Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

Leadership or executive competencies – there is a fascination with defining and measuring the characteristics of great leadership. At times, it can feel like an exercise in academics.

Recently, a colleague asked me to review a list of competencies that she was developing for an Organizational Development Master’s degree program in a couple of areas – one of them was leadership development.

The list was ….well a list. There were lots of boxes to check representing the knowledge someone needed to have to become an organizational development specialist. The missing link for me was how someone puts that knowledge into action.

As a manager of people or a human resources development specialist, knowing how to carefully select the types of experiences (which may not be positions or roles) can make or break a career.

Fundamentally if you are a good leader, it is because of what you do, not what title you wear. Knowing how to translate it into actionable experiences is valuable skill.

Lessons of Experience

One of the primers I often refer people to is Lessons of Experience: How Successful Executives Develop on the Job by Morgan W. McCall, Michael M. Lombardo and Ann M. Morrison when they want to know how to become a great leader.

Some of you are going to tell me this book is outdated (published in 1988) but if you write about something timeless, it really doesn’t matter.

There are five major themes the executives that emerged from the 191 executives they interviewed:

1. Setting and Implementing Agendas
2. Handling Relationships
3. Basic Values
4. Executive Temperament
5. Personal Awareness

Within each of these themes are individual lessons which set the stage for major learning thrusts. When organizations and leaders facilitate the learning process with specific experiences and allow failures to be a part of the process, talent grows exponentially.

Companies and organizational specialists who want to make it work do not view this approach as a process. The authors define the working relationship as:

1. Development is organizationally specific. Managers do it because it helps people to function better in an organization.
2. Development is part of a long-term business plan. There should be a direct rise in managerial effectiveness with the effort.
3. Development involves proving opportunities. When situations arise providing relevant lessons and experience, the organization takes advantage of it to develop their leadership.
4. Development is a conscious effort. Deliberate planning and attention to individual development is done in conjunction with happenstance development.

The level of commitment a company needs to make is not insurmountable, though it needs to be consistent and purposeful.

As a participant in this kind of development, you will find your limits tested. It requires a personal commitment beyond the “normal” career progressions, often with sacrifices, especially in fast track programs.

For example, frequent relocation may be necessary to avail yourself of specific experiences within the company at different divisions or facilities.

Whether you are someone in the position of developing others or are want to manage your own career with more rigor, you will find many pearls of wisdom and practical examples of “how to do it” vs. just a list of what needs to be done.

Lynn Dessert owns Leadership Breakthrough, improving personal communication and influence one-step at a time. Post your thoughts or email me!

Reading time: 5 – 8 minutes

Most companies have more new product ideas than they have people to pursue them, but half still struggle with new products that under perform in the market. So how can you identify the most important new product ideas – the ones that customers want and will buy?

How do you know what customers want? The simple answer is to ask them. But most of the time, it’s also the wrong answer. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do ample customer interview work as part of new product development. Just the opposite—in fact , you should complete much of that work before you spend any of your constrained resources on new product development. It’s just that what customers think they want usually isn’t what they actually need and what they end up buying. But that’s not their fault. It’s not their job to know what they need.

When I worked in the polymer industry, we had a pigment-manufacturing customer that came to us asking for the lowest molecular weight polymer that we could make. Without asking anything further, the lab could have simply whipped up a sample. But the technical service person on the account knew better and asked what he was trying to accomplish. The customer explained that he thought that would give him more color from his pigment. It turned out that his working model was 180 degrees from the science – what he needed was just the opposite of what he asked for.

Now, this customer wasn’t stupid—far from it. It’s just that when he told us what he wanted he was straying outside of his expertise. After all, he was a pigment chemist, not a polymer physicist. He knew he wanted more color, but trying to design the right dispersant to do that was not his expertise.

So how do you know what customers need? The answer is not as simple as just asking, but there are a couple of things you can do to find out:

Observe your customers in action – Ethnography is the science of observing users in action. Grounded in anthropology, this method helps innovators find the workarounds that users must employ; the obstacles that make their work harder; and the tedious, dirty and time-consuming jobs they would like eliminated. SC Johnson & Son watched users deal with the nasty job of cleaning toilets to come up with its Scrubbing Bubbles® flushable toilet scrubbing wands. This product was designed after seeing the lengths users went to try and avoid touching anywhere around the bowl or the brush.

Ask customers high gain questions – Voice of the customer is a well-meaning approach that many companies use to identify new product requirements. However, it asks customers to talk about their issues in their language. Unfortunately, this often leads to translation issues when their comments are converted into product requirements—A frequent source of confusion.

What Customers Want

Alternatively, in his book, What Customers Want, Anthony Ulwick suggests a different approach. Simply, ask customers what they want to maximize and what they want to minimize. This approach moves the customer from talking about the design of your product (like the molecular weight in the earlier example) and gets them talking about their needs. Most importantly, it does so in a language that your engineers and designers understand. Some examples:

1. Painting contractors want to minimize the time they have to wait between coats of paint.
2. Building designers want to minimize the space that physical equipment (heating, air conditioning, etc.) takes up in a building.
3. Aircraft operators want to minimize time between maintenance overhauls.
4. High performance car enthusiasts want to maximize traction.

Of course, there will often be contradictory objectives. But, that’s a good thing. Those contradictions can point to the need for innovation and show you where new opportunities may lie. For example, while high performance car enthusiasts want to maximize traction, they also want to maximize tire life. Normally, the softer rubber compounds needed for maximum traction end up dramatically sacrificing tread life. There’s a huge opportunity for any new technology that can move the curve describing tread life vs. traction. Of course, the same opportunity exists for traction vs. fuel efficiency.

The Simple Bottom Line

Customers often don’t know what they want and asking can lead your new product development astray. Instead, focus on understanding what customers need by watching them in action and asking what they want to maximize and what they want to minimize.

This article appears by permission of the author and was originally published on the Simplifying Innovation site.

Dalton on Innovation

Mike Dalton is the author of Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources

Mike Dalton is also the founder of Guided Innovation Group, whose simple mission is helping companies turn their new product innovation into bottom-line impact. His innovation improvement framework was sharpened over 24 years of product development, marketing and executive leadership at the multi-billion dollar SC Johnson family of companies.

Reading time: 8 – 13 minutes

I met him several years ago when he was a client of mine. When he left the corporate world to start his own business, he called me up and asked for some advice and support. Today, Mike Dalton is a successful consultant who just wrote his first book – and he contributes to Elephants at Work. I had the honor of seeing an advance production copy to provide feedback.

It is fascinating to learn about how someone gets a book written. What process do they use, what obstacles did they face? Find out about how Mike handled it.

Mike, at what point did you come up with the idea to write a book about Innovation?  What was your inspiration?

When I was responsible for the new business development and innovation process for SC Johnson & Son’s polymer business (now BASF), my team started trying to use some of the TOC concepts to improve new product success. Then one day on a long car ride to see a customer, some of the guys on my team and I were talking about how it would make a good business novel. Ever since reading Eli Goldratt’s seminal work, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, I have always enjoyed that format. I am a big fan of Patrick Lencioni’s work too (The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive: A Leadership Fable,  The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, etc). Anyway, we even sketched out a story outline just to entertain ourselves in the car.  Nothing came of it at the time, but it planted the seed still it was the seed of an idea to write a business novel on innovation.

Once you had the idea, how long did it take you to get started?

Well that was about 5 or six years ago. Early on though, it just seemed like someone else must have already seen the role TOC could play. I did not take it too seriously. Later in 2006, when I started Guided Innovation Group, my innovation coaching and consulting firm, my research showed that no one else had made that connection – or if they had, they were keeping it to themselves. Then as my practice developed, I really began to flesh out what I call the Guided Innovation System and some of my other tools like Customer Value Lens and Guided Innovation Mapping. It was over the last 3 years where that original idea germinated and then eventually blossomed into Simplifying Innovation.

Who was your champion?

I am not sure I had any one champion; there have been many giving people as I have developed this approach.

Several successful independent consultants that I worked with over the years, like Dr. Jim Hlavacek, Dr. Gene Slowinski, and Dr. Matt Sagal, all advised me early on that a book is critical to differentiating yourself.

Then during the writing and peer review process, I got help from many people, including several TOC luminaries, like Bill Dettmer and Dr. Lisa Lang. They provided great feedback and helped me fine-tune my approach even further for the final edit.

Did you have a goal to finish by a certain date?

I did – In July of 2009; I set a goal to write my first draft in 100 days and to have the book selling on Amazon right after the start of the New Year.

Did you make that date? If not, what where some of the hurdles?

I am happy to say that I did reach both goals. Of course, since the book teaches some planning and project management techniques, it would have been pretty lame.

As far as hurdles, just fitting it all in to a six month window was a big one. To do that I used one of my own techniques, Guided Innovation Mapping, where I worked backwards from my goal to identify the obstacles and then built a plan to get around all of them within my time line. I ended up carving out two hours a day for writing and then two more hours for some of the production and marketing tasks.  I started in July and had a complete manuscript in early October.

Tell us some more about other hurdles. What was the most difficult one? How did you overcome it?

Learning to write in a novel format was probably the biggest hurdle. While I am a big fan of the format, I am not sure I would recommend that anyone attempt it without a safety net.  It is kind of funny too, because that’s exactly what Carol Ptak warned me from her experience with Necessary but Not Sufficient: A Theory of Constraints Business Novel, a business novel she wrote together with Eli Goldratt and Eli Schragenheim.

Mike's Storyboard

The reason it is so hard is that it is like writing two books at the same time. You have to write a business book that teaches all of the important points the reader needs to know. At the same time, you have to create a novel with compelling characters and an interesting challenge so that the reader is immersed in the experience. The hard part is that they have to be intertwined. You can only teach at certain parts in the story, as certain conflicts are uncovered or resolved. The story can only progress as the teaching moments present themselves. Eventually, the only way I could keep it all straight, was with a graphical, color-coded storyboard that let me keep track of all of the different elements. I really learned a lot about writing in the process.

Were there any parallels to writing the book and your story in Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources?

Oh, very much so. You know one of the things that I teach in the book is fully exploiting your innovation bottleneck. One of the ways you do that is by making sure you are addressing an unmet need. For me, the unmet need became companies not being able to improve the impact they get from their investment in new product innovation.

Well, improving innovation is definitely a place where companies struggle. It is amazing really. There are all these strategies and experts out there advising companies on innovation, but 50% of CEO’s are still dissatisfied with their return on R&D spending. If you look at the US manufacturing sector alone, $75 Billion (that is right – billion with a B) is wasted on ineffective innovation. That may be rounding error compared to what Washington spends, but in the real world, companies are spending 20-50% of their net earnings on R&D without seeing the return they expect. We have to do better than that. But, how?

As you know, I am a big picture guy, so stepping back from the issues, it became clear that there are all these great ideas, concepts and tools out there, but no clear framework of how to apply continuous improvement principles to new product and service development. Inside companies, everyone complains about not having enough resources, but CEO’s already feels like they are spending too much as it is. The real root of the problem is they do not know how to systematically attack the problem at its leverage point – the innovation bottleneck.  Put simply, it is how to get more out of what they are already investing – it is the unmet need.

What was the biggest Ah Ha you had while going through this process?

I would have to say that my Ah Ha moment was in coming up with the final title – I started writing with the working title of Innovation Flywheel – marketing and innovation working together to create momentum. About half way through the writing, the simplifying theme had emerged as a predominant part of the storyline. That is when it hit me – Innovation will always be a complex process; improvement should not be.  There is so much clutter out there making it hard for leaders to focus; what I was really providing was not just improvement, it was a framework for simplifying improvement of the innovation process – and doing so with the resources, you already have.

Then, over Thanksgiving break, I read Goldratt’s recent book, The Choice. That just further confirmed for me that I had chosen the right title and theme. He talks extensively about what he calls inherent simplicity–How TOC simplifies improvement and change by showing you where the leverage point is. It was quite gratifying to see that I had independently stumbled upon the same path.

Thanks for the inspiration, Mike! If you need someone with his insight and talent, give him a call today.

Lynn Dessert owns Leadership Breakthrough, improving personal communication and influence one-step at a time. Post your thoughts or email me!

Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes

In a recent Fast Company article and video on Open Forum, Dan & Chip Heath, co-authors of Made to Stick, look at how to explain new ideas – what your innovation is and what it does. If ideas aren’t readily accepted, they can die quickly, and there’s often a lot riding on getting it right – particularly for you as a manager or business owner. From a TOC or critical chain perspective, once your new product is launched, your constraint often becomes market acceptance. In some cases that means getting people to understand what your innovation is and how it can help them.

There are lots of things that can constrain how readily the market accepts your new product or innovation, but the Heaths cover a very important one: helping potential buyers quickly understand what the product is and what it does. Anchor and Twist are the two suggestions they offer—Anchor your product to something they already know. Twist to show how it’s different than everything else. Here’s an example with Palm’s new Pre phone:

First the anchor: The new Palm Pre phone is like Apple’s iPhone. Just another touchscreen smartphone…

Then the twist: But it has a slide out keyboard if you don’t want to use the touch screen and it can run multiple applications at the same time – something the iPhone can’t do (yet)

You might recognize anchor and twist as part of the unique selling proposition. The only thing I would add is the benefit. Why do they care? What’s in it for them (WIFT)?

Back to the Palm example—

WIFT: It can run multiple applications at the same time, which makes it easier to use. I can be writing an email, switch to my contacts to copy a phone number or address or jump over to Amazon to copy a link, and then hop back to the open email without having to restart the email application. A big deal when you use your smartphone for 50% of your emails.

So, to speed innovation acceptance and increase your new product sales, Anchor, Twist… and be clear on WIFT

T3U8GDE5V797

Mike Dalton is the author of Simplifying Innovation: Doubling speed to market and new product profits – with your existing resources

Mike Dalton’s innovation improvement framework was sharpened over 24 years of product development, marketing and executive leadership at the multi-billion dollar SC Johnson family of companies. Mike is also the founder of Guided Innovation Group, whose simple mission is helping companies turn their new product innovation into bottom-line impact.

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

Does your childhood behavior ever come back to haunt you? Do you find yourself playing out some of those same patterns in the workplace? I ran across this article on Time.com, Why Your Co-Workers Act Like Children which may help to explain how stress behavior in the workplace is more of a concern.

Sylvia LaFair, a Ph.D in clinical psychology has written a new book entitled, Don’t Bring It to Work: Breaking the Family Patterns That Limit Success. The central theme she shares with you is linking past family routed behavior to some of the most common patterns seen in the workplace. Do any of these sound familiar with you or someone else at work?

• Super Achiever
• Rebel
• Persecutor
• Victim
• Rescuer
• Clown
• Martyr
• Splitter
• Procrastinator
• Drama Queen (King)
• Pleaser
• Denier
• Avoider

Lafair shares stories and practical exercises to help you work through many of these patterns. Her three step process will empower you to make the changes you are seeking. Her steps are not that different than other kinds of self help books:

1. Observe your behavior to discern underlying patterns
2. Understand - probe deeper to discover the origins of these patterns
3. Transform your behavior by taking action to change

While these steps may seem basic, it can take tremendous effort to be brutal honest about your situation. You may want to ask some close friends or relatives to help you with the assessment process. For them to feel comfortable giving you candid feedback, let them know you are trying to work on some important behaviors and their perspective will help you, not hurt you. If you believe they are soft peddling their opinion, step up and ask some tough questions, again assuring them it is important for you to get to understand not only what is happening, but why it is happening.

Once you know what the behavior looks like and understand why it is happening, then you can plan how to change it. Making plans and keeping plans are very different activities. Steve Pavlina’s post 30 Days to Success, talks about how discipline and commitment are required to complete the 30 days of taking on a new behavior or activity. We usually don’t embark on this journey unless it is going to give us some level of benefit, and at the end of our trial period…we can always decide to do something else. Steve’s post gives some clear examples of what he has done with this approach – check it out. Steve’s new book, Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth uses seven universal growth principles to achieve breakthroughs in many areas of your life.

Issues to discuss? Stories to Share? Post your thoughts or email me.

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

Tenacity, a leadership quality; probably least understood and underestimated. It is often abandoned when frustration or boredom sets in.

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, a definition of tenacious is: persistent in maintaining, adhering to, or seeking something valued or desired. It comes from the latin tenac – tenax tending to hold fast and from tenēre to hold.

Think about the manager who inherits a group of employees – a few are superstars, most are competent, and there are always the couple who need a jump start every day. How does is the boss successful in developing the under performer, especially when they lack motivation to succeed. Why not just give up and focus on those who want to be coached? Finding examples of tenacity is a challenge, but I was on the hunt and I found some interesting stories.

Stephen Norrington, a Hollywood writer/director describes in his blog entry on Script Frenzy: Tenacity. Determination. Grit. He quotes, ” Make sure you have thick skin.” Read about the trade offs of being authentic and battling for a place in the business of selling movies.

A Voice to Speak for Others shares the story of Kate Adamson and her husband where tenacity was put to the test against insurmountable odds. It can happen to any of us – a sudden accident, illness with loss of communication as we know it. It is the story of hope, belief, determination and the will to live.

In Andrew Bordeaux’s post on Growthink, he writes about how one author, Leonard Miodinow’ shares research in his book, The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives and tests if the laws of randomness or if talent has more impact on our ability to succeed. It may not be an either-or answer. We all get tested along the way… is persistence the answer? 

David Zimmerman’s Lambeau Legends Packer Profiles of Courage
provides inspiration personally and professionally. Eighteen examples of tenacity and determination instill the desire in us to triumph over anything that gets in the way of reaching your goal.

Even Donald Trump upholds A Case for Tenacity as he shares his victory win on his blog to build Trump on the Ocean located at Jones Beach State Park on Long Island.

On a lighter note, even in the World Of Warcraft (WOW) online game, tenacity comes up as an important skill or bonus. For example in the world of hunters, pets within the tenacity tree have extra health and other talents for staying alive. In the latest battleground, Wintergrasp, tenacity gives you an extra advantage if you are the underdog.

After all, isn’t that what it’s all about..beating the odds with determination?

Issues to discuss? Stories to Share? Post your thoughts or email me!

Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes

Conservatism is getting the upper hand, and to be frank, it scares me. When things get tough, people take less risk. They look for the rules to follow and figure if they keep their head down, the next lay off might just miss them. Companies slash budgets, employee raises and anything which resembles writing a check. It starts a vicious cycle – vendors who service the company see a drop in sales and do the same to their employees.

Soon everyone second guesses if they should invest in their education or development, buy that new television, and dine out or to the movies. The demand for services and products drops, which in turn, confirms the company’s initial cost cutting measures -then, another round of belt tightening.

So, I’ll be the first one to suggest, let’s break a few rules. A review of the book, First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently written by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman is reviewed by Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla in their CEO Refresher of key ideas for managers. The list does not represent remarkably new ideas, though it serves as a reminder to contemplate the contrary view. Sometimes just doing the opposite of what is expected will get you noticed – hopefully in a positive way. Situations take on different perspectives with new solutions. And if it was not the best decision, then just make a change.

Issues to discuss? Stories to Share? Post your thoughts or email me!

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

It is hard to believe that in today’s global world there are leaders who neglect to take in account cultural differences in the workplace. Take this example. The leader walks down the hall and begins to assess employees; basing it on if they have eye contact with him. There is a wide range of reactions – direct eye contact, slight eye contact with quick diversion, immediate sideways glance and complete avoidance with head bent downward. His immediate conclusion is that people are not being straight; they are hiding something. Is that true?

Cultural differences are complicated. They may stem from organizational, ethnic and/or religious differences. Some are ingrained; some may be unlearned over time. There can be layers of influences and recognition of them will help us to understand our employee’s behaviors better and not have us take it personally.

Company Culture

A company may have unwritten protocols for interacting with executives. Consider these questions:

• Am I being consistent with how I communicate with individuals and the organization?
• Is there history with leadership contact that I should consider? Especially if I am new?
  
• Is the organization diverse in its make-up?
• Do I make people at ease with my eye contact?
• Is my eye contact different in varying situations?
• Am I sensitive to how people want to be treated vs how I think they should be treated?
  

If you are naturally prone to strong eye contact, then people will expect it. They may like it or it can cause some discomfort. Conversely, if it is a new behavior for you, it will take time for people to adjust and accept it. Check to see if there are legacy stories of employees who “got the stare down” and paid consequences – it may explain the hesitancy to jump into strong eye contact with you or there may be other reasons for their reaction.

Ethnic & Religious Cultures

In the United States, we have challenges with our cultural melting pot. Our upbringing plays a large part in how we act and behave. Generally, western cultures view intermittent eye contact as a sign of trust and acceptance. If you travel to Europe, some northern countries deem it impolite to stare at others, while southern Europe is more receptive. Lack of eye contact is a sign of disrespect in Arab countries. In parts of Asia, the opposite is true; strong eye contact is seen as aggressive, rude and a lack of personal privacy. If you are in Latin America, good eye contact is important in business. Add a layer of complexity; some cultures believe eye contact should be limited with women, as a sign of respect. Muslims have to Lower-Gaze after the initial eye contact with members of the opposite sex to thwart lustful thoughts.

Gregorio Billikopf Encina, University of California, sums it up best in his article, Cultural Differences? Or, are we really that different?, “Often, observations on cultural differences are based on our own weakness and reflect our inability to connect with that culture.” Take the time to understand the other person’s perspective before jumping to conclusions….you may actually find that respect is more to the point than lazy eye contact.

Other resources:

Intercultural Communication in the Global Workplace

FindArticles – Showing Good Faith Towards Muslims – discrimination against Muslims in the U.S. workplace – Statistical Data Included
HR Magazine, Nov, 2000, by Marc Adams

Lynn Dessert owns Leadership Breakthrough, improving personal communication and influence one-step at a time. Post your thoughts or email me!