This blog is about the relationship between organizations and the people who work for them. And, it’s dedicated to the millions of people around the world who go to work every day wanting to do a great job.
Grey zones are costing your organization big time
There’s a lot of focus in organizations on moving fast to meet customer needs and shifting market conditions. We’re encouraging employees to be more involved in defining and delivering organizational success. People from all levels and all functions of the organization are getting together to ‘hack’ solutions to important business problems. Collaboration is our mantra. Innovation our goal.
When the formal structures and systems of the organization aren’t supporting what we’re trying to do we’re finding ways around them. And this is a good thing. But, in our rush to collaborate and democratize our organizations we’re losing clarity. While we’re busy crowd sourcing hacks: Who’s got the responsibility? Who’s got the authority? And, how do we know? Will we only find out once whoever it is pops out of the wood work to disagree with what we’ve been working on/towards?
This lesson came crashing home last summer when I discovered that, on a not-for-profit project I’d been working on for several years, I had all the responsibility and no authority. Since, I’m in the business of clarifying, helping make the grey zones black and white, this was a shocking revelation. But it was an informal volunteer thing, so… “These thing happen”.
Now I’m noticing grey zones places where I would never have expected. In a high growth, high success organization that completed a major restructuring and failed to make accountabilities clear for over a year. In a 500 year old institution where lack of clarity on roles and relationships and responsibility and authority is somehow seen as a good thing. And, in a global company where decentralization of decision taking was taken to such an extreme that their shareholders are now threatening to sue them due to lack of oversight.
The grey zones we create, intentionally or not, are costing organizations time, energy, and money. They are increasing politics. It’s more and more about who you know rather than what you know or how well you do it.
Grey zones are decreasing transparency to the point where it’s virtually impossible for anyone to figure out who’s doing what, why, when and how decisions are being taken.
And, they are decreasing trust in the offering, the leadership, the institutions and, if you’re on the inside, in each other.
At high speeds, when we’re all moving fast to meet customer needs and shifting market conditions, new ways of working are imperative but grey zones may be costing us big time. Are they worth the risk?
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Saying goodbye to jargon
Saying goodbye to our favourite jargon isn’t that easy. A recent chat on the IABC linked in page asked for jargon no one wanted to hear ever again. Here are just a few examples:
Incentivize, c-suite, granular, customer-centric, innovation, collaboration, creative, low hanging fruit, breaking silos, verticals, blueprint for change, under the tent, run of play, strategic architects, rolldown, scaling, flight risk, thinking outside the box, pick my brain, value-added, leverage, make an ask, reach out, bandwidth, deep dive, drill down, ramp up, onboard[ing], quick wins, tactical execution, think laterally, going forward, socialize, run it up the flagpole, circle back, face time, strategic decision…
And more. Many, many, more.
I think we all agree. Jargon is a bad thing. And yet, most of us have been guilty at one time or another of contributing to our jargon-filled world. Jargon just sticks.
So, now what? I’m thinking we may need a good exorcism.
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Don’t leave them laughing
Is there a right way to write? Ever since Dr. Johnson wrote his dictionary people have been laying down laws for the English language. Perhaps the most famous rules today are Elmore Leonard’s 10 rules for writing, which begin with: Number 1 – “Never open a book with weather” – as in “It was a dark and stormy night.”
My own rule is the title of this post and a central message of David Foster Wallace’s brilliant essay “Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the wars over usage,” which was published in Harper’s Magazine in April 2001. Wallace says that as much as grammarians want to believe that rules for writing exist to prevent misunderstanding they actually exist to prevent your not being taken seriously. For example, to make one up - “Running furiously down the road the clock struck one and she knew she was going to be late.” Everyone knows what this imaginary writer is trying to say. But the result is laughable.
Here are some other examples, not invented that I found in the Montreal Gazette and Toronto Globe and Mail on Wednesday February 29, 2012.
“Montreal drivers were slapped with a 14-cent jump in gasoline prices on Tuesday and energy industry eperts say that’s just a taste of the higher fuel costs Canadians can expect in coming months.”
“She was smart as a tack, perceptive and forever thinking outside the box.”
“Another worry: these digital medical records will be worth their weight in diamonds, not just in gold”
Here thanks to George Orwell are some rules to avoid breaking my rule.
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A master class with Ed Sullivan
On Sunday night when I was a kid everyone gathered around the TV to watch the Ed Sullivan Show. The papers joked about his voice, his awkwardness, and his look – old stone face they called him. And impressionists like Rich Little and John Byner made a living “doing” him, even on his own show. Sullivan’s show was a hit. One of the reasons it was a hit is that he knew people tuned in to see his acts not him.
Yesterday I saw someone introduce a speaker at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art. It was wrong in almost every way. It was boring. It was too long. It began with the introducer explaining who they were. Then it had too much detail about the speaker – every degree and award for 30 years. And then not enough on why we would want to hear what the speaker had to say. It made me want to grab them, sit them down and force them to take a class from a master. A master like Ed Sullivan.
Watch the clip. He’s fast. He’s excited. He’s all about, look what I”ve got for you, here’s why, and getting out of the way. The clip is a long one - although I assure you Ed’s intro isn’t - so don’t feel you have to watch the whole thing – intro plus act. But then again you just might want to – it’s guaranteed to warm up a cold winter’s day like the one I can see out my window right now. Ready? Heeeerrrrrrrrrreeeeee’s Ed!
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Innovation & collaboration: Strategic priorities or not?
For all the talk in Canadian business about innovation and collaboration, I just read a startling and rather disappointing fact from a talk given by BDC late in 2011: Canadian “businesses invest $2,400 less per employee, per year, in computers, software and training than American companies do.”
A few years ago that amount spent on information and communication technology wouldn’t have bought you much. Today it could set an employee up with enough technology and applications to be able to connect the way they want, when they want, with colleagues virtually anywhere in the world. It could create the opportunity for innovation and collaboration that we believe is so vital.
The United States have been hit harder by the recession than we in Canada have and yet they invest $2,400 more in the stuff that will make it easier for their employees to create new and more efficient ways of doing things; new products and services that better meet the needs of their customers; and a competitive advantage. This doesn’t seem right.
When we as leaders are out talking about the importance of innovation and collaboration to the future of our organizations and our country are we making it a priority? The numbers say we aren’t.
If innovation and collaboration are key strategic priorities, then we need to invest in them. If they aren’t, then we probably shouldn’t keep saying that they are.
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The truth about the number 1 fear
Can it really be true that public speaking is the number 1 fear of ordinary people like you and me? Presentation coaches often say so. I should know because among other things I’m a presentation coach. But the evidence for the claim is underwhelming. Years ago Jerry Seinfeld used to open his comedy act with this story. “According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does this seem right? That means to the average person, if you have to go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”
Of course Jerry’s right this doesn’t seem right. The facts are “most studies” haven’t found this. One study did. The much quoted or referenced 1971 Bruskin Report, conducted by the U.S. marketing research firm R. H. Bruskin Associates for the [American] Travel Research Association. The good folks at Travel Research wanted help dealing with what they thought was a big marketing problem for the travel industry: Americans fear of flying. Bruskin was delighted to be able to help them out with their survey which, remarkably, showed ordinary Americans were much more afraid of public speaking, heights, insects, financial problems, deep water, sickness, and even death than they were of flying. [Which proves, to carry on with Jerry's logic that if your swimming in deep water and get a cramp you'd much rather drown than ask the crowd on the beach for help.] Since then surveys have been conducted from time to time that report what everyone already knows that large numbers of otherwise ordinary people are to some extent apprehensive, hesitant, shy or nervous about, fearful or afraid, call it what you will, of public speaking. If this research proves anything it is that nervousness about public speaking - to use one simple label for a complex collection of feelings and energies – is a normal part of what it means to be human. It is not our number 1 fear; and fear is the wrong word for most people; it is our most common shared experience. And I have come to believe it is an extremely useful thing. I don’t think any great presentation happens unless the presenter feels some nervousness before they go on. Too much can hurt a presenter but so can too little. The key is to master your nervousness not eliminate it.
Here, for your consideration, are the musings of an expert on the subject of fear:
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Want to know the secret to writing a great speech?
The other day I was listening to a speaker on TEDx talk about the secret to writing the great speech. She had me hooked. Afterall, in one part of my life I’m a speech writer. If anyone has found the holy grail of speech writing - the secret to writing a great speech - I want to know it. The secret she said is the structure of the speech. All great speeches begin with the present (“I have a dream …”) then shift to the future (“One day all God’s children …”). And then work back and forth between the present and the future drawing their audience forward in the dramatic tension between what is and what will be. Great, only one problem. It isn’t true.
The great speeches aren’t all structured in this single way. Pick up William Safire’s collection of the world’s great speeches, Lend Me Your Ears: Great Speeches in History. You’ll quickly discover other ways. Examples? Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address (“Four score and seven years ago …” ) begins with the past not the present. John F. Kennedy’s opening statement in the televised Nixon-Kennedy Presidential Debate also begins with the past (“In the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln said …”). Mark Twain’s much celebrated recounting of his battle with stage fright begins with the present (“My heart goes out in sympathy to anyone who …”) but then shifts sharply to the past not the future (“I recall the occasion of my first appearance …”) and then resolutely stays there. I could go on but I leave it to you to discover the many other structures that provide the scaffolding for great speeches.
What can we learn from this? There isn’t one right way. You can succeed in a thousand different ways. Have a look at Saffire’s collection. It’s worth your careful study even if your next talk is a Monday morning briefing at Bombardier and not the opening of the United Nations in New York.
The secret to a great speech? There isn’t one right way.
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Connecting for big business benefits
This morning I came across three articles. Three different perspectives. Same conclusion. The more connected we are as leaders and as organizations the better.
Perspective 1 - CEOs. A study of 65 chief executives from around the world discovered that CEOs spend an average of 6 hours out of their 55-hour work week alone. The remainder of the time is spent in business meetings [virtual and face-to-face] and lunches and on the phone. CEOs may not like it, but it is how their work gets done and confirms Henry Mintzberg‘s seminal study “The nature of managerial work” [1973].
Perspective 2: Leadership teams. In their new book Strategy & Business, Rob Cross and Jon Katzenbach describe how: “In most companies, the phrase top team is a misnomer…” Instead, they go on to say: [P]ower comes from … members’ informal and social networks, their determination to make the most of those connections, and their ability to work well in subgroups formed to address specific issues… [A]s much as 90 per cent of the information that most senior executives receive and take action on comes throughout their informal networks – not formal reports or databases.” The conclusion: Enriching networks enriches organizations.
Perspective 3: Organizations. ”Web 2.0 … promote[s] significantly more flexible processes at internally networked organizations: respondents say that information is shared more readily and less hierarchically, collaboration across organizational silos is more common, and tasks are more often tackled in a project-based fashion.” This study goes on to demonstrate that the more networked an organization the more business benefits. If you, or your leadership team, ever had any doubts it’s worth taking a look.
Connecting is what we as human beings do. We’re social creatures. Our organizational work gets done with, and through, other people.
Helping your employees connect. A little idea with huge potential business benefits.
It’s a potentially beautiful thing.
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Staying in touch with reality
The single most challenging thing facing my clients is staying in touch with reality.
And, the pace of change just makes it harder.
It’s easier to assume we know what we don’t, or can’t, know. After all we have to get onto the next pressing issue.
It’s easier to react and respond rather than ask ’why‘?
In a way, it may be as Marshall McLuhan described it: “In our time we are reliving at high speed the whole of the human past. As in a speeded-up film, we are traversing all ages, all experience, including the experience of prehistoric man.” And, he added: “You can turn it off.”
And, maybe that’s what we’re doing. Maybe, in order to survive we’re just turning it off.
What’s great about McLuhan, though, is that if you didn’t like that idea he has another one: “With the acceleration of change, management now takes on entirely new functions. While navigating admidst the unknown is becoming the normal role of the executive, the new need is not merely to navigate but to anticipate effects with their causes.”
But in turning it off we’re missing that this time of change is also a time of incredible opportunity. Those who’ll succeed and thrive, it won’t be because of random luck. It won’t be because they’re comfortable with, and embrace, ambiguity. It will be because they’ve stayed in touch with the reality of what is changing and what is staying the same and what the implications of those changes are in relationship to their values and highest aspirations.
In your organization, do your leaders know what they don’t know?
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“Just hire a Dalek”
Last week I checked out a Kevin Rose interview with Chris Sacca thanks to a referral from Mitch Joel’s blog. For those of you who are like me and not part of the geek tech world, Kevin is the founder of Digg and serial start-up guy and Chris is a tech investor whose investments include things like Twitter. The interview is, as Mitch promised, an interesting look at this world.
Near the end, Chris describes the kinds of people he likes to work with and that he would hire or invest in. As you might expect, they aren’t your usual Corporate criteria. I thought his take was pretty interesting and worth repeating here.
To start with, you need to be the kind of person that Chris would like to hang out with. I think we can assume that you need to be smart. But you’ve also:
- Done at least one tough job – you’ve gotten your hands dirty doing real work
- Lived and worked in a foreign country – it’s humbling living somewhere where you don’t speak the language or understand the culture
- Played sports – you’re more likely to be balanced about the boundaries between work and life
Though not essential but good to have: you’ve gone to and excelled at college. He particularly likes a liberal arts education. You learn how to think.
Otherwise, according to Chris he can “Just hire a Dalek”. Just a bit harsh… But what do you think? Is there anything we as leaders can learn from Chris’s criteria?
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Recent Posts
- Grey zones are costing your organization big time
- Saying goodbye to jargon
- Don’t leave them laughing
- A master class with Ed Sullivan
- Innovation & collaboration: Strategic priorities or not?
- The truth about the number 1 fear
- Want to know the secret to writing a great speech?
- Connecting for big business benefits
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Recent posts
- Grey zones are costing your organization big time
- Saying goodbye to jargon
- Don’t leave them laughing
- A master class with Ed Sullivan
- Innovation & collaboration: Strategic priorities or not?
- The truth about the number 1 fear
- Want to know the secret to writing a great speech?
- Connecting for big business benefits
- Staying in touch with reality
- “Just hire a Dalek”
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