Ron’s Short Review: When I read this book I thought I only got one point. Then I heard Marquet speak and he said “There is only one point to the book.” That made me feel better and honestly, it is one powerful point.
Ron’s Short Review: Very well written and seemingly unbiased biography of Steve Jobs. I actually understood more about him when I read the book “Give and Take.”
Ron’s Short Review: Understanding and using your mind properly.
Ron’s Short Review: When we know what we’re looking for we miss a lot of relevant information.
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The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization
A mile marker is one of the people, events, experience, or moments of learning that when you look back have influenced, shaped, or directed you along your way. I can identify specific “markers” in my mid to late twenties that clearly lead me to the consulting/coaching business. My wife was putting together a scrap book of our early lives recently and made the comment that I must have had consulting/coaching skills as a young child based of the comments classmates had written. Mile markers are important to identify to understand our own growth, development and direction.
The Fifth Discipline was one of those books for me. I had been educated in the discipline of Project Management at the engineering school of the University of Michigan. Managing and running things was a scientific discipline that could be learned and applied to getting things done. But, right from the start I had always felt that the most productive thing I could do was to help people grow, develop, learn and help the teams function well together. I believed that if we could improve the people side of the business, the business would be successful. Here was a book that “scientifically” presented these principles in an organized form.
What are the five disciplines?
- Personal Mastery
- Mental Models
- Building Shared Vision
- Team Learning
- Systems Thinking (Fusing it all together)
For this discussion I want to focus on number five, Systems Thinking.
We tend to be aware of System Structures “out there” in the “real world”. Physical structures like a manufacturing plant are visible to us. We can see the raw materials and parts coming in one end of the plant with the finished product exiting the other end. We can see what happens when parts don’t show up on time. We can identify “bottle necks” in the system and work to alleviate the restriction. We can even see the systems that are not so physical such as cost and demand relationships. The Fed works with a “system” to determine interest rates as they try to manage (manipulate) the economic structure. But what we don’t really see or more importantly don’t believe is that our individual human behavior works in a system across our team and company. Until we can step back and see things in a systemic way, we will fail to change the behavior that is causing the bottle necks and disruptions to our peak performance.
One of the reasons we don’t see “the system” in our teams and companies is what Senge describes as “Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space”. That’s one of the reasons I like business simulations. They allow us to act out and see the system at work in a closely related time and space. That brings me to the rest of my blog title: Paper Planes and The Beer Game. But, that’s all the time and space I have for this post. Tune in to Paper Planes and Beer Games in the next post.
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Peter Drucker often spoke of being effective versus being efficient. His simple definition was: Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. Much has been written by leadership and management gurus as well as Drucker himself about this concept and you can find many wonderful pieces on the web about this subject. But I would like to focus on one particular aspect that I often see relating to this topic; the development of people.
I have had many leaders and managers (including myself) say something to the effect of “It’s just quicker to do it myself.”
Often the reason or excuse is that:
- I don’t have time right now to teach someone.
- It would take me just as long to teach them as it would to just do it myself.
- And, even after I take the time to teach them, they won’t be as efficient or effective as if I just do it myself.
That’s being efficient: Get the job done. Get it done now. Get it done “right”.
Notice that getting the job done efficiently is not necessarily being effective. We live in such a rapidly changing world that we can no longer afford to be dependent on efficiency. Efficiency is the price of admission these days. Over the last decade or more I have observed my clients wring every ounce of efficiency out of their production, supply chain, and logistical systems. Efficiency simply keeps you in the game. Efficiency is no longer a game changer.
However, when it comes to people leadership and management, much of our effort is still focused on efficiency, not necessarily effectiveness. I posted an earlier blog on victim versus creator. Highly efficient systems can induce a victim environment by dictating every aspect of getting things done efficiently. Effective/creative systems tend to be messy, particularly on the front-end. Our effective desires and measurement systems don’t often have the tolerance for starting down that effective/creative path. But, without an effective/creative approach we won’t survive. The world is changing too rapidly to depend on efficiency.
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There is constant talk of reinvention. Companies need to reinvent themselves. People need to reinvent themselves. I live in a state (Michigan) that needs to reinvent itself.
How does a state reinvent itself? The state of Michigan has been associated with the auto industry for over 100 years. During the peak of the auto industry, Michigan was one of the wealthiest states in the nation. Today it is one of the poorest and the only state that has lost population between the last two census reports. I’ve often tried to think of what Michigan would look like if Henry Ford, R.E. Olds, and many of the other pioneers of the auto industry had started in Ohio (or some other state) rather than Michigan. I have to assume that we would have an economy and state government geared to a level of a different and maybe less robust industry. We also have the cereal industry started by W.K. Kellogg and C.W. Post. Our tourist industry is outstanding and we even have a thriving oil and gas industry. But… the state would look much different today had we not had the auto industry. How do we rethink who we are?
I can only draw on my personal experiences when I think about reinventing ourselves individually. My career seems to have progressed in decades. For the first ten years of my working career I worked in the engineering/construction business, building large power plants around the country and learning the project management business. Then one day I saw my first microcomputer and decided that this little box (actually a 35 pound “luggable” machine in the early days) was going to change our lives. Six months later I was developing software for the new and growing microcomputer industry. After ten years of working with computers and software I had to ask myself the age old question “what do I really want to do when I grow up” and came to the conclusion that I had felt fulfilled working in two very different industries because my goal everyday was to create (and be) the best leaders and develop the best functioning teams. I believed that if I could grow myself, help grow the people and develop good team dynamics, the business would take care of itself. My developing vision was helping leaders and teams continually improve their performance. I thought that would be fun if I could get up and do that every day. Thus began twenty years (and counting) of consulting and coaching in the leadership development and team building arena.
What fulfills you? Have you stopped to ask yourself that question? It may be scary and risky but it will also help you to continually reinvent yourself. A necessity in today’s rapidly changing world.
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Well, I haven’t actually solved the education problem but I think I have the solution. And it’s not exactly my idea but it’s still a great idea. In other words, for the first time I believe the solution is out there to our education problem. And we do indeed have an education problem. In spite of what we might hear from the NEA or the government, ranking in the bottom half of the top 34 countries of the world is a complete failure of the system as near as I can see.
Over the last several years, I’ve had a great concern and burden for our education system. Beyond the global rankings it seems to me that the system is failing on all fronts. In depressed areas like Detroit, the percentages of kids that even make it through the secondary system in abysmal. And even in areas where there is a functioning high school system, look at the number of parents who are choosing either home schooling or private schooling while still carrying the tax burden of supporting their local public schools simply because they can see that the public school is not going to prepare their children for the globally competitive future.
I’ve done a great deal of reading, thinking and talking to people about how we solve this problem. Bill Gates and his foundation have donated a great deal of money to the system and haven’t come up with much yet. One of the more inspiring books I’ve read is A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-First Century
So, what’s this great solution that “I’ve” come up with? Sal Khan is the guy who really came up with the solution. If you haven’t already seen what’s he’s doing (and yes, he has also caught the eye of Bill Gates) check it out ASAP. I immediately wrote to my two daughters and recommended that if they want their kids (actually they’re my grandkids, I just loan them to their parents while they’re growing up) to get a great education, tap into the Khan Academy. There is way too much to explain in this blog so I’ll let you explore on your own (the YouTube reference will give you a great overview) but I do want to focus on a few of the elements that I believe provide the solution to our education system.
The first thing that struck me is that the teachers no longer teach, they help the kids learn. That shifts us from a teaching environment to a learning environment. In a teaching environment we’re dependent on the skills and knowledge of the teacher. Recently a teacher that I know said that 70% of his class was failing and didn’t even seem to understand it was an indication of teacher failure, not student failure.
It also eliminates the one-size-fits-all approach to teaching. Once the teacher finishes a segment, the exam is taken, the student receives their score (A to E) and we move on to the next segment. How many students achieve mastery of the topic? Virtually none and based on the current system, it doesn’t make any difference anyway. The teacher disseminated the information, the students were scored, move on!
But, once we shift to a learning environment, the students are encouraged to experiment, fail and finally master the subject. Can you imagine the power instilled in the student when they actually master a topic? They can’t wait to get to the next level. And, they’re better equipped to master the next level. Under the current system, a good student might get 85% on the exam. But, what happens when that 15% lack of understanding makes it even more difficult to learn at the next level. And so-on and so-on. It’s a system that will indeed produce failure at some point.
I think there is much more to learn about this topic and I want to encourage as many of you as possible to check out the Khan Academy and talk to parents in your local public, private or home school. This will change your own kids (grandkids) lives and improve our education system. Notice that the Khan Academy is available to the world, not just the United States. If we don’t adopt this approach, we will rapidly fall even farther behind.
I will pick up on this topic more in future blogs and I also believe there is great learning here to be applied to leadership as well. Enjoy and be inspired by my solution to the education system. Ha!
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In my last post, I talk about getting the wrong person off the bus. In this post I want to share three patterns that I have seen through the years.
Self-Selection
One is the story in the previous People on the Bus post when a person for various reasons decides to self-select out. They quit, they retire, they take another job but it’s their decision. And then as soon as it happens, you immediately experience the relief and freshness in the organization that feels like everyone exhaling a deep breath and then saying, “let’s get to work” with a renewed energy.
Still in Place 1.0 to 2.0
Every organization I’m working with is going through some sort of transformation. Things in this world are changing rapidly and it requires continued renewal and reinvention to keep up with the changes. It’s very easy to keep dancing to the tune that got you here. Although I see this in many cases of varying degrees, I’m thinking of one individual who has been very successful in his career for nearly thirty years. He has run large chunks of an organization, has been rewarded with bonus, salary and promotions through a steady career of successes. However, while he is currently responsible for over one hundred people, technology advancements in recent years have rendered what they do redundant. The entire organization needs to stop what they’ve been doing for the last couple of decades and begin doing things differently to continue to add value to the company. He’s in charge of the transformation. But, he doesn’t know what to do. He’s also afraid that he won’t be valued in the new environment. He’s spent thirty years honing skills that have been rewarded and now he’s getting the message that those skills are no longer valued. If he actually transforms his organization into what they need to be, there won’t be a need for his job (how he’s done it for the last many years). He can’t (or is not willing) to reinvent himself therefore he is not transforming his organization. Something will break soon. The company can no longer afford to have this large group of people producing daily work that is no longer of value.
But what about the leaders in this situation you might ask? Why is his boss allowing this to go on? This gets tough. Here is a guy who has performed well for three decades. He may know more about the job (as it used to be) than anyone else. As recently as two years ago he had received nothing but the highest annual evaluations and a steady string of promotions. And, he’s a great guy! “What am I supposed to do, fire him?”, asks the boss. Maybe.
It has become obvious that he is now the wrong person on the bus. We don’t want to just put him off the bus standing by the curb. And we certainly don’t want to throw him under the bus. But we do need to get him on a different bus or maybe in a different seat on the bus if he wants to go to the new destination where the bus is now headed. Leaving him where he is will become increasingly detrimental to himself, his team and the company.
Steady but Slow Improvement
A third thing that makes it difficult to get the wrong people off the bus is that they actually get better. Slowly.
Realistic time frames can be one of the most effective ways for dealing with getting the wrong people off the bus. In most cases the leaders (and even the individual themselves) know what the new behavior and approach needs to be and how it should work. And in many cases, the leader does a really good job of identifying the six (or 5 or 8 or 10) changes that need to take place in order for the person to be successful and valued on the new bus ride. The problem happens when after setting these new behaviors and competencies as goals for individual growth; the person only gets better at one or maybe two of the areas of required growth. During their performance review a year later they’ve improved performance on one of the areas but still need improvement in the other five. Then another year later they’ve improved a little bit on another area of the list but only marginally. However, because she see’s improvement the leader is reluctant to take the steps to get them off the bus. But a year or more has gone by and they haven’t moved on from behavior 1.0 to rev 2.0. In the meantime things are changing so rapidly that they really need to be transforming from 2.0 to 3.0. What I have experienced is that it takes nearly six months of consistent new behavior to develop some level of competency and acceptance and another six months of consistent behavior for it to sink in as second nature. But, if a person is still working on a new behavior in a year without essentially conquering it, it’s not likely that they will accomplish the needed goal in a reasonable time frame. It’s now time to help them onto another bus.
Ron’s Short Review: Good to Great is one of the best researched business book. Collins continues his journey on understand why some become great and others don’t.
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How important are mentors?
I’ve experienced a few true mentors through my life, the first being my dad and mom. Dad seems to still influence me today, over 35 years after his death.
Then there was my high school physics teacher. He always seemed to demand more from me and I didn’t fully understand until years later what a great gift that had been. I returned to see him after I had graduated from college and he had retired just to thank him for mentoring me. We had a great conversation.
My list would also have to include Bill Bottum. The opening chapter of my book Trust Me, tells the story of Bill and how he set the foundation for my belief system about work and how that has become the basis for my consulting career.
But, there has been one other couple who have truly been life-long mentors to me and also my wife. Keith and Gladys (affectionately known as Rusty) Hunt. From them has come discipleship, training, encouragement, correction, love, care, hospitality, rescue and the list goes on and on.
From this list you might assume that Keith and Rusty have been in our lives nearly every day along the way. They moved into a home down the road from me when I was a teenager. Even though they had careers that included a great deal of travel they always seemed to have the time to invite the local teenagers into their home for stimulating conversations and thought provoking Bible study. Later, after they had moved I ended up at university in the same town their relocation had taken them. Once again they were influencing my life in many positive ways. Later in life when my family needed to move across country, they were there with an extra room for me to bunk in and the advice and encouragement for a new stage of my life. Through their moves and ours, there were always changes. Sometimes there were great geographical distances between us, sometimes we lived in the same town. But they were always close and there was always the discipleship, training, encouraging…. well, you get the picture.
Just the other day one of those high school teenage friends tracked us down to ask if we had Keith and Rusty’s number. He was just thinking about them and wanted to call or visit. Their mentor-ship touched many.
We lost Rusty recently. After a long battle with her heart she went to be with the Lord. The loss is deep. And even though I know her influence will continue through her memories and her books this world won’t quite be the same without Rusty.
Who are you mentoring? When I’ve thought about those who have mentored me, I often feel selfish that I fully accept, appreciate and enjoy the fact that they have cared enough for me to provide the role of a mentor and yet wonder if I have given anything near that effort to others.
Who are you mentoring? Beyond that child and grandchild or even that employee where we are placed in natural mentoring roles, who are you mentoring? Keith and Rusty have never been our parents or our boss (well, I did mow their lawn during those teenage years) but they have definitely been our mentors.
Maybe it’s that teenager down the street. Maybe it’s that mail room clerk. Maybe it’s the young couple at church. Maybe…. Don’t let the list always be a list of “maybes”. Think about whom you could be mentoring and come along side that person.
And yet that leaves us with the bigger question of “Do I feel worthy to mentor another?” Good question and one that we should ponder and work through. However, I’ll suggest that if you’re just willing to truly listen to another person, you’re on your way to being a good mentor.
Mentors are important. Be one.
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Over the last twenty years of business consulting I’ve collected a nice little Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) data base of a couple of thousand business leaders. I’ve also been fortunate to compare my data base with a huge data base of business leaders collected by the Center for Creative Leadership and our percentages were nearly an identical match. Although there are a couple of outstanding features in the data, one feature in particular stands out above all others.
The 3rd of the four functions is called your “deciding” function. People fall into two categories: Thinking and Feeling. Thinking types tend to make decisions logically and feeling types tend to use values and knowing how people will react to make their decisions. In our data bases of business leaders, 84% rate themselves as T’s and 16% are identified as F’s. This means that the vast majority of business leaders believe they make decisions on a logical basis.
But, let’s examine the science. One new book about recent brain mapping and neuroscience, Management Rewired: Why Feedback Doesn’t Work and Other Surprising Lessons from the Latest Brain Science
“But perhaps the most surprising discovery has come from mapping the path information travels from our sense organs to our awareness of the world we live in. Not only are the perceptual areas of the brain involved, so are the areas responsible for our memories, our feelings, our beliefs, and our aspirations. Our minds aren’t objectively recording our experience of the world; they’re creating it, and that creation is influenced by everything else going on in the brain. Each of us lives in a mental world of our own making. The world we know is only what we think it to be, and we can’t assume other people will think the same way we do. Reasoning has nothing to do with the way we solve problems, make decisions, and plan for the future. At best, logic is just a way to justify conclusions we have already reached unconsciously.”
Wow! None of us actually has a grasp on reality. We’re each making up our own picture and story as we go along. We may be making logical decisions but they’re based on our personally developed and perceived logic. We know from our marketing guru’s that people make purchases based on emotions and then justify the purchase with logic (Once, while admiring a Chevy Corvette my wife said “I see no logical reason to buy a Corvette.” So, what does logic have to do with it ;-).
I’m afraid we make decisions the same way. We make them based on emotions (memories, feelings, beliefs, aspirations, etc) and then seem to justify the decision based on some sort of logic. This finding has a great deal of impact on teamwork, leadership and corporate cultures (TLC) that we’ll explore in the future.