Stop Chasing Too Many Priorities

Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

Overloaded and overwhelmed is the norm these days.

Most leaders feel they have too many conflicting priorities. But research has shown that the more these executives have to do, the less their company earns.

In fact, high-performing companies have leaders who focus on high-priority initiatives, not everything under the sun.

Stop asking: How can I find more opportunities?

Instead try: How can I focus on opportunities that will help my company excel?

Know what you are best at—the capabilities you have that others don’t—and focus where you can succeed. Learn to say no when things seem appealing and even lucrative, but do not offer you a real chance to win.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “Stop Chasing Too Many Priorities” by Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainard.

To read that article and join the discussion, please click here.

You Know that Next Action You are Supposed to Take? – So, Do It Already! (a little insight from David Allen, and the Navy SEALs)

Some reminders from David Allen (Getting Things Done):

Stuff:  anything you have allowed into your psychological or physical world that doesn’t belong where it is, but for which you haven‘t yet determined the desired outcome and the next action step.  As long as it is still “stuff,” it’s not controllable.  It is “an amorphous blob of undoability!”

When a culture adopts “What’s the next action?” as a standard operating query, there’s an automatic increase in energy, productivity, clarity, and focus.

Forget everything (clear your mind of everything), so that you can remember everything you have to do!

Do everything you have to do – one next action at a time.

Next Step (Next Action):  the very next physical action required to move a situation forward!

Discipline yourself to make front-end decisions about all the “inputs” you let into your life so that you will always have a plan for “next actions” that you can implement or renegotiate at any moment.

Keep reminders of your next step where you will see them!

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David Allen basically said this: when you don’t know the thing/task you are supposed to do next, then you have a failure of planning.  So, stop what you are doing (make that “not doing”), and plan your next next actions.  Always know the “next action(s)” you need to take.

I think this is really right, and smart, and so very simple.  But…  maybe it is not that simple.  If you are like me, you don’t always know your next action.  You/We fail to plan to that level of detail, that level of specificity.

That level of clarity.

And, as a result, we fall behind, or let the important stuff slip through the cracks.

Consider this, from The Leadership Lessons of the Navy SEALs:

You’ve got a job.  By being there, you’ve accepted that job.  You have specific things to do.  And if you fail at those things, a lot of other people are going to have to pay the price… You may be smart, but if you don’t take ownership of the work at hand, everyone else is going to have to pay for what you didn’t do.

So getting and being clear on your next actions, and then doing them, makes all the difference.

Now, sometimes, we might want to think “big picture,” “dream a little,” and so we feel paralyzed because we are not quite sure just where to go next.

But after saying all of this, most of the time our failure to execute is just that – a failure to execute.  We know the next action, we just don’t actually do the next action.

From the Navy SEALs book again:

“the vast majority of the time, you know what you should do.”

Yes, you/we do.

So, here is your assignment.  Plan your next action(s).  Then, do your next next action(s).

So, let’s do it already.

 

 

“Representing The Institution and Bringing A Vision” – Christine Lagarde Describes her Role at the IMF

Christine Lagarde - new Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund

Before she was selected as the new Managing Director, Ms. Christine Lagarde, a candidate for the position of the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), made the following statement to the IMF Executive Board on June 23, 2011.  You can read her entire letter here.  Here are some key highlights.

As a candidate, I have listened carefully over the last few weeks to the messages conveyed to me by a large part of the membership and I would like to lay out some thoughts of mine and address some of the issues:

1. Management: the three duties of MD

If elected, I am committed to fulfil, with your support and active engagement, the three key duties of a MD: to chair the Board; to manage the staff; and to represent the institution.

Duty 1: Chairing the Board

To lay the proper foundations of such a relationship, if elected, I would call for a Board retreat before the recess.

Duty 2: Managing the staff

I am well aware that recent events have left open wounds. I know that John’s departure, coming as it does at the very worst of times, will leave a big hole. The incoming MD must take pains to show the outside world that this great institution is not only leading in terms of expertise, but also in terms of integrity and work ethics. We must consolidate and, if needed, restore staff pride in working at the IMF, to get us through the healing process.

…only strong leadership will help us overcome silo-mentality, achieve diversity, and gain in cohesion and coherence.

We collectively must focus on serving both our membership and the higher goal of the Fund, and be less inward-looking.

Duty 3: Representing the institution and bringing a vision

The MD has to lead by example, consistent with the values of integrity, independence, and discretion. The MD shall also be the loyal and strong voice of the whole membership when representing the Fund, especially in delivering messages, speaking the truth to members, be them small or large.
……
To conclude, should you entrust me with the challenging task of MD, I would strive, over the next five years, to build a Fund that would be adapted to a changing world; responsive, ready and able to meet all challenges, both foreseeable and unforeseeable; cooperative, listening and coordinating effectively with all stakeholders, and continuously striving to build consensus; legitimate and even-handed, to reflect a changing world.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Executive Board, thank you for your attention

Note the clear intentions:

To “lead in terms of expertise, and work ethics;” to lead with integrity; to gain in cohesion and coherence.”

I suspect that this is one of the more challenging new positions on the planet, especially after the very public scandal of the man she replaces.  But she provides a pretty good reminder to all leaders with this letter:  leaders are to manage the staff, represent the organization well and honorably, and bring a vision to the entire enterprise.

For the sake of many, let’s hope that Ms. Lagarde can live up to and fulfill these intentions, and set an example for other leaders in the process.

Colleges should stop imitating Harvard

Students pass in front of Harvard's Widener Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Here is an excerpt from a special article co-authored by Clayton Christensen and Henry Eyring featured by CNN online. To read the complete article and check out a wealth of other resources, please click here.

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• CNN.com’s op-eds on college ranged from calling it a waste of time to high praise
• Writers believe colleges are invaluable, but they need to change to remain relevant
• In imitating Harvard, they become costly ivory towers that are too exclusive, they say
• They say: End summer break, develop online coursework, focus on undergrads

Editor’s note: Clayton Christensen, Robert and Jane Cizik professor of business administration, Harvard Business School, and Henry Eyring, advancement vice president, BYU-Idaho, are co-authors of The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out (Jossey-Bass, August 2011).

(CNN) — Is college an invaluable waste of time? You bet. But it’s about to get even more valuable.

It’s great to see capable people debating the value of higher education. Earlier this month, Dale Stephens, a 19-year-old entrepreneur who has won a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship, wrote that “College is a waste of time.” One can argue that Dale is too young — and too extraordinarily intelligent — to be a good judge of the value of college to the average person. But if students like Dale, the kind that the best schools want to attract, are dissatisfied, that can’t be good. Anyhow, Dale’s description of college as a place of conformity, competition and regurgitation strikes an uneasy chord with some of us older, more-ordinary folk.

Two more smart people responded to Dale’s argument. One of them, Brian Forde, is a successful entrepreneur who went back to school for an MBA degree because he found gaps in the knowledge he needed to lead his company. Brian described his higher education as “invaluable.“

Joseph Aoun, whose Northeastern University runs one of the best cooperative education programs anywhere, argued that “College is your best bet.”

He shared sobering data on the price of not having a college degree in difficult economic times such as these.

It’s important to be debating these things, because Dale, Brian, and Joseph are all correct. Going to college today is more important than ever. In this world of unprecedented change, now isn’t the time to be staying away from the institutions whose primary mission is to discover and share knowledge. But these institutions have put themselves at risk by allowing the education they offer to become expensive, hard to access and unengaging relative to what is possible.

They didn’t mean to do this. In fact, our colleges and universities are all about getting bigger and better, and their success has made us much better off. The problem is that too many of them, including former community colleges and technical institutes, now act more like Harvard, the world’s most widely admired university.
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To read the complete article and check out a wealth of other resources, please click here.

 

Intending to be innovative? Be sure you first ask the right questions before you seek answers

Peter Skarzynski

Those familiar with my book reviews, interviews, and commentaries already know that I have several favorite quotations that I use whenever appropriate. Here are two. In 1963, Peter Drucker observed that “there is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.” Many years later, Michael Porter suggested that “the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. ” These are directly relevant to the material that Peter Skarzynski and Rowan Gibson present in their book, Innovation to the Core: A Blueprint for Transforming the Way Your Company Innovates (Harvard Business Review Press, 2008), as they respond brilliantly to questions such as these

• How to create the preconditions for innovation?
• How to establish a foundation of “novel strategic insights”?
• How to generate a “torrent” of new opportunities for innovative thinking?
• How to ask the right questions at the right time?
• How to construct an “innovation architecture”?
• How to select, schedule, manage, and leverage investments in innovation?
• What does “driving to innovation” involve?
• When doing so, how to balance supply and demand?
• How to build a “systematic innovation capability”?
• How to sustain innovation?

These are terrific questions because they are immensely difficult to answer correctly. Here’s what I suggest:

1. Form a core team of people who have thick hides, sharp minds,  insatiable curiosity about what works (and what doesn’t), and tend to use first-person plural pronouns almost exclusively.

2. Formulate a list of questions such as those that Skarzynski and Gibson address in their book (at least seven, no more than ten) and set them in proper order. Be prepared to add, delete, revise, re-order, etc.

3. With both good will and tenacity, challenge all assumptions and premises. Meanwhile, keep in mind that just as the only “dumb” question is the one not asked, the only “dumb” idea is the one not shared.

4. Keep good notes and, if possible, display key points  during discussion so they can be seen by everyone.

Whoever leads the group should read Innovation to the Core.

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Peter Skarzynski is CEO and a Founding Director of Strategos. For over 20 years, Peter has helped senior managers set strategic direction, capture new growth opportunities and make their organizations more innovative. His experience cuts across industries and includes retail, consumer products, publishing, financial services, healthcare and technology companies. His primary focus has been to help client organizations renew their core business through competence leverage and break-through business concept innovation.

Skarzynski is widely published on the topic of innovation and has written for such publications as The Wall Street Journal, CEO Magazine and The Drucker Foundation. He is a frequent corporate and conference speaker. holds an MBA in Finance and Marketing and a BA (with Honors) in Policy Studies and Economics from the University of Chicago.

Although Innovation to the Core is acclaimed as the first to describe how large organizations can build and sustain a company-wide innovation capability, I think almost all of their insights and recommendations can be of substantial to any organization, whatever its size and nature may be.

Wired and Dangerous: A book review by Bob Morris

Wired and Dangerous: How Your Customers Have Changed and What to Do About It
Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson
Berrett-Koehler Publishers (2011)

A comprehensive road map for the new landscape of customer relationships

After carefully identifying the “what” of a customer relationship in Part One (Chapters 1-5), Chip Bell and John R. Patterson devote the remainder of their book to explaining how to formulate and then be guided by a comprehensive road map for the new landscape of customer relationships. (Those who think it is not a new landscape are no doubt cherished by their competitors.) I agree with Bell and Anderson that there is a new “normal” insofar as customers are concerned and even then, generalities about the new criteria for normality are more perilous than ever before. For example:

1. Customers now control the decision-making process. Even the most effective marketing (i.e. creating or increasing demand) can only influence it.
2. They are better informed than ever before.
3. They have more and better choices than ever before.
4. Social media have five times the impact of traditional advertising.
5. Therefore, “word of mouse” has at least five times the impact of word of mouth…and probably much more.
6. As for customer service, perfection is break-even.

These are sobering realities that suggest the meaning and significance of the title of Bell and Anderson’s book: customers are “dangerous” because they are “wired” into almost anything they need (e.g. information) and what they are considering (e.g. purchase decisions). As Bell explains, “they are edgy as well as connected with the Internet-enabled capacity to rapidly gain insight on a particular product or service and to quickly do great harm to the reputation of service providers” who fall short of their expectations.

Readers should view this book as a hardware store in which Bell and Anderson, co-proprietors, provide a guided tour during which they explain which tools are available, what their functions/features/benefits are, and how best to use each. More specifically, provided in Part Three, tools for

•  Calming customer crackpots, bullies, and militants
•  Serving when customer pain must be involved
•  Giving great lateral service
•  Service leadership in turbulent times
•  Crafting a really cool service vision
•  Making a great emotional connection with customers
•  Conducting a truly focused focus group
•  Surviving as an expert”
•   “Serving in the dark” like a partner
•  Firing a customer
•  Conducting customer forensics
•  Determining if your service process is unwell
•  Adding decoration to the service experience
•  Designing a survey your customers will actually complete

My own opinion is that Bell and Anderson’s discussion of these tools (Pages 165-210) all by itself is worth far more than the cost of the book. I agree with them that customers today “are picky, fickle, and vain” but that great service is not rocket science. “It is simply making your customers matter deeply and carefully managing all the details important to them. It is earning their respect as you nurture their loyalty, never taking them for granted. It is always being a [person who is passionately committed to] maintaining a laser focus on being really good on behalf of customers.”

I presume to suggest even the best customer service  “tools” in the world are of little value unless entrusted to skilled people who possess highly-developed emotional intelligence. As former chairman and CEO of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher, explained years ago, “We take great care of our people, they take great care of our customers, and our customers then take great care of our shareholders.” Amen.

3 Tips for Leading People Older Than You

Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

Seniority no longer reigns in today’s organizations.

In fact, it’s not uncommon to manage people 10 or 20 years older than you. Leading is hard enough when you have experience on your side. Here are three ways to make sure your age doesn’t betray you:

Be confident. Start strong. Don’t qualify your statements or ideas. Speak with conviction and assume that your ideas are good ones.

Be open-minded. Balance your poise with an open mind. Put your proposals out there and then solicit opinions and ideas. Give your colleagues a voice.

Ask for feedback regularly. Make sure people know you care about continuous improvement. They’ll be more likely to give you useful feedback about your performance.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “Leading Older Employees” by Jodi Glickman.

To read that article and join the discussion, please click here.

Actually, those in need of a far more comprehensive source of infirnation and counsel are advised to check out Managing the Older Worker: How to Prepare for the New Organizational Order, co-authored by Peter Cappelli and Bill Novelli and published by Harvard Business Review Press (2011).

DRiVE: A book review by Bob Morris

DRiVE: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Dan Pink
Riverhead Press/Penguin Group (2009)

Note: I recently re-read this book and admire it even more now than I did two years ago when it was published.

The power of Motivation 3.0 and Type I behavior

I have read and reviewed all of Dan Pink’s previous books and think that this is his most important, his most valuable thus far. As the subtitle correctly indicates, he focuses on “the surprising truth about what motivates us.” The revelations he shares were generated by a five-year research project that involved thousands of test groups and individuals as well as dozens of research associates whom Pink duly acknowledges with obvious admiration as well as appreciation. “This is a book about motivation. I will show that much of what we believe about the subject just isn’t so – and that the insights that [Harry] Harlow and [Edward] Deci began uncovering a few decades ago come much closer to the truth.”

Drawing upon an abundance of research by several behavioral scientists, including Harlow and Deci, Pink provides a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional explanation of “what motivates us,” what really motivates us. He carefully organizes his material within three Parts. In the first, he examines the flaws in reward-and-punishment system and proposes “a new way to think about motivation”; in the second, he examines the three elements of Type I behavior i.e. autonomy, mastery, and purpose) and illustrates how individuals as well as organizations “are using them to improve performance and deepen satisfaction”; and in the third Part, he provides what he characterizes as a “Type I Toolkit, a wealth of resources, to help each reader create an environment (in collaboration with others) in which Type I behavior can flourish.

Here are a few of Pink’s insights that caught my eye. First, a few distinctions about what Type I behavior is…and isn’t: It is made, not born; almost always outperforms Type Xs in the long run; does not disdain money or recognition; is a renewable resource; promotes greater physical and mental well-being; is self-directed; devoted to becoming better and better at something that matters; and connects the quest for excellence with a larger picture. (Pages 79-81) In stunning contrast, Type X “is fueled more by extrinsic desires than intrinsic ones. It concerns itself less with the inherent satisfaction of an activity and more with the external rewards to which that activity leads.” Pink recommends what he calls the Motivation 3.0 operating system – “the upgrade that’s needed to meet the new realities of how we organize, think about, and do what we do” – depends on the aforementioned Type I behavior.

I also appreciate Pink’s provision of real-world examples to create a context, a frame-of-reference, within which to anchor as well as illustrate his core concepts. In Chapters 4-6, he rigorously examines the three elements of Type I behavior (i.e. autonomy, mastery, and purpose) and explains how and why they are separate but interdependent. All three are essential to help achieve what he characterizes as “a renaissance of self-direction.” Motivation 3.0 presumes that workers want to be accountable – “and that making sure they have control over their task, their time, their technique, and their team is a pathway to destination.” With regard to mastery, Type I “has an incremental theory of intelligence, prizes learning gals over performance goals, and welcomes effort as a way to improve at something that matters. Begin with [a Type X] mindset, and mastery is impossible. Begin with the other [i.e. Type I], and it can be inevitable.”

With all due respect to Dan Pink’s previously published books, I think this one is his most important, his most valuable, because the information and wisdom he provides will have much wider and deeper impact in months and years to come.

Columbo’s Curiosity: “his most powerful weapon”

Here is a recent post by Josh Linkner.  He is the author of Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity, published by Jossey-Bass (2011), one of two books featured at First Friday’s July meeting. For more information on creativity, visit JoshLinkner.com. “In addition to my blog, you’ll find free videos, quizzes, articles, eBooks and more to help fuel your creative fire!”

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On Thursday, we lost the popular actor Peter Falk, who was most famous for his role as Lieutenant Colombo.  In 69 episodes from 1968-2003, millions hung to the edge of their seats waiting for each mystery to be solved by our lovable hero.

Colombo’s secret of cracking the case had nothing to do with fancy DNA tests, web searches, or advanced surveillance.  The techniques to bring each “perp” to justice weren’t trained in the police academy, nor were they based on standard operating protocol.

Rather, the disheveled Lt. Colombo solved each case using his most powerful weapon: curiosity.

Just when we thought the case would go cold, Colombo scratched his head and asked his trademark question: “There’s just one more thing I don’t understand….”  The ever-curious character never stopped asking questions; never stopped wondering.  He used his imagination to piece each puzzle together, frequently asking the subjects of his polite interrogations to “Tell me more about that.”

In our own lives, it’s easy to just accept things as they are.  When we hear information that appears credible, we often take it at face value.  We are coaxed into accepting the status quo, while believing we’re helpless to effectuate change.

Colombo took the unconventional route, and so can you.  By awakening your curiosity, you can tune in to the limitless possibilities at your disposal.  It’s time to unleash your creative potential and stick your thumb in the eye of conventional wisdom.

Curiosity is the building block of creativity, innovation, and original thought.  The more curious you become, the more you see the world not for what it is, but what it can be.  The ones that make history – the great inventors, explorers, and leaders of nations – all share an unquenchable sense of wonder.  Their burning curiosity allows them to first see a better future, and then set about making it happen.

The good news is that curiosity is a gift that we all share.  Even those grumpy curmudgeons that claim “I’m not creative”, have incredible potential to see the world from new perspectives.  The research shows that creativity and curiosity are primarily learned behaviors.  The more we use those skills, the sharper they become.

Today, police academies around the world teach the “Colombo Technique” of investigation.  The antiquated and preposterous expression that “curiosity killed the cat” can only apply if the “cat” is referring to outdated ways of leading, winning, and living.

Give yourself and those around you permission to explore the possibilities.  Become enchanted with the blank canvas in front of you.  Liberate your curiosity, and you’ll be well equipped to paint your own masterpiece.

Do a Project Premortem to Avoid a Postmortem

Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

Projects fail all the time, and most experts will tell you that to prevent future failures you need to look at what went wrong.

Instead of giving your next big project an autopsy, do a premortem: look at what could go wrong before it does.

1. After your team is briefed on the project plan, gather them together.

2. Explain that (hypothetically) the project has “failed” and ask them to write down all the reasons why it could have.

3. Then alter your original plan based on what you learn.

This exercise helps the team identify how you might get off track, and prepares members to pick up early signs of trouble during execution.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “Guide to Project Management.”

To check it out and join the discussion, please click here.