BLT #29: Progress Too Slow? . . . Reduce Friction!!

Friction: the force that resists relative motion between two bodies in contact

- Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary

Friction is the force that resists all action. 

It  makes the simple difficult and the difficult seemingly impossible.

- Warfighting: The US Marine Corps Book of Strategy

Both my sons have spent varying lengths of time in scouting.  My older son moved on to pursue sports and music rather than Boy Scouts.   My youngest son stayed with scouting and recently achieved the rank of First Class Scout.  They do have one scouting experience in common, however, and that is the annual making and racing of Pinewood Derby cars.

Now, if you aren't familiar with the Pinewood Derby you need to know two things: every boy wants to win and few boys want to spend time building the car.  Most of us know that this means we have a car to build with some involvement form the boy.  If you like this kind of thing, bully for you.  I found it significantly beyond my woodworking and creative skills.  Oh yeah, and I didn't want to.  But I did it anyway because my lovely wife made it a requirement for my continued care and feeding.

Yet On We Fight

Regardless of initial interest, much time is spent developing cool, aerodynamic body shapes and making sure the wheels get on straight - wobbling is bad for speed and hard to watch when it's your car.  I also required that my sons each rub sandpaper on some part of the car at some point during the construction phase so that we could rightly say they had worked on the car.  Through all of my grousing and labor - and getting spray paint on stuff it wasn't supposed to go on - we somehow had a functioning car every year. 

But we just couldn't win.  Each year I would try to get the weight a little closer to the limit hoping gravity played a role.  

But we just couldn't win.  I'd get better and better at sanding and painting a smooth car so that air wooshing past wouldn't hold the car's progress up unnecessarily. 

But we just couldn't win.  I even noticed that the wheels each had a little knot in it from where it was cut from it's mold.  I would sand those until you couldn't tell it had ever been there.

But we just couldn't win -  not even one heat!  I added dry graphite to the nails that served as the mountings for the tires.  All legal, and one more step toward victory, or so I thought.

Nothing.

How In The World...

Then one year I witnessed something magical...mystical.  I watched a dad and son enter a car that seemed, well,  a waste of time.  It was no more than the original block of wood, cut down to weight, with the wheels attached.  Sorry looking.  Now, I knew I was bad at building cars, but this guy must have been feeling pretty silly sitting his son's car next to all the shiny, sleek designs of his buddies.  Poor guy.

Just one problem with my view of things.  You see, that plain block-of-wood car won every race.  I am not talking about the whole derby, which they did win.  But every single heat, round, semi-final and final.  I also think it's important in this little scene for your mind to see it: it's not just that they won, but how they won.  You have to envision all the other cars were moving in slow motion while this car raced ahead as if it had a small jet on board.  No one finished within 3 car lengths - utterly ridiculous.  Unbelievable.  Ridiculous.  But How?

The Secret Exposed - Friction Kills

I got up my courage - and humility - to speak with the dad, asking him how they had done such a thing.  His son interrupted saying, "Oh it's not that hard, it's all in the nails that hold the wheels on.  There are one or two little burrs on every nail.  If you don't get them completely smooth they rub on the wheels causing friction and slowing the car down.  You can't win with those burrs.  We spent about an two hours one each nail getting rid of all the burrs and making them as smooth as possible."

So, where is friction robbing your business of progress?  There are many kinds of friction in organizations that keep us from getting things done.  Some of it starts in our own minds with indecision and a lack of commitment to a course of action.  Maybe we haven't clearly defined our goals or how we are going to get there. 

Some friction is external to us such as the failure of alignment of resources from key groups.  Some is very clear and out in the open, and some is hidden like burrs on a nail.

Minimize and Resolve

Whether you are trying to improve the results of a specific team or person, building new technology or ramping up a multi-year growth strategy, friction is present.  Whether in skills limitations, technology schedules, scarce resources or simply in the battle for people's minds and imaginations, we as leaders have to be ready to deal with friction. 

While it's helpful to try to minimize friction up front, it is also necessary to be ready to spot and resolve those things on the fly.  Here are three steps to effectively dealing with friction in your efforts:

1.  See Friction For What It Is : Inevitable.   If you are responsible for getting things done you must be alert for signs that progress is being impeded by something.  Is there a key metric you watch for that is drifting or is stalled?  Is there certain language people use that sets you on edge?  If the project manager says in three straight status meetings that "we are working through some issues with (put department name here)", then friction exists and you must help resolve it.  Don't forget to look at yourself.  If your attention is waining or other things are getting in your way, you may be the source of the slowdown.  Organizations are made up of well intentioned, hardworking people and they aren't trying to make things difficult.  Circumstances and crisis can also get in the way ... no, will get in the way.  Acknowledge them.  Expect them.

2.  Think Through The Friction's Source.  I have often seen large technology efforts fall behind schedule because specific skills and resources are not available.  I've also experienced long-term strategy execution struggle as the calendar turns: people become interested in other things; new challenges and opportunities appear.  Each of these and others can exert friction on efforts to get things done that are to benefit the long term needs of the business.  It is critical that leadership maintain focus and resolute commitment to getting these things done.  In fact, our will is really all we have to combat friction.  Try not to react to symptoms, but get to the source of the friction.  Be prepared to ask a lot of questions before you get to this.

3.  Act To Persevere and Achieve Within The Friction.  By staying in the friction and working through it's attendant challenges we develop the patience and perseverance needed to overcome current and future obstacles.  I've seen executives become so frustrated with friction that they throw their arms up in surrender and proclaim, "this place is too hard to get things done in."  This defeats not only the current effort but is an attempt to throw responsibility over the wall to others.  By taking the reins and responsibility to resolve these issues, we learn to minimize issues along the way so that future efforts will travel a smoother road.

So what about our Pinewood Derby car the next year?  Second place!  Whether in Pinewood Derby cars or in your business' goals, much works against success.  Like the burs on the nails of my son's derby car, much of it is unseen and requires some good detective work to get to the bottom of it.

BLT #28: Are You Interested? . . . "Elementary, Watson!"

"Surely no man would work so hard or attain such precise information unless he had some definite end in view . . . No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so."
                                             - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study In Scarlet

I began this week reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes, accumulated in one leather bound edition by Barnes and Noble.  In the early chapters, Doyle takes us through the early meeting and ultimate status of 'roommates' of Dr. Watson and Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

As Sir Doyle exposes the thinking of Dr. Watson upon his study of one Sherlock Holmes' habits and formidable knowledge, the reader sees Mr. Holmes more deeply and differently than you might expect.  Holmes seems to know an incredible amount about things he sees through his significant powers of observation, reasoning and deduction.  Yet he seems unaware of any basic knowledge regarding the arrangement of the solar system, responding to Watson's with:

"What the deuce is it to me?  You say that we go around the sun.  If we went around the moon it would not make a pennysworth of difference to me or to my work." (my emphasis)

Lesson For Us - What about the new guy/gal?
When I first read this brief section of the very first story, I wondered about how we process information when we first meet someone.  What we notice about them.  What seems peculiar or odd to us and what we do with that information.  Maybe more importantly what we edit out or miss because of our biases or history.

Dr. Watson is simply dumbfounded that any person could be so well developed in areas such as chemistry, fine literature, music, law and boxing (?) and not know that the earth we inhabit flits around the sun.  Do you ever assume someone ought to know something that they don't?  What happens when you find out they do not?  Do they drop a peg?  Do you feel superior in some way?  Oh, we may not do it consciously but almost can't help wondering  how someone could get so far in life without knowing X or Y.

More Than The Eye Can See
As Dr. Watson experiences more of his new roomy, he learns that Mr. Holmes' abilities and skills in his area of specialty -  solving crimes - are so profound that people seek him out for it.  All kinds of people.  He attracts people that are very different from one another and helps them solve their problem.  You see, there is far more to Mr. Holmes than meets the eye, and that is true of the people that cross our paths too.

See.  Think.  Act.
I believe the experiences of Dr. Watson with his new famous (to us) friend provide some guidance into our little world and how we might do better at valuing people more highly.

1.  See The Whole Person.  When we meet someone new we are immediately struck by how they look, how they speak and what they speak about.  A whole series of unconscious judgments take place and we decide - often poorly I think - about the person and whether we like them or will invest time with them.  Take the time to see more than first impressions.  Malcolm Gladwell's Blink! presents a number of arguments suggesting we know very much with just a glance, but he also points out that there are significant errors in that judgement at times.

2.  Think Them Through.
I called attention a moment ago to the unconscious processing of information and the judgements we make based on limited data.  Thinking, as I consider it, is a conscious process and the one I think should be used where people are involved.  A thinking person would want more information before placing too much power or too little faith in a person.  Now, go back and re-read Watson's thought at the very beginning of this post - I'll wait.  What's he doing?  He is thinking about his new acquaintance and, it appears, assuming that all this learning and knowledge about such small things must come to some good.  He assumes that it must have a purpose and a value, even if Watson can't see it at that moment.  He assumes that his new friend is good - a great place to start.

3.  Act Interested.
Now I don't mean by this that we ought to mislead someone into thinking we care about them when we really don't.  What I mean is that in order to learn more about a person and what makes them tick, what makes them unique and valuable, we must act like an interested person.  What would an interested person do?  Set up coffee? Lunch? A brief office drop by, perhaps?.  An interested person would orchestrate situations in which they could learn more about the subject of their interest.  I have found, to my shame and loss, that I have misjudged a person because I was simply not interested enough to learn more about them.  Don't make this mistake.  Act.

Today's a Great Day To Learn More About Harriet, Joe or Frank
Just three pages later in this very first story, Dr. Watson confides, in his own thoughts, "My respect for his (Holmes') powers of analysis increased wondrously."  That last word catches me, did it you?  "Wondrously."  It suggests that someone objectively viewing a change in Watson's respect for Holmes would be awed or spellbound by Watson's new view given where he began.  Wouldn't that be cool to do with more people?

 I am only on page 13 of this 1077 page collection and Dr. Watson has already gone from wondering about the sanity of this person to amazement at this abilities and intellectual prowess. 

Who in your life are you stuck on page 11 with?  What might it be like at page 1077?  Why don't you begin finding out today!!

BLT #27: Something New For Your Customers? . . . How About Fixing This First!

Jamie was preparing for his 2:00 meeting with one of the company's largest customers.  As the head of operations it seemed an improbable call for him to be making.  Sales was always worried when they had to take ops types on the road with them.  There had been, somewhere back in the annals of the company's history some poor performances by a member of operations during a series of visits to clients.  A proclamation had gone out - well, maybe it was just an off-handed comment but the effect was the same - no ops people at sensitive client meetings.

 The sales team had always preferred to talk about the "sausage" with their clients and avoid any discussion of the actual  details of making of the sausage.  It's a messy distasteful process that goes on in the back room of a service business like theirs.  But Jamie had done much to overcome that concern.  His style was calm, confident and he had a presence about him that made clients feel he was the perfect person to be handling their business.  The client didn't know he'd had to clean up a series of messes to earn the confidence of the sales team, and now he was to help them make a sale for new services to the client.  What a day this would be.  Or so he thought.

But this day did, in fact, take an unexpected turn .  Starting with so much promise and ending with Jamie boarding a plane a day early to get home and address a new crisis.  That there was a crisis wasn't unique.  The new twist to this challenge is that the client had made him aware of it immediately following their flawless presentation about the new service, how much it would help the client's employees and what a great value it was at twice the price.  He'd thought the clients lead representative had acted strangely during introductions; cold and distant.  Throughout the entire presentation they had avoided eye contact and not seemed at all enthused - not asking a single question.

When they were done, the client's executive director looked at Jamie and asked, "Did you know that 11 orders of ours have been lost and never processed over the last year?"  Jamie was stunned, how had he not known about this?  She answered that question, asked only in his head, by adding that the issue had been identified by her internal auditors.  He'd come so far with his operations team, and now he was the reason the client would be making no purchases on this day.  In addition, they had threatened to cancel current orders if these issues were not cleaned up quickly.

As he sat in the plane, stuck on the tarmac, he could do nothing but think.  How had this happened and what would he do to clean this mess up and break the cycle of crisis?

Jamie and his firm need a wider view.
Jamie and his cohorts are facing a situation with both immediate and long term implications.  Jamie's processes and management oversight to address past issues had apparently not been as thorough as he'd hoped and that fact was now standing in the way of executing the company's strategy of offering new solutions to it's customers.  The reality is sinking in that best new products and services designed to help customers cannot overcome poor daily execution.   Are you being blocked in your efforts to change you client's view of your business?  Do daily snafus block their view of your future?  If so, you are not alone.

Broadlight(T) addresses disconnects between strategy and execution.
I designed Broadlight(T) quite by accident.  In fact I didn't even know I was doing it while I was solving problems.  By addressing operational challenges in the business, we were gradually improving our client's views of our ability to deliver on new promises and opportunities.  Broadlight(T) has three primary parts:

1.  Diligent review of where you are.  What are your current results and how do your customers view their experience with you?  Our friend Jamie's firm launched a full 3rd party survey of their clients in all segments.  The results were humbling across the board.  But they had taken a critical step in bringing the customer into the room at every step of their business model.  One of the great things about internal scorecards is that one can get a picture of how they are performing against pre-set goals and measures.  It is a dramatic moment when your internal measures tell you one thing and your customers tell you something else.  Fight the urge to explain away the feedback.  Accept it and set to work on the highest priority items.

2.  Review your ability to execute.  What is the company/business/division/department's history of delivering on new promises and of making timely and successful change?  Change and adaptation to competitor's moves as well as a society that is constantly morphing is here to stay.  The most successful firms will be those whose management thinking and initiatives are supported by processes and people committed to focused execution.  This does not mean that one needs to build a Utopian world where no one is interrupted and competing real-time issues don't arise - that is fantasy.  It does mean, however, that discipline and rigorous attention to finishing what is begun are critical.  If your latest output from leadership offsite meetings doesn't force something off the plate, or off the table altogether, then you aren't ready for the discipline that's needed to alter course as the current - and I believe permanent - environment demands.

3.  It's got to fit on one hand.  There was an occasion once when my boss was escorting his boss's boss (for those keeping count that's 3 levels above me as a director level leader.  He asked me to prepare a couple of thoughts to share with them.  I did, but I didn't need them.  The senior leader asked me a great question that took all our time and it was this: "Lance, what do you think are our biggest challenges...ones that you'd like me to have in mind as I meet with the senior management team?"  I could almost feel my boss praying that I'd pass on the question because he'd heard my pitch before.  I said that we had too many priorities, initiatives, change efforts for people to allocate a meaningful amount of time to - as if we were going to try everything and see what stuck.  I encouraged . . . almost begged . . . her to get the group so focused that we could all tick off - on one hand - what we were trying to get done and how we were going to do it.  She then asked me what I thought those were and I told her.  Even if your leadership can't get it's message down to one hand, you have to!!!

Jamie did solve the problems with his group.  The client did order the new services and extend their contract for current services.  The company prospered from a new insight - our customers will tell us what's important.

BLT #26: Will People Remember You . . . Like John Wooden?

The stories of John Wooden's basketball coaching prowess and the cumulative success are legendary.  Read the following string of accomplishments:

• 40 + Years of Coaching - 1 losing season
• 4 undefeated seasons at UCLA
• 10 national championships - 7 of these came in successive seasons!!!
• More all-americans than you can count - what (or, who) attracted them?

Now, spend a little time on Google looking for coaches with a more jaw-dropping resume'.  As the philosoper Katt Williams says, "Go ahead, I'll wait." . . . . Right, you can't find any.  These accomplishments are so astounding - heck, very few stay in one place long enough to have some of his records.  Yes, his place in basketball history is secure.

But an interesting thing happens when you read stories about John Wooden.  As you're reading about basketball and coaching philosophy, something else overruns the story.  You don't realize it until you get to the end and find yourself considering much more than basketball.  You look at the pictures of him and wonder what it must have been like to spend time with such a person. 

Then you see it.  Even for a person as decorated professionally has he was, it turns out the personal impact of  the man was far more pronounced than the basketball impact of the coach.  With his resume' that is saying something!  The people who talk and write about him cannot help but discuss the person and how profound a difference he made in their full lives - not just on the basketball court.

So, What About Us?
What will people say about you and I?  Will they remember the sales goals you made, or the businesses we've successfully run?  How about the number of days you went without being absent or the vacation days you gave back to the company because you were just 'too busy to take time off.'  What about all the years you met your operating goals and stayed within budget?  No?  No.  10 years after you are gone - who am I kidding, maybe 5 - no one will talk about those things.

Those accomplishments are meaningful but mostly in the right now.  The difference we'll make in people's lives isn't there in what we do, but in the person we are while we're doing them and the investment we make in helping others.  As I look in back on my career I do not see figures, goals accomplished:  I see people's faces that I have worked with and for as well as those I have tried to help along the way.  What do you see?

Decide to be Remembered for You.
Whether you manage others or wish to impact people through your leadership, here are three habits (See. Think. Act.) you can begin building that will help you down the path.  This is a decision that must be made for the right reason.  Don't do them because someone thinks you should, but rather because they match with who you want to be. 

1.  See! - Listen and Pay Attention To People.  If you get really good at observing others and listening to them you will pick up all kinds of things you can help them with.  Little self-deceptions about why X didn't go so well or how Y is stuck with the IT folks (isn't everything IT's fault :).  You can help people see their own limitations - or how they are limiting themselves - often come from inside themselves and the poor self-talk they've learned from too many managers only talking to them about their faults.  Help them talk to themselves - and others - differently.

2.  Think! - Develop a Plan.  Once you've got a full picture of the person, what they're trying to accomplish and how they're going about it you are in a great position to offer developmental guidance.  A special assignment in another department, improved speaking skills, leadership presence and in-job skills development are all examples of development you can offer.  You might say, rightly, that you have all these things in place in your organization and people are free go to the classes or seminars at anytime.  Key Insight:  Without your help, people may assume they are fine or work on the wrong things.

3. Act! - Challenge People.  It is the cowardly and selfish person, interested only in their own comfort who fails to push others to their best.  This challenging ought not be out of anger or in rash response to a single event.  What I am talking about is done thoughtfully and with genuine caring for the betterment of the other person.  When you invest time challenging people - whether in their work habits, their communications or their performance - you are telling them that you have faith in them.  After all, who urges someone on in something they know cannot be accomplished?  It is the difference between saying "Get it done, or else..." and "I need you to do this and I know you can" and the gap is HUGE!!

John Wooden is known for many wise sayings, but one of my favorites is a call to action:  "Make today your masterpiece."  I've got nothing to add to that.