This economy, political environment, the employment situation, and--the outlook for the future--both that of our companies and of ourselves--cause some fairly radical self-questions to emerge.
And so I propose three filters be used for a "thin slice" response to where you stand.
#1 Follow Your Gut. There is no mistaking that "your gut" telegraphs the right decisions to you. Don't know what to do on an issue? Follow your gut. It's that tingling, sometimes raw-gut feeling that beckons to you. Follow it. Your gut instinct is almost always right.
#2 Take Care of Number One. That means so many things to so many different audiences: the company; the family; the individual; the self. The most seasoned veterans of our economy today were to first to cut employees, downsize and eliminate branch locations, and adjust their businesses to the new economic reality. So whether you are wresting with laying off 20 or 200 employees to keep "#1 afloat," or if you are contemplating closing your company so that you can walk away as unscathed as possible--take heed of this advice: Take care of number one. I do not take away anything from the noble ethic and desire of the most devoted of you. I simply shine a light of reality your way to make sure your emotion or pride is not driving your thinking to extreme.
#3 Change the Rules Until You Win. This I can't underscore enough. Take "out of the box" to a whole new level. Do not let yesterday's realities be today's realities. Think out of the box and do something you would have never thought of doing before. Change customer bases, change who you work for, change the way you "show up and suit up," or change the way success is measured. Change your services. Deliver a new value that never existed. Change the rules until you can win.
Follow your gut. Take care of number one. And change the rules until you win.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
What's The Value of Your Values?
When you establish values for your company--what's the real value?
I've been fortunate enough to have happend upon Jim Collins' methods for establishing values within a company--and have had the chance to do it twice within two different organizations.
In short, Collins suggests that instead of the executive team sitting down and picking out the 4-5 values THEY believe are important--that instead--they study the best employees in the company, identify the values those employees demonstrate, and where those values overlap--make them the company's own.
What you end up with is a set of values that defines the very best people within your organization. You may then use these values to emphasize behaviors, evaluate performance, and also use them to recruit and bring aboard new employees into the company.
You now have a set of values that really mean something. They not only describe your company--but they ARE your company.
And that's where the real "value of the values" comes into play.
When facing decisions, these values serve an imporant purpose. These values become the filter through which your evaluate choices and they help chart your course very cearly and plainly.
These values--that have been developed from a set of the best characteristics displayed by your very best employees--now have real meaning. This, as opposed to the meaning derived from a set of 5 "classic" values that the management team thought were important and had printed on posters around the office.
Not that you shouldn't print and post them--but wouldn't it be better if they resonated with your employees?
Follow Collins' process and you'll wind up with the best set of values possible--which will help guide you in every way you can imagine.
I've been fortunate enough to have happend upon Jim Collins' methods for establishing values within a company--and have had the chance to do it twice within two different organizations.
In short, Collins suggests that instead of the executive team sitting down and picking out the 4-5 values THEY believe are important--that instead--they study the best employees in the company, identify the values those employees demonstrate, and where those values overlap--make them the company's own.
What you end up with is a set of values that defines the very best people within your organization. You may then use these values to emphasize behaviors, evaluate performance, and also use them to recruit and bring aboard new employees into the company.
You now have a set of values that really mean something. They not only describe your company--but they ARE your company.
And that's where the real "value of the values" comes into play.
When facing decisions, these values serve an imporant purpose. These values become the filter through which your evaluate choices and they help chart your course very cearly and plainly.
These values--that have been developed from a set of the best characteristics displayed by your very best employees--now have real meaning. This, as opposed to the meaning derived from a set of 5 "classic" values that the management team thought were important and had printed on posters around the office.
Not that you shouldn't print and post them--but wouldn't it be better if they resonated with your employees?
Follow Collins' process and you'll wind up with the best set of values possible--which will help guide you in every way you can imagine.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Permanent Whitewater
Throughout my career, it seems I've been engaged in continuous change. Whether it was developing a new channel model; helping market partners understand new ways of selling; or participating in the pioneering of a new product and industry.
I like to say that "the smooth waters are behind us and there's nothing ahead but permanent whitewater." We all have to create change, adapt to change, and "live" change.
I reached into the archives this morning and found one of my favorite pieces that addresses man's (and woman's) reaction to change--and in some cases--their resistance to it.
From Machiavelli’s “The Prince”, Written in 1513
And one should bear in mind that there is nothing more difficult to execute, nor more dubious of success, nor more dangerous to administer than to introduce a new order of things.....for he who introduces it has all those who profit from the old order as his enemies, and he has only lukewarm allies in all those who might profit from the new.
This lukewarmness partly stems from fear of their adversaries, who have the law on their side, and partly from the skepticism of men, who do not truly believe in new things unless they have actually had personal experience of them.
I like to say that "the smooth waters are behind us and there's nothing ahead but permanent whitewater." We all have to create change, adapt to change, and "live" change.
I reached into the archives this morning and found one of my favorite pieces that addresses man's (and woman's) reaction to change--and in some cases--their resistance to it.
From Machiavelli’s “The Prince”, Written in 1513
And one should bear in mind that there is nothing more difficult to execute, nor more dubious of success, nor more dangerous to administer than to introduce a new order of things.....for he who introduces it has all those who profit from the old order as his enemies, and he has only lukewarm allies in all those who might profit from the new.
This lukewarmness partly stems from fear of their adversaries, who have the law on their side, and partly from the skepticism of men, who do not truly believe in new things unless they have actually had personal experience of them.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
A Letter to President Obama
Dear President Obama,
No longer can I stand by at the edge of a current of raging red waters that flow by us all in a torrent of overspending, a lack of focus on fiscal responsibility, and a destructive path of erosion that threatens the foundations of our freedom, future, and motivations.
Our local, state, and federal governments must curb their overspending and serve the people with decisions and actions to help secure a worthwhile future for our young. We also must find ways to balance budgets without over-taxing the achievers and contributors in society with disproportionate shares of the revenue burden—thereby penalizing success achieved by these business owners, corporations, entrepreneurs, and hard-working citizens.
In my household, I must align spending with income.
In the company for which I work, I must align spending with income.
And in the country in which I live, our GOVERNMENT MUST ALIGN SPENDING WITH INCOME.
Please take a step back, and cast an eye forward—on what must be done to ensure our continued success in this, the greatest country on Earth.
Sincerely,
Jeff Wedge
No longer can I stand by at the edge of a current of raging red waters that flow by us all in a torrent of overspending, a lack of focus on fiscal responsibility, and a destructive path of erosion that threatens the foundations of our freedom, future, and motivations.
Our local, state, and federal governments must curb their overspending and serve the people with decisions and actions to help secure a worthwhile future for our young. We also must find ways to balance budgets without over-taxing the achievers and contributors in society with disproportionate shares of the revenue burden—thereby penalizing success achieved by these business owners, corporations, entrepreneurs, and hard-working citizens.
In my household, I must align spending with income.
In the company for which I work, I must align spending with income.
And in the country in which I live, our GOVERNMENT MUST ALIGN SPENDING WITH INCOME.
Please take a step back, and cast an eye forward—on what must be done to ensure our continued success in this, the greatest country on Earth.
Sincerely,
Jeff Wedge
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Why Do Manufacturers Use Distribution? Really.
As you may have heard me say before, manufacturers choose to use distribution for 4 primary reasons:
1) The distributor's knowledge of the market.
1) The distributor's knowledge of the market.
2) The execution of market and channel plans to get product to market thoroughly and efficiently.
3) Access to customers known by the distributor--where relationships flourish and penetration is deep.
4) The volume of business a distributor can deliver to a manufacturer.
But let’s add some of the more tactical issues to that list, shall we?
5) Distributors provide customer service and order fulfillment.
6) Distributors maintain inventories in the desired geographies next to the end-use customers.
7) Distributors provide logistics into the market.
8) Distributors absorb the credit fluctuations and the AR role throughout their markets.
Hold on—what’s wrong with this picture? How about this? Number 1-8 above can ultimately all be figured out and executed by manufacturer themselves. But before the customers of distributors get too excited about the possibility of “cutting out the middleman” and buying direct from manufacturers, we need to keep in mind that there are costs associated with all of these—at some level. So—the price is the price is the price. What an end-user pays for products will likely be the same whether they buy from distribution or from manufacturers direct—because there is a cost to all of these services.
Now, let’s look at the last two services distribution can provide.
9) Sales and Marketing, through excellent value-added sales representation and sales promotion into the market, and…
10) An unbeatable value proposition for customers. Distribution must create such a compelling reason for its customers to buy from them—that the customers could not even imagine carrying those particular products if it were not for the unbeatable value proposition the distributor provides.
These last two are the most challenging for distributors to figure out, design, pay for, and execute. But they are the key to a lasting dominance in the channel. And together, all of the areas above are a 10-point plan for sustainability and long-term success.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Decision-Based Agendas
Has this happened to you?
You're participating in a group meeting. You come upon an important topic on the very full meeting agenda labeled "Widget Sales Program." The meeting leader initiates the conversation with an somewhat impressive introduction and overview. He or she then asks for input.
As the input comes from all directions from all the participants--the course of the meeting shifts left--then right, then backwards, then totally off topic--then back to the middle.
Many excellent ideas come out. Some are even written down on the flip chart. After 35 minutes of discussion, sharing of ideas, and even bold proposals for "change," the meeting organizer realizes she'd only allowed 30 minutes for the discussion and time is running out, and so she's going to have to move on.
She sums up what she thinks she heard and then moves on to the next topic.
So what was wrong with this? Perhaps nothing--if the group and leader arrived at an important decision or action point based on the discussion.
But more often than not--a meeting agenda prompts a lot of great discussion where many great ideas are shared--but no "goal" was set for the agenda item in the first place. It felt good to the meeting organizer and participants to have the agenda item on the list--but they leave the topic not really feeling as if they did something substantial about it.
How do we make this process better? The answer is through decision-based agendas. The trouble can be--is that these don't come naturally to us. A decision-based agenda item looks odd on the page, and even if we don't phrase it properly, the meeting leader must exhibit the discipline to remember to crystallize the goal for the topic in everyone’s mind so that a decision is reached.
One way to enable this process--is to just rewrite the agenda topic. Instead of "Widget Sales Program," the meeting leader might have listed it as "Widget Sales Program: What Are The #1 and #2 Enhancements Needed to Achieve Our Goals?"
This tells everyone at the outset that their mission for the discussion--is to identify just two components to improve the Widget Sales Program. It's easy for the meeting leader to come back around in the middle of the discussion and remind the group of the goal. And more importantly, it sets the right tone at the very beginning for the participants, so that they know what is expected during this section.
Other agenda topic examples:
Before: "Customer Service"
After: "Customer Service: Determine Priority and Responsibility List Based on Last Month's Survey"
Before: "Warranty"
After: "Establish New Warranty Labor Provision: 1 Year or 2 Years"
Before: "Widget Inventory"
After: "Decide What Stock Items Can Be Reduced to Achieve 10% Inventory Reduction"
Obviously, not every topic on an agenda can be expressed as a question. Often, there are important updates and sharing of information that just need to be expressed as such--without any question attached.
But using a Decision-Based Agenda strategy will help ensure more of our meeting topics produce something useful to take away from the discussion, rather than that empty feeling when we're 30 minutes behind schedule and we just have to "move on because we're out of time."
You're participating in a group meeting. You come upon an important topic on the very full meeting agenda labeled "Widget Sales Program." The meeting leader initiates the conversation with an somewhat impressive introduction and overview. He or she then asks for input.
As the input comes from all directions from all the participants--the course of the meeting shifts left--then right, then backwards, then totally off topic--then back to the middle.
Many excellent ideas come out. Some are even written down on the flip chart. After 35 minutes of discussion, sharing of ideas, and even bold proposals for "change," the meeting organizer realizes she'd only allowed 30 minutes for the discussion and time is running out, and so she's going to have to move on.
She sums up what she thinks she heard and then moves on to the next topic.
So what was wrong with this? Perhaps nothing--if the group and leader arrived at an important decision or action point based on the discussion.
But more often than not--a meeting agenda prompts a lot of great discussion where many great ideas are shared--but no "goal" was set for the agenda item in the first place. It felt good to the meeting organizer and participants to have the agenda item on the list--but they leave the topic not really feeling as if they did something substantial about it.
How do we make this process better? The answer is through decision-based agendas. The trouble can be--is that these don't come naturally to us. A decision-based agenda item looks odd on the page, and even if we don't phrase it properly, the meeting leader must exhibit the discipline to remember to crystallize the goal for the topic in everyone’s mind so that a decision is reached.
One way to enable this process--is to just rewrite the agenda topic. Instead of "Widget Sales Program," the meeting leader might have listed it as "Widget Sales Program: What Are The #1 and #2 Enhancements Needed to Achieve Our Goals?"
This tells everyone at the outset that their mission for the discussion--is to identify just two components to improve the Widget Sales Program. It's easy for the meeting leader to come back around in the middle of the discussion and remind the group of the goal. And more importantly, it sets the right tone at the very beginning for the participants, so that they know what is expected during this section.
Other agenda topic examples:
Before: "Customer Service"
After: "Customer Service: Determine Priority and Responsibility List Based on Last Month's Survey"
Before: "Warranty"
After: "Establish New Warranty Labor Provision: 1 Year or 2 Years"
Before: "Widget Inventory"
After: "Decide What Stock Items Can Be Reduced to Achieve 10% Inventory Reduction"
Obviously, not every topic on an agenda can be expressed as a question. Often, there are important updates and sharing of information that just need to be expressed as such--without any question attached.
But using a Decision-Based Agenda strategy will help ensure more of our meeting topics produce something useful to take away from the discussion, rather than that empty feeling when we're 30 minutes behind schedule and we just have to "move on because we're out of time."
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Execute...or be Ex-e-cu-ted
There is no doubt that one of the top five lessons I have learned in business is that of execution. And in fact at times it might be number one.
Having worked for a company in the first half of this decade that was fairly good at execution—I have learned how to spot execution when it exists, and more importantly—when it doesn’t. The CEO of our parent company felt execution was so paramount to successful business that he developed The Execution Award for managers who demonstrated effective focus, clarity of management, and clear speed in getting things done. Unfortunately, he would tell you that he could count on one hand the number of times he gave the award away across the various business that were part of the organization. My company was able to secure the award once. And we thought we were good at it.
Yes, execution is elusive.
When it exists, people explain things simply to one another, they reach clear agreements, and they hold one another accountable for results. You can observe it in those who are successful in gaining clear commitments from others, those who write down steps and dates and ensure everyone knows what they are, and then follows up to see to it what was promised truly gets done.
You can also see when execution is lacking—such as in these examples:
A president asks his team at a meeting when something will be completed, and the answer from one of the vice-presidents is “a couple of weeks.” The president then says, “Good—as long as it’s not going to be six weeks.” No one writes anything down and the conversation moves on.
(The problem here is that the president accepted a vague answer, did not write down a precise commitment date, and let the conversation move on without coming to a clear agreement on who, what, and when)
Or two, a manager sends an email to three recipients and addresses remarks to no one in particular—saying she needs some certain result by sometime next week.
(Here again, the lack of specifics cause each of the three recipients to think “Hmmm, certainly one of the other two will respond to this—since it wasn’t directed at me personally” and so it goes. Each of three recipients all go on thinking ‘someone else’ will handle it—and almost certainly no one will)
Or three, the supervisor of a work group needs to know that a brand new process has been used in 100% of the week’s production schedule to meet a quality guarantee. The ideal question would be something like “Was this new process used from the start of Shift ‘A’ this week—and continuously in every shift since right up through today?” Instead, the supervisor who isn’t practicing a solid discipline of execution attempts to ask the question—but expresses it instead as a statement: “And, the new process has been used from the start of Shift ‘A’ this week? His trailing tone leaves it hanging there as a confusing combination between a weak question and an even weaker statement. Its easy for the employees to silently nod their head, but the real answer is never flushed out.
Execution simply means getting things done. And as you can see, it has a very clear connection with a person’s ability to communicate clearly and with intention. You must use direct language. You must look people in the eye when you ask them questions—and get clear agreement. Assumptions cannot be made. Dates and promises are to be written down. Follow-up is to be consistent. And rewards afforded to those who execute—and withheld with those that do not.
Once you begin understanding and recognizing when good execution is present—and when it is not—you will be more purposeful in your dealings with people, with your communication, with your follow up, and with your attention to results.
It is, after all, what separates those who do—from those who do not.
Having worked for a company in the first half of this decade that was fairly good at execution—I have learned how to spot execution when it exists, and more importantly—when it doesn’t. The CEO of our parent company felt execution was so paramount to successful business that he developed The Execution Award for managers who demonstrated effective focus, clarity of management, and clear speed in getting things done. Unfortunately, he would tell you that he could count on one hand the number of times he gave the award away across the various business that were part of the organization. My company was able to secure the award once. And we thought we were good at it.
Yes, execution is elusive.
When it exists, people explain things simply to one another, they reach clear agreements, and they hold one another accountable for results. You can observe it in those who are successful in gaining clear commitments from others, those who write down steps and dates and ensure everyone knows what they are, and then follows up to see to it what was promised truly gets done.
You can also see when execution is lacking—such as in these examples:
A president asks his team at a meeting when something will be completed, and the answer from one of the vice-presidents is “a couple of weeks.” The president then says, “Good—as long as it’s not going to be six weeks.” No one writes anything down and the conversation moves on.
(The problem here is that the president accepted a vague answer, did not write down a precise commitment date, and let the conversation move on without coming to a clear agreement on who, what, and when)
Or two, a manager sends an email to three recipients and addresses remarks to no one in particular—saying she needs some certain result by sometime next week.
(Here again, the lack of specifics cause each of the three recipients to think “Hmmm, certainly one of the other two will respond to this—since it wasn’t directed at me personally” and so it goes. Each of three recipients all go on thinking ‘someone else’ will handle it—and almost certainly no one will)
Or three, the supervisor of a work group needs to know that a brand new process has been used in 100% of the week’s production schedule to meet a quality guarantee. The ideal question would be something like “Was this new process used from the start of Shift ‘A’ this week—and continuously in every shift since right up through today?” Instead, the supervisor who isn’t practicing a solid discipline of execution attempts to ask the question—but expresses it instead as a statement: “And, the new process has been used from the start of Shift ‘A’ this week? His trailing tone leaves it hanging there as a confusing combination between a weak question and an even weaker statement. Its easy for the employees to silently nod their head, but the real answer is never flushed out.
Execution simply means getting things done. And as you can see, it has a very clear connection with a person’s ability to communicate clearly and with intention. You must use direct language. You must look people in the eye when you ask them questions—and get clear agreement. Assumptions cannot be made. Dates and promises are to be written down. Follow-up is to be consistent. And rewards afforded to those who execute—and withheld with those that do not.
Once you begin understanding and recognizing when good execution is present—and when it is not—you will be more purposeful in your dealings with people, with your communication, with your follow up, and with your attention to results.
It is, after all, what separates those who do—from those who do not.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
