Simple management

Words: 425
Reading Time: 1 min. 25 sec.s

What actions yield the best financial results when dealing with an economic downturn?

That’s something we would all like to know – always assuming that an economic downturn calls for actions different to those at any other time.

Bruce Tulgan of RainmakerThinking, Inc.® reports finding that cost cutting, innovation and increased supervision were the three strategies that yielded the strongest financial results in 2009.

Well, that’s wonderful! If that’s all we have to do to get great financial results then all our problems are solved. Or are they?

Bruce’s results are drawn from a survey of more than 1,000 managers selected from participants in RainmakerThinking, Inc.’s ® intensive two-day management seminars.

Managers that implemented these actions were found to be the most likely to report that their bottom line financial results (at the level closest to the manager’s control) in 2009 were “good,” “very good,” “better than expected,” or “much better than expected.”

There seems to be a number of weaknesses here:
1) The survey was only of managers, not of workers or financial analysts;
2) All those managers had been trained by RainmakerThinking, Inc.®;
3) Other actions taken by managers who were not participants in RainmakerThinking were not examined;
4) The assessments of financial results were entirely subjective; none were quantified;
5) Corporate benefits or detriments other than financial ones were not looked at;
6) The organization conducting the survey had a direct interest in its outcome.

Besides which, cost cutting and innovation should be high priorities in any company, irrespective of the state of the economy. Had these managers helped create the crisis in their companies by their lack of effectiveness when times were better?

And managers reported that it was their supervision that made a difference – not actions and dedication by a neglected workforce concerned about continued employment that would have happened anyway, without the managers.

No surprises there then. It’s the usual error – we always think we have had a disproportionate effect (hubris) when it’s everybody else that has made the major difference. The higher the individual is in the organization or social grouping, the more marked is this effect as a general rule.

Business suggestions:
1) Start from a position of scepticism;
2) Beware of too much simplification;
3) Ask, “Who says?”;
4) How much interest has the researcher in the outcome of the research;
5) Check for what’s missing;
6) What else could have caused this?
7) Look for a control group comparison;
8) Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler (Einstein);
9) Nobody has all the answers;

10) Bosses need the workers; the reverse is not always true.

The truth about teams

Words: 447
Reading Time: 1 min. 29 sec.s

There is a lot of confused thinking about getting the best from teams. A good case in point is Duncan Brodie (http://goalsandachievements.com) who says:

“To get the best from a team you clearly have to bring out the best in each individual and get them all playing to their strengths.”

Only to say, just a few lines further on:

“The truth is that team success is largely down to a group of people who are committed to a common purpose and are willing to work collectively and support each other to get the result they desire.”

Setting aside whether you agree with either of these points, both cannot be true at the same time.

Bringing out the best in each individual is just a likely to give you a group of individuals, each pulling in a different direction, rather than a team.

Having a group of people committed to a common purpose and willing to work collectively to get the result they desire will give you a team, but will not necessarily bring out the best in each individual; that may need to be sacrificed to the common good.

Superior teams are most likely when the members share a common aspiration for the team rather than themselves and the team makes use of each individual’s strengths. That does not mean having the best individuals, since they may not place the team above themselves. It does involve each team member identifying moment to moment how the team as a whole can best deliver.

Sport is often chosen as an analogy for business, but business is rarely like that. Business is not about delivering at your peak for 48 minutes, 90 minutes, 20 overs or 5 days. It is about effective, appropriate effort delivered under all circumstances for months and years.

Business suggestions:
1) Be clear about the outcomes;
2) Be clear about how you will know if and when you have them;
3) Get buy-in from all members of the team;
4) No stigma should attach to not buying-in and being properly excluded;
5) No-one fails in a team, everyone takes responsibility;
6) Teams do not work automatically, they need work themselves;
7) Changing team members changes the whole team, earlier phases will need revisiting;
8) Ball-carriers and supporters change over time; make sure everyone knows who is who;
9) You need both ball-carriers and supports to succeed;
10) You cannot lead a team; either you are part of it, or you are not. Who leads at any one time will change with where the team has got to;
11) When the job is done celebrate the success and disband the team;
12) Different jobs need different teams.

Are we receiving you?

Words: 300
Reading Time: 1 minute 00 seconds

What message is conveyed by your advertising?

It sounds almost a banal question. Obviously we just read the text, look at the images and voilà we all understand exactly what you mean and we all relate to what you are saying.

If only it were that simple.

There is a large Wells and Young’s warehouse on the A421 that I pass quite often. I noticed yesterday morning that it had several large banners on the outside of the building proclaiming that it was “Pubco of the Year!”

I thought Wells and Young’s were a brewing company. If you go to their website you will find them described as the largest private brewing company in the UK with some of the UK's most loved cask beers and specialty lager brands.

Pubco.s are organizations that are really only interested in the property side of things, are widely condemned for their thoughtlessness and ruthless attitude to their exploited tenants and who have closed down more pubs in recent years in pursuit of a quick buck than anything attributed to the smoking ban.

So why would a brewer want to be associated with such an image – even in passing?

Are Wells and Young’s a respected brewer of fine beers, or just a landlord with their main focus on redevelopment?

Clearly, I’m confused. It's the usual error - thinking others know what we know and therefore what we mean. Unfortunately, the implication is that ALL their marketing spend has gone to waste where I am concerned. How many more are there like me?

Suggestions for all marketeers:
1) Decide on the message;
2) Keep it consistent across all platforms and media;
3) Walk the talk;
4) Check that the message you think you are sending is the one being heard by your audience;
5) Be ready to change what isn’t working.

Ordinary or Awesome?

Words: 596 Reading time: 2 minutes 0 seconds

Have you ever wondered how much influence we have over the experiences we enjoy? For example, in your daily interactions with people, what level of response do you get – ordinary or awesome?

Of course, in theory, we would all choose awesome. Reality is sometimes different. While awesome would be…well, awesome…it could take a little longer to deliver. Are we prepared to wait? Is ordinary all we wish to spare the time for, so we grab that and run?

If awesome means stating our demands and creating a bit of a fuss – a very unBritish thing to do – are we predisposed to avoid making a scene? In how many cases do we opt for a quietly dissatisfied existence?

A picture of what is awesome and what is OK is firstly conveyed and then established partly by the customer – you and me. Do we encourage better than average and a tendency to awesome by the praise, thanks and recognition we bestow? Or do we grunt and go when the goods and services obtained for our hard-earned money reach a barely acceptable level?

The service and attention given to customers in major retail outlets provides a useful case study. The move to pre-packaged and self-service has been inexorable ever since I was lad growing up in London.

Now, we can shop in most major chains without ever having to react face-to-face with any of their staff. Not only do we search out the items on the shelves, we even take the goods through an automatic checkout, pay through a slot-machine arrangement, bag all our purchases and take them to the car ourselves.

Oh, and please put the trolley back where you found it, our employees are too busy to be bothered with serving our customers. And our customers are so dazed and distracted by the mindless, windowless warehouses they now shop in, that don’t hardly complain.

A quick aside: have you ever noticed a clock in a supermarket? Thought not. Would you like to guess why?

How did it ever come to this?

If we want awesome and we keep getting ordinary we have to accept part of the blame. We have allowed conditioning and habituation to establish mediocrity as somehow normal. It doesn’t have to be, but nothing will change unless we do so first. If we keep allowing what we’ve always allowed, delight will decline as it’s always declined.

We can actively consent to being offered something more. And companies prepared to offer more will be well placed to capture the market. We observed this phenomenon with the advent of The Japanese TV. The TVs being made here and in the USA at the time were prone to breakdown. That was normal. A whole industry was founded on the need to repair them.

Then the famed reliability and quality of the Japanese offering became available. People voted with their wallets. They wanted awesome as soon as it became available. The TV repair industry was all but wiped out.

The same happened with motorcycles. Much the same has happened with cars.

If we know that accepting awesome is so much better than ordinary, then we need to expand the paradigm to other areas of our lives. Every interaction is an opportunity. The chance for change is never gone; we can begin whenever we wish.

We have a huge influence over the experiences we enjoy – often much more than we realise. Give someone else the opportunity, the room and the permission to be awesome. You may be surprised by the result.

And we can choose to be awesome too.

What’s Your Barometer Reading?

Words: 489 Reading time: 1 minute 36 seconds

When we are sailing along smoothly on an even keel the chances are that one of two things is true:

a) Either things could be a lot better, but we are not pushing the envelope, or
b) Things could be on the verge of getting a lot worse, because we are forgetting to notice the potential threats.

In the current economic climate, which is more likely to be true for you?

In recent weeks I have had three different businesses approach me with essentially the same problem – getting the right amount of money out of clients on a timely basis. The problem manifested itself in three different ways:

~ Collection of debt
~ Terms of business
~ Pricing

The common factor between these three was forgetting to make clear to the clients concerned what the expectations were surrounding payment. The reason for such forgetfulness is common to us all. So common, in fact, that Pace and Kyeli Smith have coined a term to cover it: “The Usual Error”.

The Usual Error in this case was the belief by the business owners concerned that their clients viewed the need to make adequate payment in a timely manner in the same way that they did themselves. Big mistake.

Paul Watzlawick’s theory on communication is relevant here. One of his axioms says that you cannot not communicate, because every behaviour is a kind of communication. Any perceivable behaviour, including the absence of action, has the potential to be interpreted by other people as having some meaning.

These businesses had – probably inadvertently – let their clients know that low, unsecured or delayed payment was not an issue. In fact it was and is in every case, proving that while you cannot not communicate, you can not communicate accurately.

The tale I usually use in these circumstances is of the couple on their first date. The boy is waiting at the appointed time and place, but the girl arrives 20 minutes late.

If the boy complains on that occasion and on any subsequent occasions the girl will get the message that timekeeping is important to him. However, if says nothing about lateness, then he is opening the door to constant lateness on future dates.

Whatever he does, or does not do, sends a very specific message.

If you are in a hole, as these businesses were, the only way out is to first know that you are there. Knowing you have a problem puts you well on way fixing it. And knowing that you can fix it helps your mood, your attitude and strengthens your inclination to take action.

Watching your business barometer will let you know if the wind direction is about to shift, if you face storms, or if you are about to become becalmed.

Having some warning of what is just round the corner is really useful, even though it is but the first step on the path to a better outcome.