Last week I wrote in my Friday Redux that we need to Allow Time to Notice.
On the weekend at a friend’s barbeque afternoon, I was asked how I was able to continually generate ideas, thoughts, solutions and if it is hard to do. One person even commented that I must spend an inordinate amount of time on such matters.
Actually the opposite is true. We need to allow the Muse to whisper in our ear.
Doug King (the poet) said: “Learn to pause … or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you”.
What problem, issue or project are you working on that could benefit from a pause? Find your little piece of paradise, pull up a seat and admire the vista.
There was a curious plague which beset a primitive village centuries ago. When afflicted, the victims fell into a coma so deep that they were mistaken for being dead. And, within 24-48 hours they did in fact ultimately die.
The issue was that these primitive villagers were unable to positively determine if a victim was actually in a coma and alive, or in fact already deceased. Of course, it had to happen that someone ended up being buried alive. After discovering this tragic circumstance, a town meeting was convened to account for the terrible happenings and determine what action, if anything could be taken.
The majority of townspeople living in the village, voted to include rations of food and water in every coffin, hoping to save lives.
Other members of the community suggested an alternative solution … install a sharpened stake to the inside of the coffin lids. The stake was to be positioned such that it was directly in line with the occupant’s heart. When the lid to the coffin was closed prior to burial, any doubts about the victim’s condition would vanish.
What differentiated the solutions were the questions used to find them. The first group of villagers questioned, “What if we bury someone alive again?” the second set of people asked, “How can we be certain everyone we bury is dead?”
As you attempt to solve the problems in your organisation, take two shots at the issues. The second should be from a completely different perspective.
How might you change your business thinking perspective?
We live in uncertain times, and people talk about all sorts of planning. But, as someone once said, “if you want to give the gods a real belly laugh, just make a plan!” How valuable is it, then, to make plans? Are there different types of plans?
Strategic planning often seems to mean that a company or business owner examines the future based on today’s variables. Depending on worst, best, and likely case analyses, the planner then develops a cause and response plan. This type of planning differs from tactical planning in that it usually goes out farther into the future. Tactical planning tends to be more about “how” will we do something. Strategic planning is more toward “what if” something happens.
That being said, we also see plenty of examples of long-range plans failing to take into account some unexamined event. In fact, one example is where the company has contingencies in place for twenty different problems, never expecting that all twenty events will take place simultaneously. Problems and crises have a way of coming in bunches, making planning more of an art than a science.
So what’s a person to do? Should we never bother to consider possible problems and disasters? What about considering success beyond all expectations, as with an exponentially larger number of orders or clients? Do we make plans, cross our fingers, and simply hope for the best?
Consider the entire concept of planning: At its foundation, a plan is a way to adapt to future circumstances. We can say that the better someone is at adaptation, the more successful their plans. To develop a comprehensive set of plans, one would need to be omniscient and clairvoyant. But to be skilled at adaptation requires only ordinary human capabilities, and requires much less specific planning.
An important part of adaptation is flexibility in processes. Yet many business owners don’t have a solid grasp on all the processes taking place in their business. In fact, many business owners and executives don’t actually know the key processes and critical dependencies of their core business. If that’s the case, then strategic planning ends up being more like a shotgun blast of plans, with no particular organization.
Knowing how to adapt, and making the business highly responsive to changing circumstances is a better way to prepare for the future. Explorers throughout history didn’t know what they would encounter in new places, but they did know how to survive, how to adapt, and how to quickly assess entirely new events. Along with strategic planning, why not have a rapid-response team in place?
To better prepare for the future, it makes sense to first lay out the many processes involved in the current business. Then determine the most critical processes and what they depend on outside the company’s control. But instead of devoting full attention to setting up contingencies for failures in the dependency chain, examine how quickly each process and its function can be entirely changed.
Think about the process of setting up an order from China. The process begins with inventory management, which in turn causes an order to be generated. The critical dependencies include transportation systems, remote politics, and raw materials. Rather than developing a contingency for transportation failure (e.g., a ship sinking), a local war, or a factory burning down (taking with it all the raw materials in stock), how can this process be dramatically changed?
Suppose all three events take place at the same time—war delays the ship leaving port; an explosion destroys the factory; then, even partially loaded, the ship sinks in the Pacific. If contingency plans are in place, what happens if the necessities for those contingencies also fail?
How quickly can the source for orders be fundamentally shifted from China to another country? It isn’t important which country; it’s important to know how quickly the process can be changed. Is it possible to redirect the entire order process, perhaps setting up an immediate delay notification to all waiting customers?
Substitution is an adaptation process, and it’s been around for a long time. Rain checks are a form of substitution. Regardless of what part of a process fails, or if it goes down completely, the adaptive response is to offer a substitution. That’s not the same thing as having a specific backup product or service stockpiled as a contingency. We don’t yet know what we’ll substitute, but we know that we can come up with a substitution quickly.
Contingency planning assigns a specific response to a particular event or circumstance. Strategic planning examines possible events or circumstances that might require contingencies. But process analysis with adaptation capabilities in mind is a third option. People don’t succeed because they know how to do everything; they succeed because they know how to change and adapt to circumstances, taking advantage of evolving opportunities.
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Guest post by my friend: Craig Landes of Batavia IL, USA
If you offer advice as part of your business model, you no doubt have heard those mercurial words, “Yeah, we already tried that, didn’t work!”
I am adamant that the value in my consulting-business-smarts is about the questions I ask rather than the answers I give. And, here is another typical example. The response by your clients to your advice needs to be diagnosed. Yes, diagnosed. They may genuinely have tried your recommendation, but exactly when, exactly how, and what was the outcome they hoped for?
Do not assume that the client knows what you are intending, or that they understand precisely how it should be implemented. When they give you this typical response, it may be for any of three reasons:
They are resisting change.
They are annoyed that you are smarter than them in offering your suggestion.
They’re just an aberrant wise-guy (and I don’t mean this in the Mafioso sense, either)
How do you handle this, however, when it happens? Ask intelligent questions:
When, specifically, was it that you attempted this in the past?
How are the conditions (environment) different today?
What was the exact outcome when you tried this?
How did you measure and evaluate the results?
Who did the measurement and evaluation?
Why, specifically, do you think it didn’t work?
By asking these questions you can establish if perhaps what was attempted, was not exactly as you are now recommending today. You will also have the client clearly articulating how the business environment has changed since then (which may effect the resultant dynamics in today’s conditions); or that the analysis of the results and outcomes back when it was previously attempted were flawed or at least ineffectual; or that YOUR assumptions may not be appropriate now that you have this additional background information!
Never assume the client is damaged – establish the facts to verify your assumptions. The upside is that the client may become more willing to consider your suggestions after answering your questions (and gaining that blinding flash of the obvious), or the questions in themselves may actually lead you to providing an even better recommendation after receiving the answers.
Exemplary leadership is essential for purposeful and positive people performance. While walking through a general office area with a national executive manager of an organisation that has me on retainer, he pointed to a department manager seated in a corner office. “His work has been disappointing for months and it’s time we did something about it.”
Are you about to confront him right now?” I inquired.
“Confront him! Certainly not. You and I are on our way to see his boss. If anyone under my purview isn’t performing, it’s the fault of the direct superior. A poor performer has to be developed, moved to other work, or let go. If one of those three isn’t being successfully undertaken, the boss is failing.”
Rightfully so …. it is never the poor performer who is the real cause of the problem, it is essentially poor leadership. We are all aware you cannot solve a problem until you find cause. When people are lost, it’s more likely the leader who got them there.
HR appear driven on utilising psychometric tests and analysis in the workplace. Mostly, I believe this is to explain away behaviour rather than attempting to improve behaviour. HR ought to be focusing on:
Creating alignment among every position and corporate strategy.
Marrying succession planning to career development and ensuring “bench strength”.
Proactively helping line management with greater efficiencies and productivity.
Optimally focusing resources on the product, the service and the relationships with customers.
Ideally, no one should have a career insulated in HR. I recommend to CEOs in my Mentoring & Coaching Program that they routinely rotate HR into other areas of the organisation so that HR gain first-hand knowledge and experience of what the staff face in their specific roles. Of course, the colour usually drains from the faces of HR people in the room when they hear me say that to their boss.
Power your business to better results with Ric Willmot’s Five Keys:
1. Keep raising the bar – be innovative, focus on growth rather than cost-cutting or problem fixes, and expect more of yourself and those in your employ.
2. Always work towards results and outcomes – being busy doesn’t make you good, producing results does; means are less important than ends.
3. Empowering people is positive – power does not corrupt but powerlessness creates bureaucracy and roadblocks to positive productivity.
4. People believe what they see – influence is more likely through being an exemplar more than hanging motivational quotes on the walls.
5. Perception informs your reality – your perceptions may not necessarily be fact but they do inform your sense of what is real … to you. Walk in the other person’s shoes to get a sense of what may appear real to them.
The story goes … upon completing a highly dangerous tightrope walk over Niagara Falls in appalling wind and rain, ‘The Great Zumbrati’ was greeted by an enthusiastic supporter, who urged him to make a return trip, this time pushing a wheelbarrow, which the spectator had thoughtfully brought along.
The Great Zumbrati was reluctant, given the terrible conditions, but the supporter pressed him, “You can do it – I know you can,” he urged.
“You really believe I can do it?” asked Zumbrati.
“Yes – definitely – you can do it,” the supporter gushed.
“Okay,” said Zumbrati, “Get in the wheelbarrow ….”
No doubt, you’ve heard many times a supervisor or manager say, “You can do it” or “Make it happen”. These words are very easy to say but the trust, belief and commitment that it can be done are much more difficult to earn.
Will you get in the wheelbarrow?
We wouldn’t hesitate if we were confident that Zumbrati was well trained, experienced and motivated; that the wheelbarrow was of the best design and materials; and that the tightrope was securely fastened and recently inspected.
As leaders we ask our people to do many things in support of the organisation. Many of these tasks are complex, intensive, very demanding and some even ambiguous. So how is it that your people might do such great things every day – and enthusiastically walk that tightrope?
A major reason will be if they have trust and confidence in the leadership. Their beliefs do not come easy, but must be earned by the supervisor or leader.
You can start by understanding exactly what you are asking your people to accomplish. To do this you have to be ready and willing to get “down in the trenches” and see what is really happening. Often, this is the only way to accurately assess training, equipment and processes as well as identifying any potential roadblocks to mission performance.
You need to know your team’s capabilities and when it may be more appropriate to say, “No, we can’t do that.” This might be for many good reasons such as a lack of staffing numbers, training or equipment. Whatever the reason, making this decision is not easy and goes counter to the “can-do” attitude most of us have in leadership positions.
However, this is a key component of earning trust from our staff. As we move into the future we will continue to have great challenges. As leaders we have to be sure we cultivate this trust by showing our confidence in our people and that we ensure they have the best training, equipment and experience to accomplish the organisational objectives.
If you succeed in this endeavor, your people will walk any tightrope you ask, and you will have the confidence to get in that wheelbarrow with them!
Research undertaken by the Society for Executive Wisdom during the first quarter of 2011 collated the results of what Australian organisations felt would be their greatest business challenges for the financial year July 2011 – June 2012.
Here is a snapshot of the results in order of magnitude:
Cost-cutting strategies to maintain profitability – 38%
Faster financial growth – 35%
Government threats through policy and taxation – 29%
International competition caused by weaker Australian government regulations – 27%
Low-cost competition via internet – 26%
Competitor threats to market share – 22%
Requirement to expand into new markets – 17%
Requirement to launch new products and services – 15%
Requirement to refresh senior management – 11%
Coping with market changes – 9%
These results were obtained by interviewing 143 business owners or CEOs of Australian-based organisations with a turnover of more than $1M p.a. and more than 5 years in operation.
What are your top business challenges?
How will you handle these challenges?
What resources do you have on hand to assist you?
Business is constantly changing and evolving, especially in these globally-volatile times, currently. The organisations that have identified what specific challenges they will face, have developed strategies for these tough times, and have managed the necessary resources required, as well as eliciting guidance and mentoring from internal and external points – are the organisations that will not only survive but in fact, prosper.
When was the last time you were sitting in a conference room with the obligatory mints and bottled water, when it happened? That flash of brilliance where you were inspired to innovate and you generated new ideas that catapulted the performance of your business over the next six months.
How often does that happen?
Not a lot, really, does it?
Then why do it?
Inspiration, innovation and successful business ideas come out of the blue. Most times when you least expect it. They fly in from the edge of consciousness and delightfully startle us. They are random, sometimes the result of wrong turns, errors, mishaps and misdirection. They don't naturally and regularly occur when we're forcibly confined in the staleness of another conference room that emits a musty odour of damp carpet.
If you're looking for inspiration, innovation and successful business ideas you need to be having fun. Drop the qualitative thinking. Don't invite the devil's advocate. And, ignore conventional wisdom and practicality.
Inspiration, innovation, blue ocean ideas do not evolve from conservative thinking and approaches. They come from having fun and being excited. Let's do it! You know it works.
