Let's Hope Main Street Performs Better Than Wall Street!

Wall Street's behavior continues to boggle the mind. With government help, some of the financial news is good—hence, in the mind of the "players," it's time to re-open the bonus spigots! Fail to do so, and, OMG, we might not be able to retain some of the "superstars" whose 275 IQs and Excellence-in-Greed got us into this mess.

I'm not sure what the Psychiatric Diagnostic Manual # is, but these people are certifiably insane:

HAVETHEYABSOLUTELYNOSHAMEORSENSEOFSHAREDBURDEN-WHATSOEVERARETHEYINFACTHUMANS????!!!

Miserable.
Rotten.
Immoral.
Scumbags.*

Well, let's hope Main Street does better than Wall Street!

We may be (50-50 odds?) on the verge of a true pandemic. One important-crucial way to fight it is to stay home if you think there's even a small chance that your symptoms match up to the H1N1 profile. While the possibility of malingering is never zero, I pray that employers, despite their often pinched straits circa Spring 2009, will be hyper-generous in encouraging people to stay home with pay if they think there's a chance they are infected. Alas, with the horrid economy, if you have a job at all you sure as hell don't want to test your employer's patience. Hence, there must be a lot of bending over backwards by all parties to do every damn thing we can to behave sensibly and thence reduce the spread of H1N1.

Let's all get down on bended knee and pray that Main Streeters have better sense and a greater commitment to the greater good than the Wall Streeters.

[*"Scumbags" is an entirely inappropriate word to use here—my only defense is that I thought long and hard about this, and I arrived at the conclusion that the only word I could think of to describe those seeking re-instatement of large bonus pots at this point is, well, scumbag.]

100 Ways to Succeed #158:

Transparency & Community & "Over"communication & Excellence & H1N1

The H1N1 threat is the latest crisis to come our way, riding the back of ongoing financial mayhem. Step #1, ASAP, is talk-talk-talk. Action is, of course, the sine qua non of success—but right now comes the talk. And lots & lots & lots of it. In our companies of 6 or 66 or 666 people, we have to start a wholly transparent discussion about how we will deal with every aspect of H1N1. Our Commitment to Community must be spelled out—and what we will do under various circumstances must be debated openly and at length. The tough issues must be addressed head on—e.g., insuring that people know that staying home if there's even a possibility of being sick with the flu is the ultimate white mark, not black mark. It must be made clear that an "all hands" commitment to dealing with the possible pandemic is the only worthy aim. And that we aspire to be a role model-shining light in our overall response.

I devoutly believe that long-term commercial excellence is a direct product of an enterprise wholly devoted to its people and its community; now is the time to define Excellence in response to H1N1—if it doesn't come, hooray, but if it does it is an opportunity to demonstrate who we are and what we're made of.

Think openness.
Think community.
Think excellence.

Home Is Where the ...
Kubota Is!

From the Shanghai Airport [above] to my Beloved Kubota in West Tinmouth, Vermont [below]. Susan decorated the Kubota with daffodils from her garden to commemorate my return; and I've already drawn blood from my bramble cutting!

Cool Friend #136: Daniel Coyle

Our latest Cool Friend, Daniel Coyle, tells us that people think about talent as a possession, but that's not quite right. He studied hotbeds of talent and found similarities, from which we can learn in order to develop our own skills. In his Cool Friends interview, he and Erik discuss his latest book, The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How. The book is just out (yesterday!), though Tom blogged about it in February (the subtitle has changed since then). You can learn more at his website, TheTalentCode.com, on his blog and Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/DanielCoyle.

Event: Shanghai

If you've been reading our blog lately, you know that Tom's been en route to Shanghai. For the three-day event, he gives us four presentations tailored to his audience and in keeping with topics that have occupied him recently:

• Excellence
• Innovation
• People
• Leadership

Please join us in the comments if you had the opportunity to attend the event where Tom was speaking to the Olympic Marketing Training Consultancy, whose founder once offered $620,000 for a chance to meet Warren Buffett.

[And yes! Tom sent the photo above of Shanghai, where the population will surpass 19,000,000 this year, as seen from his 38th floor hotel room window—a little different from the window view in Amsterdam!]

The Answer to a Model-led Fiasco Is Different Models. Right. And Your Old Auntie Quarterbacked the Dallas Cowboys.

I love this quote: "The level of experimentation is abysmal. These firms do not take full advantage of feedback opportunities they are presented with." The quote accords with my Principal Assertion about Business, which in fact I've called the only thing I've learned "for sure" in 40 years. Namely: "Whoever tries the most stuff and screws the most stuff up and most rapidly launches the next try wins. Failures are not to be 'tolerated,' they are to be celebrated."

The first quote (which, I repeat, I loved) comes courtesy Freakonomics author Steven Levitt. He's launched a course, with fellow economist John List, at the Chicago B.School to teach the kind of thinking featured in the book and referred to in the quote above. It is, therefore, in effect a course on the scientific method. The "scientific method"? "He who tries the most stuff wins. Failures are not to be tolerated, they are to be celebrated."

If the course, aimed at "the best MBA students in the world" (whoever they are—they were the wizards of Wall Street, now serving as busboys in or out of prison), "works," the world will have a new "model" for doing business. List humbly (reminds me of Larry Summers) says, "We're trying to bring about a revolution in business, so this [the course for "the best MBAs"] is the first shot over the bows (sic)." [NB: The ships I served on had only one bow, as I recall.]

I conclude, personally, from the above:

(1) I contend-reiterate that "tryin' a lot a stuff" is the most important thing an enterprise, or individual, can do in pursuit of success.
(2) I report here that "An Experimental Approach to the Right Answers [whatever that means]," in the Financial Times, 0420, and from which the above was taken, made me want to puke! [Re-reading it to prep for this Post induced another wave of stomach flippin'.]

I'm upstairs in biz class in a KLM 747-400 heading for China as I write. I have fretted for days, weeks, about the direction in which I want my 3-day mini-course to go. Last night, between Midnight and 4 a.m. I "got it"—if history is a teacher, I'll undo it and redo it a couple of more times in the next 36 hours,

My "breakthrough" is a determination to pass along this message repeated in as many ways as I can conjure up:

Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)

I'll follow that up with:

Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.) Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)

And then I'll go home to Vermont, where Spring is Springing!

Do business leaders need a ... NEW ANALYTIC FRAMEWORK ... to replace the one Greenspan and Rubin and Summers and pals gave us? Or should they instead pay strict attention to an FT article that appeared the day after the one cited above, titled: "Business Needs to Speak Out Against Greed"?

I quasi-puked after reading the first article—and stood up in my hotel room in Amsterdam, all by my lonesome, and shouted "Bravo" and tossed a tulip at the FT after reading the next day's article.

The last thing business needs is a "new analytic framework" taught only to the "best" MBAs—guys, mostly guys, who'll end up as the next McNamara or Rumsfeld (both members of that dynamic duo score top tenth of the top one percent on "analytic excellence").

What business needs, in my (not particularly) humble opinion is to do more MBWA (Managing By Wandering Around), to really really really "put people first," à la Southwest or Wegmans; to hang out, really really really really hang out with customers à la Cisco boss John Chambers, to learn to listen and apologize, as discussed in yesterday's Post. Etc.

In short:

Business doesn't need a new framework.
Business needs a new attitude.

When I get home I'm going to print new business calling cards—after all these years I've figured out what I do (which is what Bob Waterman and I tried to do 30 years ago in In Search of Excellence). Hence, my new calling card will read:

Tom Peters
The Un-revolutionary

We don't need another "analytic model" to replace the current "analytic model." What we need, and I'm gonna put this on the back of my card:

Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = Wander around.
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.) Excellence = Wander around.
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = Wander around.

And if there's room left:

Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.) Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)

100 Ways to Succeed #157:

Improve Your Business!
Become a Better Person!

Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.) Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)
Excellence = People first, second, third. And fourth. (And fifth and sixth and seventh.)

That's Petters (with 2 T's), not Peters

First there was the picture of Bernie Madoff that looked a lot like Tom Peters and now there's a guy named Tom Petters (2 T's!) who is garnering the fraud headlines by trying to hustle non-existent DVD players. We here at tompeters.com just wanted to make sure there was no confusion between Petters and Peters. Our Tom is winging his way to Shanghai, where he'll be speaking over the weekend.

Strategic Competence!
Damn It!

In What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful, Marshall Goldsmith proclaims: "I regard apologizing as the most magical, healing, restorative gesture human beings can make. It is the centerpiece of my work with executives who want to get better."

All I can add is:

Amen!
I believe that skill at Apologizing is nothing short of a "strategic competence"!

"Strategic competence"? Absolutely! Customers lost for want of a timely and sincere "I'm sorry. My fault" number in the billions, from restaurant diners to aircraft engine purchasers.

And now there's an entire book on the topic arriving May 1, Effective Apology: Mending Fences, Building Bridges, and Restoring Trust, by John Kador.

Read a whole book on the topic?
Yes!
Damn it!
Stra-te-gic-com-pe-tence!

In addition to being an excellent "how to" guide, the book also captures hard evidence. For example, with a new policy on apologies, Toro, the lawn mower folks, reduced the average cost of a claim from $115,000 in 1991 to $35,000 in 2008—and the company hasn't been to trial since 1994. The VA hospital in Lexington, Massachusetts, developed an astonishing approach to apologizing for errors (forthcoming—even when no patient request or claim was made). In 2000, the overall mean VA system malpractice settlement was $413,000. The Lexington VA hospital settlement # was $36,000—and there were far fewer per patient claims to begin with.

Not only does a sincere apology make you feel much better about yourself (top marks on the "ability-to-look-in-the-mirror" test), but it fattens your wallet in the process (or, rather, keeps said wallet from getting skinny).

While visiting Amazon to get John Kador's formal pub date (Kindle on May 1, too!), I came across a reference to another apparent gem on the topic, On Apology, by psychiatrist Aaron Lazare. Here are excerpts from a couple reviews: "This unique book is sure to set a reader thinking on many levels, but its ultimate message is the meaning and the magically transformative power of what would seem on the surface to be a simple apology. No one who becomes familiar with Dr. Lazare's perceptive interpretations will forget his sensitivity and wisdom."—Sherwin B. Nuland, MD, author of How We Die [TP: Nuland is fabulous]. "This jewel of a book reveals the many facets of the seemingly simple act of apology. ... Drawing on a vast array of literary and real-life examples, from Agamemnon to George Patton to Arnold Schwarzenegger, from the current pope to the machinist who approached him after a lecture, Lazare lucidly dissects the process of apology. ... Everybody on earth could benefit from this small but essential book."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Read two whole books on the topic?
Yes!
Damn it!
Stra-te-gic-com-pe-tence!

Any comments on your experience with apologies?

NB: Tom mounts his Preakness winning hobby horse again! Women are far far far far far far far far better-instinctive at this than we guys! [One of many reasons that women are better salespeople than men.] [Preakness? I was born in Baltimore; we barely acknowledge Kentucky's preliminary race.]

[Above: My notion of hotel room "windows that open wide"—Amsterdam, canal view; not that there are many non-canal views!]

100 Ways to Succeed #155:

Improve Your Business!
Become a Better Person!
Master the Art of Apology!

Study apology!
(Study = Become a serious student thereof!)
Treat apology as a "practice" (that's Kador's advice—and I concur)!
Practice!
Acknowledge that this "practice" can become one of a small handful of "strategic competencies"!

100 Ways to Succeed #156:

Improve Your Business!
Become a Better Person!
Master the Art of Listening!

While I'm on the topic of "strategic competencies," let me add or reinforce the fact that Listening belongs on the short list as well:

Study listening!
(Study = Become a serious student thereof!)
Treat listening as a "practice"!
Practice!
Acknowledge that this "practice" can become one of a small handful of "strategic competencies"!

Big point overall: "We" "all" "know" that apologizing and listening are "important." The Big Idea here is that (1) these are strategic strengths (or weaknesses), (2) these are disciplines that can be mastered just like fly fishing or piano playing, and (3) these are disciplines that must be mastered to be effective—just like fly fishing or piano playing.

Hats Off ONE

The Hotel Pulitzer here in Amsterdam has a fabulous location (in the exact middle of things), etc., etc. But on my Short List of Lustworthy Attributes it scores a Perfect Ten on three, whereas even the best of the best are often awful on All Three!!

(1) Windows that can be flung Waaaaaaay Open!
(2) A Veeeeeeery Bright bedside lamp.
(3) WiFi that actually is easy to connect to and, so far, has a great signal that isn't interrupted. (I CANNOT TELL YOU—IN 2009—HOW MANY HOTELS HAVE WIFI THAT CAN ONLY BE GRADED "SUCKS STUPENDOUSLY.")

Give me those three, a clean duvet and toilet and shower, and I'm a Happy Camper!

Picture above: Spring comes to Amsterdam, a canal view—what else? Picture below: House boat—I called Susan; I want one!

Hats Off TWO

Several big companies are doing things for people who are laid off. In the current issue of BusinessWeek I read my Solid Gold favorite so far: Walgreens has 343 Take Care in-store clinics. If you are an existing patient and can show proof of unemployment and no insurance, Walgreens Take Care services are on the house from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays! (I believe that these visits usually cost around 50 bucks.) (Incidentally, I am a great fan of these clinics. In general.)

Venturesome Economy/Special Presentation

On several occasions I have raved about Amar Bhidé's The Venturesome Economy: How Innovation Sustains Prosperity in a More Connected World. In preparation for a presentation today, I put together a brief (four slides) Special PPT Presentation—which is attached and all yours. (Sorry it's not annotated—it may be more or less self-explanatory. Anyway, I don't care; you should have long ago purchased and ingested the utterly original tome.)

Event: Amsterdam

Tom is speaking today for Focus Conferences. His all-day event is at the Nyenrode Business University in Breukelen, Netherlands. (Then he's off to Shanghai to present a 3-day "mini-course.") We welcome you to our comments if you saw Tom speak, and if you'd like to get the slides, you can download them here: Final version and Leadership version.

And, above, one more photo from Tom. Beautiful city!

April 21 Is "Rules" Day!

Tomorrow "it" happens!

My brilliant friend and colleague Alan Webber, Fast Company co-founder among so many other things, will witness the publication of his first book! So go buy it! Be the first on your block!

In short, Rules of Thumb, featuring 52 "rules," is a marvel. Practical. Philosophical. Fun. And, above all, wise. Ever so wise.

Here is a sample:

#10 A Good Question Beats a Good Answer. #14 You Don't Know if You Don't Go. #16 Facts Are Facts; Stories Are How We Learn. #20 Speed = Strategy. #23 Keep Two Lists: What Gets You Up in the Morning? What Keeps You Up at Night? #26 The Soft Stuff Is the Hard Stuff. #28 Good Design Is Table Stakes. Great Design Wins. #29 Words Matter. #33 Everything Is a Performance. #42 The Survival of the Fittest Is the Business Case for Diversity. #45 Failure Isn't Failing. Failure Is Failing to Try. #46 Tough Leaders Wear Their Hearts on Their Sleeves. #49 If You Want to Grow as a Leader, You Have to Disarm Your Border Guards. #50 On the Way Up Pay Attention to Your Strengths; They'll Be Your Weaknesses on the Way Down. #52 Stay Alert! There Are Teachers Everywhere.

I would like to have listed all 52—there are no losers in this set. (In fact, I believe Alan's idiot editor sliced about half of them from the first draft, which I saw; damn shame.)

Fact is, I love Alan, and I love his book. Yes, he truly is a wise man.

[The book is available on Kindle, too.—CM]

Happy Anniversary!

Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore are celebrating an anniversary on April 28, 2009. It's been ten years since they published The Experience Economy. Hard to believe! But when you stop to think about how their book has changed the dialogue for businesses—how common it is for people to discuss the quality of customer experiences—it makes sense. Congratulations, Joe and Jim, on raising the bar for all of us.

They've made it possible for you to share ideas or stories at their website. Join the discussion there; let them know what impact The Experience Economy has had on you!

Recession Blues RX I

Watch this and boost your spirits.

(I admit that I teared up. But, then, like my idol, Winston Churchill, I do that a lot.)

Recession Blues RX II

Manufacturing dead in the U.S.A.?

Read yesterday's interview with Cisco CEO John Chambers on page ONE of Investor's Business Daily.

Chambers took over this MANUFACTURING company in 1994.
Revenues 1994: $1 Billion.
Revenues 2009: $40 Billion.

Prospects for technology companies and technology manufacturers in the U.S.A.? Nothing short of staggering in their potential, Chambers asserts. In infotech, let alone biological-based sciences, Chambers declares that we have many, many, and many more LARGE-SCALE REVOLUTIONS to come.

One suggestion of his, which I love, and which Chambers attributes to VC superstar John Doerr: "We should staple a Green Card to every science, technology, engineering, and math advanced degree [awarded by a U.S. university to a non-U.S. national]. The economy is struggling now, but it won't be forever, and we need to attract and keep the best and brightest in our country to maintain our competitiveness as a nation." (TP: Alas, fat chance.) (TP: Chambers is one of the many, me among them, who points out that our top research universities, best in the world by a long shot in terms of quality and quantity, are perhaps the #1 U.S. competitive advantage; we may lament the passing of "old manufacturing," but we damn well better remember that we must pull out all the stops, private and public, to support to the hilt our top research universities.)

(NB: Chambers, arguably the most Republican of Silicon Valley superstars, perhaps surprises with this: "I think the U.S. government is doing the right thing with the stimulus package, and I hope other governments follow suit.")

Questionable Assertions:
Let's Take a Second Look

Comments on my post on In Search of Excellence and the limits to management "research" were heartwarming—thanks! One, however, was so off base that I felt it necessary to reply. Some of the misconceptions, I fear, are widespread:

Comment: "Suppose we had done both—apply Japanese style management (invented by an American by the way) and also still had our IBM's, HP, J&J's etc. I think In Search of is partly responsible for the downfall of manufacturing because it became uncool."

TP/me: (1) Wrong book; In Search was almost all manufacturers—it was Liberation Management, in 1992, that focused on services—and I wouldn't change a word, or at least not many. (2) Manufacturing is hardly dead in the U.S.; that is hogwash; it's microchips and software and biotech and medical devices, not so much autos; mfg as a share of GDP has been pretty much steady, or no more than a tick down, for years in the U.S.—it just doesn't take many people to make things anymore (that's called productivity improvement, the #1 engine of economic growth). (3) Every major economy in the world, even Germany, is a "service economy." Period. (4) Remember that the "service" part includes "services added" to manufacturing—consider the likes of GE Aircraft Engines, GE Power Systems, GE Medical Devices—over half the revenues of these outfits comes from "services added," such as life-cycle service packages for customers. (5) Last time I heard, IBM-J&J-HP were all three very alive and very well—e.g., HP just became the first $100-billion computer company in the world! (6) The Japanese economy has been in or near the tank for a decade-and-a-half now; not clear they're a great role model; among other things, Japan doesn't generate many entrepreneurs (which is crippling at a time of tech change), and they've had to "offshore" a ton of manufacturing as their wages soared—a good thing. (7) Fact is, we did indeed re-import many if not all the "Japanese techniques," such as TQM and Continuous Improvement—and our car companies' problem is not manufacturing quality, which is by and large at parity with the Japanese, Koreans, etc.; the problem is mostly high wages and benefits, which ordinarily would be called a good thing (e.g., improving workers' well-being); and by the way, Japanese auto companies' sales are as much in the tank as ours—for God's sake, even Toyota is reorganizing.

Back to you ...

Happy (!?) April 15, 2009!

The good news: I filed on time!
The better news: I'm getting a refund!
The great news: It's a Big Refund!

The bad news: I'm getting a refund because I made less than I thought I would and hence overpaid my estimated tax.
The worse news: I'm getting a Big Refund because I had a Big Drop in income and had Way Overpaid my estimated tax.

Ah, life.
Happy (!?) Tax Day.

Power Tools!

I've been hounding you on this topic for a while now. My mostly dormant but longtime interest in "little things" with enormous impact was rekindled after the publication of Nudge, Sway, and a couple of other books. With this post, I'm offering up a fully annotated 100-slide presentation on the topic.

The heart of the presentation is over 20 examples of Tiny Tools with Enormous Impact—from increased effectiveness in oil-finding (put the geologists and geophysicists in the same room) to dramatically reduced crime rates (patch the potholes, fix the broken windows, clean the streets) to effective dieting tools (e.g., small plates, infuriatingly slow elevators). The examples per se are of little importance—they are merely indicative of the sorts of things one can concentrate on. The toughest part of the message is that to do much with this you need an "attitude." An attitude that this sort of thing can work, and a willingness to screw around and screw around until you get it right—"do it right the first time" addicts are doomed!

On the other hand there is a lot of good news about the process:

(1) Amenable to rapid experimentation/failure is "free" (no bad "PR," no $$ down the drain).
(2) Quick to implement/Quick to roll out.
(3) Inexpensive to implement/Inexpensive to roll out.
(4) Huge multiplier.
(5) An "Attitude" required—not a one-off "program."
(6) Does not, by and large, require a "power position" from which to launch experiments—this is mostly "invisible stuff," below the radar, that most don't care about on the front end.

Take a look.
Give it a try.
Become a professional "nudgist," practiced in the Art of Nudgery.

100 Ways to Succeed #154:

Become a Professional Nudgist!

Study the Art of Nudgery!
Practice Nudgery!
Become a Professional Nudgist!
(Hint: The world may become your oyster—even if you are a junior oysterman.)

Say It Ain't So, Jim!

The cover story in the Boston Globe "Ideas" section yesterday attacked the value and validity of the most popular business books, as always taking Bob Waterman, Jim Collins, and me to task. I agree with some of the charges leveled, and disagree with others. But there is one substrata of argument that I take near violent exception to. Namely, that Bob and I, at least, were purporting to provide a complete success prescription, based on flawless accumulation of data, which managers should follow like the Ten Commandments—or eight, in our case.

(1) What utter hogwash!
(2) What an insult to our readers!

In Search of Excellence was what it was and wasn't what it wasn't. And it surely never meant to challenge or displace the Holy Bible, Koran, Torah, etc.

Here's the story in brief:

(1) American companies were being roughed up by the Japanese in the late '70s—the first post-War II challenge to American business supremacy.
(2) A couple of Harvard B-school professors, Bill Abernathy and Bob Hayes, put the blame largely on our management practices, as taught at their school, among others. In "Managing Our Way to Economic Decline" in the Harvard Business Review, they argued that we [Americans] were paying too much attention to the numbers, not enough to the "basics" such as product quality—sound familiar?
(3) Bob Waterman and I, resident in another blameworthy institution, McKinsey & Co., agreed 100%. But rather than follow the habit of the moment—urge Americans to adopt, lock, stock, and barrel, Japanese management practices—we imagined that there must be some Western-American businesses that still worked (we subsequently labeled them the "saving remnant").
(4) Bob and I sought out expert advice in the USA and Europe and got a ton of nominations. IBM topped the list, which also included the likes of HP, Johnson & Johnson, Disney, McDonald's, Intel, and Wal*Mart. Incredibly (as viewed from today), almost nobody had examined these firms! Fact was that the likes of the B-schools only examined failures at the time—we were about the first to look at successes. (About which, incidentally, the Globe author is clueless, attacking us for what was—in 1980, and everything must be viewed in context—our primary useful point of difference; namely, surfacing successful examples. We were the business equivalent of Abraham Maslow's approach to psychology; Maslow de facto invented "positive psychology," arguing that we also have to study healthy people—not just sick people, as professional psychologists were wont to do pre-Maslow.)
(5) Bob and I and our colleague David Anderson then went off and interviewed like maniacs for several months—mostly folks "down the line," rather than CEOs—this was another break from the regnant "research" tradition of the B-schools and consultancies. Based on those interviews and our extensive literature research, academic and popular, we reached some tentative conclusions. Key phrase: "tentative conclusions." Dear God in heaven, we never imagined for a moment, nor a second, or a micro-, nano-, or pico-second that we were performing research in the physical sciences from which we would extract definitive solutions along the lines of a theory of planetary movement or the effects of gravitational forces on the bending of light! We looked at a ton of interview data, had a ton of discussions, "tested" our conclusions in literally hundreds of seminars, and concluded, very un-scientifically, that "this looks pretty good"—and that doesn't. This approach was made clear as a bell to anyone who came across our stuff.
(6) About five years after the research started, with America mired in its worst recession since the Great Depression (sound familiar, redux?), we published In Search of Excellence. Unlike Peter Drucker, who avoided storytelling and naming names like the plague, we named names and told stories—and they resonated with a bushel of readers. Incidentally, along the way we dumped about 60%, I'd guess, of the originally nominated companies because we deemed their long-term financial performance to have been inadequate—using some pretty common measures and the prior 20 years' data. There was no rocket science here either—just a "sensible" approach to confirming that we were talking about some pretty good performers. Incidentally, it drives our critics nuts that our surviving companies, indeed experiencing ups and downs (duh!), have apparently continued to perform very well—a 2002 Forbes analysis, performed on the book's 20th birthday, concluded that an "excellence index" based on a basket of "our" companies' stocks had handily outperformed the Dow and S&P 500; given the date, 2002, this encompassed the dotcom boom and bust.

The above is not meant to be a "defense"—to the contrary! I repeat: In Search of Excellence was what it was and wasn't what it wasn't. I'd call it "useful"—and very different from its predecessors in an apparently useful way. Namely, to repeat, (1) about successful rather than unsuccessful companies and (2) loaded with practical stories. I suppose that instead of calling our generic conclusions, around which the book was structured, "eight basics," we could have called them "eight tentative conclusions" or "eight pretty good ideas."

The far more important point is—and this has apparently eluded 100% of our critics: Our readers are not idiots! They are pragmatic businesspeople or managers in the public sector or, pastors or priests or football coaches—the essence of the practice of management in all of these disciplines is indeed pragmatism! That is, our book (and others like it) do not appear in the "religion" section of the book store with the Bible on one side and the Koran on the other. Businesspeople, and police chiefs and fire chiefs and public works directors and elementary school principals, are neither looking for Biblical guidance nor full-blown academic theories of the Einsteinian or Darwinian or Newtonian sort. The are looking for ... "a couple of good ideas" they can use now. They are far more capable than Bob Waterman or I or Gary Hamel or Warren Bennis or Rosabeth Moss Kanter of deciding what's worth trying and what's not in their peculiar context—and when to start trying whatever and when to stop.

And, indeed, for thirty years or so now I, at least, have been trying to provide "a few useful ideas that you can get started on this afternoon."

I am being a bit disingenuous, I admit. There is a "constant undertone" to my thirty years of work. I'd call it that, a "constant undertone," not a Unified Theory of Everything. That is, I stood—and stand—behind the likes of (1) being and staying in touch with reality (MBWA, or Managing By Wandering Around, which Bob W and I found at HP in 1978), (2) putting people first (the likes of Dana Corp and Wal*Mart '78, Southwest Airlines today), (3) innovation through decentralization (3M, J&J then and now), (4) staying close to your customer (IBM then and now—with a few hiccups in between), (5) core values (the likes of McDonald's and W.L. Gore—Bob and I loved Ray Kroc's "QSCV," Quality, Service, Cleanliness, and Value, at McDonald's) and (6) doing now instead of talking forever (3M and HP were masters in '78).

Oh yeah, and the most important one of all: (7) Excellence per se! Bob and I may have been about the first to suggest that "excellence" ought to be as much an aspiration for businessmen as for would-be Olympians. That was our "ardent belief"—and did not in any way pretend to be "teased from the data." "Excellence" was, is, and shall ever be totally subjective! And the notion, I'm delighted to say, seemed to have resonated then—and resonates now.

I'm willing to stake any modest usefulness of my career on the "usefulness" of these seven ideas, and a few more that are absent courtesy space constraints. And stake any modest usefulness, far more important, on having listened to and then done my best to share some terrific stories told to me by the likes of Bill and Vieve Gore of W.L. Gore, Frank McGuire of FedEx, Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines, or Master Educator Dennis Littky.

There you have it.

But not quite.

I must inject one sour—and sad—note. Jerry Porras and Jim Collins are pals and colleagues of mine. I think Built to Last was a terrific book with a ton of those "pretty good ideas" between the covers. (Though I don't really like the idea of merely "lasting" as an aspiration—but that's just me.) Likewise, I think Jim's Good to Great is terrific—loaded with "pretty good ideas" that are of immediate use. (Though again I have nitpicks.) But Jim and I are on absolutely opposite sides of the fence, indeed the universe, on two things he wrote or apparently said to the Globe guy. I went out of my way repeatedly to say to the Globe reporter: "The 'research' represented by the In Search of Excellence 'product' should never, ever be confused by the research-experimentation performed to confirm Einstein's theory of relativity. That is not nor will it ever be the standard in the so-called 'social sciences.'" In fact I added that I was one of the ones who think it's a travesty to award a Nobel in economics—economics ain't physics either, as you'll discover when you next check the status of your 401(k). Well, Mr Collins apparently disagrees! Not only does he compare his [note the italics] research to physics, but he also claims to have discovered "immutable laws of organized human performance."

Dear God!
Or, rather, God help us.

Alas, with those claims, I'm afraid Jim gives the Globe writer a boost beyond the fellow's wildest dreams! If "we"-the-gurus [I despise that moniker, by the way] think we are in the business of discovering and propagating "immutable laws," then we deserve all the opprobrium of the Globe writer, the rest of our critics, and our readers-customers.

As I said, Dear God!

NB: I have no desire to defend In Search of Excellence—the fact that some people are still pissed off about its success 27 years later is good enough for me! I am writing this almost entirely because of my irritation with Mr. Collins.

Link Roundup

With his penchant for statistics and formulas, Tom would love this article on Wired.com about a way to assess risk in financial securities. It's a great deal of clarification of how we got into the mess we're in. You've, no doubt, already added CDS to your vocabulary. Now, you can be versed in the term CDO as well.

One auto dealership in the Northeast U.S. is expanding while the rest of the auto industry is struggling. To find out one reason that Herb Chambers is thriving, read this blog entry at Enterprise Media.com.

This came to us from the emails to tom at tompeters.com. We leave it for you to decide, is there an idea here you can use? Free booklet (click on the book cover image) at ExtremeCustomerMakeovers.com.

The McKinsey Quarterly has a terrific interview with Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen Fund, on women and leadership.

This one's on our media page, but we just love it when someone "gets Tom." See what we mean in the article "What to Do in Recessionary Times" by Anja Merret on AgoraVox.com.

Dan Pink pointed us to Zappos' mesmerizing real time mapping of people purchasing shoes.

The Invisible Competitive Advantage: Healthy Ecosystems

Businesses are constantly in search of competitive advantages. The question that they constantly ask themselves is "How can we be 'the choice' for our prospects as they evaluate products or services that we offer?" Books have been written about how to get and sustain competitive advantages in the short term and long term.

This short piece will cover an invisible competitive advantage that you can develop over the long term—and that is to develop multiple healthy ecosystems that thrive on your success.

Let me give a few examples:

Across the world, Microsoft has more than 600,000 partners that have based their business models on one more of Microsoft's products. They build solutions on top of the Microsoft platform. Every time they succeed in selling their solution, they contribute a piece to the success of Microsoft.

The App Store on the Apple website offers more than 25,000 titles dealing with everything from business applications, maps, restaurant recommendations, puzzles, games, radio, books, and even Skype. Developers from around the world are creating applications for iPhone and iPod Touch, designed to use their advanced technology, such as the Multi-Touch interface. Though most of the applications were developed by third parties, these other companies are enriching the Apple ecosystem every day.

The latest innovation from Amazon—Kindle—thrives on the ecosystem that is created by the publishers, authors, and media companies (yes, they sell newspapers and magazine subscriptions, too). In fact, the Kindle can only be successful if companies other than Amazon contribute to its usefulness.

The same rules apply to other industries outside of software and technology, although most other industries now have some sort of technology associated with them.

For example, selling flowers. Using technology, 1-800-FLOWERS can fulfill an estimated 6 million floral arrangement and gift orders a day—in most cases, on the same day. Obviously, this can't work unless they have a network of stores to fill the orders to the specifications provided by the company. They employ a franchise model and work with thousands of stores across the U.S. Using this process, they increase their capacity as well as the capacity of all the individual participating flower shops.

Ecosystems take a long time to develop, as the participants in the ecosystem have to feel that there is a big win for them for expending their time, energy, and other resources to work within the ecosystem. The long time it takes to build these ecosystems is another factor that contributes to the competitive advantage they provide.

Yes, it takes time and energy to design an offering/product that will not only serve you well, but also serve to take care of the concerns of the participants in your ecosystem. However, that extra effort is well worth it when you look at the competitive advantage this act produces.

[You can learn more about Cool Friend Raj Setty at www.rajeshsetty.com or read his blog at Life Beyond Code or follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/UpbeatNow.]

Sleep In ...

Our friend Tom Asacker counters in a Comment with this wonderful piece of quasi-Haiku:

Sleep in tomorrow.
Unplug.
Take a walk in the woods.
Don't try to figure out a damn thing.
Breathe.
Make a whistle from an acorn top.
Say, "You are very lucky. Be at peace." At least a dozen times.
Be invisible.
Be of open heart.
Catch a fish.
Or not.
Repeat weekly.

Presumably the two lists could be used together. I think so. Don't know what Tom A's view is—or yours.

And Then There Were Eight ...

I sent my friend and colleague Ben Ridler, CEO of RESULTS.com, a draft of the "Credo" we posted here a couple of days ago. He gave me some positive feedback—but told me it was too long. He wanted not 49 values, but ONE, or at the most FIVE. I decided it was worth a try—and failed. But I did end up reducing the FORTY-NINE to EIGHT. I did not cheat and try to combine various items from the first list. These EIGHT "finalists" are exactly as they appeared the first time:

Our Credo/A Work in Progress

* We are dedicated to and measure our success to a significant degree by our unwavering commitment to the extreme personal growth of every one of our employees.

* We shall unfailingly aim for EXCELLENCE in all we do.

New Video Page

You'll notice that there's a new item on our menu in the left column, Tom's Videos, etc. We're gathering many types of videos on this page. Some are available for purchase through vendors we trust, some are short, sweet, free, and downloadable. This page is currently a work in progress and we'll be adding much more to it in the near future, including an audio section.

Consider ...

Daily Wisdom for Troubled Times

Get up earlier.
Go to bed later.
Work harder.
Finish what you start.
Learn one new thing.
Renew one contact.
Ask, "How can I help you?" at least once.
Make yourself visible.
Be of good cheer.

Catch a break.
Or not.

Repeat tomorrow.

2009 Recalibration: Part 5

Rethinking the way you communicate with customers

Customers today have less money to spend, more choices, and more uncertainty that paralyzes their decision making.

How do you connect with your customers at a time like this, when they are spending less, scrutinizing more, and rationing the number of times they say "yes"?

The current economic havoc makes it more crucial than ever that you recalibrate your marketing process away from the marketer-centric, advertising-based, get-the-word-out, capture-eyeballs, chest-beating, "look at me" old world of marketing, and design your customer interactions around the way people actually evaluate you: by considering the way all interactions with your company blend to tell one, cumulative, clear, compelling story. I call this Brand Harmony.

You cannot fake out today's customer with a clever promotion. You cannot wow them solely through advertising, except maybe in extreme Aflac Duck/Geico Gekko situations. Customers' antennae are up, searching and sensitive, and they will see around empty promises the way we saw that the old west town at the end of Blazing Saddles was just a movie set facade.

Examples of brand dissonance are in front of us every day. You see a Verizon TV commercial touting the network, and have a dropped call 10 minutes later. You receive mail from an airline telling you they "value your business," and then they charge you a $150 penalty to change your flight. After speaking to a salesperson at his tradeshow booth, you read his brochure and realize that the written message has very little in common with what he said.

You cannot move customers' minds, feet, and wallets unless your create Brand Harmony through the entire course of your interactions with them. You have to be more careful about your marketing investments, especially in the midst of this economic mayhem, as your customers are more careful with their purchase decisions.

Here's an easy way to improve the sense of Brand Harmony you create for your customers: Block off a conference room at your office for the next week. Cover the walls in paper. Next, grab your colleagues and a bunch of markers, and map out the touchpoints customers have with your company throughout the course of their relationships with you. Look for pockets of dissonance. Look for places where the story doesn't flow, or where it contradicts itself. Look for places to improve the way you communicate your story, with a focus on improved Brand Harmony. I'm confident you will have the same experience I have when I do this revealing exercise with my clients: You will quickly spot ways to reduce dissonance and increase harmony.

For example:

• Does the message your salespeople communicate during a sales call match the message in the brochure they leave behind at the end of the meeting?
• Does the purchase experience on the web complement the purchase experience on the phone or in a retail store?
• Do your collections people call customers and ask for money with the same brand values that your customer service people use when they talk to customers?

You'll also find opportunities to communicate better ... and, most likely, spend less, as you notice expensive efforts that really don't tell your story.

For example:

• Do you really have to advertise in that trade journal every quarter, "just to keep the editors happy"?
• Is the annual Christmas card mailing, where seven of you perfunctorily, hastily, and sloppily sign all the cards, the most effective way to touch your customers at the end of the year?
• Would there be great value in a personal call to customers the day after a product or service delivery to see how they feel about it?

Then, start making improvements—today. Brand Harmony is more like a dimmer switch than an on/off switch, and you can start readjusting the way your company interacts with customers, touchpoint by touchpoint, starting now.

Remember, "integrated marketing" is not something marketing people do. It's what your customers do. If you want your customers' attention—and love—create an entire set of experiences that they can "integrate" in their minds into one clear, compelling story.

Go ahead, recalibrate the way you interact with customers. Now, more than ever, in this time of economic discontinuity, uncertainty, and scrutiny.

[This is part five of a six-part series. You can find links to parts one through four at Steve's website, Yastrow.com, or read more by Steve.]

Thank You, Trish!

One Bolllinger employee left us the following Comment:

"I'm one of the very lucky 434 employees at Bollinger that were the beneficiaries of Jack's largesse. It was a wonderful gift, but not a huge surprise—Jack Windolf lives his life this way—in appreciation of all that he has and all that his employees contribute to the business. I've worked for him for 16 years and I can tell you, Jack is a class act and so is the company he's built. And I do mean 'built'—he's no flash in the pan CEO hired last year, but someone who's spent 40+ years of his life building something worthwhile and lasting. Bravo, Jack."

A Monument for Jack Windolf!

JW is CEO of Bollinger Insurance. When he sold 51% of the company last year, he received $500,000 in deferred compensation. He recently decided to spend $434,000.

How?

He gave each of his 434 employees a $1,000 check out of his own pocket—which he called a "mini-economic stimulus package."

Source: AOL, 0405.09

Strategic Listening Plus

The discussion over the last few days of strategic listening got me somehow thinking about "values statements." They, of course, can be quintessential phony baloney. But in some cases, Johnson & Johnson's Credo comes to mind, they can be worth their weight in something far more valuable than gold.

And that, in turn, got me thinking that something like "excellence at listening" is a true-blue fundamental that belongs in even a very short values statement.

And then it was off to the races!

I spent most of a dreary weekend working on the "stuff" that ought to go into a "credo" or "values statement" or "working rules" or "things we care about"—or something. As usual, there's too much here, but I thought you might like to join in the fun:

Our Credo/A Work in Progress

*We are thoughtful in all we do.
*We are excellent listeners—to each other and to all members of our extended family (vendors, customers, communities, etc.).
*We will make the four words "What do you think?" an automatic instinct in all of our internal and external dealings; moreover, "What do you think?" will precede the explication of our own view in 99 out of 100 instances.
*We are dedicated to and measure our success to a significant degree by our unwavering commitment to the extreme personal growth of every one of our employees.
*We will only be "delighted" with our managers if their employees are universally surprised by the level of their personal and professional growth.
*We will be clear that we view leadership at every level as a sacred trust—and that leaders are indeed the servants of their employees just as the effective classroom teacher is servant to the lives and growth of her or his students.
*We believe in the "inverted organization chart"—with the "leaders" at the "bottom" of a reverse pyramid.
*We will construct leaders' incentive schemes so that measureable progress in human development is weighed as highly as marketplace success.
*We will be a leader in research and development in every aspect of our business—and we will work primarily with vendors who are also fanatical about research and development; and work to attract a set of core customers willing to play at the edge of things and become our co-developers.
*We will aim to make our customer engagements adventures beyond the comfort zone, or adventures in growth to use a less intimidating phrase—we will aim to add value in novel ways that surprise and stretch our customers and ourselves.
*We will use the three words "Try it! Now!" almost as often as "What do you think?"
*We revere the experimental method, and believe success is mostly correlated with the number of things one tries.
*We wholeheartedly acknowledge the value of analysis, but in the end swear by "Actions speak louder than words."
*We "encourage" failures; that is we acknowledge that a near-religious devotion to "Try it! Now!" necessarily invites the failures that are part and parcel of trying new things.
*We will, in fact, look askance at those whose records include few or no failures—such a spotless record suggests an unwillingness to brave the unknown.
*We will, to summarize the last few items, all view ourselves as explorers-adventurers, proceeding toward individual and collective growth by actively engaging at the edge of things; we unstintingly believe that our customers will reap enormous value from our commitment to our constant, restless exploration.
*We will encourage and insist upon constant and vociferous disagreement, but be absolutely intolerant of disagreement in the form of personal attacks.
*We will cut "overhead" to zero—every "department" shall aim to be best-in-class in its arena, and hence a full-scale participant in our concerted effort to add value in all we do.
*We will exude integrity, individually and collectively.
*We will exemplify the word transparency in all of our internal and external dealings—and bend over backwards to give new meaning and breadth to the term "information sharing."
*We will individually and collectively accept blame for our mistakes, or even our rather minor contribution to others' mistakes—and apologize accordingly and with dispatch.
*We will bring to bear overwhelming and instant and collective force to redress any customer problem, real or imagined.
*We will under no circumstance badmouth a competitor.
*We will aim to turn every customer contact into a memorable experience, remembering that all of life is indeed a stage.
*We honor the word "design" in all we do, in every nook and every cranny of our organization; every system, every web page, every customer invoice, every employee restroom is part of our purposefully designed "signature," and stand out and exude exceptionalism in one way or another.
*We understand that difficult decisions must be made, but we will bend over backwards to implement such decisions with kindness and grace—the dignity of the individual will always be foremost in our mind.
*We will not intrude into our employees' lives, but we are committed to aggressively helping employees achieve a healthy lifestyle.
*We will master the art of appreciation and be profuse in our use of the words "thank you" to honor assistance of even the most minor sort.
*We will acknowledge through celebration even small successes—and always cast a wide net in our "thank yous" to include bit players, especially from other functions.
*We aim for others to always be surprised by our "vibrancy" and "vitality"—we view enthusiasm as the key to success in anything, and take particular care in leader selection to ensure that every one of our leaders is a "remarkable" "carrier" of enthusiasm through thick and, especially, thin.
*We will drop whatever we are doing and rush to the aid of those involved in tight-deadline activities—even if those involved caused some of their own problems.
*We will be careful in our planning, but also understand that nothing ever unfolds as planned—hence we will be known for our ability to muster resources in an instant, without fuss and from everywhere, to deal with the unexpected; participating in these ad hoc response activities will not be seen as a distraction from our "real work," but as a significant part of our "real work" and an opportunity to contribute to others and build our own skills in ways we might not have imagined.
*We fully acknowledge that other units-departments-functions have other points of view than ours, but we will bend over backwards to develop social connections with those in other functions so that dealings over warring perspectives are dealings among friends.
*We acknowledge that agreed upon deadlines are holy writ, and will attempt to balance requisite urgency and requisite realism in all of our commitments.
*We will fight tooth and nail to minimize the complexity that "necessarily" comes with Growth and the mere passage of time.
*We will declare total war on our own systems to ensure that they do not strangle us.
*We gladly acknowledge that anyone in the organization has the duty as well as the right to challenge anyone else when he or she believes they have a valid and useful perspective to offer—this is particularly true regarding any issue that has to do with safety, quality, or meeting agreed upon deadlines; such challenges may be firm but not rude.
*We will be civil in all our dealings with one another.
*We will bend over backwards to bring truly (not superficially) diverse views of every stripe imaginable to bear on plans and decisions of all sorts.
*We will pursue "diversity" in part so that the composition of our workforce and leadership from top to bottom is a "pretty good" reflection of the demographics of the markets we serve or aim to serve.
*We will use new technology tools to extend the definition of "our family" to every corner of the globe—we will welcome ideas and participation in our affairs from anyone and everyone.
*We will aim for gender balance in all we do and from tippy top to bottom—for reasons commercial more than reasons moral.
*We will never, in any way, compromise on the quality of our products or services—regardless of difficulties in our marketplace and economy.
*We wholeheartedly acknowledge that in the short term (as well, obviously, as the long term) we must be profitable and exhibit stellar financial performance that is consistent with the audacious efforts to serve our people and our clients as described above.
*We aim to be seen by others as "conservative" in our financial practices.
*We shall talk about EXCELLENCE constantly.
*We shall unfailingly aim for EXCELLENCE in all we do.
*We shall use EXCELLENCE as the principal benchmark in the assessment of ourselves and our work and our community.
*We shall never forget that the bedrock of EXCELLENCE is the unwavering commitment to growth of 100% of our employees—and, in fact, all of those we come in contact with.

[Above, also available as a PDF. Below, after the peepers came more snow on Saturday, as seen through our living room window at 6 p.m.—at least it was light at 6!]

Peepers Return to Farm Ponds in Tinmouth!
Dow Closes for Weekend Above 8,000!

How sweet it is!
(At least for a few hours.)

The Strategic Importance of Listening

I decided, with a little help from participants, to Post the entire set of Comments on LISTENING—some of these posts may seem less relevant than others, but we did not feel it was appropriate to edit as any editing is an application of bias. I think these 45 comments provide a range of perspectives—all worthy of your time:

Great post Tom. Is the video of the professor moving to the right available online somewhere? I tried googling it but couldn't find anything.

Posted by Brett Tilford at April 2, 2009 10:12 AM

Please, someone post a link to that video ...

Posted by Cam at April 2, 2009 10:12 AM

[I tried, too. No luck.—CM]

Pet peeve subject of mine.
Listening is NOT a skill - you can learn some techniques but this is not true listening.
Listening, above all, is an attitude. If you are/not interested in the person your body language will show it.
This is the reason why so many senior people are not good at listening - their attitude (I am Smarter, more successful, more important, have to answer this question, know the way forward etc) gets in the way.
Your interest in the other person has to be genuine. Your head needs to be totally empty of your thoughts - you need to be at one with the other person.
When preparing for a meeting (say a coaching session with an employee or a 1:1 with a customer) most people prepare notes, things to talk about etc - how many prepare their attitude and deliberately empty their mind?
Be Curious!

Posted by PaulH at April 2, 2009 10:27 AM

I agree with Paul.
I was talking to a nurse a few weeks back after a communication skills workshop. We discussed listening. She said 'Listening is a function of the ear, hearing is a function of the brain' - I like that and I now use it regularly. It's neat and says it all.

Posted by Trevor Gay at April 2, 2009 10:38 AM

Nodding not listening?
Writing not listening?
Listening is listening?
and hearing
and understanding
and acting
and caring
and respectful
and right
and occasionally you hit gold!
Pan for the gold, it's there - you just need to listen.

Posted by patrick at April 2, 2009 10:56 AM

I'm stealing this line: 'Listening is a function of the ear, hearing is a function of the brain' Thanks, Trevor!
Being in the middle of a duck-nibbling mess right now (because nobody will actually pick up a damned phone and talk to the other people. They'd rather fire emails back and forth...) - it really hits home. Aargggh.
One very valuable lesson I also learned when working for a Japanese company is that nodding doesn't mean agreement. It just means "I hear you." Something we Americans don't always grok.

Posted by Mary Schmidt at April 2, 2009 11:20 AM

I don't disagree on the attitude-skill distinction. But I'd argue that awareness may come first. Some are not aware of what lousy listeners they are--most bosses, for instance; they think they're listeners, their employees think they're interrupters.
I also think that a lot of people simply have not thought about the "strategic" importance of listening per se.
Finally, I think if you get a little better at listening-as-a-skill, you may be surprised at how interesting some of the stuff people say is--and some attitude adjustment may take place.
Finally finally: I think (no evidence) that about 60% of people, and 80% of men (there is evidence--on the gender differences) are lousy listeners--and you can't just write off that share of the population.

Posted by tom peters at April 2, 2009 11:40 AM

Learning to shut up is - well - learned behavior. That's the first step to developing the listening ability. Sure, it can be learned, to a certain extent. At least, you can practice the art of silence.
It's one of the hardest things I had to learn when I became a consultant. Since - OF COURSE - I already know what the problem is and how to solve it (um, maybe not...;-)

Posted by Mary Schmidt at April 2, 2009 12:13 PM

[read more]

I Hate This ...

I really do hate manipulation. Nonetheless, I thought I'd share this "obvious" listening strategy—it was used, to great effect, on me, even though I knew precisely what was happening as it went down.

First comes my belief that Serious Training in listening-information extraction is a "Top 5" skill for leaders, and non-leaders for that matter. And I believe, furthermore, that it can be learned/"trained in." (In Tom's GTDMBA—Getting Things Done MBA—there will, in fact, be a core course in Strategic Listening-Interviewing, and a couple of advanced electives.)

Now to the "tricks":

(1) Nod (interviewer) until your head flies off! I was interviewed several times during last week's Vilnius-Tallinn-Helsinki fling. One interviewer was a Professional Nodder. And the more she nodded the more I spilled my guts—if I'd been a mass murderer, I've no doubt that I would have fessed up on the spot! Seriously, very seriously, nodding is virtually irresistible. It, obviously, which is the "secret," plays to one's ego—"What you are saying is so profound, so true ... please keep going." That's the implicit message. Just try and stop going—and perhaps spilling your guts!

(2) The second "strategy" (trick?!) is a simple variation on the theme: Take copious notes! Of course it's a good idea in general—but, hey, you can be making a shopping list if you want. Once again, the act of note taking is an ego-stroker: "Goodness, I've got to record every word of your invaluable thoughts."

And that's it. Am I "fessing up" to a Big Ego? Nope. Or, rather, we all have big egos wired in. And actually, I don't even need the ego explanation, though I believe it. All I need is to trot out BF Skinner's rats; this is the effect of positive reinforcement at its most primitive.

(There's a wonderful social psych experiment where a classroom full of students is instructed by a psych professor to nod whenever the prof moves to his right—and not to nod when he moves to his left. The video is hilarious: In short order, the poor soul, PhD in physics notwithstanding, is backed into the far right of the classroom!)

Welcome (?), a New Number

In an article I picked up in my wandering (Financial News, 23 March), there was a discussion of the derivatives market—by one measure, apparently it is $1,200 Trillion. If I'm not mistaken that's $1.2 Quadrillion, right?

Hey, I'm just getting used to "trillion"—I guess that's "so yesterday."

Welcome (?) ... Quadrillion!

God help us!

Richter 8.2 Earthquake?
Or Not?!

The FASB is getting ready (a vote today) to screw with "mark-to-market" reporting. It is, in fact, a very big deal. I am trying hard to extend my limited understanding of this cataclysmic move—a bank CEO in San Antonio got me going on this 10 days ago. He claims it is the singlemost important step we can take in unwinding our financial markets mess—banks, among others, have a ton of very solid assets that at the moment have no market for trading; hence they must go on the books as worthless. Of course there is a counterview that the proposed change allows the banks to pick big valuations out of thin air.

So it goes.

Shuttering the WOW! Store

Today we've closed the WOW! Store. It was an area of our site where you could purchase Tom-related items like books, videos, or hats. Much of the merchandise that was available through the WOW! Store will still be available through other outlets. You can find Tom's books (for a complete list, visit our book page) through your favorite bookseller, and Tom's videos through Enterprise Media. If you're interested in things you don't have to pay for, check out our Free Stuff page, which is happily staying right where it is.