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“There is nothing permanent except change.”

We’ve talked here previously about change (see https://rocksolidbizdevelopment.com/ourblog/if-there-is-no-change-theres-no-need-to-manage/) . . . about the inevitability of it and about the need to adapt to it.  But since our previous talk about change, guess what’s happened!  Yep, everything has changed . . . our markets, our competitors, our banking relationships, our people, the technologies we use . . . all of it.  In fact, it would be tough to find anything in our businesses that is the same as it was a few years ago.  So it seems appropriate to revisit that topic.  If you agree, please continue reading below.

“There is nothing permanent except change.”
–Heraclitus

Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher who lived some 2500 years ago, was apparently unfamiliar with death and taxes.  But he does demonstrate that change has been with us for a very long time, and is unlikely to fade anytime soon.  Admiral Hyman Rickover, father of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear submarine program, once said, “At any moment during a 24 hour day, only one third of the people in the world are asleep.  The other two-thirds are awake and creating problems.”  A man of fewer words might have simply said, “Change is inevitable.”  Of course, he was looking at change from a military perspective, but the perspective from a business point of view is no different.

The problem is, the most difficult changes we have to face are those triggered by outside forces we can’t control such as new government rules or regulations, new disruptive technologies, or a new competitive landscape.  Of course, there are internally generated changes too, such as opening new markets or introducing new products or services.  But those are changes over which we have some degree of control.  We can manage them.  We can decide when, where, and how many resources to invest.  Outside changes are different.  They are thrust upon us and all we can do is react.

It’s not fair, is it?  I mean, we just got our apple cart all loaded up with apples and we were rolling down the road, when WHAM!  Somebody knocks it over.  Apples are scattered all over the place.  And it’s not like it was us, not like it was our fault.  We didn’t knock it over.  It was one of those other guys . . . one of those guys someplace out there.  No, definitely not fair.  If this was the NFL, the refs would be calling a penalty on that other guy.

But this isn’t the NFL, and the only penalties involved are assessed by the marketplace against those players who fail to respond to change quickly and appropriately.

So what do we do about change, particularly when it’s generated by outside forces beyond our control?

First and foremost, stay vigilant.  Keep abreast of trends in your industry and your marketplace.  The further out on the horizon you can spot changes coming, the more time you’ll have to prepare.  And don’t watch out for only yourself.  Changes that directly impact your vendors and suppliers will quickly find their way to your door too.  Likewise for your customers.  And don’t forget your customer’s customer and your customer’s suppliers.  Even though they are two steps removed from you, changes to their businesses will set off a chain reaction that will eventually reach you.  So you really need to keep an eye on everybody who can directly or indirectly impact your business.

Second, as a marketing professor of mine used to say, “Love the market, don’t fight it.”  When changes come along, we may be tempted to resist them in an attempt to preserve as much of our old business model as possible.  That’s a fool’s errand.  General Electric isn’t big enough to buck a market trend, so neither are you.  You will be better served by trying to see the big picture of where the market is going, and then figuring out how to get on board with it.

Finally, whenever there is great change, there is great opportunity.  Look for it.  Be creative.  Be the guy who, upon seeing a pile of manure, starts looking for the pony.

Because things aren’t the way they were, things can’t stay the way they are.  As Heraclitus tells us, change is a permanent fixture of life, so you may as well embrace it.  Build a competitive advantage out of your ability to deal with change more efficiently and more effectively than anyone else.  The alternative is to let the world change without you which, let’s face it, is a prescription for going out of business.

 
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“Whoever said, ‘If it ain’t broke . . . ‘ “

It’s easy to get a little lax about taking care of your car.  That is, you get in, it starts right up, and then you’re zipping down the road.  No worries, right?  But then, warning lights start appearing on the dashboard or the brakes start to squeak, and you realize you haven’t had it serviced for awhile.  Or maybe you procrastinated too long and now that little rust spot on the rear fender is a hole as big as your thumb.  Or maybe you find yourself on the side of the road with a flat, wishing you hadn’t tried to get a few more miles out of those old, bald tires.  So sometimes, even though your car may seem to be running just fine, it pays to take a peek under the hood, kick the tires, and give the whole thing a good visual inspection.  Likewise, we go to our doctor for an annual check-up, even though we may feel fine, just to verify that no hidden malady is starting to sneak up on us.  Same with your business.  Even though things seem to be going along just great, it may pay to take a peek under the hood once in awhile just to make sure we’re not overdue for a tune-up.  If you haven’t given your business a check-up for awhile, please continue reading below.

“Whoever said, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’ probably never heard of preventive maintenance.”
– Steven Kasper

As we enter the fourth quarter of the year, it seems a good time to give your business a thorough inspection looking for areas of weakness, of vulnerability, or areas for improvement.  Your inspection should include:

Marketing – Markets and market conditions are continuously changing and evolving.  Are your marketing plans and programs current and appropriate?  Or are they old, tired, and in need of an update?  Maybe you put some marketing strategies in place during the Great Recession that don’t make sense anymore.  Worth a look.

Finance – the Great Recession caused a raft of changes, not only in the way the Federal Reserve has tried to regulate the economy, but also in the ways banks must now do business.  If you haven’t already done so, you will benefit from a review of your banking relationships, and from a frank conversation with your banker about how your debt is structured and about how you can work most effectively together to meet your financial needs.

Operations –  The seven most dangerous words in business are, “It’s the way we’ve always done it.”  Complacency, sooner or later (usually sooner), will come back to bite you.  As Will Rogers once said, “Even if you’re on track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”  You’d better be constantly monitoring what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, looking for ways to do it better/faster/cheaper . . . because your competitors are.  A little paranoia here is not necessarily a bad thing.

Administration – Are your systems able to deliver the information you need on a timely basis?  Are your credit policies serving the needs of your business as well as the needs of your customers?  Do your personnel policies and procedures allow you to attract and maintain the workforce you need?

We’ve talked here about broad areas common to every business.  For your own business, you should get more granular.  For instance, what we’ve termed “operations” here may actually be three or four different activities within your particular organization.  It wouldn’t be a bad idea to do a department-by-department SWOT analysis.  In this, you’d be looking for Strengths (competitive advantages), Weaknesses (competitive vulnerabilities), Opportunities (ways to leverage your strengths), and Threats (such as new regulations, new competitors, disruptive technologies, etc.).

It’s possible that this sort of top-to-bottom look at your organization will show everything is just so swell that you can hardly stand it . . . but only if you do it blindfolded.  It’s much more likely you’ll find a significant number of things that need to be changed or improved.  So then what?  Well, then you develop strategies to address those changes and improvements, and you fold those strategies into next year’s plan.

You are beginning work on next year’s plan, aren’t you?  Of course you are!  Why would you not?  But just on the off chance you’re not working on a business plan for next year, call me.  We should talk.

 
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“The occupational disease of a poor executive is an inability to listen.”

If I had to pick one business skill above all others, I’d picked listening.  Not hearing.  Listening.  Hearing is passive, listening is active.  Actually, listening isn’t just a business skill, it’s more of a life skill.  And it’s a critical skill because whatever problem you’re facing, the clues to its solution are all around you with your employees, your customers, your vendors, and yes, with your friends and family too.  But there’s a secret to great listening skills.  If you want to learn that secret, please read below.

“The occupational disease of a poor executive is an inability to listen”
– Dr. Lydia Gibers

Poor listeners are easily distracted.  A poor listener will notice, “This guy has the biggest nose I’ve ever seen!  Wonder how he keeps that thing warm in the winter?”  Good listeners know how to focus, not only on the words being said, but also on nuances, on subtleties, and on inflections in the speaker’s voice.  They are able to do this even when Big Nose is talking because they realize Big Nose might also have a big brain and may have something worthwhile to say.

But that’s not the real secret to being a great listener.

The real secret is “suspending judgment.”  You need to let thoughts, ideas, and opinions enter your conscientiousness unfiltered by your biases and pre-conceptions.  My friend Russ Riendeau talks about this extensively in his audiobook, “First Hide the Poison Arrows.”  But how can we “suspend judgment?”  After all, that’s what makes us the dominant species on the planet, right?  It’s our ability to use our intellect, to reason, to separate the wheat from the chaff, to understand right from wrong, and to discern a good idea from a bad one, isn’t it?  So how are we supposed to “suspend” all that.  It’s in our DNA for cryin’ out loud!  And even if we could “suspend judgment,” why would we want to?

Several reasons:

1) As soon as you render a judgment about what someone else is saying, listening stops.  It stops at that very instant because your mind is now formulating your brilliant rebuttal to what is clearly a stupid idea.  In short, your ego takes over and does not allow you to finish listening to the rest of the idea.  Almost all the technological wonders we take for granted every day are here because someone was willing to “suspend judgment” about our ability to create them.  In fact, I bet we wouldn’t have blue M&Ms today if someone hadn’t learned this vital listening secret.
2) When you give whoever is speaking to you your undivided attention . . . not just the appearance of your undivided attention, but the real thing . . . people will give you their best, candid, unvarnished thoughts, opinions, and ideas.  They won’t hold anything back.  But if they think you’re going to jump to a conclusion without hearing them out, they’ll dole out the bits and pieces they think are “safe” to give you, and you’ll never get the rest.
3) You may just surprise yourself and find some real gems in some unexpected places.  In his entire life, your cousin Charlie has never had an original thought . . . until today.  Today lightning strikes, Charlie has a brilliant, million dollar idea, and if you have your ears on, you’ll get it.  If you don’t, if you’ve tuned him out, you’ll kick yourself forever.
Of course, we can’t “suspend judgment” indefinitely.  At some point, we have to make a decision, choose a direction, or take an action.  But we must suspend judgment until we have all the best thoughts, opinions and ideas out on the table  . . . the good, the bad, the impractical, the brilliant, the out-of-the-box, the pedestrian . . .  all of it.  Then we can sort through it all, debate it all, and start to figure out what makes the most sense.

Being a good listener makes you a better communicator and a better leader (not to mention a better friend or a better spouse).  So if you want to be a great listener (as you should), you can only do it through this notion of “suspending judgment.”  It doesn’t cost anything, it doesn’t put anything at risk, and the benefits, in terms getting the best from those around you, are enormous.

 
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Thinking of starting a family business? Better think twice.

In a recent edition of the Daily Herald’s Business Ledger, the focus was on family businesses.  More specifically, the focus was on succession planning so that the business could remain in the family and continue to benefit family members for many generations.  One of the stories discussed Klein Tools, a business that has been in the Klein family for six generations.  I myself am the product of a successful family business.  My grandfather, Sam Dean Sr., founded Dean Milk Company (now Dean Foods) in 1927.  Members of the Dean family would remain in the management of that company for the next 75 years.  So family businesses can be successful, and when they are, their stories can be both inspiring and heart-warming.  Unfortunately, those kinds of family success stories are few and far between.  In fact, most family businesses don’t survive through a third generation.  So if you’ve got a romantic notion about passing your company on to your kids, grandkids, great grandkids, and beyond, you might want to revisit that notion.  It’s a lot tougher than you might think.  For more on this, please read below.

Thinking of starting a family business?  Better think twice.

A family business can be a positive thing . . . the thread that binds the family together.  It can keep the family focused on a common activity and a common source of wealth.  But in many cases, it’s just the opposite.  It can become a divisive force, full of strife and contention that drives family members into separate warring camps.  Consider a few case histories.

Case History #1.  A father and son are at odds over the family business.  The plan has always been for the son to take over the business “someday,” but in the son’s view, that day shows no sign of arriving anytime soon.  “Times have changed, but my dad has his head in the sand and won’t face the challenges in front of us.  He’s never going to retire.  He’s going to stick around to make sure we continue to do things his way and to make sure I don’t have a chance to make any changes.”  But from his father’s point of view, “My son needs more seasoning before he’s ready to run things without me.  He’s immature and reckless.  He wants to fix things that aren’t broken . . . take unnecessary risks.  This is my company and I’ll decide when he’s ready to take over.”
The tension at work is palpable.  The father and son communicate by texting or email, but they rarely speak.  Employees are choosing up sides, trying to decide which camp they should be in.  Too bad for this family.  Although it wasn’t their intention, they traded what had been a good father/son relationship for a rancorous business relationship.

Case History #2.  Two siblings, a brother and a sister, are working in the business.  The brother is older than his sister, has worked in the business longer than his sister, and believes he should be the heir apparent.  However, by any objective measure, the sister would be the obvious choice.  She’s smarter, has significantly higher emotional intelligence, and has shown much better leadership skills than her brother.  So what should the family do?  If they give the brother a shot at the top spot, they risk the health and welfare of the business.  If they promote the sister over her brother, they risk alienating her brother and his wife and kids from the rest of the family.  Either way, Thanksgiving dinners aren’t going to be a lot of laughs anymore.

Case History #3.  We’ve got a number of family members in the business who consider their jobs to be entitlements.  We’re paying them more than they could earn anyplace else because, afterall, they are “family.”  And no one has the stomach to fire them because they all have dependents who count on them for a paycheck.  Besides, firing family members would wreak all sorts of havoc with extended family members who would demand to know how we could possibly fire good ol’ Uncle Charlie.

And these are just the sticky relationship issues that family businesses may encounter.  We haven’t even touched on the financial ramifications of a family business such as how stock is distributed, when and how dividends will be paid, etc.

There are two take-aways from this.

First, don’t be seduced by the romantic notion of a family business.  Yes, it could turn out very successfully as it did for the Kleins and the Deans and scores of other high-profile family businesses.  But it could also go the other way.  There’s no getting around it, a family business puts family relationships at risk, so if you’re going to commit to building a family business, you have to acknowledge and accept that risk.

Second, recognize that there are costs associated with a commitment to a family business.  To give your family a fair shot at success, you’ll need the help of financial and legal advisors who are experienced with family businesses and can help you avoid the financial, organizational, and succession planning pitfalls that await you.  These, of course, are costs in dollars, but there will also be a significant cost to you in terms of your time.

Consider carefully if building a family business is the right decision for you, and if it is, commit the time and resources to do it right.

 
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“Everyone has a number.”

While monthly financial statements are essential to effectively managing your business, they are historical documents.  They tell you what’s already happened when it’s too late to do anything about it.  So in addition to monthly financial statements, you also need measurements that are predictive in nature to serve as early warning signs that something may be heading south on you . . . early enough to allow you to take corrective action and get back on track.  For more on effectively using data to manage and control your business, please read below.

“Everyone has a number.”

I have referenced Gino Wickman and his book, “Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business” several times in the past (once as recently as my August 6 posting), and will refer to him again in this posting.  Actually, instead of my doling out his advice in little bits, one at a time, you really should pick up a copy of “Traction” and read it . . . you’ll find lots of common sense, practical stuff to help you run your business.  Anyway, in one section of the book, he talks about using data . . . some people might refer to a “dashboard” or “Key Performance Indicators” or “metrics” . . . to manage and control your business on a daily/weekly basis.  The old management axiom says, “What gets measured, gets done,” and while we’ve talked about that here before, we’ve talked about it in terms of companywide goals and measurements.  But Wickman directs us to make it personal . . . give everyone a measurable goal.  Not just the salespeople or the production people, but the Receptionist, the IT guy, and the guy on the loading dock as well.  Everyone.

Consider the benefits of giving everyone a personal, measurable goal:

• It can add specificity to sometimes general job descriptions.  If my goal is to produce 5 widgets an hour, it’s pretty hard for me to misinterpret that.  There’s nothing ambiguous about the number 5.  If I’m producing 5 widgets an hour, I’m on target.  If I’m producing 6, I’m in line for the “Employee of the Month” award.  If I’m producing 4, I’d better pick up my game.

• A specific, measurable goal adds heft, importance to the job.  The very fact that someone has taken the trouble to measure what I do tells me that what I do has significance and plays a role in the company’s success.

• Goals foster teamwork and inclusiveness.  If individual goals are a part of our culture, and I have my goal, I must be a part of the family.  And if we all have individual goals to achieve, I’ll do what I can to help others achieve their goals and trust that they will do the same for me.

• A well-crafted goal can bring out both competitiveness and creativity in a person.  The boss wants me to produce 5 widgets an hour?  Ha!  On my worst day I can do 6!  And I think with a few tweeks to the process here and there, I can probably get to 8.

Of course, we don’t need a unique goal for everyone in the organization.  If we have three people doing identical tasks, their goals should all be the same.  But that’s OK.  The important thing is that everyone has a number.  The fact that others have the same number for doing the same work doesn’t really matter.  In truth, it’s only fair.

For sales people, it’s relatively easy since most are accustomed to working with quotas.  Likewise with production people (or service delivery people) who usually have all sorts of measurements on their efficiency and effectiveness.  But what about a clerk in the Accounting Department, or a secretary in the Sales Department, or the Receptionist?  Those jobs tend to be more qualitative in nature than quantitative, yet even so, with a little creative thought, you can find relevant, measurable goals for them as well.  For instance, a goal for the Receptionist might be that every telephone call is answered by the third ring, or that no caller is left on “hold” for more than 60 seconds, or that no visitor is stuck in the lobby for longer than 5 minutes.

So be expansive!  Don’t let the sales guys have all the fun.  At your company, let everyone get a little piece of the action.  At your company, everyone has a number.

 
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Are you a Visionary or an Integrator?

In his book, “Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business,” Gino Wickman envisions an organizational chart with the guy at the top as the “Visionary” and the guy immediately below him as the “Integrator.”  In Wickman’s model, the Visionary is the company’s creative sparkplug, the guy who sees opportunities and possibilities and is always pushing to embrace them.  The Integrator is the one who takes the Visionary’s ideas and puts them into practice.  According to Wickman, you almost never find the Visionary and the Integrator roles in a single person.  I think he’s right.  Although you may find a single person trying to play both roles, the effort is rarely successful.  The roles are just too different and require vastly different personality types.  So which role should the company owner play?  Good question!  For the answer, please read below.

Are you a Visionary or an Integrator?

Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, “The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.”  That’s a pretty good description of entrepreneurs.  And while this may be a broad generalization, entrepreneurs tend to be a little like crows, always distracted by the next shiny thing they see.  They may want to move on to their next BIG IDEA while their organization is still trying to digest the last one.  So in the best of all worlds, the small business owner who is also an entrepreneur (yes, that would be just about all of them) would hold down the role of Visionary while installing a really effective manager in the role of Integrator.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t always go that way.

True visionary leaders tend to be terrible managers . . . I know, another broad generalization, but it has the benefit of being true most of the time.  If they’re honest with themselves, most of them will tell you that.  Their creative minds are focused on the exciting possibilities they see on the horizon, and it’s difficult for them to concentrate on the mundane details of current operations.  But here’s the problem.  Sometimes they find themselves in the role of Integrator which is absolutely the wrong place for them to be.  An Integrator needs to be an effective manager who is well-organized, can juggle a lot of details, and who can marshal the right processes to get stuff done . . . all the things the Visionary lacks.

In some cases, there’s no choice but for the Visionary to try to shoulder the Integrator role. Maybe this is a brand new startup and there’s no room in the budget for a talented Integrator.  Or maybe the old Integrator left or got hit by a bus and we haven’t been able to find a new one yet.  In those situations, the Visionary has to muddle through until someone more suitable can fill the Integrator role.  But in other cases, the Visionary has also claimed the Integrator role due to ego or trust issues.  After all, why should someone else get the credit for bringing my brainchild to life?  Besides, someone who is not as emotionally attached to the idea as I am may screw up the execution.  So with these thoughts, the Visionary clings to the Integrator role even though, deep down, he or she may know that someone else belongs in that spot.

The message here is simple.  If you’re a Visionary (and you know who you are), stick with that role . . . it’s what you’re best at and it’s where you bring the most value to the company.  If your situation prevents you from handing off the Integrator role, make it your primary goal to change that situation as quickly as possible.  If it’s your ego that’s in the way, get over yourself.

As Wickman points out, the roles of Visionary and Integrator are just so different and require such different skills and aptitudes, it only makes sense to keep them separate.

 
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“Accountability breeds response-ability.”

In our last posting, we talked about execution . . . about the need for meticulous planning, thorough and detailed communication of our plans, and after-the-fact review to determine what went right and what didn’t in an effort to continuously improve our execution skills and abilities.  We probably should have preceded that discussion with one about accountability.  Accountability, or the lack of it, may be the number one complaint we hear from smaller company CEOs.  They say that their employees try to hide from, deflect, or in other ways avoid taking responsibility. Yet without accountability, efficient, effective, timely execution is virtually impossible.  If this is a problem for you, please read below.

 

“Accountability breeds response-ability.”

                                           – Stephen Covey

 

There are two essential components to accountability: clear communication and consistent follow-up.

     • Communication.  In our last posting about good execution, we talked about the need for clearly communicating the tasks that need to be done.  However, we also need to communicate who will be responsible for completing each task, what each task looks like when it is complete, and a specific deadline for each task to be completed.  Too often, a CEO will give his or her management team a broad outline of what’s to be done without specifying who’s going to do what by when.  That doesn’t mean that each task must be micro-managed.  Usually, there can be lots of latitude about how a task gets done, but we do need to be very specific about:
           1) who’s responsible for the task.  That means a single individual.  If you make a team responsible for something, no one is responsible.
           2) the expected outcome.  You don’t care about activities, only the outcomes those activities produce.  After all, if the activities don’t produce the outcome you want, what good are they?  And preferably, the outcome should be defined by some objective measure so there’s no argument about whether or not a particular task was completed satisfactorily.
           3) a time/date for completion.  “We need this done ASAP” is not specific.  “We need this done no later than 5:00 p.m. this Friday afternoon” is.

     • Follow-up.  Follow-up is the very heart of accountability.  And not just follow-up, but consistent follow up.  If you pay attention to deadlines sometimes but let them pass without comment other times, accountability suffers.  If you sometimes track progress but other times, not so much, accountability suffers.    We routinely hear CEOs say, “When I ask somebody to do something, I just expect them to do it.  I shouldn’t have to go back and check up on them.”  Well, in the best of all worlds it might work that way, but not in the real world.  Conventional wisdom advises us to “trust but verify,” or as a friend of mine used to say, “When your mother says she loves you, check it out.”  You’ve probably heard the expression, “What gets measured gets done.”  So when the boss makes a demand but doesn’t look for measurable results, doesn’t set a deadline, and doesn’t ask for progress reports, how important could it be?  In an employee’s mind, not very . . . it’s just another of the boss’s whims that within 30 minutes will be completely forgotten.  And who can blame them?  Therefore, if you want accountability to be a hallmark of your organization, the price is good, consistent follow-up.

So to summarize, accountability requires clear, concise, unambiguous communication about the who, what, and when of a task to be completed.  People can’t be held accountable if they are fuzzy about who’s supposed to do what by when.  If this is something you hammer out in a meeting or at the water cooler, if you want to avoid later confusion or misunderstanding, make sure it’s put in writing.  Then there needs to be consistent follow-up to reinforce the notion that this task is important and we expect you to achieve this specific result by this specific time/date.  Without follow-up, employees will legitimately assume this assignment was just a whim and is of no importance 

Clear communication and consistent follow-up leads to accountability.

For more information about business consulting, contact me today!

 
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It’s all in the execution.

James “Murph” Murphy is a former F-15 fighter pilot who left the Air Force after 12 years to enter the business world.  In his book, “Flawless Execution,” he talks about the rigors of being a fighter pilot, about the exhaustive work pilots do as they prepare to fly a “mission,” and about the concentration and determination required to complete the mission successfully.  He points out that as a pilot, when you’re flying at 1200 miles per hour, a mistake can cost you your life and maybe the lives of your teammates.  So as they prepare to fly a mission, fighter pilots engage in a process designed to minimize mistakes, complete the mission, and return home safely.  In his book, he outlines how that same process he learned as a pilot to fly a mission flawlessly can be applied to business.  To learn something about this process and how it might be applied to your business, please read below.

It’s all in the execution.

First, let’s define a few terms.  When Murphy talks about a “mission,” he’s talking about flying with his team from Point A to Point B, using missiles or bombs to blow something up, then getting back to Point A with planes and pilots in tact.  Generally speaking, as businesspeople, we’re not supposed to blow stuff up . . . we’re expected to use a little more finesse than dropping 2000 pound bombs on our competitors.  So when we’re talking about a mission in Murphy’s business context, we’re talking about any activity that has a beginning, an end, and an expected outcome or result.  Therefore, a “mission” might be installing new accounting software in the Accounting Department, launching a new product or service by the Marketing Department, or a salesman going on a trip to call on a prospective new customer.

Second, in Murphy’s scheme of things, “flawless” is an elusive goal that is rarely, if ever, achieved.  When a professional athlete steps onto a playing field, he or she expects to win.  Obviously, that doesn’t always happen, but winning is the expectation.  So “flawless” is a mindset and an aspiration, and a commitment to continuous improvement, not perfection.  Let’s face it, as human beings, we don’t do perfection very well.  But we can aim for it, and in some cases, come pretty darn close to it.

Murphy’s process begins with meticulous preparation . . . considering every detail that will be required for our mission to be successful.  What resources will we need?  How will we get them?  What might our competitors do to derail us?  Who will be responsible for doing what?  On and on until we have a complete game plan for our mission.  Critically important to our preparation is contingency planning.  Since we know nothing goes exactly to plan, let’s figure out in advance what we’ll do if this, that, or the other thing goes wrong.

Once our preparation is complete, we need to communicate our plans to everyone who has even the tiniest role in them.  Our people need to see the “big picture,” not just their narrow role in it.  Sure, they need to thoroughly understand their responsibilities in this mission, but they also need to know what everybody else is doing and how all the various activities intersect and are dependent upon one another.

So we’ve prepared carefully, we’ve communicated our plans to everyone involved, everyone understands what they need to do, so now we go.  We execute.  During our preparation, we would have set up key metrics to track our mission’s progress and to let us know when contingency plans or other corrective measures may be needed.

The next step is key.  Some people call it a postmortem, Murphy calls it a “debrief.”  Either way, the idea is to gather everyone involved in the mission to discuss what went right, what went wrong, what worked, what didn’t, and what we can change so that the next time we undertake this or a similar mission, we’ll execute even better.  Lessons learned from this mission will be integrated in to our preparation for the next mission.

Final step, we celebrate a win.  We might have won ugly, we may not have achieved 100% of what we hoped for, but still, enough to declare a victory so we can move on.

So that’s it.  Prepare meticulously, communicate widely and thoroughly, execute as flawlessly as possible, critique the mission to improve future missions, celebrate the win, move on to the next mission.  Repeat.

 
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Tear down those information silos!

In a recent Time magazine article entitled “We’ve All Got GM Problems,” columnist Rana Foroohar talks about General Motors’ recall problems.  She says the problems came to a head because the people and departments involved “literally weren’t communicating with one another.”  She chalks up those problems to “a systemic problem in most big corporations as well as governments – insular management or, in the parlance of gurus, information silos.”  As an example, she points to Sony who ”once had two separate divisions working on creating the same electrical plug without anyone realizing it.”  With all due respect to Ms. Foroohar, information silos are not unique to Fortune 500 companies and governments.  Unfortunately, small and mid-size companies often have them too.  And they can create just as much havoc in smaller institutions as they do in large organizations.  For more on this, please read below.
In business, functional silos are a necessity.  That is, each division or department or team needs to know where it’s functional responsibilities begin and end.  Without such boundaries, there would be overlap, duplication of effort, and in general, chaos.  But information silos are a different matter entirely.  You want there to be as much transparency as possible between all the company’s operating units.  In the best of all worlds, everyone would know everything about what everybody else is doing, why they are doing it, how they are doing it, and when they are doing it.  A friend of mine used to talk about operating his company according to “the Doctrine of No Surprises.”

So why do these information silos exist?

In some cases, these exist due to the paranoia of the operating unit’s manager.  He or she may hoard information in the belief that there’s job security in being the only one who really understands how the unit functions.  But it may also simply be that the manager doesn’t want to be second-guessed by anyone else on how he or she chooses to do things.  I actually had a CEO tell me once that he encourages and perpetuates information silos because that way, he’s the only guy who understands how it all fits together, thereby making his managers less likely to challenge any of his decisions.  Really!

However, in most cases, these information silos exist due to benign neglect . . . the company just hasn’t established and maintained clear channels of communication up, down, and across the organization.  You may feel you have those channels of communication well entrenched, but do you?  Are you sure?  If you asked a random sample of employees how often they feel blindsided by activities in another functional area that impacts their work, what do you think they would tell you?

Particularly in smaller organizations, the communications issue can be handled quite simply.  I know of one company that holds a management team meeting every Monday morning at 8:00 a.m.  It’s literally a standing meeting . . . no one sits because the meeting ends promptly at 8:15.  The only purpose of this particular meeting is to give each manager an opportunity to inform the rest of the team what to expect from his or her area of responsibility during the coming week.  Notes from the “standing meeting” are posted in each department so everybody else knows what to expect for the week.  Again, the Doctrine of No Surprises.  If the Accounting Department is going to be installing an upgrade to our accounting software, tell us.  If the Production Department is going to be working overtime to process an unusually large order, tell us.  If the Marketing Department will be rolling out a new sales initiative, tell us.  Even if you don’t think what you’re doing will impact the rest of us, tell us.  You get the idea.

Maybe the “standing meeting” approach doesn’t work for you and that’s OK.  There are lots of ways to skin this particular cat.  The important thing is to find communications channels that work for you, install disciplines so those channels are kept alive and well, and make the Doctrine of No Surprises a hallmark of your culture.

 

 
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Does fear of failure motivate or paralyze you?

There was an interesting article published recently in the Chicago Tribune.  In it, a member of Chicago’s iconic business clan, the Pritzkers, talked about failure and the role it has played in shaping his life.  While we have discussed failure here in the past, it’s a subject worth revisiting from time to time, if only to keep failure in perspective.  So for more on this subject, and one Pritzker’s take on it, please read on.

Does fear of failure motivate or paralyze you?

Addressing a group on entrepreneurship, J.B. Pritzker, scion of the Hyatt Hotel chain said, “I have spent my adult life so far trying and failing.  And I’ve learned way more from failures than I have from successes.  I look at failure as something you do along the way to success.”

In his extraordinarily popular TED talk (*), creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson said, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”  He might equally have said, “If you’re not prepared to fail . . . “

The problem is, fear of failure is a two-edged sword.  For some, the fear of failure is the motivation that drives them forward . . . the commitment, the determination, and the resolve to do whatever is necessary to avoid failure.  But for others, fear of failure is the glue that binds their feet to the floor, immobilizing them and preventing them from moving forward.

Does that mean “Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!” is the correct response to any problem or opportunity.  No, of course not.  But entrepreneurs to need to realize that doing nothing is not necessarily a “safe play.”  In fact, doing nothing can have far worse consequences than taking action.  As someone once said, “I’d rather be sorry for something I did than something I didn’t do.”

So the message is, when facing a problem or opportunity, avoid a knee-jerk reaction.  You shouldn’t automatically go “all in,” but nor should you become a deer in the headlights.  You should consider all the possible responses to whatever situation you find yourself in, weigh the pros and cons, the risks and rewards of each, and then make the best decision you can.  If it doesn’t work out the way you’d hoped, follow Mr. Pritzker’s advice: learn from it and treat it as “something you do along the way to success.”

Oh, and by the way, if you’re going to give yourself permission to fail once in awhile, you must allow others the same priviledge.  If you want your people to learn and grow, then failure has to be one of the learning tools available to them.

(*) http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/11/03/robinson.schools.stifle.creativity/

 

 

 
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