Knowledge Fulcrum

R. Buckminster Fuller was perhaps one of the greatest people of the 20th century.  He’s best known for being a visionary, designer, architect, author and inventor.Fuller died in 1983 at the age of 87.  On his gravestone is inscribed “Call me Trimtab”.

Bucky frequently used the phrase as a metaphor for leadership and personal empowerment. In a 1972 article Bucky said, “Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary — the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trimtab. It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go.”

Bucky’s life long accomplishments speak for themselves – he wrote over 20 books, held 28 US Patents, and began a movement that is alive and well today.  When ever I start to feel like stuck and I’m not making a difference, I remind myself of this phrase and the man who changed the world.

It always seemed that change never happens as quickly as we would like.  In fact, I would say that most of the people I know or associate with are all people I would consider to be open to change.  Yet, I would also say they struggle with how slowly change actually happens.  Does this mean we all, in fact, are not open to change?

Here are a few things I’ve learned over the years about change – specifically in the context of organizational change:

• Change is slow and tends to be frustrating for most people involved.
• It’s often hard to tell how “change” is going.
• There seems to always be more people against change than are for it.
• Factions in the organization try to kill change before it takes hold.
• Feedback frequently comes from why “change” won’t work.
• It always feels like the change is failing right up to the point when it starts to take hold.

I would imagine that this list seems quite familiar to many of you.  So, what?  Maybe these ideas will help everyone embrace change:

• It’s the journey not the destination that counts.  There will always be opportunities for change.
• We all are responsible for making improvements.
• Before coming up with solutions try asking “why” five or more times.  You are likely to be surprised as to what the root cause actually might be.
• Encourage involvement from everyone when brainstorming solutions.
• Don’t waste time explaining why an improvement won’t work.
• Focus on improving existing processes without “buying” solutions (if we just had this software, this tool, this…).
• Don’t waste time trying to implement “prefect” solutions, just make incremental improvements.
• Think immediate implementation – if it will take a year to implement it’s less likely to happen.

Now more than ever our orgainzations are in need of change.  In many cases it’s a matter of survival.  Share these ideas with the people you work with and start making improvements today.

I recently read an interesting article about the effect that feeling helpless has on our emotional state and sense of control.

“Even the most laid back among us crave a sense of control, and when we feel helpless we scour our surroundings for anything that will restore predictability.  New research shows that when we lack control we don’t simply wait for order to return: we impose it, if only in our own minds, by imagining patterns and trends where none exist.

In six experiments, psychologist Jennifer Whitson of the University of Texas at Austin and Adam Galinsky of Northwestern University manipulated subjects’ sense of control. Results showed that not having control caused participants to mistakenly see an image in a field of static, to smell conspiracy in other people’s benign behavior, to embrace superstitious  beliefs and to perceive nonexistent stock-market trends.  Such illusory perceptions evaporated when participants were first denied control but then given an opportunity to write about their most deeply held values, an activity that bolsters psychological security and quells feelings of helplessness.”

So I now ask myself: is it therapeutic to write as much as I do, and about what I do?  It might be considered therapeutic.  But I also know that I have something to say.  I know that I have experiences to bring to the table in this current economy. As I write, and when I write, I find myself taking stock of my experiences in my 20 year career.  I ask myself — how can I wield those experiences and invest them, infuse them into this blog so that readers, and as a collective, we can all change the course, and apply what we know.  There’s a galaxy of collective wisdom among us.  The best and brightest in our Nation’s Capitol are at work on the issues of our day.

I’m not sure that my craving for control is real because after all, what is “real” anyway?  I do believe that it’s our nature to express our thoughts and beliefs and in the process we constantly shape and re-shape our own sense of reality and control — the sense of ourselves to ourselves.

The story goes something like this…

A couple is at home preparing a dinner of  beef roast together.  As  he starts to prepare the roast for the oven, he takes a knife and proceeds to cut both ends off.  Perplexed by his action his wife asks, “Why in the world are you wasting that meat?”  To which he replies, “This is how my father taught me to cook beef roast.”

Certain that something didn’t seem right, she calls his father to ask why.   The father’s response?  ”That’s how my mother prepared beef roast when I was young.”  They then called his grandmother.  They asked her why she  cut both ends of the roast off before putting it into the oven.   She calmly replied that it was ”…because my pan wasn’t big enough.”

This story illustrates how easy it is to take what happens in your organization as making sense.  At one time it may have, but chances are that it may not now make sense to keep doing it.  In my own experience, I estimated that 20% of what people did no longer made sense - it was just wasteful.  Reports were generated and distributed, which no one ever read, and procedures and processes were still followed diligently but no longer served a need.

The moral of this story?  Everyday – make a part of your daily rhythm an exercise where everyone stops to ask — why are we doing this? And is it adding value to our customers? I guarantee that if this hasn’t been a regular routine in your organization, then you’ll be shocked at how much “waste” just keeps happening.

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.

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!

If a picture is worth a thousand words -- what’s a video worth? I’ve been a big, big fan of visual thinking for some time now.  Simply put -- visual thinking is communicating information with pictures, symbols and graphics.  I first learned about the importance of visual systems when I started to dive into my Lean journey.  Check out the video below.  It’s a perfect example of how to use pictures, symbols and graphics to effectively communicate complex ideas and information. 

Here are the top reasons why I LOVE visual systems and thinking (in no particular order):

1.  Sometimes it’s easier to show a picture than find the right word.

2.  We process the majority of information through our eyes.

3.  Graphics cross over cultural and language barriers.

4.  Visual thinking uses more of your right brain which has a higher propensity for addressing complexity and ambiguity.

5.  Creativity is a right brain activity.

6.  Using pictures and combining symbols, you can communicate 4x more information. 

7.  People respond better to pictures than to text or data -- why else would facebook have such a focus on photos?

8.  All of our innovations are created in our mind’s eye (hello, visual too).

9.  Using visual thinking you can easily break problems down into the 6 W’s (who/what/how much/where/when/how/and why) by using pictures.

10.  All you need is a pen, paper and your brain to make it work.

If you haven’t read it yet -- go today and pick up The Back of the Napkin.  It’s one of my top 5 books in the past year -- it will change how you communicate.  Dan Roam - if you see this, I want to meet you!  Get it?  See this?  I like funny too.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve been interested in better understanding which business practices are most important to maintain organizational health and which will result in a higher level of success. In late 2007, I conducted a study among US businesses (across all industries) that identified seven key areas of the operation that were most closely tied to success.

Here is what I learned:

1.    Setting and Selling Your Vision
Organizations who have effectively developed a clear core vision or purpose, and, who effectively communicate it to employees, customers and partners, are more likely to experience higher levels of success. These organizations also tie their “vision