It is not unusual when a new leader arrives to sequester him in a conference room with the key senior staff and bombard him with hours of PowerPoint presentations to make sure he has a clear picture of the situation. If the situation is good, the focus is on who gets the credit (the CEO or senior pastor). If the situation is bad, the focus can be on who (China or the worship leader) or what (the economy) should be blamed. The entire view of things is from the perspective of and through the filters of the senior staff who, by the way, have the most to gain and the most to lose.
That was the plan in the mid-90’s when I arrived as the new leader of a small west coast aerospace machining company. Our owners wanted to merge it with our Nashville operation because it was losing money and customers. Machined parts for a Boeing 777 (or any other Boeing or Airbus airplane) are manufactured to tolerances within a few hundredths of an inch in high-tech, clean, organized and efficient facilities. At least they are supposed to be. After handshakes and a cup of coffee, the executive team was ready with the PowerPoint. However, I scuttled that plan with “let’s take a walk first.” After more than thirty years in the aerospace business, I knew I could learn a lot just by walking around.
We exited the conference room, put on safety glasses, then stepped outside. It looked more like the Sanford and Son junkyard (a 1970’s hit TV comedy starring Redd Foxx; check it out on tvland.com) than an aerospace facility. The first thing I saw was a couple of acres of rusting truck doors, old machines, barrels of who knows what, obsolete tools and piles of scrapped parts. Inside the buildings, the aisles were so cluttered with half-finished parts that it was hard to walk from one machine to the next. The paperwork for each job was scattered and oil stained. I fully expected Redd Foxx to rush up at any minute and fake a heart attack (his tactic on the TV show when things were going bad). Because I saw it with my own eyes, I knew it was going to take a total change in management and months of hard work to fix it. I learned more in a thirty minute walk-around than I would have in eight hours of presentations.
As a leader, you need unfiltered information and clear perspective. You won’t always get it in a PowerPoint presentation. Get out of your office and take a walk with your eyes open and your ears unplugged. A little dirt on your shirt won’t hurt you.
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
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Women in heavy-industry factories are common today. They do all the things men do on assembly lines, in machine shops, quality labs and stock rooms. But it hasn’t always been true. It started during WWII when the men were off fighting and workers were needed to produce airplanes, tanks, rifles, jeeps and so on. The women stepped up and were immortalized in a hit song, Rosie The Riveter:
All the day long, whether rain or shine,
She’s part of the assembly line.
She’s making history, working for victory,
Rosie the Riveter
It’s not an exaggeration to say that without Rosie, the war would have dragged on for years or have been lost. The women had no experience, but they were motivated to get the job done and they did.
I had my own Rosie The Riveter experience in the late 80’s. While serving as VP of Finance for a mid-size aerospace company, we were confronted with a crippling thirteen-week strike. At least it could have been crippling, but it wasn’t. Why? Because accountants, secretaries, engineers, buyers, vice-presidents and even the lawyers all went to the factory floor to keep production going. They even let me work out there. Since no one wanted me to have anything in my hands that moved or made noise, I was a wing wiper, meaning I took a rag, squirted Trike (trichloroethylene) on it, and cleaned excess adhesive, oil, sweat, dirt and grime off of aluminum surfaces before they went to the paint shop. For thirteen weeks, this motley crew—most with no experience—kept the production lines moving and our customers satisfied. It was an experience all of us remember proudly, made possible by four “…tions” that all leaders should burn into their leadership DNA.
#1 Motivation Our president, John Kleban, was our CMO (Chief Motivation Officer) prior to and during the strike. He made it clear that our future was at stake and that by working together, we could do it. We believed him.
#2 Preparation Prior to the strike, every employee who would work in the shop was trained for a specific assignment. On day one, we were ready to go.
#3 Execution Have a plan. Work the plan. Track the plan. Change the plan. The more inexperienced the team, the more important is the plan.
#4 Appreciation Kleban, along with most of the executive team, was in the shop every day, listening to, thanking and encouraging the team. We pushed water carts to all areas of the factory and served lunch.
Is your organization on a hard road that is beginning to look hopeless and impossible? Before you give up, ask your team which of the four “…tions” is lacking, then be a strong Kleban-type leader, do something about it!
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
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The Nepalese government is organizing an expedition to place a GPS device on the top of Mount Everest to resolve the “raging” international debate on the exact height of the mountain. Oh, you didn’t know there was a raging debate? Here are the current “estimates” of the height of Mount Everest:
► Nepal 29,028 feet
► China 29,017 feet
► U.S. Nat’l Geographic Society 29,035 feet
Now, all these measurements are the height above sea level. However, a lot depends on where and when you measure sea level. The U.S. uses the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, as the baseline. The U.K. uses a location in southwest England. Actually, due to tides, rotation, gravity, ice pack melt, etc., sea level is ever changing, though there is something called a geoid which is supposed to account for all of these. Further, the Himalayas are actually rising every year, so whatever is accurate today will not be a year from now.
What is at stake in all this? Nothing. Mount Everest is about 750 feet higher than the second highest mountain, so its reign is not threatened whatever the outcome of new measurements or estimates. This is a clear “much ado about nothing,” a trivial pursuit that will absorb time, energy, and money with no meaningful outcome. I sure hope the Government of Nepal is not paying for this with deficit spending as the good ol’ …. (oops, no politics on this blog).
I don’t want to be too hard on the Nepalese government. Most organizations have a few trivial pursuits that use up human and capital resources with little meaningful impact on the health or future of the organization. Doing with excellence what doesn’t need to be done at all is common in businesses, churches, non-profits, and so on. If you are a leader trying to focus your organization on what is important, getting rid of trivial pursuits is a good way to start. There are a lot of ways to go about this, but my favorite is simply asking, “What bad will happen if we don’t do this any more?” I wonder if someone in Nepal is going to ask that question?
[The catalyst for this post was a WSJ article by Carl Bialik, July 30-31, 2011.)
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
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It was 5:56am on July 21st when the Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center—the 135th and final flight of the 30-year Space Shuttle Program. Sadly, the U.S. manned space flight program is over for the foreseeable future, maybe forever. The International Space Station is still up there circling our globe at 17,000 miles per hour, but it is now the Russians who now have the lead role of shuttling astronauts back and forth. If you are over fifty, it sounds familiar doesn’t it?
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union shocked the world, launching Sputnik 1 into orbit, taking the lead over the U.S. in the space race. It was a clash of good versus evil, God versus atheists, capitalism versus communism, democracy versus dictatorship, and the “bad guys” were winning. Four years later (April 12, 1961), the bad guys were still ahead when Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit earth—one time around in a Vostok spacecraft. The good guys pulled off a 15-minute sub-orbital flight (Alan Shepard, Freedom 7) about three weeks after Gagarin’s feat. However, it would be almost a year before John Glenn circled the earth one time for the U.S. We were behind and not catching up. Why? We were in a race, but we didn’t have a finish line, a goal, a clear vision. Vision is the responsibility of leadership, both to cast it and pull it off. President John Kennedy was our leader then. It was his job to do something and boy, did he!
Six weeks after Gagarin’s feat—before the U.S. had even attempted an orbital flight—President Kennedy cast a vision that excited and energized America like no other in my lifetime:
I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.
Special Joint Session of Congress—May 25, 1961
This wasn’t just a vision, it was a BHAG! (Big Hairy Audacious Goal per Jim Collins in Good To Great.) Before the U.S. had flown around earth a single time, President Kennedy challenges us to go to the moon and back in less than nine years. He didn’t say it would be easy; he said it would be “difficult…expensive to accomplish.” He also said it would be worth it: “No single space project…will be more impressive…or more important….” Two years later, President Kennedy was struck down by an assassin’s bullet and didn’t get to see his vision fulfilled. But it was, and how!
Eight years and fifty-six days (July 20, 1969) after President Kennedy’s speech, the Apollo 11 Lunar Module landed on the moon, announced by Astronaut Neil Armstrong’s simple statement, “The Eagle has landed.” About six hours later at 10:56 EDT, Armstrong’s left foot touched the moon’s surface as 600 million people watched on live TV and were stirred by his statement, “That’s one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind.” Even more stirring for me was the planting of the U.S. flag and Astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s pause to salute it. I am not ashamed to admit that I shed some tears that night and then again four days later when the Command/Service Module Columbia splashed down in the Pacific Ocean with Armstrong saying, “Everything’s okay. Our checklist is complete. Awaiting swimmers.”
It started with a surprising and shocking vision: “I believe this nation should commit itself…before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.” Significant accomplishment always requires a significant vision. In his book, Visioneering, Andy Stanley says:
“It is vision that helps you end up somewhere on purpose.”
Leading without vision is like trying to put a puzzle together without the box cover. Your vision doesn’t have to be a BHAG like going to the moon. However, it does have to give you something clear and compelling to shoot at. Is your organization floundering, frustrated, getting tired and going nowhere? Maybe you are running a race without aim, without a finish line, without a vision. Are you the leader? It’s up to you. Get out your paint brush and start painting a picture of the future. Your business, or church, or non-profit, or family, or __________, is waiting on you.
Remember, it wasn’t a Saturn rocket that launched Apollo 11, it was a vision.
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
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A trip to the beach last year included the obligatory task of making a sandcastle, except it wasn’t a sandcastle we built, it was…well…let your imagination run wild (but not too wild). Sandcastles aren’t a children’s activity anymore; the adults have taken over. There is even a U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition in San Diego with $21,000 of prize money. There are hundreds of competitions, usually fund raisers, in places without sand (Omaha) and places with lots of sand (Qatar). With so much at stake, a new occupation has washed up on the beach: Sandcastle Consultants. Whether it is a competition, fund raiser, or company picnic, people are willing to pay big bucks to get help building “world-class” sandcastles. It takes more than a blue plastic bucket and yellow shovel these days, you need a consultant.
Another childhood favorite, Jell-O, has also been taken over by adults. The Jell-O Mold Competition in Brooklyn, N.Y., featured gelatin sculptures like Jell-Obama, Jelly Fishin’ and Jelly Dogs (the grand prize winner, complete with bun, hotdog, mustard, relish and ketchup, all sculpted with Jell-O). Look it up on Google Images—you’ll be amazed. I couldn’t find any Jell-O consultants, but no doubt they are coming.
Sandcastles and Jell-O sculptures have a lot in common. They can’t withstand much stress. Even with the help of consultants, sandcastles are eroded slowly by small waves or wiped out by one big one. Put a little heat on gelatin and it falls apart and becomes unrecognizable.
One of a leader’s main jobs is to make sure his organization is built on something that won’t erode when the waves come, or fall apart when the heat is on. Organizations need a firm foundation, a clear purpose for existing:
“People get through tough times because they have a strong sense of…purpose.”
Kouzes & Posner in The Leadership Challenge
“This is who we are; this is what we stand for; this is what we’re all about.”
Jim Collins in Built To Last
(Chapter 3 of Built To Last is a great read about organizations with enduring purpose.)
Purposes that won’t survive waves and heat are:
◊ Profit: a shallow, meaningless purpose; organizations that exist primarily to make money never make enough
◊ Power: look at the mess in Washington; it’s all about power
◊ Self: a leader who makes it all about self ends up lonely, depressed and bewildered
◊ Size: Texas is bigger than Tennessee, but Alaska is bigger than Texas; so what?
Without a clear understanding of who you are and why you are taking up space in the first place, even a consultant can’t save you when the waves are high and the temperature hot.
By the way, it’s not just your organization that needs a clear purpose, you do too.
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
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“Papa, we are going to see Cars 2 this afternoon!” My three grandson buddies were “some more pumped.” The 2006 version of Cars is one of their—and my—all-time favorites, so we had been looking forward to Cars 2 for weeks. Lightning McQueen and Mater (my hero) would be racing in Tokyo, Italy and London against the arrogant trash-talking Italian, Francesco Bernoulli. How could it get any better than that? When we walked out of the theatre at 6:00pm, $56 poorer, the answer was: it could get a lot better than that.
The Disney/Pixar partnership has had a stunning track record of success bringing animated stories for all ages to the big screen: Toy Story (1, 2 and 3), A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up and WALL-E. The stories were compelling, simple enough for children, creative enough for adults, and action packed. Up and Toy Story 3 were actually nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. My three buddies (4, 7, and 9 years old) have watched these movies over and over and aren’t tired of them yet. However, Cars 2 won’t make it to the DVD shelf. What happened? Disney/Pixar completely missed their target audience.
Cars 2 has a convoluted story line of broken relationships, lemon cars like the Hugo and Gremlin, spies, alternative fuels, the world’s largest untapped oil field, and…get the idea? Do you think my grandsons have any idea what a Hugo is? Though the animated action was spectacular, the plot was so complex and disjointed that the adults could barely figure it out and my buddies were lost completely. We walked out thinking what was that all about?
There are a couple of hard leadership lessons from the Cars 2 fiasco:
◊ Past success does not guarantee future success. Reputation may fill up the theatre, or worship center, or store aisles the first weekend, but they can be near-empty after that. (There were less than 50 people watching Cars 2 with us on a Saturday afternoon, holiday weekend.)
◊ Be clear about your target audience, customer, etc. I doubt if Disney will make this mistake again. Their next animated movie will be one that 7-year-olds can understand.
I hope there is a Cars 3. I want to see my hero Mater again with one of my buddies sitting in my lap, and both of us understanding and enjoying what is happening on that huge screen a few yards in front of us. I want to hear to them ask, “Papa, can we see it again?”
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
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and my One Life To Live is over. Weekday afternoons will never be the same. ABC has announced the death of the two venerable soaps at the end of this season. Both have had long lives and slow deaths. Even Susan Lucci couldn’t save the children.
The story of the soaps began in 1951 when the Search For Tomorrow began—sitting in the #1 spot with a 16.1 rating. The search got a Guiding Light in 1956 and by 1958 there were seven soaps filling the after-lunch timeslots As The World Turns. (I suppose the rotation of earth was suspended on Saturday and Sunday.) By 1969, the field had grown to nineteen soaps, but the top rating had slipped a little to 13.6 (No doubt A World Apart was making it difficult for the world to turn).
There is a marketplace principle that having an increasing market share in a declining market is not an indication of success. Both All My Children and One Life To Live had their highest market share ever (>12%) last season. However, the overall market has decreased by over 80% since the two shows launched in the late 60’s, so their number of viewers was actually decreasing as the share was increasing. So instead of a Bright Promise for the future, a Secret Storm was casting Dark Shadows that even a trip to General Hospital couldn’t save.
Last week’s post was the story of the fast death of a market leader; this is the story of the slow death of market leaders. Both stories point out the deceptiveness of market share as a long-term measure of business health and continued success. Instead of asking “What is our market share?”, ask:
Is our total market growing?Is our product or service attracting new customers (and younger ones), or are we stuck in a diminishing demographic?
Are we trying to buck an inevitable trend (cars vs horses; digital vs analog; etc.) and if so, will we make it for only five years…or forty?
If what we are doing now isn’t working, why, and are we willing to change?
Leaders, don’t be deceived, change is coming and if you don’t get ready, The Edge Of Night will become turn out the lights.
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
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The five-column headline was Stent Pioneer J&J to Exit Business (Wall Street Journal, 6/16/2011). You may be thinking, “So what, who cares?” Well, the 1000 people who work at the two plants that will close care. Further, you should care because it is a great example of the overnight POOF! that can happen to any business or ministry.
The J&J stent story began in 1994, less than 20 years ago, when Johnson & Johnson first entered and dominated the emerging coronary stent market. By 2006, the market had grown to more than $6B. J&J, with $2.6B in sales, owned more than 40% of the market. Then in less than five years (in 2010), J&J’s sales were down 75% to $627M and their market share had deteriorated to only 14%.
My point in this post is not to criticize or second guess J&J’s decision, or to analyze what happened. J&J has been around since 1886, yes…1886; they know what they are doing. J&J is a respected and successful company, one of the Built To Last companies in the now-classic Jim Collins/Jerry Porras book. No doubt, exiting the stent market was the correct decision for J&J. The key point here is not what happened, but how fast it happened.
POOF!…in less than five years…just like that…almost overnight…a major business segment goes from a 40+% market share to being shut down. Do things really change that fast? Yes! Competitors arise; technology advances; new products emerge and existing products and services decline; customer preferences change and so do congregation preferences. The iPad and Androids are taking out the once dominant Blackberry (yes, it’s happening), Netflix took out Blockbuster, and Oldsmobile/Pontiac/Saturn disappeared, all these in less than five years. Can it happen to your organization? Yes.
As a leader, you have two major responsibilities: deliver results in 2011 and get ready for 2015. Ignore either one at your own peril. I don’t know what you will need to do to be successful in 2015, but I know this for sure, it will be different than today. Start getting ready now so I won’t be reading your POOF! story in the WSJ.
Need another example to convince you? Author and historian Daniel J. Boorstin once said, “A wonderful thing about a book, in contrast to a computer screen, is that you can take it to bed with you.” Hmmm, I have a computer screen I take to bed with me. It’s called a Kindle. By the way, the Kindle didn’t exist five years ago.
© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
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So how do you get pigeon poop out of your attic? A Wall Street Journal article reported on the futile efforts of the Select Board in a well known town in Massachusetts (unnamed to protect the guilty). Pigeon poop had piled up in the town hall attic and become a health hazard. The Select Board budgeted $125,000 to clean up the mess, but the lowest contractor bid was more than twice that. A group of citizens volunteered to clean up the mess for nothing, but that idea was nixed by the lawyers, fearing the city would be sued. Finally someone had a brilliant idea: “If we can’t clean it up, why don’t we at least make sure it doesn’t get worse by keeping the pigeons out? We could patch their entry hole in the attic window frame.” Duh.
This true story is a great example of an organization focused on the symptoms, not the problem. There are lots of other examples:
◊ Governments (guess who) that believe reducing the deficit is the same as reducing the debt
◊ Companies that drive sales by the deep discounting of outdated products instead of introducing innovative new products at a competitive price
◊ Maintenance managers that are applauded for fixing the HVAC system on a hot summer day, but never change the filters or clean the coils
We make the same mistake as individuals: heart patients go back to cheeseburgers soon after their quadruple bypass relieves the chest pain and golfers try to fix their swing by buying a new set of clubs (quitting would be smarter).
Why do we fall into this trap so often? Fixing symptoms is often easier and quicker than fixing the problem (but only in the short run). Once the symptoms are relieved, we move on to the next set of symptoms. Often we focus on the symptoms because we are in denial about the real problem—very common when the leader is the problem. Unidentified problems continue their hidden destructive work until they finally erupt into the open with sometimes fatal consequences.
Tired of relief? Want to actually fix the real problem? Do this:
◊ Patch the hole in the attic so the pigeons can’t get in, but don’t stop there
◊ Clean up the mess the pigeons left behind
◊ Ask someone if you are the pigeon
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© Copyright 2011 by Dick Wells, the Hard lessons Company
George Burns, the popular cigar smoking comedian of the WWII and Baby Boomer generations (yeah, I know, I’m dating myself), had this to say about advice:
Too bad that all the people who really know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair.
He’s right. Sit in any barbershop on a busy Saturday morning and you’ll learn how to fix the government, which coach ought to be fired and which quarterback ought to be starting. You will also learn which is better, Chevrolets or Fords, and where to go for the best fried chicken (The Chicken House, New Albany, IN). Preachers can learn how to improve their sermons (shorter is better) and you’ll hear spirited debate about the virtues of John Deere (for real farmers) versus those “foreign” brands like Kubota (hobby farmers). Generally speaking, the barbershop mantra is “If I want your advice, I’ll give it to you.”
Eugene Peterson, paraphrasing Proverbs 15:22, says, “Refuse good advice and watch your plans fail; take good counsel and watch them succeed.” The problem? It’s easy to get advice; not so easy to get good advice.
There are times, lots of times, when we all need advice. We are facing a hurdle, or an opportunity, and we aren’t quite sure what to do. We may have an idea and need confirmation, or we may have no idea at all. In either case, someone asks us, “Have you talked to…?”
An overall principle for seeking counsel is the old adage, consider the source. Here are some questions about the source that I ask:
Are they speaking from first-hand experience, not just theoretical or academic knowledge? I want to talk to people who have been on the front lines of leadership.
Do they have a personal agenda? Be careful if they have something significant to gain or lose.
Have they experienced some failure? The road to humility always has a failure marker or two. The best counsel will come from someone who is genuinely trying to help, not impress.
Do I know them personally? If I don’t, I seek input about them from people I do know and trust.
Are their values consistent with mine? Do they live and lead their organization in a way I am comfortable with?
A few concluding thoughts:
Getting a second—and third—opinion is always a good idea.
“Don’t do this” advice is often a lot more valuable than “do this” advice.
Don’t act on any advice that gives you a queasy feeling in your stomach.
In the end, you are responsible for the outcome. Gather as much input as you can; make the best decision you can; then man-up and accept responsibility for the results.
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