Do you do what you learned?

Have you ever attended any training that was supposed to enhance your job skills (e.g. Project Management, SAP, Siebel etc.) and then you ended up never using what you had learned? Or have you read books that you thought were great but you never really applied what you read? I have, and I consider it a waste of time. To handle this more efficiently it is critical to think ahead of time how important a change is for you and how much effort you are willing to put into it. Once you are clear about this, you can really practice what you have learned. Let's look at an example: You are struggling to get all the necessary tasks done during your regular working hours. In order to find more time you prioritze tasks by reading time management books, you listen to podcasts, go to speeches etc. Nevertheless too many emails demand your attention during the day. In fact these emails distract you so much that all the benefits of your task prioritzation effort seem useless. In this case it would make sense to start strictly regulating the times when you check email. Instead of reading more books (or listen to more podcasts or ...) it would be more effective to practice what you already know. You already know what the challenge is and you also know what to do about it but you have a hard time to actually do it.
Don't read about the same skills in 50 different books just in order to feel that you do something about your challenges. Instead find a book (or whatever works for you) that works for you and then practice what you want to master.

Are you setting standards?

Do people in your organization refer to your ideas or your approach to solve challenges? Do they make an effort to connect with you? Do they listen to you and engage with you? If they do these things that shows that you are setting standards. What is even more important is, if people do that when you are not in a position of authority. It is the hallmark of a true leader that their influence is present even if they are not present.
In that case you stand for something bigger, something that is there even though you are not there. Note this does not depend on your position in the organization! Sure as a Senior Manager you will obviously get more people to listen to you. In that case it is easier because these Managers can use their organizational authority to make you do these things. It doesn't have to come from the heart and you don't have to buy into it. You just have to do it. When you get people to do that even though you have no authority then it is truly remarkable.

Give something today

Today is Thanksgiving in the US. This is something that is worth celebrating everywhere. I don't mean the Turkey and Pumpkin Pie frenzy but to be thankful for the people in your life that support you. The nice thing about this holiday is that it doesn't feel like it has been really commercialized yet. It's about being with the ones you love and think more about what you can give them instead of thinking "what's in it for me".
What (valuable, non-commercial thing) are you giving your loved ones today? In any case I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Strategy and operational solutions

According to the Oxford dictionary this is the definition of strategy: "a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim". In many companies this is a plan that covers somewhere between 2-5+ years.
The strategy is key to any organizations success because in that plan the organizations leadership should clearly state what the organization is going to do and what it is not going to do. Note that the decision what to do and what not to do is a key element of any strategic plan. A crisp and clear strategy will make it easier for your operations team to actively support you. In addition to the strategic goals there are also short-term or tactical or operational plans for up to 12 months.
How often are your short-term goals in conflict with your organizations long-term goal? I see on a regular basis that we have to come up with short-term solutions that might present a considerable departure from the strategic goal. In some extreme cases it might even be the opposite from the strategic goal. While I agree that in some special, isolated cases it is necessary to have these workarounds I disagree that this can be a valid default answer. You shouldn't always have to come up with a short term and a long term solution. If you have to do that you should have a hard look at your strategy process.
Make sure that the strategic goal setting provides a workable framework for your operations team. Stretch goals are desired but unrealistic goals should be prevented.

What are you standing for?

Do you dare to tell people what you are standing for? It seems to me that a good number of people do not want to openly say what they stand for or where they stand on certain issues. If you use this "Teflon behavior" at work you make it challenging for your team/organization to make progress.
Maybe it's because you don't want to hurt someone's feelings, maybe it's because you want to wait for someone else's opinion to make sure you're not walking into a political minefield. Whatever the reason is for this behavior, for business purposes, I think we have to overcome it in order make progress. When we take a stand for our convictions we have to keep in mind that we respect other opinions. Standing respectfully for your convictions, without reverting to defensive or aggressive behavior, is an art. If it's done correctly it will allow an open and constructive discussion.
In addition to respect we have to stay open to adjust our convictions if we're confronted with better arguments.
The challenge I see, if convictions can't be expressed adequately in business situations, is that it is very challenging to have a meaningful discussion about business issues. If I don't tell you that I have a concern about a certain project task we won't discuss why I have that concern and hence we might end up with a  less than optimal solution.
As long as it is not clear to others where we stand and why we stand there it is very hard to start a meaningful discussion. Make your team/organization move forward and have an opinion that can be adjusted.

Make sure your good ideas don't get killed

As I mentioned in my last blog post I'm currently reading the book "buy in" from John P. Kotter. This book is trying to explain how you can successfully get buy in for your ideas. As you well know whenever you are trying to get others to buy in to your ideas you can expect some resistance. Kotter identifies four different ways on how good ideas get killed. He refers to them as attack strategies.

1. fear mongering: He identifies this as an attack strategy that is raising anxiety. People start with undeniable facts and then tweak the story in such a way that it becomes frighting.
2. delay: Killing the idea by delaying it. An example might be: We have so much on our plate now we can't do it.
3. confusion: Bringing up irrelevant facts or offering too many options makes it impossible to get a clear message out and hence to get buy in.
4. ridicule (or character assassination):  Sometimes people try to make you look silly. They may raise questions about your competence etc.

Here is how he suggestes to deal with these attacks

• Get everyone included in the discussion and give them a chance to shoot at your idea. This is to get peoples attention.
• Don't try to react to attacks with data and logic. Respond instead with short, clear language (no jargon or complex arguments). This is to keep their attention.
• Don't counterattack! The negative effects of the counterattacks will overshadow any kind of short term satisfaction that you get out of it.
• Don't focus on the attacker and their arguments e.g. if 20% of people provide these attacks, focus on the 80% of people that are with you
• Be prepared. Even when you need to get only buy in from a small and friendly group. Always prepare

This is obviously just a very short summary. If you're interested read the book. I think it is very helpful to go into more detail on these ideas.

How to get buy in for your ideas?

What do you do when you are looking for buy in from another team, Senior Management etc? Have you tried to exclude the most difficult participants by scheduling a meeting at a time when these participants are not available? Did you try to convince them to listen to your point of view? How was that working for you? In the book "buy in" from John P. Kotter, he suggests to first get peoples attention before you even start to explain your idea. I think this makes a lot of sense. Think about all the information everyone of us gets every day: email, cell phone, SMS, Social Media, TV, Internet, friends, family etc. All these communications contribute to our information overflow. When people are distracted they won't listen carefully or long enough to your ideas and they might ignore you.
Therefore the first thing you have to think about is "How do you get peoples attention?" . As a starter (again from the Kotter book mentioned above) allow everyone to express their opinon about your idea. That is risky yes and if done wrong it might get your idea killed right away. Remember the goal is to get peoples attention and if they are paying attention they become engaged. If you get their attention you can use it to your advantage so that you get real commitment for your good ideas.

Tell your team how important they are!

What happens if you don't do your job well? Would the customer satisfaction go down, would the Sales Team get stuck when they try to create a quote or an order, would the Sales systems and processes be mis-aligned? These are some Sales related examples of what might happen. Answer this question for your job. In most cases you work with a team to achieve your objectives. Now when you have a team that brings up another question. What happens if your team is not doing their job well? Again look at some examples in your environment. If you work in a job that you are passionate about and your team is passionate about their work then you have to recognize the importance of your teams work.
As a Manager or Lead you have to make sure that everyone in your team understands that you appreciate their contribution. Recognize the importance of others honestly. Don't fake it because you think you should do it. This is about changing the work culture and aligning your organization's values and behavior.

Your tone is important!

When you speak you should consider your tone. It's something your parents probably told you when you were younger and it is still true. Make sure that the meaning of your words and your tone are in sync.
Are you showing some hint of power, impatience, arrogance, sarcasm, indifference or cynicism when you speak? Do others notice this? If the answer is yes, if doesn't matter what you say. Let's look at an example. A business Manager is asking an IT Manager  "When will the performance of our Sales Tools be in the agreed upon range again?". When asking the question the tone of the business Manager might suggest sarcasm and irritation. What do you think will then come out of this? I suspect the IT Manager will get defensive because he can sense the underlying feelings. The question and the tone were sending two different messages. When you speak you should not only think about what you say but also which tone you want to use.

Who is making decisions?

For simple problems, it is highly likely that you can find the root cause easily and you can fix the issue quickly. Unfortunately not too many of our issues are in that area.
For complex problems, in contrast it is hard to find the root cause and it might not be trivial at all to fix the issue. The question here is who is making the decision to address these issues? I think that for complex problems the decisions have to go to that level in the organization that have the most experience with these problems. Because complex problems require mostly complex solutions. Let's look at an example: We run into a Software Issue and have agreed how the solution should look like, then it is the best to assign this to the Software Development Team responsible for that code to fix the issue.
Imagine how much time and effort you might waste if you have to explain all the technical details to a Senior Executive so that he or she can make a decision.
Therefore remember that before you go and try to find a solution yourself ask if the problem is simple or complex. If it is complex then determine which team has the most knowledge with that issue and take the problem to them. You do that because you trust those most familiar with the problem to make the right decisions.

Interrogation or Interview?

The difference between an Interrogation and an Interview is that Interrogations are meant to be stressful. When you look at your environment and your meetings which of the two is prevailing? I consider a stress-free environment conducive for positive business outcomes and therefore prefer Interviews. Have you been in meetings where you start with questions like "You have a problem", "This is the fault of Team ABC", "Don't waste any time just gimme the bottom line"? This can cause quite some anxiety and if you don't fend off the related stress early the meeting might be useless. Whereas when you manage to reduce the stress level with intelligent questions you can focus on potential solutions. Get away from the negative outcomes and focus on options that are under your control. This will create a safer environment for people to speak up.
Interrogations can sometimes be effective in creating indiviual responsibility. Nevertheless this will increase stress which in my opinion reduces the creative problem solving abililty.
What is your organizational Preference? Interrogator or Interviewer?

Don't propose solutions!

If you as the leader have an idea how to solve a problem, do you share it right away? If you answer yes to this question I think you should review this approach because

• it spoils the learning process for your team
• the team might stop thinking about other options and just focus on your suggestion
• the buy-in will be less as when the team comes up with a solution. The team is doing it because the Manager told them to do it.

Tell your team instead what you expect. Example: We have had too many errors with our sales orders lately. Can you come up with a plan how we can get back to a 95% clean order rate by January 1, 2011? Ask your team for a recommendation. Their solution might not be as good as your solution BUT the team (or person xzy) came up with it. Therefore the implementation of that plan will have their full commitment. Your objective is to address a business challenge not that everyone agrees with your suggestions, right?

Give your idea's a test drive

To make the best possible decisions it is helpful to imagine different scenarios. You can bring these different scenearios to life by visualzing different outcomes. A good example is when a Project Manager works on getting effort estimates for a Software Development Project. In a perfect scenario where everything works out just fine the development effort is 5 days. Then you have the worst case where everything goes wrong and the development effort is 10 days. Lastly you have the most likely scenario where some things work and some things don't. In this case the development effort is 7 days. One of the main advantages I see with this approach is that you make the possible future more concrete by visualizing it. You can see some potential challenges ahead of time and you can generate some good ideas. When you go through this exercise you might recognize some key conditions or choices you need to keep in mind, some key allies or partners you need to get on board. Set aside some time for this exercise, at least for your more important decisions,  to go through this in as much detail as possible. I find this works well in your private life as well in organizations.

Deliver value regularly!

Have you been in meetings where you keep discussing business cases, systems and processes over and over without making real progress? It might be because we don't have the right people in the meeting or we don't have the necessary data or any other reason. In any case we can't deliver at the end.
While discussions are good and important you have to keep in mind that at the end of the day you and your team have to deliver some value (e.g. product, service or make a decison). When we get lost in discussions we can't deliver. If we can't deliver we don't add any value and we don't learn. Therefore I think we have to determine your organizations Pain Threshold in hours/days/weeks/months for these discussions. Once you know that theshold you can act accordingly. For example: How long are you willing to discuss if you want to offer a certain Product via a Partner Channel in the Americas region? You obviously want to make the right decision and so you and your team spend 2 weeks to get all the data you need. Let's assume that 2 weeks would be an appropriate amount of time for this task. For various reasons some people weren't available and so you can't make the 2 weeks. What do you do? If you do nothing you just get used to delays and you actually ingrain this in your companies culture. Is that what you want? If not, do something about it and deliver value regularly. No excuses!

Some thoughts regarding "asking questions"

Have you ever noticed that we sometimes stop asking questions because we believe we already know the answer anyway? If that happens I consider it a warning sign because in a good, open and honest relationship between people or teams it should be possible to ask questions again. Now you don't need to ask 3 times in a row "Are we there yet?" or something along those lines because is it really surprising when we ask the same people the same question at different times? Why would you expect a different outcome?  We might be more successful if we reframe or rephrase our questions. How about refining our question strategy with better or more open ended questions before we ask again? In some cases we might have to do  more data analysis before we ask questions. Sometimes it can help to ask a question in a group instead of in a one on one situation. Or how about asking through someone else? In many cases there is an option to get a different outcome. Think about it, put some work into it and only ask again when you're ready and can expect a different outcome.