Recently, I had two similar meetings.  Each began with “we tried [fill in the blank] …. but it didn’t work”

Meeting #1 was with a CEO.  He told me of their initiatives to engage a very important group.  The result: Lots of effort - minimal response.  Most of the checklist items I suggested were met with “Yep. We did that.” 

In meeting #2, executives described a great effort to change the organization structure.  They were now a couple of years into the new design and results were, well, not good.   People were not responding.  “We did everything – the usual stuff”. 

Two cases… Same employee response, “We’ll get back to you.”

In each of these conversations you could tell they were dangerously close to giving up on their people. They were one step from concluding “our people are too difficult to change”. 

Usually, a conversation like this includes a question to me, “So what can you do?”   It comes across the table like a well hit forehand.  The server hopes to score an ace or prepares to receive our power return – Namely, “here’s the secret I have that you don’t”.   Sometimes we do – but that’s not the real answer.  We avoid playing the game.  Why?  Because gaming IS the problem.   That is what these and other organizations find themselves doing: throwing a series of initiatives, at a problem and expecting…hoping… for a great response.  Imagine hitting a great shot at your opponent and he stands there watching the ball fall to his feet.  No return.  No engagement.  (Perhaps, a little yelling at the umpire)  When the expected response does not come from employees, we conclude something is wrong – the next step is typical blame assignment… “is it us ” or “is it them…Are they unchangeable?”

It’s the trust “thing” again

Organizations have years of hard wiring expectations in employee minds.  A certain level of trust questioning starts all interactions.  It is like your personal computer that, over time, becomes cluttered with fragments… software leftovers.  Everything slows down and if you push too hard you find the inevitable blue screen of death.   You face these “trust leftovers” in any change.  You cannot overcome years of hard-wiring with “normal” actions or a few “one- off” initiatives. You must plan to unravel and rewire.  It is difficult.  Most give up at difficult.  However, rarely is it impossible.    

Before I go too far, let’s get back to gaming.  What’s wrong with gaming?  You can sum it up in one word:  opponent.  Organization games put people in competition with each other.  Competition is good and playing games are fun – when it is against the right competition.  Your players are supposed to be on the same side.   When the game is between “insiders” trust filters every initiative you attempt.   Trust is the key to this hardwired system.   

In our last post we started with step one of  Aligning People Skill #2: Cultivating Trust – by redefining winning .  Do it well and each person has a clear view of what it takes for success.   I wish it was as easy as it sounds.  It is not.  It is only the start because when you redefine winning you don’t just change the rules – you  change the game itself.  No longer is it insider gaming that defines success, but “organization winning”.  If you do it right, the real focus of any organization winning will be to bring your product or service to a world that needs what you have to give.  This is a game of all of us versus the competition.  Not each other. 

A CEO commenting on his competition once said “We beat them because they spend so much time doing business with themselves.”  Gaming.

Great leaders learn this lesson early.  If there is too much gaming there is too little trust.  If there is little trust, normal initiatives do not work.  Change the game – by stopping it.   

Not winning? It might be the “trust thing”.

For all of our talk of “Social” media, developing real  relationships in our workplace can be uncomfortable for many leaders.  The ones we hear of  most seem to be dysfunctional, inappropriate or nonexistent.

When leaders speak of trust it is often as an abstract concept if they talk about it at all.  Yet trust may be the single factor aside from technical competence that makes for true high performance.  A study presented at a Purdue University conference stated that high trust organizations outperform low trust organizations by a factor of 2.5X

Without trust engagement is only a dream.

Trust is a one on one thing, right? So how can we make trust building an organization imperative?   How does this work on an organization scale?    Dan Harding, our guru of leadership models, developed a way of looking at the trust “mechanics” in an organization.  It starts with the premise that there are crossroad moments where organization trust has the opportunity to grow stronger or to erode:  1. Knowing if we are winning or losing, and 2. Responding to the wins and losses.  Leaders influence both of these to a great degree.

1.       Do we know what winning is? 

Most will say of course…however it doesn’t take long to dig into the organization to find people unclear about success - especially when it comes to their own job.   They may understand winning as filling orders or completing tasks.  These may contribute to winning – but not necessarily they are only final acts of a series of events where people have an opportunity to act with care.

What does this have to do with trust?  The dominoes begin to fall…

When people are not clear about winning – in terms they can measure…in ways everyone clearly sees... then the result is confusion.  Confusion leads to an over reliance on personal interpretation.  Personal interpretation puts more value on personal agendas.  Personal agendas become more important and behaviors become self preserving.   Self preserving behaviors usually result in I win – you lose strategies.  When people don’t care about losing – as long as it is someone else -  the trust level in the organization heads to the bottom.

We met once with the operations director of a highly technical electronic component facility in Europe.  We had difficult feedback to deliver.  Over the years, the facility had been through a number of changes.  Different parts of the factory were making many different things for many different customers. When we asked a group of employees “Who gets the parts you are making?”  They answered “I think they go into telephones?”   In reality they went into aircraft guidance systems.  When we shared this with the Operations Director he exclaimed “that’s not possible… I told them!”  When we dug deeper it became clear that telling them meant a 30 minute mass presentation on all aspects of the business – done only once in the last three years.    Somewhere in all of the cool slides, the definition of winning was lost to everyone but the Operations Director.  It may not be surprising that the level of trust was low. Very low.  You saw it when you walked into the workplace.  People avoided eye contact.  Interactions only happened when you initiated one.  I called it a low smile index. 

Can you guess why we were there?  Yep - they were not winning.

What can you do?

Walk around your organization.  Engage in conversations with your employees.  Ask them question like:  “What does winning look like here?”   If you see people hesitate or if answers seem to be unclear then you may have a problem.  If winning is defined only as “we make a profit” you may also have a problem.  

Next, toss the next questions to them “So, yesterday, did you win or did you lose?” and “How do you know?”  If the answers sound too vague or if the answers seem disconnected from other groups… you have an opportunity.  Get to work.

Here’s a cheat sheet:

1. Find out if people clearly understand if they are winning or losing
2. Define winning clearly. Make sure people see connections to your purpose statements
3. Create a way that everyone can translate winning for their level. Again, make sure connections are easily seen to organizational winning.
4. Create opportunities for individual to evaluate wins and losses in a way that learning and improvement become fun and develop a passion for winning. 
   

In the another post we will look at part 2 : Responding to Winning or Losing.

By Billy Bennett

When do you work on alignment?  When you are "in crisis" is too late.  In the 1952 movie High Noon, Gary Cooper played a town Sheriff who finds himself needing help to face the bad guys, the town members vote with their feet, leaving him to face the threat alone.  There are many interpretations of the movie and a great story about John Wayne (he hated the movie).  Here is one from me... Don't wait to earn the vote from your employees on the day of the crisis.
 
I just returned from voting in the U.S. election.  I flew back from our offices in Belgium just in time to cast my vote.  Today is the day when candidates find out if they did all they could do to align an electorate behind their ideas and leadership.  It is interesting to notice the activity today... rallies, television and radio ads, phone calls, and anything that will convince the critical voter to join them today.  While I believe that you expend every effort to deliver for your customers...or in this case cause, the commitment you need to succeed is built upon relationships you have made long before the day of the crisis.

Political candidates are lucky.  There is a regularly scheduled referendum on their leadership.  Feedback comes on a regularly scheduled basis.  For organization leaders the referendum comes unexpectedly... like Gary Cooper we find that our relationship building was not as effective as we thought - commitments are not where we need them to be.   In the end, Gary Cooper resigns and viewers conclude that everything was the fault of weak--minded townspeople.  But -  how well had Gary prepared for that day?

New studies on organization networks reinforce things we already know...but need to hear again... the ability to move and influence people is based on the relationships you built over time - and relationships are the foundation of modern networked organizations.  A recent article implied that Starbucks baristas are better at handling difficult relationship interactions than most technical professionals (Doctors).  Ouch.  

The lesson here is to start working on your relationships today.  You may need the vote of your employees very soon.

If you would like a tip sheet on how to work on the relationship, send us an email, or join our list...

My Dad’s Story
By David Ashton

My dad spent his working life in a skilled trade position in a manufacturing environment. He was the type of person that was constantly looking to develop something to make life just a little bit easier. He made a car top boat loader, a pop-up camping trailer and a hand held walk behind “Zamboni” for my backyard ice rink, long before you could ever buy anything like them in a store.

He believed in honest hard work, doing your best, and the concept that if you are going to do something, then it’s worth doing right. So lessons and education were a big part of what he expected when you took on a new hobby or task.  

Although a very creative person he was not a very artistic person. In 1988 he finally made the move into retirement and initially found himself with plenty of time on his hands. As a gag gift for his retirement, my wife bought my dad an Exacto wood carvers set. It was a small basic collection of knives for whittling wood. The premise of the gag was, that now you are retired you can sit in a rocking chair on the front porch and whittle a stick.

My dad didn’t get the joke.

He proceeded to search for a wood carving teacher so he could learn the finer points of creating the best carving he could.

He found a very creative young man who, after a work accident, used his passion for carving wood to create lifelike renditions of ducks, songbirds and birds of prey.

 I remember being at his house, scared that the hawk in the corner was about to take flight and seek me out as it’s next meal.

Dad studied and worked hard, sometimes carving 8 hours per day trying to perfect his new found craft. He purchased and studied a book entitled, “Drawing On The Right Side Of Your Brain”, to help him improve his artistic ability.  He built a small carving shop in the backyard as my mother forced him and his dust producing hobby out of her house.

As his passion grew and his carving mechanics improved he developed the ability to produce very lifelike and expressional duck heads. Apparently, in the duck carving world the ability to carve quality heads is a great asset. This inspired him even more and before long dad was turning out some rather impressive carvings. He had reached the point where the need to paint his creations was upon him.

At first he farmed out the painting to another individual as he himself could not paint and produce a realistic rendition of a Mallard. This quickly did not fit Dad’s need to pursue perfection and before long he was waist deep in the art of waterfowl painting. Through practice and hard work he became as good a painter as he was a carver.

So dad was now turning out piece after piece. He would give carvings as gifts for birthday’s, weddings, anniversaries, and whenever he felt you deserved something special. And if his house was getting too full, then carvings made their way to my house. Our house is filled with his work from over the years. He started to branch out into relief carving, song bird carving and busts of ancient Vikings. He carved places that my mom and dad went over the years and anything that he had an interest in. He even carved the street that my parents honeymooned on from a 40 year old picture.

Dad didn’t sell or accept money for any of his carvings. His view was, that if he did it for money then he would start to keep track of the time spent on a piece and that may short cut the level of detail and the overall quality of the carving.

So as time went on the need for increased challenges grew, and one day his teacher convinced him that his work may do well in competition. So dad embarked on creating a carving to enter in the Ward Institute World Carving Championships in Ocean City, Maryland.  I suppose if you going to go into something, go big.

Dad has entered this competition 3 times. He has won his class twice and came in third once. All of these pieces sit in my house today as a constant reminder that hard work, doing your best, and the concept that if you are going to do something, then it’s worth doing right, can help you produce great things.

Over the years I have been fortunate enough to witness family, friends, and the general public’s reaction as they see Dad’s carvings for the first time. The reaction is one of amazement around the lifelike quality of the piece. Once the astonished look subsides, it is always followed by the same question.

That is so lifelike, how do you do that?

It is at this point that the door of opportunity has swung open for dad to launch his everlasting carving joke. His immediate response to that question is always:

It’s easy, all you do is carve away everything that doesn’t look like a duck!

I listened to this response hundreds of times, each time thinking, dad stop with the bad pun, it is really getting old. Dad’s response is then followed by a light chuckle from both the admirer and him and then everyone goes on with their business.

I don’t know if my dad is Einstein or Mr. MaGoo, but it took me a very long time (years) to get it. I finally woke up one day with a totally different understanding and appreciation for that never ending bad pun.

All you do is carve away everything that doesn’t look like a duck!

What I had finally come to  understand was, that my father has true vision. When he looks at a block of wood he doesn’t see a block of wood, he sees a finished, lifelike, artistically excellent duck that meets his inner standards and creates pride and accomplishment. All that and he hasn’t even started yet.

So I started thinking about my father and others like him who have true vision that is supported by operational excellence and the master pieces they create. I though about Walt Disney, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the great painters of history, the great world political leaders, Steven Spielberg, and some of the great inventors. I then start thinking about those companies that really portray operational excellence. Companies like Rolex, Waterford Crystal, Disney Entertainment, Bass Pro Shops, Dell Computers, and Sony. These are some of the companies that have achieved a level of operational excellence: A level of performance that has set them apart from their competition.

Since so few companies achieve operational excellence, there must be an element present in those that do that is not present in those that don’t. Now I grant you that there are hundreds of factors that determine the ability to achieve business success, but the number of people that truly  have vision are very few.

I then wondered,

• Can vision around excellence be developed?
• How can we grow a vision of operational excellence in the people within our organizations?
• Can we develop an environment that will get anyone to stop and think about a topic, situation, or physical space in terms of operational excellence?

The answer is: Yes we can.

So we did. We took a group of shop floor manufacturing production workers and put them in a room and used a tool we developed called Vision Quest.

Vision Quest starts with an educational session on what operational excellence is: A level of performance that sets you apart from your competition, a level of performance that all others are compared to.

It then creates an environment where each individual sees the task, situation, or space in a state of excellence.

We then give the group a short list of rules and guidelines for the exercise. Vision Quest then requires each person to describe, out loud, the details around their vision of excellence for the topic. These details are then captured to create, on paper, the groups vision of excellence for this specific task or situation. The details are then discussed and a consensus is produced.

Once the vision of excellence is on paper and we have consensus, we then physically take the written vision to the location and compare vision to reality. Any system or behavior that does not fit the vision will then have an action created to help drive the reality closer to the vision.

Carving away anything that doesn’t look like a duck!

The great thing about this tool is that it develops everyone to see things in an operationally excellent light. It can use the vision of the workforce as well as the vision of the management group and each person has ownership and involvement in the improvement process. And when used with an action item format task assignment and accountability system, it will provide performance improvement results that will raise the bar to new heights.

As western manufacturing is struggling to maintain a level of competitiveness in the global market place, leaders are looking for new ways to grab any competitive edge they can. Many are looking to streamline operations and remove layers of support. Many are looking to create a team or collaborative environment. All should be looking to capture the hearts and minds of their workforces. The Vision Quest tool can be one tool that truly moves you closer to your vision.

Be a leader, have vision, pursue excellence, develop your people, enjoy the journey.

So it is time to say thank-you to my Einstein for teaching me the value of having Vision and enabling me to create a tool that has truly developed a new level of excellence in me and in hundreds of managers and floor operators in American business.

Thanks Dad!

© Dave Ashton
Dave is our Vice President of Operations.  He leads our "Intensive Care Teams" and develops our Lean Education Series for building understanding of lean thinking and working practice.

The discussion was going to be easy.  Two facilities, in the same company, making nearly identical products (to a non-techie like me), with nearly identical mission statements. It didn't turn out that way.

Chemical Plant #1

Just a few months earlier the site leader of the Mississippi chemical plant had worked hard to craft the perfect "purpose statement".  The single set of words  to describe to his associates just what was expected from every person, every work process, and every delivery.   "to deliver products that give our customers and shareholders a competitive edge".   He could explain this well. It wasn't good enough to make product to a range of specifications..."every delivered product had to meet the current competitive needs of our customers... and we had to do so in a way that gave our shareholders and 'investment' edge."  That meant constant communication with customers and the market.    Constant sharing of information with everyone in the organization.  Constant checking and changing to see that "the edge" was delivered.  Every person discussed how they were going to deliver 'Competitive edge" results to the next person or group in the chain..  Promises had been made to the market and investors on their behalf - it was up to them to deliver.  The words were just a fraction of the work... but they made everything else easier because everyone knew how success would be measured. 

Sister Plant #2

Now, in the Georgia facility, the discussion was different.  "Competitive?...we just need to be consistent!".  This plant manager explained that his customers were furious at the wild fluctuations in his facility's performance.  It had a bad track record.  It also was in trouble with corporate leadership and investors... the same wild swings in performance made them a bad bet. Our discussion was difficult, we could not copy the purpose statement of the sister facility in Mississippi  - it would be sometime  before this facility was producing a "competitive edge" product.  And then it came: "Consistently good.  Deliver cash."  People had to understand that both statements defined the purpose of all actions.  We then set about putting a system in place to help people understand how important these two points of purpose were to the survival of the business and how to assess if they were winning or losing each day to their purpose.  Within 60 days the people responded with a 12% increase in product and such a large reduction in rejected material they were embarrassed to make the comparison.  For the first time in a long time they had something to be proud of, something to brag about.  Excellence was still in the future but for now they had achieved good.

The lessons learned were interesting

1. Purpose statements are translations of expectations.  They may change as expectations change. 
2. When people understand they have a unique purpose they respond uniquely.
   
3. Well thought out, clearly stated, and repeatedly discussed - purpose statements make the work of change much easier.
4. On the way to great, you have to first be good. 

Mission, Vision, Values, Behavior.   Doesn’t every organization have these?  I may be cynical, but don't you think many today are immune to the big 4 alignment tools – the “must haves” espoused by nearly every leadership book, management consultant and marketing department?  You would be hard pressed to find an organization’s web site that does not have at least one of these four.   Are you sensing sarcasm?  Yes, not because I don't believe in their use – they are essential. 

It’s not the words.   Words are important.  However, it’s the essential uses of words that are most important.  You see most organizations go through the exercise of creating words.  “We have to write a mission statement”… Check.   “We just completed our vision”… Check.   “Did you post our Values on the web site?” … Check.    Beautiful verbal decoration.   That's where work usually ends...or just after the required "roll out" sessions.

In successful organization culture, that's when real work begins: Using words to make decisions.  Here is where the first skill of alignment comes into use: Instilling Purpose.

Purpose makes it clear for people why they have to do the work, or why they must make a change.  One of my favorite discussions with clients is about purpose. If you have used the 5-Why tool before you will understand the fun. It's the same exercise your three year old  plays with you.  In this case, instead of using the tool to solve a problem - just ask "Why" are you about to ...".  Then after they give you the answer, ask "why" again.  Somewhere before you get to the fifth "why..." you will get a good picture of what the person thinks is the purpose of their actions.   It is interesting to read the statements of leaders and compare these to the understandings of purpose that come from these discussions. 

Purpose comes from understanding the expectations of others: customers, bosses, shareholders, and others in the organization.  A purpose statement condenses that down to a few guiding words. Purpose is performing your piece of the puzzle so that the whole picture comes together and makes sense.  Purpose is what your bosses, customers, colleagues are hoping you will deliver… but they may not do a good job of letting you know.  You find out what was really expected when it’s too late - when you have failed to deliver.  As a leader,  clarifying expectations - especially during times of change - is job #1.  It's not about explaining it once.  It's not about making one statement to fit everyone.  It is about making sure every unit and every person in the unit has little light bulbs of understanding going off in their head. 

A good purpose statement is crisp and practical.  It is direct and written in a way that can be easily remembered and used for decision making.  Purpose is the answer to the question “what you want me to do?” – It usually answers or at least connects to the other question “Why?”  When the big 4 are filled with pretty words the answers to  “Why?”,“Why me?”, “Why us?” or "What do you expect me to do?"  get lost.  Purpose statements help point the way out of confusion.

Nowhere is purpose more important than during a big change or a big challenge.   In World War II, the British Ministry of Information produced the now iconic "Keep Calm. Carry On." posters.  According to the blog  Holding The Line  The statement was designed to be “a statement of the duty of the individual citizen.”  A message from a King to his people.  In a way, this makes a pretty good purpose statement.  Not likely one I would use with an organization but for a citizenry facing a major threat with the possibility of unforeseen attacks - it works.

If you are in the middle of leading a big change or a response to a big challenge your first responsibility is clarifying, checking and reinforcing “purpose”.   There are things you can do which help - but it is an artful skill.   Get as much help as you can honing the skill.

In the next posting, I will give you some examples in “A Tale of Two Purposes.”

The Dutch call it " getting all of the noses pointing in the same direction". When charting a new course, the single greatest leadership frustration is not coming up with the perfect plan - it's the fear that no one will follow. For followers it's fear that leaders will not support each other and follow thru. That's where each group places blame when plans fail to deliver.

Today we look for remote controls - installing software to monitor and measure, hoping to find "an app for that". Anything to insure compliance. According to Alexa.com the number one website ranking for "aligning organizations" is Successfactors.com an SAP solution provider. Successfactors offers products to shape and maintain the performance of people in an organization. More than 80% of visitors to  Successfactors head straight to "Performancemanager".  So significant is the need for tools, SAP acquired the company earlier this year.

Technology offers powerful potential however, leaders make good products look bad when we depend on the product to be the solution. The greatest misunderstanding is the amount of work required to make an organization "self aligning". Leadership in alignment is not a remote activity. It's not easy making it look easy.

Successful alignment requires leaders to acknowledge or work on all of the pieces of the alignment puzzle. It is enticing to think we can avoid the hard work by installing software. Leadership Nirvana. Alignment is art - the art of great leadership. Software is a tool in the artist's toolbox. If you are going to be an artist you'd better work on your skill sets before depending too much on tools.

In the coming posts we will be writing about five important alignment skills good leaders need to cultivate...

1. Instilling purpose
2. Cultivating trust
3. Energizing conversations and feedback
4. Making success a "big deal" - the art of Winning.

And oh yes...

5. Creating process

Which might include software.

Alexa.com
Successfactors.com
Performancemanager.successfactors.com

Welcome to this Quarterly Edition of An Executive View Newsletter from London UK 

Call +44 (0) 207 203 8499 or +44 (0)7768 391 000 if we can help one of your companies in Europe.
 
Three most recent/popular Blogs summarised
 
“Is change in business just like any other professional sport?  To be successful, communications need to be targeted to those involved, watching and non-attendees” 
 
http://anexecutiveview.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/is-change-in-business-just-like-any.html

“Top Influences: thoughts, role models, organisations and books.  What have been the major influences in your life?  Here are some of mine:”  

http://anexecutiveview.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/top-influences-thoughts-role-models.html
 
“Process excellence includes keeping your competitors guessing and your Board aware.”  This blog continues to attract new readers

http://anexecutiveview.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/process-excellence-includes-keeping.html  
 
Latest news

Pyramid ODI agrees an initial Matchday Sponsorship deal with Crystal
Palace Football Club.

Michael Salmon receiving the London Business School Alumni Service Award 2012  

Attending the Coller Institute 5th Annual Private Equity Findings Symposium


It has been a fantastic summer here in London, as the city welcomed people from all around the globe for the Olympics and Paralympics.  It was wonderful to see so many different nationalities come together and focus on a common goal - it felt a bit like one of our strategy alignment sessions, but on a larger scale and with gold medals :-)  

Call if we can help you align your people and your strategy.

Best regards from the United Kingdom. 

Michael 
  
Mobile: +44 (0) 7768 391 000 
European Senior Vice President Pyramid ODI

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