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Values

BlogLeadership

Are you Confident or Cocky?

by Ron Potter

Jeff Haden wrote the original article in Inc. magazine and covered more steps than I’ve focused on here.

I’ve been referred to as a “cocky SOB”, so maybe I fall on the cocky side of this equation.  However, I’ve also been referred to as incredibility confident.  I think the two are intertwined so let’s take a look at how you can be confident without being cocky.

Signs You Are Genuinely Confident

You listen 10 times more than you speak

I don’t know about the 10-1 volume but I’ve written several blogs on

  • Listening with the Intent to Understand
  • Listening with the Intent to Respond.

I don’t think it’s the volume of listening that you’re doing. I think it’s how you listen.  You can listen a lot to a person but if it’s always with the “intent to respond”, the other person doesn’t really feel like you’re listening.  It’s hard to stay in the “intent to understand” mode because our natural tendency is to get our point across.  But when you stay in this mode, it really signals to the other person that you truly want to know what and why they think the way they do.  It also gives them credibility.  This is listening with confidence.

You duck the spotlight so it shines on others.

Not taking credit when it’s due to others shows great confidence.   There is nothing cocky about this approach.  Many people get threatened when they are not in the spotlight.  They worry that if others gain more of the spotlight it will threaten them and their position.  Confidence becomes obvious to others and is appreciated by the boss, teammates, and direct reports.

You freely ask for help

The help may need to come from anyone in the 360 circles around you.  People who want to feel that they know everything about every subject will be quickly exposed (outwardly or inwardly) as needing help but being afraid to ask.  Admitting that you may know a lot and have lots of experiences but you just don’t know everything makes you come across as very human.  This is trustworthy.

You don’t put down other people.

Putting others down reflects more on you than it diminishes the value of the person you’re putting down.

You own your mistakes.

We’ve talked in several previous blogs about looking for someone to blame when things go wrong.  This is cocky, not confident.

Confident leaders will be remembered and appreciated by everyone around them for a long time.  While the actions of cocky leaders will be remembered for a long time, their names will soon be forgotten.

Be a confident leader!

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BlogTeam

The First Failure of Socialism

by Ron Potter

We have just finished Thanksgiving, or what we experience as Thanksgiving in this age of Covid.  It is a time, rightfully so, for each of us to talk about what we’re thankful for.  However, let’s not forget that the pilgrim settlement in plymouth in the early 1600s may be socialism’s first failure

Needs vs Work

In the settlement, all that was needed by individuals was provided from them, having been either produced or paid for by the collective-owned farms.  The “accounting” system was determined by what the individuals needed rather than how hard they worked or earned their way.

Discontent and Starvation

The strongest colonists who worked hard in the fields all day began to resent those that received the same amount for doing nothing while the able-bodied provided all of the hard work to supply the goods.  In addition to the discontent, nearly half of the colonists died during that first winter because too many people took advantage of the supplies provided by the few.

Nearly 400 years later, Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister of the UK said, “The trouble with socialism is that eventually, you run out of other people’s money.”

Socialism Abandoned

About two years after the famine brought on by the socialism approach, the pilgrims decided that enough was enough, a new approach was undertaken that required each family to provide for themselves.  It required hard work.

Work Application

If you’ve followed my blogs, you know that I’ve tried to stay away from politics for the most part.  So how do we look at our own and other’s failed attempts at socialism?

How does socialism disguise itself in the workplace?  It’s not all that hard to see.  Some people are there simply for the paycheck.  No motivation.  No extra effort.  No innovation.  Unfortunately, those people are left in place for various reasons even though it’s obvious to their colleagues and others they’re not pulling their weight.

What happens when that attitude is allowed to continue?  Other people either:

  • Begin to exhibit the same traits: “Why should I put in the extra effort, create my own motivation, look for innovative approaches when others are not and no one seems to notice?”
  • Leave for new employment: If a person is hard-working, motivated, innovative, they begin to look for a different place to work.  Just like our pilgrim’s failed effort, it leads to starvation.  Starvation is the sense that productivity begins to dwindle and those left tend to wither on the vine.

Winston Churchill (where are all these UK quotes coming from all of a sudden? 😉) is quoted as saying, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those others that have been tried.”

Don’t put up with it

This form of socialism in the workplace leads to failure.  Every time I’ve seen the “deadwood” taken out of the system, I’ve seen productivity increase.  Not just for a moment, but long-term.  Pulling together a team of highly motivated, hard-working individuals will always lead to long-term productivity gains.

Build a Team

Build a team of highly motivated people, each being productive, and you will experience long-term growth like you’ve never seen before.

Radar

Recently I watched a documentary on the development of radar that is credited with saving England during the Nazi air blitz of London.  Many times individuals wanted to quit but they were always reminded that they were part of a team that was bigger than any individual.  It took a team to accomplish the goal.

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BlogLeadership

Understanding Speed and Velocity: Saying “NO” to the Non-Essential

by Ron Potter

Shane Parrish said in one of his blogs “It’s tempting to think that in order to be a valuable team player, you should say “yes” to every request and task that is asked of you. People who say yes to everything have a lot of speed. They’re always doing stuff but never getting anything done. Why? Because they don’t think in terms of velocity.”

Speed vs Velocity

I learned the difference between these two elements in engineering school.  Most people don’t know the difference between the two and use them interchangeably.  I admit that in most cases, it doesn’t really matter that people use them incorrectly.  But I believe that part of great leadership is saying what you mean and meaning what you say.  You can’t do that if you’re using words incorrectly.  People understand different words differently and it’s important to clarify what you’re saying.

Speed

Speed is a scalar measurement.  It tells us how far we’ve traveled in what amount of time.  It is distance divided by time.  Our roads have “speed” signs along the way.  Our state increased the speed on rural interstate highways from 70 miles per hour (mph) to 75 mph.  This means that I can cover more miles in the same amount of time.  My speed increases.

But speed doesn’t indicate direction.  I may merge onto the interstate and increase my speed to 75 mph.  I’ll be making good time.  But if I entered into the northbound side of the divided highway and my intended destination is to the south of my starting point, my speed is meaningless.  I may drive for an hour at 75 mph but at the end of that hour, I will be further from my desired destination than when I started.  It doesn’t have much value to go fast if you’re headed in the wrong direction!

Velocity

Velocity, on the other hand, is a vector measurement.  It includes direction.  Going 75 mph to the north is the same speed as 75 mph to the south but has very different velocities and very different destinations.  Just going fast doesn’t necessarily get you to your desired destination.  In fact, you may have a faster speed but take longer to your destination if you have the wrong velocity.

Saying No

The title of this blog indicates that you must say no to the non-essentials.  If you don’t, you’re just going fast!

There must be a purpose or a destination in mind to achieve the greatest velocity.

Some people just can’t say “no.”   Even when they say yes to non-essentials.  They’re just going fast.  This leads to burnout, stress, health issues, and missed targets.  Without a clear destination, there’s no value in going fast.  It’s just that some people feel that if they’re going fast then they’re more valuable.  Wrong!

Successful People say No

I’ll close this blog with a quote from Shane Parrish’s blog:

The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.
– Warren Buffett

If I were to rank the CEO’s I’ve worked with through the years, the one at the top of my list (best CEO) said ‘No’ more than all the others.  There is a tremendous demand for the time of the CEO.  And the demands are almost all worthwhile.  But the best CEO I ever worked with made it very clear the three things they were focused on in any given year.  When a demand arose that required them to spend time on something other than the three things that were the focus for the year, they immediately said ‘No’ and recruited someone else to accomplish the task.  It’s usually ego that drives them to spend their time on the non-essentials.  Good CEO’s overcome the ego.

Increase Your Velocity

Three things are listed in the blog that will help increase velocity

  1. Ruthlessly shave away the unnecessary tasks, priorities, meetings, and BS.  See the paragraph above to help with this item.
  2. Don’t rely on your willpower to say no; instead, create systems that help you fend off the distractions.
    I think this is a really good suggestion.  Just believing you have the willpower to say no when the time comes will fail.  Rely on a visible system (to you and others) to put demands in the ‘no’ category.
  3. Say “no” to your boss.  This may be the most difficult one for most people.  But, if you have a good boss, you will be respected for saying ‘no’ based on your system.  If you are not respected for saying ‘no’ for the right reasons, look for another job (boss).

If you’re all about speed, you’ll simply experience burnout.  Velocity indicates you have a meaningful destination.  Velocity will lead to success and satisfaction.

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BlogTeam

Divided

by Ron Potter

I hesitated to use the word Racism in the title of this blog.  Many would say there is no way I could understand because I’m a gray-haired white male.  I’m sure there is some truth to that statement.  But, I was a young adult, going to college and living in southern Michigan when the Detroit riots occurred in the late sixties.  Those riots left me confused, hurting, and even angry.  I wasn’t sure what I should do.

Pastor of local Black Church

When the riots hit the city where I now live, many of those same feelings of confusion, hurting, and not knowing what to do surfaced again.  Turning into a gray-haired, old white male didn’t seem to help much.

Then I had an opportunity to listen to a teaching pastor at a local black church.  I really wanted to learn from what he had to say.  I found it interesting that he was “struggling, frustrated, angry, and hurting.”  He was not gray-haired or white but he expressed the same feelings I had been experiencing.

Five things that will help

It turns out that the scripture passage we were studying was about being peaceable.  When the local pastor was asked what it took to be Peaceable he gave a well thought out and knowledgable answer.

  1. Slow to Judge
  2. Quick to Listen
  3. Eager to learn
  4. Willing to identify
  5. Ready to speak up and act.

Slow to Judge

In today’s social media, internet-based, global world, it’s very easy to judge and too many people judge too quickly.  Maybe it’s a liberal or conservative making the statement and instead of listening what is said, people instantly write it off because it was said by the “other side”.

Maybe it’s a statement made by a European or Asian and people in the US judge it quickly as meaningless because they “don’t understand” how things work in the US.

The list would be too long to identify all of the times we’re quick to judge.  When you’re quick to judge, you leave no room for learning.

Quick to Listen

Do you listen with the intent to respond?  Or do you listen with the intent to understand?  Most of us, most of the time are listening with the intent to respond.  While the other person is talking (or shouting) we’re keeping track of each point made and creating our “checklist” of either reinforcing or countering the point being made.

How does that make the other person feel?

  • You’re not listening.
  • You’re stupid (or at least ignorant).
  • You want to win the argument which makes me want to say it louder and more forcefully.
  • The louder voice “wins.”

But, how does the other person feel if you demonstrate your desire to understand?

  • You’re truly interested in what they have to say.
  • You’re trying to expand your knowledge base to understand where they’re coming from
  • You’re not trying to win a shouting match.
  • Maybe we can reach a mutual understanding because they now may want to know what you have to say.

Eager to Learn

Socrates believed that knowledge was the ultimate virtue, best used to help people improve their lives. “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance,”

Notice that Socrates said knowledge helped improve lives.  Ignorance is (not stupidity) is the lack of knowledge.  Why do some people remain Ignorant?  They refuse to learn.

Each person is coming from a perspective that is real and “true” to them.  For instance, I grew up in a small town.  But in my adult years, my business took me all over the world.  That changed my perspective.  I now saw the world differently than my friends and family who remained in that small town.

That doesn’t make it wrong, it just gives them a different perspective.  The best way to develop relationships and understanding is to understand someone’s perspective.  This requires the first two elements, Slow to Judge, and Quick to Listen.

Psychology tells us that cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous quote says “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

The world is full of opposing ideas and perspectives.  Don’t hold on to yours to the point of stress and discomfort.  Learn!

Willing to Identify

In my mind, this may be the most difficult.  Not because we don’t want to identify with the other person but because our perspectives become so strong in our lives.  I don’t have the same experiences as someone else.  They also don’t have the same experiences that I have.  We can identify by hearing their story, listening to their experiences, and finally relating it to some experience we’ve had.  Then we begin to identify.

Don’t take the position that “You just don’t understand!  You haven’t had the experiences I have!”  That’s true.  I haven’t had the experiences you’ve had.  But I’ve had good and bad experiences.  And I can empathize with what you’re experiencing.  It’s how we grow together.

Ready to Speak up and Act

There are a lot of forces in our lives that tell us to just be quiet.  It actually starts in elementary school.  The teacher often told us to sit down and be quiet.

We’ve also been told by people (with different perspectives) that our ideas and words are stupid.  So we sit quietly because we don’t want to look stupid.

In today’s world of social media, we can quickly be criticized for our thoughts and ideas.  In this anonymous and divided world, it can quickly be labeled as hate language.  There is a fear of being labeled for our thoughts.

I experienced it writing this blog.  What if I push a wrong button and it is all of a sudden seen as hateful rather than helpful.  I just want to speak up in an effort to help.  But I have this fear of pushing the wrong button.  One I’m not even aware of.

And what about unconscious bias?  We hear that phrase a lot today.  And people are being accused of having unconscious bias as if it’s a flaw.  But what do the words mean?  Unconscious: the part of the mind which is inaccessible to the conscious mind.  It’s inaccessible!  It’s ignorance, not stupidity.

I’ve chosen through the years to keep this blog focused on building team, leadership, and corporate cultures.  I didn’t want to venture into politics, religion, or racism because of this fear of being misunderstood.  But the pastor’s five steps ends with “Be ready to speak up and act.”

I don’t’ know if he intended to put them in order but I do suggest that we don’t speak up until we’ve progressed openly through the first four steps.

Teams

And just to get back to more familiar ground, these five steps also help grow great teams.

  1. Slow to Judge
  2. Quick to Listen
  3. Eager to learn
  4. Willing to identify
  5. Ready to speak up and act.

Learn and practice the five steps to address division.  They help us become better people and build better teams.

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BlogLeadership

Deep Work in Isolation

by Ron Potter

I seldom do a quick follow up after a recent blog but the next couple of blogs have been triggered by reader feedback.

Recently many readers commented on the blog post titled “Coronavirus and Deep Work”.  In that post, I recommended that you not waste this forced time at home.  Use some of it to sit quietly and think deep thoughts.  We seldom get a chance to do that during our former work life even though it is much needed.  I referred to Cal Newton’s book Deep Work where he goes into much more detail.

Isolation Advice

Then today—April 17—I was reading a Wall Street Journal article titled “Coronavirus Lockdown Lessons from Antarctica.” The article looks at many of the scientific teams that populate Antarctica during the wintertime and are completely isolated.  They focus on one team in particular from Norway that works at the Troll station.

“On a recent evening, Troll’s six-person team put together a list of advice for those struggling with extended lockdowns.

    • Give people space…folks have to be allowed time on their own to read books, listen to music, watch television.
    • Don’t let problems linger and get bigger—talk about it from the start.
    • Stay active, and even if you are in a small place, move furniture and get fit.
    • Take a deep breath, this is a time to be curious”

Curiosity

I think curiosity is the foundation piece to deep work.  Wikipedia says

Curiosity is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in humans and other animals. Curiosity is heavily associated with all aspects of human development, in which derives the process of learning and desire to acquire knowledge and skill.”

Development and Learning

Notice that curiosity is heavily associated with development and learning.  I once had a friend who was fond of saying “as long as you’re like the little kid pulling his wagon up the hill, you’re doing fine.  But as soon as you stop exerting the effort to get up that hill and you sit down in your wagon to rest, you’ll find yourself at the bottom of the hill”

Reflection

I think the first thing to be curious about is yourself.  Socrates is quoted as saying “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.”  I’ll give Socrates a pass because he was alive about 400 years before Jesus but the Bible says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Even if you don’t hold to the Christian faith, let’s put those two concepts together.  What they are really saying is that you must know who you are and how you fit into this life and humanity as a whole.  That doesn’t come easily.  A complete lack of this reflection is a sign of Psychopathy.  Just a few of the symptoms of Psychopathy include: Grandiose sense of self-worth, lack of remorse, guilt, or empathy.  Lack of long-term goals.  None of these symptoms show signs of self-reflection.  Start with yourself.

Notice that not having long-term goals is one of the signs associated with lack of self-reflection.  Where are you going?  What does the end of your journey look like?  What do you want to be remembered for?  These issues and others are not part of our busy lives, they are reached only by deep, reflective thought.

Opportunity

You’ve been handed an opportunity.  Don’t waste it!

  • What kind of person do you want to be?
  • How will you become a great leader?
  • What will make you an outstanding team member?
  • What is that thing inside you that you always wanted to learn or explore?

Build it into your routine.  Find a quiet place and a quiet time at least several times per week.  Force yourself to go quiet and think about these things.  You’ll come out the other end a better person.

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BlogLeadership

Optimism Leads to Success

by Ron Potter

A recent quote about Warren Buffet said:

Your success didn’t lead to optimism, your optimism lead to your success.”

Optimism

Wikipedia defines optimism as “A mental attitude reflecting a belief or hope that the outcomes of some specific endeavor will be positive, favorable, and desirable.”

Notice that it says a mental attitude.  In simple terms, pilots are interested in altitude and attitude.  Altitude refers to how high you are.  How much you have achieved.  Some measure of success (money, position, title).

Attitude is a reference to the natural horizon.  Are you pointed up, down, left-leaning or right-leaning?

Success to Optimism

If your optimism depends on success, you’ll soon realize that success is fickle.  One change regardless of the cause can change your success overnight.

  • Markets change – talk to Polaroid or VHS producers.
  • Appetites change – ask package food companies
  • Fashion changes – ask Henry Ford about auto colors.  He is reported to have said, “They can have any color they want as long as it’s black.”
  • Disruption– ask companies about competitors coming out with new products that eat into margins of successful products

The point here is that “success” can change very rapidly and have nothing to do with your actions.  If your optimism depends on success, it will change as rapidly.

Optimism to Success

On the other hand, if you tend to be an optimistic person, that seems to withstand external success and failure.  I’ve had three different successful careers.  Upon graduation from engineering school, I had a “successful” career working with wonderful teams building large projects.  Some of them approaching a billion dollars in their construction budget.

Then one day I was introduced to my first pc.  This was before Microsoft,  IBM, and Apple.  And yet I felt that this little box was about to change our lives.  I spent the next ten years with a “successful” career in the software development business.

Then I took on the career that I felt I had been headed for all my life.  I became an external coach focused on Teams, Leadership and Culture.  I spent nearly thirty wonderful years in that career.

You were just lucky

Along the way, many people would tell me that I was just lucky.  I guess they just chose to ignore those times when I went broke pursuing those careers.  They seem to ignore the hard work and difficulties that I overcame to achieve my “success.”  But there were those few that understood the hard work and heartaches that I was going through during those tough times.  One colleague whom I had not seen in person for many years asked me how I was doing.  When I answered with a simple “OK”, his reaction was that I must be really down.  He explained that I had always been one of the most optimistic persons he had ever known so if I was simply doing “OK” I must really be down.

Your success didn’t lead to optimism, your optimism lead to your success

Times were indeed difficult.  But I was always optimistic.  It may just be me but I’ve noticed through the years that I don’t even care to be around people who are pessimistic.  They’re just downers in my mind.  Times were always difficult in one way or another.  But being optimistic vs pessimistic is a choice.  Chose Optimistic.  It makes life much easier along the way.

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BlogCulture

Consequences

by Ron Potter

Great Teams and Great Cultures require Consequences

I was talking with a colleague this week about lasting cultures.  He mentioned that the Mayo brothers died over 80 years ago but the culture they built is still in place.  Meanwhile, we’ve been associated with several companies where the culture deteriorated quickly.

One of the reasons for a lasting culture is clear and immediate consequences when team rules and cultural norms are violated.  And it doesn’t matter who violates the rule.

Immediate Consequences

I graduated from Michigan and was a fan of the Fab Five.  When Michigan hired Juwan Howard as the new basketball coach last year, I was thrilled.  Juwan also seemed to be thrilled to tears that he was “coming home” to Michigan.

But, it wasn’t long before his first test as a new college coach would come front and center.

Star player violates the team code

The Big Ten schedule was not yet a month old in his first year as a coach when something happened.  Michigan’s star point guard violated team rules.  After a hot start to the season, Michigan was now struggling and needed all of the players more than ever.

Coach Howard didn’t hesitate, he suspended the Star Player.

  • No delay
  • No leniency
  • No privileges

Coach Howard said the player had been suspended for “violation of team policies.  We have team rules and unfortunately he broke one of them.”

It didn’t make any difference that the team desperately needed it’s starting point guard right now.  He broke team rules and he was suspended!

Team and Corporate Rules

Do you have team rules?  Is everyone aware of those rules?

More importantly, does everyone know the consequences of violating those rules?  Will anyone and everyone be punished according to those consequences regardless of who they are, what position they hold, or how “indispensable” they are?

Are there consequences to breaking the rules, team or culture?

Without the consequence of rule violation, no team or culture will sustain itself.

Know what the rules are! Know what the consequences are!

Rules must be clear.  Teams and cultures must be committed to those rules. Without them, teams and cultures will never last!

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BlogCultureCulture Series

Culture – Consistency: Core Values

by Ron Potter

In just about every company I’ve worked with over the last 30 years, their values were printed somewhere.  Some times they’re in the employee handbook or other printed document but the majority of the time they’re printed in a beautiful art form on the front wall in the reception area.  They were there for everyone to see.  But employees don’t see them.  They probably saw them for a few days after the reception area was remodeled or repainted but then they walk right past them every day without notice.

Actions Speak Louder than Words

I’m not sure who first spoke those words but I believe it came from direct observations.  People will say almost anything for various reasons.  But their actions demonstrate what they really believe.

Printed words mean nothing in the face of behavior.

Words of the Core Value Culture Survey

Some of the words from Core Value questions include:

  • managers practice what they preach
  • there is a characteristic management style
  • a consistent set of values
  • held accountable
  • ethical code guides behavior

You’ll notice that only once do words come into play.  They practice what they preach.  And the focus is not on the words but on the practice.

Printed Words Mean Nothing

The only time printed words become meaningful is when they’re violated.  Few people believe words.  Everyone believes actions and behaviors.

One of the simplest explanations I’ve seen of corporate cultures and values is a straight line drawn left to right.  This line represents the current level of values or culture.  This is where the “bar” is set.  If someone violates one of those values and there are no consequences for that violation, the bar was just lowered.  Corporate Culture is less valuable when that happens then it was prior to the lack of accountability.

Corporate leaders must be vigilant in protecting the values and culture of the organization.  It slips away very rapidly through simple acts of violation with no accountability.

Bankruptcy

I’m reminded of the old story about someone who went bankrupt.  When they were asked how that could happen they said

Well, I had a missed payment here, made a bad decision there, made a bad loan to an old friend and pretty soon I was bankrupt.

Bankruptcy, like lost values, doesn’t just happen one day.  There were little things along the path that were pointing toward an eventual bankruptcy.

Core Values in corporate cultures are not just lost one day.  There are always little things along the path pointing toward the bankruptcy of values.

Mile Markers

I was once consulting with a division of a large corporation.  Things were going quite well at the moment.  Sales were up.  Marketing seemed to be clicking with potential customers.  Productivity costs were down.

But my final report after spending two weeks with the leadership team said that they were in trouble and headed for disaster.  I based that assessment on what I observed as the constant erosion of Core Values even over a short two week period.

My report fell on deaf ears.  All they could see were the positive numbers and metrics that were happening at the time.  They wrote me off as not knowing what I was talking about.  Two years later they were hemorrhaging.  Most of the leaders had left, numbers were bad and getting worse.

It turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg.  The leader of that group left when times were good to become president of another company.  He only lasted a couple of years.  The division went from being profitable to being sold.

Pay attention every day to Core Values.  Don’t let things slide.  Don’t just let “this one” go!  You will slip into bankruptcy quicker than you think.  Protect the Core Values with every bit of your fiber.

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BlogCultureCulture Series

Culture – Involvement: Adaptability

by Ron Potter

Adaptability and Involvement

Adaptability and Involvement are the two quadrants that make up the left side of the Denison Culture Chart.  This side of the chart identifies “Flexible” cultures.  Cultures that adapt well.  Cultures that respond quickly to customers and markets.  In today’s fast-paced environment, flexibility is a requirement.  (Just as a heads-up, we’re going to talk in a couple of weeks about Stability being a required element as well.  Makes your head hurt doesn’t it?  That’s just one of the reasons that Leadership is hard.  It doesn’t just come with the title.

External Focus

So now we’ve seen that Mission and Adaptability (top of the chart) indicates an External Focus for the companies.  Companies strong in these two areas tend to sustain growth and are constantly listening to and looking at the marketplace.  They’re good at spotting the next big thing in the market place and making decisions that help them take advantage of those coming changes.

Flexible

The Flexible Cultures (Adaptability and Involvement noted above) indicated companies that are constantly changing.  Or maybe it indicates that the companies are good at working in ever-changing markets.

One company had a culture score that was lowest in the Vision and Strategic Direction and Intent areas while being quite strong in all of the Flexible areas on the left side of the chart.  We asked about the low scores in the Mission quadrant, wondering how they kept going without much vision or strategic thinking for the future.  They indicated that their market was changing so rapidly that figuring out a vision and direction was almost useless.  If they didn’t keep up with the rapid changes in the marketplace, they weren’t going to be around to worry about long-term (even 24 months) vision.  They were right.

Focus

In general, it’s always good to expand the Culture Survey as much as possible in every direction.  However, there are “seasons of life” and moments of focus that may require expansion in a particular area.

Maybe you’re in need of growth which will require an external focus.  You may need to expand some or all of the Vision and Adaptability quadrants.

Maybe you’re in the need to keep up with or get ahead of a rapidly changing market or a disruptive competitor.  You may need to focus on the Adaptability and Involvement quadrants (Flexible).

Be aware of your surroundings, history, and future.  Which quadrant needs the most attention at the moment?

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BlogTeamTeam Series

Team Elements – Commitment: Decision Process

by Ron Potter

Understanding and using the right process is one key to decision making.  It also helps assure that you’ll reach full commitment to the decision rather than compliance.

There have been a number of decision types identified but one simple list includes:

  • Unilateral
  • Consultative
  • Consensus
  • Unanimous

Unanimous

Leave that to the courtroom.  It doesn’t really happen in a corporate environment.

Unilateral

This decision type has the advantages of speed, simplicity, and clarity.  However, it will waste a groups intelligence, invites resistance and lowers motivation.  It should be used when speed and time are paramount and there is a real danger in not making a decision immediately.  It can also be used when one person or team’s decision has little effect or impact on another person or team.

But the real cost of Unilateral decisions occurs with wasted time because of lack of clarity.  I have observed team time wasted by putting a “unilateral” decision on the agenda for a team meeting.  Unilateral decisions should be made and then the rest of the team informed.  Informing is more effective through other means (memos, emails, reports, etc) than making it a topic of a team meeting.  Once a decision hits the agenda, it is assumed or at least treated as if it is up for questioning, discussion or debate.  If a decision is unilateral, do not put it on the agenda!

Consensus

After observing and working with leadership teams for thirty years, I am convinced that business teams never make consensus decisions.  They may talk as if it was a consensus decision but most decisions are unilateral or consultative.  Don’t kid yourself.

There may be one or two decisions that must be made by consensus because they are so crucial to the future health and well being of the corporation but you cannot run a business by consensus.

Consultative

Almost all decisions are or should be consultative.  However, one major key to consultative decisions is that there is a clear decision owner.   I have seen hours wasted in team meetings trying to make a decision when the real issue that is being sorted out is who really owns the decision.  Unfortunately, that issue is either ignored or never stated out loud.  Consultative decisions must have a clear decision owner.  Sort that out first before you continue with the decision-making process.

The second most important aspect of good consultative decisions is a clear process.  The consultative decision leader or a good facilitator must help the team through a good process that includes more listening than talking.  One of the best processes to learn is the concept of Prudence.

Prudence

Prudence is one of those ancient words that doesn’t get much use today and most people would tell me that it doesn’t fit in today’s modern business world.  However, listen to the definition of Prudence:

“The perfected ability to make right decisions.”

As a leadership team, your goal is to perfect your ability to make “right” decisions!  Learn to follow the process of Prudence.

The Prudence process is described as Deliberate, Decide, Do.

  • Deliberate well.  Most teams either don’t do it well or skimp on the deliberation process in order to get to a quick decision.
  • Decide but be sure to use the proper decision type.
  • Do.  Execution of the decision will be much crisper, clearer and faster if the first two steps are properly followed.

Debate, Discuss, Dialogue

Deliberation can be in the form of debate, discussion or dialogue.  Let’s take a quick look at each:

  • Debate.  If you’ve ever been on a debate team you know that the goal is to win.  Often debaters are asked to take a position that they themselves don’t believe is true but the goal of winning remains.  Debate creates winners and losers.  Commitment will not be achieved when a portion of the team feels like they lost.
  • Discussion.  The idea of discussion may sound more civilized but the root word for discussion is the same root word for percussion.  In other words, he who can beat his drum the loudest will win the discussion.  Once again, discussion creates winners and losers.
  • Dialogue.  Dialogue is part of the Socratic method.  The Greek origins are “through discourse or talk.”  The Unabridged Dictionary says to “elicit a clear and consistent expression.”

Dialogue begins with eliciting, questioning, listening.  Everyone must be heard and understood.  (See my short book review of On Dialogue by David Bohm).

If you do a great job of deliberation, using dialogue, decisions will be made easier.  A decision will not only be made easier, but there will also be a full commitment to the decisions that are reached.  This happens even if individuals were opposed to the decision in the first place.  Dialogue works through those differences and allows teams to get beyond compliance with full commitment.

Once full commitment has been achieved, decision execution happens.  No revisiting.  No dragging of feet.  No sabotage.  Just clean, crisp execution.

Get to full commitment by identifying your decision type and using a good process to reach commitment!

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BlogTeamTeam Series

Team Elements – Commitment: Diversity

by Ron Potter

We’re looking at the element of Commitment in our Truth, Respect, Elegance, Commitment (TREC) journey to great teams.

Last week we talked about the trust required in great teams.  Trust of purpose, leader, and team members.  In building that trust we must look at the diversity of thinking and points of view.

Word of Caution

During my career, I have been asked to either lead a “diversity” effort or coach the person who was leading the effort.   The first thing that struck me was that diversity was defined by outward appearance.  Race and gender were the two most common ones but any number of characteristics can be identified.

Inclusion, not Diversity

One of my first reactions was that it shouldn’t be called “Diversity training” it should be named “Inclusion training.”  Because the name identified it as diversity, it seemed like the curriculum was based on emphasizing the diversity rather than turning it to inclusion.

As I got to know the people who were to be part of the process, I noticed that two members thought similar to each other even though they were of a different race and gender.  While another pair almost never saw eye-to-eye even though they were the same race and gender.

Diversity of Thinking

Great teams have learned to respect different points of view and how to work with those differences as simply differences.  Not good or bad.  Not right or wrong.  Just differences.

In my car the other day, I heard an old song by Dave Mason that hits this one right on the head.  The words are:

There ain’t no good guy, there ain’t no bad guy
There’s only you and me and we just disagree

No good.  No bad.  Just disagreement.  Let’s start with the fact that we just see things differently.

Brain Science

Why is that?  Why can we observe the same thing and yet it seems like we see things differently?

One of the tools that have helped answer that question is the functional MRI (fMRI).  The MRI has been around for years but it simply took a snapshot.  The fMRI takes video!  We can actually see movement within the brain.

When our eyes observe an event, the image isn’t simply recorded on our brain and then stored on our “hard drive.”  There are two major flaws in believing that’s how we see the world around us.

Brain Processing Centers

First, are the known processing centers of our brain.

  • Values
  • Emotions
  • Goals
  • Beliefs
  • Ideas
  • Memories
  • Pain
  • Stress
  • Experiences

There are somewhere over twelve processing centers known today and many scientists believe there may be at least twice that many.

What we know from the fMRI is that when an image enters our eyeball and the optic nerve, it is split into at least 127 million bits of information and dispersed throughout the processing centers named above.  The image is then funneled through the ancient processing centers of motion detection and object recognition before being “reassembled” into coherent perception.

Think about that for a minute.  You and I can watch the same event.  But, because I have very different emotions, goals, beliefs, memories. etc. the image that is “reassembled” in my brain can and will be different from the image reassembled in your brain.  We see different things!

Courtroom judges will tell you that if two eyewitnesses tell the same story, the judge knows there has been collusion because “no two eyewitnesses ever see the same thing!”  We see things differently!  Just because someone has a whole different take on a situation don’t mean they’re not telling the “truth.”  “There ain’t no good guy, there ain’t no bad guy.  There’s only you and me and we just disagree.”

Memory is Not a Hard drive

Because we’ve been using personal computers now for several decades, we’ve come to think that our memory functions much the same as computer memory.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  When we enter data onto a computer storage device or in the cloud, we can depend on it to be exactly the same when we retrieve it in the future.  However, our human memory doesn’t work that way.  Not only is it modified by the processing centers that we just talked about, but new experiences are also constantly modifying our memory from the moment it’s stored.  Our memory is never an accurate representation of what was first stored in our brain.

Beliefs and Assumption

Because of this science-based understanding, we should start conversations about decisions and difficult topics by having everyone share their beliefs and assumptions.  They’re all valid.  It will help you understand where others are coming from.  It will help them understand your position.  It will actually give the team a great foundation to begin working toward a position of commitment.

Appreciate diverse thinking!  It’s powerful!  It gives us a broader range of perspectives and helps us move forward together.  Every point of view is an accurate one.

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BlogTeamTeam Series

Team Elements: Progress

by Ron Potter

We just wrapped up the Elegance Summary for building great teams.

You may recall that we started with Aristotle’s Level Four Happiness.  He described this level as being the highest form of happiness that every human being innately desires.  The words he used were Truth, Love, Beauty, and Unity.  There was also a fifth word in the middle.  That word is Purpose.  I haven’t spent a lot of time on Purpose because my assumption is that business teams know their purpose.  But, if there is not a purpose for the team or the understanding of the purpose is not aligned across the team, this must be fixed first before the other elements of great teams can be effective.

TREC

I’ve altered Aristotle’s terms of Truth, Love, Beauty, and Unity to Truth, Respect, Elegance, and Commitment.  The reason for the change is to use language better suited to the business environment and to put together an acronym that may help you remember the list more easily.

Truth is Truth

The word truth doesn’t need to be changed.  Truth is truth.  Sort of.  Each of us builds our truth based on experiences, environment, history, beliefs and others.  It’s important that a team share their beliefs and assumptions so that truth is understood.

Love is Respect

I had one business leader tell me not to use the word love in their meeting.  They were tough-minded business people and the emotion of love did not come into their decision making.  The love that Aristotle was talking about was the Greek word agape.  It has nothing to do with emotion, it is related to respect and how you treat others.

Beauty is Elegance

Beauty may be the hardest one to understand in a business context.  In the business world aesthetic’s are not the main issue although companies like Apple have proved that devices that are beautiful also have business appeal.  But here I’m talking about simple, elegant, efficient, unambiguous business practices.  Does your business run elegantly?

TREK is TREC

An acronym to help you remember.  We all know the word TREK.  The definition is “a long arduous journey.”  Building a great team is a long arduous journey.  It doesn’t happen overnight and you’re always striving to reach your destination.  I hope TREC will help you remember that it’s a journey and that it’s made up of Truth, Respect, Elegance, and Commitment.

Unity is Commitment

Our next several blog posts will be about building unity on a team.  Real unity!  Not just nodding of heads and not just compliance, but a deep commitment to a unified path and direction.  You won’t build a team without the first three, Truth, Respect, and Elegance but without deep Commitment, the team won’t accomplish the goals of the purpose.  Unity and Commitment take hard work, even as part of a long, arduous journey.

Request

I have a request to make.  Most of you have been on this blog journey with me right from the start several years ago.  I appreciate and cherish the fact that you’re still here reading and commenting.  My goal all along was to build a community of readers where we could share concepts together.

My request to you is to share this resource with others.  Whether they be colleagues, friends, family, someone you’re mentoring or even a broadcast resource that you use.  Would you help spread the word and share these blogs with others?  While our numbers have increased at a steady pace since the beginning, I would like to see them increase at a higher rate.

Thank you so much.  I appreciate you being with me on this TREC.

Ron

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