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OK, this really intrigues me... and I know this book is really lighting up the blog-o-sphere... so here are my two cents (from a 1/2 read through in the bookstore - more for my own notes than anything else. I still don't know if I like it or just think he's really really arrogant).
But anyway, so the crux of the entire book is on the word DEAL (or DELA) if you are like some people (me) and work for someone else for a living. This is an acrostic for:
- Define - What is the heck is all the stuff you are doing?
- Eliminate - What are the core things that you really really have to do? Use the Pareto principle (80/20 rule) to concentrate on your maximum value adding activities. "Outsource" the rest.
- Automate - Automate your income... I didn't really get a chance to digest this part
- Liberate - Liberate yourself from the 9-5.
He then goes on to explain tips such as only checking your email once a week, never reading or watching the news, and "begging for forgiveness rather than asking for permission".
Hrm... I will hold judgment until I can take a deeper look at the book and think about it further... but I guess this is it for tonight.
Best,
-Jason
OK, last one of the night. Leadership Realities (Part III) - Too Much Inertia. (I don't really have much insight into Mr. Peter's first point about executives being rubber stamps).
Inertia is the resistance to change (you might remember this from your high school physics classes).
In the context of organizations, it's exactly the same thing. As organizations grow the typically institute best practices, standard operating procedures, and other "Our way of doing things". These are usually good. They make life more stable and dependable. Change is scary and takes away people's sense of security. People don't like change. (OKOK I know this is debatable and there is this whole thing called 'Change Management' but you get the point of the picture I am trying to paint).
But sometimes an organization needs change. Sometimes the people change. Sometimes the environment changes. Improvements are change. The problem with inertia is that sometimes it kills a necessary change at the expense of the life of the organization.
History is littered with the stories of organizations, groups, companies, and even governments that died because they didn't change with the times.
So what can you do as a Youngleader to resist inertia? A lot of things:
- Learn to listen - This is an obvious one and I've talked about listening numerous times...
- Check your ego at the door - I talked about this in the post above. You can't shoot the messenger, and you need to proactively seek out areas for improvement. Everyone can improve themselves somewhere.
- "Challenge the Reigning Paradigm" - I totally didn't want to say "Think outside of the box" because well... that has been done to death and we need to be thinking about what's next. No but seriously... you always need to be thinking "Why?". Why are we doing things this way? Why can't this work better? Why don't we look at things from this perspective?
If this all is sounding like a re-hash of the Toyota success story. Maybe it is. They beat corporate inertia through the practice of continual change and improvement. Yes they are a tough act to follow, but the rewards are worth the effort especially when the current environment is "Change or die".
Anyway, lots more to come in the near future. As always comments are requested and appreciated!
-Jason
So I'm on a roll... onwards to Leadership Realities (Part II) - Bad News is Hidden.
You can't blame them. When things go wrong... nobody want to have to tell the boss...
So the vendor missed a deadline, we can make the time somewhere else anyway.... or there is a potential issue with one of your system designs, but if the boss doesn't see it, we should be OK for now...
Yes everyone has an excuse for not telling bad news to the boss. It's even easier to make excuses when the boss shoots the messenger. Unfortunately we still live in an age where the majority of bosses (and the successors they have been grooming) manage with a bullwhip and a chair.
And maybe that is the reason why so few companies "Confront the brutal facts" and make the transformation from Good to Great.
So what can a Youngleader do to change this?
Well the first thing would be to have courage. Not too long ago I spoke to one of my supervisors about her style of dealing with people. It was quite obvious that she looked down upon the more technically skilled members of our team because many of them had a language and cultural barrier to overcome. Because of her outlook and the existing communication barriers she created the potential for miscommunication, errors in work, and project delays.
I confronted her about this, for the good of the project that we were working on. It was scary... and well she shot the messenger... which was even scarier for me... but I did what I thought was right.
Why should we "do the kabuki" (as Arnold would say)... hide the bad news only to waste months of work and thousands of dollars... just to save one person's ego? We shouldn't right?
(And in any case I still have my job... so at least for now I'm OK).
What else can a Youngleader do? Well, you might have the opportunity for a leadership role in a student or community organization. Why not be the kind of leader who can accept the brutal facts without shooting the messenger? Why not be the kind of leader who actively looks for (constructive) criticisms in order to continually improve?
Yes, it will be hard... and yes you will have to sometimes swallow your pride. But what's more important to you... your pride or your goals and your mission?
The answer should be obvious.
-Jason
The next 3 or 4 posts will all be related to the previous one about "Sad Facts and Silver Linings" inspired by an article I read a while ago written by Tom Peters (whom many consider to be one of the Godfathers of effective management). I want to start out with a post on firefighting. Especially for those Youngleaders still in school, this concept might be a little foreign. And no, it does not mean literally breaking out the axes and fire extinguishers. Firefighting is working on a task or problem that has suddenly become urgent and important. Examples might include having to create a Powerpoint for a presentation at 3 o'clock, scrambling to recover from a server crash in a key system, or literally trying to recover manufacturing production after a fire in the electrical room. The thing is... you never know what you are going to get. Nobody enjoys firefighting. It's stressful. It's unexpected. There are more people asking 'Why did this happen?' than 'We need to do this to put things right'. But [stuff] happens, right?
Well, yes and no. Yes, there will always be things that will come totally out of left field that you could never have expected, but a little planning can go a long way in preventing many of the other fires.
Thinking about the Powerpoint that needs to be finished for 3pm... and it's already past noon. If this were for a brand new client that just yesterday made this appointment just this morning... well that happens. But if this is a presentation to management on the status of a project that has been ongoing for the past 6 months... well someone should have know that this was coming up and even if the key stakeholder made the last minute schedule change, this should have been expected and the appropriate materials should have been collected as the project progressed.
And yes, maybe a power outage caused by an electrical storm may cause a server to crash. But if this were a critical system, why didn't we have back-up's and disaster recover plans in place?
Worse yet, why hadn't the hazardous conditions in the electrical room been found during routine inspections... or why hadn't the proper maintenance been made to repair damaged wires and etc...
OK, so you get the picture... what am I getting at? Well we all know that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure... aka we must Be Proactive. But the simple fact is that we would like to be... but we're to busy fighting these fires to take the time to prevent the next ones from creeping up.
Maybe that's why people hire outside consultants to do this for them. The outside consultants can work on being proactive and solving this longer term solutions why the full-time people work to put out the fires at hand.
Though, I probably should say this (since I work in consulting), but I would say this is a pretty inefficient way of running an organization. (And maybe that's why Tom Peters calls this a "sad fact").
So what can a Youngleader do about this? Well the easiest answer is also the one that requires the most discipline. You have to be proactive and put in those extra hours to prevent the fires, especially if you are not in a position to tell those in charge to ease up on your other responsibilities.
But maybe you are running a community organization or group. Then the strategy would be to go for controlled growth. So there's no point in shooting for many new and ambitious programs and projects, if there isn't the manpower to support them all properly. Yes we all know you can stretch and if 'all goes well' achieve larger goals. But, what if your luck doesn't hold out and you all of a suddenly need people to label, stuff, and mail-out 5000 flyers... will you be able to handle that?
And finally... what is the silver lining when it comes to fire-fighting? Well for one thing people are definitely focused and motivated when they are fighting fires. Perhaps you could direct that energy and emotion towards making the appropriate changes and improvements to prevent the same things from occurring next time.
What are your thoughts on this? I really want to make this blog more of a two-way conversation and I hope that more people will post comments so that we can all enhance our learning together!
Thanks again for reading!
-Jason
OK, so I'm back! Time for some quick insights courtesy of Tom Peters.
Anyway, so looking through my notes I have this.
Realities of the workplace:
- Executives = Rubber Stamps NOT "Decision Makers"
- People are always engaged in short-term 'firefighting' and don't have time for long term strategic thinking
- Bad news is hidden from those who need to hear it the most
- There is too much inertia
From my brief experience in the workworld... I would have to agree 100% with Mr. Peters. I will be going into greater detail about my thoughts on these in the following posts.
Thank you all for continuing to read the Youngleader blog!
-Jason
