Rain Dances and Change Management

Most improvement efforts have as much impact on company performance as a rain dance has on the weather.

A friend recently asked me to recommend an article on Change Managementt. After a bit of thought, I went with an oldie but goodie from 1992! It's an article from Harvard Business Review entitled Successful Change Programs Begin with Results by Robert H. Schaffer and Harvey A. Thomson. The cartoon is from the article and...well, if you really want to know, click on the link and download the article.

'nuff said!

Which Direction is the Bus Traveling?

Another fun brainteaser!

Click on the arrow, let the  viewer  load, scroll over "More" and click on "Full Screen,

then use the arrow on the bottom to advance the slides.

Solve the Right Problem!

Click on the arrow, let the  viewer  load, scroll over 

"More" and click on "Full Screen, then use the arrow on the bottom to advance the slides.

Thiss exercise in problem-solving that requires you focus on the real problem at hand. It is based on a true incident from World War II.

Group Excericse for Download:  Here is a group exercise version you can download and use with your volunteers or staff.

Happy problem-solving!

How Do You Put a Giraffe into a Refrigerator?

This is a fun quiz to stimulate your creative problem solving ability! Scroll down to find the answer beneath each question.

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

  

 

 

 

Correct answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe and close the door. (This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.)

 2.  How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

 

Wrong Answer : Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant and close the refrigerator.

Correct Answer : Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. (This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your actions.) 

3.  The Lion King is hosting an animal conference, all the animals  attend except one. Which animal does not attend?

  





Correct Answer : The Elephant. The Elephant is in the refrigerator.  (This tests your memory.  OK, even if you did not answer the first three questions, correctly you can surely answer this one.)
 

4.  There is a river you must cross, but it is inhabited by  crocodiles. How do you manage it?

   

Correct Answer: You swim across. All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting! (This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.)

Innovation: Got Focus?

In two earlier posts (here and here) I proposed two of three questions executives should ask themselves before embarking on a crusade for innovation.  The third question, which concerns focus, is the topic of this article.

Got Focus?

Let’s start with a simple proposition: ninety percent of all managers lack the requisite focus to successfully implement an innovation initiative.

An article entitled, Beware the Busy Manager, offers important insights into what is going on. For ten years, the authors studied the behavior of busy managers, and their findings are instructive: fully 90% of managers squander their time in all sorts of ineffective activities. A mere 10% of managers spend their time in a committed, purposeful, and reflective manner (i.e., the purposefulness quadrant).

 

Managers that fall into the other quadrants, by contrast, are usually just spinning their wheels; some procrastinate, others feel no emotional connection to their work (disengaged), and still others are easily distracted from the task at hand. Although they look busy, they lack either the focus or the energy required for making any sort of meaningful change.

 The Bull in the China Shop

By far the largest group of managers found in the study—more than 40%—fell into the distracted quadrant: those well-intentioned, highly energetic but unfocused people who confuse frenetic motion with constructive action. When they’re under pressure, distracted managers feel a desperate need to do something—anything. That makes them as dangerous as the proverbial bull in a china shop.

 Got Credibility?

Which brings us to the bull in the cartoon, he lacks credibility. The poor store clerk is just wasting for the inevitable rampage.

Likewise, it is no wonder that most employees react with groans when management announces, “We’re doing innovation!”  That’s because most managers, and management teams. lack the focus to deliver. “Innovation” becomes just another flavor-of-the-month initiative, another euphemism – from the employees’ point-of-view –for spinning their wheels.

Now ask yourself, am I a focused manager? How about the rest of the management team in my organization? If we announced an innovation initiative, would we have any credibility?

Learning to Create the Future

"Asking members what they want is stifling my ability to make a breakthrough!

 

"Does asking our members what they want stifle breakthroughs?"

That question was posted recently on the ASAE Executive Listserv. In response, I offer the following excerpt from an Association Management article printed way back in August, 1997!

Learning How to Create the Future

  “Companies that create the future do more than satisfy customers, they constantly amaze them.”
                                                Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad,  Competing for the Future

What will it take to constantly amaze your members into the future? That's a question every association executive needs to ask in this era of rising member expectations and increasing competition.

With that in mind, let us explore four lessons, learned from some of the most highly successful and imaginative corporations, that you can apply to your association's strategy-creation process.

Why is it that some organizations are capable of imagining and creating the future while others are forever playing catch up? The future-focused organizations have learned the following lessons.

 

Lesson 1: Imagination is the master of great strategy, implementation its servant.

If an organization wishes to create the future, it must begin by imagining compelling ways to amaze its customers. Then, and only then, should it ask, How will we do this? What are the details of implementation?

At first glance, this may seem a risky or unscientific approach. After all, doesn't an organization need to assess its current resources and capabilities before determining what it can do in the future? The history of strategy and marketing offers many excellent illustrations of why this isn't the case. Consider Henry, Ford. Ask yourself, Which did Ford imagine first - the assembly line or the Model T, the means or the end?

Most people mistakenly believe that Ford first invented the former, which enabled him to create the latter. Actually, it was the other way around. Ford's invention of the assembly line was the direct result of his imaginative desire to produce an affordable automobile. In short, Ford knew what needed to be done before he knew how the deed would be accomplished.

In his 1923 book entitled My Life and Work, Ford discussed a "broad scientific approach" that forces people to dig for unimagined solutions. He said, "Our policy is to reduce the price, extend the operations, and improve the article. You will notice that the reduction of price comes first. . . . Therefore we first reduce the price to a point where we believe more sales will result. Then we go ahead and try to make the prices. . . . The more usual way is to take the costs and then determine the price, and although that method may be scientific in the narrow sense, it is not scientific in the broad sense, because what earthly use is it to know the cost if it tells you yon cannot manufacture at a price at which the article can be sold? . . . One of the ways of discovering [emphasis added] . . . is to name a price so low as to force everybody in the place to the highest point of efficiency. . . . We make more discoveries concerning manufacturing and selling under this forced method than by any method of leisurely investigation."

Great strategy, therefore, is about discovering that which is possible but previously unseen, and then searching for the means to turn it into a real-life, value-producing product or service.

Lesson 2: When it comes to creating value, imagination wins out over forecasting and prediction.

The art of creating the future is more about uncovering evolving customer needs than about forecasting trends or building scenarios. This is not a particularly mysterious process, but it does require the right kind of information and the proper use of that information.

The right information is derived from a relentless search for cues about how the future will unfold. This search involves analyzing trends and competition, tracking emerging technologies and management techniques, and gathering insights from market research and customer contacts.

While gathering this information, it is important to remember that forecasting and scenario building are tools and not the end points of activities. For example, 15 years ago all the major automobile companies had access to data about the trends facing families and could have crafted reasonably accurate future scenarios or predictions about the hectic pace of life that was emerging. But it was Chrysler that went beyond mere forecasting to asking, If that's what life will be like for many families, what future options do we have for creating value? Their imaginative answer: the minivan.

Lesson 3: Ambitious goals act as catalysts.

Creating the future is an enormous task and is only worth doing if you have a goal that makes a meaningful difference in the lives members, staff, and volunteers. In this way, strategy becomes more than a blueprint, it becomes a source of ambition and a catalyst for action. Henry Ford's ambition to make a meaningful difference was captured in the phrase, "Put a car in every garage." Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, motivated his employees to provide "rock-bottom prices to rural Americans."

Lesson 4: Don't listen to the naysayers.

  

Inventing the future can be scary work. No matter how brilliant and sound your ideas, there will always be naysayers. The following quotes remind us that many of the great ideas of the past were initially discounted or scorned: 

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." – Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible." - A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service; Smith went on to found Federal Express

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this." - Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" notepads.

Innovation and the Need to Instill Courage

"Any feedback yet about the Innovation Initiative?"

In an earlier post, I proposed the first of three questions executives should ask themselves before embarking on a crusade for innovation.  The second question, which concerns courage, is the topic of this article.

Right off the bat, let’s acknowledge the reaction portrayed in the cartoon is a bit extreme, but it illustrates an important point: “innovation wannabes” need to realize there will be resistance and sometimes sabotage in response to their efforts. As a result, uncertainty and even self-doubt inevitably sets in.

A Lesson from W. Edwards Deming

"Massive training is required to instill the courage to break with tradition.”

This quote is from W. Edwards Deming, one of the fathers of Total Quality Management (TQM). For all his attention to the statistical aspects of quality management, Deming was equally forthright in calling out the need for instilling courage.

The above quote nicely frames the two-fold challenge facing “innovation wannabes.” First, it is intensely personal. If you want to be an innovation champion, be prepared to face the inevitable nay saying that calls into question your judgment and your choice of priorities. Second, you must fully prepare and support the “troops” as they use innovation to break with tradition.  

The question for Innovation Wannabes

 

“Do we have a process for innovation?” or “Does my leadership style foster creativity?” are often the types of questions heard when discussing this topic. These inquiries, however, seem inadequate to the challenge at hand; they do not directly address what is required of individuals who are trying to “break with tradition.” And this is the point Deming was constantly trying to communicate.

Without a doubt, innovation requires courage. Heck, there’s no way around it! So, if you’re serious about innovation, you need to ask yourself, “Do I have the courage to lead this initiative and, in so doing, do I have what it takes to instill courage in others?”

‘nuff said!

Egypt: another "not in my lifetime!" moment

As I watched the events unfold in Egypt, and Tunisia before that, it reminded me of an article I wrote for Association Management magazine.  I had attended an ASAE Foundation event featuring Peter Uberroth, who chaired the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Committee and served as baseball commissioner. He spoke about a visit to West Germany in the fall of 1989. He was part of a group that had the opportunity to meet the head of state, Helmut Kohl. During that meeting someone asked, "Will the Berlin Wall ever come down?" The prime minister replied, "Yes, but not in my lifetime." Three weeks later, on November 9, the wall came down.

After the recent events in Egypt, what other “not in my lifetime" events should we anticipate?