Strengths Based Leadership (Part 2)

by Don Harkey

Yesterday, I wrote about a book called, "Strengths Based Leadership" and how it has taken the StrengthsFinder concept to a new level. Today, I want to talk about another simple concept found in this new study. The question is "why do people follow a leader"?

Have you ever thought about it that way? I guess in my mind, this is coming at from a different direction. Most of the time, I talk about what makes a good leader. Asking followers what makes them follow someone is a brilliantly simple way of understanding the traits of a good leader. As the book quotes Warren Buffett...

"A leader is someone who can get things done through other people."

I should point out that the study focused on positive leadership. As Peter Drucker once said, "The three greatest leaders of the 20th century were Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. If that's leadership, I want no part of it." The study uncovered 4 basic needs of a follower.

Trust, Compassion, Stability, and Hope.

The first need is trust. Followers need to know that their leaders are honest people with high integrity. They don't just want them to be honest most of the time, they want them to fall over backwards being honest. Trust takes time to develop and cannot be taught or emphasized in a seminar. It can only be developed by leaders who act with only the highest degree of integrity.

The next need is compassion. This is an interesting finding in that many leaders feel like they have to show strength. The macho view of a leader is one who makes the tough decisions and never looks back. Never let 'em see ya sweat! In actuality, leaders who are caring and happy are easier to follow than leaders who are cold and serious. This makes sense if you think about it from the perspective of the follower. Who wants to follow around a negative person who doesn't care about you?

Another basic need is stability. This need probably trips up many leaders who feel they need to hide compassion. Stability can be provided by strong leaders who provide their followers with security and peace. This makes sense from what we know about Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs. A person's basic needs must be met before they can worry about more complex need. If an employee is worrying about their paycheck, they will not be worrying as much about the quality of their work or innovating new ideas. The best way to accomplish a feeling of stability is through transparency. I once heard Jack Shewmaker, a former WalMart executive, talk about the importance of transparency. He even went as far as posting the companies regional strategies on the walls of their stores for all employees to see!

The last basic need is hope. This need addresses the outlook of the future. Where are we headed? The best way for leaders to convey hope to their people is to be proactive rather than reactive. During difficult times, it is important for a leader to openly talk about how the company had contingencies in place (if it is true!) and what the next steps are going to be for the future. Do you spend most of your day responding or initiating? Most people spend most of their time responding. We could all spend more time initiating!

This is why followers follow. As leaders, we can all strive to provide an environment of trust, compassion, stability, and hope to our people. We must act with total integrity in the best interest of our people to provide for their basic needs and to give them a positive vision for the future!

If you haven't purchased this book yet, what are you waiting for?!?

Feelin' Small (Part 2)

by Don Harkey

I my entry yesterday, I detailed an experience I had almost 19 years ago. After writing the blog, a thought occurred to me. I "Googled" Dr. Fritz Mountford. It was easy to find him. He had actually started teaching at Hastings College in 2000 (9 years after the Honor Choir) and his email address was easy to find. I sent him an email along with a link to the blog story. By the afternoon, I received a response from Dr. Fritz, whom I hadn't talked to in over 18 years.

I won't share the whole email, but I wanted to share a part of it.

"Again, thanks for sharing your time, talent, and energy in the first place (yes, the concert is still in the same gymnasium!), and for carrying and spreading the experience in countless unknown ways since then, and endless thanks for reminding me why I still bound into rehearsals and leap up on the podium as if my life depended on it! Best wishes for continued success. - Fritz"

The technology of the internet has given us an easy way to reach across the years and show thanks to people who have meant so much to us. My Dad, a life long teacher who passed away 2 years ago, loved these types of affirmations. It helps give a clarity of purpose on why we get up in the morning and why we work so hard to reach others, often in seemingly small ways.

I don't care if you work for a profit or a non-profit, a big organization or a small one, or even if you don't work at all. You have opportunities every day to make a positive impact the people around you. Go ahead!

Feeling' Small

by Don Harkey

Sometimes we find ourselves in unique situations that offer powerful, yet unexpected, memories.

I was 16 years old and I had been sitting in rehearsal for several hours in a practice room at Hastings College in Nebraska. We only had a couple of days to learn the music and come together as a choir. Most of us had never even met. Even the director, Dr. Fritz Mountford, was unknown to us. We were a group of strangers pulled together to quickly learn several pieces of music in only a couple of days for a performance in front of hundreds of people.

This is how honor choirs frequently operate. Hastings College had held auditions throughout the state of Nebraska looking for high school singers. They had selected around 60 singers from the state to come together to immerse in music for a few days. I really didn't expect a lot. I was looking forward to seeing how the choir would sound, but I really didn't think that we would be able to pull something together that was truly significant.

I was very wrong.

Dr. Fritz was not your average conductor (evidenced that I don't usually remember names well, but I remembered his name after 19 years). Dr. Fritz was one of the most passionate conductors I had ever seen. He spent his first hours with the choir teaching us how to sing together under his direction. He would stop suddenly in the middle of a song and we were expected to stop. He would speed up and slow down and we were expected to follow. We eventually caught on, although we didn't really understand why this was important.

The music we were doing had not made an impression on me, at least before we started rehearsal. We had a version of "Ave Maria", a contemporary piece called "At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners", an Italian piece that was playful, a church hymn straight out of the hymnal called "Beneath the Cross of Jesus", a choir version of Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Waters", a men's piece based on a Robert Frost poem, and an extremely challenging event rodeo-like piece called "Cindy".

As we rehearsed, the choir began to fall in love with music. Dr. Fritz took us through the music and explained the meaning of each song giving us powerful imagery to use while we were singing. For Ave Maria we pictured Mary holding a baby Jesus in her arms while angels watched from on high. For "At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners", we pictured the evil in the world that would be unable to hide at the Day of Judgment and, at the end of the piece, we imagined the horror they will feel realizing that it is too late to repent. For the Italian piece, I can still see Dr. Fritz dancing in the front of the choir. For "Bridge over Troubled Water", we were asked to imagine the smallest, most precious thing we could think of as we sang the words, "When your weary... feelin' small." For Cindy, we were told to just have fun and sing the song like we were telling the story (which included singing parts of the song in a western accent).

When we got to the performance, we were all excited. We had some amazing moments in rehearsal and we wanted to really capture those feelings again. It was all very unspoken. We were just together. We wanted to bring that audience into the new world we had entered only a couple of days before.

Our first song was "Ave Maria". It is nearly impossible to write about the first moments of that performance. The gymnasium was quiet as the choir paused before beginning. The opening chords coming from the choir were unbelievable. When a choir sings a beautiful chord and the harmonics come into play, the sound is so full and amazing that most choirs tend to sing louder. The opening of the song, a slow "Ave", used that harmony, but did it in such as soft way that the audience was immediately hooked and left wanting more.

We moved on through the performance with the audience's complete attention. We opened "At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners" with a unison and powerful phrase, "At the round Earth's imagined corners, throw your trumpets angels and arise, arise from death you numberless infinities of souls... and to your ransomed bodies go." We paused for effect (under Dr. Fritz's close direction), then the men continued forcefully to describe all of the different ways that we mortals shed our coils. "All whom the floods did, and fire shall overthrow! All who war, death, age, tyranny..." Then when we were finished, the women sang the part of a soul who stepped forward before God asking for forgiveness. The plea was soft and passionate in contrast to the harsh opening. The answer came dramatically from the choir who sang with increasing power to the climax and end of the song with the basic message that it was simply too late, "WITH THY BLOOD!!!". We ended the "D" on blood as loud as we could and at the same time so that it echoed in the gym. The audience was dead silent for several seconds. The director had dropped his arms, but still silence. They were stunned. They only began to applaud when the director turned with a sly look to the audience as if to say, "take that!".

We went on with our performance singing "Bridge over Troubled Water", which brought some of the audience to tears. We sang "Beneath the Cross of Jesus", which was dedicated at the performance to a deceased professor at the college. The hymn was no longer a hymn, but a musical testimony of the grace of our Savior "my sinful self, my only shame, my glory on the cross.".

Finally we ended with Cindy, which was an event. We struggled to keep up with the piece and made numerous mistakes, but we didn't care. We were having so much fun that the mistakes didn't matter. "The first time I saw Cindy, she was standing at the door, her shoes and stockings in hand, her feet all o'er the floor!". Parts of the music built up to 32 part harmony complete with clapping and stamping and we ended the performance with a loud "Yee-Hah".

The audience was on their feet instantly. It was the single most powerful reaction from a crowd I have ever experienced. We stood listening as if in a haze. Within a couple of days, we were back in school singing with our own high school choirs with more focus on finding the right notes than putting imagery and passion into the songs. I got a chance to talk with a few others from the choir and we all had the same feeling. We almost felt that for a few moments on stage and in rehearsal, we had touched the Face of God.

There are so many lessons from this experience. Take each moment and strive to make it mean something. When you have the opportunity to reach out to others, as Dr. Fritz did, don't just use the moment, but wear it out. There are things that are bigger than any of us and they are all around. These are the twists and turns that God places before us to help us gain wisdom so that we choose to know that He is the way.

The next time you are "feelin' small", look to the miracles all around you and make a moment that you will remember for your entire life!

Choosing Happiness

by Don Harkey

Andy Andrew's had been dealt a bad hand. His parents had died when he was just a teenager. The blow was just too much and Andy spiraled down until he found himself homeless and hopeless. Why did this happen to him? Why did some people have so much luck while others had so much hardship?

Andy had a lot of time on his hands so he went to the library. He searched for answers to his questions by reading autobiographies of famous people. He tried desperately to read past the words on the page to understand why these people had been "chosen" to be successful. What was so special about these people?

Over time, he found his answer. Life hadn't chosen these people... they had chosen life.

Andy learned that successful people didn't necessarily have an easy path to success. In fact, it was often the opposite. It was how these people had overcome the twists and turns of life that really caught his attention. He found that these people had made seven conscious decisions in their lives over and over. These decisions include:

1) The Responsible Decision - Choose to accept responsibility for my past and for my success.

2) The Guided Decision - Choose to seek wisdom in the challenges that God presents to us.

3) The Active Decision - Choose to a person of action.

4) The Certain Decision - Choose to have a "decided heart" and not let criticism, condemnation, or negativity bring me down.

5) The Joyful Decision - Choose to be happy.

6) The Compassionate Decision - Choose to have a forgiving spirit as no one is "out to get" me.

7) The Persistent Decision - Choose to faithfully persist without exception or doubt.

These decisions are outlined in Andy's books "The Traveler's Gift" and also in "Mastering the Seven Decisions". Today, Andy is extremely successful. He has a family, has published several books, and works as consultant. He has spoken at the request of 4 U.S. Presidents and has been called a modern day Will Rogers.

The point is simple. God put us all on this earth and He controls everything. Yet He has given us the power of choice over what to do with our lives. We can choose to be victims of life's many challenges, or we can choose to gain wisdom and strength from those challenges and live everyday with a purpose.

Its your move!

Making it Better

by Don Harkey

I had an interesting morning. I attended a local event sponsored by the Springfield Business Journal (SBJ) called "12 People You Need to Know". The monthly event introduces one local person of interest and allows the attendees to ask question. This month, it was Ron Spigelman, director of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

Ron is a very passionate fellow. He approaches every aspect of his job with a contagious enthusiasm. He talked not only about directing a symphony, but also listening to the community. He even talked about how he personally calls patrons who don't renew their membership to find out what he can do better.

The moderator, Eric Olson, editor of the SBJ, asked Ron a simple question. What do you think about just before you walk on stage? The answer was surprising.

Ron replied that he thinks about the upcoming performance as an opportunity to make the world a better place. The Springfield Symphony including all of its associated groups performed 85 times last year. Can you imagine considering every one of those 85 performances as an opportunity to make the world a better place?

Ron explained. The people in the audience came with varying expectations. Some are frequent attendees while others may be hearing a symphony for the first time. All of these people have their own lives outside of the symphony. Ron sees each performance as an opportunity to give those people something. Maybe they were down and needed an escape to relax. Maybe they will leave feeling inspired. Maybe a young person in the audience will launch lifetime love of playing an instrument.

What a powerful philosophy! Imagine going to work each day thinking, "How can I make the world a little better today?" Would it change the way you interact with people? Would it change the way you do your job? Is it even possible?

Now expand that philosophy to everything you do. Imagine the power!

OK. It may seem like a stretch that you are truly "changing the world", but I believe that we all change the world every day in ways we don't imagine. When I was in college, I wrote an encouraging letter to a friend of mine who was still in high school. I didn't think much about the letter and I don't remember what the letter said. Years later, another friend was visiting the first friend and found my letter hanging on her wall. He asked her about it and she said that it really inspired her to really do well in high school, go onto college and really work hard. She felt that it gave her confidence.

The letter was a very small gesture, not unlike the hundreds of gestures we make in a week. If you keep the perspective that each of these interactions is a chance to make the world a little better, you will likely succeed!

Modest Millionaire

by Don Harkey

Dr. Thomas Stanley studies Millionaires. His books, "The Millionaire Next Door" and "The Millionaire Mind" show common characteristics of people who are financially successful.

An important finding by Dr. Stanley is that millionaires are actually harder to find than you would think. One would think that you could just go knock on the door of the $750,000 house with the BMW parked in the driveway and ask to interview the owner. However, Dr. Stanley found that many of these people aren't really millionaires. They are actually horribly in debt and are scraping by month to month like many people.

I bring up this point first because the people in your life that you might think of as being rich probably aren't. It's not easy to tell. If you drove by Warren Buffet's house in Omaha, you wouldn't notice it. It is a nice house, but it is not the house you would expect from one of the richest men in the world.

So what traits do millionaire's share? The #1 trait shared by millionaires was developed by asking both the millionaires themselves and by asking people who know them and do business with them. That trait is character.

This seems backwards in our society. We are used to thinking of our richest members of society as being backstabbing elitists who will run over their grandmother if it means getting their way. While I'm sure there are millionaires like that, it appears to be the exception more than the rule. So what does the average millionaire look like?

The average millionaire is married with children (by a vast majority). They made their own money instead of inheriting it. They are not workaholics who rise at 3AM everyday and neglect their families. They live a relatively modest existence having found that true joy comes from things like a kid's soccer game or playing cards with friends. Most of all, the strongest characteristic of a millionaire, according to the study, is honesty.

Honesty is something most of us would claim as an attribute, but few (if any) of us practice fanatically. True honesty means being honest all of the time. Most of us know that lying to get something you want is bad, but life has a way of making us see gray.

I once heard a Vice President talk about putting off the truth until it could be properly dealt with. I once heard a manager tell me, "I'm not going to lie unless they tell me to". It seems that it becomes easier to lie when we promise to make amends later or when we blame the situation for "forcing" us to lie. These are the traps that many financially successful people avoid.

This may mean that you must tell a client something difficult. I have sat with business owners who were frustrated with their people and who were asking me what to do. I had to tell them that it all started with them. They were doing something wrong. I have had clients look at me like I had just punched them in the gut. Most business books would tell you that this is not a desired outcome, but it is the honest approach.

A very important point here is that honesty appears to work over the long haul. If most financially successful people have high integrity, then honesty could be considered a key trait in becoming successful. Your reputation is critical. Your coworkers who see you making compromises in integrity will remember that. Your coworkers seeing you make sacrifices to keep your character will also remember.

If you work for an organization that expects dishonesty, my recommendation is to leave. The organization likely has a bad reputation and it might just rub off on you. Surround yourself with people of high character and hold your character as one of your most prized possessions. It is not only the right thing to do ethically; it is also the right thing to do for success!

Autonomy

by Don Harkey

The 3 needs that create motivation are competence, autonomy, and relatedness. In the last article ("I Think I Can, I Think I Can"), I talked about competence. Now I want to talk a little about autonomy. Its trickier than you think!

Autonomy is simply a person's ability to choose whether or not to do something. The ability to choose a course of action is a basic component of motivation. Someone who gets to choose how and whether to act will be more likely to act as long as they feel competent in the action and as long as they feel related to what they are doing. This seems very intuitive, but it presents supervisors with a challenge.

A supervisor must get their people to do a job. The easiest way to do this is to simply order the employees to do the job. However, as we just discussed, this can be demotivational. This is the challenge. How do you get someone to do something without telling them directly to do it?

The answer is complicated. Providing a vision on what to do does not necessarily mean giving details as to how to it. For example, I could tell my employees that a new client will be visiting the office at 3PM that afternoon and that I thought we should put our best foot forward. The employees will likely take steps to make sure the office is welcoming. They will take both expected and unexpected steps toward the mission. The trick is to answer the questions, "why are we doing this?" and then empower the people to find a way to get it done.

This is a real challenge, especially if you are working with someone who has been working in an unhealthy management environment for a long time. These people are used to getting orders and don't function well at first when they are empowered. However, it is well worth the investment of time it takes to show these people how rewarding their jobs can be.

Consider carefully the role autonomy plays in leadership and make sure to focus on the vision and goals rather than on the specific steps. Your people will take you places you never dreamed and they will love doing it!

I Think I Can, I Think I Can

by Don Harkey

If you haven't read "The Little Engine That Could" by Watty Piper, please proceed immediately back to your childhood long enough to read the book and then come back. Go ahead...

This classic children's story outlines the tale of a helpful little engine who overcomes a great challenge to get the toys home safely. While struggling to climb over the hill he utters to himself over and over again, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!" (SPOILER ALERT) When he finally makes it over the hill, he says to himself, "I knew I could, I knew I could, I knew I could!" The story, published in 1954, has become a classic "standard" for American youth.

The tale does a great job of illustrating an important point. Motivation to act is derived from having 3 basic needs filled: competence, autonomy, and relatedness. If a person feels competent, autonomous, and related to a task, they will likely be highly motivated to do the task.

Competence is a person's ability to do something effectively. This could be broken down into 3 components: strengths, knowledge, and confidence. A strength is a lot like a talent. Everyone has God given strengths or aptitudes in specific areas. Knowledge can be thought of as a person's ability to predict the future. For example, an outfielder's knowledge of baseball allows him to stand in the best position possible to catch a fly ball and his experience allows him to run to the location where the ball would land before the ball gets there. The last component is confidence. This is the trickiest component.

A person may have the right aptitude to perform a task and they may even have all of the knowledge they need to perform the task, but they lack a level of certainty about the task. I have known people who refuse to use a paging system or vote at a polling place. These people have the ability and knowledge to perform the task, but they may have never done it before and doubt their own ability.

As you may have guessed, the best cure for a lack of confidence is experience. Experience takes away that lack of certainty because it has already been done before. However, to quote Ben Franklin, "Experience is the best teacher, but only fools learn from experience." Some of the most important decisions we make in life are only made once. Very few people go into their first marriage thinking of it as a confidence builder for their next marriage.

How do we overcome this?

The best thing to do is to get experience doing things that you are uncomfortable doing. In other words, get experience doing things that you are inexperienced at. Confused? Let me explain.

Some people I know seem absolutely fearless. A question arises and they will call someone they don't know and demand answers or they will enter into new business agreements without blinking an eye. These people who do this are experienced at being inexperienced. If you paint yourself into a corner in life, you can become extremely confident within your world. You can eat the same things, know the same people, go to the same job, go out to the same places with the same friends. You will be extremely competent and motivated within this world. Yet when a new world presents itself, you will feel uncomfortable.

The message is simple. Press yourself from time to time. Try new things. Go for new experiences. Practice being uncomfortable. As is often quoted, whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you are probably right!

Shoot

by Don Harkey

Shoot! Today's entry is short. I would like you watch the video from the link below. The next time you think about giving up on something, think about this video.

SHOOT

Keep shooting!

Death by Meeting

by Don Harkey

I was about to lead a church council retreat and I had arrived early to get everything set up. It was about 5:30PM on a Friday. We were to hold the meeting at the local Council of Churches office and I noticed one of the staff members was still at work. I stuck my head and we had a casual conversation. I mentioned that I wrote articles for the Springfield Business Journal and we discussed a few of the topics I have written about. He then handed me a book from his shelf for me to borrow. It was called "Death by Meeting" by Patrick Lencioni.

I still had time before the meeting was to start, so I began to read. The book is written as a fiction story, and is an extremely easy read. The plot centers on a management team trying to get over the hump. Many of you know what I mean when I say "the hump", but I will explain.

Have you ever worked within an organization or with a team that seemed to have all of the right people to succeed, but just wasn't quite performing as well as you hoped? You go to meeting after meeting, starting with high expectations and ending with doodles on a scratch piece of paper. This is particularly brutal when it happens in a regular meeting. The team pulls together regularly, but no one is really sure what the purpose of the meeting is and no one is sure if anything ever really gets done. The team might even touch on some important topics or even come up with brilliant ideas. Yet, it always seems to end there.

I participated in a staff meeting a few years ago where various staff members were updating the other staff members on what they were up to. In the middle of the meeting, it was the administrative assistant's turn. She broke into an emotional plea to the group saying how she just can't seem to keep up with her job and that didn't know how much longer she could take it. The staff dutifully offered several suggestions like "we might purchase some new software to make the job easier" or "maybe we could get someone to help". After each suggestion was made, it was dropped. Once all of the suggestions were made, the meeting went on. The assistant was completely deflated. There was no help on the horizon, only a set of vague suggestions. She quit within a couple of months.

This is truly "Death by Meeting". What is the problem? The issue is often times "conflict". However, the problem is not the presence of conflict, but the lack of conflict in the meetings.

Many people and company cultures abhor conflict. They avoid it at all costs. One engineer I know was sitting in a meeting discussing a pump that had recently failed. He was debating with another engineer over the mechanism for the failure. The two mechanisms were very different and would require completely different resolutions. The discussion was pointed, but technical in nature (not personal). The manager became increasingly uncomfortable and finally offered, "maybe your both right!". This was not only impossible, it also ended the discussion and the opportunity to prevent the pump from failing again.

The point is that conflict, when handled productively, is actually very healthy within an organization. It actually exists in every organization, but it is how conflict is managed that makes a difference. The administrative assistant in my example above had a conflict that the rest of the staff was unwilling to acknowledge or address. As a leader, how do you correct this problem?

When facilitating a team, it is often your job to mine conflict. As the old saying goes, if there is an elephant in the room, introduce the elephant. Don't let it get personal. Allow participants to "save face" on arguments they "lose". Keep the purpose of the meeting in front of everyone and show that the difficult discussions are necessary to not waste everyone's time.

If your organization's culture is very anti-conflict, it will take time to change. It is well worth the effort, however. Can you imagine? PRODUCTIVE meetings?!?!

To read more by Patrick Lencioni, you can check out his blog at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/A38429OVSLI05I/ref=cm_blog_dp_artist_blog

Its Always Going to be Something

by Don Harkey

One of my favorite movies is Joe Versus the Volcano with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. When I tell friends this, I get really odd looks. The movie probably doesn't land on many people's list of favorite movies and it is not at risk at being placed on any American Film Institute list. Most people I know who saw the movie thought it was mildly funny, but not very memorable. Yet it ranks among my favorites.

The movie is about a hypochondriac named Joe Banks. Joe works in a despicable job and has a despicable life. The movie does a great job of showing his pain as he goes through the motions surrounded by tragically lost people. One day, on one of his regular doctor visits, his doctor tells him that he is going to die from a rare condition called a "brain cloud". He only has a few months to live.

This new view on life gives Joe the courage to finally tell his horrible boss how he feels about him and ask out the girl in his office whom he has always liked (who is also very lost and is one of 3 characters in the movie played by Meg Ryan). Joe goes home, unsure what to do next, when he gets visited by an eccentric old millionaire. The man has heard about Joe's condition and wants to offer him a chance to be a hero. He is to travel to an island of Waponi Wu and serve as a sacrifice to the island natives by jumping into the islands volcano. If he does this, the islanders will grant the millionaire mining rights to the island. Joe agrees and sets out on an adventure traveling to the island.

On the way, he finds himself and he finds his true love, Patricia (another character played by Meg Ryan). As he climbs to the edge of the volcano (spoiler alert!), he decides to marry Patricia and she decides to jump into the volcano with him. "We'll just see. We'll just jump and we'll see.", says Patricia. The jump symbolizes both characters leaving their past lives behind and starting anew.

Both of them jump just as the volcano explodes, shooting them out of the volcano into the water as the island is destroyed behind them. Having miraculously survived their leap, the two are left swimming the ocean at the end of the movie. In a quick discussion, Joe finds out that the doctor who diagnosed his "brain cloud" actually works for Patricia's dad, who was the millionaire. Joe is not dying. At first, Joe is actually upset by this news, then he realizes that he is going to live.

As the two float in the ocean on top of Joe's huge luggage cases (which miraculously appear), Joe begins to lament their situation floating out in the ocean with no land in sight. They had just survived situation after situation, yet Joe still doubted his future. Patricia just looks at him with a smile and says, "It's always going to be something with you, isn't Joe?". The End.

We sometimes exchange the illusion of control over our lives for really bad situations. We stick with jobs we hate, we put up with despicable people, and we start to limit our world to a small little corner, just because we seem to have control over that small corner. The truth is that God is in control. As a mentor of mine one said, "God is in control and its a good thing, because we would really mess things up!".

That is what the movie is about. In the movie, Patricia tells Joe that her father once said that "Most people spend their entire lives asleep, but their are a few who are awake, and they spend their lives in constant amazement.". This is true. How many times do we drive home under a brilliant sunset or ignore a great idea from a employee? Life is a bunch of leaps. The exciting ones require Faith.

God is in control, and that is a good thing!

(WARNING: Do NOT jump into a Volcano!)

Leave Nothing on the Field

by Don Harkey

I have been reading a book recently called "Run with the Bulls Without Getting Trampled" by Tim Irwin. Irwin shares a story early in the book about his son who had just played in a very close football game. It was his last game in high school and they had lost in the playoffs. Irwin embraced his son on the field and held the big kid, who was sobbing uncontrollably. His face and body was covered with sweat, mud, and bruises.

Then the opposing team's coach approached the two men. "Sir, may have a word with your son?", the coach of the winning team asked. The father stepped back and coach grabbed the son's shoulders and said softly, "Son, tonight you left nothing on the field. You gave it your all, and it was an honor to play against you."

Isn't this the way we should all live our lives? Too often we are afraid to truly commit ourselves to our internal purpose because of our own fears. Rather than risk failure or discomfort, we make decisions that are "safe" rather than follow God's calling. We were all placed on Earth by our Creator with our own Strengths and our own experiences to try to find a life that is fulfilling and meaningful.

The noise of the world begins to cloud our vision of what makes us fulfilled. We begin to hold great value in things like security or high definition television sets or job titles.

I knew a manager of a major company who once told me that he once had great dreams for his company, but that he had long decided to keep those dreams to himself until he could get promoted to a level where he could make a difference. I asked him what that level was and what changes he would make. He paused and looked very sad. "I have forgotten and I will likely never reach that level anyway." This was a man who had risen to high levels in the company and was very respected. Inside, he was a broken man. It was one of the saddest things I have ever seen.

The saddest part, was that he didn't even have the strength or courage not to warn others. Instead, his advice was to follow his path. Keep quiet. Take the safe road. Live for the next game, or maybe the one after that.

The story shared by the author reflects an important lesson. While we are here in this game of life, we must work every day to leave nothing on the field. This is not just the way to live a fulfilled life, it is a basis of morality.

God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He doesn't call us to be respected or admired. He doesn't call even call us to be successful... but He does call and we must listen.

That boy felt great pain that night on the football field. However, for the rest of his life, the boy, now a man, never regretted that day. Live your life so that you don't regret this day, or any other.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

- Teddy Roosevelt

Continuous Improvement - The Humidifiers (Part II)

by Don Harkey

For those of you haven't read "Continuous Improvement - The Humidifiers (Part I), you might want to follow the link below and read this first. Otherwise, skip the link and let's discuss.

http://galtconsulting.blogspot.com/2009/01/continuous-improvement-humidifiers-part.html#comments

There were some great suggestions on improving the humidifier process. Without seeing the process in detail, it is challenging to develop specific suggestions, but I love the variety of suggestions presented. Like any course of action, they all have advantages and disadvantages. Let's review a few of them.

Humidifier in the Furnace
One suggestion was to eliminate the 3 small humidifiers and install a commercial humidifier in the furnace system. This would definitely improve the process as we have it defined. Other than having the humidifier serviced annually, this would eliminate the daily employee interaction with the humidifier. When talking about process improvements, the first suggestions usually involve spending some money. This might be a good idea, but also presents its own set of barriers. Management may not be willing or able to spend the money. The other problem is that it takes the improvement opportunity out of the hands of the employee and puts it back to management. There are probably ways to drastically improve this process without spending money.

Use 3 Volunteers to Fill the Humidifiers
If the work of filling the humidifiers were spread out to 3 different people, the impact per person would be minimized. This would also encourage a team approach to work. However, the process itself is not really being improved. Are we missing an opportunity?

Use 3 Volunteers and Hold a Contest for the Best Improvement Ideas
This idea really focuses on improving the process and tries to get to people's competitive side. I'm sure this will yield some dramatic process improvements, but there are a couple of problems with this approach. First of all, when you have employees competing with each other, you shut down the flow of information between them. That is admittedly not a huge issue for this example, but it is important when talking about larger projects. In short, competing employees won't help each other. The other issue with this approach is that it sets a very narrow vision for the employees (improve THIS process). If I am very competitive, I might spend several hours coming up with new ideas to improve this process. Spending hours on this is really what we are trying to avoid!

Install a Long Hose / Valve
For a relatively small amount of money, you could install a long hose in the janitor's closet that could reach each humidifier. You could also install a valve at the end of the hose so the employee could start and stop the water on the move. This would certainly improve the process, but we have to watch for other problems. Having 50 feet of coiled up hose in the janitors closet might take up a lot of storage space. Also, dragging a long, wet hose through the office gives a high potential for making a mess at some point.

Do We Really Need a Humidifier?
The question from one respondent was simple, "do we really need the humidifiers?". The specific suggestion was to stop using one and see if anyone noticed a difference. If they didn't notice, stop using 2 and see if anyone notices. Repeat until someone notices the difference or until there are no humidifiers. I am often surprised by how many processes I see that really add no value. If a process is taking up resources, it should be adding value. Does filling the humidifier (or filling out that daily report) really add value worthy of the resource? I like this suggestion a lot, although I would suspect that we would find that the office needed all 3 humidifiers.

Small Improvements Adding Up
I have the luxury of actually filling these humidifiers from time to time and my improvements have all been small, but have really improved the process. For example, I found that waiting for the water to fill the tank seemed like a waste, so I made sure the next tank was ready to fill. My goal when I fill them is to keep the water running as much as possible. Also, I found out that I could carry 4 tanks at once and save an extra trip down the long hallway. Finally, I discovered that staging the tanks so they are ready to be picked up without moving them again keeps me from shifting the filled tanks around (they get in the way). These small improvements were developed without a formal process. They were developed simply by thinking about how I was doing it and thinking about ways to make it better. These small changes improved the process from 12-15 minutes to just over 6 minutes!

Thank you to all who submitted ideas for filling the humidifier. Soon, I will include a YouTube link showing a video of the filling process.

Baby Steps

by Don Harkey

There are so many concepts and so much information available for leaders trying to make positive changes within their organization. There are programs galore to choose from like Total Quality Management, Six-Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, 5S, 8D, etc... you get the idea. It can all be overwhelming.

Where do you start?

Start with baby steps. If you are thinking about change, you must first know what the change is. Change involves going from "A" to "B". If "A" is now, that means you need to know where you are. If "B" is the desired future, that means you need to know where you want to be. This is the first step of any deliberate organizational transformation (in other words "making things better").

The analogy of the baby step here is actually pretty good. A baby step is usually used to imply a very small step. However, we can go deeper into its meaning. A baby taking steps is seldom stable or confident. The first steps are extremely difficult and often result in falling. Yet each new step adds confidence and stability. Once a baby learns to walk, a whole new world is opened up. This is true in an organization as well.

You don't have to map out the entire transformation all at once. That is like trying to get a baby to run the 400 meter hurdles. Start off by pulling your best people together from across your organization and having some frank discussions. Where are we? What are we good at? What can we do better? What defines us?

Brainstorm a list of qualities on the board that your people consider to be desirable. Then discuss each quality and determine if your organization truly possesses those qualities. Some qualities will reflect the DNA of your organization. These are your core values.

Be honest and hard on yourself. I was participating in a session with a company that found discussed the quality of "excellence" and tried to apply it to themselves. The people in the room defined excellence as "being the best you can be in everything you do". A corollary of this could be "if its worth doing, its worth doing right". The company certainly does a lot of things right, but ultimately the group admitted to itself that it doesn't do everything right. For some things within the company considered to be low priority, the effort to do things really well was not very good. This was a tough admission for the team, but it really gave insight into where they were and where they wanted to be.

Most companies establish a list of core values and most companies have NOT been through this process of honest introspection. If you already have a list of core values, challenge yourself. Are you really following them? Do they really reflect who you are? Remember that you are defining yourself, not creating a marketing brochure.

These conversations can be difficult, but they will start to give you more and more insight into who you are and where you want to be. The next step is to look at the qualities where you fell short. If your quality isn't really the best it could be, would you like it to be better? This is an example of an "envisioned future". This is where you want to be.

There you go again! You are trying to envision the whole process through without taking any steps! It's OK. Most people do that. Start with the first baby step. Pull your team together. Ask them what is important to them. Listen. Bring in a trusted outsider to help keep you on track and get an external perspective (this will save you a lot of time!). Don't be afraid of getting lost or falling down. Once you learn to walk, you'll be leaping hurdles in no time!

Unconventional Wisdom

by Don Harkey

In case you haven't noticed, the economy seems to be struggling a bit. When you combine this with the significant changes that have occurred in the U.S. Government after the 2008 elections, this is a very interesting time.

As the Government scrambles to react to the current economic climate, I want to remind all of you to beware of "conventional wisdom". "Conventional wisdom" is a term that generally applies to knowledge that most people and experts accept as being true. An example is "smoking is bad for your health". A vast majority of experts and people believe this to be true, so people use the term "Conventional Wisdom" (CW) as a convenient way to lock into the "truth".

When people try to understand something complicated, they must start with some basic truths. In order to understand how to do Algebra, you must first understand basic math. You must accept the fact that 1 + 1 = 2 and that it always equals 2. These truths become building blocks toward understanding more and more complex ideas. Addition leads to basic math, which leads to algebra, which leads to calculus, which leads to physics...

The problem with some of the "softer" sciences like economics or management theory is that these "truths" or building blocks are harder to prove. Misinformation leads to complex theories that are simply and very wrong. A good example from the past occurred in the field of astronomy. The Earth MUST be the center of the Universe, so all theory at the time was based on this piece of "conventional wisdom".

My warning is this... beware of "conventional wisdom". In the information age, it is extremely easy to pick up "truths" that are actually not true. Worse yet, it is extremely common for theories to be presented as truth.

This brings me to our current economic situation. Few people in the U.S. truly understand what has happened, yet we were basically asked to choose between two very different approaches to the problem in the most recent election. It is a battle between "supply side economics" and "demand side economics". Both theories have significant support and yet, they can't both be correct. Yet both are often presented as "conventional wisdom" and serve as a basic building block for designing the solution to the problem.

Do you want to see what I am talking about? I present Exhibit "A". The following is a link to an ABC News World Report from January 27, 2009. The title of the segment is "Will it Work" and it refers to President Obama's plan to stimulate the economy. The information is presented with an introduction that it is "generally accepted by economists". Go ahead and watch... I'll wait...

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6744866

This was nice presentation of a complex topic. The key information was that for every $1 the government spends, the economy is stimulated by $1.50. Also, for every $1 in tax cuts, the economy is stimulated by $0.75. The broadcast goes on to explain that tax cuts provide a quick stimulus while the government spending takes a lot more time.

Now I want to point you to an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on January 22, 2009 by Harvard Economics Professor, Robert Barro. If you don't read the whole article, just read the first few paragraphs... go ahead...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123258618204604599.html

You will note that Barro references the same "1.5" number mentioned in the ABC broadcast and argues that this number is not just a little flawed, but extremely flawed. He argues that the number may be closer to zero. Note that the article appears in the "opinion" page of the Journal (which I find admirable because they are acknowledging that there are other theories out there... unlike the ABC broadcast).

My point here is not to argue for or against the current stimulus package. My point is encourage you to be careful what blocks of "truth" you choose to stand on. Dig down to the basic truths and test them. Don't passionately live in a house built on a foundation of sand. Question everything! Do not surrender your judgment to "conventional wisdom"!

God and Business

by Don Harkey

Religious freedom is held as one of the most sacred foundations of the United States. Regardless of faith, a person in the United States has a right to live their life and pursue their dreams.

The execution of this basic principle sometimes blurs our vision.

The concept of the separation of church and state comes from the very beginnings of this country. The purpose of this is obvious. If the government adopted a national religion, which religion would they adopt? Who is to say it is the "right" religion? It would be well within our human nature to begin to suppress the "wrong" religions if a religion were declared to be "right".

However, separation of church and state has entered our politically correct (PC) culture and taken on a new meaning.

In many large corporations (and more than a few smaller ones), it is against company policy to discuss religion or faith. Employees are trained with the conclusion statement of "just don't do it". A lot of this is admittedly driven by our out-of-control legal system.

I think this issue needs some clarity.

When one employee continuously preaches to another employee about their religion, tells another employee that their beliefs are "wrong" or when makes fun of another religion, the employee is has clearly stepped crossed a line. First of all, in terms of business, this produces an environment that kills open communication and the sharing of ideas. This is not good for the organization. Secondly, from a religious standpoint, this is the wrong way to try to help someone. As Christians, we are called to be "fishers of men". Is the right way to catch a fish to push it away and make it feel inferior? We are all imperfect people who are just struggling to do the right thing and we can all learn from each other.

However, when we completely separate God and business, we start to lose sight of our own personal core purpose. Most people believe in a "higher power". When we separate God from business, we are creating an anti-sanctuary where we suspend our core values in place of business metrics and profits. We lose opportunities to truly help people and live out our Faith (note that I say "Faith" not "Religion").

I believe we are placed on this Earth for a Purpose. God has given each of us Strengths to carry out that Purpose every day of our lives. We live together and work together and try to maintain our clarity on what that Purpose is for each of us.

This is why good management in business is so important. This is why good ethics in business is critical. EVERYTHING we do must align with our Purpose. Our goal in life is not to follow our own mission, but to follow God's Mission!

So if you are someone who has control over an organization, embrace the diversity of souls that have been brought together and allow people to feel the full satisfaction of living their Purpose and learning from each other. Allow people to apply their Faith to their work when it is done in a way that doesn't destroy communication or the sense of team within an organization. Pray together. Even someone who doesn't believe in God can respect the focus and clarity that can come from a good Prayer. Respecting each other is respecting what God has created.

By bringing Faith into our work, we just might gain a little more clarity to our real Purpose!

Continuous Improvement - The Humidifiers (Part I)

by Don Harkey

Everyday, every single of one of us engages in multiple processes. We drive to work, make our breakfast, open our email... there are countless processes throughout the day. At work, this is especially true. Many times, these processes are repeated over and over again.

Have you ever thought about how much time you actually spend on a process? If you spend 5 minutes per day doing something, you will spend 1825 minutes doing it per year, which is over 30 hours. That's almost a weeks worth of work! Most organizations would really think hard about offering their employees an extra week of vacation, but few think about adding 5-10 minutes or more to a process that is repeated.

I want to give you a simple example of continuous improvement. Our office has 3 large humidifiers located down a long hallway. These humidifiers must be filled at the start of each day. I am at work pretty early, so I am often the one who fills them. Each humidifier has 2 tanks on it that can be removed. At one end of the hallway is a janitor's closet with a hose where the tanks can be easily filled.

The first time I did this, I went to the far end of the hallway, picked up both tanks, then carried them to the janitors closet. I then collected the 2nd humidifier's set of tanks, and then the 3rd set. I removed the cap on the first tank, placed it in the closet, and filled it with water. I stood and watched as it filled. When it was completed, I took the tank out of the closet, placed it on the floor and secured the cap back onto the tank. Then I took the next tank, removed the cap, placed it in the closet, and filled it up. I again waited as it filled (takes about 30 seconds). Once it was filled, I shut off the water, removed the tank from the closet, placed it on the floor, and replaced the cap. I then grabbed the 2 tanks, walked to the farthest humidifier, and installed them. I then repeated this process two more times for the remaining sets of tanks.

One problem I ran into early on was involved the fact that there are left-handed tanks and right-handed tanks. The difference can be seen easily, but its not overly obvious (especially to someone who is a little sleepy!). One morning, I wasn't paying attention and I carried two left-handed tanks to the farthest humidifier. I realized my mistake immediately, and carried the wrong tank to the other humidifier and then returned to the closet to fill up two right-handed tanks.

While I didn't time the process (although I plan to soon as a great example), I probably spent 10-15 minutes filling the humidifier each morning. Considering that the humidifiers run for 6 months of the year, this means that company employees will spend 25 hours per year filling the humidifiers.

So how do we improve this process? It is too easy to say that we purchase self-filling humidifiers (let's say we don't have the capital). In a future entry, I will share some of the simple process improvements I made. Meanwhile... any thoughts?

Leadership - Not a "Do It Yourself" Activity

by Don Harkey

Since I was little, I have been interested in leadership. My favorite game growing up was setting up a club of my friends, coming up with our secret handshake, setting up the organizational structure... yeah... I have always been a little sick.

One of the challenges I can remember is getting my friends as excited about the club as I was. I would be really into something we would be doing and I would have a terrible time getting my friends to follow along. I didn't understand... all they had to do was follow my clear directions!

As I got a little older, I got into Scouting. With my sick love of organizations, I soon became a patrol leader. Members of my patrol were very excited that I was to be their leader as I had great visions of what we could do. I envisioned working together on campouts to cook and set up our tents together. I talked about field trips and games. I even developed a patrol newsletter (called the "Bear Facts"... we were the "Bear" Patrol).

Then as we started having meetings, I laid out all of my great plans with my patrol. Within minutes they were distracted and doing other things. I was very frustrated. Why couldn't they just listen to me?

As I grew older and took on more leadership roles in high school, college, and then in business, I learned a lot more about leadership. Leadership is about providing your group with a clear vision. However, a key component to motivation is autonomy. This means that an effective leader should communicate a clear vision, and then leave their people to choose how to move forward.

This can be very challenging for the holder of the vision, especially if the leader holds a lot of passion for the vision. There is a natural fear that others will "mess it up". How many times have you heard a leader in an organization say, "sometimes its just easier to do it myself". That may be true, but that's not leadership.

If the vision is communicated well, a team of people working toward the vision will do much better than just a single person would. They can apply more knowledge, more creativity, and more brute force to an idea than any one person. Furthermore, they will become inspired by the work of the team. The word "synergy" is a popular buzz word, but that is exactly what these teams do... they create energy out of nothing.

If you are a visionary thinker, remember when it comes to leadership, your role is to let others in on your vision and then give them autonomy for how to get to that vision. Believe me... I have a whole pile of disbanded clubs and chaotic patrol meetings to prove this point!

Thinking Differently - Google

by Don Harkey

I really love when companies do great things (see my last blog to find out why). Google has been a great example of a company doing some really innovative things. So if this seems like an ad for Google... well I guess it kinda is!

Have you ever played with some of the products that Google has been putting out? Google started out with a search engine, then expanded into email, calendars, maps, shopping, blogging, shopping, finance, etc... the list is long and growing. What is the cost to the user for all of these products? Nothing.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Google is how user friendly and powerful these applications are. They often work together seamlessly and are truly useful. For example, my wife has a calendar on Google and I have a calendar. We share the calendars and can see what each other is doing. When I have an appointment, the application sends my cellphone a text message 30 minutes before the appointment as a reminder when I am on the road. I can even make "quick add" appointments through my cellphone by typing "Update Blog 7AM Mon", and it will put an appointment at 7AM the next Monday called "Update Blog". Pretty slick!

Another great application is Google Earth. This free download allows the user to float above the planet and view satelite images of the whole planet and zoom down toward the level individual houses. They even have some buildings in 3D imaging allowing the user to tilt their view sideways and walk through Disney World complete with shops and even street lamps. Users can visit some museums and look at paintings in brush stroke detail.

What impresses me most though, isn't just the applications, its how Google set up their process for making these applications. In email (called "Gmail"), users can submit new ideas to the application team for making the product better. Google utilizes a "Google Lab" which roles out and tests these new ideas in action. For example, one simple improvement came from a user tired of forgetting to attach a document in an email that says "see the attached document". Google has a lab that looks for the word "attached" or "attachment" in your email. If you don't attach something, a box appears when you click "send" asking if you meant to attach something. Simple and very useful!

The picture with the article above is a picture created on another Google application called Google Sketchup. This application allows the user to draw remarkable 3D pictures with an ease that will change the computer aided design world. Users can use the program to draw landmarks or even their own homes, and submit them to Google Earth. Google Earth is creating a 3D model of the planet, and most of the work is being done by its users!

I use this example because it shows what an organization can do when it has a clear vision of who it is. Google's philosophy is open and free applications that are easy and powerful to use. They partner with the user early in development and never consider themselves "done" with a version of software. Too many companies look for the idea without finding the vision behind it. Use some of Google's stuff and you will see the unlimited value of Vision!

Evil Companies

by Don Harkey

It's on the news. Its heard in the lunchroom. Its heard on the floor of the stock exchange. What does Apple think about this? GE really cares about its people! Wal-Mart is an evil corporation!

This is a mistake!

Organizations do not think. They do not feel. They do not make decisions. They are not ethical or unethical. They do not innovate. They are neither smart nor stupid. These are human traits and comparing organizations to people is like convincing yourself that those cute grizzly bears in the forest really just want a human friend.

Organizations are made up of people working as a part of a system. An efficient system contains components that all work toward the same goal or aim. When organizations have a clear goal and their components are working together toward that goal, the organization appears to be "smart". When organizations don't have a clear goal and people within the organization are working against each other for individual goals, the organization appears to be "stupid".

The mistake that many people make is that they equate a "stupid" organization with "stupid" people. This is not true.

Enron was a very stupid organization with lots of smart people. They entered into bad deal after bad deal in an almost reckless way. This is stupid. However, within the "system" of Enron, this was smart for the individual. Enron executives held the widely held belief that the way to manage people is to set clear and measurable expectations and then hold them accountable for achieving those expectations. This is considered "smart" in many circles and is taught in many business schools. This is the concept behind the "No Child Left Behind" policy from the Bush administration. If you say this at a seminar of business leaders, you will get a lot of nods of silent approval (unless I'm in the seminar!).

In Enron, the "measurable objective" was to close deals. Get as many deals as you can. Another strategy of Enron was to move their employees around to get different experiences. They did this every few years. This is also considered "smart" in many circles, again including business schools. The logic is that people who get more experiences will make better decisions.

Enron must have been pretty "smart" then! In fact, they were named Fortune Magazine's "Most Innovative Company" for 6 consecutive years right up until they collapsed!

The problem was that Enron had smart people. If you are a manager and your boss tells you "close as many deals as you can" and you will get a big raise if you do (or get fired if you don't), what are you going to do? You aren't going to be in that division for very long so by the time the deal is executed and the results are realized, you will be well on your way.

This is exactly what happened... over and over and over again. Yes, there was also corruption from the CFO and yes, their accounting was flawed and even doctored. However, one of the greatest lessons from one of the best case studies in a generation has been almost lost in the business world. Deming warned of this directly. Short-term job positions lead to short-term thinking. As a friend of mine always used to say, "show me how you will measure me and I'll show you how I measure up".

It is too easy to dismiss an organization as being "stupid" or "evil". Organizations are simply systems of individual components working together. The real knowledge comes from looking at how the components are working together and whether the components are working toward the same goal. Understanding the nature of a system leads to "smart" organizations!