Create Better Ideas

ISSM 2012 Team Challenge

This years International Sales and Service Meeeting was full of company culture with a March Madness twist as 20 teams gave their best presentations to reinvent the sales and service relationship. 

In heat 1, teams broke into (4) rooms with (5) groups to compete for their spot in round 2 by room audiance vote. For heat 2, the final 4 went head to head making their prentations live infront of all of ISSM for a chance to place 4th, 3rd, 2nd and to take the ISSM crown for 1st place and each member bringing home a cold $1000.00 cash. Congratulations to all of our teams and see you at the next International Sales and Service Meeting.

Visit our site: http://www.phillipscorp.com/

Projects and Process and Systems, Oh My!

It’s scary out there. I have been to conferences, read articles, and seen on-line discussion groups that have spent a lot of time chewing on such things as “What is the difference between a process and a project?”, “When is a project a process?”, “If you are process oriented, can you be a systems thinker?”, etc.

 Can’t we all just get along? Project management, process improvement and documentation, and systems thinking all have their places; and none of them – in actual practice – are mutually exclusive. Remember that our definition of “correct” is “what works”.

 Project management is a way of organizing the calendar and budget that guide a project and communicating that to project participants and stakeholders in such a way that stuff gets done. When we document process – no matter the form – we are writing a recipe for how to do something over and over again and get the same quality result. When we think of either projects or processes as systems, we are acknowledging that they are complicated and that they are non-linear: Sometimes when we follow the steps, different stuff happens and we need to adjust. Process improvement and systems thinking both lead us to look at root cause when we don’t get what we want. Process improvement tends to look at the sequence in the recipe to see how it can be fixed; systems thinking challenges us to look for causes based upon the relationships among the parts and players that are affecting the process.*

At Phillips Corporation, we also talk about “well crafted plans”. A well crafted plan supports an audacious objective. It is in place before we begin, anticipating obstacles to success (like a project plan), should be recorded and reported as we go along (like a process document), and takes into account the big picture: people, culture, environment, and potential drivers and constraints (systems thinking). Some of these ideas have some contradictions to one another, but having all of them in our toolbox helps us to be flexible.

And now reality:

We set our objective, sign up the stakeholders, and craft a plan. Then the unanticipated happens, we’re thrown off track, and our lovely well crafted plan needs re-crafting. Open your toolbox and examine: Was a step missed? Should the step have happened in a different order? Were the proper tools or skills not in place? (process), Was the plan not communicated? Were all not on board? Did something scheduled or agreed to fall through the cracks without being noticed or communicated? Did we guess wrong on scope, cost, or time needed? (project) Does everyone understand their roles? Is communication happening the way it should? Is the team or organization inadvertently working against success? Are we pushing against the culture? (systems)

There are, of course, many more questions that can be asked, and we all have our favorites. Try this: if your orientation is stronger in one of the three – project, process, or systems – learn about the others or invite someone with a different orientation to join your team.

When something interferes with the execution of your plan – and something will – the more kinds of questions you can ask, the better your correction will be.

 

*(This paragraph is intentionally oversimplified. Please comment if you have questions, additions, or arguments.)

 

 

The Culture of Winning

As football season starts, hope springs eternal.  Every team makes moves in the offseason, in hopes that they have added enough talent to be winners.  But what makes a winner?  Is it their talent, or their culture?

Why is it that, although the NFL has put a lot of effort into parity, that the same teams are always the perennial favorites?  Why is it that the Washington Redskins have invested millions of dollars in acquiring the best talent in the league, however they can’t get to the playoffs?  I would argue that the culture of the team is wrong.

Teams like the Patriots, Packers, and Steelers have winning cultures.  In Baseball, the Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies have winning cultures.  There are expectations on how the team conducts business, and how it will compete.  Year after year, even when their players move on, these teams remain the benchmark for success. An example of how powerful a culture can be is Randy Moss.  He failed on many teams, and succeeded when he got to the Patriots.

 What defines the team’s cultures?  Who bears the responsibility of instilling the culture in new players?  It starts at the top, when the owner defines his expectations, his minimum standards.  The management is then left to choose the team, and set goals and expectations.  The next component is the team captains.  These are people that lead by example, and are the heart of the team.  Their actions are the result of an effective culture. 

How does sports relate to Phillips?  Easy.  I view myself as a free agent that was signed by Phillips a year ago.  I was introduced to a cultural performance standard that was developed by Alan Phillips and the senior leadership team.  My team leader then helped me to set goals and expectations, through OGTE.  The team captains are our Brand Ambassadors, who embody the culture, and prove its power daily.

Each one of these components, the Cultural Performance Standard, OGTE, and Brand Ambassadors, are crucial in perpetuating the culture of winning.  These mechanisms will ensure that the culture will continue for many years to come. 

Now back to football, here’s hoping that the culture of winning has infected my team!

When is a 3 a 10? Some new ideas about performance evaluation

Airplanes seem to be a great place to write blog posts. I’m writing this one as I fly to California to meet with partners from Haeger, Inc. Folks are flying in from Netherlands and China to meet together in Oakdale and work on processes and OGTE!. I am really looking forward to the first face to face meeting of the Haeger Community Exceleration!Team: Sally Chen, Gena Beck, and I are the Haeger CE!T, and we have only met via Skype so far.

 The latest innovation in OGTE!, our proprietary performance management system, is the posting of regular evaluations. Our culture resists traditional performance evaluations because we feel that leaders and their partners should be in continual dialogue to the extent that a formal, uncomfortable annual meeting should be unnecessary. Our belief in the power of learning by taking on seemingly impossible goals also makes traditional performance reviews problematic. How do you rate someone who has taken on a heroic challenge, who accomplishes a great deal, but who may fall short? If someone hits every goal, were the goals audacious enough?

 We have tussled with this built-in contradiction for some time, and have arrived at a solution for now by focusing on the quality of planning, thinking, and executing against the plan. With the first deadline being March 31, leaders will have a performance dialogue with their partners  three times a year to answer the following questions:

Q1.      Quality of Thinking

Given the way this partner is thinking, planning and reflecting where on the path are they to becoming the performer described in their Role Description?

Q2.      Quality of Results

Is this partner on the path towards increasing know-how and improving results?

The partners and leaders will arrive at a conclusion, and write an explanation based on the following 4-point scale:

The Evaluation Scale for both questions are:

Level 1:  In comfort zone - business as usual (not improving)

Level 2:  Improvement pace uneven

Level 3:  On the path of rapid improvement

Level 4:  Is a Virtuoso  --  both a master at his/her craft and irrevocably on the path of improvement

 My hunch is that very few if any Phillips Corporation partners are 1’s, but let’s take a look at 2. The scale reminds me of another one I helped with at a prior employer. One of the ratings on that scale was “meets expectations”. This sounds a lot like a “C” grade in school. Not bad, but not great. But what if the expectations are extremely high? Then “meets expectations” is really more like an “A+”.

 My thinking about “2: Improvement pace uneven” is similar. Really fine performers will have up and down days. I will forget to use the new process, get stuck in an old habit, or get distracted by the many other tasks that need to be done but that don’t necessarily address my priorities. I will still accomplish a whole heck of a lot. Does that make me a 2? If so, then 2 is a very good rating. “3: On the path to rapid improvement” is probably a mark that will be met only rarely.

One challenge as we experiment with this new scale is that we are mostly all used to a 4-point scale from school, where a 2 is “average”. I would like two things from the partners using this format this month:

1.  Forget about the old “ABCDF” grades, and read what the ratings actually mean.

2. Let us know how it goes as you get your head around the concept and have performance dialogues with your partners.

 Would also love to hear from readers who are not Phillips partners. What do you think of this approach? Is it "new", or just new to us? Upsides? Downsides?

Thanks -- Bill

 

Making the Impossible Possible

I am in the process of reading JUST LISTEN, by Mark Goulsten.  Mark is a psychiatrist, and helps people work through difficult negotiations.  In fact, he is part of the training process for FBI hostage negotiators.  While I think the book is very interesting and deserves a complete read, there is one excerpt that I thought applied to the Phillips culture.

The chapter is called the Impossibility Question, and starts off with a quote from Louis Brandeis, a Supreme Court Justice:

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.

Does any of this sound familiar?  Let me continue before you answer.

To summarize the chapter, Goulsten offers an approach for helping people get past the impossibility stage of a problem, and start to envision the solution.  While the explanation into why it works is more complex, the solution is simple: Just Ask.  Let's give a scenario to make sense of it:

Team Leader:  What do you consider an impossible goal?

Salesman:  Doubling my margin in a down economy

Team Leader:  That does sound challenging...but what would make it possible?

Salesman:  Well, I have enough projects quoted; I would need to close 80% of them to achieve this.

Team Leader:  Wow, that sounds audacious...what can I do to help you increase your closing ratio?  Maybe a training course?

If you review the scenario, we started with something that the salesman felt impossible, and changed the mindset to consider it possible...all in one question!  This opens the doors to dialogue about possible solutions.  We have made the impossible possible!

Now let's get back to how this chapter sounds familiar...Phillips has set up a system to constantly challenge the impossible.  Through OGTE, impossible challenges are made possible.  After the challenge is posed (the Performance Objective), the mechanism allows you to consider what you need to do to achieve the impossible.  Once a plan of attack is formed, smaller actions are identified (Planned Accomplishments).

 I have one more example, this time a real world example:

My son: I can't tie my shoe, it is impossible.  Can you help me?

Dad:  Tying your own shoes is very tough, but what could you do to figure out how to tie your own shoe?                          

My Son:  Well, I could practice, and you could show me what to do after I make the loop.

Dad:  I think you have a good plan.  It isn't going to be easy, but I know you can do it.

While he is not perfect at it, my son can tie his shoes.

Water water everywhere, but not a bloomin' drop to drink !

Water water everywhere, but not a blooming drop to drink!

Approximately 66% of the population of the world will face a shortage in available freshwater by the year 2025. Are we prepared with the right technology to overcome this requirement of a basic life source? In this present day, we seem so hung up at fuel savings and battery operated cars, which is good but we seem to overlook the underlying needs for the survival of humanity!

I have read about a few companies coming up with innovative technologies to bridge this gap; however the requirement of fresh water compared to what is available is still too wide to fill. What then are our options?  I am amazed at some of us who take for granted and stay in our showers till our skins are “pruned” for lack of a better word!  Maybe the close vicinity to the Great Lakes makes this crucial issue too trivial to even reckon! However the sad reality is that Yes,  People still die of thirst today, so wake up “Mr Lakesider” and tell us  how can we team up to help offer a drink of water to our fellow humans?

I recently came across a brilliant article about the “Sea kettle” and thought such innovations will help meet some of our fresh water requirements. Please check it out at: http://news.discovery.com/tech/life-raft-makes-seawater-drinkable.html

Sunil Abraham, PET

Audacious Goals and Maintaining Credibility

Living our word is a simple idea, but how does it apply when creating a well-crafted plan to achieve Audacious or Stretch goals - objectives which are seemingly unattainable with present resources?

Here is the struggle:
"I am challenged to set audacious goals and create well-crafted plans to achieve them. My performance (job) is based on achieving my audacious goals. So what happens if I fall short of these audacious goals? I took accountability for these goals, so how does this reflect on my credibility?"

A very valid concern!

I think most of us get caught up on one component of a well-crafted plan – accomplishing the goal. And when we fall short we think we failed! Which, on one level we did fail - we did not achieve our goal. But just because we did not accomplish our goal, doesn’t mean the well-crafted plan was a complete failure. Here is a diagram to break down a few key components of a well-crafted plan:

Through deeper dialogue between the partner and team leader, it should be clear that even though the goal was not reached, what else was accomplished? What was learned? What competencies were gained? What can be done next with this new knowledge?

Deeper dialogue is the missing ingredient here, and your performance should not be based solely on one component of a well-crafted plan. Remember that audacious goals only look impossible at present because we need to gain competencies in order to achieve the goal.

My questions to you, how do you set audacious goals and still maintain your credibility? Thoughts in general on living your word?

Nobility in its own small way....

We talk and hear about commitments, loyalty, dedication and good deeds. Perhaps the one that struck me the most in recent years was when I came about this strange incident, off the coast of Taichung in Taiwan, on the South China Sea.

I saw a couple of local people loading a boat with a large catch of fresh, live mussels, almost half a ton! Usually we see them unloading their catch as opposed to loading boats at the dock and puzzled, I enquired and came to realize that they were purchased for about 450 USD by a local school teacher.

Cho Ming Hui is an elementary school teacher who merely passes off as a student! One of her pastimes as I understood was to purchase the catch of mussels from local fishermen on the Taichung coast and throw them back into the sea. The reason- to fulfill a personal sentiment !  I was appalled and did not know what to say! A total environmental commitment to say the least!

The next thing I did was to help her empty out these bags and send the mussels back where they belong!

No matter what - Environmental cause, religious practice, cultural event, - whatever you call it; to me, this absolutely was a noble gesture from someone with frugal income to take on such an act. I then realized how much of a forward thinker Cho Ming was! She was in fact doing her small part to sustain the otherwise fragile ecosystem which was subject to the ever greedy needs of humanity. These are the individuals that deserve true recognition of their efforts. Or in other words, one does not have to be a celebrity to take on tasks noble in nature. I salute her for her commitment.

My question then was how can we as individuals or as an organization collectively think of contributing our part to sustain this precious planet of ours? ....Thoughts????

Sunil/ PET/ Toronto