The good ol' days

I thought I’d go a little off topic this week.

Our lives are filled.

Filled with work, family, commit- ments of one sort or another.

Everyone carries stress though we each bear varying loads. The recession has hit everyone in the world though I’m sure you could make of list of all the things you were equally stressed about ten years ago.

I’ve reached an age now where I easily tell stories about moments occurring 20 years or more ago. What I like most about distant memories is how much more humorous those times were than when I was in the thick of it. Thinking back, if I knew how funny those times were to become, perhaps I would have enjoyed them even more and worried even less.

Grandparents talk about the good old days. Their whole life is but a great memory of precious and adventurous moments. Our lives we are living today are equally precious and will be reflected on as ‘good’. Today, this week, this month, and this year will be regarded as special.. eventually.

Is today a good day for you?

If you were to live more for this moment and to be with your friends and family in this moment, to be there for your coworkers in this moment without worry about tomorrow, how would it change your behavior?

I’ve been thinking about this tonight in preparation of writing this post. It was 9:30pm and I was catching up on some work when my partner asked if I wanted to join him to get a milkshake.

Here was my list for reasons not to go that ran through my head:

• I’d get some personal time alone if he went alone

• It was late and I wanted to finish my work

• I didn’t want a milkshake

Reasons for going:

• Car trips no matter their duration always offer great conversation

• It’s always an adventure when we go anywhere

• I should be listening to my own reflection and enjoying the here and now

I went.

Sure enough, I heard some good stories in the car I may never have heard, I ended up getting a tasty banana milkshake, and the trip also turned into an errand to get more brine water to keep the shrimp bait alive and happy from the park where we often put in our boat for fishing.

Quiet, dark, and deserted with a partial bright moon shining through clouds illuminating the empty boats moored there; we walked through the manicured park to the water’s edge where the water lapped quietly on the shore.

Carly Simon sings a song considering living for the future or in the moment. It’s one of my favorites still. Listen here.

drive & inspiration

There was an interesting interview on NPR this month with an author talking about inspiration in the workplace.

Quick:

Name five things you do to inspire and reward your employees?

(quick)

Old school taught us to reward effort by passing out car washes, sending flowers to the wife of the overworked husband, and providing gift certificates to local restaurants. Don't get me wrong, these take-aways are very much appreciated.

But, do they really inspire creativity?

Do they inspire long term loyalty?

Do they improve the bottom line of your business?

NPR notes, "Daniel Pink argues that people will do more if they are given the opportunity to work on their own time, to be creative, and to do good." Hear the interview here.

Implementing a lean program is a lot more successful when the whole team is on board and when all are involved in the process of leaning your organization. Who knows best? Often those who are closest to your product and service. With a little guidance, everyone can do amazing things. With a little space and autonomy, everyone will simply bloom.

Build it wrong

Have you ever launched a production line only to start making bad parts instantly?

Have you ever launched a production line with a horrible PPM ranking after weeks of meticulous planning?




Product development is complex and demands a process of it’s own to ensure critical elements are considered and implemented. I could –and others have written, volumes on this topic, but today I want to focus and share a tried and true method of bullet-proofing your manufacturing line.


There is actually a trick.

Sure..

• You think you know how to assemble that part.
• You think you’re a good communicator and trainer to teach others how to put it together.
• You think you’ve balanced the line such that every person is done with their assigned tasks in 12 seconds.

You think.

Before you’re finished with designing fixtures and equipment for the production line and certainly well before you even consider a run at rate evaluation, host a ‘build it wrong’ day.

That’s right. Dare your team* to build the part wrong.

HOW TO:
*Collect a diverse group consisting of engineers, managers, team leaders, operators, and maybe even your staff assistant and assign them a ‘station’. At each 'station', provide them all the parts they'd need at that defined ‘station’ along with a few tools both necessary and completely useless, then tell them to put it together.

ie: say: "put this together", and walk away.

That’s right, provide no other instruction, no other words.

In addition, create a special ‘station’ where you have all the parts for the assembly and have someone try to assemble the whole thing by themselves (again without any instruction what so ever).


WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER:
• Poke Yokes you’ll need to create; both design and process

• Operator instruction noteables

• Product design changes necessary to eliminate possible mis-builds

• Process steps needed

• Special tools required

• Ergonomic changes to the station including fixtures and tools necessary


THE BIGGEST LESSON?

You’ll discover what you don’t yet know.

Are you boring?

One of my earliest experiences with a project team was in the development of a hinge that would be unlike any hinge we’d ever created. This particular design element was critical to the rest of the product and had to be tackled early as it would drive the aesthetic and thereby likely the function of our product solution.

I decided I didn’t have to figure this out all by myself and challenged my team with a whacky benchmarking assignment they’d have to complete on their own time outside of work. Initially there wasn’t much movement around the table nor hearty acceptance of the proposal but as the idea swam inside of the heads of each colleague you could see creativity take root.

Two days later, we met again. Every one had done their homework. Every one had bought their hinge of choice for a show and tell, ideas spouting from each inspired to a better solution as we went around the room.

One thing was clear: they were hungry for inspiration, expectation, and a challenge.

How are you challenging your team every day?

How are you challenging yourself?

update: I was catching up on my NPR listening and found this snipit on motivation in the workplace. Give it a listen (short & sweet):

I give up

I discovered a blog about Detroit recently that opinionates issues the city is experiencing.

Having served customers in the Detroit area for the last twenty years and visiting frequently, I was always aware of the decay of the city in addition to the phenomenal work there by several innovative persons.

The blog paints a much different picture though and offers perspectives from those who live out of state. Murder rates, foreclosure statistics, and business failures have been found more interesting to possibly pessimistic onlookers. Perhaps it was just my unabashed optimism, but I didn’t think Detroit (in spite of the failure of the automotive industry and incredibly poor city management) was that bad.

Like many of you, I have driven quickly via shortcuts, detours, and with wayward mapquest directions past abandoned houses, decrypted apartment buildings, and decomposing once grand public buildings. I had never seen this before however and it brought mixed feelings of sadness and curious inspiration; sadness for both the soul of the houses and the loss of the families who once roamed their halls and laughed around their dining tables. Curiosity in how a film company could utilize the houses as a movie set, an adventure through the jungle of the house, and in how the houses were now as tree-houses; images of kid’s imaginative stories and play acting bringing joy to my mind’s eye.

It would be easy to just give up.

It would be easy to simply ignore and further abandon the neighborhoods of Detroit and the neighborhoods in our own cities that have fallen into decay experiencing the biggest financial losses and community breakdown.

Ignoring would be easy.

2010 will be a year of creativity and finding different ways of doing business. 2010 will be more about entrepreneurship. Partnerships, giving of services, reaching out to others, including others for both profit and simple goodwill is what we’ll be all about.

Workin' for the man

You run your own business: you sweep the floors, dust the countertops, organize the merchandise, greet customers, up-sell features, design new services, market your wares, and so much more to basically do what ever you have to do to make your company successful.

What tasks go away if you say, simply work for a business?

I dare propose this: “none”

In every business, every employee is a salesman.

In every business, every employee coddles its customers. Selling and coddling are supported by the tasks (assigned to you defined by your given role), supporting your colleagues to do the same, and yes, even housekeeping.

We’re all in business to stay in business.

What motivates you to do the extra steps and to step outside of your role to ensure an amazing customer experience?

Empowerment

Trust

Responsibility

Kudos

Incentives

Mutual support

Leadership by example

Gratitude

I imagine your employees are motivated similarly.

It's not my job

A month ago Thanksgiving, I talked about being thankful to your colleagues. As the week of Christmas has arrived, I am thinking about what and how you give in your organization.

What are you giving back to your organization?

Ideally, your teams are made up of diverse skills and viewpoints complimenting each other on how they interact and what they bring to the table. Your teams are confident enough to counter view points for creative discussion leading to creative solutions.

We all have our role. We all have our job.

Having our role also means that there are roles that don’t belong to us; tasks and responsibilities that don’t fall under our umbrella – tasks left to others.. jobs that aren't ours.

Do you ever do things that aren’t directly assigned to you? Of course we all have to mindful of our immediate and long-term responsibilities to ensure our work is getting done without being overworked ourselves, but I’d like to explore what happens when we give of ourselves fully at work.

Let’s starting with making a list of things that we could give:

• Pick up any trash you come across that’s the size of a dime or larger on the floor

• Help a colleague pick up something that accidentally spilled

• Walk a strong pace to get to your destination quicker – to finish quicker

• Smile and greet every person you encounter in your office

• Listen respectfully to every person you interact with in your office

• Help someone do their job if you have idle time

• Research and brainstorm on products, services, or just plain ideas that will help your company to do more.

• Contribute in discussion at meetings

• Prepare for meetings you’ll attend

• Finish your work when you’ve committed to finishing it

• Continuously think of ways you can do your job better

• Continuously think of ways your company can service its clients better

• Choose to share the positive verses complaining or dwelling on the past

• Support the team decision and make it successful even if you disagree with the method (within moral limits obviously)

• Go the extra step, put on the finishing touches, and do a little more proudly to delight your clients (or the colleague you’re delivering to)

• Be proud of what you deliver

• Understand the ‘why’ of decisions so you can support them fully

Wouldn’t you like someone who did all these things to work for you?

What more would you add to this list?

DIY

Sometimes it’s easier to just do something yourself than to worry if the thing got done at all or was done right.

These are two advantages to doing something yourself.

What about the advantages of delegating to those who report to you?

• Empowerment of the person you delegated to

• Input from another person on (doing this thing) that may offer a different perspective

• Respect and improved relationship of the person you delegated to

• Stronger and more diverse skilled team members

• Future peace of mind for when you really need to rely on someone else

• More time for you to do all your other things

When was the last time you delegated?

To be or not to be transparent?

I vol- unteered with a great nonprofit for over three years. They help people get into safe affordable decent housing where they can have the confidence of knowing it’s as permanent as they need it to be. It’s amazing how providing stability in someone’s life can turn their whole world upside down yet right side up.

Like many nonprofits (and commercial ventures), they have been struggling to raise funds.

As a volunteer, I was always surprised to learn that they struggled for donations because I knew their programming was so strong.

As a volunteer, I was always surprised to run into people who had grave misconceptions about the program and its benefits.

As a volunteer however, I could never find out exactly how the program was funded. No one could or would answer me directly about where the money went and how much was actually needed.

The goals were not clear.

I found it difficult to help them, often guessing at what they might need. My fellow volunteers shared the same concern with me. We’d guess as best we knew and do the best we could. I would find in conversation with potential donors that they also had the same questions as I did but with many misconceptions about the program as well.

What if this was a commercial venture?

What would you do if this was your commercial venture?

The same rules apply don’t they? Frankly, I can hear the gears over-heating in your head:

• Set clear goals!

• Communicate a clear message to the team on what needs to be accomplished!

• Get everyone unified around a real and tangible long term goal.

• Help the team create tactical plans that will enable the long term goal to be reached.

• Be transparent such that everyone can understand what is going on.

• Be transparent so that everyone will trust the plan and the motive.

What else would you add to this list?

Minus One

I threw a big party recently and had a sizable committee to help me execute the event as well as a few new and good friends to help me during the night of. I am very grateful for all their support as without each of them, the event would have been different.

Different bad? Different good?

Each friend brought their own unique ideas, bubbling personalities, and quirky humor. I tentatively assigned tasks to each based on their requests or for what I thought they might enjoy and be good at.

Of course like anything, things change, and new challenges arise requiring fast flexibility and initiation by each of us.

One of the women approached me after the party and started to almost apologize as she thought her presence wasn’t really needed that night. “I feel like I didn’t do very much, you really didn’t need me,” she said.

Au contraire!

Without her, I would have been nervous that I was one person short. Without her, I wouldn’t have had anyone to help the others when it became obvious that more hands were needed for the auction support.

While a party is a very different animal than a production line, producing a product and executing a seamless evening is quite similar mechanically.

PRODUCTION

Work flow and balance are equally important in both circumstances. Persons should be assigned tasks that keep each similarly and equally busy but along with flexibility to increase output –or temporarily lend a hand to someone else, without the process being interrupted.

In this design, there are many positive outcomes:

• 1) each person is not working at their maximum, thus energy is conserved,
  

• 2) should a customer request extra pieces, a slight speeding of the line is possible, and
  

• 3) should someone be absent, each person can absorb a little bit extra work to maintain balance and output.

PERSONALLY

My humble friend from the party forgot one thing about the importance of her presence.

By ‘showing up’, she was demonstrating her support to me that couldn’t be illustrated in any other way.

At work, we also demonstrate our commitment to the company and our colleagues by ‘showing up’. Sure, they could sustain themselves here and there without us, but by consistently showing up and doing what we commit to do; we honor our fellow workers and bring about better morale.

Are you giving thanks in your head?

Some managers have a policy of shaking hands and saying thanks when they hand out checks to their employees. It’s humbling to be on the receiving end of this. I worked for a company where all managers were required to do this. I knew this, but still felt genuinely thanked by most managers.

There was one manager who quite obviously felt corny saying 'thank you' when distributing checks, perhaps knowing that I knew he was required to do this, thus not feeling genuine.

Frankly, his cynical nature was off-putting. I felt less than thanked. It was worse than had nothing been said at all.

In the world and in your workplace, we are a community filled with a mixed bag of nuts. We’re all different people in how we think, perceive, and make decisions. Sometimes it’s hard to get over differences especially when someone who is so different from you seems to make your life difficult.

How could you make that better?

How could you communicate what you need to help this other person work with you better? (and visa versa by the way!)

Since this is the week of Thanksgiving, I’d like to share with you an exercise. Starting with your work colleagues and possibly including the extended family you’ll be rubbing shoulders with Thursday (and perhaps the extended family you’re avoiding Thursday!), then finishing with your immediate family, think about each person individually and consider three characteristics about them that you are grateful for.

Do they seem as bad as before?

This can only make seeing them next more bearable.. and perhaps take your relationships to whole new efficiencies.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

In defense of negativity

There’s good reason to not feel so positive these days.

Events, attitudes, and circumstances can throw us for a loop. We react based on fear, experience, upbringing, our values, understanding, and openness to change. We can react negatively in spite of our age and all the self help books we’ve read.

"We have good reason. Negativity is akin to grieving."

Why not be a sourpuss? You can share with the world your anger by wearing a frown on your face, ignoring people you work with, being snappy with answers to questions, being incredibly aloof, only giving out small tidbits of information but not all the information your coworkers need to do their jobs well…

What else can you think of?

Perhaps you could also rally resentment against a manger by quietly questioning their whereabouts when absent from the office. This is especially effective when you know the manager is at a legitimate meeting, but no one else does. You could undermine the manager’s leadership when they have delegated something by going to that person and asking any series of questions such as: “why doesn’t he do it?” or, “Does he even know how this is supposed to work?” or better, “that’s not appropriate.”

One could make a new employee whom they resent perhaps for not being a part of their hiring decision, feel incredibly unwelcome through several vibrant ways:

• the silent treatment,

• withholding information, and

• pointing out faults superficial, made-up, or exaggerated to fellow colleagues.

"Negativity Tip: This last is best executed in small huddled groups where upon the new person coming across you in the hallway or break-room, you immediately stop talking and remain silent until the person passes."

Denying critical elements a new person needs to do their work is also an excellent negativity tool to wield. Examples of this could be falsifying customer deadlines, conveniently forgetting each week to make an extra copy of the office key for the new employee, or forgetting to convey important messages.

This type of anger transfer is especially useful in spreading negativity as the new person has nothing to do with why you are angry, hurt, or unappreciated. The effectiveness of this negativity is wonderful because the poor sap never sees it coming and will be completely blindsided by the treatment.

But why go to all that bother?

Wouldn’t all this bad behavior only drain energy from you? What good could come of it? If you find that you’re not able to accept new direction or effect change in your workplace positively through collaborative healthy means, perhaps a job change is better for everyone, especially you.

The difficulty in negative behavior is that it rubs off. Like it or not, we tend to learn and mirror patterns we witness in others. Negativity is best tackled quickly.

Luckily, good leaders know this too. Good leaders know how to ignore petty negative passive outbursts and when to step in. They understand that learning the root of the anger will help bring resolution quicker moving everyone forward. Establishing trust and creating an environment where a negative employee can open up and start to describe what is wrong in a one on one environment can lead to mutual understanding and positive change in how you work together. Long term everyone benefits, even if this employee chooses to leave the company.

How have you tamed a bad seed?

What tools do you use to help your teammates shine?

Originally posted by me on the L2L blog, November 6th, 2009.

Easier to edit

It’s always easier to critique an idea than to actually come up with the idea itself.

Oh sure, the idea itself seems easy enough once thought up. Once thought up.

Take for example the written word. There’s a blog I follow on leadership that I really enjoy. Each post is thoughtfully written, humorous, and has a great familiar tone that’s easy to read. This blog has an editor.

How do I know this you might ask?

How would I know that it really isn’t a happenstance of similarly extraordinary gifted contributing author’s? Basically, it’s because I am one of those gifted (ahem) contributing authors. This editor takes great content and turns it into very personal advice. I love his voice and return day after day to read.

Depending on your personality, it can be difficult being edited.

Think of one of your latest meetings. Was there any idea that was floated out to the group?

Was it shot down?

Was it changed?

Did someone alter the original thought and make it better?

I’ve been in some meetings where most everyone was afraid to speak up. Perhaps we were intimidated by the leader. Perhaps the corporate environment was not open to new ideas.

Perhaps we each were afraid of being edited.

What I love most about working in collaborative teams is the amazing results that are achieved. We each offer up various solutions and together we ‘edit’ those ideas to create something remarkable.

Original thought is hard. Editing is easy, but such an important step to achieving excellence.

Go forth.. get edited.

Photograph from The Independent on a feature discussing Joseph Hallinan’s interesting book, Why We Make Mistakes

Lions, tigers, and bears..

Actually, more like: lions, beavers, and golden retrievers.

At my previous company I would periodically take those little self-evaluation tests to figure out my general personally type. This was typically done during a team off-site and the results would be anticipated.

Of course Larry is a “Retriever”.

Sure enough, the test results showed that Mary is a strong driver but with a tall yellow bar too.

For myself, I was always a driver but like reading horoscopes, I saw a little of myself in each description of the lion, otter, golden retriever, and beaver.

Sometimes we’d have to wear these little personality name tags in the office and when we’d tire of this display; we’d hang them in our office for people to see. Supposedly this would help others work with us better.

How exactly am I supposed to give a Retriever information?

How do I more effectively ask a Beaver to do something?

Wouldn’t it be easier if I just knew what to get from others to do my work more effectively?

We all go to work wanting to do a good job. Everyone there, like everyone you might notice in your neighborhood, at church, or in the grocery store, is a mixed bag of nuts. We’re all different. We all have our own idiosyncrasies. We all have our own perceptions based on our upbringing. Some even have their own agendas.

How can we work together better?

While understanding your colleagues and knowing them personally always benefits, one doesn’t always have the opportunity to understand how someone works.

• You could be new on a team.
  

• Your team could be located at several locations.
  

• Understanding someone else’s personality type might not be your gift.
  

There are many reasons why knowing yourself better is the key to getting information presented to you as you need to do your job more effectively verses leaving it to someone else's interpretation. Things like:

• What questions should you ask to fill in the gaps in your mind?

• How should you lay out your work for your brain to process quicker?

• When should you slow down to let others catch up?

Just as in personal relationships, understanding your very own unique way of processing information, will make you more effective in all you do.