You want the wheels on your car aligned. When the wheels are even a little bit out of alignment, the ride is uncomfortable, the wear on tires and other parts goes up, and the vehicle works less efficiently. When the wheels are critically out of alignment the ride is unbearable, and your safety is at risk.

When things that matter in your business and your life are not in alignment:

Traditional MBA programs are built on that desire; on the belief that the behaviours that constitute good management can be learned and repeated in any context. Those programs suggest, by making management a discipline, that if you get the basic skills down, you can manage a retail business or a bank or a restaurant, each with equal success.

The trouble is, it just isn’t true. But it seems that the desire to create . . . → Read More: A System or A Symphony?]]> Share/Bookmark

There is in the human soul a desire for reproducibility. Not reproduction, (we have that for sure!), but a need to reproduce things, perfectly and repeatably.

Traditional MBA programs are built on that desire; on the belief that the behaviours that constitute good management can be learned and repeated in any context. Those programs suggest, by making management a discipline, that if you get the basic skills down, you can manage a retail business or a bank or a restaurant, each with equal success.

The trouble is, it just isn’t true. But it seems that the desire to create reproducible systems is powerful. A powerful myth.

The E-myth, by Michael Gerber, pushes that message: that the biggest failing of small businesses is that they have no formal systems. The role of these formal systems is to allow the owner to exit themselves from the daily running of the business, to ensure cost-effective workforce-building, and to make expansion (like franchising) possible.

In Lean Manufacturing’s Oversized Claims, in October 2011’s Canadian Business, similar ideas are examined. The article explores the validity of the claim that systems like Six Sigma can consistently and sustainably reduce costs simply on the basis of a perfectly executed system.

In each case there is the underlying assumption that if you could just figure out a perfect system you could do away with people, or at least highly trained, hard to replace, expensive people.

Nonsense.

While I agree that betting the success of your business on recruiting the perfect talent is a strategy guaranteed to produce an early and unhappy end, the opposite is just as deadly.
Systems matter, but people matter more. The “best” systems are nothing more than Platonic ideals, more philosophy than business strategy, and in the case of Lean systems like Six Sigma or Kaizen, are almost religious cults.

I will drive my stake into this territory:

• No production or performance system is universally applicable across every industry or environment without being modified to the point of threatening the integrity of the original system (i.e. is XYZ Pure System still XYZ Pure System after 50% of it has been modified and made conditional?).
• No production or performance system is a perpetual motion machine. That is, it cannot operate well without reasonable talent, and cannot produce remarkable results without remarkable talent. The human talent and buy-in are non-negotiable inputs for success.

What is the right mix of people and systems in a business? 

Simple: it’s the great performance mix. Not the “high performance” kind of performance. The performing art kind of performance.

Every trained actor, musician, and director understands this intuitively. They work with scripts, scores, or chord changes that are meticulously noted systems. The score of a Mahler Symphony is a notated system of an order of complexity that no Six Sigma company in the world can hope to duplicate: tens of thousands of discrete actions, notated in absolutely precise detail. Yet they are pure noise in the hands of the wrong people (and a sublime experience in the hands of great talent).

Note that the reverse is true: the world’s greatest symphony orchestra, asked to perform without score or direction, would produce noise. The system is necessary, but to assume it can every be so perfectly designed as to obviate the need for anything more than minimal talent, is understood to be ludicrous in the performing arts. So why do we perpetuate that myth in business?

Take a page from the performing arts:

1. Create the best system you can. Tailor it precisely to your vision, your audience, your times, your genre (or industry). There is NO one-size-fits-all score or script (well there is, but unless you want your company to be know as the elevator music of your industry, not a good idea). This is the score or script for your performance. Get it right.
2. Invest in talent development. Hiring a superstar is occasionally a good strategy. But not very often. It is more cost-effective, and brings much greater benefits to find people with great raw talent but only just enough experience, and invest in training them. Do it right and they will invest in your performance. The greatest ensembles have been playing together for decades. A healthy symphony orchestra has a turn-over of less than 3%. We can learn from that.
3. Practice, practice, practice. Neither good systems, nor great talent, are any replacement for putting in the hours to get it right. That is another lesson we can learn from the performing arts: it is expected in the process of creating a great performance you are going to make a lot of mistakes. Do it again. And then, when you have it right, do it ten more times. Having a great script and great talent are never enough. Even the very best put in the hours. Musicians, actors, and athletes live with this. Why do people in business think they are exempt?

I help businesses and organizations get the mix right. People and systems working together to produce remarkable results. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

The next time you are onboarding a new recruit, here’s a little improvisation I would like you to undertake. The rules:

Business Fundamentals.

Rules.

Each of these disciplines have rules at the heart of them.

So why do I find myself constantly going back there to think and act out of the box? Isn’t getting out of the box, out of the rut, all about breaking the old rules?

No. This is a complete failure of insight. We are not boxed by rules. We are boxed by habits, instincts, and unexamined emotions. One prejudice creates a prison of a box more . . . → Read More: Back to the Middle to Get Outside]]> Share/Bookmark

Information theory. Physics. Classical music & jazz. Monastic orders. The sciences of the brain and cognition. Statistics and probability.

Business Fundamentals.

Rules.

Each of these disciplines have rules at the heart of them.

So why do I find myself constantly going back there to think and act out of the box? Isn’t getting out of the box, out of the rut, all about breaking the old rules?

No. This is a complete failure of insight. We are not boxed by rules. We are boxed by habits, instincts, and unexamined emotions. One prejudice creates a prison of a box more secure than all the laws of physics combined.

Despite the popular conception that the ‘box’ is the world of rules, order and structure, it is the opposite. The box is our emotions, instincts, and habits… all the stuff we are supposed to ‘get in touch with’ to get out of the box. It is a box of comfort. The box is not really a box at all. It is a groove, a deep groove of habits of thought and actions, made deep by our going over the same ground again and again.

The best way to get out of the box is a reality check. A real-ity check: a return to the world prior to, and impervious to, our assumptions and prejudices.

This is why even a cursory understanding of the laws of thermodynamics or probability trumps ‘common sense’. This is why learning to read a statement of cash flows is more valuable than reading one more woowoo pop psychology The Secret of Blah Blah Blah Success book. This is why understanding that you multiply two unrelated probabilities (for example the probability that you will have an opening for an employee next month, and the probability that some great talent will walk through your door looking for a job), that you don’t add them, is more valuable than clinging to the law of attraction. It is why understanding the Pareto distribution is more powerful and freeing than $1000′s in inspirational speakers.

The next time someone says: “we need think outside the box,” notice what happens next. If it is some kind of pseudo-brainstorm group-think  exercise, or even worse, the not-laws of The Secret, then all you are going to get is new layers of crud built on old layers of crud. In a weird MC Escher-like journey you will think you are making forward progress, when you will only find yourself exactly back where you started… less the energy you had when you started (check out the laws of thermodynamics for why that happens).

On the other hand, if the “getting out of the box” exercise begins with someone reaching for a giant scraper, to scrape away the layers of unexamined assumptions and habits, while saying something like “Let’s get back to fundamentals and rebuild,” then you know you have a hope of getting out of that box.

 Want to improve your communication with employees, partners, and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

Too shy to leave a comment? That’s cool. +1′s and tweets are appreciated too!

In music we keep going back to the fundamentals over and over again. You keep practicing all the time. Inspiration and creativity matter, but if you are a professional, it is your chops that really matter. No one expects to get it right the first time. You make mistakes, but you keep practicing until you don’t make mistakes any more. Yes originality . . . → Read More: Play it Again. And Again. And Again.]]> Share/Bookmark

Ideas are easy. Consistency is hard.

I think that one of the reasons I return to that epigram so often is because of my music training. The business world has much to learn from the musical world.

In music we keep going back to the fundamentals over and over again. You keep practicing all the time. Inspiration and creativity matter, but if you are a professional, it is your chops that really matter. No one expects to get it right the first time. You make mistakes, but you keep practicing until you don’t make mistakes any more. Yes originality matters, but at least in the worlds of jazz and classical music, you won’t get a lick if you can’t perform.

I heard an interview with Paul Simon a few weeks ago. Simon made a comment about having some great material in his head for another recording, but he had put it all on hold because he was on tour now. The interviewer asked, clearly perplexed, if that meant he just stopped writing, if he just put his creativity on hold. Simon response was that he was a professional. He didn’t sit around waiting for inspiration. He had a job to do, and when it came time to write, he would write.

Paul Simon has, among a crazy wealth of other abilities, solid writing chops. It is his craft, and he practices it.

That’s the way it is. So close your copy of 10 New Laws of Success I Just Discovered or any book with the words new, secret, laws, or success in the title, and start acting like a musician.

Practice your Craft

Business is an art and a craft. Practice it. Learn the fundamental rules of finance, social sciences/psychology, operations & logistics, communication and information theory. Understand the real laws of cause and effect that are the constants of your world much as the laws of acoustics, theory, and rhythm are the constants of a musician’s world. Study, study, study.

Then then practice. Practice, practice, practice. There are no shortcuts, no magical ‘laws’, no real silver bullets. The 10,000 hours that Gladwell writes about in Outliers won’t be ignored. Honour them or you will get nowhere.

Do you have to love what you do? Of course. Who wants to do something for ten thousand hours that they don’t love? But if you want to excel at it, if you want to make a living at it, it becomes a labour of love. The love must come first, but the system, the labour, the practice cannot be ignored. And if you want to be successful as a business owner, it is the practice of business that you must focus on. Not what got you into the business: baking or sales or mechanics or construction. The business itself is now your craft.

In music school, I spent 1,000’s of hours in study cubicles and Wenger practice studios. In the cubicles we were mastering the theoretical fundamentals of our art. In the tiny practice modules we were all practicing the performance of that art. And in the middle of all those hours, what struck me was not how hard I was working, it was what I heard when I took a break in the common area: the sounds of pianos, voices, trombones, trumpets, violins, double basses, percussion… heard faintly through the almost-soundproof doors of the other Wenger studios. The same scales, the same passages, the same failures and triumphs over and over and over again. The relentless patterns of the search for mastery.

I just don’t hear enough of that in the world of business.

 Want to improve your communication with employees, partners, and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

Too shy to leave a comment? That’s cool. +1′s and tweets are appreciated too!

What engagement does means:

The decades-long work by Marcus Buckingham and the Gallup organization have provided irrefutable evidence that the absence . . . → Read More: Tell Me I Matter & We Both Win]]> Share/Bookmark

Engagement has become one of those nod your head buzzwords. We all suspect it’s a good thing, but most of us have no concrete understanding of what it means.

What engagement does means:

1. The feeling that we matter at work; that the unique skills and experience we bring to the team are valued, and would be missed if we weren’t there
2. The deliberate act of engaging with employees to share their input and feedback to improve the organization. Done right, this leads back to #1!

The decades-long work by Marcus Buckingham and the Gallup organization have provided irrefutable evidence that the absence of engagement is corrosive and a top contributor to turn-over, slumping productivity, and out-of-control labour costs.

Did you know that for years Gallup has had a gold standard for employee engagement? A ratio of 10:1 (engaged to disengaged employees) describes a world-class organization. How do you think your organization does?

The Need To Feel Valued At Work Is As Important As The Need For Food

In an article that will make my Best of 2011 list, Tony Schwartz provides a very compelling perspective on employee engagement:

To feel valued (and valuable) is almost as compelling a need as food. The more our value feels at risk, the more preoccupied we become with defending and restoring it, and the less value we’re capable of creating in the world.

In the article, The Need To Feel Valued At Work Is As Important As The Need For Food, Schwartz tells the story of Campbell Soup CEO Doug Conant, and his relentless drive to take his organization from what was once the worst engagement level among all S&P 500 clients (2:1) to the current 17:1(!). Now Conant is leaving Campbell Soup. It will be interesting to see if his successor is able to maintain that truly remarkable level of employee engagement.

What can you do to increase the level of engagement in your organization? Here are 5 ideas:

1. Keep the right perspective. The title of this article notwithstanding, you can’t actually ‘make’ someone matter any more than you can empower them (contrary to a lot of popular writing). Only we can generate the feeling of mattering internally. This means that even if you do everything right as a leader, there will still be team members who will not engage. Keep in mind that even after Conant’s remarkable efforts, the results are not 100% engagement.
2. Focus on strengths. Like a laser beam. Get to know your direct reports personally. When you have figured out what each team member brings to the table as their primary strength, you can begin the work of connecting those strengths with roles and positions in the organization where they will add the most horsepower. As with so many good things, it all starts with listening.
3. Get personal. While no one else can ‘make’ us matter, having direct and personal feedback that we are making a difference tells us that you think we matter. And that is the difference-maker. Rare souls like the Dali Lama may have the ability to draw that sense of value and worth entirely from within, the rest of us require feedback from our environment that what we are doing matters. Take a page from Conant’s book: he spends at least an hour a day writing hand-written notes to people throughout the organization, welcoming them, thanking them, and providing specific positive feedback.
4. Act. While not every suggestion is feasible, and even the good ones can take time to implement, at some point you must act on the feedback you receive. Saying “Thank you for your input,” and then doing nothing, only goes so far. And as Gallup’s research shows, it also just stupid and has consequences for the bottom line. Many of the suggestions that front-line employees (those who are engaged in the primary activity of the business) have significant productivity and cost savings implications.
5. Reward. The most important part of creating true engagement is simply communicating (through your words and the actions you take) that an employee is valued and valuable. But tangible rewards help! A first class local example is British Columbia’s Great Little Box Company. This company has been written up in business journals and business schools for its best-in-class practices as an employer. Not only does The Great Little Box Company provide a generous profit sharing program for everyone, they also provide specific cash rewards for any suggestion that measurably improves production or reduces costs.

Want to improve your communication with employees, partners,and customers? I help organizations improve communication through leadership & management-level workshops & coaching. Check out my website to learn about the different ways I can support your organization.

When you provide only the very basics on your side of the relationship as the employer how can you expect more than the very basics from your employees? If all you give me is money, all you get is my hands.

If you want my heart and my head, you’ll have to put yours in there too.

Brett Simons has written another excellent and thoughtful piece. This one explores Enabling Covenantal Relationships. As Brett writes:

“Unless and until you are willing to hold yourself accountable for performing your . . . → Read More: Will You Be Mine? The Employer As Covenant Partner]]> Share/Bookmark

What gives you the right to expect ‘more’ from your employees?

When you provide only the very basics on your side of the relationship as the employer how can you expect more than the very basics from your employees? If all you give me is money, all you get is my hands.

If you want my heart and my head, you’ll have to put yours in there too.

Brett Simons has written another excellent and thoughtful piece. This one explores Enabling Covenantal Relationships. As Brett writes:

“Unless and until you are willing to hold yourself accountable for performing your own job with distinction, walking the talk your employees value, and genuinely caring for those you’ve been given the privilege to lead, you will never master covenant leadership. You are not entitled to partnership; you earn partnership by first providing it to others.”

This passage really struck me. The concepts that there is a ‘premium’ relationship possible between employee and employer, and that it is the employer’s responsibility to earn that, strike a chord with me. We know that true engagement (e.g. with head, heart, and hands) results in measurably better returns for the employer. Brett drives home that the employer has a responsibility to build this by understanding, connecting, and acting on the values of the employee (and the organization) as a partner, adding richness to the equation I had not considered before.

This is a short article, and well worth the read, especially if you are wondering why your employees are just dialing it in every day.

Related articles:

SMB Success Factor: Be The Boss

Beyond Positive Feedback

Want to improve your communication with employees, partners,and customers? I help organizations improve communication through social media strategies and management-level workshops. Check out these opportunities to work with me online, from anywhere in the world:  Effective Online Coaching Programs.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

I would love to comment on #3 because it is one of the pre-conditions for success that I just don’t see enough of in small business. But I won’t.

Number 1 is the one that caught my attention.

Permission is necessary not only in providing (especially negative) feedback, I believe it is necessary component in any vital relationship.

Some examples:

It turns out that not only does the ‘yes and…’ approach make for better teamwork, it actually is a key to authentic authority in the 21st century.

Historically, in the world of top-down hierarchical structures, what was valued in leaders was the ability to . . . → Read More: Yes And… The Root of Authority]]> Share/Bookmark

One of the fundamental tactics for success in improv theatre is to use the “Yes and…” approach. This means that instead of rejecting an offer made by a member of your improv team, you accept it and attach the word “and” to move the scene forward. Read more about this and its connection with good management here.

It turns out that not only does the ‘yes and…’ approach make for better teamwork, it actually is a key to authentic authority in the 21st century.

Historically, in the world of top-down hierarchical structures, what was valued in leaders was the ability to decide cleanly and with authority between choices, to isolate and differentiate. Today, what matters is the ability to synthesize, to build new directions out of unexpected combinations. As Cy Wakeman writes in How To Appear More Authoritative On The Job:

“Gain authority by replacing the “or” that is stamped between different ideas with an “and.” That way you can suggest ideas that take the entire group to a higher level where many things are possible and many things can be true at once.”

This is an excellent article that does a great job of creating a portrait of modern authority. This kind of authority is rooted in its most ancient meaning of ‘causing to grow’ rather than its more recent ‘power to enforce’. My only quibble is with the title. The approaches suggested in the article go much deeper than just ‘appearance’. Follow the tactics here and you will be on your way to developing authentic authority.

Want to improve your communication with employees,partners,and customers? I help organizations improve communication through social media strategies and management-level workshops. Check out these opportunities to work with me online, from anywhere in the world:  Effective Online Coaching Programs.

There’s more! Looking for success in your small business? Read my Small Business blog at Small Business Fundamentals (www.smbfundamentals.com).

Surprise, surprise, surprise. The big finding in a new survey about how employees feel about middle and senior management? You don’t listen enough. Are you having regular scheduled meetings and taking notes of peoples’ input and feedback? No? Then read this article 10 times for homework. Read more…