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Jul 23

when it doesn’t “roll”

This is a cautionary tale. Once upon a time, there was an organization who chose to upgrade their business enterprise software. My role was to support the process. We walked through the due diligence steps: detailing requirements, seeking demonstrations, running software trials, and obtaining quotes. Having selected a vendor, I called to get the process rolling.

It didn’t roll. Every vendor telephone call and email ended with, “Next you will need to contact <insert department name here>. Here’s their email and telephone extension.” Use your imagination to envision rounds of email and phone tag. Time went by.

Ultimately the enterprise software was upgraded; data was migrated; people were trained; the bill was paid. But, I lost count of the number of times I had to push or pull the vendor forward. Now, almost a month later, there has been no follow-up.

This experience was full of uncertainty and frustration. It did not have to be this way. The vendor could have simplified the process by designating one point of contact at their company. One person to build a relationship, guide the process, manage the project timetable, and answer questions.

By not engaging us, the vendor lost opportunities. There is no motivation to be excited about the new software – we spent too much energy running the process. There is no story of an exceptional experience to share with others. There is no story of the vendor’s quality support or the company’s visible values.

I was not expecting to buy an entertaining or even transformational experience. But, in a time when much of what I buy is a commodity (food, software, services, etc.), the underlying experience and relationship by the vendor changes the value obtained.

How do you define an exceptional customer experience? How are your company’s values displayed throughout each client or customer contact?

Insanely Simple
Resource: Steal this Idea

Jul 20

1 Comment

Idea for reflection – 36

Simplicity can be a choice, a feeling, or a guiding light. You can tell pretty quickly when you’re in a place that believes in it and when you’re in a place that doesn’t.

Simplicity has its own kryptonite in the equal and opposite force of Complexity.

– Ken Segall in Insanely Simple, p. 7 and 8

Insanely Simple
Idea for reflection – 35

Jul 19

1 Comment

Insanely Simple

Obsession with simplicity is front and center in Insanely Simple by Ken Segall, the man who put the famous “i” in Apple’s product names. Even if you’re not an Apple fan, this book offers insight into the ways our organizations function. Segall looks at ten behaviors and values that support Apple’s value: simplicity.

He tells sticky stories about Apple and other companies. Sticky because they stick in my mind. I’ve been telling these stories to family and friends as I read, not waiting to finish the chapter before I’m saying, “Jon, listen to this one.”

The titles are based on Apple’s Think Different advertising campaign. The ideas focus on managing and leading effectively:

  1. Think Brutal. Openness and honesty mean no guessing at what managers are thinking and expecting.
  2. Think Small. Small groups of smart people who include the final decision maker will succeed quickly.
  3. Think Minimal. Communicate and focus on one theme that people will remember.
  4. Think Motion. Create project timelines that include the right timeframe and the right people.
  5. Think Iconic. Find and use an image that symbolizes your theme.
  6. Think Phrasal. Use simple sentences. Use simple words. “Simplicity is its own form of cleverness (p. 202).”
  7. Think Casual. Informal conversations connection, inspire, and create.
  8. Think Human. Intangibles are often more important than metrics.
  9. Think Skeptic. Don’t let a “no” or extra work stand in the way of acting with Common Sense.
  10. Think War. Use your bullets wisely. Remember the passion you have for your idea.

Keep your highlighter handy for the pithy quotes. Keep family and friends handy for the sticky stories. Choose the idea you’ll work with first. This book is light enough to be a summertime read and compelling enough to share with others in your organization.

How do you “Think Different”?

Review: Great by Choice
Ken Segall’s Blog

Jul 15

Resource: Meeting Matters

Read the entire article or browse the summary below. What are your meeting “pet peeves?”

Meeting after meeting after meeting quietly corrodes our spirits and our organizations. We are used to boring meetings, long meetings, meetings without a purpose. We are used to mediocre and downright bad meetings. We like to call them, but there are often limited benefits from attending.

Beyond the measurable wasted time, meetings matter. They matter because our organizations use them to make decisions, to have social interactions that create vital connections, and – most of all – they support change. Here are 10 “Golden Rules” that, when followed, can help to create more effective meetings:

  1. Avoid meetings.
  2. Limit invitations.
  3. Create and send an agenda in advance.
  4. Prepare and confirm.
  5. Begin and finish on time.
  6. Use meeting rules.
  7. Stick to the agenda.
  8. Create a space for each participant to air their ideas, thoughts, and opinions.
  9. Finish well.
  10. Follow up.

These “Golden Rules” sound like good ideas. Yet, we still go to ineffective meetings led by outside agencies, bosses, team members, and peers. Why? We feel obligated. But if you ask the meeting organizer, they will say that they feel obligated too. The meeting is a gathering called by someone who has no choice, attended by others who have no choice.

The good news: you can choose. The meeting system can change. Act. You are too effective and competent to put up with meetings that don’t work. Choose to change your own meeting behavior. Choose to make your own assessment of which meetings are worth your time, energy, and budget dollars. Change happens when each leader and manager chooses to transform themselves and their organization. The opportunity is presented. Game on.

Meetings and other wrecks
Overheard conversation

Jul 13

1 Comment

Idea for reflection – 35

Imagination is more important than information.
– Albert Einstein

Holy curiosity
Idea for reflection – 33

Jun 9

Idea for reflection – 34

Without great solitude no serious work is possible.
– Pablo Picasso

Idea for reflection – 33
extrovert – introvert

May 25

redux: Orbiting the Giant Hairball

It’s been almost two years since I did a series of posts on Gordon MacKenzie’s Orbiting the Giant Hairball. Recently Jon read the book. He read “hairball” stories aloud and told stories of his own as ideas percolated.

Reminded of the book’s continuing relevance, I’m choosing to run the risk of getting more emails and links from companies specializing in hairball management of the feline sort. I’m bringing the “hairball” posts back to the top of the reading list. And, if you want a light, but thought-provoking read for the upcoming summer season, I highly recommend the book!

Start here (Orbiting thought – Over and out) and follow the thread or begin with Orbiting thought #7 and thread your way to #1.

Related posts:

My teacher got rid of my imagination…
Meep, meep …!

If you choose to read the quotes or the book, which experiences come to mind as you read?

May 24

2 Comments

Haury’s Rules

This past weekend I visited the Kaufman Museum’s exhibit: In the Fields of Time. On a card, tucked into an experience station, I discovered a card with Dr. Emil Haury’s rules for his anthropology courses.

Several of these rules resonated with me. Patricia Crown included these in Remembrance of Emil Haury. She writes, “He repeated these rules in every course he taught and he lived them.” I share them here, hoping that some of them will speak to my readers as they have to me:

  1. Never wear a hat while giving a professional talk.
  2. Never use jargon.
  3. Avoid the use of the word “very” in professional writing.
  4. Try to have one good idea every day.
  5. Keep a research journal at all times and write down those good ideas.
  6. When your research project is complete, look at your journal and perhaps there will actually be one or two good ideas in there.
  7. Write three pages on something every day, you can always throw them out later.
  8. Always write your introductions last, so that you specify what you plan to do after you know what you have done.
  9. Living conditions make or break field schools.
  10. At the end of the semester give your teaching assistant a large bottle of the alcoholic of his or her choice.
  11. Treat everyone as if he or she has something intelligent to say, even if they don’t.
  12. You may try to quit archaeology, but once it is in your blood, you will never get away.
  13. People with wacky ideas are important to the profession in forcing the rest of us to clarify our arguments.
  14. Don’t try to change anything your first year in a new job, or you will wound some egos.
  15. If you are lost in the desert, the one thing you need most for survival is a piece of string.

From: Crown, P. L. (1993.) “Remembrance of Emil Haury,” Kiva, 59(2):261-65.

Which rule connects with you? Do you have a story to illustrate a rule?

May 15

2 Comments

extrovert – introvert

Silence is lyrical. Silence is energy. Silence is time: The space of time between the pulling back of the arrow in the bow and its release.

Or …

Teams are fun. Meetings and parties are energy. People are motion: The speeding motion between the arrow’s release and the explosive arrival at the target.

Not long ago in a hiring discussion, I overheard someone proclaim, “Of course the person we hire needs to be an extrovert.” I cringed. On the Myers-Briggs introvert – extrovert scale, I fall slightly toward the introvert side. Surprised? You’ll find me leading organization processes, delivering training, and speaking publicly.

The confusion arises from a misunderstanding of the scale. In the original Myers-Briggs’ definition, the introvert and extrovert get their energy from different places. Extroverts are energized by the outer world of people and action. Introverts gain energy from an inner world of ideas and concepts. The scale has nothing to do with whether people get along with others, are confident public speakers, or provide good leadership.

The fact that different types of experiences energize people is not a sound hiring metric. Opportunities and challenges exist across the extrovert – introvert scale. For example, research with groups at the University of California, Santa Cruz demonstrated that while extroverts talked more in the groups, they had a wide-range of topics and were “light-hearted.” The introverts talked less and focused on one or two  serious topics. The extroverts appreciated feeling understood by having someone actively listening. The introverts appreciated the relaxed ease of the conversation (Quiet, p. 238-239).

Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking describes the value of extroverts and introverts in organizations.  She offers ideas about using the strengths of both sides of the scale to build organizational effectiveness. Wherever you fall on the introvert – extrovert scale, one key is tuning into the energy of those around you. Adjust your communication patterns to meet them in their comfort zone and invite them into the conversation.

How does your organization work to embrace the strengths of extroverts and introverts? What does your preference on the scale mean in your life?

Susan Cain’s blog: The Power of Introverts
Susan Cain’s book: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking
Related link forwarded to me by a friend: The Introverted Leader

Note: I followed Cain’s choice to use the word extrovert from the common usage, rather than the word extravert which is found in the research literature (Quiet, p. 271).

May 11

2 Comments

Idea for reflection – 33

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist
but the ability to start over.
– F. Scott Fitzgerald

Idea for reflection – 32
Sustaining Change

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