Finding Time to Focus or, Speed Kills
Filed under: Career, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Leading Change, Making Decisions, Management Education, Organizational Transformation, Performance, Social Commentary
More observations on business and culture from an unofficial leadership anthropologist.
The lot of professionals inside many organizations can easily be characterized by a series of endless status meetings, hurried hallway conversations and messages quickly dispatched on a pda while walking, ignoring the meeting in process or consuming a protein bar on the run.
Space aliens observing from afar might get the sense of a hive type atmosphere with a seemingly endless amount of activity, but almost no perceived vector. Clearly people fawn over those with power, but the output of all of this fawning and excessive movement might not be visible to these distant observers. Nonetheless, work gets done, customers are served and growth often created. I do however, worry and wonder about the human costs and the cost to the organization in lost-ideas, missed opportunities and a much more superficial existence.
If you work in one of these fast-paced cultures, the issue of finding time to focus on people and strategic priorities is a true struggle. The problem is compounded if you get caught up in the common notion that success equates to being perceived by the right people as busy.
Beware the Micro-Transaction Trap:
I’ve noticed a tendency for some in hive type cultures to get caught up in achieving a maximum number of touches per day. The goal becomes one of earning attendance to meetings where you need to “be seen,” and minimizing the amount of time that you spend on any one topic. Deep thinking is not promoted, because you are too busy engaging in micro-transactions. These are quick sound-bite type engagements where surface topics are covered and conversations on deep issues forestalled for another time.
Another Way:
I contrast the micro-transaction or hive style culture with my own experiences working and partnering with a number of different U.S., Asian and European organizations, where thinking time is valued, and discussions are typically allowed to run a useful course…one not dictated by the next entry in an Outlook calendar.
While I cannot say conclusively whether these more deliberate organizations are more successful than their hive-like counterparts, they are all market leaders and they do well retaining and developing employees.
What I can say from personal observation and interaction is that this more deliberate style certainly seems more humane, more enjoyable and to me, one heck of a lot more productive on the right issues. Strategic issues are tackled, learning takes place and coaching and nurturing of talent is a focal point.
5 Reasons Why Lack of Focus Extracts a Toll Personally and Organizationally
1. Speed drains and kills. Constant movement and micro-transactions draw upon instinct and adrenaline. Survival is the goal, movement is required and it becomes habitual. There’s no deep processing going on in this constant sense and respond environment. Frankly, I want some deep thinkers on my team.
2. Excessive focus on pace squeezes out good leadership practices. A key to successful leadership is finding time to focus on others. While sometimes the army is engaged, and sense and respond are required for a period of time, eventually, there must be an opportunity rest, reflect, learn, plan and reset. An always on, micro-transaction culture is a formula that promotes leadership ineffectiveness and rapid troop burnout.
3. All activity, no vector equals poor or suboptimal results. A lot of activity and no vector is a huge waste of physical and mental energy. Strategy sets the vector, and unless this strategy is clear to all, the motion is for show, not for go or dough. Lack of focus extracts huge opportunity costs from an organization.
4. The criteria for getting ahead are off-key. If it’s required to be constantly visible to the people in power to succeed, frankly, the leadership is fatally flawed.
5. Unbridled speed accelerates mistakes. Speed is a powerful motivator and a false god. Speed creates waste and allows mistakes to run further faster. The effective use of speed is a different story. (I have a great podcast interview coming up with Jocelyn Davis, one of the co-authors of Strategic Speed, where this notion of effective speed is shared in detail.)
The Bottom-Line for Now:
Speed kills, and so does inaction compounded by over-analysis. There must be a happy medium or at least a workable balance of speed and activity with the slow, thoughtful dialogue that leads to new ideas, performance improvements and effective coaching. If you live and work in a hive type atmosphere, you’ve got a tough task, but one worth fighting for on a daily basis. Learn to slow down and focus at least once a day.
Leadership Caffeine: Quit Managing Reduced Expectations
Filed under: Career, Crisis Leadership, Current Affairs, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Leading Change, Life and Business, Making Decisions, Management Education, Management Innovation, Organizational Transformation, Professional Growth
Note from Art: Sometimes we all need a kick in the seat of the pants.
A great friend and talented product manager once offered in a moment of frustration that he viewed his principal job as one of “managing reduced expectations.”
This brilliant, but depressing turn of words reflected bigger business problems, including a logjam in development that effectively precluded us from doing anything to enhance the competitiveness of our products in a timeframe shorter than something that you might find on a geologic time-scale. .
The “managing reduced expectations” theme seems to be prevalent in our society right now, and it is a dangerous mind-set. Spiraling debt, a never-ending string of mortgage defaults, long-lingering unemployment, embattled and embittered government, corruption, a seeming shift of the balance of economic and productive power away from North America, and a potentially unsolvable morass in Afghanistan are all contributors to this collective mood referenced in the media and heard on the street daily. Throw in a good old-fashioned ecological disaster and some remarkable leadership letdowns at BP (unconscionable) and HP (Huh? We all thought that this guy was brilliant!) and the process of managing reduced expectations is now epidemic.
It’s remarkably easy to let the broader environmental factors and forces dictate our personal emotions and before we know it, an attitude of blind resignation sets in and dominates our thinking and our actions.
Just a few phrases that I’ve heard recently:
“We see a huge opportunity for our new product, but corporate is telling us that we can’t invest in the brainpower that we need to take advantage of the opportunity.”
“Times are tough and we’re not going to pursue this project this year.”
“We’re not running leadership training anymore. We killed that in this year’s budget planning.”
What the Hell Are You Thinking?
Sorry for the strong title on this section, but again, “What the hell?”
You’re telling me that you are going to take it lying down while your future is decided by someone wielding the expense-cutting sword to hit arbitrary targets?
You’re not pursuing a project that will define your future and perhaps change the course of your firm, because no one is working hard enough to cull the portfolio or find the money.
And you gave up developing your people because why?
The Bottom-Line for Now:
In the imitable words of the character, Red Foreman, on The 70’s Show: “Dumb Asses.”
It’s time to quit managing reduced expectations. There’s a big, troubled world out there filled with emerging markets and emerging consumers hungry for basics and then eventually luxuries. Of course, to seize opportunities here and abroad, you’ve got to jettison old ways, take risks that might have seemed incomprehensible yesterday, and work unceasingly on surrounding yourself with people that can-do and don’t take no for dumb-ass reasons.
Redouble your efforts to invest in key future projects. Sacrifice sacred cows in company-wide barbecues to fund critical new investments. Streamline decision-making processes. Jettison your 1970’s era management structure and approach. Fight hard to hire the right talent and for crying out loud, redouble your efforts to develop the talent that you need to survive, sustain and grow.
Long ago, Deming called for a Transformation in management practices and thinking. It hasn’t happened yet. Now would be a good time.
As a starter, why not try reinventing yourself instead of taking it and letting the era roll you over. The change starts with you on your team. Start managing towards high-expectations and find every way possible to reinforce this behavior, reward successes and build enthusiasm.
The alternative is that your career and your firm will be locked in irons. Let’s not create a “lost era” here in America. It’s completely unacceptable.
Leadership Inspiration from the Howard Schultz HBR Interview
Filed under: Leadership, Leading Change, Making Decisions, Management Education, Organizational Transformation, Values
If you’re looking for a breath of fresh leadership air and some hope in this world after watching CEOs doing the Perp Walk or the Resignation Shuffle, read the interview, “We Had to Own the Mistakes” with Howard Schultz, Starbucks Chairman and CEO, in the July-August, 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review.
While Schultz is no stranger to our world as an iconic founder of one of the world’s most successful and formerly fastest growing firms, one might argue that he didn’t earn his leadership stripes until faced with the unexpected challenging of turning the firm around.
Love the coffee or not, it’s hard to leave the interview without a sense that Shultz has a firm handle on what it takes to lead successfully in this era of transparency and extreme employee distrust (well earned) of those in charge. I’ll let you read the interview, but I don’t mind pointing out the areas that particularly resonated with me, including:
- The frequent use of the phrase: “I am responsible,” in reference to the firm’s troubles following his departure from the CEO seat. (He remained the firm’s Chairman.)
- His refusal to throw the former management team under the bus for the firm’s troubles: “There was a different team here-very good people who deserve respect and not the burden of responsibility. I was chairman of the company, and I am culpable.” There he goes again with that responsibility thing! Did you hear that, Tony Hayward?
- The admission that organizational and leadership hubris created the problems. “We had never had much competition. Everything we did more or less worked, and that produced a level of hubris that caused us to overlook what was coming.”
- His view to leading the turnaround of the firm: “The challenge was how to preserve and enhance the integrity of the only assets we have as a company, our values, our culture and our guiding principles and the reservoir of trust with our people.” That statement takes my breath away.
And without stealing too much more thunder from a great and inspirational read, Schultz serves up example after example where he and the firm stood up and made the hard call in spite of overwhelming pressure. Decisions to maintain health care benefits, never sacrifice quality for cost savings, invest in retraining the staff and introduce new offerings when the pundits all said they were horrible mistakes, are a few of the examples of moral courage in action.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
I jumped off the Starbucks train a few years ago when the experience began to sour. Poor service, expensive prices and noisy, cramped stores that no longer facilitated work or networking plus coffee drinking, were enough to send me in search of some local roasters. After reading the interview, I may just have to learn that funny drink ordering language again and see if Howard’s refreshing leadership approach has filtered down to the store level.
Thanks Howard, for painting a picture of what good leadership sounds and acts like.
The Triple Threat to Good Decisions: Data, Time and Emotion
Filed under: Leadership, Leadership Skills, Making Decisions, Management Education, Middle Management, Performance, Professional Growth, Strategy, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
There are few situations more challenging to teams than dealing with a tough, emotionally-charged issue and decision-choice while facing significant time pressure and seemingly contradictory data.
If that type of situation sounds uncommon or unrealistic, consider that many firms and management teams make critical priority calls and strategic choices under just such circumstances. The decision to launch Challenger was a prime example, with all three factors playing a huge role in this tragic call. Countless corporate strategic misfires owe their outcome to this triple-threat of data, time and emotion.
While many situations don’t involve life-safety issues, this triple-threat is something that every manager should be critically sensitive to in their group and strategic decision-making.
Data, Bloody Data
Let’s start here first. We would like to believe that we are making data-driven, fact-based calls on key issues. Unfortunately, the data quality facts don’t back that opinion.
Our firms have invested small fortunes in powerful data warehousing, enterprise management and analytics software programs, yet report after report substantiates that the data in our systems is crap. It’s poor quality, obsolete and just plain wrong. (Visit The Data Warehouse Institute for more on this topic.)
Beyond the fatal data quality issues, we struggle with too much information and the very real and challenging issue of how to interpret the data. Given this challenge, it’s common for individuals and groups to engage in a game of data-roulette, including:
- Looking for the data that confirms our opinion and then seizing upon this confirmation evidence at the expense of potentially contradictory error.
- Sampling on the dependent variable instead of the independent variable. This common logic error has people looking at the wrong issue and improperly attributing cause and effect.
- Ignoring the data. Given the volume of data typically just a click away, it’s easy for individuals and groups to quickly become confused or overwhelmed or both. Another outcome of too much data is analysis paralysis.
Time after Time
Most timelines for business initiatives are contrived, yet many managers and groups allow artificial deadlines to impact the quality of their decisions. Certainly, we all know that time is money and that windows of opportunity can close, and yet, I wouldn’t let either of those clichés drive me to make a poor quality decision. I’ll accept that speed of decision-making is important, but only if it is counter-balanced with quality.
Watch Out When Emotions Rule the Day
My favorite, nausea inducing line of all is, “You’ve got to take off your (insert your functional hat) and put on your business hat.” That invitation to suspend logic, slice your IQ and commonsense in half and make a poor call is often a ploy to both manipulate and to quickly resolve an emotion-laden issue by imploring someone to suspend judgment.
We don’t’ make good decisions under emotional stress, and that goes for relationships and major life events as well as business situations. Our well documented and well-established fear of change, its’ close cousin, our propensity to pursue something that looks like the status quo, and our over-reliance on gut calls to reduce or avoid conflict and resolve time-pressures and data ambiguity issues all contribute to crappy decision-making.
7 Suggestions to Keep the Triple Headed Monster of Poor Decision-Making Locked Up
I pull no punches on this topic. As the leader, you are on the hook for teaching your team to make good decisions. Your firm depends upon it and your career depends upon it.
1. Strive for Crystal Clarity on the Issue! Frame the issue and carefully conduct a process- check to ensure that you are all looking at the same core issue and decision.
2. Hit the Brakes! If time-pressure takes over, it’s your job to hit the brakes! I’m not certain of attribution, but the phrase: “slow down and think carefully before you do something stupid” jumps to mind here.
3. Hit the Brakes, Part 2: Too many managers are fearful of raising their hands and saying, “hold it.” As a leader, foster a culture where people don’t get knee-capped for pulling the chain to stop the production line, and as a professional, develop a spine.
4. Just the Facts! Spend time assessing what you know, and very importantly, defining what you still need to know to make a decision. This last part….”what we need to know,” is often skipped.
5. Turn Data Into Information and Knowledge. Monitor data integrity and quality, and work with your group to carefully wrap it in meaning. This step is the source of many of the errors described above, so note your assumptions, watch out for framing and confirming evidence errors. Consider involving objective 3rd parties to help look at and interpret the data and data needs.
6. Recall Drucker’s Saying: “Every Decision is a Risk-Taking Judgment.” Teach your team to think through and prioritize on risks. Use face-to-face and anonymous input to ensure that risks are identified without the bias of social interaction.
7. Vent the Emotions and Then Move On: De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats does this brilliantly. Use his process, or, at least create an opportunity for everyone to vent and then challenge them to focus on facts, risks, opportunities and ideas. (Frankly, Six Thinking Hats process is a tool that has the potential to improve discussion and decision quality. Consider identifying an experienced facilitator to help you with this process.)
The Bottom-Line for Now:
Time pressures, emotional factors and data issues are at the root of many poor life and business decisions. High performance teams and effective leaders recognize these factors, talk openly about them when they start to encroach, and work hard at locking them back in their cage when quality of judgment is in danger. It’s time to slay this triple-threat to effective decision-making in your environment.
Team Conflict? As Long as It’s Not Personal, Run With It
Filed under: Innovation, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Making Decisions, Management Education, Performance, Professional Growth, Project Management
I’m leery of happy teams. Don’t get me wrong. I like positive situations and working with happy people, however, in my experience, the happy teams are the ones that produce mediocre results or, they don’t produce at all.
Give me a group of people that show up to do battle on the issues versus the team that strives for peace and harmony, any day.
Just as “being liked” isn’t required to be effective as a leader, neither is maintaining peace and harmony on the team required for success. What is required is the ability to push the envelope on creativity, talk openly and freely about problems and shortcomings, and to cry foul when someone violates the group’s norms for performance, behavior and accountability.
For many people, conflict in the team environment feels wrong. It’s uncomfortable. Conflict breeds personal stress and group tension, and sometimes creates a hue and cry for “getting along.” While an aversion to conflict is understandable if it is personal in nature, task and process conflict are important factors in propelling high-performance teams forward.
5 Reasons a Dose of Conflict Might Be Healthy For Your Team:
1. Elephants aren’t allowed to hide in the room. The big issues and tough topics are uncovered quickly and dispatched without worrying about personal interests and political boundaries.
2. Social loafing is squashed. Hanging out and working at less than full tilt becomes painfully obvious in environments where the group is challenging itself to move together through the jungle. People pull their weight or they are left behind.
3. Decisions are held to a higher standard. While the potential pitfalls of group decision-making are well known, teams that challenge themselves and each other in pursuit of achievement tend to have higher standards for the quality of their decisions. Instead of a rush-to-decide or a drive-to-consensus culture found on more collegial teams, task-focused groups search for answers that pass the filters for both quality and speed. In my experience, they challenge assumptions, seek the right or at least better data and assess risks and implications much more effectively than the “let’s all get along” teams.
4. Leadership skills are challenged and strengthened. High task conflict teams are leadership laboratories. One of the “elephants in the room” of my argument here is that leading these teams is not for the faint of heart. Team leaders must learn to manage the flow and energy of the conflict to ensure that it doesn’t move into personal territory. They also need to be adept at helping maneuver the team from the heat of robust dialogue to a decision and implementation. These are clearly non-trivial leadership challenges and remarkable learning opportunities for all involved.
5. Standards for performance are enhanced. Participants refuse to settle for anything other than success, and success is often defined as either exceeding or obliterating targets or, innovating in some meaningful fashion. The task conflict pushes people higher and harder. Along the way, these high performance teams raise the bar for everyone in the organization.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
I suspect that I’m skating on the thin-ice of a great number of people that find conflict distressing and destructive. Keep in mind that my context is task or process conflict, and not anything personal in nature. It takes an emotionally intelligent group to pull this off and not let good and tough discussion over the right issues reduce to squabbling and paralysis. It’s hard work to find and foster this type of a team and environment. But who said that producing high performance was easy work? It’s most definitely not.
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