Focus and Goofing Off

Recently, I was talking with Dick about keys to successful results.

We identified focus as an important element contributing to superior outcomes.

Today was one of those rare balmy January days in Washington, DC, hovering around 60 degrees, so Dick and I headed to a nearby course for a round golf.

While returning to our cars, we had to chuckle about the focus conversation in the context of a mid-week golf game.

However, we suddenly realized that this confirmed the focus principle – instead of goofing off 10 minutes here and there, we had concentrated it in a 4 hour block.

It seems right on so many levels. At times focus can become sharper when you focus on something else for a while. 

New View from the Big Chair

The World Is Changing

Future Shock in the ‘60s said we could only accommodate so much change before a melt-down; many believed Toffler but does it still apply? Change happens at a breakneck speed, however it takes time to recognize and adapt.

The Information Interview, a mainstay of job transitions, doesn’t work anymore.

Thought Exercise: Identify a ‘rule’ that was the foundation for thinking in the past – but no longer applies today. Got several - pick the best and share it with others to see what they think.

Changes and Influencers

“Want it done right – do it yourself.”
Want it to scale – must do through others; express the results wanted - not process they should use. Be amazed that there are ways to accomplish the goal that are different from what you would have done.

Next 3 years will find more of the following:

• Do it yourself (DIY).
• Fix yourself – reorient how you get and use information and vision.
• Scale – small or large are both available now; do you need an expert to help – if so, when?
  Fail Forward Frequently (F3) – experiment and learn, experiment again. We have tools to do this now. Try it yourself first (small,economical scale), learn what you can, then bring in the expert if you need one.

Here’s a description of what’s here now and what’s next : Chris Anderson: Makers; David Weinberger: Too Big to Know – two books about manufacturing and information acquisition changes that are radically affecting our world – today and into the future.

Traits of Learned Leaders:

• Relentlessly tell yourself the truth and require it of others.
• Surround yourself with people committed to change.
• Keep reading, keep learning, keep doing, and keep sharing.
  
  

If you are not learning, you are losing ground...regressing.

The economy is about 80-20 right now – 80% is below earlier levels and hard going, but 20% is on fire. Why? Not evenly distributed and winners are providing what’s needed and wanted.

How do you feel about leadership in the businesses today? Not ‘big organizations’ or ‘big government’ that you read or hear about – the ones you actually know and deal with frequently – on a scale of 1 (low) – 10 (high) – how are they doing leadership-wise? I raised the question with a group today and found a lot of 2's and only one at a 5. Plenty of room to improve.

How Do We Learn Today?

The quality of leadership has improved year by year – but like pouring water in a tank, it’s improving for others too – if you feel that leadership IS ESSENTIAL for quality of life, business, and the economy - We need the very best you have to offer!And as a leader inspiring that level of commitment in others. How? Learning about the changes, sharing your knowledge and experience, mashing it up to apply the mixture – and seeking what others – peers, and others in and out of your organization – have learned, experienced, and know. Learning is a collaborative (not competitive) sport.

Acquiring information has changed. Where do you get your information today? – newspapers, biz magazines, TV or on-line news, blogs, user comments? All of the above and more.

Learning by doing – a new emergence of do-it-yourself – permits us to roll up the sleeves and get our hands dirty making something – physical or virtual. We learn much from what doesn't work, and our next 'prototype' is much better.

Funny thing - there are no tools of a leader – but there are tools to help you be a leader – like sharing experiences, thoughts, and vision with peers. Ronald Reagan painted an image of the ‘shining city on the hill’ during the downtrodden time - and got him elected.

Historic or Functional Structure

If you are not doing something worthy, start doing something worthy. Don't know who said this, but it's brilliant.

For tasks – add technology not people. Meet ‘Boots’.

After 30 years of high water in the pond, we are now seeing the shopping carts & tires.

How to capitalize on a market – Jack Welch (be # 1 in that market) v. Clay Christensen (disruptive innovation – make it simple and cost less and take over that market).

Today, if you can make a change without redesign, you have waste – serious change must redesign.

Business is NOT about being a bench-warmer and getting a ‘show-up’ trophy at the end of the season. It’s about getting results, paying your bills, and having funds left over to reinvest or to repay for investment.

Success comes from doing real work – not from the posers…no matter how articulate…who are not producing.

Collaborate – share to build better with more efficiency less fixed costs.

Leadership Will Return The USA To Greatness

This is not what we read from those playing to our pessimism – their message: be prepared for no growth into the future. I see that as an active embodiment of defeatism. Observation shows that there are islands of growth and prosperity in businesses around the country today. Winners are filling wants and needs of the customer, user, and buyer.

What’s our role as leaders today and in the near future? Things are changing and a new order is about to revealed…soon. Limitations and barriers are being disassembled. Tools are available to do things we have not – could not do before...like additive manufacturing (3-D copying) and affordable small batch production jobbers.

Leadership is like a preference in art – you'll know it when you see it. It's elusive to capture by definition or articulated vision. But it is essential for our future success to create leaders and improve leadership. Let’s come up with what it takes to be a great leader before the end of this year. How – use the tools: learn about change, share experience, knowledge, vision - and practical application through others.

How Leaders Speak - Frank Reagan Quotes (from Blue Bloods TV show):

• Situations like these don’t build character, they reveal it.
• Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
• Everything has a cost, even the truth. But the reward for truth is a clear eye and a clear conscience.
  
  

Three Final Questions

1. What was the most important thing you learned here today?
2. What is the role your organization in advancing leadership from this day forward?
3. What are the last two words following the National Anthem? [Play Ball]
   
   

Add to the conversation – what are your thoughts?

Can You Fool Some of the People Some of the Time?

I spent 'a week' in an auto repair shop one day recently and watched an energetic guy wearing yellow rubber boots while waiting 3-hours for an 'about-an-hour' work on my car.

This guy was fascinating - 'Boots' was in perpetual motion – heading toward the parking lot, the front office, the mechanic bays and elsewhere. He showed a sense of purpose and moved with great determination. But he never made it to any destination before changing course – off to a different one - lickety split!

Fascinated by this constant activity, I flagged down Boots and asked what he was doing – “Keeping this place organized and working!” was his reply. Interesting; I never saw him touch a car or accomplish any task during the entire time.

When paying my bill, I asked the service rep about Boots and he told me that 'Boots' is of our most valuable employees – this guy is on the move from the time we open until we close.

Are we confusing activity and results?

Did Dr. Welby Need a Certificate?

Marcus Welby, MD had a diploma and a license, both unprominently displayed somewhere in his office. He was known by reputation in the community. Although Welby was a fictional TV character, he portrayed the community doctor.

The community was close and people talked regularly – reputations were shared, recommendations offered.

Today you still need a license and it is popular, but usually not required, to have a certificate if offering a service. This documents that you have the minimum requirements and have passed a test – both originating from the professional society, training organization, college, or university providing the program. These organizations are strong proponents of certification programs – which represents a 'product' in their offerings. The certificate-holders may frame and display their certificate, but will certainly add the designation behind their name in professional documents to convey certificated status. This process evolved as the communities disbursed and local conversations all but disappeared.

Thirty years ago in the human resources field, a certificate program was launched with time-in-role minimums and qualifying tests – all provided by the HR professional society. I carefully reviewed the value of these certificates and determined that they offered no unique advantage to serving in the HR role, did not mean anything to the employees served, and were not valued by the employer. My performance (and reputation) was determined by results achieved for both the 'customer' and 'boss'. Now 30 years later, with many certificate-designated HR roles, performance and reputation continue to be based on results, certificate or not.

As I see it – when the buyers are segregated from the beneficiaries, certificate do matter – to the buyer; however, the beneficiaries continue to evaluate on results achieved.

Given the choice, would you rather receive services from a certificated person or one with a positive reputation among their peers? Why?

A Breakthrough Approach

A common topic at business meetings is smartphones and cellular service, often with a new owner attempting to show the features of the latest phone.

Whether the phone is Android, iPhone, Windows, or Blackberry, the on-board features and upgrades - along with the extensive collection of apps - make this hand-held device the user's portal to the internet, email, text messaging, navigation, or finding deals and restaurants.

The carriers sell time on the cellular network and provide help for some of the basic phone features – such as setting up voicemail - but are not much help with complex questions or undocumented features. Republic Wireless is has created a powerful structure by setting up a community to discuss and solve the complex questions raised by users.

A beginning trend for smartphones is to use wifi when available for voice, data, & text, and use cellular at other times. The cellular signal has a much smaller bit rate and around home and work, the user spends 80% of the time on the faster wifi.

Republic Wireless is capitalizing on wifi/cellular service – they encourage and support a community for excellent user support (better then carrier 'customer service' reps), no lock-in contracts, and unlimited voice, data, and text for a flat rate of $19.95 per month.

Once you buy your phone (with the switching software installed), at activation you are invited to join the user community and contribute to forums on discoveries, problem & resolutions, and suggestions for new features, all raised and answered by users.

Republic is using game theory to encourage participation in the forums by users, awarding points for solutions to problems and discovery of undocumented features. Republic staff participate in the forums as well to validate user solutions, cheer on the discovery of undocumented applications of phone features.

The knowledgebase is an extensive and growing collection of tips, techniques, and answers asked by users and answered by users and staff. The response to user questions is very quick – often within hours.

With this intimate and continuing conversation with other users, the customer gets a flood of referral prospects. The company receives intensive feedback about service and hardware, as well as thoughtful suggestions for improvements. The company communicates with their customers through the forums and users can communicate with each other and develop a road map for future versions of the service, operating system and new business areas.

This innovative collaboration of Republic staff, users, and others creates a rich, functional environment and gives all stakeholders role in a highly responsive process for solving immediate problems and developing future improvements. Their active community setting is not only more effective than other approaches, the savings are evident in the cost of service.

Imagine inviting the users to participate in the discussion, solutions, and development of a communication system – a true breakthrough!

Know of another innovative breakthrough? Please share.

Modern Legacy

This is the most blatant example I've seen about how a traditional business can adapt the internet revolution to increase value.

I sat down with a high school buddy, who for the last 40 years has run a specialty instrument company. These instruments, which are globally famous, are used by labs, hospitals, and research facilities - they are the clear leader of biological/electronic devices world-wide.

In the past we rarely met in person due to her extensive travel schedule around the USA and Europe for business development and distributor recruiting and training.

When asking about the business, I was surprised by the changes since we last met – her travel is now almost nil while sales are steady.

Her explanation:

• Each instrument is showcased by a 5-minute video showing the features from the users viewpoint, how to do typical operations/tests, and a sample of output/report options.
• The videos are incorporated into their website and available on demand at any time
• There is an 'anytime' link to take the viewer directly to the pricing/purchase screen
• She has become the entire sales force, supported by their website and videos
• A global network of warehouses to provide immediate local delivery has been consolidated to single central national warehouse near an airline hub for overnight shipping.

She now spends time with customers by phone and video conference and uses their input to guide development of new features and products. As a result, her improvement cycle captures and responds to changes suggested by her users, who she admits, know more about the products than the maker.

Effective use of the internet, immediate shipping, collaboration with users, and a rapid development cycle has dramatically transformed this manufacturing business. 

A poster child of the trend for the future?

The Artist

As a young boy I lived with my family in Cuba, where my father was stationed. We lived in a village near the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, and I played with the neighborhood kids or fished off the back deck of the house (when I wasn't in school).

I have a vivid memory of a street vendor, wheeling a rickety cart down the dirt streets each day selling oranges. To a young child's eyes, these oranges were huge (so sweet you had to smile while eating them), and the vendor would peel it for a buyer. He was full of fun, jokes, and laughter as he made his way down the dusty street, clearly enjoying life, his customers, and followers (us kids).

What I remember most was him peeling the orange – he had an old kitchen knife, sharpened so much that the cutting edge of the blade was curved like a replica of Guantanamo Bay – but sharp as all get-out!

He started at the top of the orange and create a single 'rope' of peel precisely a quarter of an inch by a quarter of an inch – it would cascade down in curlycues from the orange at almost blinding speed. Perfect every time. One long peel every time. A peel-rope with ¼ x ¼ dimensions every time.

We kids would follow him for a while, begging for the peel and playing with it until we only had a handful of pieces left...and then we'd beg for another one from the orange vendor.

As an adult, I look back to that experience fondly, realizing that I was seeing an artist at work. He chose to spend his time enjoying those around him and chose to create and meet the challenge of peeling the orange in a distinctive and incredibly difficult way – drawing satisfaction from his creation. I realize now that I was in the presence of a true master – an artist creating a unique experience for the buyer (or the kids following him around).

Illustrations of the orange vendor at work today – the 'bagger' at the Costco checkout who engineers a precisely packed cart.

I think about the expressed desire by many in business and public service to have the higher-ups create a challenging and rewarding role for them – and wonder if the manuals, regulations, and procedures we've put in place have extinguished the 'artist' in each of us?