, achieving the benefits of systems deployment is almost entirely dependent on how well our employees understand our processes and use the systems. The O.D. team can make a big difference in system acceptance, change management, training and individual performance improvement.

But we aren't at the table.

Because there IS no table.

I'd rather dovetail I.T. user training and performance improvement within a corporate framework/strategy rather than do it independently. We aren't great communicators. We aren't great trainers. We could use your help to improve our performance.

Perhaps we could begin with an O.D. steering team?

Until then, let's have lunch.

Discussing leadership

Charlie Rose (PBS) spends 30 minutes with John Whitehead and Bill George discussing leadership.

Listen for the comments on the value of authenticity, empowerment, values and listening.

Well worth the investment.

Would You Work for Someone Like You?

I just read an interesting article on CIO.com entitled How Do You Spot a Bad CIO? And it got me wondering.

Would you work for someone like you (if you had a choice)?


Hopefully, you're very self aware and you're answering yes. But I really wonder. Ask yourself the following questions and then answer the question I just posed.


1. Where do your new departmental ideas come from? (staff suggestions, peers or from you?)

2. What was the last staff suggestion you implemented? How long ago was it?

3. Which is more important to you; getting a project done on time with as little risk as possible or developing a staff member by challenging their abilities, even if it adds some risk to your project?

4. Which to do you first when things go wrong, seek blame or seek a resolution?

5. If a consultant were to ask each of your staff what they liked best about working in your department, what would they answer?

6. How often do you formally communicate to your staff (weekly? monthly?, quarterly?, only as appropriate).

7. When was the last time someone willingly left your department? Do you solicit feedback from employee exit interviews?

8. Who develops, maintains and improves your business processes?

9. How do you handle bad news?

10. What motivates your staff? (a job well done, a new challenge, praise from customers or peers, praise from you, all of the above, or they aren't particularly motivated.)

11. Have any of your employees ever been unpleasantly surprized at an annual performance review?

12. Does management do all the departmental hiring or do potential peers (teammates) also get involved?

13. How much autonomy do you foster within your department? (none, limited, more than 50% of the time, complete autonomy).

14. It's take your employee to work day. What is your staff saying to their kids? What are they proudest of?

15. Does each of your employees "have a legacy"? - something they've built, improved, or managed that they are particularly proud of?

16. Which is more important to you when considering a suggestion? employee rank (job title) or role (what they do in your department), both or neither.

17. What flexibility do you allow your staff to get their jobs done? (none, they can work remotely after hours, they can work remotely as they see fit, they have complete flexibility as long as they can be reached by phone, email or IM.)

18. Have your employees had any time in the last 12 months to try out a new technology, to improve a process or be exposed to a different role?

19. How would your employees describe their relationship with their managers or supervisors? challenged, managed, observed, corrected.

20. Why do your employee show up every day? (for their paycheck, for their teammates, to make a positive difference?)

21. What is the last thing you learned in your current capacity?

22. How many of these words would employees attribute to you or your management style? (inquisitive, interested, committed, challenging, listener, fair, honest)

23. Do people smile at your workplace?

Some things to think about.

Symphonic Leadership

[Via Guy Kawasaki's blog]. Thanks to Bert Decker (Executive Coach) who prepares an annual list of the 10 Best & Worst Communicators, I came across this compelling video.

Decker's 10 Best Communicators List for 2007 includes a former cellist, now musical conductor, Ben Zander. The short video below demonstrates his amazing communication skills. His talk contains some gems on the subject of Leadership.

This short (8 minute) video demonstrates why he deserves to be on the list.



In an odd coincidence, yesterday I blogged about The Even Keel - a tribute to Tony Dungy's leadership style. Well, guess who also made the 2007 Best 10 Communicators List.

Maybe, just maybe, effective communicating has something to do with effective leadership.

Leading from Behind

McKinsey Quarterly just published a terrific interview with Diane L. Schueneman, head of Merrill Lynch's Global Infrastructure Services. (Requires a free, quick registration at McKinsey to read.)

In my opinion she describes helpful strategies for delivering exceptional results in delivery of new and ongoing IT services in support of Merrill's customer service objectives. Pay close attention to the employee empowerment and development she advocates.

I suspect she's mastered the knack of Leading from Behind.

A great read.

Seven Leadership Secrets

Great advice from Carmine Gallo in the article Seven Secrets of Inspiring Leaders.

Disagreeing with a Hero

I recently read a column in Expert Voices at http://www.cioinsight.com/ called CIO as Chief Process Officer, not Strategic Leader.

It's a summary of a conversation with Dr. Michael Hammer - a hero of mine, who invented the word re-engineering and along with James Campy, wrote a terrific book called Reengineering the Corporation. I've seen Dr. Hammer on several occasions, listening to his advice on How to Succeed with SAP. Believe me, he knows what he's talking about.

The latest article is a continuation of his thinking about Process reengineering, and he espouses a new theory that CIO's should become CPOs - Chief Process Officers.

While I agree with much of what he says, I have a hard time completely swallowing the concept. Yes, CIO's are generally very familiar with company processes. Their departments support the technology that support the processes and they have an extremely good "under the hood" view of how things work together - or not. And it's for this reason, that Dr. Hammer believes they should become process champions within their organization.

Good reasons all, but it rings a little hollow with me. Here's why.

Once you anoint a Process Guru, almost instantly, you excuse others from the responsibility. "I don't have to worry about process - that's Dave's job" - is a sure path to failure. We tried the same model with the CIO role...before the advent of I.T. Steering teams. Steering teams brought in other executives into the technology decision making process.

And overall, companies use of technologies, investment, project selection/prioritization and execution benefited as a result.

Dr. Hammer points out that successful processes require strong leadership, the right metrics and commitment. But he's a little vague on how to get there.

It's a little like the old joke: "How do you make a million dollars in Real Estate?"
Answer: First, start with two million dollars.

I think that answer may lie in Process Steering Teams. Senior executives need to agree which processes need improvement, determine the success metrics, provide the necessary process training/education and dedicate the bset resources to help redesign the processes (usually achieved through value stream mapping exercises). They determine where the pilot should begin and who should be involved in the process. Compensation plans need to be aligned with process improvement goals.

To me it's exactly the same challenge as Change Management. Successful efforts are driven by all top leadership. It's a priority for the company - not just a project of the week. The ultimate goal of the Process Steering Team shouldn't be to refine derelict processes. It should be to turn mid and lower level managers (in fact, all employees) into process champions.

The ultimate goal should be to have everyone at your company focused on process inefficiencies - not just a CPO.

Toyota is generally regarded as the platinum standard for manufacturing efficiency. Their processes are no secret. The huge challenge in imitating Toyota's success is that lean processes are part of Toyota's culture - ingrained through decades of process focus. The other huge benefit that Toyota garners is standardized processes. Everyone uses the same processes. To accomplish this, everyone must understand the process, why it works and what the success metrics are.

Process innovation can't be sustained by one person.

It's everyone's job.

And until we recognize that making and executing lean processes is everyone's goal, new CPO's may suffer the same fate as many early CIOs - very short tenure.

The Apathy War

Seth Godin has a great blog this morning about the Two kinds of "Don't Know". While Seth points out these observations as a warning to Marketers, his blog should serve as a beacon to I.T. Project Leaders as well.

My team faced the two kinds of "Don't Know" first hand, when trying to educate and train employees on a new business system.

I had been through the process before, during a Global SAP system implementation for a prior company. For my new company, to help get the message out and to help our employees get trained, (to address "Don't Know") our team did a LOT of stuff.

1. Our team provided monthly project updates via email.
2. We posted project information on a blog.
3. We created a spot on the corporate intranet for project updates.
4. We provided detailed process transaction documentation.
5. We provided "cheat sheets" featuring transaction shortcuts.
6. We provided online web based (self-paced) training, available 24x7.
7. We provided online integrated help within the application.
8. We provided a tool free phone number for any questions.
9. We pre-trained our Helpdesk to answer questions and to support our employees.
10. We built and provided access to a duplicate, test environment, where employees could actually logon and practice their transactions (available months before our "go live").
11. We held classroom system transaction training.
12. We held Process overview training.
13. We built a train the trainer model, to develop local experts, who could be relied upon as a "first line of defense".
14. We created process user groups so our employees could rely on their community for support (and we led the monthly meetings).

None of it mattered, because many of the employees, fell into the second "Don't Know" group.

They didn't care.

And no amount of communications, training materials or practice opportunities can overcome apathy.

In retrospect, our time would have been much better spent "engaging employees", measuring their committment, motivation and project understanding, rather than focusing on training/communications tools and expecting employees to listen and learn.

To defeat "Don't Care", you need strong corporate committment. You need leadership. You need to win "hearts and minds".

We didn't need another training brochure. We were fighting an Apathy War.

Brand Betrayal

Why is it that companies intentionally do things to undermine their brands? To piss off their customers?

In just one week we've had two examples in the Tech world.

First, Apple drastically lowered the prices of their products, notably the iPhone by $200, causing their early adopters a LOT of heartburn. Steve Jobs quickly relented and offered up a $100 store credit towards Apple products.

But at what cost to the next product launch?

Today, several irate bloggers are writing about how Microsoft bypassed their automatic security update feature on Windows XP and Vista, to "force patch" that very application - even if their customers had disabled the feature on their PC!

This corporate "home invasion" is completely unacceptable to most of Microsoft's customers.

Yet someone in the bowels of the organization thought they could "slip something by the consumer". Has there ever been an example where this type of behavior has worked to the long term advantage of a company or their brand?

Was the Ford brand enhanced long term by the internal decision NOT to fix engineering problems with the Ford Pinto, because customer litigation costs were anticipated to be a fraction of the cost to remedy the problem?

Did the Firestone brand benefit by manufacturing substandard tires?

There's an old leadership adage that says; "Run your company as if your name were on the door."

For some public companies, that lesson seems lost.

School's Never Out

Want to build a learning organization? It starts by asking one question repeatedly.

"What did you learn this week?"

And listening to the answer.

Try asking the question in a group setting. Invite your team to lunch or set aside some time late on Friday for a meeting. Go round the table and have each person relate what they learned this week.

The first couple of meetings may not elicit much discussion or lessons learned, but persevere and you'll begin to set the expectation that your team should come prepared with lessons to share.

Well facilitated, these meetings can become lively sessions, with team members sharing similar learning experiences or suggesting additional ways to address a situation, move forward on a difficult problem, or effectively work with a difficult employee. Perhaps an employee didn't have a lesson to share...how about recommending a favorite business book to the team?

Done well, your team will begin to open themselves up to teachable moments and to continuously self-question - how could I/we have done this better? They'll begin asking co-workers for advice rather than trying to solve situations all on their own.

You'll build a trust within your team. A feeling that you "have each other's back" - that you want everyone to succeed. At a minimum, it's an opportunity to "blow off steam" - to vet issues causing stress.

You may discover some team members who are oblivious. Each week (or month) they'll attend the meeting with nothing to share. They clock in each day and do their jobs but don't have their "radar up", watching for teachable moments. They're caught in a daily grind, locked into a rut. Worst case, they may be the kind of employee who "checks their brain at the door".

There's a place for these employees too.

Working for the competition.

Here are four steps to beginning the process.

Step 1: Start asking the question in a group setting.
Step 2: Encourage (demand?) participation.
Step 3: Keep asking the question. (Make continuous learning a habit.)
Step 4: Move the "dunces" out.

Turn learning into a habit and watch what happens to team productivity, employee engagement and morale.