Doing Things Right Or Doing The Right Thing?

I was working with an organization and ran into a strange situation. The head of their skunk works was a hero for doing things right. He was an inspiration for having his team working effectively, following the right order of build, making lists, all the stuff I treasure.

The problem was nothing was coming out of his group. They were working hard, getting sweaty and loud, and were an increasing expense.

Finally, he left, being unable to “get the support of management (the fools).”

The Druid who replaced him was less formal, less rigid, and told good jokes. He looked at the two page list of projects, and abandoned most of them. A few were folded into other efforts.

In two weeks his team was shipping finished prototypes. Turns out they weren’t finished, because by supplying something that worked, we could see what else was needed.

And those improvements were incorporated in less than a month. We were shipping new products!

Trying to define the difference, I realized we had gone from doing things right (a necessary and good policy), to doing the right thing, which was cheaper, more valuable, and easier on the workers.

When you are generating more heat than light, are you doing things right or doing the right thing?

Here is more About Work.

Backhoes and Bureaucracy

We use tools because they make us more efficient, able to get more done, with less effort.

I use tools a lot, for construction, software development, management, leadership, organizing, travel, and I appreciate mechanics who can really use a tool.

I worked a summer with Sterling Guthrie, backhoe artist. He had a totally different way of thinking about work and a more creative relationship with gravity than did men who stood on the ground. He would use his backhoe for up, down, sideways, and twist, saving hundreds of man hours and increasing the production and safety of our crew. Sterling got more completed work out of his backhoe than any man I’ve known.

I was remembering Sterling last week while I was on a Caribbean cruise. Every time we left or came back on the ship we ran a security gauntlet. Ship’s crew, mainly from the Philippines and Eastern Europe, ran us through a scanner at a brisk pace, 100% document check, speaking to each of us by name, actively looking for signs of “not right.” They were smiling, because smiling increased their engagement with each passenger, they were engaged because they were going to be on the ship if anything went wrong, they were establishing personal connections because that is what experience professionals do.

For that cruise, we started from the Port of Baltimore, saving time, complexity, and the security-by-threat of air travel. That was a major bonus.

While I was on the cruise I got to think about why our government had shut down my municipal golf course, memorials, cultural institutions. How had they ever gotten authority to spread that misery?

I remembered a conversation with an in-law a couple of years ago. He was explaining the healthy pay bump he got from carrying a gun to his job, “I’m not a toll collector, I’m a bridge guard!” I couldn’t help myself, “Really? How many get away?”

When we came back, we went through US Customs, after 6 runs through private security screening that week. This time there was no engagement, no encouragement, with a crew who had decided our security was best protected by being unhappy and uninvolved.

Providing negative reinforcement, making no reinforcement the desired state, misses half the available reinforcement response. Our official customs experience was a little less efficient than an open doorway.

I used to accept the occasional government foul up as a part of being a citizen. As business and social groups have gotten more efficient, the government I interact with has lowered their successful completion baseline, while increasing their citizen-threat behavior.

A bureaucracy is a tool, just like a backhoe. If the operator can’t provide value while delighting the customer, it’s time to get another operator.

Sometimes you have to Drop The Other Shoe

Logistics

A Full Bird in the Pentagon said, “All computing is logistics.” Since he was a customer, he wasn’t wrong. The customer may not always be right, but they are never wrong.

Figuring that code is the record of culture, perhaps logistics is more.

Jack and I are watching the crash-and-burn of four organizations. Previously successful efforts, crashing vigorously.

They are each useful, fill a need, and are leaving a lot of anxious customers.

In each case, management got bored with logistics, the blocking and tackling of doing the business. They started focusing on something grander.

A couple of years ago, United had a commercial, black and white, about a manager saying business was down. And they were going to come back. So he started handing out airline tickets to go see the customers. And things were going to get better.

I liked that commercial. I see too many people with an intense internal focus.

Reports aren’t work. Reports are reports of work.

How much of your day adds value? Do you even have a working definition of value?
“Um, good coffee. Tasty!”

Perfecting logistics can make a healthy organization.

What Happened To The Management Pyramid?

Work

Work is making and keeping promises.

Delegators want to factor complexity into their failure. No points off.

Work requires learning and developing improved processes. No points off for ignorance.

Work requires maintaining successful relationships in the environment. Losing is losing.

Work is a tough game. No one is ever error-free. Which gives everyone a chance to succeed.

There are three stages to making and keeping promises.

The first is the youngster who figures that not making any promises means not having to keep any promises. He’s the one who was so lonely his momma had to tie a pork chop around his neck to get the dog to play with him.

The next step is making adequate promises and enjoying the thrills and spills.

The last step, since life is a rodeo, is making the promises that should be made, and enjoying heaven and earth shifting so you keep them.

What is your work style?

For more ideas, see out new web page, About Work!

The Ego Stack

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to sit down with His Excellency, George Washington, to learn about leadership. As a surveyor, planter, rancher, scientist, distiller, builder, warrior, and dancer, he placed a high value on direct expertise, which allowed him get successful results from subordinates, and quickly correct situations that weren’t going to work.

When he was directed to re-employ the recently captured and released General Lee with due regard for his “seniority,” Washington complied. And when the strategic brilliance of releasing General Lee became apparent as he outran his men, retreating in a rout, Washington’s attitude was more fearsome than the men’s fear of death. They rallied, and followed Washington back on the field, taking advantage that the enemy was out of position and out of energy having chased the Americans to what looked like a sure victory.

When I like or respect somebody, it is usually because they are demonstrating useful skills.

Two years ago, I met a young man who wanted to start a different kind of organization. He couldn’t do it all, so Jack and I added what we could do. Others added what they could, because they saw so many doing good work. His organization flourished. 

As he has adopted a grander business style, his successes have dropped.

I have seen that first level commitment to demonstrated excellence drive several of the more successful organizations I have helped.

But what’s next?

The first level of the Ego Stack is doing what needs to be done. After listening to George Washington, I wonder if there is a second step.

Twenty years ago, our government wanted contractors who had both federal and commercial credentials. It was an internal theoretical wet dream, but we were happy to comply. My client was a NAVY contractor, and had a looming succession/liquidation issue.

In a couple of years, we built a blue chip list of raving commercial clients, so our company was bought by a much larger contractor. As a consultant, I was off the hook.

Then they called back and wanted to hire me at my 20 hour/month rate for 40 hours/ week, to create their Y2K practice.

I already knew my team, so I studied up on this Y2K, and put in their first four projects. Big times! We were saved!

I got called up to my president’s president, a retired admiral, who had brought a cast of flunkies to his secretariat, which was in a building that had no other company employees. He told me that while my record was acceptable, he needed me to stop selling our existing customers and start selling many more people who didn’t know us in order for me to make his planned numbers.

I said, “Let me get this straight, Admiral. You want me to sell a solution we don’t yet know how to provide to people who don’t know us? Let me get back to you with a business plan.” He thought that was a capital idea.

I went back to my division president customer, related the fantasy, and said, “I better leave before you get fired.” He reluctantly agreed. So pasha lifestyle doesn’t work in the ego stack. Beyond first level execution, I haven’t seen much work.

I serve on a couple of boards, where I get to observe higher level ego stack. I also read about some.

I am particular entertained by the delegator. His whole role is to get somebody else to step up and do something. It’s usually the assignment from hell, since the delegator has no idea how it should be done. The typical response is, “OK, whatever...” And then nothing occurs.

Then there is the moosher. If we have two solutions and choice has to be made, the moosher says, “Let me take the best parts of each proposal and then EVERYONE is happy.”

As explained by Richard Nixon and then mocked by The Stones and others showed, compromise solution is neither.

As Don Rumsfeld wrote, When you are capable of making a decision, make it.

I observe the more grandiose layers of the ego stack occur in organizations that see themselves as impervious, waddling toward their future. And anyway, the stuff I’m doing won’t come due until after I’m retired.

The other point of view is Art Money’s ego stack puncturing mantra. “Well, what have you done for the fleet TODAY?”

Keep it simple, Stephanie.

Catch A Meme And You’re Sittin’ On Top Of The World

Layout

I was sitting in a meditation talk, next to my favorite meditator. He said, “Do you meditate?”

Yeeesss,,,kinda, but it’s not a sitting meditation like gurus, I tend to meditate in motion.

I was working out with a trainer and we had developed an excellent age-specific workout for me Then he wanted to change it.

I said, “What are you doing?” He said, “I don’t want you to get bored.”

I figured I wouldn’t get bored, I wasn’t working out to entertain me.

That was four years ago. I’m still taking that 90 minute workout every chance I get.

What I call meditation, carpenters call “layout.” Layout is figuring out the next moves and making sure you are ready for them.

Some layout is for the next day. Some layout is for the next week, month, or quarter. I can tell when my layout is working as pieces keep falling in place and work gets done with minimum drama.

There is a fair amount of random happenstance in my life. Every day.

I like to work out first thing in the morning, because by 9:30, I generally have a metric buttload of high priority random pushing me off course.

However, because I have a plan, I can deal with the random and usually deal with the planned. For everything that is lost, other things are found. Recognizing the good found is the definition of luck.

I wouldn’t recognize a lot of the gifts without layout.

So what does your meditation look like?

The Dune Leadership Lessons – Galactic Leadership

Supporting Cast

Some of the feedback from readers of Knowledge Work was, How did I get time to get out of the office, away from the office?

I realized I have some strong feelings about where work happens, including a 15 year old screen saver that floats You Don’t Make Any Money In Your Own Office across my computer screen any time I lose focus.

A great deal of my success comes from knowing and cultivating experts. I observe that some people cultivate experts, some don’t, and the ones that do are generally more successful, able to succeed in a wider range of situations. The rest of success comes from luck and personally doing a lot of high quality work.

I am strongly organized to make maximum use of outsiders, and still do my own work.

Typically, I organize my day to be with the people who can show me what I need. That generally means being out of the office when other people are available to be seen. Yup, face-to-face.

But we’ve got all this technology! Ever see a flame war on social media or email? Somebody not paying attention during a conference call, OK EVERYBODY not paying attention on a conference call?

I remember one time I was selling enterprise videoconferencing, so of course management wanted communication by videoconferencing. What a saving! What efficiency!

Our team was in our conference room proposing an unbeatable offer on a multi-million dollar offering. Suddenly the “identified buyer” looked out of the picture, to the side, then looked back at us and said, “I’ll have to call you back.” Shut ’er down.

Perhaps we don’t always pick up the true situation with some of these electronic tools.

So in addition to getting out, I find I am doing work when others are not available. That speeds up my progress. I’ll usually have assignments in before opening of business...because I have other places to be.

One time I was working in an office, smoke coming off the keys. A lonely peer asks, “Can I interrupt you for a minute?”

“That’s two,” I replied.

I use 7 to 9 am to harvest a fairly extensive roster of incoming communication. This morning, one of my advisers said I was unusually disciplined sharing incoming communication with others who could use it. That’s a major part of cultivating a network of experts.

I’ve had to watch subordinates. I guess my bosses thought they might steal the silverware. How do I know you’re working if I can’t see you?

I’ve come to believe that I should spend my time with subordinates making sure we share a common understanding of what they are doing, and how to judge acceptable finished work.

Then get out of the way.

When I get a subordinate doing mostly excellent work, my next level is to turn that work into something more important and fulfilling for them, often by introducing them to an appropriate expert. FIELD TRIP!

I spend my time on subordinates who don’t bring a personal commitment to excellence recruiting their successors. I don’t create somebody else’s excellence. That’s like pushing rope.

Funny thing though, excellent subordinates and I find workload starts taking less and less of the day. That’s a corollary of Parkinson’s Law - Work expands to fill the time available. Leaving time for improving our situation, like The Swamp on M.A.S.H.

How are you getting more out of our information economy?

Rainmakers – Audience tested five minute exercises in excellence.

Please join us Tuesday September 10^th at 6:30 PM for the Capital Technology Management Hub (CTMH) meeting (it's FREE) at Teqcorner in McLean, VA. Sales Lab's Rainmaker 21 – Your Dealer Network, 300 seconds of enlightenment, preceding the headliner presentation, What is the New Game of Work? by Jack Gates, Sales Lab. How to Register - CLICK HERE

Assigning Credit

We’re in a startup, which is frequently taking us where no man has gone before.

So I asked Jack, “How would you value Zack’s contribution?”

Jack said, “Well, it’s different.”

I said, “Actually, it’s exactly one third, as there are three of us working.” We are all doing very different tasks to get this beast launched. 

I was thinking about all the employees who try to make a career criticizing their coworkers, trading opinions for coffee. Ugly career.

There’s a new work ethic, where people are getting results. Cory Doctorow demonstrated the model in Makers. Small group, total contribution, getting together to increase velocity.

Jay Deragon at Social Flights said, “There is no point in criticizing or explaining social media. The only worthwhile choice is to go build something.”

What are you seeing?

Objectives and Outcomes

Frank Strickland gave a talk at CTMH this week that defined, clarified, and corrected one of the most common destructive organizational behaviors.

Picture this: You’re in a development meeting, or a sales meeting, or a deployment meeting, and a ranking member, often from outside the team, starts grinding for some unknowable information.

“When will you complete the module?”

“How many sales will you have by the end of the month?”

“How many people will be on the floor?”

There is an easy first answer...whatever the plan says. Where the meeting breaks apart is when the suit wants other proof, different proof. We spend an extra 70 minutes of a planned hour rotating in a tight circle.

Worse, if you figure every group meeting is an expensive opportunity to improve group performance, we’ve just lost that opportunity. A Sales Lab Status Meeting is designed to make everyone better at their job, every time, so a hijacked meeting puts the group back a week...at least.

As Frank explains it, the suits want to spend the time constructing a satisfying (for them) prediction of an outcome, the troops need to focus on completing their objectives.

There’s a common lack of validity in any prediction, so after the first prediction, there isn’t much value gained in the subsequent ones. It’s like chopping an onion in smaller pieces to get more onion.

Under pressure, management often finds out they don’t like their plan, but the last week of the month isn’t the time to stop and fix that.

Here’s Frank’s revelation: The outcome is achieved by executing the objectives. You don’t manage to the outcome. You manage to the objectives that gets you the outcome. Think of the guy who threw his back out steering his bowling ball as it went down the alley. Wrong model.

Outcomes are produced from achieving objectives.

If the suits want increase earnings per share, the troops better commence delighting their customers.

If the suits want more sales, the troops better commence their 20 meetings a month and two blog posts a week.

If the suits want deeper deployment, the troops better concentrate on better planning and improved safety.

Most of the hallucination about outcomes wastes the precious time available to improve achieving objectives. It’s the suits’ lack of confidence rising to the top.

Concentrate on achieving objectives.