What I Did on my Summer Vacation, part 1

The main goal for a vacation, for someone mechanically declined like me, is to relax and recharge. I know some DIYers that get a lot of things done around their home or cottage during their vacation. And that is like therapy, or so I’m told. My Dad was like that and doing projects helped him relax. He also enjoyed a camping trip or a few days of fishing.

We rented a cottage, and it was fantastic. While we could not predict the weather, we could not have scripted any better weather – hot and sunny. And that meant that after some early morning activity, especially the fetching in the lake with Trappar, we relaxed for the balance of the day. Lots of reading.

Two of the books I finished were Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning,” and Mark Bowden’s “Hué 1968.” Yep, heavy thinking and insight. And very necessary. From how people survived the Nazi concentration camps to assessing outcome of the 1968 Tet offensive in Vietnam. While there were fascinating examples and first hand accounts provided in both books, I found myself thinking about business today and wondering whether we have learned from these authoritative authors.

In both books, there were two main concepts that I noted:

• Man’s ability to be resilient – why and how this is displayed in some people, and it is absent in others
• Leaders failing to heed the insights from their people on the front lines

Resilience – it is not what happens to us it is how we react to it. In every personal and business example we are faced with choices based on an event or situation. We are responsible for our actions. No one else but us. We certainly use excuses as a crutch when validating our choices or responses. I know I have.

This reminds me of a quote “There are only two things in the world – reasons and results. Only results count.” This does not mean that one must only be successful or win 100% of the time. The quote is emphasizing that excuses are like belly buttons – everyone has one. The results from your effort – win or lose – are what is the true measure of a person. The willingness to do something, to act, and to offer your best efforts are what truly count towards a fruitful and purposeful life. This is your why. This is what Frankl talks about.

The second point really hit home based on my monthly Winnipeg Free Press column which has featured articles on how to be a better marketer that includes practical front line actions. Too often leaders do not believe what the front line says because their data points are not in sync. It was very evident that in the city of Hué the reality of the size and strength of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces was incredibly misunderstood by US generals. The other problem when reporting on progress in retaliation to the Tet offensive, the US leader General Westmoreland was focused on one main statistic – the body count. He believed that so many dead of the enemy would eventually tilt the effort in favor of the USA and South Vietnam. He was wrong.

On April 23, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt delivered one of his most memorable speeches.

“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, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; 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 fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

I see this quote as something that wraps up the two main points I gleaned from the books. We are all capable of doing something for someone at any moment. It is what makes being human and alive today so special.

And yes, this can occur even on vacation.

To your success!

Consulting Detective

Review. Refocus. Recharge. Your Business Performance.

This is the tag line that I created for my management consulting practice when I launched it over eight years ago. This is the basic approach I undertake for most engagements.

The focus for this post is review.

You must first review to determine what it is you are going to be working on. Remember that prescription without diagnosis is malpractice. This means that you must be an investigator when meeting with the client. You are asking questions to learn the current situation. And you also need to uncover the context that led to the current situation. There are often clues to the real issue as you ask the right open-ended questions to gauge the client situation and confirm the scope of the project.

Please remember this is not the Spanish Inquisition. Your line of questioning must establish a trusting relationship. You are there because you might be able to assist the organization. The initial questions and subsequent proposal will help you determine exactly what you are dealing with, what your approach includes, and what the outcome will be.

Police investigators don’t start with accusing the interviewee. They look to build a rapport and set a calm situation to help the person feel at ease. The investigators watch for clues that indicate that the answer may not be truthful or requires more exploring. To use the saying from Columbo, “something’s bothering me.” This meant that the answers provided did not match up and that always led to another angle to obtain clarity for the situation being investigated.

When a management consultant meets with a potential client, they must also be aware of clues – phrases, opinions, etc. that may provide additional context to the situation at hand. While you want to believe the client’s description of the issue they have contacted you about, it is imperative that you validate this. You do not discount what the client has told you, however, you need to confirm for yourself by asking insightful questions and looking for the rock under the rock.

For example, you may have categories of questions that you want to ask. Sometimes you need to consider a category that isn’t a category – where do you look when you are stumped with a problem? How do you combine factors that are not providing clarity so that you create a new perspective? Never mind the big data and usual sources – what is a new source of small, individual data that you can study?

Bear in mind that this type of uncovery can be applied to any business situation, too. When you are stumped with a problem or concerned that you are not getting to the root cause of the real problem in your organization it is time to think differently. Can you:

• Get upstream of the problem?
• Zero in on the job to be done for the users of your product or service?
• Combine two perspectives to create a new angle of insight and discussion?
• Put yourself truly in your customers shoes to experience what they experience?
• Bring in colleagues from other departments to look at the situation from their perspective?

You are not passing any judgment in these steps. You are in the review stage and collecting data to be used to conduct your analysis. Sometimes a hypothesis arises that you can seek to analyze. Care must be applied to ensure you are using your data sources to illuminate potential new insights. Do not use the data to validate a pre-determined hypothesis that may end up being incorrect. Do not jump to conclusions. Great detectives deduce the meaning of the answers from the interviewee and that leads to what or who must be interviewed or studied next.

Experienced detectives know they should not overcomplicate their assessment process. The more concise you can become with your questions the simpler your process will become. This is a very hard thing to do. Most people, in my experience, want to overwhelm with data and hope that the answer can be found in the mountains of data collected. Winnow down your questions to guide a focused search for clarity. No need trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

Once the data has been collected and you have finalized the review then you can prepare for the next step in the process. The clearer your insights from the review stage, the sharper your efforts to refocus plans and activities. Ultimately, the results of the first two steps will enable a recharge moment for your client. And then the fun really begins.

Onward!

How Can You Think That About Me When You Don’t Know Me?

One of the most powerful videos I have seen, possibly ever, was sent to me by my youngest son. I placed this at the beginning of the article so that you can watch it first.

Who would think that a black man could have such an impact on the KKK? And all because he asked a simple question when he was 10 years old: “How can they think that about me when they don’t even know me?”

Mr. Davis does a wonderful job of describing what he went through, his feelings, and his learnings. No need for me to rehash as I would not do him and his achievements proper justice.

Rather, I want to focus on this question from a business perspective. While the context will vary in every situation, the following questions are being posed to you for self-reflection. My intent is for you to consider the business situation, your actions, and reactions to a business-related dialog with colleagues who hold a different opinion.

• What is your approach to building bridges with people in your organization with whom you have an opposing view on a specific business issue?
• Do you challenge other’s positions to increase your knowledge of the factors affecting the situation?
• Do you challenge other’s thinking and data points?
• Are you able to discuss rationally or are you too emotional during these discussions?
• Does your organization allow or encourage opposing views to be discussed during project planning or strategy sessions? Do you believe not including these views is detrimental to the forward progress of your organization? Or do you believe these types of discussions are necessary to help move your organization forward?

And here are some additional critical thinking questions that should also help you and your team sort through the approach to solving a problem or achieving a goal:

• What information is essential?
• What do we know for sure?
• What don’t we know?
• What is the source of this information?
• Is this fact or opinion?
• Are we asking the right questions?
• Who else does this problem/situation affect?
• Who else should be involved in this decision?
• Can we re-frame the problem?
• Can we view this from another perspective?
• Have we played Devil’s advocate?
• Can we verify the information?
• What are the alternatives?
• What assumptions have we made?
• Have we sought out opposing information?
• Is there another way to interpret the data?
• What have I taken for granted?
• Are we trying to reach a conclusion too quickly?
• Are we avoiding making a decision?

Mr. Davis was so confident in himself that he did something in a relatively short time that society, writ large, couldn’t do in decades – get people to leave the KKK. I suspect that the issues you are dealing with on that project might not be as impactful as what Mr. Davis did. However, that means your opportunity for success should also be great and you should have confidence to move forward.

Building an organizational culture that is open to learning and challenging is a wonderful achievement. Hard to do and very worthwhile when you have achieved your goal. Getting to know your colleague’s opinions and views and the context for these components can only serve to improve discussion and understanding in any organization.

Onward!

Acting Like a Child

Our church men’s group is working through a wonderful book by Mark Batterson, “Play the Man.” This is an approach to helping men, but it is also applicable to women, become the type of man God created us to be. Batterson’s approach covers a wide range of life experiences and places some fascinating questions for us to consider.

In the most recent discussion, we covered a chapter that had a major focus on the second virtue of manhood – “childlike wonder.” We, well at least me, often forget that we can still be inquisitive, ask seemingly childish questions as we seek to continue to learn and grow.

Fast forward to another book I just completed, Rory Sutherland’s brilliant tome, “Alchemy – the dark art and curious science of creating magic in brands, business, and life.” Rory is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK and a lifelong ad man. He established the behavioural institute of Ogilvy Consulting to focus efforts on improving the understanding of human behaviour and why we do what we do in all aspects of our life.

Again, asking the seemingly silly or basic question, often with childlike wonder, that others are thinking but no one is saying can lead to brilliant insights and game changing approaches to brands, business, and life.

I was fortunate to be introduced to Rory and recently had a zoom conversation with him. Yes, I was giddy like a kid meeting a sports star. But Rory’s gracious style and incredibly positive disposition made me relax and have a conversation like a colleague and not some kind of stalker.

When I get to know someone at some level of detail for the first time, I ask a lot of questions. Not in a Spanish inquisition kind of way, but with a real interest in learning about the person and what their interests are. When I am talking with someone in the same profession or with the same professional interests time seems to stand still as we really get into the discussion. And then time has flown by. I wonder why time can stand still and fly by. Hmm, maybe a topic for a future Thursday Thoughts.

This is my childlike wonder coming to the front. I have a genuine interest to learn new things in certain areas. I have become a lot more comfortable asking open-ended questions and letting the other person really expand their viewpoint. I believe I am more open-minded now than at any point in my life.

Peter Drucker, management guru, was also an advocate of childlike wonder and asking questions. How else can you learn if you don’t ask a question about something you don’t know or don’t understand? This concept was discussed a bit at the Day of Drucker Forum on June 29^th and 30^th. One suggestion about lifelong learning was to talk to kids and watch kids to see the kinds of questions they ask. Another gem was that when you are in a meeting, and someone asks an excellent question – write it down!

Consider this topic and see how you can apply it in your business and/or life:

• Have you looked at important critical thinking questions to guide your knowledge seeking?
• How do you conversationalize these critical thinking questions with a learning mindset?
• In a situation where you have an opposing position to a colleague, how do you put your opinion aside to learn about the other person’s position?
• Do you act and think like a child with an open mind and get rid of your biases so you can learn something new?
• Do you focus deeply on yourself to understand how you arrived at your current situation? This works well for people and organizations.
• We teach kids not to lie because there are consequences. Are you honest about yourself or your company?
• Do you have a short memory about bad things like a child? Do you want to do the things that are fun and that bring you joy?

I’m sure that you can add your own thoughts to this list and improve upon what I started.

So, let’s play, be inquisitive, and try to learn something new. We will all become better at life, work, and relationships if we do.

Or to get yourself in the right mindset, just have a bowl of Trix cereal, because “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids.”