Since technical difficulties (don’t ask) are why this post is so late, I thought I’d offer up something on technology.

There are many of us old enough to remember calling 411 information, giving a real live person a name and location and receiving the desired phone number all at no cost.

That’s right, the service was totally free.

But that was then and this is now.

Few people call 411 information these days, since the cost ranges from $1-2 dollars and (probably) up.

Enter stage left our good friends at Google.

I don’t know if the service is new, but it’s new to me—cutting-edge I’m not.

1.800.GOOG411 (1.800.466.4411)

It’s for business listings only and seems to be designed primarily for cell phones, since you can enter information with the keypad.

The service uses voice recognition and connects the call for free.

It does save your requests associated with your phone number, however, it doesn’t read blocked numbers, so if you block your phone as I do it won’t track you.

I know I’ll use it. I get really sick of looking businesses up in the phonebook; and for those who are out and about it would be really useful.

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By CandidProf, who teaches physics and astronomy at a state university. He shares his thoughts and experiences teaching today’s students anonymously every Thursday—anonymously because that’s the only way he can be truly candid. Read all of CandidProf here.

On my last post, I wrote about a student who was taking quite a bit of a colleague’s time.  Today, I wanted to write more about that topic.

[Thus starts a multi-part discussion of what today’s teachers face and the choices that they make. Miki]

Some students simply require more instructional time than others.

Sometimes they have gaps in their background that you need to fill in.  That means seeing you outside of class, since you can’t take up class time filling in gaps for everyone’s background.

Other students have difficulty mastering some topic in the class.  These students take more time.  In some cases, these students add significantly to my work load.

Unfortunately, the college administration likes to have bigger classes.  They see it is as more cost effective to have one professor teaching in one large class what would otherwise require several faculty members to teach several sections of the class. They don’t see the extra work on the faculty.  Administrators see you teaching the same number of hours, no matter how large the class, because they only look at the time spent lecturing and preparing for lectures.

They do recognize that three times the number of students would require three times the grading, but somehow that gets lost.  And they almost totally ignore the fact that three times the number of students likely means three times the number of students requiring addition effort.

Eventually, those out-of-class meetings take on as much time and effort as teaching an extra section of the class.  Of course, we don’t get paid for that.  Plus, we are still expected to teach the other classes, serve on committees, do research, etc., so our total productivity goes down.

But promotions and tenure often are based on those non-teaching duties, so that means that faculty wind up spending less time on the students who need extra time.  For some faculty members, that is just fine.  But for me it is a problem.

I take my duties as an instructor seriously.  But, I take my other duties seriously, too.

How would you handle the “extras?”

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How many times have you heard/read about the actions/decisions of a corporate head, manager, politician, clergyperson, neighbor, spouse/partner, kid, etc., and thought, “What was s/he thinking?!”

How many times have one of the above looked at your actions/decisions and thought, “What was s/he thinking?!”

Henry Ford said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.”

Based on what’s going on in the world, from micro to macro, we all need to start working a hell of a lot harder!

How hard do you work?

By Wes Ball, author of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at what really creates market dominance and self-sustaining success. Read all of Wes’ posts here.

A friend just sent me a copy of an article about the presidential campaign from back in late May.  At first I wondered if she just thought I was so far out of touch that I needed to do some catching up.  She pointed out instead that my Alpha Factor model was playing out right before our eyes in this campaign.  I agree.

The article was written by Bernie DeGroat at the University of Michigan.  It quoted research conducted by another university colleague about the value of “experience” in getting the presidential nomination.

Here’s part of what he said: “A new study by D. Scott DeRue of the U-M’s Ross School of Business and colleague Jennifer Nahrgang of Michigan State University shows that the number of years of political experience doesn’t matter much when it comes to getting nominated.”

According to DeRue, “It is clearly not experience, so there is something else about Obama… Obama’s personality and charisma have captured the hearts of the American people.”

Guess what?  That’s exactly what I found in my research regarding how people make decisions.  Rationality is not dead.  It never existed.

We all grow up believing that people make rational decisions based upon clear lists of performance or other “factual” criteria.  It’s just not true.

People are emotional beings and that’s where their decisions are made.  Make people feel good about themselves (I refer to that as “Self-satisfaction”) or help them believe that other people will feel better about them (I call that “Personal Significance”), and you are tuned into the “buying channel.”  That’s where all buying decisions really occur.

When researchers ask people why they made a buying decision, they always give a litany of rational reasons’

• it works better;
• it costs less;
• it fits better;
• it has more features;
• blah, blah, blah.

None of those proved out to be real reasons, according to my research.  They were just the way people believe they need to explain their decisions to other people.

The real reasons for their buying decisions were far more controversial and emotional.

• it makes me feel better about myself;
• it makes me believe that other people will notice me more;
• it makes me believe other people will think better of me;
• it makes me feel that I am more the person I wish I were;
• it makes me believe that more people will love me.

It’s all emotional fulfillment that drives decisions.

Companies could learn a lot from the current presidential campaign.

John McCain may have all the experience that Obama lacks (a rational factor), but he has proven himself incapable of making people feel good about themselves or of making them believe that anyone will think better of them for voting for him.  Hence, Obama has strong support among a broad cross-section of the population in both political parties.   McCain doesn’t.

This has nothing at all to do with my personal political preferences.  I personally wish the Republicans had a “real” candidate – someone who could inspire people and make them desire to be part of his campaign.  They don’t.

What does this say about leadership?

If you think you can run a company on purely rational factors, you’ve lost before you start.

If you think you can steer a corporation without making people feel good about themselves and about being part of what you’re doing, then you will certainly fail.

Every Alpha company I have tracked that has lost its way got lost on this issue.

Although every CEO knows that he has to manage the rational side of the business, he better also understand that the emotional side is where the key to his real success lies.

How do you handle the emotional factor?

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Awhile back I wrote several posts (rants?) on healthcare problems and some of the really terrible things that make my blood boil.

Over the last couple of weeks several new article caught my eye and I wanted to bring them to your attention.

1. Following up a February post on doctors and medical researchers extensive conflicts of interest resulting from pharma industry funding and gifts.

Amazingly enough, two industry giants, Pfizer and Zimmer, which manufactures hip, knee, and elbow implants, are concerned about a potential conflict—although not about funding or gifts. This one is about ongoing physician education, often funded by industry players.

“At the center of this controversy are medical communications firms paid by pharmaceutical and device companies to produce physician-education courses. Critics say the manufacturers hire the marketing firms as intermediaries to help them influence doctors’ prescriptions and procedures.”

Gee maybe all the articles, investigations and general negative publicity coupled with a consumer revolt that might force action in Washington are having an effect.

2. It’s disgusting that financial institutions buy the debt of the un/under insured and then charge exorbitant interest rates on it.

Now the light is being shined on a practice that drives one more nail to the inability to buy insurance—assuming that you can even afford it.

“An untold number of people have been rejected for medical coverage for a reason they never could have guessed: Insurance companies are using huge, commercially available prescription databases to screen out applicants based on their drug purchases. … Most consumers and even many insurance agents are unaware that Humana, UnitedHealth Group, Aetna, Blue Cross plans, and other insurance giants have ready access to applicants’ prescription histories. These online reports, available in seconds from a pair of little-known intermediary companies at a cost of only about $15 per search, typically include voluminous information going back five years on dosage, refills, and possible medical conditions. The reports also provide a numerical score predicting what a person may cost an insurer in the future.”

3. We all know how important it is to wash our hands, but many of us are careless about doing it—including healthcare providers.

“Despite recommendations, nearly 60 percent of health-care workers do not wash hands while on duty. … Why? … For one thing, rigorous hand washing is time-consuming. Guidelines advise that we first rinse, then soap for 20 seconds, then rinse again for 30 seconds; after this, we paper-dry our hands and turn the faucet off using the paper towel. For health-care workers, the procedure is supposed to be followed before and after every patient encounter. That means two minutes per patient visit, which adds up to an hour for a doctor who sees an average 30 patients a day, and 2 1/2 hours per shift for an ICU nurse.”

Now, in an effort to force improvement, “Starting in October, hospitals will be penalized for the consequences of unwashed hands: Medicare will no longer pay for complications arising from certain hospital-acquired infections, which in many cases result from poor hand hygiene. This will be a powerful incentive for health executives to improve hand-washing compliance.”

Will it be an incentive? Or will the hospitals just bill the patient for what Medicare doesn’t cover and then sell the receivables to the highest bidder?

4. A possible bright spot—at least for those who work in large companies. It’s on-site medical clinics driven by the very best motivator—vested self-interest.

“[Toyota’s] medical center, which cost $9 million to build in 2007, could save the company many millions over the next decade. Managed by Take Care Health Systems whose business is running medical clinics, the program has helped Toyota slash big-ticket medical items including referrals to highly paid specialists, emergency room visits, and the use of costly brand-name drugs. Plus, there are big productivity gains because workers don’t have to leave the plant and drive to a doctor’s office for routine medical matters. … A recent study by benefits-consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide found that 32% of all employers with more than 1,000 workers either have an on-site medical center or plan to build one by 2009. “We’re talking about a microcosm of health-care reform,” says Hal Rosenbluth, president of Walgreen’s health and wellness division. “Companies can take control and understand their health-care costs.””

In spite of a few bright spots, I honestly believe that the state of healthcare in the US is a mark of shame on the global stage.

What do you think?

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I wrote the following post way back when I started writing MAPping Company Success and I felt it was important enough to repost. It’s full of great ideas with which to start your week!

It never ceases to amaze me how often managers state strong views from positions of extreme ignorance—and consider their positions/comments invincible.

Minor details such as facts, documentation, surveys, articles, etc., in no way sway them from the stand they’ve taken. They seem to thing that any change they make in a public statement will be taken as a sign of weakness by those around them, especially subordinates.

How wrong they are.

Excellent managers don’t just listen, but also truly hear what is said; and they are totally comfortable using phrases such as:

• I don’t know.
• Tell me more.
• Educate me.
• Please explain.
• What do you think?
• Let’s discuss it.
• I was wrong.

None of us knows everything about any given topic, no matter how narrowly defined, nor creative enough to think of every possible shading, tangent, ramification or repercussion applicable to, or stemming from, it.

It’s an old saw that the way to managerial success is to hire people smarter than yourself, but once they are hired you need to create a culture where they will be heard.

Are your people heard?

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Time—the most precious commodity.

Time—that heals all wounds and wounds all heels.

Time—which I’ve never understood.

There must be a million quotes about time, but since my attitude towards it is rather irreverent here are four that really resonate with me.

Time makes heroes but dissolves celebrities. –Daniel J. Boorstin (If only time would hurry up and do it in my lifetime!)

An alarm clock is a device that makes you rise and whine. –Anon (Especially if you’re a night person.)

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save. –Will Rogers (Save your money and spend your time.)

If you haven’t got the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over? –Jeffrey J. Mayer (I wish someone would explain this to Microsoft.)

What’s your attitude towards time?

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See all mY generation posts here.

Chapter Three from IBM’s The Enterprise of the Future (a steady Saturday feature since July 12; be sure and download your free copy) is about being “globally integrated.” It may sound as if it’s strictly for giant multinationals, but it’s not.

“It was striking that CEOs of companies of all different sizes and geographic coverage were engaged and enthusiastic about these topics, which suggests optimization is crucial whatever the current geographic scale.”

Integration isn’t about selling products or outsourcing work or even doing lots of business in China and India—it’s about connecting, both internally and externally.

According to one US CEO, “We need to move away from an operational focus to a client interface focus.”

That translates to connecting and listening to your customers, even when you find it disruptive or just don’t like what they’re saying, because the one thing you can count on is that someone, some where, is listening and responding.

To spark global integration in your company focus on size-appropriate variations of these five questions

1. “Are you effectively integrating differentiating capabilities, knowledge and assets from around the world into networked centers of excellence?
2. Does your organization have a globally integrated business design (even if it does not have a global footprint)?
3. Do you have a detailed plan for global partnering and M&A?
4. Are you developing leaders that think and act globally?
5. Do you nurture and support social connections to improve integration and innovation?”

The answers to these are more than operational, they are attitudes that must be embedded in your corporate culture, but ‘corporate culture’ must expand in a global workplace.

As one Japanese CEO said, “The key for doing business abroad is not to seek homogeneity. Instead, we must be able to work effectively with people of different cultures and from different countries. We can learn this by working collaboratively with them.”

This is doubly important for micro biz to remember. Your market may be local, but your customer base is still multi-cultural—even in those rare areas where it isn’t multi-ethnic.

How is your organization addressing these questions?

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