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"Top 50" "Have Yous"

While waiting last week in the Albany airport to board a Southwest Airlines flight to Reagan, I happened across the latest Harvard Business Review, on the cover of which was a yellow sticker. The sticker had on it the words "Mapping your competitive position." It referred to a feature article by my friend Rich D'Aveni. His work is uniformly good—and I have said as much publicly on several occasions dating back 15 years. I'm sure this article is good, too—though I didn't read it. In fact, it triggered a furious negative "Tom reaction" as my wife calls it. Of course I believe you should worry about your "competitive position." But instead of obsessing on competitive position and other abstractions, as the B-schools and consultants would always have us do, I instead wondered about some "practical stuff," which I believe is more important to the short- and long-term health of the enterprise, tiny or enormous.

Hence, rather than an emphasis on competitive maps or how blue your water is, I am urging you to pay attention to my "Top 50" "Have Yous," as I shall call them. The list could easily be three times as long—but this ought to keep you occupied for a while. Of course, the underlying hypothesis is that if you do the stuff below your "competitive position" will improve so much that mapping will become a secondary issue! Some will rebut with the tired old saw (and silly idea) of "doing the right things" versus "doing things right." I, for example, believe that if you do even a smidgeon of what's below you will wildly enhance both "do the right thing" and "do things right." (Admission: As an engineer by training and disposition, doing things right is priority #1. I am an admitted "implementation nut.") In any event here's my list, random, but in batches of ten:

Have you in the last 10 days ... visited a customer?
Have you called a customer ... TODAY?
Have you in the last 60-90 days ... had a seminar in which several folks from the customer's operation (different levels, different functions, different divisions) interacted, via facilitator, with various of your folks?
Have you thanked a front-line employee for a small act of helpfulness ... in the last three days?
Have you thanked a front-line employee for a small act of helpfulness ... in the last three hours?
Have you thanked a frontline employee for carrying around a great attitude ... today?
Have you in the last week recognized—publicly—one of your folks for a small act of cross-functional cooperation?
Have you in the last week recognized—publicly—one of "their" folks (another function) for a small act of cross-functional cooperation?
Have you invited in the last month a leader of another function to your weekly team priorities meeting?
Have you personally in the last week-month called-visited an internal or external customer to sort out, inquire, or apologize for some little or big thing that went awry? (No reason for doing so? If true—in your mind—then you're more out of touch than I dared imagine.)

Have you in the last two days had a chat with someone (a couple of levels down?) about specific deadlines concerning a project's next steps?
Have you in the last two days had a chat with someone (a couple of levels down?) about specific deadlines concerning a project's next steps ... and what specifically you can do to remove a hurdle? ("Ninety percent of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get things done."—Peter "His eminence" Drucker)
Have you celebrated in the last week a "small" (or large!) milestone reached? (I.e., are you a milestone fanatic?)
Have you in the last week or month revised some estimate in the "wrong" direction and apologized for making a lousy estimate? (Somehow you must publicly reward the telling of difficult truths.)
Have you installed in your tenure a very comprehensive customer satisfaction scheme for all internal customers? (With major consequences for hitting or missing the mark.)
Have you in the last six months had a week-long, visible, very intensive visit-"tour" of external customers?
Have you in the last 60 days called an abrupt halt to a meeting and "ordered" everyone to get out of the office, and "into the field" and in the next eight hours, after asking those involved, fixed (f-i-x-e-d!) a nagging "small" problem through practical action?
Have you in the last week had a rather thorough discussion of a "cool design thing" someone has come across—away from your industry or function—at a Web site, in a product or its packaging?
Have you in the last two weeks had an informal meeting—at least an hour long—with a frontline employee to discuss things we do right, things we do wrong, what it would take to meet mid- to long-term aspirations?
Have you in the last 60 days had a general meeting to discuss "things we do wrong" ... that we can fix in the next fourteen days?

Have you in the last year had a one-day, intense offsite with each (?) of your internal customers—followed by a big celebration of "things gone right"?
Have you in the last week pushed someone to do some family thing that you fear might be overwhelmed by deadline pressure?
Have you learned the names of the children of everyone who reports to you? (If not, you have six months to fix it.)
Have you in the last month taken an interesting-weird outsider to lunch?
Have you in the last month invited an interesting-weird outsider to sit in on an important meeting?
Have you in the last three days discussed something interesting, beyond your industry, that you ran across in a meeting, reading, etc?
Have you in the last 24 hours injected into a meeting "I ran across this interesting idea in [strange place]"?
Have you in the last two weeks asked someone to report on something, anything, that constitutes an act of brilliant service rendered in a "trivial" situation—restaurant, car wash, etc? (And then discussed the relevance to your work.)
Have you in the last 30 days examined in detail (hour by hour) your calendar to evaluate the degree "time actually spent" mirrors your "espoused priorities"? (And repeated this exercise with everyone on the team.)
Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group by a "weird" outsider?

Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group by a customer, internal customer, vendor featuring "working folks" 3 or 4 levels down in the vendor organization?
Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group of a cool, beyond-our-industry idea by two of your folks?
Have you at every meeting today (and forevermore) re-directed the conversation to the practicalities of implementation concerning some issue before the group?
Have you at every meeting today (and forevermore) had an end-of-meeting discussion on action items to be dealt with in the next 48 hours? (And then made this list public—and followed up in 48 hours.) (And made sure everyone had at least one such item.)
Have you in the last six months had a discussion about what it would take to get recognition in a local-national poll of "best places to work"?
Have you in the last month approved a cool-different training course for one of your folks?
Have you in the last month taught a front-line training course?
Have you in the last week discussed the idea of Excellence? (What it means, how to get there.)
Have you in the last week discussed the idea of "Wow"? (What it means, how to inject it into an ongoing "routine" project.)
Have you in the last 45 days assessed some major process in terms of the details of the "experience," as well as results it provides to its external or internal customers?

Have you in the last month had one of your folks attend a meeting you were supposed to go to which gives them unusual exposure to senior folks?
Have you in the last 60 (30?) days sat with a trusted friend or "coach" to discuss your "management style"—and its long- and short-term impact on the group?
Have you in the last three days considered a professional relationship that was a little rocky and made a call to the person involved to discuss issues and smooth the waters? (Taking the "blame," fully deserved or not, for letting the thing-issue fester.)
Have you in the last ... two hours ... stopped by someone's (two-levels "down") office-workspace for 5 minutes to ask "What do you think?" about an issue that arose at a more or less just-completed meeting? (And then stuck around for 10 or so minutes to listen—and visibly taken notes.)
Have you ... in the last day ... looked around you to assess whether the diversity pretty accurately maps the diversity of the market being served? (And ...)
Have you in the last day at some meeting gone out of your way to make sure that a normally reticent person was engaged in a conversation—and then thanked him or her, perhaps privately, for their contribution?
Have you during your tenure instituted very public (visible) presentations of performance?
Have you in the last four months had a session specifically aimed at checking on the "corporate culture" and the degree we are true to it—with all presentations by relatively junior folks, including front-line folks? (And with a determined effort to keep the conversation restricted to "real world" "small" cases—not theory.)
Have you in the last six months talked about the Internal Brand Promise?
Have you in the last year had a full-day off-site to talk about individual (and group) aspirations?

Tom Peters posted this on 12/03/07.

Comments

'Bout time, Tom. Good stuff. THIS is why I stop by, not for the photos and fluff. Welcome back.

Posted by Red Island Rhodes at December 3, 2007 2:31 PM

Tom,
Practical stuff is good. These "Have Yous" are valuable for many reasons. But they should help us get a clearer view of what is (current reality) and what's possible--(our vision/ strategy). But 50 "Have yous" is a lot. I suggest we focus, prioritize, and act on our top seven.

Posted by Paul Thornton at December 3, 2007 4:43 PM

Paul, totally agree--or even ONE, in the next 48 hours. The 50 are meant as an inventory to spur you to dreaming up better stuff than this and-or to choose from.

Posted by tom peters at December 3, 2007 5:00 PM

Brilliant list - 'Have You' thought of this as a book Tom? :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at December 3, 2007 7:07 PM

NOOOOOO. . THEY HavenÂ´t for all questions. I mean, my teacher of in administration school. In fact today i heard of this teacher that if i were his employee i would be fired next day, i just asked how to do a question of his test. All the class was crazy about this peace of paper he call test!! Now i am used to ignore this kind of people!

Posted by Fausto P. Faria at December 3, 2007 8:57 PM

Tom -- this may be the best posting I have read in any blog all year. How inspirational. I love it! Thanks for making my day.

Posted by Jim Schafer at December 3, 2007 9:55 PM

Thank you for your insight Tom, it is definitely at this point food for thought but please use bullets or numericals next time as it was hard on th eyes.

Posted by Luis at December 4, 2007 12:00 AM

So obivious, yet missed so often. This post reminds me that true greatness is driven by the heart and executed by the mind.

Isn't it ironic how we ignore the heart?

how to get viagra toronto Posted by Eric Pennington at December 4, 2007 9:40 AM

Tom, I hope you don't mind, but I've copied and pasted this into a word document that is going to go inside the front of my copy of "Sixty" (which I use as a constant reminder/reference). I think it's a wonderful compliment and an outstanding reminder of what's important. Thank you!

Posted by Andrew Hayden at December 4, 2007 11:43 AM

None of those 'top 50' are worth if the company you are working for is not doing well.
My experience is those 'top 50' are the typical things that get toted out when the money starst running dry.

Posted by dinsdale at December 4, 2007 11:46 AM

Like all reminders only good if acted upon! Thanks for the list, I'll try it out #97

Posted by Alan Reid at December 4, 2007 12:04 PM

"None of those 'top 50' are worth if the company you are working for is not doing well."

So then dinsdale: the company's not doing that well therefore I don't have to make an effort? Come off it!!! Have you no pride in doing your own job to the best of your ability, even if it's while looking around for another job???

Posted by Mark JF at December 4, 2007 12:06 PM

Dinsdale, couldn't disagree more vehemently. Troubled times are the most important times to get in touch with customers, show employees you value them, etc. If my biz were hurting the first thing I'd do is put a sign on my door "in the field," hop on a plane (this afternoon) and visit my 5 best customers, and ask what's up; then visit every one of our facilities and listen to the troops' woes, etc. This, the Big Customer visits at the outset, for what it's worth, is exactly what tough-minded Lou Gerstner did upon taking the helm of a f&*%ed up IBM in 1993. I heard Giuliani speak on leadership a while back, and remember him saying, when you're on a 7-game losing streak, you look for a "win," no matter how small--eg a good inning.

Posted by tom peters at December 4, 2007 12:10 PM

WOW!

I NEEDED THAT....AND SO DOES OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM.

ONCE AGAIN...GREAT STUFF.

THANKS TOM!

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Posted by DENNIS DIFLORIO at December 4, 2007 12:15 PM

"None of those 'top 50' are worth if the company you are working for is not doing well.
My experience is those 'top 50' are the typical things that get toted out when the money starst running dry."......

And the reason the money starts running dry is???? THE FAILURE TO DO ANY OF THE 50 AT ALL. It's not often that one finds the preventive medicine and the and cure all in the same prescription.....and at such a great price. Thanks Tom....

Posted by Dave W at December 4, 2007 9:00 PM

Tom, This was great, as usual you made me think. Been a while since we have had a post like this hope to see more soon.

Posted by Robert Williger at December 4, 2007 10:40 PM buy viagra mastercard

Tom -- love the comment about putting up a good inning. When the Michael Jordans of the world can't buy a basket, they work for ONE layup or free throw. Montana to Rice for ONE first down. Just get the juices going, and you've at least got a shot - and these 50 questions are great starters.

Posted by Tim Walker at December 7, 2007 2:48 PM

Tom, the stuff is great;

In fact, we got to know about your thought from our CEO asking us to work on it.

We created a full plan out of it and put it in a .pst (microsoft mail-outlook file); I call this tool - Productivity Accelerating Tool (PAT)

Now everyone in the company can use the file just by dragging the tasks onto their calendar.

All the tasks together take not more than 30% of the overall annual working time of the managers; can bring unbelievable results.

Out of the total 50 activities:
14% are - Customer focus
16% are - Delivery focus
34% are - People focus
16% are - Self focus
20% are - Collaboration/ networking

Effortwise:
36.4% is spent on Customer focus
18.9% is spent on Delivery focus
11.1% is spent on People focus
14.5% is spent on Self focus
19.1% is spent on Collaboration

Posted by Prabodh Sirur at January 27, 2008 11:14 AM

Tom,
I assume I have your permission to use the thought (Have you in the last ten days) in our worklife. I have given the details in my previous comment.

Posted by Prabodh Sirur at March 4, 2008 3:42 AM