New Book Summary: Focus

Braincram has a new summary of the Jurgen Wolff book on Focus.

You can find it here.

Dare to Aspire

6 Tips for Change That Sticks

The pace of change in the business domain is frantic. Look around and you will quickly see changes  in the Political arena, in Economic and Sociological dynamics, in Technological innovation and increasingly the Environment.  the combined impact from these changes can be dramatic for any organisation.

As Leaders and Managers, we adapt to these changes by attempting to predict the long term business landscape and then adapting our strategy and operations to be more effective under those conditions.

We then attempt a change process that aim to adapt the organisation into a structure and with processes that are more likely to produce target outcomes given these predicted conditions.

Unfortunately, even if we manage to achieve the planned changes, we often find that there can be insufficient ‘stickiness’ for those changes to endure and there can be a general slip back to the way things were.

Here are 6 tips to maximise the chances that your change programmes will endure:

1. Link your changes to a vision that reflects the purpose of the organisation:

• Why does the organisation exist (other than to make money for the shareholders)?
• How does this change achieve that purpose?

Answer these questions and make sure they are well understood throughout the organisation.  Make the reason for change as compelling and memorable as a jingle from a commercial.

2. Have everyone play a role in the decisions for the change:

• Involvement generates a degree of commitment to the change process.
• Involvement in the change process means that individuals will feel the loss if it fails and so are more motivated to ensure it works.
• Involvement in a successful project lets the team say ‘look what we have done’ with a feeling of pride and commitment to the future of the organisation.

3. Recognise that change can be frightening for some people:

• Some personality types change in an instant and are happy to work in the new structure at a moments notice.
• Change can, however, be unsettling and some personality types don’t react well to any kind of change.  Ensure that you help them through the change process and bring them along.  The new state will soon be accepted as the norm and these people will thrive again.

4. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate:

• Use every communication channel open to you and ensure that the message resonates at all levels and from all of the key people.  There must be a single message about, what, when, how, who and WHY!
• If the team don’t have questions, then they don’t yet understand the level of impact the change process is likely to have, so ask them questions and get them thinking about the change, after all involvement creates commitment!

5. Positive reinforcement generates momentum:

• If you see someone acting in a way that supports the new order of things, take the opportunity to give them positive feedback.
• If you see someone acting in the old ways, then coach them into the new patterns and then praise them when they are supporting the new order of things.
• Positive feedback reinforces change, any change.

6. Have descriptive and clear measures of performance:

• Feedback is the breakfast of champions!
• Clear feedback that shows how the new structure and process is adding more value than before increases the chance that the change will stick.
• If people associate the change to a positive outcome on a company level (eg. profit) and a positive outcome on a personal level (eg. I keep my job!) it is more likely to stick.

These tips will not guarantee that your change process will yield an enduring new strategy or supportive structures and processes, but they will support the change effort in very compelling way, stacking the odds in your favour.

Dare to Aspire

Managing Strengths

The previous posts ‘Now Discover Your Strengths’ and ‘34 Strengths’ outline how individuals can perform better if they apply their strengths to any endeavour rather than try to improve upon their weaknesses.

Consider an orchestra.  The first violinist doesn’t want to be the conductor. The first violinist has a skill, a strength in playing the violin.  They have become first violinist by focusing on that strength and achieving their highest potential with the violin.  They have no interest and possibly no talent for conducting and so would not aspire to the role.

But how often do we take a person performing at the top of their field and turn them into a manager, as if, by being good at sales automatically qualifies them to be a sales manager.

It is more efficient and more effective to focus on the strengths of the team and management them appropriate so that the ‘violinists’ can all perform as first violinists rather than promoting them into becoming poor ‘conductors’.

As managers then, we should consider how best to motivate, manage and achieve the best results with the strengths of our people.

the 34 strengths can be managed and motivated in the following manner:

Achiever – Give this person tasks that stretch them
Activator – Give this person scope to set their own goals
Adaptability – Give this person opportunities to deal with change and crises
Analytical – Give this person challenges, complex problems and tough decisions
Arranger – Give this person responsibility
Belief – Give this person tasks that engage their passion
Command – Give this person a task and then let them go
Communication – Give this person opportunities to exploit their communications skills
Competition – Motivate this person with competitive language and the chance to rise to the challenge
Connectedness – Give this person the chance to build bridges in the team and with customers
Consistency – Give this person stability and processes that endure
Context – Give this person historical information to better asses the current situation
Deliberative – Give this person tasks that requires rigorous thinking
Developer – Give this person the chance to help other people grow
Discipline – Give this person the chance to brig structure to chaos
Empathy – Let this person read the moods of others and sense unrest
Focus – Give this person goals and deadlines and let them achieve them
Futuristic – Yoke this person’s vision of the future
Harmony – Give this person a pleasant environment and keep them away from conflict
Ideation – Give this person the chance to develop ideas and their creative side
Includer – Give this person the chance to build teams
Individualization – This person will build effective reward / performance systems and identify an individual’s motives
Input – Give this person the chance to search for solutions or in the research field
Intellection – Give this person the chance to think broadly and deeply about a problem
Learner – Give this person the chance to stay current in a fast changing field
Maximizer – Give this person the chance to improve the systems and processes of the organisation
Positivity – Give this person the chance to motivate the team and create dynamic organisations
Relator – Use this person to generate genuine trusting relationships
Responsibility – Use this person where quality output is required
Restorative – Use this person to identify flaws and problems in the organisation
Self-assurance – Give this person the chance to make difficult and meaningful decisions
Significance – Give this person the chance to stand out
Strategic – Give this person the chance to anticipate problems and create long term solutions
Woo – Use this person in a public facing role and to build long term relationships with key customers

For more information on the strengths movement, I recommend the books, StrengthFinder and Now Discover Your Strengths and the Strengths in Action consulting group.

Dare to Aspire

34 Strengths

In his book,’ Now Discover Your Strengths‘, Buckingham outlines the 34 themes that the Gallup analysis has identified.

These are:

Achiever – Driven to achieve goals

Activator – Impatient for action

Adaptability – Flexibility to take advantage of the moment

Analytical – Look for patterns and value data

Arranger – Coordinating others and resources

Belief – Bound by certain core values

Command – Driven to take charge

Communication – A natural explainer, presenter and public speaker

Competition – Focused on competing to win

Connectedness – Focused on finding the reason or cause for things

Consistency – Balance is important

Context – Looking to history to find reason for the present

Deliberative – Careful, vigilant and searching for certainty

Developer – Find potential in others and seek to grow them

Discipline – Seeking predictability

Empathy – Reader of the emotions of those around them

Focus – Require a clear destination

Futuristic – Dreamer and innovator

Harmony – Always looking for agreement

Ideation – Fascinated by ideas

Includer – Engaged in adding people to the group

Individualization – Intrigued by the individual qualities of each person

Input – Inquisitive and a collector of information, facts, books and ideas

Intellection – Stimulated by thinking and mental activity

Learner – Focused on learning and gaining knowledge

Maximizer – Excellence is your measure of success

Positivity – Build teams with praise and positive feedback

Relator – Bonds deeply with people

Responsibility – Takes psychological ownership for anything they commit to

Restorative – A problem solver

Self-assurance – An unshakeable faith in their strengths

Significance – Driven by a need to be seen as important in the eyes of others

Strategic – Absorbed by a high perspective on the world

Woo – Winning Others Over

People will have a number of strengths.  The online assessment that Buckingham’s book allows you to use will provide you with a list of your top 5 strengths.

If applied properly, these strengths can be applied to your tasks for a more efficient and effective performance.

If you are in a leadership or management role, then identifying the strengths of your staff and applying those strengths to the appropriate tasks will allow them to perform well and improve output and performance.

If you are interested in how to exploit the strengths of your team then perhaps Strengths in Action can help.

Dare to Aspire

7 Reasons Businesses Struggle to be Innovative

It a truism in business that if you are not developing and improving, then you are falling behind your competition.

Innovation is critical to the sustained growth and competitive edge of any business. So why do businesses struggle to be innovative?

1. Lack of time – As Michael Gerber says, ‘we are too busy working in the business rather than working on the business.’ When people get busy, they focus on delivering the product or service they are contacted to deliver. No time is available to look to the future of the business.

2. Lack of resources – Innovation takes time and money and relies upon the capacity of an organisation to allocate resources to innovative thinking. During tough economic times, cost saving and redundancies reduce these resources to a minimum, often too few for innovation to thrive.

3. Fear of failure – In Richard Branson’s book, ‘Screw it, let’s do it!’ he has a ‘can do’, risk embracing attitude. Branson recognises that even if the innovation isn’t a thriving success, the team and the business have still benefitted and improved. Risk averse organisations can miss the opportunities because failure is perceived by that organisational culture as a bad thing and a ‘career stopper’. Thomas Edison is often quoted as saying ‘A man that never failed, never achieved anything.’ Risk aversion kills innovation.

4. Unclear Leadership – Without guidance and authority from key leadership figures in the organisation, innovation will not be recognised as a priority. A figurehead or focal point for innovation helps people to understand that innovation is a company priority and gives people someone to give their ideas to.

5. Insufficient incentives – What is measured is achieved and what is rewarded is repeated. People often need an incentive to offer their ideas forward, so reward those that do. The message will soon spread and the ideas will begin to flow.

6. Insufficient talent – Talent acquisition and talent management is a key reason that the recruitment industry thrives. Talented people provide additional perspectives and alternative views. If supported, recruited talent can drive innovation and the future of the organisation.

7. Lack of Autonomy – Too much control stifles creativity and hinders innovation. Being free to think and try new things provides the innovative person with the opportunity to explore new options. Being asked to report on the potential of those opportunities too early in the exploration can make the innovator feel as though they are just time wasting or chasing a whim.

Innovation is important for the future of any organisation.

Whether that innovation iss a ‘short walk’ away from the current products or services or it creates new and diverse product lines, innovation generates future revenue streams and grows the knowledge base of the team.

Dare to Aspire

Ladder of Inference – Peter Senge

Although we like to think of ourselves as evolved thinkers, we have actually evolved to make decisions that shortcut most active thinking.

Consider our ancestors as they walked across the savannah, looking for their next meal, they too were being hunted.

The bushman that waited to consider if the moving shadow was actually a lion rather than a gazelle often became the lion’s next meal! It paid us to assume things and the bushman that believed all moving shadows ‘could’ be lions often survived b running away to hunt (and breed) another day. They also often missed out on a meal too!

So we, as a race, have selectively bred ourselves to make shortcuts in our decision making bast on our beliefs.

Beliefs therefore  are a significant factor in how we see the world. Our beliefs and values constrain our thinking so that we can make judgements more rapidly. The verb for this is ‘to prejudge’, and it is the root of the term prejudice. We make decisions with a much of the thinking already completed from our previous experience.

Having recently re-read Peter Senge’s ‘The Fifth Discipline’ I came across the Ladder of Inference.

This model describes the thinking process that we go through, often without realising it, to get from a fact to a decision or action.

Figure 1 shows the ‘thinking stages’ as rungs on a ladder.

Figure 1.  The Inference Ladder

The model highlights the thinking steps that can lead to jumping to the wrong conclusions.

Starting at the bottom of the ladder, we:

• Observe things from reality and identify facts
• From these observations we select specific data based on our beliefs and prior experience
• Interpret what the data mean
• Apply our existing assumptions (sometimes without even considering them)
• Draw conclusions based on the interpreted facts and our assumptions
• Develop beliefs based on these conclusions
• Take actions that seem correct because they are based on what we believe

The value of this model is that it gives us a model that helps us recognize that our thinking process can be flawed and often brings us to conclusions that are often prejudged rather than carefully considered. We naturally skip reasoning steps. If we are aware of this thinking shortfall, we can force ourselves out of the habit and take a more objective, step by step reasoning process and so reach more effective decisions.

Dare to Aspire

The Deming Cycle

Following the Second World War, Japan was struggling to regenerate its manufacturing base and a key feature in this struggle was the need to generate a culture of quality.

Their economic saviour in many ways was Dr W. Edwards Deming, an American statistician who was so influential in creating a culture of quality that Japan still has an annual quality award that bears his name. He is a venerable hero of the Quality movement.

A tool that Deming employed frequently for quality and process improvement was the Plan, Do, Check, Act process.

This later became known as the Deming Cycle.

The key principle of this cycle is iteration and feedback.

The key stages are:

PLAN – Design or change a business process with the aim of improving results

DO – Implement the change and measure the change in results

CHECK – Compare the measurements with the original performance to assess improvements

ACT – Decide on the changes that are needed to improve the process

Repeated time and again the PDCA drives any process towards a peak of improved performance. In many ways, this approach now underpins many of the process improvement approaches used in business today.

The Kaizen approach of the Lean process is an iterative improvement process

Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) of the Six Sigma school is also an iterative approach.

Rummler and Brache (1991) also suggested an approach that repeated a pattern of Identify, Analyse and Improve.

And there are many more.

There are 2 key things to remember about any such iterative approaches:

1. What you measure is critical. You must get your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) correct. Measure the wrong parameter and you improve the wrong thing.

2. If you your process isn’t the correct one in the first instance then you can improve but you are only moving towards a ‘suboptimal’ peak of performance.

The graph below shows what can happen if you focus on only improving the current process.

If you start on the left hand peak, you will optimise, but you will optimse  the wrong process.

You should take away from this the need to not only consider improvement as an approach but ensure you are improving the correct process. Suboptimal is exactly that!

Dare to Aspire

Six Thinking Hats

When faced with a problem, it can be beneficial to consider a number of different perspectives on that problem.

Different perspectives can often reveal different factors and features and can potentially reveal a variety of innovative solutions.

Using a structured approach to selecting these different perspectives is a sign of disciplined and logical thinking and an approach typified in Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats.

The approach is extremely simple but can be very effective in problem solving.

Each thinker metaphorically adopts a ‘thinking hat’ and then constrains their thinking to just that perspective. Swapping hats allows you to focus on alternative viewpoints until options are exhausted.

Edward De Bono recommends these 6 different ‘hats’ to guide you into thinking from these 6 different perspectives.

Blue Hat: Wear this hat to define the problem and scope of the issue.

White Hat: Wear this hat and focus on the facts of the situation. Look at the features, factors, functions, gaps in process and knowledge. Look for trends, patterns and developments.

Red Hat: Wear this hat to explore the emotions surrounding the problem. Note what you feel instinctively, what your gut tells you.

Yellow Hat: Wear this hat to explore the positive aspects of the issue. What about this is constructive and what can you benefit or learn from? Look for value and benefit.

Green Hat: Wear this hat to develop creative and innovation options. Imaginative solutions that break the mental mould are developed with this hat.

Black Hat: Look for things that are broken or won’t work. What is weak about the issue or solution?

Although this approach can be used by an individual, it has equal if not more effect when it is used by a group. The blue hat would direct the group, and different members of the team would wear ‘hats’ that explored the various perspectives.

The results from this approach should be interesting and useful and may even be quite dramatic. At the very least you and your team will begin to break out of your normal thinking habits.

Dare to Aspire

10 Tips for Successful of Entrepreneurship

Starting your own business can be an exciting and exhilarating challenge.  It can also be an overwhelming and somewhat daunting experience for anyone.  Here are 10 tips that will help you think about the more strategic level things you need to think about.  Don’t forget that you will also need to look after the more detailed part of the business too, delivery, marketing, accounting, cashflow management etc.

Have Goals

If you don’t know what you are going, how will you know if you are moving the right direction and how will you know when you get there?  Goals need to be clear and compelling; a vision so appealing that it pulls you out of bed in the morning and keeps you driving on into the small hours of the morning.

Work Hard

Building a business is hard work…Busy, busy, busy, hard work, hard work, hard work.  You will need your compelling vision to keep you motivated and ensuring that you persist even when you are struggling to find the energy to keep going.  Persistence is critical.  Make just one more call, write one more email, do just 10 more minutes work and you will be that much closer to your goal.

Know your Market

Whatever you are doing, you need to make sure that someone is interested in paying you for it.  You need to know what you target market wants and how they want it.  You will also need to know how to approach them and how to sell the benefits of your service or product to that market.

Be Innovative and Differentiate

If you don’t differentiate, then you are only doing the same as many others and you can only compete on price.  All you are offering your customers is another choice in a market of businesses saying ‘Me too!’

If you are doing something different, then you have another way to compete and can offer your customers something that stands out from the crowd.  Mercedes Benz cars don’t cry ‘me too!’ to their customers.  So should you?

Believe in What you are Doing

People only buy what they know will meet their needs.  They will also only buy when they have a level of confidence that a product of service will meet that need.  So the sales process is a way to ensure that your customer develops confidence in what you are offering and then commits to buying it.

How will you persuade them that what you are offering will meet their need if you don’t have at least the same level of confidence in what you are offering?  The sales process then becomes a conversation aimed at building and sharing your confidence level with your customer so that they are convinced and buy.

Stay Focused

You will achieve more if you are focused on doing one thing at a time. One task, one goal, one business idea.  I recommend reading Jurgen Wolff’s book ‘Focus’ to give you some ideas and techniques to help you focus more effectively.

Develop Relationships

All businesses are people businesses.  People take the actions, people make the sales, people buy the product, and people promote you business with endorsements and recommendations.  The more time you spend developing relationships, the more effectively you will be able to manage and build your business.

Surround Yourself with Great People

As an entrepreneur, you will very soon recognise that won’t be able to do everything yourself.  Indeed the very characteristics of being an entrepreneur means that you are better at building a business than achieving the individual delivery tasks within that business.

So ensure you hire or work with great people, especially people who are better at doing key tasks than you are.

If you hire people that are not as good as you, then you will build a company where you are continually checking on people and being disappointed with their output.

Hire great people and then set them free to achieve.

Lead Your Team

Part of being an entrepreneur is giving your team the guidance they need to fulfil the vision.  Sharing your vision is not enough.  You also need to ensure that the team is continually supported in the delivering that vision and are rewarded when they make significant progress towards achieving it. There are many models of leadership and leading, but the simplest form is to’ know the way, to show the way and to go the way!’

Cheesy perhaps, but it captures the sentiment of leadership in very simple terms.

Never Stop Selling

Never forget that you are running a business and that you need revenue to survive.  Let your mantra be ‘Customer and Cash’.

You must, at a bare minimum, satisfy your customers.  I would suggest that your best approach is to make them raving fans.  But you must always be thinking of how to make the sale.  Sometimes you can sell at the first opportunity.  Other times you will need to make a continual investment in the relationship in order to establish credibility and have your prospect believe enough to become a customer.  Always be building the relationship and the selling will take care of itself.

These are just 10 of many tips that you will read about and learn from myriad sources. Although not exhaustive, they are useful to have in mind when you are building your business.

Dare to Aspire

9 Tips for Effective Networking

One of the most useful things you can do for personal and professional success is to network effectively.  And as with most activities, there is a right way to network and a wrong way to network.

If you have the time, I recommend reading ‘Never Eat Alone’, which is the seminal work on networking and Ferrazzi has a talent for describing the most effective techniques of Networking in an easily understood and accessible way.

If you don’t have the time or the inclination for the big volume then here are some tips for networking:

1.         Talk to anyone about anything.  Participate in other peoples thinking as much as possible as no one is as smart as all of us are together and you never know who has the innovative solution to your problem.

2.         Develop a high tolerance for ambiguity as opening yourself up to other ideas will often result in your challenging your own ideas, beliefs and sometimes even your values.

3.         Don’t enter a discussion with an attitude of getting something out of it.  By going into a discussion with a viewpoint of giving more than you hope to receive will make you appear truly sincere and helpful and not just out to use the relationship for your own ends.

4.         Have a fearless attitude because starting a conversation with people who you don’t know can often be intimidating. Get comfortable with this feeling and you will look at networking as a delight rather than something to fear.

5.         Always think about the connections that you could help each person make.  One of the most beneficial influences that good networkers develop is being a social node, a person who people will contact just to get to another person in the network.  If you add value to relationships you nurture, everyone profits over time.

6.         Go on gut instinct.  If you think the connection won’t endure, move on.  You have to be happy with the person you are networking with in order connect them with others that know and trust you with their details.

7.         Expand your conversational topics and your sense of humour.  Being confidence when you discuss topics or being able to break the ice with a humorous comment will make you a person that is happy with networking and someone that people will want to network with, making the problem of making the first approach disappear!

8.         Have a way of keeping track of the people you meet and what they talk about.  It is the chance to think about how they fit into your network and who would benefit from knowing and how they could benefit from others in your network.

9.         Maintain the integrity to yourself and your network.  People are trusting you with their personal information.  Live up to that trust.

If you look at the most successful people, they are generally those people that have the largest network, touch each element of it regularly and add value to all those with whom they connect.

Dare to Aspire