Carrying on from my last GLOG about innovation, it’s important to note that innovations (introducing something new) doesn’t have to be just a thing; it can also be a process or methodology or; a new way of thinking.

Just so you can see what I mean, let’s look at some innovations in sports…

The Mile

The 4 minute mile was fast becoming one of those mythical feats that would never be achieved. The previous world record prior to the sub 4 minute mile stood for 9 years! Then along comes a guy called Roger. He took the running of the mile and tore it apart. He approached how he trained for the mile differently and sure enough the following data shows what happened:

4:02.6  Arne Andersson          Sweden 1943 Goteborg, Sweden
4:01.6  Arne Andersson          Sweden 1944 Malmo, Sweden
4:01.4  Gunder H�gg              Sweden 1945 Malmo, Sweden
3:59.4  Roger Bannister           England 1954 Oxford, England
3:58.0  John Landy                  Australia 1954 Turku, Finland
3:57.2  Derek Ibbotson           England 1957 London
3:54.5  Herb Elliott                  Australia 1958 Dublin

Rogers methodology of preparing to run the mile and the subsequent breaking of the 4 minute mile changed the game.

The High Jump

We all know it now, the famous Fosbury Flop. If you look at the high jump records, you can see the progression and introduction of new styles of jumping and the “leap” (sorry, couldn’t resist that one!) in the records. You will see the greatest progression in records from 1968 onwards when Fosbury introduced a whole new style of jumping, whereby he torqued his body and went backwards over the bar.

The Fosbury Flop methodology changed the game.

The Sand Wedge

It was Sarazen who invented the golf club known as the sand wedge. This specialized club allows golfers to more easily hit out of sand traps (bunkers). The introduction of the sand wedge to the game lowered scores and eventually led to the redesign of many golf courses in order to keep them at their previous level of difficulty. With the concave-faced wedge having been outlawed in 1931, Sarazen designed his sand wedge with a straight face. Another modification that he made was to add extra lead to the front edge of the club face, allowing it to cut through the sand more smoothly. After he won the 1932 British and U.S. Opens with the help of his new club, its popularity quickly grew.

Gene Sarazens new “technology” or product, the Sand Wedge, changed the game.

The Golf Ball

Still on golf. Few changes in any sport compare with the changes in the game of golf brought about by the rubber ball. It was invented in 1898 by a Cleveland, Ohio, golfer, Coburn Haskell, in association with Bertram Work of the B. F. Goodrich Company. The development of the golf club, the golf course, and the rules of the game all were affected by this evolution

Introduction of this new “technology” or product, the rubber ball, changed the game.

The Marathon

The 61 Year old potato farmer, Cliff Young, in Australia breaks the Sydney to Melbourne Marathon race record by 2 days! Cliff wasn’t even a marathon runner!

In 1983, the 61-year-old potato farmer won the first Sydney to Melbourne Marathon. The race was run between what were then Australia’s two largest shopping centres: Westfield Parramatta, in Sydney, and Westfield Doncaster, in Melbourne. Cliff arrived at the start line with overalls and gumboots. He ran at a slow loping pace and trailed the leaders for most of the course, but by denying himself sleep and running while the others slept he slowly gained on them and eventually won by a large margin.

Before running the race he told the press that he had previously run for two to three days straight rounding up sheep. He claimed afterwards that during the race he imagined that he was running after sheep and trying to outrun a storm.

The Westfield run took him five days, 15 hours and a few minutes, trimming almost two days off the record for any previous run between Sydney and Melbourne. All of the six competitors who finished the race broke the previous record, but Young beat them by two days due to running while they were sleeping

The “Young shuffle” has been adopted by ultra-marathon runners because it expends less energy. At least three winners of the Sydney to Melbourne race have been known to use the “Young shuffle” to win the race.

Cliff Young’s untrained marathon style called the “Young Shuffle” and his methodology of running changed the game.

So I ask you, are you sporting miracles in your business? What new product, technology or methodology are you introducing to your business or industry that is going to change the game?

TGD

(PS. Thanks to Wikipedia for many of the great references!)

I was asked by one of my avid GLOG-ees if I could express my view on Innovation vs. Stagnation.

Seems his company has forgone innovation and is stalling into stagnation. Of course this big stall is being masked as “restructuring” to improve efficiencies. When the realities of it are apparently clear that it is a vain attempt to drive shareholder value by reducing costs because of impending expiration of patents, which will lead to increased competition in key market segments, which will cause revenue shrinkage’s.

The funny thing is, that stagnation sometimes goes un-noticed by the company. It’s kinda like the frog in the boiling water theory again (see the middle of http://www.thegurudev.com/?p=98). What seems like growth from the company’s perspective is actually not real growth when compared to the rate of growth of their industry. In this case they are actualling still falling behind. 

Here are a few key reasons why companies stagnate:

No clear vision, poor focus, no strategy and no strategic business plan

The lack of clear vision is the major reason behind the failings of most business. You end up with a hodge-podge of actions. I remember a great old leadership saying:

“Vision without action is merely a dream, and action without vision is just passing the time”

No clear focus causes a company to lose site of why the company exists in the first place. ”What we do best? Why do we exist.” You will have several visions made up and none will be symbiotic too each other. This will happen because people seeking something that doesn’t exist will inevitably make up their own. Now you have 10 horses pulling the carriage and all of them are running in different directions and the whole thing can be torn apart at any moment! The company loses momentum and effectiveness of it’s resources. The company becomes totally reactive and stop gap measures and temporary fixes (seen as innovations!) become the norm and productive work comes second to fixing problems.

Ineffective and weak management teams and practices

This one is more directed at small to medium businesses, family businesses or entrepreneurial types that started out great at what they did, but really had no management experience. They are thrust into this role by the growth of the company. People rarely hire to their weaknesses so they hire more of what they already have. In larger organisations you might find empire builders or silo-ists that don’t care about the bigger picture and it often suffers at the expense of the individuals glory. Worse than this is the mentoring that goes on, which is kind of like the blind leading the blind with old autocratic “my way or the highway” being passed down from generation to generation. No clear management principles are established and lead consistently throughout the company.

Lack of information and no control systems

You already have no vision and poor management. Let’s dump a lack of information (employee systems, industry trends, customer needs, competitive threats etc) and no controls in place. Whoa! What a potential for disaster you are sitting on! All of a sudden your company is built on default and circumstance, not design. Events and happenstance run your business, not you. Managers act like military soldiers without any intel. They are left to work with only what is obvious in front of them and not much time or room for planning. This of course causes serious detriment to the company. Loss of control through systems can see spending go through the roof, inventory goes nuts, accounts receivable and payable are working against driving positive cash flow (the life blood of business). You are flying a plane with no instruments! You can’t even get help from the control tower because you don’t even know where you are! Your poor utilisation of resources creates a greater need for capital than a company of your size should have.

They are or become under capitalized

Speaking of capital requirements…the biggest reason for under capitalization is the inability to manage the growth of the company. Getting too big too fast can cause significant damage to the critical success factors of the business and then add in the lack of the other three failings above and dare I say it…eeek! Yuck! Poor utilisation of resources (as above) can lead to requiring more funds than should have been necessary or worse yet, the mispending of capital on poor productivity and not on it’s original purpose of funding growth, expansion or research and development. I am sure if you asked people whats the first reason for failure or stagnation of a company, most would tell you it is being under capitalized. 

When your company stagnates or begins to stall, it’s time to call The Guru Dev or some help from a reliable and proven coach or consultant. If you don’t put a call in for help, the banks that finance you will put a call in your loans! Spending money on help is well spent when tied to a measurable ROI and will usually create a more positive outlook, improved relationships with your financiers, your customers and your suppliers. Most importantly it will help you to re-engage your work force, your employee’s!

Many Hands Make Lights Work - Innovation

So, stagnation doesn’t sound like a great choice, which is why most don’t choose it! Let’s flip the coin and look at innovation now. Let’s make sure we agree on some simple terms first. Innovation by most dictionary definitions means “Introducing something different or new”. With that definition in mind, the comment I want to make is innovation for innovations sake is sometimes just like shuffling the chairs on the Titanic, not really a good use of time. Anyone can be “innovative” and “add something new”, but to what end? Where’s the value?

Innovation that is meaningful is what is referred to as “Value Innovation”, which I found best described by a Hungarian Venture Capitalist firm as:

“A clear, visual and highly effective methodology that pushes for a leap in buyer value; while targeting a sharp drop in industry cost structure by; rearranging the accepted factors of competition”

It’s highly effective methodology and focus leads to:

• Achieving high-impact, customer-based innovation
• Significant increase in speed to market, from idea formation to market introduction
• Significant decrease in development costs
• Creating a Value Innovation-based mindset within the organization

Even in an uncertain economy, Value Innovation directs management’s attention to key issues of how to:

• Offer superior customer value to retain and expand business
• Efficiently lower costs with a long-term view
• Affirm continued commitment to staff 

This is the cool thing about value innovation, it creates focus. It’s driven by leadership and it directs management! Now two of the stagnation reasons are addressed with “value innovation”. Furthermore, if you target a sharp drop in industry cost structure and you decrease development costs with a long term view (not just short term cuts) you can significantly deal with the “under capitalized” problem of stagnation. The last thing you need is information and reporting from your control systems and you are on your way. You need good information to challenge. Challenging the “norms” of your business on the garbage in garbage out theory isn’t so wise.

Value innovate your business or stagnate your business, just don’t confuse marginal growth due to “new things introduced” as value innovation. Your people will see it and leave. Or worse case give up and stay! After all, they are getting paid to exist without much accountability that way. I say pursue value innovation or die. Without it, corporate death might just take some time and be barely noticable until it is too late.

In conclusion…

It’’s funny, more energy on this GLOG was spent on stagnation than innovation. That’s probably because it takes more to explain to someone about the bad things then it does about the exciting and new things. It’s kind of ironic though, because innovation takes less work than stagnation (unorganised busy work and re-work) and innovation produces better long-term results…obviously.

I guess it’s like a smile. To smile it only takes 4 muscles, but produces great results, when you smile, someone always smiles back. Conversely it takes 64 muscles to frown. Yet no-one really cares when we are frowning and usually we are ignored.

So to my dear GLOGee, I hope this gave you what you were looking for. Put a smile on yer dial and start looking for another company as I leave you with one more thought…

“Is it easier to build a WalMart than to change a Sears?” 

TGD

In today’s ever growing “Employee Market” where we are soon to have more jobs than bodies to fill them (and that doesn’t take skills into account, just a pulse!), I thought it appropriate to remind you leaders out there of how to be the “Employer of Choice”. 

Here’s a quick reminder to all you leaders about how to attract and retain totally awesome talent. I mean can you imagine it? If you had “totally awesome talent”, the rockstars of various skill sets and attitudes, what would your company be achieving now that it isn’t?

What new markets could you dominate?

What new creative solutions for your clients could you discover?

What rules of the game could you change to put yourself strides ahead of the competition? Yes I said strides ahead! Why not?

Here’s the simple formula. People are looking for three core intangibles when choosing to join or stay with your company:

1. SomeTHING to believe in.

Do you have an inspiring story? Does your company have a distinct calling or cause, a radically cool quest? Does it allow them to make a contribution to bettering this world in some way? People want their lives to have meaning, so why wouldn’t they want to be involved in something meaningful for their careers? How are you making your business story meaningful? I’ll give you one example I used with a client of mine:

They are a Tier 1 supplier to a major automotive manufacturer. They make suspension and front end components etc (the kind of important stuff we don’t see when buying a car!). I was talking to some of the workers on the line and I asked them what they were doing? In great detail and with a mundane voice, they informed me of the process they managed of repetitively stamping parts, or welding, sounding almost as robotic as the equipment they used. I asked them if they knew the end result of their work? Most gave me the corporate answer of the vehicle it was put on? I asked them if they realised how much I appreciate their work, as a driver of the vehicle that they helped build? They looked at me as if I was crazy! I told them that if they weren’t so attentive to their work and proud of the quality, I couldn’t safely hop in my car without the thought of something breaking, falling off or whatever might be caused because of poor workmanship. I assured them that they weren’t stamping parts, they were making my vehicle safe so I could drive my family anywhere without having fear or concern as to the safety of my car. What a total shift in thinking and demeanour of this person. They realised how they impacted my life…and they thought they were just stamping parts.

2. SomeONE to believe in

It’s great to have a powerful story, a radically cool quest to inspire people, but are you the guy, are you the gal that the people can believe in to drive this story to reality? Or do you have the right guy or gal leading the team, the people? Do you think the owners of the New York Jets considered this when they fought to attract the talents of Brett Favre in a trade from Green Bay this week? Do you lead by example? Are you the person that clearly articulates forcefully and clearly on every occasion the vision, mission and values of the business? Are you the consistent, decisive, fair and response-able leader? Do you stand by your word? Do your words and actions mesh? Ugh, so many things you need to be! 

3. SomeONE to believe in me

Just when you thought your bit was done…

There’s an old saying I learnt growing up in leadership:

“People want to know that you care, before they care about what you know”

If you want to attract and retain the best, the totally awesome talent your company deserves then they need to know you believe in them. Does everyone have an individual development plan in place? Do you have regular “one on ones” with each employee? Does the company invest in the employee’s future development? Is it possible for the employee to achieve their personal goals while making your company better? Oh, I hear it already, some of you are thinking:

“What? I am not paying people to achieve thier own personal stuff on work time! Are you nuts Guru?”

When you learn to show your people how they can achieve greater success in their personal lives by achieving organisational goals, you will never need incentive or fear motivation…they will achieve the company goals and beyond, once they know what it will do for them personally.

• Provide something to belive in and people will perspire to achieve it.
• Provide someone for them to believe in and they will be inspired to achieve it.
• Provide someone to believe in them and they will aspire to achieve it.

When you have all three working for you, you will attract and retain the totally awesome talent that others can only dream about.

TGD

It’s  a sensitive subject for many when I challenge the notion of Positive Attitudes, especially coming from someone who made a career out of coaching people to success.

Positive Attitudes or Positive Thinking can be described as putting on your “rose coloured glasses”.

This type of thinking or attitude can sometimes be better described as a thin layer of crust covering over a hot ball of burning hot liquid magma. Burying or covering the truth with a foofy or fluffy outlook that things “will get better” is like setting yourself or someone up for failure. Why?

Simply put, this Positive type of thinking merely masks or covers over the problem with the thought that whatever is going on will get better or go away with time (time heals all wounds), suggesting that little or no action is required to change the circumstance or situation.

Looking at life with rose coloured glasses on is not enough to change your life, but merely a way to go through it in a self-induced chloroformed trance of mediocrity and wake up thinking…”Just give it time, it’ll be alright”

Harsh words for a supposedly positive approach. Simply summed up a Positive Attitude says:

“Crap happens, there’s nothing you can do about it, find a way to be happy”

Enter “Productive Attitudes”, the superhero of circumstance and situational change!

If you want things to change, then sure, you need to change the way you look at things. The big difference between POSITIVE and PRODUCTIVE attitudes or thinking is in the doing. So to see change is one thing, to make change is another. Take decisive action towards the change and see it through. There in lies the difference.

Productive Attitudes bring about change with ACTION, not just hopeful or wishful thinking.

Simply summed up, a “Productive Attitude” says:

“You can not always control what happens to you, but you can always control how you interpret it and how you respond to it. Do something about it and be happy.”

After all…happiness is a choice. Good day or bad day it’s your choice.

Productively,

TGD

A funny thing happened over the weekend. There I was enjoying the beautiful weekend weather (finally it stopped raining for a moment) and from my backyard I could hear the sounds of car horns going crazy. So like any inquisitive person I rushed out to see what all the comotion was. Sure enough there was a family of geese trying to cross the road from the park out behind our house to the construction site across the road where a large puddle of water had formed from all the lovely rain we have been having.

The first thing I noticed is how no-one got out of the cars to help the geese get off the road. The next thing I noticed is what seemed like confusion amonsgt the Geese. I couldn’t tell if they were on their way back to the park or on their way to the water. Either way I ran out onto the street and started clapping my hands and scurrying them off the road to the park side.

As I was clapping and yelling at the Geese (as if they could understand my words!) to get off the road, a lady leaned out her window and said “They are actually called a gaggle of Geese, not a flock!”. I knew this fact so I guess she must have thought I was saying “Get the Flock off the road!” and not something else! LOL!

Anyway, back to the point of this story. As I scurried most of the flock (oops!), I mean gaggle, off the road two were still stuck on the puddle side. One of the the big geese on the park side was having some serious words for me as it kept trying to get back across the road to the puddle side and the two stranded geese. So I raced back across the road and chased the odd two stragglers back to join the gaggle. That large angry Goose revealed to me of an old series of lessons from Geese I learnt a long time ago. What follows are those lessons or you can click on this GAGGLE for a PDF version:

Lessons From Geese

This is an excerpt from one of my favourite books, Flight of the Buffalo: Soaring to Excellence, Learning to Let Employees Lead, James Belasco & Ralph Stayer, Warner Books, 1993. We share it here with you hoping that we can all learn these lessons.

FACT 1:

As each goose flaps its wings it creates an “uplift” for the birds that follow. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

LESSON:

People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

FACT 2:

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.

LESSON:

If we have as much sense as a goose we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

FACT 3:

When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into formation and another goose flies to the point position.

LESSON:

It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each other’s skills, capabilities and unique arrangements of gifts, talents or resources.

FACT 4:

The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

LESSON:

We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one’s heart or core values and encourage the heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek.

FACT 5:

When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock.

LESSON:

If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

So next time you are wondering what the flock to do to get your team motivated and working together, remember these lessons. I saw you smile! Come on now, it’s ok to have a little gaggle at something funny!

Ok, ok, I’ll stop. Geese, I was only joking!

TGD

Why is that when the car was designed that they made the rear view mirrors smaller than the front windshield?

It must have been for the purpose that seeing where you are going is more important than where you have been. Now that’s not to say seeing what’s coming up behind you or what you just passed isn’t important, but not as important as where you are going!

Have you driven through the run of challenges life can sometimes throw your way to test what you are made of?

I have. In dealing with some current life challenges I am driving through, I was reminded of this very lesson. In recounting these challenges that I had to deal with over the past few weeks I was asked by a friend why I wasn’t seemingly more worried than I appeared. I reminded them in life that focusing on what has already happened to me won’t take me forward in life. It sure is important to look back and learn what transpired but I am a firm believer in…

“There’s no point looking backwards unless you are going that way!” another Clarism

So I remind all of you, use your lifes “rear view mirrors” so you can be mindful of what could “nip you in the butt”. You can also use them to see what you just passed (what did happen). If you notice you “passed” it, then look forward and stay focused on where you are going only to glance occasionally to see you are getting further away and making progress in your life.

One last lesson, once again the mirror brings much wisdom…

“Objects in the mirror may appear closer than they are”

So what seems like a looming threat may not be as close as you think it is, so eyes forward, focus on where you are going…and floor it! Within the appropriate speed limits of course!

TGD 

Sirius Radio and XM Radio merger gets approved…read all about it! I am sure Howard will have a Stern view on this!

Well it’s all over the news, that’s one Sirius merger! I guess it XM-plifies the challenges of satellite radio’s bid to attract traditional radio listeners. Ok, ok, enough of the puns! I get it…

I am not sure what all the hoopla is all about…a monopoly being created in the satellite radio arena? Are there any other players? If you want satellite radio, you’ve got one choice XM Sirius or Sirius XM whatever they are gonna call themselves! It’s like going to watch the Washington Redskins play Dallas Cowboys yet they both line up on the same side of the field…with no opponent! Wow, I can’t wait to listen to that game being called on my satellite radio! Imagine if USA and the Soviet Union merged to take on the rest of the world in the great Sapce Race! Hmmm? What a monopoly!

I understand that these satellite radio companies are still in the over all “Radio” industry. There is a competition amongst the traditional atmosheric radio providers versus space signal radio providers (Satellites are in space after all!). If you asked me, with all the advances in music devices (mp3’s, ipods, cell phones etc) that the whole music radio industry is a shrinking pie. I think satellite radio is finding it’s niche in automobiles as their first point of entry. The vehicle is the place most people listen to the radio but even that is being invaded by the device market. Rarely do people listen to the radio at home anymore. GM has taken the lead here by having it as an option in their fleet of cars and trucks.

So nonetheless, as far as the monopoly goes, I don’t see it and if it makes good business sense to team up to tackle the overall radio signal wars for a shrinking market, I say have at it! I truly believe the only monopoly worth discussion is the one that has been around for 50 years! Monopoly the board game!

Consider these potential mergers, what would you get if…

Coles books stores and Loblaws merged? Coleslaws

Donald Trump merged with McDonalds? Donald McDonalds

Mac’s Convenience Stores merged with The Knife Store? Mac’s The Knife

Fed Ex merged with UPS? Fed Ups (ok, it’s an oldie but a goldie)

Polytechnics Institute, Warner Brothers and Cracker Jacks merged? Poly Warner Cracker

YouTube merged with Yahoo? YouHoo

 Target merged with any medical clinic? Target Practice

The World Health Organization (WHO) merged with York University and Go Daddy? Who’s York Daddy

The American Fan Company, merged with TomTom GPS, Off The Wall Clothing and Oprah? Fan Tom Off The Oprah

The Catholic Church merged with YouTube? BlessYou

Ok, enoughs a enough! I got more but hopefully you had a laugh! If you can think of any great mergers, please feel free to share.

TGD

Today I am honoured to share with you insights from the man who taught me much of what I know. One of my most adored readers and inspired life mentors has sent a comment to me that I felt well worthy of getting it’s own post.

So here it is folks, unabashed, unedited and definitely unsolicited and direct from the man who brought you The Guru Dev, my father, The Guru Nev…

I enjoy reading your words of wisdom under Gurudev and make the following comment, maybe more appropriate to your most recent ‘What’s on your RAP sheet’.

Maybe the most important word for discussion should be “Service” This is something that seems to be sadly lacking or at least diminishing in large corporations, retailers and fast food service outlets more so than small business where the only way they can survive and stay in with the big boys is to provide a better or more personalised service.

This is not just in one country but appears to be a problem in many countries of the western world. I have recently witnessed this in large department stores, fast food outlets, cruise ship organisations and airlines, to name a few where one has to wonder whether they really care for your business. I have become increasingly annoyed at the lack of attention, lack of concern, lack of interest and overall service when dealing with sales staff.  I often wonder or would like to ask, ‘Do you enjoy your job’?

I don’t blame the staff, I blame the companies who obviously don’t train or motivate their staff in the areas of Public Relations, Customer Service or whatever todays buzz word is for these areas. 

With so much competition yet opportunities in todays society, I have to wonder if somewhere, somehow our leaders are missing the obvious, it’s called good old ‘common sense’. Never mind tricks like impulse buying, colourful presentations or displays, I personally enjoy a sale person’s smile and feeling that they really enjoy their job and want to please, that will bring me back to their place of business. 

In stark comparison I see a totally different attitude in Volunteers, maybe that’s the answer, we shouldn’t pay the staff!!!!

The Guru Nev

I challenge you all to share with us your stories of service, the good, the bad, the ugly! What is your company’s attitude towards “service”? How does it ensure it happens? How do you lead it, embrace it and immerse it into your culture? Or is it something that has slipped by the wayside?

Please send your thoughts, I know I would love to hear them and share them with all the readers where possible. Let’s make a world wide push to improve service! Afterall we are all someone’s customer at some time…

TGD

“Business is moving faster than ever, change is happening faster than ever!”

Due to this, I ask business leaders on several occasions how often they meet with their team of direct reports. Most do meet formally once a week and informally there are discussions throughout each day of the week.

I often wonder why some businesses don’t have a morning huddle every day? No, not a group hug or a big “Yay team!” and the joining of hands “hoorah!” type of huddle. I am talking about a succinct quick “How’d we do yesterday? What’s the play for today and how does it tie into the weeks’ plans?” kinda five minute anywhere together meeting. I know some businesse do have these sort of meetings, for the “Workers”, but there rarely is a Leadershp Daily Huddle.

Leaders! These are the people that plan strategy and drive results through and with the people (the Workers) of the organisation. I guess we just expect that since they are leaders that they know best and don’t need to talk to each other like this daily. That could be true, however, I did read in some research about eBay that they have Strategic Planning meetings 3 times per week! We aren’t talking Leadership Huddles, these are big strategy meetings! Why? Perhaps the answer is:

“Business is moving faster than ever, change is happening faster than ever!”

You may not be eBay, but I am sure that regardless the size of your business that you can not afford to fall behind the curve of growth for your market or industry type. Are your leaders taking time daily to work ON the business, or are they distracted by the daily events and tactics and spend most of their time working IN the business (see ON or IN? for more clarification).

If you do fall behind the curve, you will also fall into the “Boiling Frog Syndrome”, whereby you are slowly turning the heat up at such a nominal rate that you don’t even realise it’s boiling until you are dead. In the following explanation, ust substitute the word Climate for Business:

Boiling Frog Syndrome: warning against inaction in response to climate change (”This is not an experiment I wish to commend, but it has lessons for another animal-ourselves. If drastic change takes place abruptly, we notice and react to it. If it takes place gradually, over a few generations, we are hardly aware of it, and by the time that we are ready to react, it can be too late.)

You might as well put a sign in your window saying:

“We are having a GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE, without even realising that we are GOING OUT OF BUSINESS!”

Just keeping pace is the price for just staying in the game! What some people think is adequate business growth is actually just keeping up with the curve. If you want your business to truely excell, be ahead of the curve, be a leader in your market segment, how can you do that with a weekly formal meeting? You gotta be able to turn on a dime and create a continual series of mini competitve edges/advantages. If all your leaders aren’t on the same page daily, how can you keep sharp, turn quick, be flexible, agile and all the other cool buzz words for business attitudes today? Here’s what I suggest:

“Keep it simple, create a framework, a formula for keeping in touch and a consistent way to share where we are going, what we did to get there and what we plan to do to move forward the next day.”

I use a RAP Sheet with my clients. It can be used daily, weekly, monthly and for what ever person or role within the company. Check it out by clicking this link: The RAP Sheet. Amend it to suit yourself, or better yet, contact the Guru to tailor make one for your company!

A RAP Sheet is the list of all the things you’ve done, supposed to have done and what was the result of those things. It is of course a slang term in criminal law. Other definitions are, to have a RAP Session as is to chat; or to RAP as in Hip Hop, to speak in rythym and poetry. Also to RAP is to constantly tap on the surface of something. All these definitions could be applied metaphorically to some value, but here is the RAP I refer to and it stands for:

RESULTS: What did I and should I have accomplished?

ACTIONS: How did I get the results?

PLANS: What am I going to do to keep getting the required results and better or make up for any shortfalls?

 So get your team together, be clear on the goals, review them daily with each other. Leverage the resources available to the best interest of the company, not the individual. Listen and talk to each other daily!

That’s a RAP!

TGD

Honestly, I love a good commercial and some of the outstanding creativity to market and promote a product, I am an idea guy at heart. Seriously though, some commercials just drive me nuts. It’s not the advertising/marketing companies faults. The TV stations aren’t to blame either. It’s just business…I guess.

I understand everyone has a right to market their products and make money even if I don’t agree withe the product itself. What drives me nuts is the way the product is positioned and the message it sends out to people (more importantly what about the kids who see this?).

I have seen it numerous times, but check out this link to a commercial for Zantac, which is like a heartburn or upset stomach relief tablet. Zantac Commercial

It’s a very smart and funny commercial in the grand scheme of life, but seriously now…

We live in North America where the statistics for obesity and heart disease runs amuck and it continues to get worse.

“…obesity is going to overwhelm every medical system in the world.”

Dr. Philip James (Int. Obes. Task Force)•

“As big a threat as global warming…”

Paul Zimmet (Int. Congress on Obes.)

Now here we have a company promoting it’s product in a manner where it says…

“Go ahead eat all the crap food and as much of it as you want because if you feel any discomfort during the process of gorging yourself silly, we have a pill that will take away the pain…go ahead be a glutton! It’s ok to fall in love with junk food again”

No mention of the long-term damage of living on a diet like the commercial promotes…afterall you are what you eat, not what you take to make up for what you eat.

I know some of you might think this is a little too much of a rant on this, but I was just in the mood to share my disgust. For those of you who run a business, this isn’t a rant, it’s a reality because this company is telling your employees this and guess who pays for it…yup. YOU! Check out these cost statistics if you will, since your the one footing the bill for it through your group benefits costs. Then maybe you might share my disgust in this type of advertising:

“Medical costs increase 4% ($119.7 US) per BMI (Body Mass Index) unit increase. Pharmaceutical costs increase 7% (82.6 US) per BMI unit increase. 

SOURCE: Eddington, D. JOEM 2006

If you want a solution, check out my firends at www.healthscore.ca. Their team of company doctors can show you how LIFESTYLE change can not only save your company money (increased performance, productivity and profitability), but also your life and the lives of your people too. While you still got YouTube open, check out his link if you want to find out how to “Reduce Your Costs” and save some lives.

In health

TGD

BONUS GLOG - Suppliment to “Open and Closed for Business”

As I mentioned in my last GLOG, I am enjoying the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” audio-book by Richard Kiyosaki. I want to ask you a question:

What do the rich and the poor have in common?

The answer is:

A self-fulfilling prophecy!

It is always said that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It isn’t a nature thing as much as it is a nurture thing. Let me explain. If you grow up in a low income part of town with parents who struggle and blame society for their lot in life, there is a chance you too will grow up thinking the same way, until someone or something proves to you otherwise. Continually being told that it takes money to make money. So when you have no money, it will make you ponder how you ever could get money (legally).

Or you might have heard “money doesn’t grow on trees ya know!”, when in fact it does. Since most currency bills are made of paper and paper comes from trees, one could argue “money does grow from trees!”

If you are born into middle-class or afluence, then your view on money might be different.

The movie “The Secret”  (say that with echoes of the word secret, secret, secret running through your head) talked about the Law of Attraction. Which in simple terms means you magnetize the conditions you seek. If you talk about lack of money and think about the lack of money, guess what? You will probably have a lack of money! If you think in abundance terms, you will magnetize abundance. You can replace the noun MONEY for any other thing you wish for. Lack of SALES, lack of GOOD EMPLOYEES, lack of REFERRALS, lack of LOVE and so on.

It’s abundantly obvious…

TGD

NB: There is a big difference between being poor and being broke. Poor is a mindset and broke is a financial position.

I believe we all have a time and a place when books come into our lives. There are those special books, they might have been around forever, but something clicks and at that moment you pick it up and think…

“hmmm, everyone keeps telling me how great this book is and how I should read it”

The timing is right, your place in life is right or you are ready for that lesson now. This same such experience happened to me. Last night I was going through some music and found a copy of a classic book I had on audio . Knowing I was making a long journey the next morning I decided to uploaded it to my Garmin GPS device. This morning I started up the beast and off I went

So there I was, driving up the long highway and I started listening to Rich Dad/Poor Dad , by Robert Kiyosaki on my audio-book this morning. I have never read the book, let alone listened to it, yet very aware of it. Now I only have gotten as far as 45 minutes into a 3 hour book, but I had a wonderful KLP (Key Learning Point) I wanted to share, just not in the context to which it was written.

Robert is talking about his “two” Dads, his biological Dad and his friend’s Dad. His rich Dad shared a philosophy about money, a mindset that is prevalent amongst people when it comes to wanting to buy something. If you have 10 cents in your pocket and you want something for $1 what do you think?

I am paraphrasing, but it went something like this…

When you want something that maybe you don’t have the financial wherewithal to pay for it right now, the poor mind says “I can’t afford it” where the rich mind says “How can I afford it?”

What I found to be an AHA! was that the POOR mindest turns the brain off and the RICH turns the brain on! One is a closing statement and the other is a question! Your brain is a goal seeking device, a problem solver and a storage facility for all you values and beliefs conditioned into you from parents, media and society. I could digress into a whole GLOG on your brains functionality, I will, but in another post!

So lets take this POOR and RICH mindset and apply it elsewhere, other than money that is. What if your employees have a POOR mindest and you ask them to do something that is extremely challenging? Do they say “It can’t be done” and huddle together, using thier limited creativivty, to find all the ways it won’t work and therefore shut their brains down? Or do they huddle together and say “how can it be done?” and open their brains for problem solving, solution finding and goal achieving? Some other examples are:

“I can’t land that big account” or “how would I land that big account?”

“I can’t talk to my boss” or “how could I better communicate with my boss?

“My people have a poor mindest” or “how can I help them develop a rich mindset?”

One closes, the other opens.

Back to money for a moment. Now I am not, and I don’t believe Robert is etiher, condoning buying what you can’t afford by going into debt. I am suggesting though that if you believe there is a way you will find one and make something happen. Conversely if you believe you can’t or won’t you are right. This isn’t revelationary, Henry Ford said something similar to this a hundred years ago!

There is another great old saying…

“Minds are like parachute, they work best when they are open!”

Next time you or your people are faced with a challenge at work (or in life), will you post a sign in front of your brain saying open or closed for business?

My mind is always open for business!

TGD

It’s interesting to see how many people don’t have a plan for their life, but are still unhappy with where they are.

I guess that’s not totally fair. Not everyone is unhappy with their life, but most wish they were “further” along than where they are. So when I make that statement, it is because when I ask them if 5 or ten years ago if they could have written exactly what kind of life they would wish for themselves now (5 - 10years later), what would they write down? The answers are usually far more exciting and interesting than what they are living today. Although some aspects of their wishful lives exist today, there is still a gap between the present reality and the dream of where they could have been.

Why is this? I believe that if you don’t have a plan for where you would like to be, what do you use to make decisions for what directions and opportunities to pursue or capture when they present themselves? No I am not talking about a “Cast in concrete” - e.g. married by my 25th birthday, buy my first home in Mississauga, Ontario Canada for $600,000 by age 27, a child (a boy) by 28 years old and so on…I am talking about a clear set of goals that encompass all areas of life (Health, Wealth, Social, Home, Personal etc).

If you have a plan (written down) you have created for your self a flexible framework for making value based decisions. Now when life throws something at you, there is a tool to help you decide which opportunity to take and you make decisions by design. You can ask yourself:

“Will this opportunity take me closer to “x” area of my life?”

When you have no plan, or just some “loose thoughs” about the future in your head, you will make decisions without a tool. Your decisions will be more based around your emotional state or whatever “feels good” at the moment. This way you are building a life by default and/or circumstance. You will ask yourself some questions based on the moment, like:

“What do I feel like doing?” or “Does this feel right?”

Now I’m not saying that a life built by default or circumstance is a bad thing, just don’t complain if you aren’t where you may wish to be if you didn’t bother to make a plan and vision for your life. The chances of you having the life you would wish for your self are higher when you work by design.

Your choice, a life of default and circumstance or one by design.

I go with the higher odds and choose design every time…

TGD

I have used one of my favourite observations a couple of times recently, so I let it be the inspiration of this post…

“Isn’t it funny, if you blow in a dog’s face it doesn’t like it, but if you roll down the window it will stick it’s face joyously into the wind!”

Have you noticed that when you try to force someone to do something they kinda don’t like it. Or, if you ask insistently that they change something, they don’t like it. This applies to personal and business relationships. In business it’s funny to think that it would get to the stage where an employer needs to TELL and almost FORCE an employee to do something that needs to be done.

We try to address the situation by using what might be determined as FEAR motivation or increasing the pressure to do the task at hand. Unfortunately what happens is we deal mainly with the symptomatic issue and not the root cause. We think it is insubordination, laziness or stupidity that stops them from doing what needs to be done.

Why is the employee unwilling to do what needs to be done? In most cases it will be one of the following four reasons (what I learnt as the “KIRP Model”):

Other reasons may include poor management communication; apathy because they feel their manager doesn’t show they care about their employee; and lack of ownership, accountability and responsibility (or it’s always taken away, so why should the employee bother - Click here to see The OAR Glog).

I am always reminded, if you want someone to do something, you can choose to use force or you can choose to empower them (give them the tools, the training and the reason and get out of their way!) to get greater results. One demotivates the employee and the other builds them.

All you need to do is learn how to roll down the window for your employees. Then let them stick their face joyously into the wind…because they want to!

TGD

There is a constant challenge in the workforce…

“How do I keep my people motivated to perform?”

One of the best ways to increase employee performance (especially salespeople) is to track, measure and post their results as frequently as it makes sense in relation to the goals sought to be acheived. This is commonly referred to as Visual Management.

It’s not easy to hide behind “busy-work” when results and actions are apparent. Some people have mastered the art of “being busy”, let alone those who have reached the pinical of mediocrity and are masters at “looking busy without being busy”!

There are a lot of things that you can post and track visually to improve performance, but another challenge arises. How do you keep people’s attention on something that is always there? What I mean by this is that unless you make it worthwhile to look at it, it just becomes a backdrop on the wall that blends into the surroundings.

Why? Because people become less observant over TIME.

Here’s a great exercise to prove this theory. Get out a blank piece of paper and grab a pen or pencil. Then, without looking draw your watch in great detail. See how accurately you can draw it. This is something that you look at several times a day. You see it, but do you actually pay attention to any detail of it? Try it and see how you do.

 What you need to do is make the visual management interesting and worthy of looking at. Put inspirational or relevant quotes up with it and ask people questions about the application of such quotes in their work. Put a joke of the day up! Have a different person update the stats daily. Whatever you do, be creative and have fun with it. One last thing, make sure you have your team meetings in front of the graphs/charts/scorecards etc.

Your visual management will become a great manager for you!

You will SEE results!

TGD