Dispatches from the New World of Work

100 Ways to Succeed #131:

Cherish the "Pain in the Ass."

Reward the "last two-percenter/s" as if she/they were the Ultimate Gift from The Gods! They are!

100 Ways to Succeed #130:

Bad Times?
Become Top Line Hypermanic!

Cutting, cutting, cutting is typically Recession Obsession-Preoccupation #1. Cutting may well be necessary, but don't let it get in the way of, in reality or psychologically,* becoming born-again Sales Hounds. With whatever tools you can dream up, re-double your time and effort aimed at increasing your business with existing top customers.

Start within the ... hour!

(*The "cutting psychology" is deadly—most everyone goes into a defensive shell when "cutting-is-all" becomes the odor of the place.)

100 Ways to Succeed #127:

Send Flowers! Today! X10!

Send 10—TEN!!—people flowers. Today. As "Thank yous" for good things "small"—or even large—done in the last two weeks.

100 Ways to Succeed #128:

And You [Me]?

I wish you a long life, but if tragedy were to have struck you yesterday, what do you think "they" would say at your memorial service? This maudlin question is not to be dwelt on "24/7," but it is worth considering on an irregularly regular basis.

100 Ways to Succeed #129:

Language Patrol!

Don't let the "enemy" rule your life. Try your damnedest to follow the exact advice of Mr McCue above: "Literally don't think about them."

Easier said than done, no doubt, but awareness is a start. That is, direct conversations away from "What is Microsoft doing?" ("What is the accountancy across the road doing?") And focus instead on, What new and cool things are we doing for our customers? (And, perhaps, see above, send a few good customers flowers today to thank 'em for their biz.)

100 Ways to Succeed #125:

Any Job Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Poorly!

Of course I don't mean it (quite) the way it sounds—hey, I'm an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist.

But consider, relative to a big/big-ish project, not investing your energy in finishing up your current sub-project, then moving rote-like to the next step. Instead, start, in a half-assed way, two or three or four other tasks/sub-projects just to see how the overall thing feels and where it might go that's unexpected based on three or four or five tasks in motion at the same time. In other words, just keep doin' stuff—and see what the stuff you've done "feels like" on the whole. (There will be time for polish later.)

(For me, in working on a book, it can mean plunging into the next chapter before I even have a decent rough draft of the current chapter—when I have 4 or 5 or 8 or 9 half-assed chapter drafts in process I can begin to figure out what the book as a whole is actually about—or what it might be about that I hadn't imagined.)

100 Ways to Succeed #126:

Show Up!

Show up!

(E.g., the next time you email someone to say you can't do something, right before pushing the Send button, stop and push the Delete button—and do the thing.)

100 Ways to Succeed #124:

Get Serious ...

Please.
Do me a (personal) favor.

Consider ...
That's all ... "consider" ...

Consider an all-out fully professional-sustained attack on your presentation skills.

All out.
Fully professional.
Attack.

(With at least, for heaven's sake, the tenaciousness you'd evince if you were seriously taking up golf or tennis or fly fishing or gardening or chess or calligraphy or flower arranging.)

I'll look forward to the engraved invitation to your Inaugural Ball ...

100 Ways to Succeed #120:

Pleasant. Caring. Engaged.

There have been lots of thoughtful Comments to my last post [I'll Miss You! (I Already Do.)]. One, from Todd Reed, speaking of Zingerman's (see Bo Burlingham's Small Giants), parallels my point: "They don't say the interviewee/employee has to be a ball of fire, just pleasant, caring, and engaged in the moment."

Fact is, the work place to a great extent is "where we live." We need star accountants. Boffo saleswomen. Over-the-top creatives in marketing and new product development. And so on. But, since we're effectively talking about "where we live," good sense and good business and "good" engagement throughout the "supply chain," from vendor's vendor to customer's customer, we would benefit mightily—including on the P & L—if we insisted (!) on: "Pleasant." "Caring." "Engaged."

So, let's put it in the hiring practices manual (would-be peer assessment will be front and center). Let's put it in every evaluation. Let's feature it in promotion decisions.

For everyone.*
Starting now.

(*If we look for "it" in accounting as much as, say, sales, we'll have gone a long way toward making all-important cross-functional coordination more or less automatic.)

100 Ways to Succeed #121:

Make Friends!
(Take This Seriously!)

Manager of an 11-person project team? Members from four functions—and two or three companies? Guess what: You are a full-bore, no-bull "coalition commander"!

Success Key #1: Make friends. Pointedly—that is, consciously—"invest" in this, big time.

Macro-success Key: In hiring, promoting, incenting, pay (close) attention to friend-making proclivity-skills.

100 Ways to Succeed #122:

M.T.M.O.T.

Manage To Moments Of Truth/Managing To Moments Of Truth. Start by finding "them." Defining them. Mapping them. Testing them. Measuring them. Incenting them. Etc.

Most important, I'd urge you to "use it"—that is, the term Moments Of Truth. (Okay, Carlzon invented M.O.T. 20-odd years ago—fact is, the issue-idea never ages.)

Most important (II), pass every (E-V-E-R-Y) decision through the "M.O.T. Filter"—how does this system, this hiring practice, whatever, affect the M.O.T.s? If an issue on, say, a weekly operations meeting agenda is not related to improving M.O.T., ask why the issue is on the agenda or how it can be made relevant to M.O.T.s. If an issue under discussion does or may negatively affect M.O.T.s, reconsider it or reconfigure it. (Relative to the latter—negative impact—one CEO (name-company slips my mind) is adamant that positive M.O.T.s are far more important, not less important, in a downturn, when every customer counts double. Hence, for example, beware mindless cost-cutting that pisses off remaining customers!)

100 Ways to Succeed #123:

Reading Assignment

Considering the above, I urge you to ingest the following:

The Manager's Book of Decencies: How Small Gestures Build Great Companies—Steve Harrison
Respect—Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
Hostmanship: The Art of Making People Feel Welcome—Jan Gunnarsson & Olle Blohm (leader as host to his-her employees)
The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything—Stephen M.R. Covey
The Dream Manager—Matthew Kelly
The Customer Comes Second: Put Your People First and Watch 'Em Kick Butt— Hal Rosenbluth and Diane McFerrin Peters (no relation)
Crucial Conversations—Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler
Crucial Confrontations—Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler
Influence: Science and Practice—Robert Cialdini
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ—Daniel Goleman

100 Ways to Succeed #118:

Read It! Damn It!

The Black Swan, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

100 Ways to Succeed #119:

Consider Resilience?

Perhaps I'm onto something with this "resilience notion." Or not. In any event, consider the Black Swan. Consider what the arrival of one might mean to you-your organization.

There is no way for me to underscore how much this idea resonates with me—and, hence, how important I think it is to you. And how far beyond "contingency planning" it goes.

Success Tips at DailyLit

We're excited to announce that Tom's Success Tips are now available at DailyLit.com. What's DailyLit? It's a service that delivers short digital installments of books via email or RSS. The founders write: "We created DailyLit because we spent hours each day on email but could not find the time to read a book. Now the books come to us by email. Problem solved." I realize that for some of you this may be anathema, but I think it's fun and useful. In addition to (re)reading Success Tips, I'm currently receiving a daily dose of Banker to the Poor by Muhammad Yunus. Each morning I get a short burst (800-1000 words?) of the book that I read with my other email. Each installment of this book is a lesson in how to create radical change in the world.

As for Success Tips, it's free, as are many other books at the site. We hope to feature Pursuit of WOW!, Brand You50, and other Tom books in the near future. Access to those titles will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of US $5. Still a bargain!

We all hope you enjoy reading Tom in this new format. If you don't, comments are open. (Of course we wouldn't mind hearing from people who love the service, either.)

100 Ways to Succeed #117:

Job One: Cherish and Excite the People Who Have the Opportunity to Cherish and Excite the Customer and Induce Her-Him to Recommend Us to Others Which Is the Premier Path to Growth and Profitability. Forever and Ever, Amen.

Axiom: Only excited people can excite customers over the long haul—i.e., again & again.
Corollary: To cause our colleagues to be excited we must put—and keep—the maintenance of their well-being and their opportunity structure at the top of our agenda.

100 Ways to Succeed #116:

Boomers! Geezers! Now!

Before the week [day?] ends, somehow or other begin a serious conversation about your attitude toward and approach to the Boomer-Geezer market.

(Like race in the world of politics, try to examine your implicit biases—eventually with the help of an outside facilitator.)

If at all applicable, consider Very Radical Alternatives—e.g., re-aligning strategy around Boomers-Geezers.

Big idea/s:

    (1) It is a big idea.
    (2) Stir the pot. Now.
    (3) The opportunities are enormous; the response so far is pitiful.
    (4) Don't be an idiot.

100 Ways to Succeed #115:

What the Hell!

At some point today (today!), despite "overload" ... just say, "what the hell" and go for it in some way or other.

(Likewise, worry if it's been more than a week or so since you said to yourself, "what the hell.")

100 Ways to Succeed #113:

Nothing Is Irrelevant

Stop.
Right now.

Check the reception desk.
Check the reception area.
Check the bathroom.
Check your last Client email.
Check etc.
Check etc.

Check 10 "little things."
Right now.

Is each one stunningly, amazingly excellent?
Does each one confirm & extend & broadcast your "brand promise"?
You, personally?
Your training department?
Your 3-person accountancy on Main Street?
Your BigCo division?

Repeat.
Daily.

(Remember: You are in control. There are things you cannot make happen, to be sure; but you can project Brand Excellence on a thousand "atmospherics" that determine Client-Employee perception.)

100 Ways to Succeed #114:

The "3X" Theorem

Communicate!
Communicate!
Communicate!

Over-communicate!
Over-communicate!
Over-communicate!

Whatever amounts to "sensible communication," triple it!

Immediate "command":

Play back the last 24 or 48 hours. Is there an instance where you have failed to Fully Inform a client, or other stakeholder, of a delay (wee or grand) or glitch (wee or grand)? If your answer is "nope, all is well"—you are a liar. (Sorry, it just slipped out of the keyboard.)

Fix it.
Now.
Make the call.
(And if you have, in fact, good for you, let someone know about a glitch ... call 'em again to update the status of the fix, or relay the sad but honest news that the fix is more complex than first imagined.)

100 Ways to Succeed #112:

Ombudsman for Common Sense

As suggested above, a lot of the giant financial-economic mess we're in is courtesy a failure of common sense—sometimes, often actually, by the so-called bestest of the best and brightest. We are all "insiders" in our own worlds—and we all lose touch with reality to a lesser or greater extent.

There are a host of things one can do to deal with this, but in this instance I want only to suggest routinely running proposals or budgets, or whatever, minor as well as major, by a "common sense ombudsman." Said ombudsman, singular or plural, formal or informal, could be a spouse or a neighbor who owns a restaurant or the guy who runs the distribution center in South Podunk who you ran into at the management meeting in Orlando last year.

Napoleon captured the spirit of this idea, ever so long ago:

"The art of war does not require complicated maneuvers; the simplest are the best, and common sense is fundamental. From which one might wonder how it is generals make blunders; it is because they try to be clever." (from Napoleon on Project Management by Jerry Manas)

100 Ways to Succeed #111:

Get Out And About!

Get out! [Of your office.]
Get out!
Get out!
Get out!
Now! [Within the ... hour!]
Now!
Now!
Now!

[Attached, as a reminder, is a link to our "'Top 50' 'Have Yous,'" PDF or PPT, posted earlier.]

100 Ways to Succeed #109:

The Clean Team!

"Everything in existence tends to deteriorate."—Norberto Odebrecht

Computer terminals at Commerce Bank have a red button on the keyboard. When you (teller) run into a self (bank)-created roadblock to serving the customer, you push the red button. The impediment you discover will be addressed—and if action is taken, and it usually is, you'll get a financial reward for discovering Grunge that had gotten between the customer and an excellent service experience. Commerce calls itself "Yes bank," because it will go to great lengths to be able to say "yes" to damn near any customer request. The bank and its profits have grown like Topsy in a decidedly non-blue ocean—and has so far kept saying "yes" and kept the Grunge to a minimum. As is the case 100% of the time ... the jury is still—and always—out.

My point-suggestion here is that you invent your flavor of Red Buttons for your 3-person department, your 9-person temporary project team, your 17-table restaurant, or your 235-person division. That is, formal tools for identifying Grunge and removing it and getting Everyone in on the GGG—Great Grunge [Removal] Game.

I, in fact, suggest going further. I suggest defining an entire, formal Grunge Removal Process or even "Culture"—that is, in effect, an anti-process process. One needs nothing less than a formal infrastructure to try and keep the "inevitable deterioration" in check—and maybe even reverse it. A host of possibilities are there for the taking (including some gems from the Lane-Welch book reluctantly cited above): an anti-grunge Pledge of Allegiance every morning—and an anti-grunge item on every meeting agenda. A C-level anti-grunge exec: CGRO, Chief Grunge Removal Officer. Rewards for Grunge Removers at all levels, punishments for Grunge Growers at all levels. Devices to continually purge systems and procedures and processes of complexity creep. And Red Buttons for one and all.

Get on with this today—begin by making Grunge Awareness and Grunge Removal a belated New Year's Resolution. (For us "older" folks it starts with bodily Grunge Removal—a Life or Death commitment to diet and exercise and learning to say "no" to stupid requests. I.e., this really is the ultimate Big Deal in both our personal and professional lives.)

(Attached you'll find a "beautiful systems" PPT extracted from our Master Presentation—sorry, but I didn't have time to annotate it, which I will do in a few days.)

100 Ways to Succeed #110:

Bag that "Small Win #1"!
Hurry!

Happy Monday!

It's the 14th of January. Gut check time. Are your New Year's Resolutions still intact? Have you made some tiny start on the Big Thing you promised yourself, personally or professionally, in '08? Have you bagged that All-important Small Win #1 in these first two weeks of the New Year, that All-important Small Win #1 that keeps your Main Promise alive—and advances the odds of long-term success immeasurably?

It's not too late. Yet.

100 Ways to Succeed #108:

Do Me The Honor of a "PSF" Discussion!

At least, try "the PSF idea" on for size:

What is a "PSF"?
Are we (department?) a "PSF"?
Do we ("department"?) truly do WWPF—Work Worth Paying For?
Do we have ...

To spur discussion you'll find two attached documents. First is the core, bare-bones "50 List" from my 1999 book, The Professional Service Firm50: Fifty Ways to Transform Your "Department" into a Professional Service Firm Whose Trademarks Are Passion and Innovation.

You will also find my "PSF35" list from Part 3 of the current Master Presentation.

100 Ways to Succeed #103:

Friends/Network Several Levels "Down"

Among the 33 ideas-tactics just presented, this one, after careful examination, comes in #1 on the importance list.

Remember Gust Avrakotos from Charlie Wilson's War: "He had become something of a legend with these people who manned the underbelly of the Agency [CIA]." (Gust helped these unempowered folk with many problems way beyond their typical reach.) When I was a junior in the Pentagon, I discovered a link to the E-3 (very junior enlisted rank) English major from Brown University who was the letter-speech writer for The Secretary of the Navy, John Chafee (from Rhode Island, home to Brown). I shamelessly used my own Ivy League/Cornell link to him, which he got a kick out of—and was able to get a few favors (not too many or too extreme!) which allowed me to do some stuff that made no sense for a junior officer (O-3) to pull off.

Hence: Invest heavily and continuously in those several levels down in the organization, particularly executive assistants, who hold the keys to access and working with ease through convoluted processes.

Remember another piece of advice: C(I) > C(E). Internal customers are perhaps more important than the "bottom line" external customers; engaged internal customers will help you get an unfair share of internal attention which in turn allows you to perform miracles of implementation for your external customers.

100 Ways to Succeed #104:

Shut Up!

Referring to the protagonist, Paul Christopher, a CIA field officer (again—and very consistent with Charlie Wilson's War) in Christopher's Ghosts, author Charles McCarry, says: "He [Christopher] had learned when he was very young that if he kept quiet, the other person would fill the silence." McCarry also tells us at one point that Christopher's key to a debriefing is to shut up and not interrupt—Christopher claims that "everyone has a story to tell, if only you have the patience to wait for it and not get in the way of it."

So: Shut up!

I'm practicing (a 2008 resolution) keeping quiet, and waiting for the story to emerge. (Fat chance, my colleagues would say—screw them.)

100 Ways to Succeed #105:

Master of Internal Processes

(More from the Charlie Wilson post.)

Become a Master of Internal Processes. Recall, from the Charlie Wilson post the reference to Tom DeLay who effectively controlled the House of Representatives by grabbing control of internal processes. This requires heavy investment (again) (what doesn't?) and a passion for details. This one, too, is open to junior folks.

Addenda: If you are boss of a project team, no matter how small, include a Master of Process, preferably with corporate staff experience, for your team. Also bring on someone who likes to "do lunch" with those in the "underbelly" (Gust Avrakotos—CIA) of the organization; this, Ms Project Manager, is your job, too—personally. Incidentally (not so incidentally, actually) "Ms" is likely to be far more effective at this than "Mr."

100 Ways to Succeed #106:

Assignment in the Finance Department

(More from the Charlie Wilson post.)

Follow the money!
Follow the money!
Follow the money!

A CIO, who was remarkably successful in a huge organization, declares that the key was a five-year stint in the corporate Finance Department as a mid-level guy—he had many friends and many "favors due" in finance, which allowed him to acquire assets, exceptions to rules, etc.

Hence: Seek out, by hook or by crook, a tour of duty in Finance—early on.

100 Ways to Succeed #107:

Fifty. Period.

Returning to my 1231.07 Post (FLASH! FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION!) DURING THE Christmas-New Year's period make the damn 50 calls.

Period.
No baloney.

100 (Or So) Ways to Succeed #101:

"Investment" Plan/
New Year's Resolution

During his days as Goldman Sachs boss, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson had an invariant habit. He would call "60 CEOs in the first week [of the year] to wish them happy New Year." During my brief White House stint in the mid-seventies, I spent eight or nine straight hours one New Year's Eve on my office phone. I called close to 100 people I worked with—in agencies all over Washington and in embassies around the world—to thank them for their help in the prior year. In addition to enjoying the chats, which I did (I suspect Paulson did, too), I admit that I was purposefully engaging in an ADRE ... Act of Deliberate Relationship Enhancement.

While I fully buy "If you aren't sincere, it won't work," I nonetheless urge you to develop some similar ritual. Moreover, I urge you to do it in the next couple of weeks!

Think ADRE. Twelve months a year!

100 (Or So) Ways to Succeed #102:

Purposefully Practice Listening
(And "Hearing")

I'm dealing with a thorny problem. Even thought of calling my shrink—he's my "life coach" as much as my esteemed mental health advisor.

In the end I didn't call him. And you can thank crosstown Manhattan Christmas traffic for that.

I inveterately chat with cabbies—about life, not the weather. This driver-advisor-to-be had been around the circuit a couple of times, as, indeed, I have as well. I laid out my issue pretty damn directly. All issues are the same—in the end, relationship issues (see above). His thoughts were "obvious" (all useful thoughts are, in retrospect) and really turned my thinking on its ear.

On the one hand, I was making idle chatter, as I am wont to do; on the other hand, I really wanted to get his reaction. His take on human interaction is likely to be more profound than mine—given his natural laboratory. I'm almost loath to admit it, though I don't know why, but I actually jotted a couple of notes on my Amtrak ticket stub while he was talking. I gave him a healthy Christmas tip, but the fact is that his advice was priceless— or at least a lot cheaper than my psychiatrist's invoice.

In the last couple of weeks, I've talked about Dave Isay's book, Listening Is an Act of Love, and cool friend Matthew Kelly's The Dream Manager. Both are books about stories and listening and hearing. As is my little "Manhattan Cabbie's Tale." If relationships are "everything" (they are), then listening-hearing-story collecting is Tool #1. Stephen Covey and others are wonderful instructors on this topic. I will not attempt to copy them. My suggestion is simpler: During this holiday season, you'll likely go to cocktail parties, open presents, attend family dinners. While not aiming to spoil your spontaneity, I'd suggest that each of these occasions is an opportunity to purposefully practice listening-hearing-story collecting. I have no tricks, except to say tune deliberately into the process. If you want to give yourself an exam, at the end of the party or whatever, review what you heard-learned that was new about an old friend; I learn new stuff about 20-year friends when I really work on my listening-hearing. And keep in mind, as lodestar, the words from Dale Carnegie: "You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."

100 Ways to Succeed #99:

Reward "DNK" When You DNK

Of course you don't want to reward "I didn't bother to ..." laziness, but you do want to reward—Big Time—truth-telling. Hence, cheer publicly the person who admits, in front of a boss, that he or she "does not know" the facts here, or the answer to this or that. In fact, per the above, make a game (serious game!) out of identifying the "DNKs" regarding any analysis or proposed action. Frankly, good inventories of DNKs may be far more important to success than inventories of DKs.

100 Ways to Succeed #100:

Passing the "Squint Test"

When you squint at the page in the annual report featuring the Executive Team, does the gender and skin-tone roughly match the demographics of the market being served?

(Notice that I purposefully said "roughly"; I'm not looking for quotas, just very rough approximations.)

If you fail the "squint test," what is your 6-month, 1-year, and 2-year program, including immediate "next steps" for addressing the issue?

Note of importance: This holds as much for a 23-person project team as it does for a division or company as a whole.

My opinion: Fix the "women part" first. I.e., more or less ... now.

(P.S. We ain't done yet! #101 on our "Top 100" success strategies comes Monday.) (Probably.)

100 Ways to Succeed #98:

Relentlessly Focus On Pragmatic Actions

     (1) See the above list.
     (2) Implement.
     (3) Pick one item.
     (4) Start today.

100 Ways to Succeed #97:

Relentlessly Focus On Pragmatic Actions

     (1) See the above list.
     (2) Implement.
     (3) Pick one item.
     (4) Start today.

100 Ways to Succeed #96:

Make a Public "Insane Effort" Upon Occasion;
Consider It to Be an "Extreme Weapon" in your Success Arsenal

When an issue is of the utmost importance and at a standstill or in freefall, proactively look for an opportunity to "make a statement" through a gesture that indicates great pain and engagement and urgency on your part. Often, this comes in the form of "5,000 miles for a 5-minute audience" with a key participant.

(Is this Machiavellian? Sure, to some extent—but the fact is that you actually must care to do this. The "insane gesture" simply acts as proof that you'll go to any length to make progress.)

100 Ways to Succeed #95:

NON-LINEARITY RULES.
NON-LINEARITY = LIFE.
IF SUCCESS [OR FAILURE] IS DETERMINED ALMOST ENTIRELY BY THE UNPREDICTABLE [LITERALLY], THEN WHAT?

"Most of our predictions are based on very linear thinking. That's why they will most likely be wrong."—Vinod Khosla

"The difficulties ... arise from the inherent conflict between the need to control existing operations and the need to create the kind of environment that will permit new ideas to flourish—and old ones to die a timely death. ... We believe that most corporations will find it impossible to match or outperform the market without abandoning the assumption of continuity. ... The current apocalypse—the transition from a state of continuity to state of discontinuity—has the same suddenness [as the trauma that beset civilization in 1000 A.D.]"—Richard Foster & Sarah Kaplan, "Creative Destruction" (The McKinsey Quarterly)

I have no tidy "tip" here, but rather an extraordinary plea that you implicitly put "non-linear" thinking atop your and your leadership team's agenda—permanently. This may mean hiring poets and astrologers and putting homeless folks on your advisory board. It may mean sabbaticals or yoga, sabbaticals and yoga. Or dropping out for a year or three. Or joining a rock band. Or putting 3-inch heels on one foot only. Though Rudy "dealt with a crisis" well—it's more than such a bland prescription. It's not "dealing well with crisis," though that may be part of it, but more along the lines of dealing constantly and comfortably and quite happily with "very strange stuff," or some such.

REMEMBER. REMEMBER. REMEMBER. YOUR LIFE'S TRAJECTORY WILL BE DETERMINED ALMOST ENTIRELY BY EVENTS WHICH BY DEFINITION CANNOT BE PLANNED FOR. ACT ACCORDINGLY. WHATEVER THAT MEANS.

100 Ways to Succeed #91:

The Rule of Realism

Pay for your groceries with cash next time. Your car repair, too. The office supply bill? Ditto.

By hook or by crook, bring Realism in the office door.

100 Ways to Succeed #92:

Got Your Dreamer Quota Aboard?

Who, precisely, are your Dreamers?
Are their Dreams in Technicolor?
Do you allow their most Outrageous Dreams to be seen in public?

(If this sounds odd, think iPhone.)

100 Ways to Succeed #93:

Bottom Line

A "Culture of Innovation" tops a "Culture of Hypercontrol."

"Innovation Freaks" win in the Long Run.
(Or, at least, they have more fun losing.)

Please discuss: Once a month.

100 Ways to Succeed #94:

Hail the Decentralization "Warfighters"

Through every means possible, be hyper-aware of ICD (Inherent Centralist Drift).

Talk about it.
Fight about it.
Lose sleep over it.
Ensure that your Decentralists are as well armed as your Centralists.

(Hint: This ICD holds for a 1-person biz as well as for a 10,000-person biz. When you screw up in the 1-person biz, you add controls. A good idea, a necessary one ... until it stifles creativity.)

100 Ways to Succeed #90:

For the Sheer Hell of It!

"If it's not fun you're not doing it right."—Fran Tarkenton

Richard Branson does things that matter to him ... for the sheer hell of it. Personally, I think that's a very legitimate career and business philosophy. Frankly, the reason that I take on new stuff, and keep accumulating frequent flyer miles, has long been the unadulterated joy I get from doing what I do, and the sheer pleasure from marching in the opposite direction from the crowd. The same was true, if I may admit it, to me as a builder/junior officer, age 23, in Vietnam in 1966+.

My advice?

Don't do it unless it's fun.
Make it fun. (Always possible, per me.)
Make it fun for others. (Which makes it fun/more fun for you.)

Tarkenton, the NFL quarterback and wildly successful businessperson, "gets it."
Sir Richard Branson "gets it."
So do I.
And you???????????????

(PLEASE: Don't dismiss this as "motivational bullshit." Act as if your life depended on it; your professional life does.)

100 Ways to Succeed #89:

The Ultimate Question ...

Okay, get up your nerve. No bull, scrap your "Customer Satisfaction Survey," British Air or Joe's Local Accountancy. Instead limit your "survey" to One Question:

"Would you recommend us to friends and professional associates?"

100 Ways to Succeed #88:

Nonrational Behavior, Becoming a Student of

To grasp organizational life as it is, read novels (!) and books such as the two discussed immediately above. It is my fervent belief that we will never design rational processes that "overcome" such irregularities—don't bother telling that to a consultant. Hence, we should embrace the real, non-rational, nonlinear world with vigor and glee—and develop enterprise and career strategies accordingly. Part of this process may involve absorbing the likes of How Doctors Think and Judgment under Uncertainty.

100 Ways to Succeed #87:

Welcome to Wikiworld!
Master "Mass collaboration"!

"Mass collaboration," WikiScale, really is one of those (rare) things that probably merits "new thing under the sun" status.

Experiment.
Vigorously.
Now.
Pursue mastery.

100 Ways to Succeed #83:

Don't Forget Why You're Here!

I was talking with a young lawyer, Harvard trained, now putting in her time at a big firm. She allowed as how life was just a whirl of mostly trivial activities. On the one hand that's very normal, and part of the time-honored apprenticeship process. But it's also true that in the midst of all the BS, you often lose sight of why you followed this apparently hallowed path to begin with. I've heard doctors and other professionals say the same thing. At the top of the pyramid, former Secretary of State George Schultz mused on how you come to public service with the highest of ideals, but "you get so caught up in the Power Game, that you forget your worthy aspirations." God knows, on many a long plane delay and the (constant) like, I've wondered the same thing.

(Alas, many CEOs epitomize this. They get so caught up in the earnings game that they forget the fact that they are meant to be "of service" to some worthy, Olympian objective. Perversely, I'm pleased to report, this loss of attention to the basics is the wellspring of earnings that don't measure up.)

I have a little ritual I follow to help get back on track. I take a moment or five and skim either In Search of Excellence or my Stanford dissertation—and remember what I aimed to do in the first place. And how far I have strayed; it helps me get centered, or re-centered.

I suggested to my newfound lawyer acquaintance that she invent some like ritual. And I suggest the same to you: "Why did I take this assignment, or choose this profession? Am I doing everything possible in my current project to hold to the principles that got me into all this? Is my time here up?" Or some such. It's the ritual review rather than its form that's important.

(My suggestion: Do it every 90 days. Better yet, every evening!)

100 Ways to Succeed #84:

If The Envelope Doesn't Fit, Forget It!
(So Check on the Envelopes.)

My local Starbucks stayed open a few minutes late—and fetched something already put away—to fill my order.

When I handed my other local Starbucks my thermos yesterday morning, they filled it up without question, even though that's a non-standard order. (I think they under-charged me—a two ventis price for what doubtless was three ventis in quantity. Oh, and they thoroughly washed the thermos before filling it without request.)

My local Whole Foods opens at 8:00 a.m. Several of us were waiting. They opened at about 7:45. And those folks define helpful—I got a full-bore dissertation on various cuts of beef, among other things.

Stanford sent me a questionnaire in prep for my MBA reunion. (# ???) I took some pains to fill it out. When I got ready to mail it, I discovered that it didn't fit into the envelope they'd enclosed—I tore the questionnaire up and tossed it in the recycle bin. (Ever wonder what's wrong with MBA programs? Lack of attention to misfitting envelopes! Think I'm kidding?)

Do you bend over backwards to go "beyond the book" to help customers? Do you open earlier than advertised? Are your envelopes the right size?

The 25 companies that made BusinessWeek's first "Customer Service Champs" list are very, very, very, very, very serious about the "little things."

And you?
Personally?
Your team?
Your company?
How do you know?
For sure?
What are you doing about it?
Today?
Now?

"Big aims" (I believe in them religiously!) are plain silliness without the "little" things executed to perfection—and constantly beyond the "best practices" you designed yourself.

"Little things"—I love the word "fanatic."

("Big" keys to "little" things: great hiring practices emphasizing "soft" factors, great and extensive and enjoyable training, fun, celebrations, routinely using words like "Wow," managers who are out and about, etc., etc.)

100 Ways to Succeed #85:

R.O.C(I): "They" All Work For Me!

Suppose I work in a 201-person unit.
Suppose I'm in sales. (Everybody is—but that's another story.)

Key #1 to success: C(I) >> C(E)

Translation: My Internal Customers/C(I) are more important, perhaps far more important, especially in the long term, than my External Customers/C(E) to whom I am officially making the sale.

Goal: I want all 200 of my mates—in every discipline—working for me! Starting with my CEO!

Secret to Key #1?

Obvious!
Investment!
Big time investment!

Screw the "traditional silos"—I plan to make love to everybody in every department in the Unit. I want 200 folks desperate to make me successful with my External Client-Customer.

I am desperate in turn to get rid of my external customer. I want "my" External Customer to become not "mine," but the customer of my mates/C(I). I want them, my C(I), to reap the pleasure and rewards of the relationship with "my" (now their!) External Customer.

(FYI: This applies to every project. The customer is not the customer. The customer is my mates throughout the enterprise who will surpass me in their effort to satisfy-WOW my "official" end user-customer for that IT project.)

So? Are you investing like a ... deranged maniac ... in your C(I)? Do all 7, 17, 170 folks in your unit work for you—and love it?

Return On Investment in Internal Customers/C(I)—nothing more important. Oh, by the way, have you ... MEASURED ... the "customer satisfaction" of your internal customers?

100 Ways to Succeed #86:

Fight Corporate Collapse!
Fight Creeping Centralization!

What are your precise procedures to stop-reverse the proliferation of originally sound-procedures-become-bureaucratic cancer?

Have you exercised said procedures—this week? Today? (Prove it.)