Leadership Caffeine-5 Priceless Lessons from Amundsen and Scott

February 17, 2013 by 4 Comments

image of a coffee cupIn preparation for an upcoming presentation, I’ve become a bit obsessed with studying the 1910 expeditions and race between Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott to 90-degrees South (the South Pole).  The lessons for leaders and managers practically leap off the pages of this classic example of coping with risk, uncertainty and volatility.

This “Heroic Era” of polar exploration was capped off (really bad pun!) by Amundsen and Scott, in what turned into an adventure where Amundsen beat Scott to the pole and safely returned, crew intact. Sadly, Scott and his crew ultimately perished during their attempted return.

I have Jim Collins to thank for this latest management segue, as he draws upon this same race and the comparison and contrast between Amundsen and Scott in his book with Morten T. Hansen, Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck-Why Some Thrive Despite them All. (Note: While Collins hooked me, see my suggestions at the end of the post for much deeper reading on the topic.)

The level of preparation that Amundsen and team put into their polar expedition was both monumental and commendable.  All students of project management and management and leadership in general should study this case.  The comparison and contrast between Amundsen’s approach and Scott’s is fascinating and highly relevant to leading initiatives and organizations in today’s turbulent workplace environment.

For the rest of us, here are a few lessons gleaned from my just-started study of this fascinating event.

At Least 5 Key Lessons Gained from Studying Amundsen and Scott:

1. The Conventional Wisdom Isn’t Always Right.  Amundsen’s selection of a previously uncharted path to 90-degrees South was contrary to all of the conventional wisdom of the time.  Long voiced concerns about the stability of the ice in the area kept prior expeditions from considering Amundsen’s starting point. His own painstaking review of the various logs of prior explorers suggested that the geology hadn’t changed much in decades. He decided to take this risk in return for a straighter, shorter (albeit completely unknown) line to his destination. While his choice introduced an element of risk, he viewed the payoff for success as worth it.

How often do you let the conventional wisdom dictate your approach to a complex problem?

2. Focus Means Focus. Amundsen was solely focused on reaching the South Pole. Everything he did…the months of preparation, the customization of his tools…and everything he had done earlier in his life, including, living with the Inuit, led to his preparation for success in the harsh polar environment. Scott had a mixed agenda of exploration and science, and the complexity of doing both contributed in part to his challenges.

It’s always tempting to tag on goals that seem complementary. Beware the dilution and distraction effect. Most of the time we’re best served by clarifying and then laser-focusing on the mission at hand.

 3. Luck Happens-It’s What You Do with It that Counts. In Amundsen’s words: “I may say that this is the greatest factor—the way in which the expedition is equipped—the way in which every difficulty is foreseen, and precautions taken for meeting or avoiding it. Victory awaits him who has everything in order — luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.”

Scott’s journal was filled with descriptions of bad luck. In reality, the two expeditions faced much of the same lousy weather luck. One succeeded while the other failed. What we do with our luck…good or bad is completely within our control.

 4. Tailor the Tools to the Mission. While Scott and his crew spent the winter months wiling away their time with lectures (to each other) and reading, Amundsen’s team maintained 8-hour days customizing every single piece of equipment to improve their odds of surviving anything. Both expeditions used the same sledges, but Amundsen’s were modified to reduce the weight considerably. Amundsen redesigned his skis and ski bindings, his crates, his critical paraffin containers and everything else with the idea of safety, security, light-weight, ease of use from set-up to stowing all the driving goal. And he took tips from the Inuit on clothing, opting for a style and material that promoted air circulation and helped managed sweating and heat retention/loss.

Too often we expect our technology tools and generic practices to yield great results. Take a page from Amundsen and tailor your tools to the mission in front of you.

 5. Nobility is Nice, but Practicality Wins. Scott and his crew viewed it as noble to man-haul their sledges and gears. Yes, man-haul. Amundsen knew from his time with the Inuit that dogs were superior haulers and that the issue of calories would eventually determine survival or death. Scott grossly miscalculated the calorie burn from man-hauling, and that combined with poor food depot planning (location, contents, fuel) contributed to his team’s demise. It is reported that Amundsen’s team actually gained weight during their successful return trip.

Pride and nobility goeth before the fall. Don’t get caught up in the nobility of your tactics, when there may well be a better, less-elegant approach to save the project, your job or in Scott’s case, his life.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

All of us live and work in a world filled with chaos and turbulence. Our customers feel it, our suppliers know it and our competitors are coping with it as well.

As Collins and Hansen suggest in Great by Choice: “It’s what you do before the storm comes that most determines how well you’ll do when the storm comes. Those who fail to plan and prepare for instability, disruption, and chaos in advance tend to suffer more when their environments shift from stability to turbulence.”

While, “Be like Amundsen” doesn’t have that commercial jingle sound to it, we will all be better off if we incorporate this explorer’s constancy of purpose and unrelenting focus into our personal and professional endeavors.

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Suggested resources:

-What the Race to the South Pole Can Teach You About How to Reach Your Goals (blog post)

-Race to the End: Amundsen, Scott and the Race to the South Pole (book)

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:

Don’t miss the next Leadership Caffeine-Newsletter! Register herebook cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check out Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development. 

Download a free excerpt of Leadership Caffeine (the book) at Art’s facebook page.

New to leading or responsible for first time leader’s on your team? Subscribe to Art’s New Leader’s e-News.

An ideal book for anyone starting out in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.

Need help with Feedback? Art’s new online program: Learning to Master Feedback

 Note: for volume orders of one or both books, drop Art a note for pricing information.

 

Filed Under: Decision-Making, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Management Innovation, Performance, Project Management, Strategy Tagged With: , , , ,

Managers: Show Fear the Door

February 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Lost and Confused SignpostA recent issue of Barron’s cited a study by New York based rogenSi suggesting that workforce psyche took a tumble in the past year to crisis era levels.

The research firm’s survey of 4,000 business professionals had half indicating that they felt “overwhelmed and undervalued” and were motivated by, “fear of failure more than a drive for success.”

No doubt there’s a hangover from the recent drive-by of financial Armageddon. While some sectors took the big hits, virtually everyone and every firm came out of that phase scarred and scared. Faced with today’s new normal of uncertainty and doubt, there’s been little time for healing.

Intuitively, one would expect most senior managers to recognize both the delicate state of people’s emotions in this uncertain era and to take some steps to both confront and mitigate this destructive force in the workplace. Based on the survey results, perhaps more than a few managers missed the memo. Here’s your reminder.

 4 Ideas to Help You Tame the Fear Monster in Your Workplace:

 1. Read and grok Deming’s Point #8: “Drive out fear so that everyone may work effectively for the company.”  Internalize this as a core part of your responsibilities. It’s not a task…it’s a way of managing, leading and living.

 2. Talk More with Your Teams. Nothing breeds uncertainty and discomfort more than silence. While you might have to start with a monologue by sharing results, talking about the business indicators and answering questions on targets and goals, strive to turn it into a dialogue emphasizing the exchange of ideas on improving and adapting.  Stick with it. This isn’t a program. Just like #1, it’s a way of managing.

 3. Use Judo on Momentary Failures or Minor Mistakes. No, don’t throw anyone or anything. Rather, turn the energy and emotion of momentary failure or a major mistake into that notion of a teachable moment. (Sorry, I hate that phrase, but sometimes it fits.) Your behavior when the muck hits the fan sets the tone for your team’s environment. Explode like a volcano and you bet people will hunker down, afraid to be the trigger, and fear wins.

 4. Encourage the Creation of New Cultural Artifacts. I’m convinced that community and connection help keep fear in the workplace at bay. The event is less important than the existences of informal forums for people to come together. The firm I’m presently involved with has a series of great activities that are employee conceived, run and low pressure. From Waffle Wednesday (the best waffles are made in Seattle) to a Friday afternoon Beverage Break, these are important and positive events for people to collect and connect. Ask your employees to define and run their own activities and like the two above, simpler is often better.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Of all of the potentially destructive forces present in our workplaces, fear is the one that is both the most damaging and the most controllable. Sadly, it’s often neither controlled nor even considered much as too many of us chase the urgent and the urgent unimportant. Fear may be what’s keeping you and your team or firm from advancing and expanding. Start investing time every day in showing fear the door.

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:

Don’t miss the next Leadership Caffeine-Newsletter! Register herebook cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check out Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development. 

Download a free excerpt of Leadership Caffeine (the book) at Art’s facebook page.

New to leading or responsible for first time leader’s on your team? Subscribe to Art’s New Leader’s e-News.

An ideal book for anyone starting out in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.

Need help with Feedback? Art’s new online program: Learning to Master Feedback

 Note: for volume orders of one or both books, drop Art a note for pricing information.

Filed Under: Crisis Leadership, Leadership, Management Innovation, Performance Tagged With: , ,

Integrator Leaders-People Who Get Stuff Done

May 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Regular readers know my perspective on those who lead without authority. I’m a huge fan. These are the people who turn good businesses great and who power teams with the kinetic energy created by their constant motion.

Great product managers, strong project leaders and anyone else regardless of title, who takes on accountability for results without the traditional formal authority (hire, review, promote/fire authority), are worth twice their weight in platinum.

While executives meet and do what it is that executives do, Integrator Leaders view it as their inalienable right to bend the internal structure to meet their needs for initiative achievement. Instead of viewing departmental boundaries as limits, they view them as deep pools of know-how and prospective resources.

The best I’ve known manage their executives by garnering support for funding, resources and prioritization, and then delivering results. They understand the language of strategy and growth and innovation, but mostly they understand the language of motivation. Without the burden of formal authority, they are free to engage with talented colleagues and leaders in all areas of an organization, building support and coalitions, and focusing these resources on doing something new, big or both.

Oddly, much of what passes for traditional approaches to managing is seemingly at cross-purposes with supporting Integrator Leaders. The pursuit of “control” in management and misguided measurement in the form of inappropriate silo-based performance indicators often serve to fight the emergence of a culture that leverages these Integrator Leaders.

While an organization filled with Integrator Leaders all chasing their own agendas, regardless of how well they align with the big picture strategies and goals, sounds a bit like chaos, fortunately, not every person will gravitate to the role of Integrator Leader.

For managers and executives who do have one or more of these priceless professionals on their teams, you will be well-served to point the Integrator Leaders in the right direction, loosen the silo and measurement controls and focus on supporting and monitoring instead of controlling or reining in.

Oh, did I mention that Integrator Leaders are just what the management doctor ordered in a world where the need for speed and the pursuit of learning and adaptation are all table-stakes for organizational survival and success>

What are you doing to support the emergence of Integrator Leaders in your organization?

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Don’t miss the next Leadership Caffeine-Newsletter! Register here.

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check our Art’s latest collection: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development. 

Download a free excerpt of Leadership Caffeine (the book) at Art’s facebook page.

New to leading or responsible for first time leader’s on your team? Subscribe to Art’ New Leader’s e-News.

To talk about a workshop or speaking need, contact Art at via e-mail at art.petty@artpetty.com

 

Filed Under: Leadership, Management Innovation, Performance Tagged With: , ,

Leaders, Tattoo this Causal Relationship on Your Forearms

February 22, 2012 by 6 Comments

I’ve been mildly surprised that the book, Beyond Performance-How Great Organizations Build Competitive Advantage by Scott Keller and Colin Price, hasn’t commanded more attention in mainstream business circles. Perhaps we’ve grown numb to the almost endless number of books purporting to show us the way to sustained success. However, don’t let the existence of 25,000 or so books published on managing change during the past two decades, blind you to some of the important and data-backed conclusions of Beyond Performance.

The book is the outcome of a massive McKinsey research initiative that suggests that the ability of an organization to gain and sustain success is a function of a focus on traditional performance tools and measures AND something they describe as Organizational Health. 

Organizational Health is defined as, “the ability of your organization to align, execute and renew itself faster than your competitors.”  

The authors backed by research that encompasses 600,000 survey respondents from more than 500 organizations; surveys and interviews with 6,800 CEO’s and an exhaustive literature review, put forth a powerful claim “On the strength of our research and analysis, we assert that the link between (organizational) health is more than a correlation, and is in fact causal.”

We’ve moved beyond correlation to a place where most of the 25,000 aforementioned books never go. The authors are stepping out on the statistical limb (a fairly sturdy, data-supported limb) in suggesting a causal relationship between performance and Organizational Health.

They take their conclusion one step further: “We argue that the numbers show that at least 50 percent of your organization’s success in the long term is driven by its health.”

What’s Organizational Health?

The short form: Organizational Health is described by three key components:  internal alignment on direction, quality of execution and capacity for renewal.

These three break down into 9 elements:

  1. Direction
  2. Leadership
  3. Culture and Climate
  4. Accountability
  5. Coordination and Control
  6. Capabilities
  7. Motivation
  8. External Orientation
  9. Innovation and Learning

The 9 further subdivide into 37 distinct management practices that can be measured, monitored and evaluated.  The 37 practices comprise the Organizational Health Index (OHI) survey, “a tool for measuring the health in rigorous and comprehensive manner.”

My Quick Takes:

Invest the time and read the book.  The book, the data, the OHI and the inherent management practices merit our time and attention!

There are practical implications for you and your firm now. Often, big  research studies seem to come back and confirm the obvious. There’s a little of that here, but the data backing of the conclusions allows us to move from conjecture about these practices to confidence that we need to focus our energies around promoting organizational health.  Anyone reading this or any other leadership and management blog will intuitively get that the 9-elements (and 37 practices) are essential. The book offers few epiphanies from an intellectual perspective. From a practical perspective, it clubs us over the head and reminds us that we tend to ignore much of the softer stuff (beyond performance activities and measures). Translation, too many business and leaders suck at cultivating organizational health.

It’s broader than employee engagement.  The OHI is comprehensive enough to bypass my gag reflex on employee engagement surveys serving as proxies for organizational health. If I see one more question asking me whether I have friends at work or whether I have the tools to do my job, the gag reflex will fail!

See also the last decade. Ignoring organizational health has in large part contributed to the creation of the lost decade we’ve just lived through. This past decade guarantees heartburn many years into the future.

Reminds you of your priorities. The authors and their concept of Organizational Health speak to the pieces we all intuitively know are essential for survival in this world…alignment on direction, focus on getting great people supporting execution, and promoting a culture that learns and adapts. The encouragement to work on the practices that beget health is an important reminder for all of us.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

No magical answers, but strong support for what the best leaders and managers have long known…the soft stuff of culture, climate and environment and all the inherent management practices are critical. Organizational health begets performance. Is it time for a check-up?

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Don’t miss the next Leadership Caffeine-Newsletter! Register here.

Art Petty is a Chicago-based management consultant focusing on strategy and leadership development. Art regularly speaks on innovation in management and leadership, and his work is reflected in two books, including the recent, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.  Art publishes regularly at The Management Excellence blog at http://artpetty.com

Prior to his solo career, Art spent 20+ years leading marketing sales and business units in systems and software organizations around the globe. You can follow Art on twitter: @artpetty and he can be reached via e-mail at art.petty@artpetty.com

Filed Under: Leadership, Leading Change, Management Innovation, Strategy Tagged With: , , ,

Steve Jobs-Walking With Giants

October 6, 2011 by 3 Comments

Twentieth Century Industrialist and the founder of Panasonic, Konosuke Matsushita, established a garden outside of the firm’s modest headquarters in Osaka, Japan. In this garden, he commissioned and placed statues of his heroes. Fittingly, a giant statue of Thomas Edison is at the center of this collection of remarkable Western and Asian inventors and thinkers. A few of the recognizable names beyond Edison, include: Anton Phillips, Ampere, Marconi and Ohm.  In my mind, Steve Jobs is now strolling in his traditional garb in this garden, talking and debating with Matsushita, Edison and the other great thinkers and doers that have defined our age of technology.

Safe travels, Steve and thanks for your contributions to our world.

 

Filed Under: Leadership, Management Innovation Tagged With: , ,
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