Flexible yardstick

An oxymoron don’t you think? Economics is a funny subject! I have learnt more from Economics than I have from most other subjects put together… I may not have been paying much attention in the other classes… I guess? In any case, I was chatting with a friend on matters of measurement and metrics and I blurted ‘flexible yardstick’. I started to wonder when and where I first heard the term, ‘flexible yardstick’… it all came back to me… CPI – The consumer price index as a measure of inflation. The words took me down memory lane to the class room sessions in Macro Economics and Paul Samuelson. So what’s wrong with CPI as an inflation measure? Guess it is all the short term profiteering, hoarding, fads, etc. that lend the measure ineffective at reporting the variation in the value of money. Strange as it may sound I have never dabbled in the world of economics ever since that class, although I play ‘GAMES’ all the time.

Our conversation evolved into a discussion of biases in measurements, short term memory is always sharper than long term memory in addition to people believe anything, they believe forms their perception, and perception is reality. So by induction principle yardsticks are flexible…

Sounds like a lot of baloney, but it really isn’t... “Perception is Reality”. To that extent the only resolution to a systemic challenge like flexible yardstick is a constructive change management program combined with a strong, astute leadership.

Communication...

A long time manager once told me it takes 15 positive actions to erase 1 negative action to turn around a dissatisfied employee. I am a believer in Dr. Covey and agree in creating and depositing into an emotional bank account before making any withdrawal. When I heard the 15/1 leverage I could not disagree.

As a marketer first and foremost I market, “Brand Me”. I know my equity and I communicate. I build on my equity and I leverage. Years ago I read it takes as may as five repetitions to convey your point across to your customers/consumers.

Some times thought it seems like we over communicate. I agree numbers don’t speak for themselves… you need to fill the gaps, but I often feel like people begin by trying to fill those gaps and become the document. The most classic is evaluations and assessments. Measurements and metrics become secondary and the subjective interpretations of the criteria and alignment with strategy take center stage.

Burnt once fifteen times shy... guess I need to be hit 75 (5*15) times before I see the value?

Hopelessness

Stephen Vizinczey - "Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it."

Who am I? What do I do? How can I help? When can I help?

No I am not nuts? Each time I have tried to redefine myself I have answered those questions. Then at some point I thought what am I really trying to do? It is still me, in the… mind, body and soul. I did not realize what I was really trying to accomplish?

...and then a couple years later I changed functions again. This time I was some how close to the art and science of package design and those questions I answered for myself popped up in front of me!

That’s when I realized I am only repacking myself. I live to reinvent myself!

Life is common sense, pick the pieces and connect them.

Design

Yesterday I heard about a satarical video "Microsoft iPod" and rushed to watch it on http://video.google.com. It sure was very funny. I was quickly reminded of a quote by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

You know you’ve achieved perfection in design, Not when you have nothing more to add, But when you have nothing more to take away.
– Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Inspiration

I started developing and submitting ideas for new and innovative products long before I ever thought market them someday. My ideation was so rampant and I can share some long stories. The first time I ever interviewed for a marketing position the brand manager asked me how I get these ideas, I thought for a moment and sputtered… the environment and he said what does that mean. I said seriously everything around me inspires a thought, the thought leads to an idea, the idea leads to a solution and the solution is often the product.

He asked me for an example and I said last evening I was listening to NPR on my drive back, a segment on the show inspired a thought into a product. Obviously not every product is viable and not every idea is pragmatic but if you leave the windows and doors to a room open you are bound to have a drift of a sweet fragrant flower flowing through at some point or the other?

The fundamental challenge is to open these windows to our minds and souls! We are often caught up in our own self and never disengage to experience, enjoy and analyze the ambience around us. The joy of experience is inspiration itself.

CVC

There is not a single organization today that does not emphasize innovation in some shape or form. What is often missed is that true innovation I a discontinuity. It is a deviation from the norm. Yet we foster structure and organization. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a role in every corporation like the Chief VC (CVC) for new innovation? A champion… who promotes chaos, entrepreneurship, etc.

Established organizations need internal VCs, champions of change. Some one who understands the value to the customer and the way around the block of the organizations themselves…

Just like every little kid, projects need TLC. Someone to see them through the roller coasters of business cycles, the small successes and failures. More importantly this CVC needs to establish the right measures for success and ensure failure is accepted step towards success.

Functional illiteracy

Was listening to the Marketplace a production of American Public Media and heard a somewhat disturbing snippet on functional illiteracy. The piece is clearly consistent with challenges in Corporate America as much as the American Education movement.

Bad news for US competitiveness

A report out yesterday says 25% of Americans are functionally illiterate because teachers aren't being taught to teach reading. And that's bad news for the US economy. Hillary Wicai reports.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2006/05/23/AM200605236.html

It is rather strange to walk into organization these days where vendors present results and recommendations to business partners… where is accountability and ownership? It gets worse in the pseudo technical organizations. These are ones that are not really Engineering or R&D but supporting line functions through financial analysis, analysis of business drivers, etc.

I often wonder what causes this and the only plausible explanation that seemed to make any sense was… The financial measures we learn in B-Schools discount the intangible measures today’s managers and leaders reinforce the financial metrics of doing business a certain way? A culture of disconnect between measurement and management. The cause effect hypothesis starts with a manager who has a limited functional background develops an outsourcing plan to generate savings leads to hiring of individuals to manage projects with the outsourcing vendor and communication to business partners while discounting functional expertise.

Competency & Scale

Seems like I have been developing a lot of competency matrices lately… and I love it! It enables me to think strategically about the state of the business and where we want to be within the foreseeable strategic planning window.

This is clearly not the first time I set upon this endeavor, although I have developed a couple in quick successions recently. Years ago when I started working I assumed that competency matrices never change. Why should they? As a manager I needed to do certain demonstrate certain skills, I need to have them! As an analyst if I need to know a certain tool, technique and methodology I need to demonstrate it and it was assumed that I had the necessary aptitude for it. On occasions where there was a lacuna between aptitude and experience my organization would provide me with the right development opportunities.

Over time I realized things are not so clean and clear. In addition there are other business dynamics and career pathing elements that add to the complexity. As people change functions, technology and outsourcing start to take center stage the competency matrix needs evolution too!

As a new entrepreneur I believed all anyone needed to succeed was PASSION! As the environment evolves EMOTIONS need to be supplemented by a certain measurable skills, objectivity, etc. Today as scale beings to kick in… My matrices are based on functional development, project and business management and lastly organizational development. Some times it seems like drafting the tax code of the United States.

Failed HR!

I must confess before I start that I have NO FAITH in the Human Resource and Staffing organization of most organizations! There we go… I have laid out my cards on the table.

I bet there are a lot of people out there who will agree with me on this one. Some may be willing to say but others won’t. I am unable to understand what does it take to be in Human Resources? Most HR organizations are powerless and directionless. I don’t believe any degree from any institution in the world can help change these woes?

I have innumerable issues with HR for starters the fact that the name makes the department so indifferent to people. The soul of every organization are its people and yet we compare them to ‘RESROUCES’… like buildings, equipment, etc.? What about the hiring process. You don’t hire people for a job; you hire people for their skill and their talent. I am not a fan of tactical hiring but when organizations lack the concept of succession planning tactical hiring is the solution. Even at that one needs a strong functional understanding to identify the right candidate? Automatic implication is that HR needs to be the smartest people in the room.

Conflict resolution is the last of my biggest issues… as policy police they proliferate opacity! This is not a war game, it is our people. ‘TRANSPARENCY’ is a necessity!

HR needs Simplicity, directness and clarity of communication… the only truth and nothing but the truth! To me HR is the fountain of youth of an organization; it is the spring that everyone must drink from. We need to fulfill our duties in giving back to the organizations we love! Lets fix it or move on.

Dead man walking

Had a very strange dream last night, believe it or not I was shot in the head point blank and I died. It did not hurt from being shot, guess the shock was so strong that the pain disappeared… infact the only think I remember feeling was a hot wave the swept through my body, until it escaped me through the palms of my hand. The first thing I thought or rather my soul thought was how am I going to explain what happened? Momentarily I realized I don’t need to answer anymore. Actually I don’t need to worry about all those worldly things anymore, how cool. What happened after was a lot scarier.

I could not make anything happen; I could not share my ideas, my opinions did not matter. To add pain to misery people could actually walk over and through me!

It made me realize what I am most scared about is “BEING INSIGNIFICANT”.

Guess that what marketing is all about! Ensuring your brand has a strong and clearly defined equity.

Is there a Ceiling, so what do we do?

Year over year I come across a tons of books that talk about the glass ceiling smashing it / breaking it / moving beyond it / dancing on it in the Western world, then the paper rice ceiling in Japan, the bamboo ceiling for Asian in some of the western cultures and so on. Often wonder what is the point?

• Introduce the audience to the types of ceilings? by culture?
• Expose prejudices?
• The relevance by race, gender?
• Strategies to deal with them?
• Create role models?

Honestly I am not sure? It is quite clear though that a construct like the ceiling does exist in the corporate world! Some individuals have moved beyond while others are affected, but there is no panacea. What works in a certain organization and culture may not work every where. Could one benefit from the collective knowledge of all the books? May be but there is so much literature out there it would take a very long time to scour through.

There are certain things that are obvious… for one to beat these ceilings one needs consistent performance, persistence, common sense, being savvy (projecting the right image) and lastly managing the “Brand You” effectively through the right exposure.

Culture of prototyping

Watching kids at play always seems to inspire me. There is a certain amount of ingenuity at work that is not marred by the shackles of organizational rules, hierarchy and bureaucracy. Anyways I was recently at a school and had the opportunity to watch kindergarteners play with blocks. It was amazing how they built things then broke them and rebuilt it a new way, there was a sense of mission in their actions and more importantly there was a search to built a perfect ‘something’… obviously I could not tell.

I remember watching my nephew pull apart a small matchbox series car, wheel first then the chassis and so on until he is ready to reassemble the broken car. As we grow older we loose that drive to prototype, we take the systems, the organizations we are in for what they are, rarely question and in some cases are told to make things work the way they are before we rearrange things over.

Organizations hire smart individuals and box them into molds, destroy their creativity and drive. It would be great we did not take anything to be perfect and developed a culture of prototyping, build a little, test a little and scale a lot!

Feedback is a gift

My last employer believed strongly in the fact that feedback is a gift. I did not need much convincing to believe in the philosophy. I have wondered what would have happened in Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes” had the little boy said, “The Emperor is stupid and not fit for his position”, or "The Emperor is fat", or "The Emperor is short" or "The Emperor has piercings" or “The Emperor has no clothes on”, etc.

Feedback is one of the most difficult things to write not because it has to be worded right and it needs to be constructive but because it takes a knack to write a comprehensive feedback!

For the longest time I thought the most important part of the story was the fact that the little boy dared to voice what he noticed… but only recently I heard an excerpt and realized that the more important thing was the fact that the boy noticed the lack of clothes. That’s the job of a non-biased agent to notice aberrations and suggest solutions.

One of the first things most organizations need is train people to notice aberrations and rebroadcast episodes into a 'feedback'. We learn to read and write very early in school but it may be helpful if we are taught the art of reflecting on actions and writing feedback to those actions.

Block & Tackle in our Organizations

  

Style & Principle

Thomas Jefferson - 3rd president of US (1743 - 1826) - "In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock".

Manager

  

Happiness?

In the order of priority

Honesty/Integrity
Intelligence
Family/Support/Value system
Discipline/Consistency
Instant gratification

Discipline is everything!

I am not sure how discipline is different from consistency or similar to it? But I believe discipline is everything!

I have experienced a range of people with tremendous potential who just fell apart at the moment of truth only because they were distracted. The first time when a friend did not get admitted to his choicest schools because he did not make the qualifying threshold, the second time when an acquaintance failed to deliver because he failed to prioritize consistently. It is the discipline of to stick to the task, the disciple to bring it elevate the issues, and so on.

Be it putting away your toys as a kid, completing and submitting your homework, studying the coursework, doing laundry, exercising or simply developing skills to upgrade and keep pace with the evolving talent market and aspirational goals.

Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924) - "There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness."

Life is all about hedging, we place bets on outcomes in the future based on an unsaid, unwritten commitment to put in the best effort... isn't that really a commitment to be disciplined and consistent in the effort until completion of the task.

For some reason our performance measurement systems do not track discipline explicitly instead they seem to measure quality and quantity relative to the peers?

That’s rather strange.

Action & Inspiration

Frank Tibolt - "We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action".

Managers as COOs?

As CEOs focus on the long term direction, health and wellbeing of the organization the COO focuses on helping the CEO in meeting Wall Street’s short term expectations.

The COO is also instrumental in driving alignment and influence across the middle management to ensure communication of the CEOs plans.

Middle managers drive innovation, plan, organize and coordinate to meet departmental goals. They play games, make adjustments/shifts and tweak the internal controls to stay the course so as to meet and beat the expectations.

So where is the difference in the role? Is it just the scope? Is it responsibility? Is it breath across functions? Is it the experiences?

Seems like the CEO is strategy focused, while the COO is action focused but so is middle management when it comes to their departments and functions.

INFLECTION POINTS

It has certainly been a long hiatus since I last posted on the Blog. No I did not stop imagining or writing, I got busy making a significant change in my life and posting to the blog took lower priority. Thanks to friends who wrote to me during this time wondering why I stopped or turned less prolific.

This essay has little to do with my career or action at the current point in time but more so a rumination of everything thus far… the breakthroughs, the cruising phases, the downward spirals and all the rest. Nothing fascinates me more than looking back at past events to think about how I could have acted different? What would have happened if I made a different decision? Sort of like the movie Sliding Door, staring Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah.

What were fascinating to me were the inflection points in my career. These were clearly the defining moments to move my career where it is and what it could potentially be at some point. Years ago when I worked for Intel, Andy Grove published his second book Only the paranoid survive, which was based on how astute business leaders identify inflection points and the story of Intel’s evolution. I worried over it for months wondering how can I foresee these inflection points? How can I frame my career to capitalize from my understanding and foresight of these inflection points?

We have all studied basic economics at school and the classic price elasticity of demand, the exponential decay in demand as price increases. Real life curves are not as smooth as the classical ones in books but the jagged steps are the inflection points and opportunities we are face with. There are very few true inflection points where one gets the chance to ride the wave, most others are ones we create on our understanding of:
• Who we are?
• How did we get to be the way we are?
• What can we do to leverage who we are?
• What’s happening around us and how can we reframe who we are within the new world?

Consistence in action and focus can force one to think with more than just the brain and mind. I just put down another book I read, Radical chance, Radical results by Kate Ludeman, Eddie Erlandson a must read for some one who is not yet bought in on the concept of thinking with the bodymind.

Hé

It is a Chinese word that means ENERGY. The wok in which the vegetables are cooked give away a whiff of energy that whiff is the “Hé”, its “Wok Hé”! As a child growing up I took ketsugo classes, a form of martial arts that combines Judo, Karate and Ikido. The loud grunt the sensei taught us to release with each kata and each strike to me was just cry to scare the opponent. I did not realize it was the release of Hé, the energy with every strike to the opponent in addition to the power of the arms and limbs.

I am always excited to find word etymologies and Hé seemed to lead me to Hail. I have always noticed how the pitch of voice increases the energy level and the excitement. I guess the only reason non-violence works is because of the Hé of the collected group bargaining for rights acts as fuel and energy to the movement. What surprises me is why don’t we try the same at work? Offices are the most quite and sullen places.

Are we loosing out on the pent up energy the Hé from delivering breakthroughs?

Rearview driving

Our home is set in the woods and is fairly private. One of the days when I had to back out of the driveway I realized it was not easy with my monstrous, gas guzzling SUV. I was afraid I would either hit into a tree or drive over the flower bed. Clearly the downside on the flowerbed was marginal but none the less it was damage preventive versus an upside potential on any of the options.

Our neighbor who has lived around here for over 25 years recently paid us a visit and he backed out like a pro, in a single push of his gas paddle he was half way down the drive way in his Chevy suburban. Guess it must be instinct and experience!

I started to think don't we manage our businesses the same way? "Driving with the rear view reflection"… ROI from last years events, elasticity from the prior years pricing, historical knowledge of the consumers decision preferences, the hundreds of reports that talk about what happened not what to expect.

I am just happy that the angle of incidence is the same as the ingle of reflection, there is no refraction and more importantly our brain compensates based on our experience. Guess that is why corporate America emphasizes age and experience.

There is clearly a need for C-H-A-N-G-E!

The CEO sets the tone for the culture

Cultures are constantly evolving, organizational cultures are much like social cultures they live, breath and they evolve.

Culture is a construct so abstract that it is difficult to describe or measure!

But yet it is the one and only thing that differentiates people, places and their behaviors. Isn't it amazing that the CEO of an organization can single handedly steer the culture of an organization? How ever mature the culture, the CEO sets the tone through his or her actions and is often the epitome of the behavior to expect.

Manage, Plan, Organize & Coordinate

 

In 1999 Jamie Swift interviewed Henry Mintzberg as part of the IDEAS series on CBC radio. To date this has been the most amazing interview I have ever heard on the practice of management, leadership and organization.

Mintzberg has always been my most admired management guru along side the late Peter Drucker. 

Instinct & Experience

Blaise Pascal - "Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience."

the EXIT strategy

I have always thought the exit strategy is THE most important part of the strategy formulation. It is the part that tells me when is it time to move on, let go, cash in, count my blessings, which ever way you like to think of it.

But what makes the exit strategy so interesting is the fact that I know the exact metric associated with this key milestone.

I knew the opportunity when I started but the exit strategy tells me if I am realizing against this opportunity or NOT? It is absolutely paramount to track but more so to detach the emotions associated with the decision… as much as stopping to ask for directions when we lost, to discontinuing a brand, to pulling out of a market or even selling off a business.

I start each day with a plan and end it netting against my exit strategy. Be it with my work, my life and everything else around me.

Premature exit is not just expensive but plain and simple stupid. Just think if you were headed from New York to Los Angeles to start an acting career and gave up on the first wrong turn you made that put you on the way to Boston instead.

The individual who formulates the strategy MUST formulate the exit strategy as well. He or she should also define how to MEASURE success or failure along the way.

Leaders, Managers, Staffer & Attritioners

  

Transitional Companies

I have written about Academy Companies in the past. These are organizations with seasoned people processes and systems, permeated through the ranks and files of the organization. An active training ground for the masses at their helm.

I wondered if there are non-Academy Companies? The so called Transitional Companies? The not so seasoned companies that always look up to these academy companies but never make it to their level, but have some how survived over the years... the unseen, the unknown, the unlamented ones... like Ogden Nash puts it in "The Silent Spectator".

There have to be! Life is about a balance. If there is good there must be evil, If there is great there must be good, if there is academy there must be transitional!

I came across just such an organization. These are the kinds of organizations where folks join to change their function, geography, etc. that could not be made in the Academy world on account of the relative rigidity of the processes and systems. These organizations are more than startup companies with a reputation and a brand name but significantly short of Tom Peters’, "Wow Factor" that the academy companies project.

lessons from the year-Prioritize vs. Optimize

I made a sub-optimal career decision during the year and was ruminating over the long term effects...

During a conversation with a friend who's opinion I value came the following:

no point in trying to "optimize" the less
important things, or every time!

I began to wonder there is no greater truth than this. Clearly "prioritization" is more important than "optimization".

A year in restrospect

• Accountability is an uncomfortable word
• Can leadership model really start with trust?
• Management and Leadership is like splitting water with a sword
• People need help in understanding the difference between process and culture
• Peoples compensating behaviors in corporations - Agree with every one and everything, control everything, manage everything
• Feedback loop is very important - it must be a two way street!
• Peter Drucker told us "What gets measured gets done!" Really? I think it needs to be "What gets measured and accounted for gets done!"
• People hear and understand different things... everyone needs to be on the same page for the right objectives to be set and deliverables to be met
• Whats the role of HR? Policy police?