Episode 155 – Events for Leadersights and 579 Leaders

Good morning, I'm David Veech and this is Elevate Your Performance. 

I want to share some other ideas I've had about 579 Leadership and share a couple of events that I'm planning. 

First, I'm starting to record episodes for a podcast I'm simply going to call Leadersights, after my book.  It'll be a mix of me telling stories of the things I've learned about leaders and lean systems and conversations with leaders about overcoming problems and setting goals.  Those leaders might be CEOs or they might be Team Leaders from a manufacturing plant.  The key is to share some insight. 

I'll have discussions with each of them about 579 leadership, which, as I hinted at yesterday, is about the application of the Leadersights of Love, Learn, and Let go.  So I'll want to hear their stories about each of those and share them with you. 

My target length for a Podcast episode is going to be 579 seconds, twice.  579 seconds is 9 minutes and 39 seconds, and twice that will be 19 minutes and 18 seconds; which should be plenty of time for a good conversation. 

I hope you'll share with me some of the things you are looking for in a podcast so I can keep making it better.  I'm going to launch the podcast on my birthday, August 22 with the first 3 episodes, then release a new episode every week. 

Second, in September, I am launching a new mastermind study group that will focus on 579 Leadership.  Here, the members will be the stars as we share the things we discover about leadership in every situation you can imagine.   

Here's what I'm planning: 

Members will complete an application for the program, committing to a 579-day-long program (1 year, 7 months, and 4 days). Our key objective will be to become more effective as leaders, coaches, parents, team members, business owners, etc.  

Individually, I'll work with each member.  We'll have a 360-assessment done and together we'll set goals and build your action plan to become a more effective leader.  We will complete a few other assessments or diagnostic instruments for your business and set goals and build actions plans to improve there as well.   Members will get an hour of coaching with me every two weeks, plus additional access if you're working a particular problem or goal.  Members will also have access to exclusive materials I've created just for the group. 

The group will meet virtually every two weeks for 86 minutes and 51 seconds (or there abouts) which is 579 seconds times 9.  This will largely be in a Lean Coffee format where members will bring issues and we'll discuss those issues and try to help you take action to solve a problem or drive an improvement. 

Once a quarter (six times in the 579 day cycle), we'll meet face to face for 579 minutes (9 hours and 39 minutes).  We'll meet in different spots for everyone who can make it.  I hope that the members will rotate hosting in their companies and invite us in for a Genba walk while we're there and let us work on a problem they're wrestling with.  I'd like to have an agenda that includes the genba walk, focus time on a problem or lesson, a guest speaker, open networking and discussion time, lunch, and end with dinner and drinks - 9 hours and 39 minutes is a long day – so we'll make it as valuable as we can. 

Twice a year (three times in the 579 day cycle), we'll have a retreat for 3 days someplace we decide we'd like to see.  I hope all members will be able to make at least one of these, as we'll have some special recognition activities in addition to guests, tours, and cases to study. 

Once a year, we'll take a vacation – pushing us to have some balance.  So I'll book a cruise or a resort for us to take our families to and we'll spend a week or so just enjoying each other's company and taking in some cultural aspect of wherever we go.  I have Japan, a European River cruise focused on wine and beer, a Mediterranean cruise focused on culinary delights, and the Bourbon trail in mind. 

I'm still working on a pricing structure that will reflect the value of the program.  For the first cohort, I'm thinking about $15,200 for the 19 month program if paid up front, or $894 a month if paid monthly but committed for the program.  I promise we'll get much more value that that from the journey.  Of course the travel will be extra, but I'll get the best rates I can for wherever we go and offer them to the group through our partner travel agency, Clandestine Travel.  Part of the fees will contribute to a partner charity that I'm sorting through now so we can also give back to our community. 

I'll release the application which will include schedules for the 19 months on July 26th.  I'm limiting the size of the mastermind to 28 people per cohort.   

I'm pretty excited about both of these events – the podcast and the study group.  I've been thinking about these for a long time.  Let me know what YOU think. 

Have a great day, and I'll see you next time. 

Episode 154 - 579 Leadership

I'm David Veech and this is Elevate Your Performance. 

Yesterday, I introduced this idea I've had surrounding numbers and balance.  I showed how odd numbers in the scale from 1 to 9, when depicted as dots on a line, have evenly distributed numbers on each side of a center point, reflecting a balanced system. 

As I researched the meaning of certain numbers: 5, 7, and 9 in particular I made some interesting connections. 

Five is positioned in the center of the scale from 1 to 9.  In that position, it reflects the pivotal point of change.  Leaders should be that pivotal point of change for their teams and organizations.  But the number 5 also reflects characteristics and values like freedom, curiosity, and adaptability.  These are all good qualities for leaders as well.   

5 also values experiences and is more willing to go with the flow than others.   

Seven represents a quest for wisdom.  Here, leaders ask questions...lots of questions, and listen carefully to the answers.  They tend to be more analytical than others and try to find meaningfulness in everything they do.  These all sound like excellent qualities to develop in leaders. 

Nine is a little more complex.  Nine represents completeness, or wholeness, but not finality.  It's like completing one cycle and then beginning another, much like we describe in the PDCA cycle of continuous improvement in a lean system.  Nine emphasizes the importance of transitions and transformations and how leaders should be guiding and empowering their people through these transformations.   

Nine is compassionate and kind and seeks the greater good.  Leaders here are wiser, stronger, more aware, tolerant, and supportive than others. 

These characteristics are all quite similar to what I describe as key insights for leaders in my book Leadersights – Love, Learn, and Let go. 

Nine, as the compassionate, guiding, and supportive leader demonstrates love – actively placing the needs of others above their own. 

Seven, seeking wisdom, asking questions, represents Learn – the on-going quest for understanding. 

Five, the free-spirited, experience-oriented (why not give it a try), going with the flow really captures the essence of Letting go.   

I want to keep exploring these leadership values, characteristics, and behaviors so I am doing two specific things to focus my energies.  I'm out of time now, so I'll tell you about them tomorrow.  Join me here at 9 am. 

Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.

Welcome December

Hi everyone.

We have made it to December, despite 2020!  Of course, there have always been end-of-the-world predictions surrounding the first day of Winter, December 21, so we can't say we've got it made until at least after that.

2020 has definitely been a year for disrupting habits.  There are so many things we "used to do" that we've had to reinvent.  But we've done just that...Reinvented.  So I've been thinking this morning about habits and how it's so hard to build good habits that stick for long.  If we've reinvented and created something that works, will we keep it after the pandemic passes?  That made me think about change initiatives, projects, and programs and why so many fail, or why we have so many in the first place.

Being human is just difficult.  If we could stick to stuff, would we be better off?  Let's start with diets.  I can show you in my "LoseIt" app that I was able to maintain a streak of 481 days of logging every meal.  In that time, I lost 30 pounds!  But then, for one reason or another, I broke the streak. 

Once it's broken, the effort to get back into it is enormous.  So, I've gained all that weight back.  I don't really need anything new, though, because I know exactly what to do to achieve that level of success.   My biggest question now is: Why can't I get back into it? 

I learned everything I needed to know and I should have been able to sustain without the details of keeping track of everything.  But I didn't.  So the lesson to me is that the system and some help are absolutely required even after all that learning.  The same applies to your work.  You can't rely on people doing everything that needs to be done just because they know how.  Leaders build the systems that not only sustain, but also propel the workplace into the future.

Have a wonderful December. I have two things I'm prioritizing (after family) that I could use your help with:

1. I want to do more professional speaking in 2021.  (Profession is code for "Paid".)  If your company is having a meeting, either virtually or in person, I hope you'll consider me as a keynote or workshop speaker.  If you're in a chamber of commerce or professional association, please recommend me to the program committee.  I'm happy to follow up with proposals to provide the details, but start by booking a call with me.

2.  I have discovered a cloud based system that changes the way we keep track of work as it progresses through our processes.  It is unlike any financial software or ERP system I've ever seen.  It bases everything on a profit model created from your current financials but run through an algorithm that allows you to see first if you're in line with competitors in your market segment, and second, precisely where you can focus to increase productivity, profitability, and engagement. 

I need 6 to 10 small- to medium-sized companies to try this with so I can really understand how it works.   The company that produced it (QPS) is making a special offer that makes it affordable for even a very small business.  Please think about this and book a call with me to talk about how we might be able to run it in your company and what you can expect.

If I can help you with anything else, send me a message. 

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92 - Measuring Personal Performance

Do you ever have days where you have a plan to do something in particular, but when you start to work on it, you think maybe there's something different you should be doing?  That's me this morning.  More on that in a minute but first...

I want to wish my son, Matthew, a Happy 30th Birthday today.  He's on his way to Texas to get lost at big Bend National Park with his little brother.  I know they'll have a blast and I wish I could have gone with them. 

Other than that, I'm struggling a little with what to talk about this morning.  I had planned to wrap up a conversation I started last week about visual management systems.  The plan was to talk about measuring quality and cost at different tiers, but I made the mistake of stepping on the scale to measure my own weight and was disappointed with the result. 

Since the pandemic began, I've managed to gain about 15 pounds.  This despite being home most of the time; despite still walking a bunch.  Sadly, I've also eaten voraciously with lots of delivered and take out food - often not the healthiest.

Part of my initial strategy for this webcast was to mix up topics with leadership, lean thinking, travel, and personal development.  I've pretty much left off the personal development piece, so I think I'm going to fix that starting today and ask a big favor from all of you.

I'm going to set a target weight of 190 lbs.  I have an app that actually says my "normal" weight is between 132.2 and 178.6, but I in 2018 I managed to get as low as 186 and I thought I looked like I was a patient dying of something horrible.  What I will ask of you is encouragement and accountability.

Just like with what you measure at work, you have results metrics and process metrics.  I usually use weight loss as an example of the difference.  My target weight is set so that's my result metric.  I don't expect to hit that target for about 6 months.  So I need an intermediate target that will make this more manageable. 

The intermediate target is 1.5 pounds per week.  So I'll get on the scale every Friday and check to see if I've lost my 1.5 pounds.  But that's not a process metric, it's still an after-the-fact result metric.  If all I do is weigh myself, I can't see making much progress - same applies at work.

The process metric involves how I plan to lose this weight.  I don't ever stick to fad diets, so the rule is simply, consume fewer calories and burn more calories.  Eat Less.  Move more.

So I'm working on the details of those daily targets, particularly with walking because I want to get back to my half-marathon challenge as soon as the pandemic is over.

Help me stick to it, please.  I've done this 3 times before in private.  I know exactly what works, but the mind games work hard on me so I really think I need your help this time around.

Thanks in advance!

Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow!

87 - What to expect if you travel.

Good morning.

What can you expect if you go out for a trip that involves a flight, rental car, and hotel these days?

But first...I broke my streak yesterday.  Until yesterday, I had done 86 daily Facebook Live posts in a row.  I missed for a good reason, though.  Yesterday I was working with a client.  That is pretty significant for a number of reasons I won't get into right now. 

I plan to get back on track with two videos today, then I'm going to pretend that the streak is intact!

But Today;  Today is Saturday, and Saturday is Travel day and I’m going to share my experience this week traveling to the client's location.

Here's a little background info: 

Pre-COVID, I was traveling at least a couple of weeks every month.  My engagements are usually 2 to 5 business days each.  Because business had been pretty good for me, I've been in Delta's Platinum or Diamond frequent flyer status for years.  I'm at the top level for both Hilton and Marriott.  And I'm at the top level for Hertz. 

I also have the kind of American Express card that includes membership in Delta's SkyClub, so I have access to all of their lounges, plus the Priority Pass lounge network that gets me access to hundreds of lounges around the world. 

As a business traveler, I am spoiled rotten.

Here's my first recommendation for you:  Pick your favorites (airline, hotel, and car rental) and stick to them. 

AIRLINE:  I've used Delta for as long as I can remember. Every time I've flown with American or United, I have a less-than-optimal experience.  Sometimes for convenience, I will fly Southwest. 

HOTEL:  I first picked Hilton because there was this nice embassy Suites I liked to stay in whenever I worked in St. Louis.  I'm also a time-share owner in the Hilton Grand Vacations Club, so that keeps me in Diamond status with them. 

But I tried Marriott and really love their properties. I went through their travel agent training program too, that taught me a ton about how they promote their different brands. 

RENTAL CAR:  I picked Hertz because USAA has an awesome discount that works with them.  I've had good and bad experiences with them, but they’re usually easy, so I stick with them.  I got mad at them a couple of months ago for leaving me stranded at the airport after their last shuttle bus ran, but trying to find anyone who does as good consistently is not easy.

All right...back to my experience this week. 

For the Flight, you can expect airports to be at about 30% of the crowds I experienced pre-COViD.  Lines are short.  The TSA Pre-check line was really no faster than the normal line, but I get to keep my shoes on and all my crap in my backpack where without TSA Pre-check all electronics have to come out. 

Delta has first class cabins on most planes now, and because of my status, I am always near the top of the upgrade list.  They are loading planes with about half the number of people.  On my flights, first class had a 1 seat - 2 seat configuration and they were only putting one person on the 2 seat side.  The rest of the plane was 2 and 2 and they did the same - unless you wanted to sit with a loved one, you didn't have anyone sitting next to you.

AIRPORT:

I was in three different airports coming and going this time.  Columbus and Hartford are not necessarily major markets and their airports are pretty small.  Most of the stores and restaurants were closed in both because there just isn't enough demand to support the cost. 

You can expect to have to go a little out of your way to get a snack or a drink.

In Detroit, it is a major hub for Delta and pre-COVID you couldn't walk 15 feet without having to change direction a little to avoid bumping into someone. 

So yesterday, a Friday evening where before, tons of business travelers would be crowding the barstools and lounges trying to make it home after a busy week, the airport was a comparative ghost town. 

Detroit has an internal train in Terminal A that usually runs constantly along the 2 mile stretch from gate 1 to gate 78.  It wasn't operating.  There are 4 SkyClubs in Detroit, but only 1 is open.

On the plus side, everything was spotlessly clean.  Hand sanitizer is everywhere, and everyone, except for a few pilots I saw, complied with the mask-wearing order. 

Yes, in all the airports and on the plane the entire flight, masks are required.  They allow you to remove your mask to eat or drink but will gently remind you on the plane to keep it on.

On arrival in Hartford, I had to stop by the health desk they had set up on the way to baggage claim.  There, they show a map of the US with states colored Red or green.  If you're arriving from a Green state, you're good to go.  If it's red, there are a couple of additional steps - and several health related questions to answer first.  Ohio was green there, so I was good, but Ohio was Red on Massachusetts's map, so they required a negative result from a sample less than 72 hours prior to arrival. 

Fortunately, I was good to go.

RENTAL CAR: 

For rental car service, with Hertz, in most airports they have a President's circle area of upgraded cars that I usually get to pick from. At Hartford they had a convertible Mustang I could have gotten, but I usually try to stick to more utilitarian cars, so I picked up an Altima.  I should have gotten the convertible because the trees were changing color and the hour plus drive I had from the client to the airport would have been beautiful.

All the cars are sanitized now and Hertz puts a yellow sticker over the edge of the driver's side door saying so.  You can see that no one has been in the car you've chosen since they cleaned it.  I thought it was a nice touch.

HOTEL: 

The hotel I chose was the Hampton Inn in Auburn, Massachusetts.  I picked it because I had two different facilities to visit during this trip and it was sort of centrally located.  It's a Hilton property and I've stayed there a few times.  This time it was a little cheaper than the Fairfield Inn by Marriott that's just around the corner.  Hilton has signs everywhere to remind you that masks are required pretty much whenever you are out of your room.  The room was spotless and it too had a seal on the door saying so.

What I missed most was the breakfast area.  This time, there was no breakfast area and not even any coffee.  They did have an in-room, one cup at a time coffee maker, but before COVID, they had three varieties of coffee with French vanilla and hazelnut creamers that I always loved.

I don't miss the crowds. 

I don't like having to wear the mask, but I like spreading the virus a lot less. 

I miss the convenience of buffets in the SkyClub and the hotel, but I understand the precautions taken.  The SkyClub still had plenty of food and snacks but everything was individually wrapped now.

When you're a frequent traveler, you learn that the most important travel accessory you can take with you is a good sense of humor.  Things happen.  Flights get cancelled.  Passengers are dicks.  The car you want isn't available.  A million little things go wrong.  But with a sense of humor, you can smile and roll with it. 

I still love traveling.  I love airports.  I love all the people going to all those different places. 

I love walking past the gates in Detroit where all the big planes get ready to fly to international destinations - and wish I were on those instead.

Traveling is one of those sweet rewards we can give ourselves.  I’ll be very happy once things are safe again.

Have a great day and I’ll see you tomorrow.

62 - Better Huddles

How can you get teams to perform better together?

How can you improve relationships at work?

How can you boost satisfaction in your teams?

How can you see and solve problems more quickly?

You can get all of these benefits by using team huddles. 

I recommend huddling everyday and at every level of the organization. 

At the working level/the value creation level/where the rubber meets the road or Tier 1, I recommend starting the huddle within the first hour of the work shift or the work day.  Maybe allow just enough time to allow for people arriving just a little late for one reason or another.  Set a time and always start on time.

What will you do in the huddle?

You talk about how yesterday went, reviewing the key metrics, reviewing problems that occurred, and celebrating the successes you had.  Then celebrate whatever is happening today:  birthday's anniversaries, vacations, babies, graduations, etc.

Then you talk about Today.  What's the plan for today ("Here's what we have to finish today:")

So to make a huddle work, you have to have a plan for the day.

At tiers 2, 3, and 4 it's essentially the same, but these need to look further out than just today.  Tier 2 should anticipate needs for the next week or two.  Tier 3 next month.  Tier 4 next quarter and next year.  But everyone works everyday, and if you want these leadership levels to perform as teams, they need to have a daily plan and meet daily as well.

The key thing that makes all of this work ends up being what you measure.  If you measure the wrong things (things that aren't really something the teams can effect) then nobody really cares and the huddle will just be something they have to do. 

If you measure the right things, everything changes.  How do you know what the right things are?  Ask the teams.  Experiment a little.  If you just use whatever the senior leadership or the continuous improvement team gives you, it's not likely to work.  They just need different things.  They do have to be tied together, but they still have to be relevant to the team. 

So work with it.  The question that might help is "What do we need to know the most every day?"

If you have questions or if you need a little help getting these sorted, I can help.  Just send me a note and we'll figure it out.

Set your calendar alarm now so you can join me for a Lean Coffee discussion Wednesday at noon.  Then, Wednesday at 4 I'm hosting a webinar featuring Bruce Ross, a friend of mine in New Zealand.  His title is "Re-establish the Life, Business (and Bank Account) You Want…. Without Fear of Burnout".  I'll post the registration link in the comments.

On Thursday, I'm kicking off a weekly series of webinars on organizational culture with the aim of helping you reshape the company to get the culture and performance you want.  I'll share a little more of this tomorrow.

Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.

- David

60 - The Elephant in the room

 

Today, I want to talk about the elephant in the room.  Not that I have one at the moment, but the metaphor has always been interesting to me.

We also use elephants in another metaphor about big problems - How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.

But my daughter has always loved elephants and has quite the cute and cuddly collection that she's now sharing with my grand kids.

And I know elephants in the wild can at times be ferocious, but Elephants aren't predators.  We use the metaphor "elephant in the room" because its actually something that we can ignore, despite the tension. 

And eating an elephant, even one bite at a time, is a big job that is unpleasant, but if you don't finish, you can't really expect the elephant to eat you.

When I teach problem solving, and people want to start off with these giant problems that haven't really been clearly defined, I usually talk about a T Rex instead of an elephant. 

I don't want to be able to ignore a problem like the elephant in the room, so let's make it a T Rex and decide what we're going to do with it before it eats us (which problems are likely to do if they go unsolved.)

If we decide to eat the t rex, then we also have to decide where to start.  If we start in the toughest part, and that first bite ends up tasting bad, people won't want to keep eating.  If we start trying to solve a really tough problem without first building up some skill, we're not going to succeed.

Make the first bite some place juicy and tender, and properly cooked so it goes down sweet and nice and easy, so people will want to keep eating. 

Start with small pieces of a tough problem.  Build self-efficacy with a series of small wins.  This way, when it's time to tackle a really tough piece, we'll have the skills and the confidence to take it head on.

Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.

58 - Coaching for Self-efficacy

We're still talking about building your confidence and self-efficacy.

So far we have talked about Mastery and learning vicariously.   Today our topic is Coaching for self-efficacy.  If we are trying to push a team to achieve mastery in multiple tasks or job functions, we need to provide that team with effective coaching in the form of present and principled leadership.

The hallmark of an effective, professional, coaching leader is that they talk less and listen more.  That might not be what you see with sports coaches, but it's what works best in a work environment.

Too many leaders think coaching is primarily about feedback, and we're taught to always start with something positive before you destroy their morale with all the stuff they should be doing better.

Instead, remember that coaching is primarily about improvement.  To improve someone's performance, they need to know what's expected, so the coach helps the performer to set high standards that really challenge their skills. 

With any challenge, you should expect several failures because a good challenge exceeds their current skill level.  The coach supports the performer with the resources they need to build those skills.  That might be in the form of time or tools.

Coaching leaders also have to correct a performer.  We do this with compassion and again by asking questions and listening more.  Let the performer explain the result they got and what happened to get the result.  If they have failed, they know it.  You don't have to point that out!  Help them reflect on their performance to find where things went wrong and what they could do better next time.  Again - talk less, listen more.

Finally, a coach is the main source of encouragement.  If we are setting challenges that drive higher performance, there will be lots of failures along the way.  The coach helps the team persist through those failures by encouraging them to try again and to keep finding new ways to try the work until they can achieve the challenge.

The relationships you build as a proper coach will last a lifetime.  Remember:  Challenge, Support, Correct, and Encourage.  Four key skills for coaches.  Four key skills for leaders.

57 - Learning from Others

Are you part of a team at work?  How does your team work together?

Self-efficacy is a special kind of confidence we have about our ability to do particular tasks or
jobs.

People with high self-efficacy often improve their own workspace, try new things, and persist
through failure.

There are several deliberate things we can do ourselves and as leaders to build self-efficacy at work.  Yesterday, I spoke briefly about Mastery and how doing a job gets better with practice and that boosts self-efficacy.  Not exactly rocket science.  Leadership, though, can be the catalyst for getting that mastery process started.

But mastery is just one piece of the puzzle.  Another thing that helps is our ability to learn by watching other people.  This vicarious learning occurs throughout our lives, but an effective leader will design work that allows several people to work together and be able to actually see each other working.  As they work and discuss things, people will notice that they each do a job in a particular way.  Even when everyone is following the standardized work, there are still individual differences and knack points that certain people bring to the task that make it easier or quicker.

We have to see these differences ourselves, because the nature of expertise usually means the expert can't really explain what they do differently.  As we watch, we learn vicariously.  That gives us an opportunity to try what we've seen and then to make it better.

Bottom line:  put people on small teams and encourage them to experiment with different techniques to use while following the standardized work.

Join me at noon for a Lean Coffee discussion, and join me tomorrow for a webinar on Navigating Changing environments.

Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.

55 - Self Efficacy - How confident are you about your ability to do your job?

How confident do you feel about your ability to do your job?

This confidence about specific tasks is called self-efficacy.   When I first learned about it, it connected a whole bunch of dots for me.  I was studying the Toyota Production System and this concept explained a lot about why team members there were so willing to submit ideas about improving the work.

I learned that people with high self-efficacy do 3 pretty cool things:

1. They are much more likely to take steps on their own to improve their own workspace than people with low self-efficacy
2. They are much more likely to try new things and experiment to see what might work better.
3. When they try this new things and they don’t work, they dig in and persist through that failure.  They keep trying until they MAKE it work.

Other people might try something a leader suggests, or more likely directs them to do, but when it doesn’t work, they will shrug it off and say things like “I told you that wouldn’t work.”

I learned that you don’t have to just hire people with naturally high self-efficacy to get this kind of energy.  There are things that leaders can do to help improve levels of self-efficacy in their people!

That’s what I’ll be talking about this week.

Open your calendar and block Wednesday at noon so you can join me for a lean coffee and have a
good discussion about whatever is on your mind. 

Block Thursday at 2 pm, too and join my webinar on Navigating Changing Times.  I’m going to share 5 key things to help lead people through anything that is changing in their lives.

Have a great day!

54 - Reflection

As we do every Sunday, let’s recap and review.

Remember, the general theme for August has been Learning, which can be pretty broad.

This past week, we opened with how people respond to change.  As with other things we don’t fully understand, any change without a clear picture of where we want to go brings some fear, which causes people to resist.  The leaders job then isn’t to manage change, but to manage fear, and we can do that by open communication, with consistent and clear messaging from all leaders, and showing gratitude to the workforce.

Tuesday I talked about how people learn, specifically in 4 learning domains: Psychomotor, Cognitive, Affective, and Social. 

Then on Wednesday I focused on that cognitive domain and shared 6 levels of learning within that
domain.  The top levels of learning:  Analyzing, Creating, and Evaluating are problem solving. 

On Thursday, when Apple’s market cap broke the $2 Trillion dollar mark, that gave me the opportunity to talk about perspective using the difference between a million, a billion, and a trillion in time and distance.

I returned on Friday with 3 structures to create a learning organization, and those are small teams,
standardized work, and learning circles.  I believe that if you can correctly install these structures, you can build a resilient learning organization.

Finally, yesterday I celebrated my birthday by discussing my pursuit of Wisdom which is the ultimate goal of learning.  It, of course, begins when we acknowledge that we know nothing.

Starting tomorrow, we’ll start exploring what I think is the most important factor in employee
engagement, self-efficacy. 

Wednesday Lean Coffee.  Join Here.

Thursday 2:00 pm Eastern.  Navigating Change solex/webinar.  I hope you’ll join me.  Register here.

53 Wisdom - Are you comfortable with what you know?

Are you comfortable with what you “know”?

Today, I’m 60 years old.  If I had enough hair, it would be gray.

That’s a pretty fair amount of time to be around, and I’ve tried to soak in as much as I possibly could over those years, some more clearly than others.

Happily, I feel like there’s still another several lifetimes of things to learn and things to know.

Knowledge, though is fleeting.  

There are things I just absolutely knew in the past that turned out to be wrong in another context.

So what I’ve learned from that is to keep thinking.  Keep thinking through different perspectives.  Keep putting myself into the shoes of others.  Keep seeking to understand what drives them.

There are lots of things I know I’ll never figure out or understand.  And there is where wisdom lies.

I wouldn’t dare call myself wise.  But I seek that wisdom by seeking to understand.

For my birthday, I wish all of you that desire to understand; that desire to see something from another person’s perspective.  I wish all of you the love it takes do that.

Have a great day and I’ll see you tomorrow.

3 Structures for a Learning Organization

You can do a lot of stuff trying to make your work better and still not be very effective overall. The only sustainable kind of organization is a learning organization. 

You can start to build a learning organization with just 3 lean systems.  These 3 systems seem like they should be easy to do, but they are really pretty hard to do correctly. 

I'm talking about teams, standardized work, and learning circles.

Members of small teams learn more effectively from each other and reach higher levels of
expertise quickly.  Teams of 3 to 6 people with a team leader are able to establish supportive relationships that promote learning and development.

Standardized work is the primary vehicle for teaching work skills.  Too many people think standardized work is just about getting a work process documented.  The system works best when you focus on the learning benefits of having the people who do the work actually complete the analysis of the work and the documentation. 

They'll need some help from supporting staff like managers and engineers, but let them do it instead of having the support staff do it for them.

Learning circles, which we used to call Quality Circles, are exceptional learning groups when the focus is on learning and not on rushing to a solution. 

Here, you'll bring a small and cross-functional group of people together to solve a particular problem.  But it's not really the solution you are after...It's the learning that comes from going through the problem solving process.

If you've tried some of these but you aren't getting the results you expected, maybe a new perspective can help. 

Let's talk!  Click here to book a time to have a call with me.

Next Thursday, August 27, I'm offering a live short online learning experience (SOLX) - my
new term for a webinar - at 2:00 pm Eastern.   Register here.

I would love for you to subscribe to my Youtube Channel  and you're always welcome to join me every Wednesday at noon on Zoom for a lean coffee discussion. 

If you'd like to hear from me a little more frequently.  Subscribe to my mailing list here.

Have a great day!

Do you know how much a trillion really is?

Do you know how much one trillion really is?

Yesterday Apple's market cap broke $2 trillion.  That means investors think the company is that valuable - that's the value of their outstanding stock.  

What's really remarkable is that it took 42 years to reach $1 trillion valuation, then doubled that in just 2 years.  Yes, I wish I had 10,000 shares!

But what's the difference between a million, which used to be considered a lot of money, a billion, which is today's target for being rich, and a trillion, which is the realm of Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Saudi Aramco, oh, and our National Deficit?

Tony Robbins shared the difference using time in his book Unshakeable.  1 Million seconds equals 277.78 hours, or 11 and a half days.

1 billion seconds equals 31.7 YEARS!

1 trillion seconds equals 31,709.79 Years.  That's how old we homo sapiens are!

If it were distance, using the length of dollar bills at 6.14 inches long each, a million bucks would get me from Columbus to Blue Ash, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati.

A billion bucks would get me around the world at the equator 4 times.

A trillion bucks would get me to Mars and back with loads to spare. 96.9 Million miles

We throw billions and trillions around and we have become desensitized to these huge numbers.  I think it's great that our economy is able to produce that kind of wealth. 

But How can we have that much wealth and still have kids going to bed hungry?  

How can we have that much wealth and still have sex slavery? 

If we want to be great, let's make things great for the least of us.

-DV

Responding to Change

How do you respond to change?

 

When the pandemic hit us and we were ordered to lock down, what kinds of things went through your mind?

 

Since we’ve been under these constraints for almost 5 months, what has changed about the way you think about change?

 

If you’re like most people, we respond to change in a relatively predictable way.  You probably greeted that first jarring news of the NBA season cancellation with a little disbelief.  That’s a form of resistance and it’s based on fear.  We all have a fear of unknown changes.  Some wear it a little better than others.

 

If you want to make a change at work, you can expect the same kind of reaction.  Lots of people blame resistance to change for failed initiatives, but they fail because of leadership.

 

Just like we had daily briefings about the pandemic, where our officials were trying to let everyone know as much as possible to help manage the fear, the way you, as a leader, communicate will either help bring people into a place of acceptance more smoothly, or turn everyone off.

 

As we saw with our government briefings at the beginning of the pandemic,  if you say things that make things LESS clear, or if there are conflicting messages from different leaders, people are left to do whatever they decide to do, which may be nothing, or it may be something that causes your initiative to fail.

 

Since this is a complex topic, I’m finishing up an on-demand, Short, On-Line Learning Experience on Navigating Change.  It’ll be available later this week for $19.  I would make it free, but my workload is way down and my bills aren’t!  REGISTER HERE!

Reset? 8/15/2020

 

I usually talk about making our work better, which has a relatively happy feel.  But it's difficult to make work better when you're out of work. 

 

The pandemic has kicked our butts but more importantly it has sharply exposed some of our underlying problems that we as a society really don't want to admit and don't want to face.

 

So what happens to problems when we ignore them? 

 

They always get worse.

 

What happens to problems when we deny they exist or flat out lie about them?

 

They always get worse.

 

Our national problems are significant.  Elections alone aren't going to solve them. 

 

Let's look to our families and communities and start small.  What can we do to help each other out?  Within our communities, whether geographical communities, or communities of practice or faith, we can bring out some equity through love and learning.

 

I'm willing to spend time on the phone with anyone who'd like to brainstorm and try to figure out what to do.  Send an email and we'll book a time.

Love each other.  Learn from each other what we need to step up, and then help each other take that step up.  Together we can lift the yoke of poverty.

-DSV

Workplace Culture

Workplace Culture - August 14, 2020

Do you need a culture change?  

I’m picking up this blog because the format is easy and i like the way it presents each post.  I have been doing a daily video since July 1, 2020 and I nearly always write a sort of script before I record.  I haven’t figured out a good way to transfer all of those to this platform and preserve the sequence, but I’ll get that figured out soon enough. 

For now, let me just start rolling.  I’m sure I’ll adjust as I go.

 

The theme August has been Learning.  I've spent the past couple of weeks focusing on what you need to learn to make jobs more satisfying and why.

 

Today I want to add to the why with a shift to talk about culture.

 

Culture captures the collective behavior of the people in organizations.

 

I think there are 5 specific types of culture in organizations

 

Defiance - where trust between the leadership and the workforce is absent so the workforce actively works against the goals of the leadership

 

Compliance - where the workforce complies with the directives of leadership, doing what they are told to avoid negative consequences

 

Involvement - where leadership solicits some input from some of the workforce

 

Excitement - where leadership promotes the participation by the workforce in scheduled events and activities to improve the workplace

 

And Engagement - where leadership and the workforce work together to set and achieve goals, and where the workforce is fully empowered to make changes which they share proudly with leadership.

 

Most organizations are stuck down in Compliance.

 

2020 has been a huge shock for all of us.  Those compliant organizations took a hit while the leadership had to decide what to do and then put things in place to allow the workforce to work differently.

 

How much more quickly could they have pivoted if they had all of their employees seeking and discovering new ways to work?

 

This isn't going to be our last crisis.  Now is the time to start changing your culture to face the next one.

 

Reach out and let me show you how.  But you'd better be ready for some heavy lifting.  This is easy to talk about, but difficult to do.

-DSV

May 1 - Encouraging words: EnCOURAGE

I’m still sensing in many organizations what I can only describe as fear:  Leaders who are afraid to allow their staff members to get to know them; subordinates who are afraid to ask questions when their leader has made a questionable decision; people who are afraid to try new things.

On your gemba walks, you should work hard to be positive and encourage people.  Perhaps if you are truly able to encourage them, they will muster the COURAGE to overcome some of these fears.  By the way, if you’re not talking to people, you’re not on a gemba walk.