Discover Network

We used to call them "credit card companies." But the likes of Discover Network (and its rivals) now offer a plethora (that is, a dizzying array) of products and systems under the umbrella of the payments business. Tom's in Chicago today speaking to Discover Network's Acquirer Advisory Council.

Discover Network, Acquirer Advisory Council, 14 September 2011
Discover Network Long Version, 14 September 2011

Little BIG Things
Ways to Pursue Excellence #165: Boss as "Helper."

Bosses exist to "help."
Period.

Check your calendar.
Right now.

What have been your EXPLICIT "helping" activities today?

Little BIG Things
Ways to Pursue Excellence #166: Employee as "Client."

Your employees are your "Clients."
Duh!

Use the word!

Little BIG Things
Ways to Pursue Excellence #167: Become a Student of "Helping." Become a "Professional" Helper.

"Helping" is NOT (!!!) a "seat of the pants" activity.
Study it.
Practice it.
Master it.

Little BIG Things
Ways to Pursue Excellence #164: Priscilla-ism.

Understand the Power of Priscilla-ism.
Accept no less than Priscillas in any customer-facing job.
Follow the Container Store axiom and do not compromise on Priscilla-ism.

Implement.
Now.

Success Tip #176:

Skip the Trashtalk!

Sure you're pissed off that the folks who will be the BENEFICIARIES (!!) of your Magnificent Work "just don't get it."

Hint: Calling them the likes of "irresponsible murderers" won't help!

Rule: Don't trashtalk prospective users of your programs—even in the most private of private conversations with your most trusted friends and allies!!

100 Ways to Succeed #175:

Stop!

In preparation for a short speech at a Nature Conservancy fund raiser, I re-read Bill Birchard's Nature's Keepers: The Remarkable Story of How The Nature Conservancy Became the Largest Environmental Organization in the World. When former president John Sawhill was at TNC's helm, at one point he appointed a key task force to do a ground-up look at the organization's strategy. More specifically, per Sawhill's charge: "What areas should the Conservancy focus on and more important—what activities should we stop doing?"

In general, for you or me or our organization, consciously-systematically-strategically working on "stop doings" is of the utmost importance—and often overlooked. We might stop doing some distracting thing, or lower a priority—but that's not the same as a personal or organizational look at entire areas to excise from our agenda. (And then planning in exacting detail how to withdraw.)

So, I suggest:

In the next 90 days, work with your leadership team on a "Stop Doing Strategic Review." As I said above, once decisions have been made a careful execution plan must be developed.

(Along the way, do the same thing for yourself—with the eventual help of a "stop counselor.")

100 Ways to Succeed #174:

Promotion: The ONE Question

See above. The promotion decision should be dominated by the candidates' detailed track record at people development. The candidates' assertions should be carefully checked with the people the candidates claim to have developed.

100 Ways to Succeed #172:

Rigidity Watch!
Start Today!

"Rigidities" is not just the problem of Giants. Rigidity is a disease in 3-person accountancies and 11-table restaurants only one year old.

Stop what you are doing.
Right now.

Call your best customer.
Ask: How are we doing compared to a year ago? Six months ago? Are we making your life more complicated? Are we more bureaucratic in any way, shape, or form? Are we slowing down? Do we ever say, "I'd like to do that for you, but ..."? Etc.

Call your best vendor.
Repeat the above.

Visit your newest employee.
Ask: Have you run across procedures since you got here that you think are silly or over-complicated? If so, have you passed your concerns along? If you haven't, why not—do we make it intimidating to surface such concerns? If you have passed such concerns along, have you been praised for doing so? Has anything happened?

At every Exec Group meeting, set aside a 15-minute block to discuss a "dumbest thing we've done lately" item—insist that members bring a case along for discussion.

There's nothing special about my suggestions here—they are not necessarily meant to be followed, but merely to get you thinking about some anti-rigidity rituals you might invent.

100 Ways to Succeed #173:

EXCELLENCE Watch!
Start Today!
Repeat Daily!

Consider the 3 (or 2 or 5) meetings you've been to today. Consider the 3 project milestones just buttoned up—or the 3 on the near horizon:

Has the word "EXCELLENCE" per se been used as a basis for evaluating your actions? Could you personally call the outcome of each meeting or the nature of the milestone/s achieved or approaching "Excellent"?

Key idea: The "Excellence Standard" is not about Grand Outcomes. In Zen terms, all we have is today. If the day's work cannot be assessed as Excellent, then the oceanic overall goal of Excellence has not been advanced. Period.

That is, the "Excellence Watch" must be a daily affair—or you simply are not serious about the overall Standard of Excellence.

100 Ways to Succeed #171:

Consider Imbedding Negotiation, Writ Very Large, a True Core Competence.
(You'll Doubtless Be the First on Your Block.)

I've argued for the likes of "Black Belts in Strategic Listening" and a values "plank" labeled "Thoughtful in All We Do"—as the "Heart of Strategy." Now I'm on my high horse again: Strategic Enterprise-wide Negotiating Culture belongs on this list—and damn near the top.

100 Ways to Succeed #170:

Stop Kidding Yourself!
Do Fresh!

Years ago: I'd gotten home late from a long & harrowing trip. At breakfast the next morning, I declared to my ex-wife that I felt "fresh as a daisy"—no ulterior motive, I did! As I said it, I dropped my coffee cup on the floor.

Her (appropriate!) response: "Petal fell off."

Likewise, apparently brimming with energy, in days past, I'd arrive in London from San Francisco, go to my hotel and change, and get on with my day's work—certain, redux, that I was "fresh as a daisy."

Arriving at around 6 a.m. from a mere Boston-LondonHeathrow trip, these days I usually take the day off:

Nap.
Then wander around London.
Working dinner is a possibility.

Message:

Fresh matters!
A lot!!!!!!
(And not just in the OR or cockpit.)
(And age makes some difference—but, I believe, not a lot of difference.)

(I still feel "fresh as a daisy"—thanks, Mom Peters, for the Energizer Bunny genes. But now I'm "sage enough" to admit that I ain't!)

So:

Don't do delusion!
Do fresh!

100 Ways to Succeed #169:

Only You "Own" Your Attitude!

Does life suck sometimes?
Absolutely.

Nonetheless you and only you own your attitude. "Realistically," things may stink to high heaven. Still, the day is yours to Embrace with Vigor and Good Cheer—or not.

Your call.
100%.
Period.

Remember, if you will, the annoying-persistent TPR/Tom Peters Rant:

EXCELLENCE. Always.
If not EXCELLENCE, what?
If not EXCELLENCE now, when?

100 Ways to Succeed #168:

"Special" Wins!
In Any Circumstance!
(Including the Toughest Environments Dominated By Monster Firms.)

Is your product or service offering (see above post) ...

Special?
So special it takes your and your customers' breath away?

Live the super-amazing-incredible-WOW-only ones who do what we do flavor of Special.
(Or die—professionally—trying.)

Start the Quest for SPECIAL today.
Why not?

100 Ways to Succeed #167:

Commit Wholeheartedly to Pursuing
"The Only Thing You Need to Know."

As leader-Servant Leader, devote your career to developing 100% of the people in your charge. You will know that you are succeeding when you can see that they are, or are journeying toward, being:

Committed.
Engaged.
Growing.
Learning.
Fearless (unfailingly encouraged to try new things).
Respected.
Trusted.
Appreciated.
Independent-minded.
Team focused.
Focused themselves, even when fresh caught, on the growth of others
Passionate about their work, their mates, and their customers.
Informed.
Open (fanatic about sharing).
Caring.
Committed to EXCELLENCE in everything they do.

People first.
EXCELLENCE. Always.

100 Ways to Succeed #166:

Do What Is Necessary

"Trying one's best" and "Caring" are better than not trying one's best and/or not caring.
I guess.

Reluctant as I am to use such strong and absolutist language, there is only One Acceptable Standard: Getting done what is necessary to get done.

Proceed accordingly.
And evaluate those in your charge accordingly.

100 Ways to Succeed #165:

Excellence.
The "Six-step Program."
Circa 2009.

Tom's Six-step Program:

**Pursue a "non-negotiable" aspiration for growth and greatness that stretches us to the breaking point and perhaps beyond: ... an emotional, vital, innovative, joyful, creative, entrepreneurial endeavor that elicits maximum concerted human potential in the wholehearted service of others—e.g., Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Communities, Owners, Temporary partners.
**Listen like maniacs. Consciously pursue Excellence in Strategic Listening. 100% "Listening Blackbelts." Listening per se is at the Heart of Competitive Advantage.
**Ask and ask and ask again and again and again: "What do you think?" Engage everyone as Rockstar Participant in a Bold Adventure in Personal and Organizational Growth and Excellence.
**Celebrate failure. Yes, damn it, CELEBRATE. Try and fail and adjust and try and fail and adjust, then try and fail and adjust. Repeat. Forever. At the speed of light. To paraphrase my friend Richard Farson: "Whoever makes the most mistakes wins."
**Total and unwavering focus on creating "100% life success sagas" among our staff and customers and vendors and other members of our extended family.
**Excellence. Always. If not Excellence, what? If not Excellence now, when?

[Above: Crabapples arriving!]

100 Ways to Succeed #162:

Process > Outcome.
Happy Staff, Happy Customers.
Kindness Is Free!
(Kindness SAVES $$$$.)

You'd think that "getting well" was the heart of the matter when it comes to evaluating a hospital stay.

Right?

Wrong!

In one giant survey, Press Ganey Associates queried 139,380 former patients at 225 hospitals on "patient satisfaction." After the data were collected, they teased out the 15 most powerful determinants of said Patient Satisfaction.

Are you ready?

None.
N-O-N-E.
Zero.
Z-E-R-O
Zilch.
Zip.
Nada.

Not a single one of the Top 15 sources of patient satisfaction had to do with the patient's health outcome. All 15, in effect, were related to the quality of the patient's interactions with hospital staff—and employee satisfaction among staff members.

The study is reported in Putting Patients First, by Susan Frampton, Laura Gilpin, and Patrick Charmel. The authors are leaders at Griffin Hospital in Derby CT. Year after year it ranks near the top (Top 10 on several occasions) of Fortune magazine's Best Companies to Work For list—one of the rare, and often the only, health care institution to do so. (It also tops the charts on damn near every other measure you can name from patient safety to financial viability. The so-called Planetree Alliance, run out of Griffin, is the epicenter of the "patient-centric care" movement.)

The authors use the Press Ganey data as the jumping-off point for discussing the process and tenets that guide their work with staff and patients at Griffin:

"There is a misconception that supportive interactions require more staff or more time and are therefore more costly. Although labor costs are a substantial part of any hospital budget, the interactions themselves add nothing to the budget.

"Kindness is free.

"Listening to patients or answering their questions costs nothing. It could be argued that negative interactions—alienating patients, being unresponsive to their needs, or limiting their sense of control—can be very costly. ... Angry, frustrated, or frightened patients may be combative, withdrawn, and less cooperative—requiring far more time than it would have taken to interact with them initially in a positive way."

The Big Lessons here—and they are BIG—are several:

(1) Process "beats" outcome in evaluating an "experience"—even one as apparently "outcome sensitive" as a hospital stay. The positive quality of staff interactions were more memorable than whether or not the health problem was fixed.
(2) Happy staff, happy customers. Want to "put the customer first"? Put the staff "more first"!
(3) Quality is free—and then some. We learned (well, most of us learned) when the "quality movement" dominated our consciousness that not only was quality free—but doing the quality thing right actually reduced costs, often dramatically.

100 Ways to Succeed #162A:

Kindness Is Free!

And, to repeat (and what could be more worth repeating?) ...

(4) Kindness is free!!!

100 Ways to Succeed #162B:

The Big Four!

Kindness is free!
Thoughtfulness in all we do!
Put customers first by putting staff "more first"!
Watch your cash balance-market share soar!

100 Ways to Succeed #163:

"Being There" for Others

Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends and Influence People) once famously said, perhaps all you need to know to get ahead, in 29 words: "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."

Mr Carnegie's observation-commandment came to mind when a good friend asked me to contribute to a compilation of "best advice I ever got" stories he was putting together. I thought for a long time about his "simple" request. And here's where I ended up:

Could attending a funeral count as "best piece of advice" I ever got? For me, yes.

My Grandfather Owen Snow (my Mom's side) ran a little country store in Wicomico Church, Virginia, in a part of the state called the "Northern Neck." As you might expect, we grandkids loved hanging out in the store—there were still barrels of this and that back in the late '40s and even the '50s. Sometimes Grampa Owen would let us measure something out—and he would turn tyrant if we ever shorted someone by even a fraction of an ounce. He'd always pile a little something extra into a can of 10-penny nails, or whatever. One also noticed, to the extent that a kid could, that he always took his time with people, listened to their stories, and treated them with the utmost respect.

I was in the Navy in Port Hueneme, California, when Grampa Owen passed away. We were days from a deployment to Danang, Vietnam, but my commanding officer didn't hesitate for a second in giving me four days' leave, even though I was the so-called Embarkation Officer—there's a lesson for another day in that, too. Anyway, I made it to Wicomico Church in plenty of time for the service. Did I tell you it was a truly pipsqueak town, with, I'd guess, a population of 400 or 500, though my memory is cloudy? The roads were still pretty primitive, and it'd been dry for a while. Around 8 a.m., the service was at 10, the dust started to stir. In short order, it was a veritable dust storm. The upshot of all this is that over 1,000 people showed up. I talked to several of them, whom I didn't know. It seemed as if Grampa Owen had lent each and every one a helping hand at one time or another—good advice, a call to someone somewhere who might help them out, an extended period of credit, a few bucks out of his pocket, whatever, and whatever.

The "lesson" that funeral taught me was the power of decency and thoughtfulness. It wasn't that my Mom and Dad hadn't done a lot of that, but this was the Ultimate Technicolor Illustration. In the most unassuming way, Grandpa Owen had "been there" for an entire community and beyond—and a great dust storm of people, some, who'd moved, from 100 miles away, had come to say one last thanks. If there isn't a crystal-clear message, and, de facto, advice in that, I don't know where you'd find it.

To make the obvious more obvious, if necessary: How do you (me!) stack up on The Great "Being There" Exam? It's a "life question"—and a "business-career success question" with few, if any, peers.

100 Ways to Succeed #164:

Excellence. Always.
If Not Excellence, What?
If Not Excellence Now, When?

I'm here because of Excellence.
That is, back in 1982 I co-wrote a book called In Search of Excellence.
A lot of people were kind enough to buy it.
And I've been "talking Excellence" for the subsequent 27 years.

(NB: Never write the word "Excellence" without capitalizing the "E." This I command—not that I have the power to do so.)

I love "Excellence"—and not just because it paid for the farm I bought in Vermont in 1984.

I love EXCELLENCE—truth is, I think you should capitalize all the letters—because Excellence is soooooo Cool. (Cap "C.")

It's so cool.
It's so heartening.
It's so soaring & inspiring.
It's so worth getting out of bed for.
(Even in the winter in Vermont.)
It's so healthy.
It's so helpful to others.
(The striving more than the arriving.)
It's so good for your morale—even on the shittiest of days.
(Especially on the shittiest of days.)

Book tour driver Bill Young says:

"Strive for excellence. Ignore success."

TP: Amen. (Love it!)

Anon.* says:

"Excellence can be obtained if you:

... care more than others think is wise;
... risk more than others think is safe;
... dream more than others think is practical;
... expect more than others think is possible."

(*Posted by K. Sriram @ tompeters.com.)

TP: Amen. (Love it!)

Asked how long it took to achieve Excellence, IBM's legendary boss Tom Watson is said to have answered more or less as follows: "A minute. You 'achieve' Excellence* by promising yourself right now that you'll never again knowingly do anything that's not Excellent—regardless of any pressure to do otherwise by any boss or situation."

(*I don't really know whether or not Watson insisted on the Cap "E"—from what I know, I wouldn't be surprised. I do know he loved the word.)

TP: Amen. (Love it!)

Regardless of the location (China, Lithuania, Miami) or industry (health care, fast food), I title all of my presentations:

Excellence. Always.
If Not Excellence, What?
If Not Excellence Now, When?

I hate the word "motivation"—surely I've told you that before.
I hate it because the idea of me "motivating" you is so outrageous—and arrogant.
To state the obvious, only you can motivate you.
What I can do (as boss or even "guru") is to Paint Portraits of Excellence.
And then we can imagine ourselves in those portraits—in Pursuit of Excellence.
"Pursuit": Excellence is not a "goal"—it's the way we live (remember Mr Watson of IBM).

Excellence. Always.
If Not Excellence, What?
If Not Excellence Now, When?

100 Ways to Succeed #164A:

Excellence In (Today's) Tough Times.
Now.
More Than Ever.

Excellence is always worth its weight in gold.
If possible, Excellence is worth even more than its weight in gold in tough times.

In tough times, the pressure is such that there is often a temptation to cut corners.
Think "Excellence."
Don't cut the corner/s.

In tough times, your morale is often shot, and it's hard to get out of bed.
Think Excellence.
Set the alarm a half-hour earlier than usual.

In tough times, it's really tough to be a boss.
Think Excellence.
It is tough to be a boss in tough times—but tough times are the Ultimate Test for you and your team—EXCELLENCE is a more worthy aspiration than ever before.

Excellence. Always.
If Not Excellence, What?
If Not Excellence Now, When?

[Above, the Farm, with Spring finally arriving. Below, close-up of the sort of brambles that stand between me and Excellence!]

100 Ways to Succeed #159:

Create a “Cathedral”!
(If Not, What?)

In an important [as far as I was concerned] keynote conference speech honoring the work of Peter Drucker, I let my imagination soar, and out popped, among other things,

Organizations should be ...

... no less than Cathedrals in which the full and awesome power of the Imagination and Spirit and native Entrepreneurial flair of diverse individuals is unleashed in passionate pursuit of ... Excellence.

"Cathedral/s" is a Big Word. In fact, I don't mean it in a religious way—except in that I see all organizations as driven by an unstinting commitment to members' growth.

A classroom in a primary school should ... obviously ... be such a Cathedral. But so, too, an accounting or training department. Organizations must effectively serve their external customers to survive, let alone thrive. But my line-of-logic is, at least to me, crystal clear and admits no alternatives: The odds of the external customer being served effectively is a direct function of such service being provided by those [employees] who are engaged in a vigorous Quest for Growth and Excellence.

I don't ask you to "buy my act." I do ask you to think about it—and the consequences (enormous!) thereof.

Is, in fact, your unit of any size ...

"... no less than a Cathedral in which the full and awesome power of the Imagination and Spirit and native Entrepreneurial flair of diverse individuals is unleashed in passionate pursuit of ... Excellence"?

And if it is not, or if that is not the am, then tell me what the alternative is. Please.

Cathedral.
Imagination.
Spirit.
Entrepreneurial flair.
Diverse.
Passion.
Excellence.

Or???????

100 Ways to Succeed #160:

Show Me "The Money"!

Let us assume that you are the boss of a 63-person IS/IT department, or a 111-person engineering department, or a 37-person hotel housekeeping department. Let us further assume that you buy into my idea of organization-as-Cathedral-devoted-to-human development.

And let's also assume that I'm your boss.
And let’s assume we are commencing my annual review of your performance.

Want to guess my first and primary question, to which we will dedicate 50% of the entire review?

Here it is:

Please describe for me in exacting detail the top 5 examples of growth on the part of your staff. Among other things, on a scale of 1 to 10, describe where every person who works for you was at the beginning of the year (Mary was a high-potential "5"), and where they are at the end (Mary is a clear "7").

(If I am interviewing outsiders for a VP slot, I'll ask, "Please tell me in some detail the best 5 examples of people you 'grew' in your current job. In the job before that." Again, we will spend about 50% of the interview on this question, or some close kin.)

The point is, if you subscribe to the "cathedral model" of organization-human development, then individual Adventures in Growth are at the top of your accomplishments list.

(Incidentally, I'll also ask you, again concerning named individuals, about the Brick Wall case of no progress or even regression.)

You are the boss.
You are in the human development "business." So "show me the money"—the best cases of your success and the details of your approach.

100 Ways to Succeed #160A:

Right Now!
As in ...
Now!

Stop!
Right now!
(I was too easy on you before!)

Please list.
Right now!
The 5 people!
Whose development you have contributed to!
Directly!
And Profoundly!
In the last 24 months!

Are.
You.
Happy.
With the list?
Happy with yourself ...
As a "People Developer"?

If "Yes" ...
Great!
Congrats!

If "No" ...
What.
Precisely.
Do you plan to do about it?
Starting Monday?

100 Ways to Succeed #161:

Make It #1!
Every Job!
(Every = Every!)

"I am a dispenser of enthusiasm"—Ben Zander, renowned symphony conductor and "management guru"

"Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm."—Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Axiom: Enthusiasm is the sine qua non of success ... at anything.

Hence, I command:

The Very First Item on EVERY job criteria list shall hereinafter be:

"Enthusiast."

Every.
Job.
Enthusiast.
First.
Period.

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.

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.)

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.

100 Ways to Succeed #154:

Become a Professional Nudgist! viagra australia sales

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.)

100 Ways to Succeed #153:

The 1% Drill!

See above.
Do it!

Repeat every 90 days.

(This in addition to your other mandated cost-cutting exercises.)

100 Ways to Succeed #152:

Ask & Ask & Ask Until You Understand!

Make it one of your 2009 and beyond resolutions:

"I shall lead the league in Asking Dumb Questions."
"I shall become Questioner-in-Chief."
"I shall persist until I 'get it.'"
"I shall evaluate others in part on their skill at Asking Dumb Questions."
"We shall hire in part on perceived or measured Instinctive Curiosity." (For every slot.)

Swallow your damn pride, especially "top" bosses.
Ask until you understand!
The "dumber" the question the better!
If the askee is pissed off at you for your "stupidity"-or pigheadedness, consider that Victory.
Ask!
Ask!
Ask!

(And require whomever to boil the damn thing down to one paragraph in VPE, Very Plain English—or whatever your native tongue is.)
(On the other hand, sweat the details—the weird, incomprehensible thing about whatever may well appear in Footnote #7 to Appendix C in the full version of the report.)

100 Ways to Succeed #150:

Forget the Labor Laws!
Staff Your Advisory Boards with 4-year-olds!
(I'm serious.)
(Very serious.)

"Everything" is changing.
Our recession-depression will not slow the change; it may well accelerate it.

The change is being "consumer led" by, yes, 4-year-olds, among others.

What do 4-year-olds have to teach you and your small or large, public or private, organizational unit or company?

A lot.
Period.

So, what is your Grand Plan/Tactical Plan for gleaning the Wisdom of the Four-year-olds?

   (1) I'm not kidding in the least.
   (2) So what's your plan?
   (3) Be specific.

NB: Yesterday, driving to Boston, I heard the news that the Christian Science Monitor is, after 100 years, discontinuing the paper edition of its paper. It'll soon be 100% electronic. Yup, stuff, lots of, is happening.

100 Ways to Succeed #151:

Commit to Lifelong Learning as a "Core Value"

I hereby suggest that you add to your mission statement or corporate charter the following:

"An unstinting commitment by all of us to accelerated lifelong learning."

(And then I suggest you do something "radical" "profound" "bold" to bring said core value to life.)

100 Ways to Succeed #149:

Excellence!
Now!
More Than Ever!
Happy New Year!

Excellence is the best defense.
Excellence is the best offense.
Excellence is the answer in good times.
Excellence is the answer in tough times.
Excellence is about the big things.
Excellence is about the little things.
Excellence is a hammer.
Excellence is a relationship.
Excellence is a philosophy.
Excellence is an aspiration.
Excellence is immoderate.
Excellence is a pragmatic standard.
Excellence is execution.
Excellence is selfish.
Excellence is selfless.
Excellence keeps you awake.
Excellence lets you sleep well.
Excellence is a moving target.
Excellence knows no bounds.

Excellence2009!
What else?

Now!
More than ever!

100 Ways to Succeed #148:

Now Is the Perfect Moment to Get Truly Community-minded!
Don't Let Tomorrow's Sun Set without an Effort to Move Forward, "Full Speed Ahead," on Community Involvement!

Your candidate (at any level) may have lost, but if you did campaign work you discovered (1) that there were many kindred, local "activist" spirits working for the public good and (2) that you can make an insta-difference, as you saw through canvassing or driving for get-out-the-vote or whatever. Maybe you fell short on General Election Day. But there are 729 days to go until the next General Election. So what are you going to do for the community during those 729 days?

For starters, perhaps: Get together with some of "your activists"—and, yes, "their activists" and talk over some of the local, typically non-contentious, important community ventures in which you might get involved. And lay out a couple of next steps in the next week.

Damn few of us, age 16, 26, 36 or 66, are entirely happy with our efforts to "give back" and help our communities. Don't lose the current Momentum of Civic Virtue! Let's get going on that "next local step"—more or less right this minute!

(The behavioral sciences are clear: If you don't follow up on something, like a useful seminar, with concrete actions in a matter of hours or a couple of days at most, you never will follow up. Hence, every minute is critical: Follow up on your newfound, if it's so, community-mindedness ASAP!)

100 Ways to Succeed #146:

Obsess On The Basics!
Now, More Than Ever!

As I said, now, more than ever. I suggest, for example, that you devote most of your "morning meeting" or "weekly phone call" to the "little" things—from clean restrooms to deliveries made or missed to thank-you calls to a customer for her business after an order ships.

Keep on each other over those basics—and be liberal with the kudos for those who go an extra millimeter to do a "trivial" job especially well.

100 Ways to Succeed #147:

Master the "Art Of Milestoneing"

Become a "milestone activist." Use milestoneing as a matter of routine, but do so with the greatest care, as only partially explained above—that is, become a Milestone Professional as well as a Milestone Activist.

NB: "Milestoneing" is a group endeavor, not a top-down activity.
NB: The Art of Milestone Celebration is also worthy of your study and application.
NB: This is a Big Deal.

100 Ways to Succeed #143:

Put Prospective Employee Evaluation Practices Where They Belong—
At Or Near The Top Of Your Strategic Priority List

As stated above, there is good reason to believe that our attention to prospective employee evaluation is woefully wanting—and of astonishing strategic importance. (Likely more important, as the authors of Who argue, than the business's strategy per se.)

I am not asking you to "buy the act." I am asking you to give this a great deal of thought, do a little casual research, perhaps buy and read the book, chat with others—and then devise a "strategic" game plan to address this strategic issue.

100 Ways to Succeed #144:

Focus-Obsess On the "Big Three"

I hereby assert that the three most important strategic factors* [*or, at least, three of the tippy tippy topmost important strategic ...] affecting enterprise success are:

(1) Recruiting-evaluating-hiring
(2) The 1st-line supervisor promotion decision
(3) Promotion decisions in general

If my threefold assertion is even close to true [and it is, at the very least, worth examining], are its implications directly reflected in your calendar and business practices in general? If they are not so reflected, what—precisely—are you prepared to do about it?

100 Ways to Succeed #145:

How You Gonna Make "It" Special?
Please Have A Good Answer!

How are you going to get past the "wishitweres," and make the next meeting, the next 15 minutes special, fully participate therein? (PLEASE ASK YOURSELF THAT QUESTION. RIGHT NOW.)

Yeah, I know, for example, "another damn meeting." Well, much of your professional life will consist of one "damn meeting" after another "damn meeting." Do you really want to bitch them all away? I just read something somewhere about someone of import (??) who turned meetings of every shape and flavor into gold mines—opportunities to learn from others, to help herself grow, to help others grow, to learn how to surface submerged conflict and benefit therefrom, etc, etc.*

I repeat: How are you going to make the next meeting, the next 15 minutes special, fully participate therein? (Ask yourself this question as a matter of routine.)

*Reference material par excellence: Crucial Conversations—Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler; Crucial Confrontations—Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

100 Ways to Succeed #142:

"We Are Thoughtful In All We Do."

Consider the idea of: "We are thoughtful in all we do."
What does it mean?
How does one practice it?
Talk about it with peers, pals, vendors, customers, etc, etc.
Talk about thoughtfulness—"dogmatic thoughtfulness"?—as a powerful and pragmatic business value. (And especially in traumatic times.)
Keep debating.
Consider adding "thoughtfulness in all we do," maybe "dogmatic thoughtfulness in all we do," to your formal values proclamation—or otherwise vigorously promoting the idea.

(NB: You must come to agreement on the "bottom line" pragmatism of this idea before formally proceeding—it may well make you better persons, but it is not in any way a "mushy" idea.)

100 Ways to Succeed #141:

Pursue The Enormous Potential "Diversity Advantage"
Through Awareness And Study And Practice

There is an enormous diversity advantage—but it doesn't grow on trees. Working to achieve diversity comes first—but putting that diversity to work is just as important.

Study.
Train.
Practice.

Apply one transaction-exchange at a time.
Always.

This advice applies to men.
This advice applies to women.

This is a strategic opportunity!

100 Ways to Succeed #139:

Work the Damn Phones!
Treble Your MBWA!

One of my favorite quotes, from Carolyn Lamb* (*can't quite figure out who she is, even with Google's brain as helper), goes like this: "A year from now you may wish you had started today."

Yes, today many of us wish we had "wildly" "over"invested in those employee-vendor-client-community relationships when the market was heading North and there was a little slack in the system. Well, perhaps we didn't, but, and I'm not "doing a Tony Robbins" here, it really is never too late. That is:

Work the damn phones.
Keep working the damn phones.

Show up.
Keep showing up.

Call clients and suppliers, ask them how things are going, and how you can help. This is not about sales (directly), but about "showing up"—taking time from your busy affairs to offer assistance of any sort. (E.g., offer up your network: "Well, Dave [one of your key suppliers], I know Ed Simpson, over there at [one of Dave's problem clients]; his daughter and mine are co-captains of the [name of school] soccer team; I can give him a call for you if you'd like." Etc.)

This is even more important with our employees.** "Over"inform—the rumors are invariably worse than reality. "Over"do your MBWA—managing by wandering around. Keep your enthusiasm up if it kills you—not in a dopey grin, "all is well" way, but by exhibiting energy and masking any internal doom & gloom expressions that may, in fact, be just beneath the surface. [**I use the formal word "employees" here, a word I ordinarily dislike. But the point is that you do have a formal hierarchical relationship with those on your payroll, and thence a formal as well as an abiding moral obligation concerning their and their families' well-being.]

100 Ways to Succeed #140:

Stand In Front of the Damn Mirror And Practice Your Confident Look—Until You Get It Right!

As one sage (who he?) put it, "Bosses are not allowed to have bad days—especially on bad days."

I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area during the Joe Montana era—that is, when Joe led the now wobbly SF 49ers to four Super Bowl wins in four tries. A lot of Mr. Montana's excellence, it was said, emanated from his near-miraculous ability to make his teammates believe that the impossible was not only possible, but inevitable, right now, and regardless of how dire the straits were. Sure, he had a good coach, a good team, and terrific athletic skills—but that, as his coach, the late Bill Walsh, once told me, was only part of the story. Bill was a master of drafting attitude-and-character-over-raw-skills; and that's why he had drafted Montana in the first place. And that's what Montana delivered with matchless regularity.

You are not Joe Montana. And neither am I. And perhaps, like my wife, you actually hate football. No matter, I'm sure you get my point. If you don't, let me spell it out: At this professionally precarious time, you'd better practice your Joe Montana-Rudy Giuliani 9/11 act. That is, no matter what your fears and qualms are, you have to exude character and confidence—not confidence that we can bring 3,000 people in the Towers back to life, but that we can soldier on, that we can attack the day with vigor and determination, and perhaps even see some good that may well emerge from the bad.

Ms./Mr. Boss, listen up: You are finally doing what you've been paid to do for the last umpteen years—you are called upon to lead in a time of crisis, financial crisis, yes, but also-mostly human crisis.

Advice: Stand in front of the mirror, or whatever, and practice your Joe (or Jane***) Montana demeanor! Until you get it right!

(***As to "Joe" and "Jane," I am fully aware of gender differences. "Steely look of determination" sounds, in retrospect, "very guy" to me. The way in which women-Janes will exude confidence and practice MBWA and tend to relationships is likely to be far different than the typical male-Joe approach. No matter. The leadership necessity is the same—regardless of the way in which it is expressed. Incidentally, or not so incidentally, at times of stress gender differences are likely to be particularly pronounced—and hence the possibility of botched communication particularly high. There is, I repeat, no reason whatsoever to believe that either men or women are better at dealing with tough times—there is every reason to believe that styles will differ.)

100 Ways to Succeed #138:

A Good Formula

From the above we can learn a lot about dealing with crises in general. While not the complete story, I take these gleanings:

(1) Concoct an authoritarian control group that numbers three. [Yes, I like this number per se.]
(2) "Over"-communicate.
(3) Drop all pretense of formality.
(4) Park egos at the door.
(5) Ensure that the group is diverse. [The Post points out that the current troika consists of a Wall Street titan, an academic, and a career civil servant.]
(6) Each member should have towering competence.
(7) Each member must have widespread credibility.
(8) Also "over"-communicate beyond the group.

100 Ways to Succeed #137:

Civil!

Civil!
Civil!
Civil!

(Always.)
(Only losers badmouth.)
(This is very very important.)

The more pissed off you are, the more you reach out to be civil.
Period.

(This is one helluva winning, practical strategy.)

100 Ways to Succeed #136:

Ultimate & Perhaps Only "Sure-fire" Winning Formula

S.A.V.*

*Screw Around Vigorously