We Have Moved
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We are shifting our focus a bit and adding a couple of new dimensions to who we are. Thanks for following us!
Zombie Infestation
Something, something, something… “and carry a big stick”
Partial quote Teddy Roosevelt
I have to confess, I hate Zombies, absolute hate them. For those who may not be a Zombie aficionado, allow me to provide a little background.
Background
Type 1 Zombie—The Slow-moving Zombie
If I have to deal with Zombies, this is the type I prefer. They move slowly, you can see them coming, they stick their hands out in front of themselves, drag one of their legs, and slowly descend on the intended victim. Any good Sci-Fi movie teaches us that the most effective way to dispose of slow moving Zombies is to bash them with a cricket bat. If you are interested in seeing slow moving Zombies in action watch the movie Shaun of the Dead.
Type 2 Zombie—The Fast-moving Zombie
I hate fast moving Zombies because they move fast–really fast. Cricket bats are of no use against fast moving Zombies, Sci-Fi movies teach us that the most effective way to defend against fast moving Zombies is with a shotgun; preferably a shotgun that never runs out of shells. If you are interested in seeing really scary fast moving, jumping Zombies in action, watch the movie, I am Legend.
The important thing to remember about Zombies is that they have only one function, to bite people, to infect people with their Zombie DNA that literally sucks the life and initiative out of the victim. Many people don’t believe that Zombies actually exist; they think Zombies are a product of Hollywood and exist only in movies. That’s not true— I have seen them in business. In fact, I think some organizations are experiencing a Zombie infestation.
Zombie DNA
A few days ago I went into a business looking for some help with a problem I was having with one of their products. While there I asked one of the clerks for assistance and the clerk wearily replied, “Let me get someone who can help you.” Dragging her dead leg over to the glassy eyed supervisor, she asked for assistance, only to be told, “That’s not my department”. Believing I was in mortal danger I turned and ran out of the store.
Not-My-Job-Zombie
This Zombie, when asked to do something out of the ordinary, is often heard saying, “That’s not my job.” Not-My-Job-Zombies suck the life out of an organization by making it very difficult for the non-zombies to remain creative and proactive. Not-My-Job-Zombies realize that if they can define their own job function narrowly, they can squash any innovation successfully.
We-Tried-that-before-Zombie
This Zombie DNA spreads apathy. It reminds everyone that innovation is futile, every ideal is useless, and all hope is lost because 35 years ago we tried that, or something like that, and it didn’t work. These Zombies function as the archivists of failure and repeatedly point out to anyone who will listen, that our past is our potential; we failed then and we will fail again, so why try.
What’s-the-ROI- Zombie
This Zombie DNA spreads fear. This Zombie is easily recognized because it asks the same question again and again, “What’s the ROI?” If you don’t know the meaning of ROI, that’s Ok, usually the ROI-Zombie doesn’t either. If you respond that return is 30% they will grunt, “That’s not enough.” No matter how high your ROI, their response will always be the same, “That’s not enough.” Remember, the ROI-Zombie is a Zombie; no matter what you propose, it will never be good enough.
Let’s-Form-a-Committee-Zombie
This Zombie DNA spreads apathy. Although it has not been proved scientifically, committees are the breeding ground for Zombies. Committees often go through the motions with little to show for their effort. If you were not a Zombie going into a committee meeting, you certainly feel like one coming out.
By now you probably can point out several instances of Zombie sightings from your travels. You may even feel like Will Smith in I Am Legend as you come to understand and appreciate the scope of the current Zombie infestation that’s plaguing our private and public sectors. Many of you will have a strong urge to use a cricket bat with your particular Zombies. I strongly discourage this, as I am sure will your HR department. You don’t need a cricket bat to defend yourself because there are other measures that work quite well.
I have discovered that Zombies are repelled by:
Enthusiasm–Zombies cannot associate with individuals who are genuinely excited about what they do and why they do it.
Initiative– Zombies do not associate with self-confident individuals. Thinkers and doers scare the living daylights out of Zombies.
Action–Zombies run from action, they are repulsed by the mere thought of action.
Vision–technically Zombies are dead, they have no vision and they are not interested in the vision of others.
Teamwork– when repelling Zombies it is always best to bring a friend. Teamwork always wins.
Creativity–nothing scares away a Zombie faster that creativity. They have never seen it before and they fear what they don’t know.
Remember, you don’t need to fear either fast or slow moving Zombies if you are willing to create a proactive, vibrant and dynamic working environment, but as a fall back, don’t forget those famous words uttered by Bruce Campbell in the movie Army of Darkness as he was facing a Zombie Army, “Klaatu Barada…Nic..mmmpmhmmmh.” That seems to work, too.
If you are experiencing a Zombie infestation I would like to hear about it.
Inclusion
“You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” – Mark Twain
It Was Bad…It was Very Bad
It happened when I was a Director of Food Service for the Marriott Corporation running the food service on university campuses. The District Manager (DM) I worked for had the very bad habit of holding secret meetings. For example, Kurt, my DM, liked to visit his twelve college and university food service operations randomly. It was his habit to show up on the college campus, meet with several college Vice-Presidents, maybe a few students and then leave. I would find out he had been on campus one of two ways.; either one of the Vice-Presidents he had met with would give me a call and let me know they had a great visit with Kurt, or, and this was the most common way I would find out of his visit, a student would show up angry for breakfast, lunch or dinner, hunt me down and start yelling at me. That is usually how I discovered Kurt’s “secret” meeting with that student and his promise to that student to do something—something I was hearing about now, for the first time. When these all too frequent events occurred, I remember telling myself, “I hate it when Kurt does this. I hate never knowing what going on. I hate always looking like a stupid idiot!!”
At the time I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what Kurt was thinking, why he acted the way he did, what his motivation was, or what he was trying to accomplish. His management style was very frustrating to me. Today I look back on the experience working with Kurt and have a far better understanding of the problem.
The Problem
At the time, I thought the problem was that Kurt was an idiot. Who in his right mind would visit accounts, meet with a variety of clients, make performance promises to those clients and then leave, without taking time to communicate with the Food Service Director, the person who actually runs the account, or any of Food Service Director’s management team and share basic information such as: who the DM had met with, what they had discussed, and any of the promises or commitments the DM had made to either the clients or students in these discussions? It was unbelievable to me that anyone in upper management could think or manage this way. Over the past 25 years I have come to the realization that an unfortunately significant number of managers and leaders in the public and private sectors operate this same way. Every day millions of hard working, well-meaning individuals are forced to grope for understanding of the logic, reasoning, and/or motivation behind the management style of their leaders.
Inclusion
I would like to share a well-kept leadership secret. If you really want to lead a highly effective team, a team of professionals, a team of motivated individuals, a team of individuals capable of accomplishing whatever they put their minds to, a team that values your leadership, do one simple thing—include them in the conversation. Talk with the entire team every day, regularly, consistently, earnestly, honestly and meaningfully.
Inclusion is the process of actively seeking input from everyone in the organization, even when that feedback may be contrary to your opinion. People who are included in the discussion often feel empowered. An entire organization that feels empowered can do anything, whereas individuals or employees who feel disconnected or ill-informed often struggle just to be mediocre.
What Inclusion Isn’t
Four things managers often mistake for inclusion are:
- The annual update—meeting with your organization once a year to provide an update on organization initiatives, is not inclusion.
- The monthly meeting—meeting with select members of the organization, where critical updates are provided only to those in attendance, is not inclusion.
- The mass email—sent out as a data dump providing generic updates, is not inclusion.
- The random meeting—meeting with random individuals for no particular reason, except to stay connected, is not inclusion.
People want to feel as though what they do for a living, how they spend their lives, makes a difference. Inclusion is a process by which all individuals at all levels of the organization are empowered to engage the organization to make a difference.
It seems so easy, so basic, so simple…the key to effective leadership is to talk with people, to share information, to include individuals in the discussion, to engage people, to seek feedback, to communicate with everyone in the entire organization regularly and consistently.
You may be asking yourself, “If it’s so simple, why do so few leaders actually do it?” The answer is fear. Unfortunately, many managers and leaders still believe in and practice antiquated scientific management principles. Scientific management principles reinforce the notion that only management is responsible for higher level thinking, strategic planning and coordination of events. I have worked for organizations where managers who actively seek inclusion were viewed by their peers as weak, lacking the right stuff and therefore unworthy of promotion. In a dysfunctional organization, the perception of weak leadership is like blood in the water to sharks.
To be clear, there is more that goes into being an effective leader than simply practicing and valuing inclusion. Inclusion, in and of itself, will not solve all of an organization’s ills, but inclusion is the cornerstone on which to build a dynamic organization.
What the world needs is one less Kurt.
If you have ever worked for a company that you feel excelled at inclusion, I would like to hear about it.
Summiting Everest
Recently, I had the opportunity to Summit Everest which is saying a lot for a 52 year fat guy. While the summit was done from the comfort of my office, it was none-the-less an amazing simulation, developed and available through the Harvard Business College. The entire experience proved to be one of the most incredible and informative training activities I have ever experienced. Three days later I still find myself processing the activity.
The Team
The summit experience involves assembling a five person team which consists of a tri-athlete, a medical doctor, a photographer, an environmentalist and an experienced mountaineer. As you can imagine, assembling such a diverse team brings with it a unique set of challenges. Each member of the summit team is provided with a brief bio and other pertinent information necessary for their quest to the top.
Surprise
While I don’t want to spoil the activity for anyone interested in experiencing it first hand, I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt I learned more about how not to lead, and why teams often fail to work together effectively than ever before.
I am 52 years old, and have worked in Retail, News Paper Industry, Hospitality, K-12 and Post-secondary jobs. I began working when I graduated from Northern Arizona University at the ripe old age of 21 and in the past 31 years of working, no-one has ever asked me:
- What was I hoping to accomplish?
- What motivates me?
- What are my professional goals?
- What do I consider to me my greatest assets?
And never have I offered to share this information with my employers–for good reason; it is assumed that our goals automatically align with those of our employers because we work for them. What I know is just because we work for a company, does not mean our personal and professional goals are compatible with those of our employer. When you really think about it, in many instances, public and private institutions could not design a less effective way to do business and foster teamwork.
Lessons Learned
If you take the Everest Challenge, I don’t know how your team will do or what your team will take away from the experience, but here are a few of the things we learned about ourselves.
- Just because a person may be in a leadership position, does not mean the rest of the team accepts that individual as the leader. Leadership is something that must be earned. Any individual who desires to function in a leadership position must learn how to gain the respect of their peers or get used to being a leader in title only
- All team members bring to the table a personal agenda and they will continue to do so until there is a reason for them to do otherwise.
- Just because the leader articulates the organizational mission does not mean that every member of the team accepts that organizational mission as their own.
- Every member if your team is capable of thinking and acting independently, for both the benefit and detriment of the organization.
In retrospect, I believe that our greatest leaders of industry excelled in being able to inspire others to such a point that people naturally and freely chose to follow them. I believe great leaders are uniquely skilled in understanding the talent they have within the organization and how to harness that talent for the benefit of the organization and the individual. Truly great leaders understand that more important than being the organizational cheerleaders themselves, are the individuals within the organization being the primary cheerleaders.
The Everest Summit experience gave me a lot to think about. I left the experience understanding one thing, as a leader I still have some learning to do.
Take the Challenge
The experience reminded me that no matter how good your team may be, there is still a lot of room for improvement. To start honing your team, to experience the Everest Summit first hand contact Jeff Hough at hougjeff@isu.edu.
I encourage anyone interested in developing a powerful and dynamic organization to take the challenge; but be forewarned, the team of leaders you bring to the Summit will not be the same team of leaders you take home–I guarantee it.
It’s All About the Culture
“A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.”
Last week I had the unexpected pleasure to visit and tour SEOmoz. SEOmoz, located in downtown Seattle, is an industry leader in Search Engine Optimization. The CEO is Rand Fishkin, who has created one of the most dynamic organizations I have ever had the pleasure of seeing or studying.
When we arrived, we were welcomed by the receptionist, who was expecting us. She offered us a selection of beverages and made us comfortable while we waited for our tour to begin. I noticed first, how gracious everyone was. We were dropped in, interrupting their work day and what they had planned, yet everyone we met seemed genuinely excited to o stop and talk to us about their company. I thought to myself about many times, working with other companies, I had been made to feel that my presence was an imposition.
Create the Culture
While touring SEOmoz, I understood quickly that this is not a normal company and I was curious to know why. I asked three individuals to tell me about their corporate culture; their responses caught me by surprise. In each instance, the reply was, “At SEOmoz we are TAGFEE.” Each of them went on to explain what TAGFEE meant.
Transparent
Am I being as open and honest as possible without causing any harm?
Authentic
Am I accurately representing my opinions and my values?
Generous
Am I being as helpful as I can? Am I giving back to the community?
Fun
Are we celebrating our strengths? Are we having fun yet?
Empathetic
Am I being respectful of the thoughts and feelings of others? Can I stand proudly behind my work and my statements?
Exceptional
Is it the best it can be? Is it uniquely better than anything else out there?
I asked these same people how they work with individuals who do not practice the TAGFEE culture. Their response was, “It’s not possible–we screen our employees so carefully that anyone who does not accept and practice our TAGFEE values would never be invited to work in the organization.” What a powerful statement! It means that all employees at SEOmoz understand the unique and important role they play in shaping, developing, and fostering the SEOmoz corporate culture
How many of us would not relish the opportunity to work for a company that values and sustains this type of culture?
The Other Side
TAGFEE is not a dominant culture in corporate America and is practically non-existent in the public sector. In fact, I would argue that often these values are misunderstood or ignored completely.
- Seldom are institutions truly transparent. Many times when given an opportunity to be honest, individuals use it as an excuse or opportunity to be unnecessarily harsh, nasty, brutal and just plain mean all under the guise of “just being honest”. I challenge every reader to adopt the following practice. The next time you are having a discussion with someone and they ask you, “Can I be totally honest with you?” Say “Only if total honesty causes no harm.” Chances are, they will end the conversation.
- In many sectors, especially the public ones, celebrations of any sort are unacceptable and viewed as a waste of tax dollars. Celebrations are not only avoided, but in some instances strictly forbidden.
- All too often, the idea of genuinely helping others or giving back to the community is an after-thought, if it is considered at all.
- The idea of taking the time and expense to celebrate a success, is foreign to many organizations. Many leaders function under the misconception that paying a person to do a job is reward enough. They don’t celebrate success; success is expected.
- Not every leader or organization cares about the feelings of others nor are they committed to delivering the highest quality product possible 100% of the time. They are busy or just too tired or overworked to care about little details; close enough becomes good enough.
During the SEOmoz tour, one thing was apparent––SEOmoz is not a Search Engine Optimization industry leader by accident. Rand Fishkin, the CEO, has assembled a team of talented and dynamic individuals with a clear vision of who they are, where they want to be and a plan for how they intend to get there. Most importantly, they have established a corporate culture which powers the entire organization and guides every decision within that organization.
I realize TAGFEE is not a culture that could work for every organization. I am not suggesting that anyone rush out and copy what some organization is doing because it works for them. We have to realize that there is only one SEOmoz, and what works for SEOmoz may or may not work for anyone else. Fortunately, the leadership at SEOmoz is smart enough to understand the necessity of developing and fostering a culture that powers their organization. The question many leaders must ask themselves is, “Do we have the courage and ability to do the same for ourselves?”
If you have every worked for an organization that understood the power of a strong, healthy culture, I would like to hear about it.
Stop the Autopsy
“You either make dust, or you eat dust.”
H. Jackson Brown
What Happened?
Typically at the completion of any major project or new initiative, the team involved in the initiative gets together for a final debriefing. This process reviews what worked and examines in minutia and ad nauseum what did not work. We often like to second guess ourselves about why we did what we did, or why we failed to do what we failed to do. The question, “what were you thinking?” comes up several times until the leader of the debriefing initiative decides that enough punishment has been administered and that those responsible have learned from their mistakes so that the next time this group experiences the same exact situation, the team will be able to handle it more effectively.
I compare this entire exercise to performing an autopsy. The private and public sectors love to perform autopsies because everyone wants to know why, in morbid detail, a failed initiative crashed and burned. It makes us feel good about ourselves when someone else fails. For some reason, knowing the cause of death regarding a failed initiative has become an obsession.
A new Way
I believe performing evaluative autopsies is a complete waste of time. Having a dead initiative cadaver on my table does absolutely no good; it is too late to do anything about it. The initiative has already crashed and burned. Effective leaders should be less interested in dissecting corpses for the purpose of affixing blame and instead focus on what can be done real-time to fix the problems and ensure success. Consequently, anything that a leader can do that provides useful, meaningful and relevant information to make adjustments, real time, that ensure success, or the function more effectively, is more valuable to the organization than a death certificate; identifying the exact cause of death.
Evaluate Early and Often
If you are trying to create a new team, launch a new product, implement a new initiative, make a new product or improve the performance of your existing organization, the most efficient way to achieve success is to change your perception about evaluation and how you do it.
- First, assessment must start immediately.
Rather than wait until the activity is over, begin evaluating the effectiveness of the group, the leadership of the group, the communications of the group, and the
cohesiveness of the team within the first week of working together. This allows leadership to adjust immediately and appropriately in real time to serve the needs of the team better. I would wager that your leaders and team are not working as effectively as they should be in the early stages.
- Second, assessment must be honest.
If the group is afraid to provide honest feedback there is no need to even
ask the questions. It is critical that your organization or institution value and foster a culture of honesty and integrity. The assessment process identifies existing weaknesses. Great teams are able to hear the good the bad and the ugly; dysfunctional teams are not. In fact, the more dysfunctional the organization, the less likely they are to perform any type of meaningful assessment.
- Third, assessment must be sustained throughout the life of the project.
Meaningful assessment is not something you do once and call it quits. Organizations that embrace the “one and done” methodology are not really interested in improving performance. The key to effective assessment is assess early, adjust, re-assess and readjust and repeat the process
- Fourth, assessment must be relevant.
There is an old saying in business that we should always measure what matters; I could not agree more. Organizations which fail to ask the right questions or measure what matters, generally lack a clear vision of what they are trying to accomplish in the first place.
- Fifth, performance must be tied to assessment.
Well-designed and implemented assessment enables teams to become more successful. Poorly designed assessment provides no benefit to the organization what-so-ever. Highly effective teams always strive to improve; dysfunctional organizations are content with their current level of performance. Teams that are unwilling or unable to correlate assessment to performance have no interest improving.
I understand you may be saying to yourself, “This sounds dull; it’s not ‘sexy’. There is no glamor or glitz’ in fact, it sounds like work.” You would be right. Robust assessment is difficult; it is a lot of work. That’s why so few organizations and leaders actually do it. But for those few individuals with the foresight and courage to get out of the autopsy business and into the high performance business–you are about to find that you have taken the first step in making dust.
Meaningful assessment is not for everyone, just those interested in leading world class organizations. If you have experience working for an organization that did not fear evaluating its own performance, I would like to hear about it.
Gone in 30 Seconds
Web Facts
- Based on 120 million impressions, the average time a viewer spends on a webpage is 33 seconds.
- On the average web page, users have time to read, at most, 28% of the words during an average visit.
- On average, ads are viewed for 15 seconds. Again, it varies from a mere 8 seconds for e-commerce sites, to 21 seconds for media sites.
- 27% of banners are not seen at all, either because the user bounced too quickly to another page or site or because it was never on the part of the screen seen by the user.
The Problem
The problem experienced when employing web-based marketing is employing print media theory and practice in an environment which does not adhere to those principles. An examination of print media theory and practice reveals three areas of concern.
- In print media text plays a critical role to tell the story, in a digital environment text is the least effective way to share a message because, on average, only 25% of what is written gets read. In a digital environment graphics are king!
- The practice of print media is to push information out. The consumption practice of web-based marketing is for consumers to self-select the information in which they are interested. Digital consumers hate being told what they can have or having their choices controlled.
- Print media employs logic, facts or persuasion to convey a focused message; web-based marketing harnesses the power of entertainment because this medium understands people would rather be engaged than sold, i.e., how often do you watch a YouTube video to the end?
Tell a Story
Nielsen Online provides overall online video usage data, which shows that approximately 119 million unique viewers watch seven billion total streams monthly. Nielsen’s research reveals that on average, total annual video streams are up 24%, streams per viewer are up 27% and time per viewer is up 58% percent. Video is proving to be the fastest growing sector of an effective marketing strategy. In short, video marketing is the future and the future is now!
At Workforce Training we understand and embrace this shift in marketing technology and philosophy. However, like anything new it takes time to learn how to harness this marketing media strategy effectively. We have learned three important lessons from David Cleverton, CEO of DTX Creative in Boise, Idaho.
- Given a choice (and consumers always have choices), consumers always choose an entertaining, high-quality video over stagnant printed materials. For those marketing people out there who believe or insist that an organization’s print materials are not stagnant, consider a new working definition of stagnant. Stagnant is characterized by static pictures, usually in ink, which do not move or make any noise, can usually be found in a magazine, are routinely skipped over and easily thrown away. The important thing to remember is this, just because a marketing department doesn’t think a company’s traditional print media marketing is stagnant, doesn’t make it so.
- The optimum duration for video consumption is 60 seconds. If you can’t tell your message in 60 seconds, you do not understand your product or what you are selling.
- Organizations or institutions that are serious about employing web-based marketing effectively must have two things, a video production team capable of manufacturing high-end video marketing materials and a YouTube site on which to host it.
If you would like to see an example of a high-end, cutting edge video production, go to http://www.youtube.com/user/ISUWFT. Remember, when it comes to marketing, coming in second is not much of an achievement.
If you have experience leading an effective digital or video marketing initiative, I would like to hear about it.
Take the Step
Leadership is not bestowed, it is earned.
For eight years between 1997 and 2005, I worked with high school age youth who were on probation. The first three summers we took a group of 40 students to Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff to participate in a challenge course experience. The NAU Challenge Course taught me that a person can learn much about themselves when put in a stressful and frightening situation. I came to believe that our community needed access to this training and in 2000, as the Dean of Continuing Education at Mohave Community College, I oversaw the design and construction of a five acre, 24 element Challenge Course on the Mohave campus in Kingman, Arizona.
In addition to overseeing the design and construction of the new Challenge Course, I was also responsible for assembling and training a Challenge Course faculty team. I recruited ten team members, many of whom were K-12 teachers and personal friends and several who had experienced a Challenge Courses previously. They saw the value of what I was trying to do and were interested in working, teaching and coaching in this environment.
Coming Together
The entire challenge course, which took 7 weeks to construct, was built using 50 and 60 foot telephone poles. It consisted of a 60 foot climbing wall, a rappelling tower, giant swings, balance beams, a leap-of-faith, 350 foot zip line and a wide variety of other high wire elements. All components designed to get and hold your attention. During the construction, the newly assembled team often came to the campus at the end of the day just to see how the course was developing. We were all new to this; many of us had experienced a challenge course as participants, but the idea of becoming trained facilitators was new to most of us. We all looked forward to the training and the opportunity to work on the new course, but we did not know what we had actually signed on for––that is until the training began.
Wake Up Call
The college had contracted with Kennerly DeForest , CEO of Challenge Works, to build the course and provide training to our Challenge Course faculty. Right off the bat, Kennerly wanted to weed out the men from the boys; he began our 2 weeks of certification training with an equipment rescue. Picture two 60 foot telephone poles, 40 feet apart. Connecting the poles is a half-inch steel cable. On the cable, half-way between each pole is a pulley, which should have a rope threaded through it; however, for the exercise, the rope was removed and we were expected to rethread the rope through this pulley by hand. We put on our climbing gear, received last minute instructions and the fun began. Kennerly asked, “Who’s first?”
The idea of building the challenge course had been mine. I had worked with the foundation to raise the funds, designed the course, hired the contractors and supervised the construction. In addition, I had also recruited and hired the faculty. Up to that point I had been the assumed leader, but at that second it became clear to me that if I wanted to remain the leader now, I had to act like one. I volunteered to go first and the members of my team were glad to let me. They were more than happy to support me from the safety of the ground.
Climbing that pole was the scariest thing I have ever done; with each step as I went higher and higher, the pole began to sway. At the 40 foot mark I thought the pole was going fall over––at the 50 foot mark I began to swear and my talk was very bad! I remember thinking, “What in the hell am I doing up here? I am 40 years old and I don’t need this!” I used many expletives that have been omitted. I remember telling myself, “I should just stop right now and go back down before I killed myself.” Then I looked down to the ground and saw that my entire team was watching and I realized then, scared and 50 feet in the air, that if I failed, I didn’t fail just me, I failed the entire team. They needed to see me succeed because they were trying to deal with their own personal fears.
I continued to climb. When I hit the 60 foot mark at the top of the pole it was swaying so much I thought I would be thrown off. I was hanging on for dear life, scared out of my mind and swearing like a sailor to myself. All I wanted to do was hold on to the pole, but the activity required that I connect my carabineer to the steel cable, let go of the pole and slide to the middle of the cable, some 20 feet, and thread the pulley with the rope I had carried up with me. As I was suspended from a steel cable 60 feet above the ground, swinging side to side and bouncing up and down, truly believing I was going to die, I remember saying to myself, “this is a bunch of bull.” I threaded the pulley and pulled myself back to the pole. What surprised me at his point is that the pole no longer felt like it was swaying; instead it felt rock solid and I was glad to be reattached to it once more. Using the crab claws, I climbed down the pole and felt the solidness of the ground in a whole new way. After disconnecting from the element, it was high fives around, and everyone else took a turn as we cheered them on from below.
Years Later
We were all together at a Christmas party and were reminiscing about this experience. This single activity turned out to be the seminal point in the formation of the group. We all had the same fears, we all faced the same physical challenge, and we all put the needs of the group above our own and acted accordingly. We all chose to face and overcome our fears because no one could face the thought of being excluded. I remember Jim Crawford saying, “Joe, when I saw you get to the top I knew that I had to.”
Lessons Learned
Real leadership is not about doing what you already know; doing what is comfortable and familiar. Leadership is about having the courage to take that step of faith into the unknown so others have the courage to join you on the journey.
If you have an example of a time you faced you fears down, I would like to hear about it.
A Kodak Moment
“When a great team loses through complacency, it will constantly search for new and more intricate ways to explain away defeat.” Pat Riley
On January 19, 2012 Kodak filed for bankruptcy. Perhaps you have heard about this event recently on the TV, radio or in the newspaper. It was a relatively big news event; however, of even greater importance than the actual filings of the bankruptcy papers are the events leading up to the end.
Background
In 1934 Eastman Kodak introduced to the world the first Baby Brownie Camera and with it they became the leaders in the manufacturing of camera film.
Kodak cornered the market as leaders in the manufacturing of film for millions of Americans who became obsessed with personal photography overnight and for the motion picture film industry. For decades Kodak was the exclusive provider of motion picture film.
As recently as 1997, shares of Kodak stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange for 93 dollars per share. In 2012, those same shares traded for a mere 63cents. In 1996, Kodak’s annual revenue was 15.97 billion dollars. In 1996, 15.97 billion dollars was a lot of money, so much in fact that it was difficult to imagine a company of that size ever failing. In the early 80’s Fujifilm, a Japanese film manufacturing company, decided to challenge Kodak for a piece of the film market. Fuji took over the market for two reasons. First, Fuji offered the same high quality film product at a lower price and second, Kodak did not take the new upstart Fuji seriously believing instead, that U.S. consumers would remain brand loyal regardless of the price. They were wrong on both counts.
When Kodak filed for bankruptcy on January 19, 2012, its accounting showed the company 6.75 billion dollars in debt, a bad financial position for sure, considering its annual revenue had declined from nearly 16 billion in 1997 to 5.1 billion in 2012; a steady 11 billion decline over 15 years.
Eastman Kodak invented the first digital camera, yet it was never able to position the company to dominate the industry with the very technology it invented. Why? What can we learn from that failure?
Lesson Learned
Eastman Kodak could never embrace its new future because it could never let go of its past. Even though it invented the first digital camera, Kodak always viewed itself primarily as a manufacturer of film, a tragic misstep at a time when the world was going digital. To help right the floundering company in 2003, Kodak hired Antonio Perez, a Vice-President from Hewlett Packard with 23 years of experience overseeing HP’s digital imagining initiatives. Interestingly enough, when Perez took over, rather than positioned Kodak to be the industry leaders in the digital imaging technology Kodak invented, he shifted the focus of the company to printer cartridges, an area in which he had experience as an HP executive. It was the last straw for a camel already on life support.
Kodak leadership didn’t have the courage or ability to:
- Let go of their old vision so they could create a new vision.
- Let go of antiquated technology so they could embrace cutting edge technology.
- Let go of past success so they could achieve new heights.
- Let go of what was holding them back so they could move forward.
Here was a company that was steadily declining over a fifteen year period, losing market share, experiencing declining revenue and experiencing massive layoffs. Kodak has laid off more than 47,000 employees since 2003, and through it all, the company’s leadership was more comfortable holding onto the helm of a sinking ship than they were willing to adapt to change.
Change or Die
Kodak teaches us one very important lesson, times change and businesses that intend to be in business tomorrow had better change with them. Gone are the days when leadership dictates to the consumers, not only do people want to buy Fords, they want to purchase them in a wide variety of colors–– if one car company doesn’t accommodate that need then the competition will.
Now would be a good time to stop and take a hard look at various aspects of your organization.
- Identify those things that are holding you back.
- Identify those processes that are no longer working.
- Identify new business opportunities.
- Identify potential new partnerships.
- Identify new revenue sources.
- Most importantly, identify what you need to discard to take advantage of new opportunities.
I enjoy hiring new people because they make an organization better. They come in with a new set of eyes and see things differently. We encourage every employee to ask a lot of questions, because we realize if we don’t have a good reason for doing what we do, we probably need to change.
There are no road maps for success and even if there were, who would want to go down a beaten path?
If you ever worked for a company that excelled in reinventing itself, I would like to hear about it.
An E-Ticket Ride
Disneyland
When Disneyland opened its doors to the public in 1955, customers were required to present a ticket to board any of the amusement park rides. Park guests purchased a ‘value book” consisting of A, B and C coupons; D coupons were added in 1956 and E coupons were added in 1959. An E-ticket gained the bearer admission to premiere rides such as Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, the Haunted Manson, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Enchanted Tiki Room. I first experienced Disneyland in 1965 at the ripe old age of 6. I still remember two rides very well, the Matterhorn, which absolutely scared me to death as I had never before been on a roller coaster, and the Enchanted Tiki Room, sponsored at the time by Dole. I stared in awe as the birds around me sang and talked and was absolutely amazed when the totem pole I was sitting beside suddenly opened its eyes and started speaking; it was simply incredible. I have never forgotten what it means to experience an E-ticket ride; E-tickets provided the ultimate experience.
The important thing about E-tickets and value books was that each value book had a specific number of A, B, C, D and E tickets. You had to choose carefully. When you ran out of E-tickets, you no longer had access to the E-ticket rides, which relegated you to Peter Pan, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Dumbo or the Tea Cups; all interesting, but no match for Pirates of the Caribbean. When Disney guests were required to purchase value books, having a great Disneyland experiencing was all about choosing correctly.
Many Choices
In today’s ever-shrinking global economy, consumers have more choices than ever before. There is a lot of noise in the market place and the key to distinguishing your business from the competition is in knowing how to delivering an E-Ticket experience rather than the D-Ticket ride they experience all too often.
Air travel in the U.S. today is a prime example. It is frequently anything but fun and exciting. More and more just the process of getting through security makes traveling feel like an endurance contest. It starts with arrival at the airport 2 hours early to make it through security in time for your flight. Once in the security lines, the traveler slowly moves to the first TSA agent who scans boarding passes and personal identification. These agents may or may not actually look at you; they may ask you a question or ignore you completely before returning your boarding pass and ID so you can continue on to the strip search portion of the security screening process. Some lucky passengers are patted down, some have the content of their bags emptied, and some are wanded, while even luckier travelers get a free dose of radiation in a full body imaging experience. The culmination of this extensive and obtrusive security clearance process ends when the customers collect their belongings and get dressed. The sad part of it all is that too many people have come to accept less than an E-ticket experience. Bad business practices are not limited to TSA, although the TSA seems to have perfected the experience.
Others are catching up. Additional examples to consider are:
- Automated phone systems that send the caller in to a never ending list of options leading to oblivion.
- Messages taken that are never returned.
- Sales people who have no idea where anything is.
- Rain-checks that are never honored.
- Computer systems that keep crashing.
- Rude, frustrated, poorly trained, (if trained at all) employees at all levels.
- Unresponsive disinterested employees who simply go through the motions to get through a day.
An E-Ticket Experience.
If you want to distinguish your business from the competition, commit to delivering an E-Ticket experience to every person who comes in contact with your business. To do this, start by interacting with your business as if you were a customer.
- Call your own company to learn how the phone is answered.
- Walk through the doors to see how you are greeted.
- Send an e-mail to discover what type of response you receive.
- Purchase your own product face-to-face or on the web and see what it is like.
- Leave a message for a specific individual requesting that they call you back.
- Request an information packet and see what you get, or if you even get one.
- Pay attention to how you are treated.
- Decide if the information you were given is correct and accurate.
If, during this exercise, you discover that the actual performance of your business does not meet your expectations, then you are not delivering the E-Ticket experience you thought you were. Now would be a great time to fix any problems or issues you have identified. The best time to fix the problem is when you recognize it.
If you ever worked for a company that always delivered an E-ticket ride, I would like to hear about it.
