Posts Tagged theory
what would you do with 8 hours a week?
image by steve.grosbois, flickr artist
you work for 32 hours from monday through thursday. you wake up on friday morning with an extra spring in your step, looking forward to the upcoming weekend. but today isn’t your ‘normal’ friday; today is different.
instead of working on client deliverables, or manning the grill at a local restaurant, or waiting tables down at the pub, you get 8 hours to do whatever you’d like to do.
what would you do with it?
would you start work on that big idea you’ve always had? would you enroll in a culinary course in your area? would you learn how to brew your own beer? … or would you play farmville on facebook? or sleep in until noon? or drink some free cold ones that your friends bring you out back behind the bar?
if you’re an employer, why not give your employees 8 hours a week and see what they do with it? trust me, you’ll recognize the ones who are worthwhile and the ones who aren’t very quickly.
then, invest heavily in the ones that are because they’re going to take your organization places. they’re natural born world-shakers.
solution-based approach vs. problem-based approach
image by flickr artist, Dunechaser
there’s a distinct difference between a solution-based approach and a problem-based approach. let me give you an example of what i mean.
i was watching a show on pbs that was talking about battleground mobility — from the time of egyptian chariots through to today’s modern, technologically advanced tanks. i found the bit about the development of the tank to be quite interesting.
during the first world war, trench warfare had become the status quo. miles and miles of fronts in europe and russia covered in 6ft wide trenches. it made fighting a conventional land battle extremely deadly, and the allies were finding out just how difficult it would be to take down the german war machine. until a technologically curious winston churchill had an idea.
competition vs. collaboration — how far can you jump?
image by unclebumpy, flickr artist
i recently came across a post on wired.com’s science section about american bullfrogs and their leaping ability. in short: when in the wild, bullfrogs have a certain expectation of maximum leaping distance which scientists have previously measured at 4.3 meters. however, at a county fair in california’s calaveras county their bullfrogs have been known to leap over 7 meters when involved in their frog jumping competitions. that’s quite an improvement!
in business, it seems everyone is focused on collaboration; on finding synergies and maximizing productivity. but what if we increasingly looked not towards collaboration on our teams, but towards competition? how would the game change then?
ideas do not occur in a bubble
image by Reini68, flickr artist
when was the last time you had a good idea? one of those eureka moments?
i remember back in college my roommate and i were discussing which of the honey bunches of oats ‘flavors’ we enjoyed the most. after trying pretty much all of them, i told him with conviction that hbo with strawberries was my favorite. i said: ”the thing i love about it is how your milk turns strawberry-flavored afterwards.”
immediately i thought, ‘hey — they actually make that stuff!’ and i shouted out with such joy, “dude! what if i make strawberry milk, and then pour that into my hbo with strawberries? it’s double the strawberry! how awesome would that be?!”
the very next time we went to the grocery store i bought some strawberry nesquik mix and put my theory to the test. naturally it ended up being horrendous, but it was still a good idea at the time.
“the common man goes nowhere” — herb brooks
image courtesy of the herb brooks training center
“you can’t be common, the common man goes nowhere; you have to be uncommon.” — legendary hockey coach, herb brooks
of all of herb brooks’ quotes, i love this one the most. i don’t know that it’s something i do intentionally, or if it’s something in my natural programming, but i don’t do common work.
over the last week or so, i’ve heard some pretty high praises from my client. the program manager said of me in a management meeting, “john scardino, that dude is phenomenal.” and just about a week after that comment was made, another member of my client’s organization said, “not to put any pressure on you, but you’re going to save [this project].”
i only know how to do things one way: the best way that i know how to do it. so, to me, i’m not so sure that i’m really doing anything that’s truly special. i see coworkers all the time logging long hours and doing a lot of great things. the stuff my officemate, m. gregory white I, is doing makes me shake my head in astonishment. i say it no matter where i go: there are better people than me. but there’s something that seems to separate me from the rest.
i’m uncommon.
this old house
my parents just bought a new house, and by new i mean old. in philadelphia, every house is old — many of which have not been renovated since the 60s. so the weekend before thanksgiving, i went up to philly to take care of some errands and, while there, to check out the house and paint the upstairs bedrooms for my parents.
not bad, right? wrong.
the new house has popcorn ceilings with … sparkles? in it. and both the downstairs as well as the back room upstairs have floor to ceiling mirrors which one can only assume is to ‘make the room look larger’. to me, it all makes the room look ‘horrible’. but such was the style back in the day (…i suppose).
there’s a slight problem, however: namely the fact that it’s now the future and such designs are way outdated, look bad, and worse yet are hard to change. painting the ceilings was not fun. first, the popcorn soaks up all the paint so you end up using far more than you would have used on a normal, flat surface. second, it falls apart on you. i know this too well. my brother and myself both had paint covered pieces of the ceiling fall off and into our mouths. (yes, it would have made sense to have a mask on, but we didn’t exactly have an OSHA approved setup.) the mirrors? they’re still up there. it would have cost too much money to have them removed, and then you have to worry about what’s behind those mirrors once you do take them down. beyond the cost to remove them, you may incur even more costs in fixing whatever is behind the mirrors. it’s not an agile design for the interior of a house.
much like designing a house, you may want to be careful when you are making design choices for your organization. you will be tempted to put a lot of processes in place and begin to adopt “industry best practices” from competitors in your marketplace. i say to exercise caution because the more processes you have, by definition, the less agile your organization is. processes reduce your ability to make changes, and therefore your ability to innovate.
don’t get me wrong – some processes are important. you do still need a ceiling, and you certainly need walls. before you go making choices, however, think about the future. are you making the same choices based on what everyone else sees as the newest fad, or trend? are you making decisions that are restricting your organization’s ability to adapt to changes? are you going to be stuck with popcorn on the ceiling that’s hard to change and mirrors on the walls that are expensive to get rid of?
don’t let “this old house” turn into “this old organization.” always plan for the future.
always plan on success
image by csitscenter, flickr collection
i was in a meeting recently with a senior associate in my firm, and spent the vast amount of the 4 hours we had together furiously taking notes. unfortunately i couldn’t write as fast as he was talking, so i ended up not capturing all of the information that was there for the taking. for the most part, the vast majority of the time was spent discussing our earned value management capabilities at booz allen. we did talk some about business in general and building capabilities that can grow and expand, and it was from this discussion that my largest, boldest, “even used a highlighter on it” note came from. he said something to me that made a lot of sense:
always plan on success.
it’s a great quote. you may mistakingly take it as an inspirational message, but that’s not at all what he intended. it was actually meant to scare us, and remind us that we need to be prepared to succeed. to be successful in business, it’s not enough to have a good idea. even having passion and being a hard worker isn’t enough. when you’re trying to stand up or start up something brand new, you have to have certain things in place to handle the change in environment. nothing can kill a good idea quite like being unprepared to succeed. if you aren’t ready to expand with the business, you’ll undoubtedly experience growing pains – much like wearing a shoe that’s two sizes too small.
do it, and let them see you do it
image from Crashmaster007, flickr artist
it’s easy to tell people what to do or what’s expected of them, but leading by example says a lot about who you are as a person, not just as a leader.
when you’re a leader, one thing you expect from your team or organization is accountability. you expect your people to embrace their roles, take ownership of their tasks, and ensure that their work is done when it needs to be, at a level of quality that will positively represent your organization. if you expect that from your people — shouldn’t you expect that from yourself as well?
everything that you expect from your people, you should be willing to do yourself. work hard, and let people see you working hard. be prepared for different situations, and let people see you prepare. you should do what you expect the people following you to do, and you should let them see you do it. it’s inspirational, it forges trust, it sets a good example.
you can’t tell your people, “stop working so hard and take time for yourself,” and send emails at 1:00a on a weekday or 9:30p on a weekend. it seems more like a challenge to work harder than a sincere concern about work-life balance.
so as a leader — when you make a promise, or institute new rules, or try to change habits — it’s best if you start with yourself.
leading by example says a lot about who you are. what are your actions saying about you?
ordinary is not unordinary
you want my business, right? you want me to choose you over your competitors, yeah?
let me give you a hint: ordinary is not unordinary.
as i’m currently in the new car market, i’m taking a look at just about every car maker under the sun right now (except dodge/chrysler/jeep). this new car has to be the car i keep for a good while because i plan on saving up for a house or condo; i just want to upgrade my car while my trade-in is still a good value. the one thing i’ve seen — from everyone! — has been really incredible: auto makers and dealers trying to sell me on things that are truly pedestrian…
AM/FM radio? ordinary.
CD player? ordinary.
power windows? ordinary.
floor mats? ordinary.
rear window defogger? ordinary.
air conditioning? ordinary.
cup holders?! ordinary!
if you’re selling cars, boats, motorcycle sidecars, televisions, mobile phones.. yourself to a potential employer (or your organization to a potential employee!) .. whatever it is if you expect to sell, you have to remove the ordinary from your sales pitch. you won’t earn new business by selling what everyone else has. you need to differentiate yourself. you need to identify where your product, services, or skills are different from the next closest competitor. first, identify those areas, then sell that.
if you’re looking for a job, to hire a new employee, or to sell more cars, you have to make yourself special.
ordinary is not unordinary.
social media, “finding nemo,” and you
image copyright the walt disney company, all rights reserved
i’m a big pixar fan.
i love everything about their company. john lasseter’s drive to pursue his dream until it was fulfilled is something that we should all admire and look up to. then, there’s the unsung heroes of pixar — the animators. every pixar movie made is 100% animation. that means there’s no help from motion-capture tools or other technological devices. the animation is done 100% by hand on computers.
and, of course, there’s the stories! there’s a reason pixar wins year after year at the oscars for best animated movie despite competition from dreamworks animation, blue sky studios, and disney animation studios. that reason is their ability to tell fantastic stories that appeal to young and old alike. they’re stories that we all can learn from.
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