AchieveGlobal's blog

The Marginal Idiot

By Chris Blauth

When you think of ‘effective communication’ does Napoleon Bonaparte come to mind?  If not, he should.

Much has been written about Napoleon’s brilliant military strategy and his unending quest for world domination.  Less known, and perhaps legend, is the process he devised and followed to ensure that his generals understood his every command.

Enter the Marginal Idiot. Napoleon knew that if someone lacking full capacity to understand information did understand a message, then it was so clear that others in more critical positions—namely generals miles away on the battle front—were certain to comprehend the message and act accordingly.  Unlike in Napoleon’s day, we have the technology today to communicate to one or thousands at the blink of an eye.  Yet are your messages really understood by others?  Keep the following principles in mind when communicating either mission-critical strategic plans or delegating mundane tasks:

1. Organize your thoughts.  It pays to think before you speak.  Whether getting your thoughts on paper or just thinking through what you’ll say, you need to consider your objectives, your audience, and the key points in your message.
2. Deliver you message in compelling ways.  Effective communicators know that how they deliver a message is just as important as the message itself.  Use stories, illustrations, and metaphors to convey your point in memorable and compelling ways.  
3. Explore responses.  Take the time to respond to the questions, concerns, and ideas of others.  Go beyond active listening to empathetic listening.

Or you might want to run your message first by someone you work with that you feel is a…oh, never mind.

Avoiding the “CRM Triple-Dog Dare”

By Chris Blauth

Millions have enjoyed A Christmas Story, the iconic 1983 movie about nine-year-old Ralphie Parker, who yearns for a Red Ryder BB gun on Christmas morning. In the classic schoolyard scene, Ralphie's friends Flick and Schwartz debate whether or not a warm tongue will stick to a frozen flagpole. The banter escalates to the most serious of dares: a "triple-dog dare." With his reputation on the line, Flick gives it a try. 

Many organizations, sadly, have fallen for the "CRM triple-dog dare." CRM providers wave the banner of improved customer loyalty, which according to Ekinci, et al, leads to higher shareholder value through "the creation and better utilization of customer knowledge."  Yet for all the promised benefits (and billions spent), companies say their CRM is stuck as painfully as Flick's tongue, largely due to technology and user adoption issues. What's surprising, though, is that business leaders often fail to mention the most vital tool for creating customer value: a culture of service.

If a company lacks a culture that habitually satisfies the needs and wants of customers, no software can improve service or build a strategic advantage. So, before you speak with any CRM provider, consider two of the keys to customer loyalty:

• You earn customer loyalty through a series of defining moments (points in time when a customer forms an impression about your organization).

While a defining moment is not a full interaction, many moments add up to one "customer experience." A defining moment may be positive, negative, or neutral. To create a customer experience that promotes loyalty, you need to create as many positive defining moments as possible.  Organizations with a mature service culture map typical defining moments and find ways to make them positive. Further, they map atypical interactions to anticipate and mitigate or avoid negative moments.

• To build a culture of service, create positive defining moments in every personal interaction.

While few organizations can afford to deliver the same services to every customer segment, no organization can afford NOT to create positive defining moments for every individual customer. A "customer" is anyone who counts on your products or services. A customer, either external or internal, may have more or less value to you, may have a long- or a short-term relationship with you, may interact with you face-to-face, by phone, in print, or online. In a culture of service, every customer experiences positive defining moments in every service encounter.

Taking that "triple-dog dare," Flick suffers a minor blow to his ego. Messing with CRM before embracing a culture of service, you risk more serious consequences. You may even, as Ralphie's mother says, "Shoot your eye out."

How well is your organization thinking beyond the moment?

by Chris Blauth A well known airline recently experienced a public relations tsunami, thanks in part to the power of social media. After baggage handlers apparently broke his beloved guitar, a ruffled passenger embarked on a year-long pilgrimage to convince the airline to compensate him for his damaged asset. And to apologize. Each airline employee—according to this passenger—stuck to their antiquated 20th century customer satisfaction rule book and indicated they would not remedy the situation. Consequently, he decided to chronicle the account by way of a seminal song and distribute it by leveraging 21st century technology. This initially harmless video has—at the time of this writing—been viewed by over 4.7 million views on YouTube alone. Sadly, the leaders at this airline neither understood nor demonstrated AchieveGlobal’s research-based leadership principle Think beyond the moment. The central thrust of this principle is that for each action or decision, there are consequences. Being a good leader means considering how your actions and decisions will impact others and the organization, and avoiding actions that bring personal benefit at the expense of others. When leaders set compelling goals, make thoughtful plans, and behave ethically, they increase their trustworthiness and dependability. What’s more, anticipating the future also helps leaders prevent minor, manageable problems from turning into organizational crises. This last point is so vital—and challenging—that I submit for your consideration and application four tips to help you Think beyond the moment:

• Bring up ethical issues as a regular part of work conversations. Without being judgmental, raise the awareness of ethical obligations in your workplace.
• Support the highest values of your organization and use them to make decisions on behalf of customers and co-workers.
• Represent the organization to the outside world. Join a trade or professional organization where you can learn about industry standards and promote the organization’s interests.
• Recount examples of situations in which you made decisions that were in the best interests of your customers and the organization, even though it was not easy to do so.

I learned first-hand how another major airline embraced this last tip. I was recently delayed at New York’s John. F. Kennedy airport due to inclement weather. Two weeks later I received in the mail—get this—a letter conveying the airline’s regret, including a formal apology on behalf of everyone at the airline, and a voucher good toward future travel. It was their way of Thinking beyond the moment in very practical ways. I certainly wasn’t expecting that type of response and kind gift but would like to publically say, “Thank you, Delta, for your thoughtful and unforgettable letter!”

How Weak Are Your Cognitive Chains?

By Chris Blauth I was reminded of an interesting historical fact while visiting the West Point Military Academy recently: to control the Hudson River during the War of Independence, military commanders ordered a massive chain—some 1,500 feet in length, weighing 65 tons—to be strung across the river and affixed on both sides.  This “Great Chain” was so ominous, historians note, that it was never directly challenged by a single Royal Navy warship.   Viewing the Great Chain at Trophy Point reminded me of cognitive chains that impact creative thought.  Creative thought is based on the ability to make connections and combinations—particularly between seemingly unrelated things.  The capacity to mix and match data, bits and pieces of information, knowledge and experience in ways that are unusual and useful—to be able to see those connections when others don’t—underlies creative thought.  When we see an image or hear a word, our minds proceed along a chain of automatic associations, each one connecting to another.  It happens quickly, with no effort, the mind following the simplest path—a previous set of associations.  Chains of associations tend to be grouped around areas related to our own experience, and the more an association chain is used, the stronger it becomes.  Association chains help us move quickly from analysis to action.  They can also limit our ability to think expansively, to question assumptions and conventions and to see things in new and different ways.  The weaker the association chains, the easier it is to connect outside the norm—to make unexpected and creative combinations and connections. With a little practice you can invite your mind to travel a path it wouldn’t normally or routinely go.  Two practices will help you jump the association track:

1. Widen your world.  Singular, field-specific expertise, for all its strengths, can make it more difficult to break out of established patterns of thought.  So, widen your world.  Be on the look-out for ways to experience new points of view and to extend your frames of reference.
2. Ignite new insights.  You can prepare your mind to make more creative connections.  If you want to shake free of your typical associations, you’ll need a few sparks—ways to ignite new insights.  Practice making unusual and unexpected mental associations.  Or think how something that works in a dramatically different setting can work in yours.

How are you widening your world and igniting new insights?  Your insights and pragmatic examples are welcomed and encouraged.

Just Admit It!

By: Chris Blauth A creative group working at or with Nike in the late 1980’s coined and marketed the now-famous slogan “Just do it.”  Since then, Nike’s marketing engine has continued to define what “it” is and looks like in the behaviors and accomplishments of popular athletes at the top of their game.    For leaders, an equally important slogan should be “Just admit it.”  The question in the case of leaders, naturally, is what is “it”?  Recently, AchieveGlobal fielded a global survey as the capstone to a comprehensive study of peer-reviewed business and leadership journals as well as focus groups with mid- and senior managers.  We pinpointed what leaders need to fess up to: their mistakes.  More broadly, successful leaders admit and accept responsibility for their own mistakes. In today’s business landscape and economic turmoil, admitting and accepting mistakes seems logical.  Who doesn’t want to see a leader come forward and be accountable for his or her hubris and egregious mistakes?  What’s fascinating, though, is that in 2003 – when the economy appeared healthy and leaders were not under the type of attacks happening today – another AchieveGlobal study found that leaders who freely admit their mistakes appear “real” or “genuine.” What’s more, such “genuine leaders” inspire trust and gain the commitment of their teams and peers.  Simply put, admitting mistakes is an evergreen facet of leadership. Have you seen leaders circumventing the need to admit mistakes and accept responsibility?  And what positive examples can you cite?  Post your thoughts here or email me at chris.blauth@achieveglobal.com. It would be wonderful if leaders never made mistakes, but that’s not possible.  So leaders: Just admit it!

Leading Through the Sudden Impact on Morale

By: Chris Blauth Last week, I discussed unnerving actions companies have been forced to make in response to quickly declining revenues. Even more unsettling, a recent AchieveGlobal study found 59.6 percent of leaders predict a hiring freeze and 43.6 percent expect to downsize or conduct layoffs throughout this year. These depressing trends have an equally depressing impact on employee morale. More than half of the leaders who responded to our survey reported that stress is a problem or severe problem for their employees, and slightly less than half the respondents admitted that stress is a problem or severe problem for them! So – how is a leader supposed to handle that? Very carefully. Still, even with all of this bad news, leaders are finding ways to boost morale and productivity:

• A majority say they “motivate employees through ongoing, positive communication.”
• About half say they “offer special recognition for employees who perform well.”
• 40 percent say they “hold fun events at or away from work.”
• 38 percent say they “offer non-monetary incentives or rewards such as time off.”
• 24 percent say they “offer monetary incentives.”
• 5.6 percent say “my employees don’t need more motivation and their morale is good.”
• And, thank heavens, only 5.2 percent say they “do nothing.”

What are some things you do, as a leader – or an employee – to help boost morale? With the economy always in mind, let’s assume that a big fat raise is out of the picture.

Top Corporate Actions Affecting Employee Morale In This Trying Economy

By: Chris Blauth We all have at least one thing in common these days. Uncertainty. The way we handle important decisions has been greatly affected by the downturn in the economy. Maybe now you feel slightly uncomfortable spending money on luxuries, or are a bit uneasy about how you diversify your portfolio of investments. Now we all are managing our decisions – and our life – differently. This change in thinking and behavior also translates into the business world. Like their teams, leaders feel the sting of what is now considered daily business events, such as budget cuts, office and plant closures, insolvency, and layoffs. In addition to pressures leaders feel themselves to meet corporate expectations, they also face the challenge of motivating others to execute actions that will help to attain goals. This is especially tough when companies are having to make serious cuts – in many aspects of the business. According to our research: • 75.2 percent of companies have cut discretionary spending. • 65.2 percent have stopped hiring. • 51.2 percent have frozen pay. • 49.8 percent have laid off employees. • 20 percent have cut working hours. • 19.6 percent have reduced employee benefits. • And 15.2 percent have closed locations. Which of the above actions, that your organization has been forced to make, do you think has impacted employee morale the most?

An Endless Trend?

By Chris Blauth I’m a frequent reader of the Wall Street Journal.  This week I saw an article about IBM that caused me to reflect on an apparently endless trend: the outsourcing of jobs to emerging markets. WSJ reports that over 70 percent of IBM’s 400,000 employees work outside the United States, up from 65 percent in 2006. The obvious incentive for IBM and others to embrace this trend is to tap into lower-cost talent in non-U.S. markets, resulting in greater profits for shareholders. Advances in technology continue to fuel this trend, of course. What does this fact mean for leaders? A thought immediately comes to mind (and I would welcome your comments): As never before, leaders need to be culturally literate. In the past, high-potential U.S. managers and their families often relocated to foreign markets for extended periods. The deep insights these leaders gained about conducting business in other cultures was invaluable in strengthening their company’s brand at home and abroad.  Today, overseas assignments are less common. Advances in technology and the Internet now allow for a vivid cultural intersection between, say, a manager in Canada and another in Greece – without either leaving home!  Below are three best practices for leaders of virtual cross-cultural groups, who do not have the benefit of a quintessential sojourn assignment:

• Work hard to understand the other cultures represented in your group.  On thing you can do is spend time on the webpage for the Center for Intercultural Learning to get better acquainted with communication styles and relationship-building in other cultures. 
• Be the emblem of your brand, always.  Represent not just the values and visions of your cross-cultural group, but also the essence of your brand in the marketplace.
• Be self-sacrificial.  Act in the best interest of the group, as opposed to solely in your own interest.

Following one or all of these best practices can take you a long way toward building strong leader-member relations that enhance communication and overall team performance. What do you think? 

Innovation Now: Clearing Out Your Old Garage

By Chris Blauth Your garage is probably much like mine – a humble space stuffed with cars, bikes, paint cans, scrap two-by-fours, and much, much more. Every so often I haul everything out, sweep, purge, and donate. And no one cares except my family. Yet many see one extraordinary garage as a national treasure: 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto, California, where Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded their company.  Innovation poured from that garage, as it does now from HP locations worldwide. Today, 367 Addison symbolizes the lone genius – or pair of geniuses – whose ideas and their tangible expression leave an indelible mark on us all. But a recent AchieveGlobal study adds new kinks to that inspiring story. We set out to discover what today’s mature and emergent organizations do – garage or no garage – to reap the rewards of innovation. Since lone geniuses are tough to track down, we interviewed executives and managers from top companies – leaders who play a central role in innovation, and who share DNA with the Hewlett and Packard of Addison Avenue. This worldwide primary research found four main conditions that support innovation today:

• Environment. This is the cultural side of innovation – the expectation, the encouragement, and most of all the permission to question and offer concrete alternatives. In a note of caution, many veteran innovators told us that creating the right culture can be challenging for an established, by-the-book company with a history of success.
• Systems. Along with environment, systems and processes aligned with culture often came up as a necessary condition for innovation. The main message? Culture without discipline stifles execution. As a Takata manager told us, “That loose environment on the front end and tight environment on the back end helps the products to go through.”
• Top-down support. In the past, innovation at the front line didn’t’ t require much buy-in from executives. Today, passionate executive commitment is vital. “Without that, you can’ t do anything,” said a manager at Gale. Only executives can make innovation a priority and align leaders at all levels. Said a Stabilo executive, “All decision makers have to believe in what you’re doing. They need to be as courageous as you are.”
• Collaboration. Leaders told us that innovation requires collaboration within groups and among departments, functions, divisions, brands, sites, and countries. “There’s almost nothing you could achieve by your own knowledge or expertise,” said a Toshiba manager. To encourage collaboration, innovative leaders find ways for all to learn from technical experts, experienced hands, customers, and even competitors.

All this is a long way from my cluttered garage – just as modern companies, including HP, are a long way from 367 Addison. While innovation at its root hasn’t changed, rarely now does the lone genius emerge with a world-beating product, or even a fully-developed idea. Today’s complex global challenges require motivated groups to collaborate across boundaries in a conducive environment, with needed systems aligned, all driven by the passionate support of executives. This is the core message of our research for all who would equal the achievements of Hewlett and Packard.

Candid Feedback

By Chris Blauth Eleven years ago my wife and I began reading ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ to our daughter at bedtime.  This classic tale is concise and easy to read, yet has profound meaning.  You’re no doubt familiar with the essence of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale: Out of town tricksters grab the attention of a vain emperor with a penchant for fine garments and promise to make him a regal suit made from unmatched cloth.  This cloth, however, is invisible to those who are unfit for the emperor’s office or otherwise stupid.  Neither the emperor nor his equally vain ministers is able to ‘see’ the cloth, but rather than admit this fact and suffer ridicule from others everyone claims to see the fabric and extol its grandeur.  In short, the ministers, and later the town folk, attest to what the emperor wants to hear, not what he needs to hear.  That is, until the day he saunters through the streets of his capital and a child bravely exclaims, ‘Look, the Emperor has nothing on at all!”  By this time, of course, the swindlers have fled with the emperor’s money, never to be seen again.  Communicating unwanted or unpopular news is never easy—whether it’s 1837, the year Andersen’s tale was first published, or today.  It’s even more challenging when leaders engender—either through explicit or implicit actions—environments in which communication is stifled or barren.  Perhaps you’re keenly aware of the results after asking copious clarifying questions when change is announced, or after providing constructive feedback once change is underway.  Immediately or over time the messenger is ‘wounded’ or even worse ‘shot’.  When this occurs everyone in the organization recognizes that anyone who dares to question the case for change or comment on how to make the change more successful will ultimately suffer mild or severe consequences.  As a result, associates share only ‘safe’ or ‘politically correct’ information with their manager.  Clearly, this is not the kind of atmosphere that empowers people to support and drive change. Recently, my colleagues and I at AchieveGlobal pinpointed that organizations—and the individuals within them—succeed at change when they demonstrate ten practices—critical how to’s that differentiate between success and mediocrity.  One of these practices, Encourage candid feedback, produces endless benefits in the form of improved information accuracy, increased quality of idea generation, and accelerated decision making.  In this type of environment, you’ll find managers who:    • Welcome all questions and constructive suggestions. • Encourage people to ask clarifying and challenging questions that put pressure on change strategies and plans. • Show sincere interest in learning what people know, think, and feel about changes being implemented. • Acknowledge and praise people for their candor. This kind of climate yields a shared understanding in people of what’s changing and why it’s important.  Even better, it helps management discern what people know and how to interpret what they’ve heard, which in turn helps them target their messages and refine their plans.  To date, my wife and I have read ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ countless times to all three of our children.  In fact, it’s still a favorite of my youngest who’s six.  As I’ve read it recently, though, I often muse, “How many organizations have cultures in which managers and non-managers alike tell their superiors what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear?”  What do you think?  I invite you to respond either here or at chris.blauth@achieveglobal.com. 

Talkin ' Bout My Generation

By Chris Blauth In 1965, a young Roger Daltrey injected words that are now a staple within the lexicon of Proto-punk and Hard rock. No doubt reading the stanza below evokes not only the song's melody in your soul but also the pitch and stutter of Daltrey's voice:

People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my generation) Just because we get around (Talkin' 'bout my generation) Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my generation) I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my generation)

The cadence of this tune-and the passion with which Daltrey sung it-remains an evergreen element within musical history. Few people in the sixties would have expected, though, that over forty years later Human Resources professionals (referred to as ‘Personnel' in the sixties, incidentally) would be ‘Takin' ‘bout' another generation in the workplace: Generation Y. Also known as the Millennials, Generation www, Digital natives, Echo Boomers and N-Gens (Martin & Tulgan, 2001), these young men and women have entered the workforce and generated a lot of press as it relates to their work attitudes, work ethic and productivity. Even more telling are examples of how this generation is upsetting the cadence of 21st century work life as their attitudes and styles collide with Boomers (who no doubt recall where they were the first time they heard My Generation). If the following story were not published in Fast Company, a reputable periodical, it would fall under the heading of urban legend: A 22-year-old pharmaceutical employee learned that he was not getting the promotion he had been eyeing. His boss told him he needed to work on his weaknesses first. The Harvard grad had excelled at everything he had ever done, so he was crushed by the news. He told his parents about the performance review, and they were convinced there was some misunderstanding, some way they could fix it, as they'd been able to fix everything before. His mother called the human-resources department the next day. Seventeen times. She left increasingly frustrated messages: "You're purposely ignoring us"; "you fudged the evaluation"; "you have it in for my son." She demanded a mediation session with her, her son, his boss, and HR--and got it. At one point, the 22-year-old reprimanded the HR rep for being "rude to my mom." (Sacks, 2006) Without question everyone agrees that each generation came to age amidst influential societal events/movements, which have shaped their attitudes and beliefs. For Boomers, movements such as the sexual revolution, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War molded their thinking. And events such as Kennedy's assassination and Watergate left indelible memories in their conscience. Generation X experienced firsthand skyrocketing divorce rates, mom's working full time outside the home, and the AIDS epidemic. What's more, they remember what it was like before the Internet and Y2K. Generation Y, or Millennials, grew up under protective parents, also duel earners, who substituted timeouts for spankings (Gravett & Throckmorton 2007). Not surprisingly, these factors can contribute to tension in the workplace because of differing attitudes about work, managerial styles, and beliefs in general. And current literature is replete with opinions and points of view noting generational differences as the source. But the question to you today is, how do you see this issue impacting the 21st Century workforce? Please share your thoughts here or with me directly at chris.blauth@achieveglobal.com. In 1992, Green Day released their second album, Kerplunk, which included a modern-day rendition of My Generation. The lyrics matched those penned by Pete Townsend in the mid-sixties, yet the tune was revised to reflect the musical preferences of the neo-punk scene. I guess the melody Millennials play is all their own. One thing's for sure: regardless of the generation, the beat goes on.