Knowledge Fulcrum

I traveled home to New Mexico earlier this week. 

Tuesday morning was the perfect New Mexico dawn.  I miss the warmth of the sun, the dryness of the air, and the brightness of the light.

It seems that lately I’m always going back to New Mexico to say good-bye to a loved one.  I suppose it’s part of getting older — yet I doubt I’ll ever get used to it.  It’s times like these that cause me to reflect on my own life, and that of my family and friends.  In today’s chaotic world, it’s so easy to get lost in the details of our day-to-day – email, phone calls, and the daily grind.  These are all meaningless things that feel so important in the moment.  But it’s days like today — when we say good-bye to a loved one, that allows us to stop and take stock of our own lives.  It’s never easy to say good-bye, but I’m thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to re-connect with family and to gain a better appreciation for my life.  I feel blessed that I’m surrounded by so many incredible people that I care so deeply about.   It also helps me realize how much potential still exists.  Each day we let another opportunity to affect the world pass us by — we’re only denying ourselves the chance to live a purposeful life.

May Stepleton lived a great life.  She enjoyed good health, a loving family, and a life we all would be fortunate to live.  Her smiling face, framed with that paper white hair, will forever be engraved in my memory.  She personified that daily mug of hot cocoa that always awaited me at the breakfast table.

Take a moment out of your busy day and call someone you love just to say hello.  Before you know it, we’ll all be out of time.  You will be missed, Grandma.

I recently posted a blog discussing the difference between team work and collaboration.   I thought it would be nice to provide you with a concrete example. 

Two of my favorite blogs I read recently had posts about recruiting for your business.  Individually, either blog is an excellent resource which will improve your efforts.   But if you combine them the results can be even better. 

MINDdrift

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Re: Focus:

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Even Better!

I’ve really started to appreciate the benefit of “blending” ideas together – just another form of collaboration.  Thanks Simon and David!  If you have other ideas or examples please throw it in the blender for the rest of us!

What does your employee feedback program look like?  Do you have one of these boxes in your office?  How do you gauge the mood of the employees in your organization?  Do you know what’s getting in the way of your people’s performance?  How do you know?   Let’s start over – why should you care? 

First, I’ll start with why some  employee feedback programs don’t work:

• Feedback systems are black boxes.  Ideas and suggestions either never get seen or fall on deaf ears.    If you aren’t willing to take action, then DON’T ASK FOR SUGGESTIONS.
• Feedback isn’t timely.  If the system is designed to gather information, but it’s not noticed or acted on immediately, then the problem either already did its damage or has grown into a bigger problem. 
• Suggestions are poorly defined.  Too often, employee feedback systems are only used to vent personal issues about peers, managers and customers and don’t identify the core operation or process that is broken.  
• Lack of accountability.  Most systems don’t provide any feedback loops to ensure corrective measures are identified, implemented and standardized.
• Feedback is ad hoc, not systematic.  If you don’t make it a priority everyday, or every week – then feedback systems won’t stick long-term.

If you’re still unsure as to the benefit of good feedback systems – then perhaps you can read a bit more about world-class organizations that implement feedback systems that produce results (Thanks, Verne!).  

Now the good news.  This doesn’t have to be rocket science – here are  a few tips to get you started:

• Make it a habit.
• Keep it anonymous.
• Make it about what, not about who.
• Good systems ask for feedback on corrective measures that will work; good systems are not just looking for complaints.
• Don’t shoot the messenger – if you aren’t ready to hear the brutal facts, then go to another website.
• Make sure the issues are visible so EVERYONE can weigh-in on what issues need addressing first.
• Never, ever stop!  It’s continuous improvement.
• Offer rewards when improvements save the company time, energy and money.  It only works if everyone has a stake in the outcome.
• When you listen – don’t defend but keep an open ear and mind to what your people have to say.

Today more than ever we all need to work together to identify and solve the issues that are holding our performance back.   Employees and owners can no longer look to the other for the answers - we need to work together to make our organizations and ourselves stronger, better and more effective.

Hill wrote this in 1937 – Think and Grow Rich.   As much as we may want to believe that we’ve made progress as a society I can’t help but think we really haven’t.  We seem to be struggling with the same problems, and if we really believe that using the same solutions will result in different outcomes, we’re just kidding ourselves.  Maybe it’s time to use a different approach.  Maybe it’s time to use a different model. 

Teamwork is when someone must subordinate personal aspirations and the leader wins.

Teamwork is a joint action by 2 or more persons or a group, in which each subordinates his or her individual interests and opinions to the unity and efficiency of the group.  This does not mean that the individual is no longer important; however, it does mean that effective and efficient teamwork goes beyond individual accomplishments.  The most effective teamwork is produced when all the individuals involved harmonize their contributions and work towards a common goal.  In order for teamwork to succeed, one must be a team-player.  A team-player is one who subordinates personal aspirations and works in a coordinated effort with other members of a group, or a team, to strive for a common goal.   Businesses and other organizations often go to the effort of coordinating team building events in an attempt to get people to work as a team rather than as individuals.

Collaboration – there are no leaders.  Everyone wins.

Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together toward an intersection of common goals — e.g., sharing knowledge, learning, and building consensus is an intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature.  Collaboration does not require leadership, and can sometimes bring better results through decentralization and egalitarism. 

This is an image of a structure that was used to create a philanthropic organization based on the idea of collaboration.  Project Red Dot (www.projectreddot.org) was established in 2008 as a way for individuals to work towards a common goal – in this case, to help people in Ghana, Africa connect to the world.  It has produced incredible results while using a minimal amount of resources because the model is based on collaboration.

I’ve recently reconnected with Doug Mendel and I’m attempting to set up a similar structure to help his orgainzation (www.dougmendel.com).  By combining the right combination of talented, motivated and resourceful people, a tremendous amount of progress can be made while using little or no resources.  In the case of Project Red Dot, they’ve been able to re-deploy laptops that would have ended up in a landfill.  In Doug Mendel’s case, he moved a fire truck from Colorado to Cambodia.  Both used the same model.  Both yielded amazing results.

My question is – how can YOU use this model to reach your goals and aspirations?

Last Thursday was an indulgent day for me.  I spent it with my friend, Simon Sinek and a group of fellow entrepreneurs (EO).  For those of you who’ve had the chance to see Simon speak, you’ll understand what I’m about to share.  For those of you who haven’t – well, you owe it to yourself to find a chance to see him.   Simon’s sole mission is to inspire others into action.  If I were to draw a picture of this it would look like this:

Inspiration is something that’s difficult to describe, yet we all know what it feels like.  This is because inspiration comes from the part of the mind that words have a difficult time describing.  A good analogy is this: how would you describe the color red to someone who’s been blind their entire life?  

What’s so special to me about inspiration is the effect it has on people and their actions.  It’s inspiration that drives people to imagine unthinkable ideas, and it’s inspiration that keeps them moving toward their vision.  It’s the same feeling that drove Thomas Edison to endure thousands of failures before he found the one filament that worked for his incandescent light bulb.

I belive it’s this same source of human energy that motivates entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams.  It’s the same source of energy that motivates employees and customers to follow a leader – even through the face of adversity.  Last Thursday, I was able to look around the room as Simon spoke.  I saw something very special.  There were over 100 people – most of them highly charged, busy entrepreneurs, and each of them were on the edge of their seat for two hours.  It takes something very special to do that.  It takes someone who lives a purposeful life and is not satisfied until he has inspired every human being on the planet.  I wonder how much energy Simon created last Thursday?  It would be interesting to know.  I know he inspired me – thank you, Simon. Thank you very much.

Visual Management is any system, process or tool that provides real-time information and feedback about the status of the organization, departments and job functions.  Think of it as the organizational nervous system that connects employees to the critical activities needed to achieve the goals of the business.   It’s also what many refer to as KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators).  Visual Management systems can take on a number of different forms from sophisticated database applications to simple white boards mounted on a conference room wall.  Over the years, I’ve learned a tremendous amount through trial and error as to what seems to work best and what doesn’t.  Here are a few tips that might help.

Think of a visual management system as the scoreboard for your business.  At a minimum it should communicate:

• What are the goals the organization, department or job function is trying to achieve?
• What are the key measures or units of work?
• How are we performing in relation to our goals?
• What prevents us from reaching our goals?
• And, most importantly…what are we doing to contribute to reaching our goals?

It sounds a lot easier than it really is.  Here’s an example of what I would consider a better than average visual management example.  I took this photo when I was on a “Junction Tour” at the headquarters of 1800GotJunk in Vancouver, BC.  They’ve done a tremendous job of integrating a number of parts of the business into the area where they hold their daily huddles.  They’ve included information and metrics related to the long-term goals of the business, as well as operational information about the day-to-day activities by department that are critical to the success of the business.   

Now, here are a few things to consider when you are either add or modify your huddle boards within your business (see example below).

•  First, make sure your visual management board is broken down into three specific sections – “how”, “why” and “what”. The “HOW” should illustrate the performance (daily) with daily metrics that are critical to your business.  This could include things such as “number of calls”, “conversion rates”, etc.  They are the activities that matter to your financial or customer service performance.  Be sure to include the “goal” rate for performance within the graph (see example below). 
• The “WHY” should be a metric that is related to the “HOW.”  e.g., if you were tracking your turn-over, the “WHY” metric would be results from the exit interviews you conducted as to why the employee was leaving the company. 
• Finally, the “WHAT” should chart what corrective “actions” need to be taken, who is responsible, when it will be done, and what resources will be needed. 
• Use graphs, pictures and diagrams whenever possible.  There’s a reason for the saying “a picture’s worth a thousand words.” 
• Display “expected” performance levels whenever possible.
• Don’t sweat it if your board doesn’t look polished.  It needs to be adaptable to your market and industry’s changing environment. 
• Require your people interact with the data.  A simple way to do this is to NOT use computer programs to generate fancy graphs (e.g., Excel) but rather to make them draw the results on a white board.  When they interact manually with the data they will have to “think” about it – which in turn will help them see when something needs their attention.
• Include as many employees in the process whenever possible – this includes the design on your boards, deciding where to post them, and how to communicate the information.

Good luck!  And please share you ideas and examples with us.

The news for US automakers didn’t get any better this past month.  GM reported January 2008 car sales plunged 51% compared to last year, Chrysler down 55%, and even the darling Toyota down 32%.

Yet, there was one car maker who reported an increase in sales for January.  Let me say that again.  There was a car maker who reported an increase in car sales for January.   Hyundai posted an impressive 14% increase over last year’s sales.  How did they do it?  It’s simple.  They listened to the customer and were willing to step up and deliver value to their customers.  

In a bold move, Hyundai announced their Assurance Program for new car buyers.  They are the first automaker in the U.S. to offer a return program that allows you to walk away from your loan or lease without having to worry about negative equity.  It lets you return your vehicle in case of certain life-altering circumstances.  In other words — they are simply saying “we’ve got your back, customer.”

This is an excellent example of a win-win strategy.  Gone are the days where it’s me or them.  Now, welcome the days where success will be measured differently – success will be measured by the ability of companies to develop innovative strategies that will garner market share and loyalty.  I wonder how much impact this program had on their customers’ psyches and the long-term loyalty they earned.

Of course the remaining automakers will play follow the leader — you can count on that.  But,  Hyundai gets the credit for being the one who first stepped up and delivered for the customer. 

For all entrepreneurs, this is an important lesson.  There is growth for companies who find ways to add value, and address the concerns of your customers.  Innovative thinking does get rewarded!

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I was first exposed to the concept of “core values” when I attended The Birthing of Giants program hosted by the MIT Enterprise Forum.  The facilitator, Verne Harnish, was instrumental in my entrepreneurial growth, and is someone I consider to be one of my top 5 influences.  It was Verne who first introduced me to the concept of core values and ideologies — what they mean and why they’re important.   Suffice it to say, I started to drink the Kool Aid by the gallon. 

Over the last eight years, I’ve worked tirelessly to define my own set of core ideologies, and incorporate them into each of my businesses.  Throughout this process, I’ve found it equally difficult to accurately portray a statement of core ideologies, as well as  effectively communicate that to all stakeholders.  If I had to give myself a grade, it would be a solid C+.  This isn’t because I’ve not given it time and energy, but because it’s difficult to find the exact words that tie to the concepts and the ideas that exist in our minds.  I believe this is because our ideologies are closely related to our purpose in life.  Not only is it hard to find the words, there is also the inability, for many of us, to articulate what our purpose is. 

My experience shows that any organization that grows and does not have a clear definition of their core ideology is putting their people and their future at significant risk.  As the organization grows, employee and partners are forced to “translate” the information they have to  make choices and decisions.  Sometimes the choices they make are not well aligned with what’s in the mind of the organization’s CEO.  Anyone who’s grown a business understands this dynamic.  The more you grow, and the faster you grow, the more you rely on your people to make the right choices and decisions – the ones that would be most consistent with your own ideologies.

Today I found the best example of someone who has brought their core ideology to life.  This is a picture of the core ideologies GotVMail.  David Hauser and his team have been able to bring to life – through a picture – the essence of their ideology.  I can only imagine the impact this will have over time.  If they’re able to effectively communicate this picture to as many people as possible, their success will be unlimited.  I am going to do the same for my new business because a picture is worth a thousand words.  Thank you for the inspiration, David!