Management Craft

#Book Signing Disaster and How to Avoid - Funny and Tragic

I just got an email from someone who discovered an essay I wrote a few years ago about a book signing distaster. The essay was published by the legendar editor Alan Rinzler and is meant to be dark comedy. You can check it out here.

I remember reading this essay to a group of aspiring writers....they seemed a bit horrified, because they were all likely hoping that nothing like this would ever happen to them. It likely will, however, because nearly all writers have similar experiences at some point.

I thought I would share this again as we head into the weekend. Sometimes the best way to progress through difficulty is to laugh and learn. Enjoy.

Infinite Vision - Looks Like a Great Book @bkpub

I received my monthly newsletter from Berrett-Koehler publishers yesterday and this book seems really interesting and might be a perfect one to kick off the new year with renewed purpose, drive, and meaning. Here is the description from the newsletter:

Infinite Vision

Why Read It? The Aravind Eye Care System reinvented the rules of business to restore sight to the blind. Based in India, it is the world's largest provider of eye care and delivers results that equal or surpass those of any developed countries -- at less than 1% of the cost. In thirty-five years, Aravind has treated over 32 million patients, the vast majority for free. Those who can pay choose what they pay, and there is no paperwork. Aravind accepts no donations, yet it is highly profitable. Its baffling model is a popular Harvard Business School case study and is admired by Peter Drucker, Bill Clinton, and Muhammud Yunus. 
 
Written by Pavithra Mehta and Suchitra Shenoy, Infinite Vision is the first book to probe Aravind's history and the practices and values that unleashed its phenomenal success. While we bicker and moan about health-care coverage in the United States, perhaps there's a lesson here for all of us.  
 
Read an excerpt from the book here and then buy the book for 30% off here.

There is a compelling video clip on the book page that you should check out here.

I have not read this book, but I am going to pick it up and add it to my December reading list. What appeals to me about this is that I think we all want to help improve the positive impact that our businesses have on the community and we often struggle with how to think about this while having a financially successful business. We sometimes suffer from functional fixedness and can't think outside our business model box. Perhaps this case can inspire news ideas and ways we can help our organizations do good while performing well.

And kudos go to the designers at BK - what a beautiful cover. Makes me want to curl up with the book with a warm cup of tea. Darjeeling, of course.

Forget Old Biz Myths @alevit

My pal, Alexandra Levit, has a cool new book out about myths called, Blind Spots: The 10 Business Myths You Can't Afford to Believe on Your New Path to Success (great title BTW). I asked her if she would share a post about the book with my readers and here it is. These are important and I would encourage you to pick up the book for anyone who is at a career crossroad/restart/start. Thanks, Alexandra!

To Succeed Today, Forget the Old Business Myths

By Alexandra Levit

This is not your parents’ business world.  It’s not even your older sister’s business world.  The recent recession has toppled and transformed our ideas about just about everything.  Massive change is afoot and many of us are still reeling from the work-force bloodletting that began three years ago and the downfall of companies we thought we all respected.  

I went in search of the 10 biggest myths of business success that people believe to be true even though they don't work for 98 percent of all truly successful people.  The time to debunk these myths is now because they are more dangerous and less viable than ever given this post-recessionary climate of ethical scrutiny and intense competition.  If adhering to these myths didn't get you places before, it really won't today, when employers want to hire people with Puritan work ethics, people who want to do their jobs well without rocking the boat too much and who are strong representatives of the organization’s culture. 

Putting on blinders is not an option and you can't afford to waste time.  You must throw away these myths immediately and determine what will work in their place. 

Myth #1:  Overnight success is possible.

Most people persevere for a long time and experience several setbacks before achieving an objective definition of success.  You’ll be best served if you are able to move your dream forward a little bit at a time, and are able to cope when things temporarily go south. 

Myth #2:  Controversy will propel your career.

Being controversial usually generates attention for a little while, but people will probably not trust you in the long-term.  Instead, work to incorporate the tried-and-true values of honesty and authenticity into your daily work life. 

Myth #3:  Employers want you to be yourself. 

While employers value the unique set of skills and experiences you bring to the table, they expect you to tow the line with respect to company rules and conduct.  You won’t get away wearing ripped jeans to a client meeting because that’s your personal style, and you must learn to be politically sensitive and diplomatic even if someone has wronged you. 

Myth #4:  Being good at your job trumps everything.

You can be the most talented employee your company has ever hired, but if your contributions aren’t visible and people don’t value what you do, it simply won’t matter.  So instead of slaving over your job, spend a little more time devising ways to promote the great work you’re doing.

Myth #5:  It’s best to climb the ladder as fast as possible.

Getting promoted year after year requires a near-constant vigilance as well as a laser sharp focus on work – often to the detriment of everything else in your life.  Higher titles usually bring longer hours, heavier responsibilities, and more politicking with them. 

Myth #6:   You’ll get more money because you’ve earned it.

The media is full of stories of people who rake up six figure salaries because they played their cards right.  But what about the unsung millions who came to the table with the same hand?  More often than not, compensation is about business realities, HR mandates, and office politics – not performance.   

Myth #7:  The problem isn’t you, it’s the organization. 

People job jump constantly because of this one, but the truth is, the same situations crop up in Corporate America over and over.  Don’t take yourself with you.  Learn self-awareness and change your own thinking and behavior instead of waiting for the company to adapt to your needs.   

Myth #8:  You won’t get laid off, you’re too essential.   

I often tell people that they should aim to be indispensable at their jobs.  But today more than ever company loyalty is a thing of the past, and while consistently trying to add value to your organization is a good move, sometimes it isn’t enough.  You need to be able to recognize when you’re on the chopping block and take active steps to prevent a bad outcome.

Myth #9:  If only you could break out of Corporate America, everything would be perfect.

Running a business is harder than it looks, and entrepreneurship is not for everyone. In fact, most people are better off working for large companies and receive substantial perks, like benefits, discounts, and contacts, which you don’t want to live without.  

Myth #10:  Do what you love and the money will follow.

Just because you have a passion for a particular area doesn’t mean you will automatically make money doing it.  Some things are better off left as hobbies, but if you really think an income is possible, keep your day job and test the waters first.

Want to learn more about how you can protect your career from these myths? Check out Blind Spots. You can also find more information at Alexandra's website here.

 

 

Scenario Planning - build alternative futures.

I am embarrassed that it has been nearly three weeks since I offered a post. After 8 years (yes, this blog is THAT old), I find that I need periodic breaks. The muse does not come. The blog seems like a dose of cod-liver oil. My mojo is focused elsewhere.

Am I less interested in management? No.

Do I think I have written it all? Heck, no.

I do feel like I am at a crossroads, however, and I am taking some time to figure things out. Time is too prescious not to reflect and reconfirm your path. When is the last time you have done that?

BTW, I was looking at Thomas Chermack's book, Scenario Planning in Organizations. Do you use scenario planning? You should. Today's chaotic (complex systems) work environment demands that we get good at this. Here is how Tom defines scenario planning (from his website):

"Scenario planning is a discipline for building alternative futures  in which decisions can be played out for the purposes of changing thinking, improving decision-making, fostering individual, team, and organizational learning, and improving performance.

Scenario planning differs from strategic planning in that it gives up the assumption that the environment will stay the same.  Most traditional approaches to planning simply focus on creating a set of steps to get from the current reality to the desired reality.  None ask deep questions about the nature of the industry and environment.

Scenario planning is focused on a continuously changing environment and makes it a part of planning.  Scenarios enable conversations about how the organization can be best prepared, no matter what the future may hold."

Sounds like a great skill to learn, doesn't it? Check out Tom's book here. Building an alternative future is what I an working on and am excited to do that. I will share more once I figure it all out! In the mean time, go do the same for you and enjoy.

What Memoirs Can Teach Us About #Management

Here are a few stray thoughts that end up connecting....

Great memoirs are hot sellers in book stores because people love reading about interesting lives.

In the field of management we throw around words like engagement, enrollment, commitment, getting "on the bus." Is it necessary for us to love or connect to the mission of our organizations? It is ideal, but what about for those companies that don't HAVE a compelling mission? We want to be a profitable market share leader and preferred low-cost provider. Boring!

At the core of great management is a great narrative. Who are you? What's your story? You are amazing and fascinating - I know this - but do your team members know you in this way?

Great management requires that you participate in and share your own great story - your occupational memoir.

And what if your current story is not pleasing to you? I recommend parallel strategies - love something about the present and take steps to make a positive change. Do both and you might find that you can have a better experience while proactively designing the future.

I thought about this because I asked myself, "when do we tend to care about things?" My initial answer was, "when inflicted or affected." Like cancer. I car deeply about it now, but was pretty oblivious about it six months ago. I feel some guilt about this because, surely, some things deserve attention and care even before we are personally affected. But this is human nature, right? We become interested in education after we have kids, notice cars like ours on the freeway, and pay attention to what things cost when we are faced with financial challenges. We notice teeth are after we brighten ours and we read books about Turkey after learning our cruise ship will stop there.

And then I realized that there is another time when we get interested in things - when we are pulled in by a great story. We care about poor water conditions in places we will never visit and we smile when we read about happy endings experienced by people we will never meet. We fall in love with the talking dogs, the double rainbow guy, and the couple who had the courage to dance full out at their wedding. We cry with the family who lost a loved one at war and we cheer for the single dad who just got and sold a patent for his crazy idea.

Maybe you should not worry about whether your front line team members are honestly interested in your company's profits or profit motives (let's face it, most companies don't have a compelling mission or driving force). Maybe you would be better off making the workplace more inviting and interesting on a human experience level - let people find their own reasons for being and staying there. Let them choose to be a part of the daily narrative. What will the story of your monday be? What memory will you help your team create?

And let your team members tell their amazing stories and invite you and others to become supporting characters. After all, we tend to define ourselves by who we are to and with others - our relationships. Why not make the most of this!

There is a reason that well-written memoirs are popular. We love vivid real-life experiences. Great managers help all employees create and tell great workplace stories. Spend more time working well and less time selling someone else's vision.

"Neither management authority nor logic are compelling enough to create commitment." @stanslap #hci2011engage

I am in Chicago for the HCI engagement and retention conference. I am looking forward to surgery tomorrow, so this will likely be my last post for a little while. I thought I would keep is short but deep and Stan Slap's this morning provided good fuel. You can check out his book, Burn My Heart In Conference Room B here.

I love this quote from his talk: "You will never really work for your company until it really works for you." This is so true, and something important for us all to explore and act upon.

I was recently at a client's site to help them uncover how to help a struggling team. The bottom line is that the team has become disconnected - or detached as Stan would call it - and they were complaining about their management.

At the core of this particular situation is an imbalance. Like many organizations, this one has establish goals to increase accountability. To that end, the management team implemented several logical and reasonable systems and practices that became the catalyst that turned the team emotionally upside down.

In this case, the imbalance is coming from a lack of love and emotional commitment. As managers, if we want to increase accountability, we also need to increase love.

Another quote from Stan that fits here, "If the employee culture does not want it to happen, it is not going to happen."

People follow and partner with people - not rational, well-thought through processes.

The managers of this struggling team are great people - they are smart, hard working, and dedicated. They do care and they are interested in being great leaders. They don't seem sure of themselves, however, and they are not spending their time in ways consistent with their values and intentions.They don't knwo how to show care  and love at the same time they hold people accountable.

To be great managers, we need to tap into that which drives and compells us to do this work. When people can see and sense what we are about, they are more likely to enroll and partner with us, warts and all.

 

"Transform self by making it more complex." Grt quote from #flow

I love this passage in Csikszentmihalyi's classic Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

"In our studies, we found that every flow activity, whether it involved competition, chance, or any other dimension of experience, had this in common: It provided a sense of discovery, a creative feeling of transporting the person into a new reality. It pushed the person to higher levels of performance, and led to previously undreamed-of states of consciousness. In short, it transformed the self by making is more complex." pg 74

Sometimes these experiences are not at all pleasant while engaging in them - for example, while addressing an angry crowd, searching for victims in a disaster, climbing K2 during a blizzard, coaching a smart but clueless team member, lifting heavy weights, fighting a fire, etc. In fact, flow experiences are often not pleasurable at the time, but become among our most rewarding and valued experiences.

I love the part of the quote "sense of discovery...new reality." What might you engage in this week or month that has these qualities?

And for all the managers and leaders out there - might connecting with people become a flow experience? It certainly could if it were to become a goal of yours (like a real goal, deeply held, not just a goal that we put on a list because it sounds good/reasonable) and if you were driven to make each interaction better than the last.

Just pre-ordered this book. Looks amazing for teams and for kicks. #ASTD

I had to pre-order this book as soon as I saw it. Unlikely Friendships: 50 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom. It could be one of the best training books of the season! Really, you ask? Yes. Fractured teams are a leading cause of individual and team underperformance.

We lament that we don't like so-and-so or get irritated with what's-his-face's style. We use phrases like, "we are not going to go out for a martini anytime soon." And we hide perforated voo-doo dolls named after our peers in our desk drawers.

If a monkey and a pigeon can get along, why can't we? I'm just saying.

Buy a copy and pass it around at your next team meeting.

You might be thinking, "What if I am not interested in making any new friends?" I hope you will reconsider. The research is clear - strong and supporting relationships improve quality of life and well-being. Check out Martin Seligman's new book Flourish for more on that topic.

Fireside Chat with John Kay - Obliquity #bizbooks

Are you a fox or a hedgehog? Check out this podcast!

During this 24 minute podcast, I chat with John Kay, author of Obliquity: Why Our Goals are Best Achieved Indirectly. For those of you who manage others, set goals, create stratgy, and/or strive to build a great workplace and life, this podcast and book is for you. John, who is a well-regarded economist and has taught at institutions such as Oxford and the London School of Econimics, brings the idea of obliquity - an indirect and adaptive approach - to many aspects of life in his book (it is not a book about economics). Listen and learn why John is a critic of reengineering practices, why the most profitable companies are not the most profit oriented, and why the happiest peopple are not those who puruse happiness.

You can listen to my podcast with the John Kay by clicking here.

You can also download an MP3 version of the podcast here.

And just a reminder.....

Here is the Podcast Feed for the entire Fireside Chat podcast series:

To see the complete list of podcasts in this series, select the Podcasts and Webcasts category on this blog. You can also find this series on iTunes (and several other podcast sites), just search under my last name or Fireside Chat.

Road Tested Training Activities #ASTD #training

I had the pleasure of contributing an exercise (uses blogging in a classroom environment, ironically) to this wonderful collection just out from the ASTD Press called The Book of Road-Tested Activities. If you do any kind of training or like to use activities during your staff meetings or team work sessions, you will want this book. It contains over 100 test activities, each offered by an experienced trainer. Kudos to editor Elaine Biech for pulling together such a useful mix!

Put some new energy into your training sessions and meetings!