Changing Business

Interesting people

I am very selective with whom I spend my precious free time. If it is not the obligations of family (to which this piece does not apply) then it has to be friends, but when I think about it, I do not spend that much time with friends either.  This is mainly because I am too easily bored.  A friend for me is not just a fine companion, he or she must also be very interesting.  But what exactly is it that makes someone interesting rather than boring?

An interesting person fills me with new ideas. They challenge the way I think, they have a deeper knowledge than I, on a whole variety of subjects. They constantly come up with interesting conundrums or theories. They have always just discovered something, not necessarily at work but perhaps in a new book, or play, or piece of music or work of art. They are always very busy with a wide variety of hobbies and interests which exercises their intellect. An interesting person needs also to be funny too. Not necessarily by telling jokes but simply by finding comical connections with themselves, the world and their subject matter. They should not take themselves too seriously, after all we are all only passing through, our time is now, but it will fade and for that one needs a sense of humor!

In much the same way leaders, like friends, need to be interesting too. Leaders need to be inspiring, but how can they be if they are boring? When I think of the leaders I enjoyed working for, they were all inspiring. Every one of them had the ability to plant a new seed or idea in my mind to motivate me further on my journey.

I do not suppose there is anyone on the planet today that can be interesting to everyone, all of the time. Perhaps even Leonardo Da Vinci was boring once in a while? And this is one reason why leaders need to restrict the amount of time they spend with any one person.

The question is: where do interesting people get their ideas? This is easy; from life, from others, from books, from newspapers, from research, from self study, from travel, from exploring new ideas, from trying new hobbies. By ensuring that all their senses are stimulated as much and as often as possible, by ensuring that they are alive and living life to the full.

My book of the month for February is ‘Think like Da Vinci’. I found it interesting not only because it takes as its subject probably the most brilliant person that ever lived but also the author Michael J. Gelb brings Da Vinci to life and then gives us exercises to do in order to learn how to think more like the great man himself, to understand how he saw the world and how it shaped his life.

Just this weekend a friend of mine reminded me that in the fifteenth and sixteenth century it was normal for a man to study everything. That a scientist was measured by the depth and breadth of his knowledge, and that it was only in the 18^th and 19^th century that narrow research papers became the normal output from our universities.

A question: on a scale of one to ten (compared with Leonardo Da Vinci or Francis Bacon) how interesting are you?

Have a good week

Working with the team you are given

I don’t personally know anyone that is not under pressure to deliver more, in less time, of a higher quality and with the team they have been given. When you think of it logically, at a certain time it becomes impossible?

Every year all the political parties in the UK talk about getting more out of the National Health Service (NHS). Every year they say they will reduce inefficiency. If any, or all, of them were ever successful: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, you would expect the NHS to be so efficient by now that there would be absolutely no room for improvement at all? But still, here we are, being constantly told the opposite.

I was reviewing the structure of a project team this week, following my own advice of trying to match the talent to the needs of the project. On paper, you could be forgiven for thinking that the situation was hopeless. There were simply not enough profiles with the right experience and quality to deliver the results required. And yet, out of the most unlikely teams, truly amazing results can come. It’s all a question of recognizing the hidden talent that lies within.

By creating a strong team dynamic, talent almost naturally comes to the surface. After that it is simply a question of careful delegation, combined with handing over complete responsibility (ownership) to those that are keen to take on the challenge you offer them. When people feel responsible (and believe they can handle the tasks they are given) the results are often far better than ever imagined, it’s as if shackles have been released from their inner confidence and pride.

Too often we damp out the fires of willingness and creativity even without realizing it. I am reminded of a ‘Simpsons’ episode where Lisa has invented a perpetual machine and Homer and Marge are upset because their kids are not ‘normal’:

Homer: “Lisa!  Get in here.  (Lisa walks in, chuckling nervously),   in this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!”

Have a good week!

Harley

“You’re not listening”

Last week I went to see my publisher to tell them about my next book. However they were not happy with what they heard and instead of understanding that it was going to be very different from ‘Making a Difference’ and indeed most of their other titles, they kept trying to impress on me what they wanted, what I should do and what sells best.

At a certain point, when my patience had run out and my temper was on the point of breaking, I said very bluntly “You’re not listening!” Silence filled the room. After a short pause I tried again, this time more calmly and in much more detail. I told them about my approach, my vision my long term objectives and eventually it began to sink in.

Slowly, ever so slowly the review panel came around to the point of understanding what I wanted to achieve and why. However, it was only later in the evening that I started thinking about what they had been saying, before I interrupted them, and what it might mean on the potential sales of the new book.

I had not gone to my publisher to listen to their views, I had only the intention of telling them my plans in the naive expectancy that they would say “great, how soon can we have the manuscript?” The result of the heated debate could have so easily been a disaster. Luckily for everyone we all kept our cool and remained polite and continued to work at finding a creative solution.

Listening is not passive, it is engaging.
Listening is allowing your mind and soul to empathize with the person that is speaking. 
Listening is not about agreement or disagreement, it is not about what you think or believe in - that is a lecture.  
Listening is about understanding where the message is coming from and the circumstances that surround it.
In everything we do, perhaps listening is the hardest of them all?

Have a good week,

Harley

Company Politics: How would you describe it?

I was 27 years old when the communications and marketing company I had formed three years earlier had grown to the extent where I needed to take on a third employee.  Soon afterwards, I re-lived the nightmare that I thought I had escaped from during my short career as an employee.  Namely: Company politics!

Competing against other companies to win a new order is still the adrenaline rush that fires me up twenty five years later. Whereas competing against another employee for the attention of someone with influence, within one’s own company, simply bores me.  The waste of company time and money, only to serve the purpose of one’s own career, is abhorrent to me. And yet it is the life blood that sadly runs through far too many companies, eating away at the attention that should be focused on the outside world.

I was working on my new book this weekend, trying to come up with a short description to headline my chapter on ‘Company Politics’, the result was this:

“There is a difference between playing politics and active self promotion: Politics is the hollow game to obtain something more than you truly deserve, whereas self promotion is the open display of one’s natural talents and achievements”.

I wonder if this is how you would describe it? And I also wonder whether anyone, anywhere, has ever experienced a company without it?

Have a good week,

Harley

“I am sorry, what did you say you do for a living?”

Someone was telling me last week how cross he was when a friend of his, that should have known better, incorrectly introduced him to a potentially very interesting contact at a New Years reception. “it was obvious that he had not understood at all what I did for a living”. And so this got me wondering, if his friend did not know what he did for a living, then who did?

I find it amazing that most of us spend thousands of hours a year working at what we do but when it comes down to explaining it to someone else we simply cannot do it adequately. Most often we either try and skip the question completely or bore our enquirer into instantly forgetting by going into long and totally unnecessary detail. But yet, it can’t be that difficult can it?

A Doctor: ‘I attempt to make sick people better’

A Project Manager: ‘I make my client’s ideas reality’

A Financial Director: ‘I manage the flow of money throughout the business and ensure that it is accurately documented’

A Change Manager: ‘I attempt to bring about the changes my client requires, as smoothly as possible, within the given constraints’

If after our short description our enquirer is still interested in us they will probably ask either a ‘how’ or ‘why’ question: “that’s interesting, how do you do that?” or “Why on earth did you choose that for a living?”.

At this stage all you have to decide is either to engage more deeply or try and make an excuse and get away as fast as possible. The problem that most of us have with receptions is that we are forced into the role either to entertain or indeed be entertained, by listening with intent to whatever nonsense we are hearing, asking polite and enquiring questions along the way. But the importance of this exercise goes far beyond its use at a New Year’s reception.

In order for people to remember us they need to have a clear picture of who we are and what we do. The ‘who we are’, is mostly handled by our appearance and our mannerisms, but the ‘what we do’ is completely down to us to rehearse over and over again, until we have got it right to the various different levels of detail the circumstances require, for example: When being introduced to a new boss at work, or, during a telephone interview, or in a detailed interview in front of a panel of assessors. Whatever the situation, we need our explanation ready. I know mine, is yours?

Happy New Year,

Harley

If you want to know the answer

If you want to know the answer, the trick is to ask the right question. This might seem too basic but bear with me a little while and you’ll see where I am taking you to.

Principally there are three types of question: one which is designed to show how cleaver the issuer is, one which genuinely enquires in search of an answer and lastly one that is simply a statement requesting no answer at all such as: “Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?”

Like most of us, I am flooded with questions on a daily basis, it’s an important part of my job. Stupid questions (and yes there is such a thing as a stupid question) can be very irritating and time consuming unless (unlike me) you are prepared to be rude by telling those that ask them to engage their brains before opening their mouths? 

For those of us that hold useful knowledge, questions can become a real pain. If we are too quick in giving answers our enquirers become lazy and simply rely on us to supply them with information wherever and whenever they want it, and yet, if we are too reluctant we are accused of being unhelpful.

In India, it was once the custom for a person to live a lifetime of servitude to a guru in the hope of one day being permitted to ask a question. Today most people feel they have the right to ask a question to anyone, even if they are not qualified to do so. For example, I would feel very uncomfortable asking Steven Hawkins a question on quantum physics because I do not feel that I have sufficient understanding of the subject. 

I like the line from Joan Osborn’s song ‘One of Us’: “What would you ask if you had just one question?” (Referring to a theoretical meeting with God). This question is the question of all questions and drives us directly to ask ‘what is it that we need to know?’

I have been building some on-line questionnaires recently. The trick here is to know what the problem is that the questionnaire is solving and why you want to solve it, before writing the questions.  

Too often questionnaires are too long and complex, posing questions to which no answer seems appropriate. And so it is in meetings. I like to prepare before I go into a meeting. For me preparation is not only a sign of respect but also a question of being efficient. Carefully thought through questions usually deliver carefully considered answers. By considering in advance how the receiver of the question might answer, focuses us on revising the question.  After all what is the point of a question that does not lead to increasing understanding?

A very practical example of the need to form the right question comes with the use of internet search engines. We know the answer is out there somewhere but how can we find it without being bombarded with irrelevant and mind diverting material? For example try going to Google to find information on the Paris Hilton…

 

(If you want to become an expert in finding information on-line here is a good place to start: 20 tips for more efficient Google searches)

In this holiday season week I am reminded in the Christian bible that three wise men came to visit the baby Jesus, I wonder what Mary and Joseph asked them?

Happy holiday season

Have a good week,

Harley

Perfectionists make the worst motivators

Have you ever worked for a perfectionist? For someone that no matter what you do or how you do it, it is never good enough?  I know I have!  The constant eroding away of one’s self confidence usually ends up with high frustration levels and the perfectionist having an ever increasing workload.

I have been described as ‘difficult’ from time to time, and as a perfectionist but I like to feel that there is a difference between encouraging people to push themselves to find new limits and taking the attitude that it would have been better and easier if I had done it myself?  For example, to encourage people not to except sloppy first drafts but to check and double check that the presentation they are preparing communicates precisely what they want to say, first time right, is the normal role of a boss and coach.  However, this can be taken too far.

I once worked for a boss in London who kept pushing me to ever higher standards, much higher than he held for himself.  He was the worst boss I have ever had, not just because of his perfectionist demands but for the fact that he seemed to have no respect for me or, indeed, for any of his employees. And here lies the key indicator of the story,  he didn’t like us and we didn’t like him.

If you are a perfectionist that has a deep respect for the talent that surrounds you, then there probably is no real issue. From time to time you simply need to re-learn the 80/20 rule.

On the other hand, if you are a perfectionist that feels that everyone around you is either incompetent or selfishly de-motivated, not acting as part of the team, then you may need to take a hard look at yourself, before blaming others…

What are the warning signs for the perfectionist de-motivator?

a) They constantly analyze every situation

b) They make detailed plans that only they seem to follow

c) They think they communicate but forget to use their ears

d) They are completely binary: ‘it must be like this because’

e) Not many people want to have lunch with them

This is not an attack on perfectionists, there are situations where a perfectionist that has an inherent dislike of those around them can be gainfully employed, for example as safety auditors for nuclear reactor plants, or as homicide detectives, or poets, even as financial analysts on fraud investigations. But I personally would not want one as a project leader or coach again.

Have a good week,

Harley

Please don’t ask me how I am

It’s all very well complaining about how customer service is not what it used to be etc. but if you take a step back, it’s often not too difficult to realize why? Here’s a true story that happened to a colleague of mine just last week.

He was phoning a client who he had not spoken to for a while.  The call was important, a contract needed to be prepared and he needed some additional information.  After trying a few times to get through, he finally managed and opened the conversation with:

“Hi there how are you?” 

The reply was quite astounding:

“Please do not ask me how I am, if everyone who called me asked me how I was I would never have enough time to get my job done!” 

My colleague was shocked but sympathized with her predicament. “I am sorry”, he said “I understand, but please I meant it genuinely, we haven’t spoken for such a while and I was just trying to catch up”.  At that point she realized what she had said and apologized and they engaged in a short but meaningful exchange.

With the pressure of looking for ever greater efficiency from our staff, cutting the numbers back to the bone, year on year, it eventually becomes a matter of choice to decide how far we can and should go.  As anyone that knows me is aware, I am a very busy person and I must say that I recognize myself a little in the story but at least I do try (most of the time) to show some interest when people ask me how I am, even if sometimes I don’t really have the time to reply.

At a reception last week someone reminded me of a joke I first saw on a poster back in the eighties, somehow today it seems to be far more poignant:

“If it wasn’t for customers phoning me the whole time wanting to place orders, I could get on with some real work!”

Have a good week,

Harley

Not everything needs to be useful

While I was reading ‘The Black Swan’ I commented to a colleague that it was very interesting but I was not sure how useful it was, how (or if) I could apply it to my daily life or work?  It was marketed as a ‘management’ book so, for me,  it needed to be useful.  My colleague politely reminded me “Harley, not everything in life needs to be useful”.  And so it is that I have been contemplating ‘usefulness’ recently.  One of the key obstacles that I face when managing change is peoples need to feel ‘useful’ and the web they tangle themselves up in to keep feeling it.

Surely one of the darkest feelings a human can ever experience is that of low esteem, the feeling of self uselessness?  While we are in work, no matter how pointless our job might be, we kid ourselves into believing that this (along with our family) is our purpose, our reason for being. No wonder why so many people suffer so much during the early days of retirement?

Because the fear of not being needed is at the root of nearly all resistance, ‘vision’ and ‘belief’ need to become the change managers’ two biggest allies. 

It is not surprising that negotiations become so ineffective when trade unions enter the debate because their fundamental stand point is that a job is a job and it is their task to save every single one of them, no matter how unwanted or useless they might be.  And yet, if a persons’ job is no longer needed, if the employee knows that they are no longer wanted, what long term effect does it have upon them (and those around them) when their trade union has temporarily ‘saved’ their seemingly useless and unneeded job?

Generally change managers (for good reason) are not permitted to negotiate with trade unions, but I for one would like to spend time with union leaders talking about their approach to vision and belief and the dignity of the human soul, and not their usual outdated Marxist notion of ‘rights’ towards a job, any job. 

In the 18th. century Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher, introduced us into the world of Enlightenment.  At a time when the church and/or monarch ruled everything, he proposed “Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end”.   Kant knew that in essence there are more important things to life than work, family and politics. “All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason.   There is nothing higher than reason”.   It is therefore important that we should start with things that please the senses and spend time studying seamlessly ‘useless things’, so that we can move on to understanding and eventually end up with reason.

I think my future lies with setting out to invent a new language for trade union negotiation.  One that allows trade unions to become more effective.  Not by imposing fear in the hearts and minds of those they ‘defend’ but vision and belief, based upon the new possibilities offered by receiving a large cash hand out and a chance for personal liberation. 

Trade unions have proven themselves to be essential in their daily work of protecting employees from the worst elements of poor and exploitative management but I sometimes fear that in Western Europe they focus too much on trying to save every job that will disappear anyway, rather than negotiating honest and fair settlements and then using their power and influence to help their customers get through the fear barrier of life after their current work. 

Have a good week,

Harley

How open are you for change really?

One of the key points on understanding how change management works is to grasp the fact that in order for someone to change they have to be able visualize what the change might be like.  Because new behaviors threaten the status quo (something that no one over thirty finds easy) I have decided this week to offer my readers a small challenge… How open are you for change?
It is a fact that many of us that are getting used to eating ‘instant meals’ on a fairly regular basis.  What is also a fact is that those of us that eat them are beginning to resent the fifteen minutes it takes to cook, eat, wash and tidy up after the meal.  This may be down to the fact that the level of enjoyment does not match the effort we have to invest.  But if we are prepared to accept this lack of pleasure in eating our meals, then why not take it a stage further?
Most of us get stuck in traffic on the way to (or from) work, so why don’t we simply eat our meat and two vegetables in the car? (those of you open to change are beginning to visualize it now).
The principle is easy, ‘Dinner in a Bottle’.  This is a full flavored meal that you simply drink.  It has all the ingredients, minerals, aroma and flavor of a real meal but without all the hassle.
   
There are a wide variety of flavors on offer from Beef Stroganoff (pictured here) to Peking Duck, English Breakfast and even Pizza Prosciutto.
However, the second rule of change management (as referred to by Leandro Herrero, in his book ‘Viral Change’) is the ‘Tipping point’.  Basically the tipping point is the moment in time when the scales of the norm begin to tip in the new direction.  This is when more and more people become followers, based upon visualizing others behaving in a different way.  So in our case this week, it means when we see teenagers drinking ‘Meat Water’ (that’s the generic term for the new drinks) at bus stops and fellow executives in BMW’s with a bottle or two in their drink holders.
If you are like most people over thirty then you will probably wait to see one of your peers try it first, after having said to many people what an outrage it is and statements like “what is the world coming to?” 
However, if you immediately said ‘wow great idea, must try it’ then you are extremely open for change. Have I convinced you? Are you going to try Meat Water, or are you not yet ready?

Have a good week