Wordless Wednesday: timely thoughts

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Day Of The Living Dead [Projects]

Some projects just won’t die. These vampires suck the resources, creative energy, and eventually the integrity out of the organization.

When everyone sees that the project will not succeed, but the boss won’t kill it, far more is lost than just the cost of the project.

Protecting project vampires is much more corrosive to the organization than killing them off too soon; customer rejection of a variation in the marketplace means that the boss can no longer hide a personal bias that keeps the vampire alive.

While feeding the vampires appears to be the opposite of killing them too soon, the root cause is the same—prejudgment.

Just as we “know” that some variations cannot possibly work, we also “know” that a few specific variations just have to work. In both situations we have substituted our own personal opinion, or prejudice, in the place of test results with customers.

Why do we do it?

What are the mental and emotional processes that cause us to continue feeding vampires?

First, there is persistence, that two-edged virtue that causes so much trouble. By feeding a vampire are we being persistent or just plain stubborn.

An old joke asks, “What is the difference between persistence and stubbornness? Come back in ten years to find out.”  But possibly more apropos is Einstein’s definition of insanity—doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

If you keep working the same variation hoping for a different verdict from customers, then it’s time to pull out the silver stake and drive it through the heart of this vampire project. Your team will be surprised and even a little bit impressed.

But perhaps your business instincts are leading you in the right direction. Evolution has a recommendation here—try a few more variations.

When evolution converted a fin into a hand and fingers, it did not know how many fingers were optimal, or even if there was an optimal number for fingers. Evolution has experimented with two fingers, then three, four, five, six, and even seven. The opposable thumb has worked for some species, but not for others.

Finally evolution settled on five fingers for most mammals, but it still uses one or two fingers (hoof or cloven hoof) for other mammals.

So…

• Create a number of variations on the vampire variation.
• Ask the development team working on the vampire. They may have a number of recommendations for changes, based on their direct experience with it.
• Ask the customers who have seen it. What did they like or not like? What would they recommend to improve it? What one feature did they hate?  Why did they stop using it?

Any variation has a number of function points, just like the bolt we discussed earlier. With your development team, review the function list one by one. For each function point, create ten possible variations. Most will not work, but remember not to kill off them too soon.

Use the lessons of evolution to create variations on the vampire variation. That’s persistence.

A second reason to keep a vampire alive may be resource issues. It may be generating resources in a peculiar way. The vampire may be the source or reason for funding by a customer. The vampire may be the project that keeps a highly talented team or individual at your organization. Or you may believe that you cannot afford to kill this vampire because your boss/customer/company will leave/quit/fire you if you kill the vampire. Whatever the reason, identify it directly.

Demonstrate to your boss/customer/ organization/team that the customers have thoroughly rejected the vampire as it exists today.  Outline your plan to create new variations and your plans to test them in the marketplace. The evolutionary process will eventually lead you to success.

Finally, you may have some very personal reasons for keeping the vampire alive. Your own success/promotion/growth/bonus may need this vampire to succeed. In this situation, first recognize your own needs to yourself, if not to anyone else.

Then return to the evolutionary model of creating variations. Somewhere in the mix of new, unlikely variations, the customers will find a few that they like, often using them in novel ways that you did not imagine.

Checkup for Killing Vampires

• What is the difference between persistence and stubbornness? Which are you?
• Why do you think the vampire will succeed?
• What variations have you tried on the vampire?
• Who wants the vampire to stay alive? Why?
• Who wants the vampire dead? Why?
• How can you create many more variations on the vampire?
• What is the personal cost to you for feeding the vampire?
• What is the personal cost to you for killing the vampire?

You may have noticed that this post was not particularly helpful in dealing with personality quirks—personal or organizational—that keep the vampires alive. I am not a psychologist, and do not pretend to offer psychological advice. My blunt advice, taken directly from the lessons of evolution, is: “Grow up. Get over it. Shoot the vampires. Move on.”

Socrates was a little gentler with his dictum, “Know thyself.” Miki says it differently, “Know your MAP and know that you can modify/change it at will.”

Your career/customers/team/organization/boss is more important than any single variation. You are valuable specifically for your ability to create and deliver variations. Kill the vampire! Create one hundred more variations to nurture and test.

Next time:  We will begin to explore selection. How does evolution use the environment to select the fittest variations? What exactly is evolutionary fitness?

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Four Truths About Employee Engagement

Dave Zinger wrote a post on employee DISengagement, saying that it doesn’t exist; that it isn’t the employees who are disengaged, rather it’s the organization’s responsibility to engage them and he’s right on the money.

Engagement isn’t something that happens by accident or that you can order your people to do.

Engagement happens because you, and hopefully your company are engaging.

This isn’t doubletalk or smoke, think about it. Think about what engages you.

• The guideline is the same thread that has run through every major philosophy and religion for thousands of years—treat your people s you want to be treated, whether your boss treats you that way or not.

• Authenticity is the current buzz word, but it translates simply to be honest, open and do what you say; never fudge, let alone lie, intentionally or otherwise.

• There are absolutely no circumstances that warrant or excuse the messenger being killed. None. Because if you do, there’s no going back—ever.

• If your company doesn’t have an engaging culture then you must be an umbrella for your people, because you can create one below you, even if you can’t change it above.

Organizational engagement is cultural and we’ll be talking more about it this week.

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mY generation: Limits

See all mY generation posts here.

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Prophetic words

A lot of interesting stuff makes the rounds of the Internet. I received this scan and tracked through Google to Snopes (I love Snopes).

These remarks were made spontaneously  on a Voice of America broadcast that was heard in more than sixty countries.

It would be very cool if it had really happened in 1968, but that was literary license; the broadcast actually took place in May 1961.

But the seven years difference doesn’t matter. What matters is that his comments were prophetic and came true in far less time than many believed possible—right up until last week.

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Four easy actions to engage your people

Employee engagement is a hot topic these days; it’s also a function of corporate culture. And while managers may not be able to control culture there are many things they can do within their own department and even team.

One of the biggest is to show your appreciation of your people. Study after study confirms employees’ desire to feel valued; to make a difference and be credited for it. But how, with budgets cut below bone level?

Here are four simple actions that you can implement at no financial cost and that don’t require approval from anyone.

• Ask everyone, not just your so-called stars, for input, ideas, suggestions and opinions.

• Listen and really hear the response, discuss it, think about it.

• Use what you get as often as possible, whether in whole or in part, or as the springboard that leads to something totally different.

• Credit the source(s), both up and down, publicly and privately, thank them, compliment them, congratulate them.

If you’re sincere, you can’t lay it on too thick; if you’re faking it, they’ll know.

And if you’re foolish enough to steal the credit for yourself in the mistaken name of job security you’ll have the fun of explaining to your boss the plummeting productivity and soaring turnover that accompanies those thefts.

It’s easy to remember, just think ALUC.

Ask

Listen!

Use

Credit

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No more talent

A couple of weeks ago David Zinger wrote a great post regarding the so-called war for talent.

“I have always been troubled by the so called “war for talent.” Now, I am beyond troubled, I am angry with the use of this metaphor for those of us who offer our best in organizations.”

Take a moment to read David’s comments—they are provocative, true and well worth the time.

But I want to focus on something else today.

I have a major problem with ‘talent’—and human capital and human resources and stars—but especially with talent.

As a manager, you do not hire talent, capital, resources or stars.

You hire people.

The people you hire are rated, in the majority of cases, ‘talented’, or even ’stars’, as a direct result of the skill with which you manage them.

I spent more than 20 years as a headhunter and I’ve seen below average employees turn into innovative contributors when exposed to a different manager and the opposite, when acknowledged stars suddenly become non performers because the management changed.

Actually, you don’t really hire people, you hire persons. Individuals with all the quirks, foibles, idiosyncrasies and idiotsyncrasies common to the human race.

And you hire them one at a time.

No manager ever hired a ‘workforce’; they built it, one person at a time.

Plural pronouns not allowed.

So no more talk about talent or resources or capital. Your job is the acquisition, care and feeding of your persons.

And why in the world would you involve yourself or your persons in a war?

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Wordless Wednesday: eternal caveat emptor

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We Care Too Much

Now let’s tackle some truly challenging differences between evolutionary variation and our business process for generating variations.

Last week we said, Evolution does not care about an individual organism and it does not even care about an individual species. In contrast, we care which particular variations fail and we care passionately about the success of our business. It’s not just business, it’s personal. Quite simply, this difference is insurmountable.

Prejudice makes your world go down

On the surface it seems outrageous to propose that our desire to succeed actually is one source of our failures, but the evolutionary model points in that direction. We cannot eliminate our preferences, but perhaps we can understand the impact of our preferences.

Note the polite reference to our preferences, when the more accurate word is bias or even prejudice.

Literally, a prejudice is a pre-judgment. While judgment is good and even necessary, pre-judgment, that is judgment before the data is available, is not good.

By understanding our prejudices, perhaps we can reduce the negative impact of those prejudices.

As business leaders we like to think of ourselves as rational creatures, dispassionately weighing the facts and evidence, then rendering a judgment—like Solomon—upon the wisdom of any particular issue at hand.

Our self-image depends heavily upon this viewpoint, because it supports and justifies the many decisions we must make every day, usually with insufficient time and almost always with inadequate information to make the decision.

Many external factors affect our ability to make decisions, most of which are beyond our control. For instance, air temperature has a measurable effect on our attitude, so much so that we refer to a person as cold or warm. In a warm room our decisions tend to be more expansive and more generous. Lower the temperature a few degrees and we become colder, more calculating and stingy. Blood sugar level has a similar impact, with lower blood sugar correlated to cautious behaviors and higher blood sugar levels correlated to increased risk-taking.

No doubt you have experienced these variations in your own work. In the morning, after coming into the office from a cold commute and then drinking a cup of coffee, your actions may be just a little quicker, a little more cautious, a little less expansive and open. In the afternoon after lunch, you may be a little more relaxed in a meeting, a little more agreeable and willing to consider an unusual idea.

Also we are affected by internal chemicals such as testosterone, adrenalin, and endorphins. Testosterone, the ultimate male chemical, is correlated with feelings of power and control. Any perceived victory or accomplishment will tend to raise testosterone levels. In stressful situations our bodies release adrenalin, which triggers the well-known “fight-or-flight” responses. Endorphins tend to produce feelings of peace, and euphoria. Exercise typically increases endorphin levels, which leads to the feeling of relaxation and peace after a good work-out. We can change our levels of each of these chemicals by physical activities and also just by our own thoughts.

Outside the chemical and physical realms, our own brains tend to betray us. Tests demonstrate that our estimate of our own knowledge affects our decision making, even when our knowledge is wrong. As Will Rogers said, “It isn’t what a fellow knows that does him any harm. It’s what he knows that isn’t so.”

In today’s business, where change is so rapid, much of our knowledge is outdated, if not plain wrong. Small, subtle differences can have significant impact on the outcomes. Our ability to spot those subtle differences is limited to areas where we have very deep, very current knowledge. Technology and business change so rapidly that it is almost impossible to stay current across a broad range.

Finally, in business we work under short time frames, with incomplete information, and we care passionately about the outcome. Guessing what our customers will want tomorrow is particularly hazardous to our business health.  Truly we don’t have knowledge so much as prejudices, opinions and hunches. As Alcoholics Anonymous states, “The first step is admitting I have a problem.” So let’s confess together, “I am addicted to my prejudices.”

Prejudicial Checkup

• You just admitted you have prejudices. What are a few of your favorite prejudices? Name at least five.
• What external events or situations trigger your prejudices?
• What internal signals indicate that you are replaying an old, familiar prejudice?
• What internal images do you see, what words or voices do you hear internally when a situation triggers one of your prejudices?
• How can you interrupt your internal cycle of prejudicial thoughts? Perhaps you can stand up, count to ten, take a few deep breaths, or stretch.
• How can you protect your development teams and processes from your internal prejudices?

Nurturing New Variations—especially the ones we do not like

With this fresh understanding of our own prejudices firmly in mind let’s return to the first problem that limits our ability to produce variations – killing off new ideas too soon.

Knowing that our prejudices will inevitably lead us to kill off certain types of new ideas too soon, how can we design an environment within our business that protects them from our “best” instincts?

To thrive, new ideas need

• a champion;
• some time to grow;
• a few resources; and
• early exposure to testing by customers.

How do you provide these resources to your teams? It is not your job to nurture every new idea, but it is your job to provide the resources and patiently observe which ones grow. Most new ideas will eventually die, but a few unlikely ones will thrive, just like weeds.

How to move projects along

• Reinforcement from customers is extremely powerful—a few encouraging words from a customer can overcome almost any prejudice;
• set up small tests to demonstrate and validate critical elements early in the process;
• drive your development teams to put every new product in front of customers very quickly, much earlier than the development team believes it will be ready;
• full functionality of a few subsystems is much better than 90% functionality of the whole system; and
• remind your teams to fail fast, fail often, and fail small.

Checkup for Nurturing New Variations

• How do you encourage and support champions?
• How do you protect champions and new ideas from your own prejudices?
• How do you provide just enough resources to allow new ideas to grow?
• How do you expose new ideas to the testing of the marketplace? How quickly?
• How do you keep yourself out of the role of premature judge?

Next week join me to learn how our prejudices feed the vampires that suck the life out of our business—and what to do about it.

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Compromise means listening

Jim Stroup over at Managing Leadership wrote a fascinating post on the effects of principles and political compromise on our Constitution.

For the political slant click the link, but I think that these ideas are just as true in the business world.

“If you rule out compromising your principles, then you become an ideologue.”

Can business people be ideologues? Of course.

Managers adopt approaches and then rigidly try to implement (inflict?) them on every organization in which they work with no consideration as to their appropriateness.

Robert Nardelli did that when he tried to impose stringent metrics a la GE on Home Depot, ignoring cultural differences and the realities of running a successful consumer business.

“…maybe they see a higher, joint goal of sufficient value… This sometimes takes a kind of discipline, stamina, and focus that can be stunning, and much more productive, powerful, and enduring…”

When senior managers open themselves up to input from all levels of their organization—instead of forcing the dogmatic use a certain methodology—the results include stronger engagement, higher productivity and more innovation.

In business, this means a focus beyond today’s stock price—a focus on the long-term, which is rarely appreciated by Wall Street.

Compromise isn’t synonymous with ethical lapse, either; it’s not an excuse to lie, cheat, steal or fudge the information or the numbers.

It is about listening to others; listening to those whose ideas are revolutionary; ideas that are atypical; ideas that buck the norm and go in a new direction and that takes a lot of guts.

In business, as in politics, compromise often means being willing to put your job on the line—but refusing carries the same potential cost.

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