Focus is key in management. Too many daily problems, not enough time to solve them. Too many potential markets, not enough manpower to go after them. Too many new projects to launch, not enough money to start them.
Great companies know how to focus, and they usually have a vision that is clear to all and must be followed. Southwest focused on improving plane turnaround, and became the low cost and reliable airline. The Ritz Carlton focused on wowing their customers, and became exemplary in the customer service arena. Toyota focused on reducing the time from receiving an order from a client to collecting the money for the good that was sold, and became the best manufacturing company in the world. The common pattern: every company was the most of something, and didn't try to be a little of everything.
In a world with so many alternatives, average does not make the cut anymore. Are you even questioning the way business has always been done around here?
What do you stand for? What makes you different from the alternatives?
Friday, May 11, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Eliminate Slogans, Use Creative Signs?
Deming's Principle #10 of Management reminded managers to "eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets in the workplace", meaning that these elements are not useful to motivate employees to improve. Usually, what is broken is the system, and the employees have no other option but to follow broken rules. What would you think as a plant floor operator is there was a sign that said "Quality is your responsibility", but at the end of the month management orders you to manufacture as much as possible, to hit the monthly production quota? Are you in control of quality?
Regardless, I do think there are some signs or slogans that could be useful, that Dan Pink calls Emotionally Intelligent Signage. Although this sign is not directly related to a business setting, it begs us to be creative when using slogans, and remind us of things we can do to improve, that are directly under our control. And remember, we are human and sometimes we need gentle nudges or reminders to go in the right direction.
Bottom line: only when strictly necessary, devise slogans or reminders that move people in the right direction. And make sure what you think is the right direction, is actually the right one.
Do you have any other examples of creative slogans or signs?
Regardless, I do think there are some signs or slogans that could be useful, that Dan Pink calls Emotionally Intelligent Signage. Although this sign is not directly related to a business setting, it begs us to be creative when using slogans, and remind us of things we can do to improve, that are directly under our control. And remember, we are human and sometimes we need gentle nudges or reminders to go in the right direction.
Bottom line: only when strictly necessary, devise slogans or reminders that move people in the right direction. And make sure what you think is the right direction, is actually the right one.
Do you have any other examples of creative slogans or signs?
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Titles vs Results
Education is a big deal in the business world. Some of us are lucky to go to graduate school, some of us are self learners, some both and some none. How much education is enough, and when does experience and real life results kick in?
Companies that are looking to fill new positions usually filter candidates by the titles a person has acquired. PhD, MBA, Jonah, Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Lean Sensei, Certified Public Accountant; the more the merrier. Granted, in some cases, it is a requirement to have a specific title to perform specific duties, but I suspect this is the exception rather than the rule. Are titles the right filter to start with, and should we categorize people using this criteria?
Matt Hoffman correctly reminds us that The What is More Important Than The Where. Instead of focusing on listing all the titles you have acquired, why not focus on the results have you achieved with the education you have received? After someone introduces themselves by listing all their titles and degrees, I wonder if their list would be as long if asked what significant results they have achieved. Would the list be as long?
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for education, and as Deming used to say, experience without theory brings no real learning. But sometimes people get titles for the sake of it and to get paid more, instead of focusing on what they can do with the knowledge they learn and having the courage to question and improve their area of responsibility. Of course, the system is at fault, and note the people, as titles are the default filter that the business world uses. But ask yourself, as the owner of a company, would you be willing to pay more for someone with a long list of titles or someone with a long list of results?
What significant results have you achieved with your knowledge? What are you waiting for?
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Nudging Your Way To Commitments
Finally, I got around to reading Nudge, the behavioral economics book by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein.
The book is based on the concept of Libertarian Paternalism, which basically assumes that people frequently make mistakes in their decision making, specially for big and complex decisions, and that providing subtle nudges so people make better choices will help society as a whole. By using Choice Architecture, or the way information and choices are presented, effectiveness in decision making can be significantly increased:
"A simple example of a nudge would be placing healthy foods in a school cafeteria at eye level, while putting less healthy junk food in harder to reach places. Individuals are not prevented from eating whatever they want, but the arranging of the food choices in that way has the effect of decreasing consumption of junk food and increasing consumption of healthier foods..."
The other idea I found attractive was a methodology to increasing goal achievement based on nudges and choice architecture, that is being used by an online service called Stikk. With Stikk, users set a specific goal, a time to achieve them, a way to measure them objectively by a third party, and put down a certain amount of money as a guarantee. When the deadline comes, if the goal has been achieved, the person gets a refund of his money; if the goal has not been achieved, the money is donated to charity. Stikk may help people improve the odds of achieve the goals, even if many times people would do it just to avoid losing their money. However, I wonder if this system could be used in other domains?
Imagine a 500 million dollar manufacturing company that has made the commitment to implement Lean in all of its manufacturing operations, in less than 3 years, will be measured by standard lean measurements by an auditing party, and guarantees the fulfillment of the goal with 1 million dollars. If in 3 years the measurements have not been achieved, the company would donate the money to charity!
Utopian? Maybe. Can it work?
The book is based on the concept of Libertarian Paternalism, which basically assumes that people frequently make mistakes in their decision making, specially for big and complex decisions, and that providing subtle nudges so people make better choices will help society as a whole. By using Choice Architecture, or the way information and choices are presented, effectiveness in decision making can be significantly increased:
"A simple example of a nudge would be placing healthy foods in a school cafeteria at eye level, while putting less healthy junk food in harder to reach places. Individuals are not prevented from eating whatever they want, but the arranging of the food choices in that way has the effect of decreasing consumption of junk food and increasing consumption of healthier foods..."
The other idea I found attractive was a methodology to increasing goal achievement based on nudges and choice architecture, that is being used by an online service called Stikk. With Stikk, users set a specific goal, a time to achieve them, a way to measure them objectively by a third party, and put down a certain amount of money as a guarantee. When the deadline comes, if the goal has been achieved, the person gets a refund of his money; if the goal has not been achieved, the money is donated to charity. Stikk may help people improve the odds of achieve the goals, even if many times people would do it just to avoid losing their money. However, I wonder if this system could be used in other domains?
Imagine a 500 million dollar manufacturing company that has made the commitment to implement Lean in all of its manufacturing operations, in less than 3 years, will be measured by standard lean measurements by an auditing party, and guarantees the fulfillment of the goal with 1 million dollars. If in 3 years the measurements have not been achieved, the company would donate the money to charity!
Utopian? Maybe. Can it work?
Friday, May 4, 2012
The Irreducible Components of Leadership
Paul O'Neill, former Secretary of State and CEO of Alcoa recently gave a talk about The Irreducible Components of Leadership to a health care audience.
His ideas include what it means to be an good manager and how to create a right environments for companies to improve. When being CEO of Alcoa, he instituted a concept called "theoretical goals", like for example having zero accidents in all plant locations worldwide, which were more than 150 at the time. Even this goal seemed impossible to achieve, he suggests that with a right leadership and corporate culture in place, significant improvement can happen:
"There are several pushbacks to the idea of habitual excellence. One is to say ‘ well, we can never be perfect and we don’t want to set goals we can’t achieve.' I found in my own early days at Alcoa when people told me that about workplace safety, then I said to them, ‘OK, if you don’t want to have a goal of zero, then let’s go around and find out who wants to volunteer to be hurt to make sure we reach our goal of somebody being hurt'..."
O'Neill jokingly says that nobody ever volunteered to get hurt to reach a non zero goal.
His ideas are valuable for organization leaders, be it business or healthcare. In health care, were around 100,000 patients die per year in the US because of medical mistakes, his ideas could give some valuable insights. If interested on his views on healthcare, you can listen to a recent podcast with Mark Graban, were they discuss general problems in the health care system in the US.
Are you setting a right environment and giving people the tools to achieve ambitious goals? Are you walking the walk?
His ideas include what it means to be an good manager and how to create a right environments for companies to improve. When being CEO of Alcoa, he instituted a concept called "theoretical goals", like for example having zero accidents in all plant locations worldwide, which were more than 150 at the time. Even this goal seemed impossible to achieve, he suggests that with a right leadership and corporate culture in place, significant improvement can happen:
"There are several pushbacks to the idea of habitual excellence. One is to say ‘ well, we can never be perfect and we don’t want to set goals we can’t achieve.' I found in my own early days at Alcoa when people told me that about workplace safety, then I said to them, ‘OK, if you don’t want to have a goal of zero, then let’s go around and find out who wants to volunteer to be hurt to make sure we reach our goal of somebody being hurt'..."
O'Neill jokingly says that nobody ever volunteered to get hurt to reach a non zero goal.
His ideas are valuable for organization leaders, be it business or healthcare. In health care, were around 100,000 patients die per year in the US because of medical mistakes, his ideas could give some valuable insights. If interested on his views on healthcare, you can listen to a recent podcast with Mark Graban, were they discuss general problems in the health care system in the US.
Are you setting a right environment and giving people the tools to achieve ambitious goals? Are you walking the walk?
Thursday, May 3, 2012
How Confusing Is Your Practice?
Sometimes we think that the more complex a solution is, the more powerful it will be. Other times, it may be that things seem complex because the bottom line is we don't understand them well. As Einstein used to say:
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
Matt Hoffman, The Legal Rebel, invites us to reflect about how we can simplify our business by removing the confusion. Making things as simple as possible will not only help by making transactions between parties, it will also increase trustworthiness in a growing sharing economy.
How confused are your clients? Can you make it easier for them?
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
Matt Hoffman, The Legal Rebel, invites us to reflect about how we can simplify our business by removing the confusion. Making things as simple as possible will not only help by making transactions between parties, it will also increase trustworthiness in a growing sharing economy.
How confused are your clients? Can you make it easier for them?
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Free Education: CourseRA, Open CourseWare, Khan Academy
Online Education has been an alternative for several years now, and like everything in life, it has advantages and disadvantages. But some things are undeniable, such as: it is low cost, easier to access, and is schedule flexible.
Several initiatives have been started over the years, with the mission to provide education to the world for free:
Several initiatives have been started over the years, with the mission to provide education to the world for free:
- MIT Courseware, one of the pioneers in online education and have opened a large portion of their curriculum online, with thousands of courses available to anyone
- Khan Academy, that started as a student's personal project, and now provides thousands of education videos on a wide variety of subjects, of short and long duration, and where progress of students can be monitored
- CourseRA, a new initiative by University of Michigan and other Ivy League colleges, offering courses about different graduate school topics, that last several weeks and were anyone can enroll
The availability of free quality education will inevitably result in an increase of the general levels of proficiency worldwide. Even things such as learning how to polish the floor on your house or cooking a new vegan dish can be taught for free by millions of teachers, in the world's biggest and free Television Channel, YouTube.
How are you using online education to improve your education?
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