On Thursday I took part in a charity ‘community day’. The group of people I was working with were all employees of one of my clients. Our task was to clear a very overgrown garden that would be used by blind people as a place where they can meet, work together and have fun. Anyway, keeping a long story short, at the beginning of the day we were introduced to one another, ‘hello I am Harley, what’s your name?’ kind of thing (a nightmare for anyone with a bad memory for names). During this exercise, I was amazed by the fact that so many people seemed to be able to remember the names of the thirty people they were introduced to. (Sometimes I even forget the name of one person I am introduced to immediately after they have told me)! My wife says it is because I am lazy. I believe that it is because my brain is not programmed sufficiently well for this kind of activity.
Over they years I have noticed that men tend to be worse than women, so it was a great relief when I got speaking with a women (sorry I have forgotten her name) from Germany who also admitted to having exactly the same problem as me. The difference between me and her is that her theory (excuse, as my wife would put it) is much better than mine. She said that her bad memory for names was because that when she is introduced to someone for the first time, she concentrates very much on their appearance; their face, clothes, the way they stand, the timbre of their voice etc. In fact she does this in so much detail that the name she has just been given is not stored at all.
I once worked for a boss who’s memory for names was even worse than mine. I had found him three good candidates for a new position in the company. Unfortunately on the day that his chosen candidate arrived in reception to begin his first day of work, the boss came rushing into my office asking “What’s that guy doing in reception”?
“What do you mean, I asked”?
“I didn’t select that guy, I wanted Michael, you know - the guy with the ginger hair! oh my God this guy won’t do at all, get rid of him”!
My boss had remembered the names of the person he interviewed incorrectly and selected the wrong one! From that day onwards all candidates had their photographs taken on the day of their interview, to be absolutely sure that the right one began with the company! In life there is always someone that has what you have, but worse!
Tip 1: When it is very important to remember someone’s name, take the first observation that you make about them and link it to something negative. For example, if you are introduced to someone called Jane and she is very thin, then try and remember her as ‘fat - Jane’. Or, if the man you meet is obviously nervous, you could try remembering him as ‘cool hand - John’. The next time you meet them you will find you will remember their nick name first and their real name will spring into your mind a split second later (hopefully)!
Tip 2: If you forget someone’s name and it is very important you can always say to them “I am sorry I have forgotten your name”. Nine times out of ten they will reply with their first name, if so, you can simply add: “No, sorry what I meant to say is that I have forgotten your family name”. They will obviously give it to you and then you have them both, all you need then is an excuse to turn your back and to write it down before you forget again. This trick is a little dishonest, but it has worked for me on many occasions!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Lewis Hamilton and the Business simulator
Ron Denis, the boss of the formula 1 McLaren team described Lewis Hamilton, the 22 year old racing driver, as “A strategist with the guts to take risks”. He went on to say “Confidence is often coupled with arrogance, but there isn’t an ounce of arrogance in Lewis”. When you consider these words, the synergy with business acumen becomes crystal clear. But the real story for me is the amazing truth that in his first year of F1 racing, Lewis Hamilton very nearly won the world title. Now, in his second season, he is currently standing in third place with his old team mate Alonso way down at number 9.
I have been told that Lewis is of the first generation drivers brought up with race simulators, and although I can believe that these machines must have helped him, it surely must be his experience in Karting (since a boy of 11) that perfected his craft, or am I wrong?
The question, for me is: can we apply the same techniques in business? Perhaps we could persuade Unilever or Sir Richard Branson, or even Sir Alan Sugar to put together a consortium of investors to finance the building of a business simulator, where young aspiring eleven year olds can sit for hours everyday, perfecting the craft of business plan creation,, market positioning, deal negotiation and sales techniques. In fact all the facets that brilliant CEO’s need but take years of experience to acquire? Such a machine would eliminate the loss of real cash by blistering mistakes. Thinking about it, on a slightly more mundane level, perhaps we could even have a simulator for Project Managers, possibly sponsored by Cap Gemini and Accenture?
The day of the simulator is here, it must only be a matter of time before we see MBA students sitting in them, desperately trying to obtain years of experience within a summer semester.
I have been told that Lewis is of the first generation drivers brought up with race simulators, and although I can believe that these machines must have helped him, it surely must be his experience in Karting (since a boy of 11) that perfected his craft, or am I wrong?
The question, for me is: can we apply the same techniques in business? Perhaps we could persuade Unilever or Sir Richard Branson, or even Sir Alan Sugar to put together a consortium of investors to finance the building of a business simulator, where young aspiring eleven year olds can sit for hours everyday, perfecting the craft of business plan creation,, market positioning, deal negotiation and sales techniques. In fact all the facets that brilliant CEO’s need but take years of experience to acquire? Such a machine would eliminate the loss of real cash by blistering mistakes. Thinking about it, on a slightly more mundane level, perhaps we could even have a simulator for Project Managers, possibly sponsored by Cap Gemini and Accenture?
The day of the simulator is here, it must only be a matter of time before we see MBA students sitting in them, desperately trying to obtain years of experience within a summer semester.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
How Do You Make God Laugh?
I was asked this question by a Jewish Rabbi a very long time ago and still the ramifications of it linger on, nearly thirty years later.
I can attempt to answer the question by asking a second one, ‘What is the difference between the song ‘Born to be Wild’ by Mars Bonfire (made famous by the band Steppenwolf) and the great B Minor Mass from J.S. Bach?’ There are a number of obvious answers, the first being length: Steppenwolf’s song takes only 2 minutes fifty five seconds to perform and the B Minor mass very much longer. The B Minor Mass has a (necessarily) complex structure; Born to be Wild does not. But the real difference is that one represents unbridled adventure and the other duty and sense of purpose. But both portray the very passion of life in their deepest forms.
Our lives are a necessary balance between three key items; pure fun (‘feel good’ actions), work and responsibility. The trouble is that too often we long to try to combine all three. The result being that we become dissatisfied and ineffective in all of them.
Project Managers need structure to be able to plot the tasks that need to be performed in order to achieve the goals that combine together to reach the overall objective of their projects. In most cases, the more understanding of the structure they and their project team have, the better. Like the B Minor Mass, it is the structure that guides and enables their creativity, giving it form and meaning. (Give a child a massive sheet of paper and twenty different colored pens, twenty tubes of paint with differing sized brushes and ask them to draw whatever they like, and then give the same child a small sheet of writing paper and two colored pens and ask them to draw a picture of happiness. Observe which result is the most creative and which gives the child the most pleasure).
For most teenagers the important things in life are all driven by passion and are necessarily short lived; parties, concerts, one night stands, friendships. Therefore, a song that simply bursts life and passion and fires the brain with an incredible desire for something more than what their parents have, need only last a few minutes.
In the spirit of ‘Born to be Wild’ an entrepreneur may start a new business, a new adventure. An adventure is exciting, it is always new and unknown, it nearly always involves risks and that drives the adrenaline. But without structure and planning adventures quickly become dull and too difficult, and more often than not fail. Over time we find the necessary balance between adventure and project management, and we learn to separate the two, keeping just enough controlled energy and passion over to make our work as much fun as it can be.
So what is the answer to the Rabbi’s question; ‘How do you Make God Laugh?’
Answer: ‘You tell him your plans’.
I can attempt to answer the question by asking a second one, ‘What is the difference between the song ‘Born to be Wild’ by Mars Bonfire (made famous by the band Steppenwolf) and the great B Minor Mass from J.S. Bach?’ There are a number of obvious answers, the first being length: Steppenwolf’s song takes only 2 minutes fifty five seconds to perform and the B Minor mass very much longer. The B Minor Mass has a (necessarily) complex structure; Born to be Wild does not. But the real difference is that one represents unbridled adventure and the other duty and sense of purpose. But both portray the very passion of life in their deepest forms.
Our lives are a necessary balance between three key items; pure fun (‘feel good’ actions), work and responsibility. The trouble is that too often we long to try to combine all three. The result being that we become dissatisfied and ineffective in all of them.
Project Managers need structure to be able to plot the tasks that need to be performed in order to achieve the goals that combine together to reach the overall objective of their projects. In most cases, the more understanding of the structure they and their project team have, the better. Like the B Minor Mass, it is the structure that guides and enables their creativity, giving it form and meaning. (Give a child a massive sheet of paper and twenty different colored pens, twenty tubes of paint with differing sized brushes and ask them to draw whatever they like, and then give the same child a small sheet of writing paper and two colored pens and ask them to draw a picture of happiness. Observe which result is the most creative and which gives the child the most pleasure).
For most teenagers the important things in life are all driven by passion and are necessarily short lived; parties, concerts, one night stands, friendships. Therefore, a song that simply bursts life and passion and fires the brain with an incredible desire for something more than what their parents have, need only last a few minutes.
In the spirit of ‘Born to be Wild’ an entrepreneur may start a new business, a new adventure. An adventure is exciting, it is always new and unknown, it nearly always involves risks and that drives the adrenaline. But without structure and planning adventures quickly become dull and too difficult, and more often than not fail. Over time we find the necessary balance between adventure and project management, and we learn to separate the two, keeping just enough controlled energy and passion over to make our work as much fun as it can be.
So what is the answer to the Rabbi’s question; ‘How do you Make God Laugh?’
Answer: ‘You tell him your plans’.
Monday, April 28, 2008
How much willpower does an interim manager need?
Sometimes, when I am driving through a new initiative and need to lobby a pathway for the subsequent change management and project teams to flatten out and widen even further, I ask myself why am I doing this? What can start out as a good idea can become a nightmare, especially if the change is big and the lobbying needs to start at the very top and work its way down. At these moments I tend to go back to the project charter and remind myself of why the project was set up in the first place and what needs to be done. The project charter becomes like a religious reference book, a document to return to, to digest and to reflect upon a given situation. But a project charter is not a religious work, its authors are not divine, it is (presumably) a document that contains the method and reasons for increasing shareholder value in some way or another, either in the long or short term.
If it can be considered that it is willpower that drives interim managers, and to a large extent it is true (many interim manager’s profiles reveal people that like to make an impact on their environments, and to do this they need a great deal of willpower), then willpower becomes the energy source that drives them and their desire to influence their environment becomes the motivator.
On a corporate level bringing about change is relatively easy for those professionals with the right skills and experience. However with change on a personal level, everything becomes so much harder. Motivating oneself to change is never easy. We begin with the best intent and motivation, telling ourselves that this time it will be different, but so often we fall back into our old ways. In his book ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’, Robin S. Sharma gives the reader all the tools to bring about significant personal change and growth.
I said in my blog ‘Who is Your Guru?’ back in November 2007 that I would report back on this book, it has taken me much longer than planned because I have been unsure about it. On the one hand, its meaning is good but Sharma tends to repeat the same concept in too many different ways and thereby adds unnecessary complexity and it becomes a little tedious. In fact, I think that if his book was half its length then it would become an even bigger international best seller than it already is.
If you are seriously looking to change your life in any significant way, I can recommend Sharma’s book, even if you only adopt one suggestion, it can be enough to justify the purchase and the investment of reading it. (I quite like the idea of dedicating at least 10 minutes per day looking at an object in detail). When I was a student, it was my pint of beer, today its something else. But Sharma’s style might not be to your liking. It is rather mystical and you are always aware that it is a story beyond belief.
Being the pragmatic person that I am, in my book I suggest some exercises to discover just who you really are and how to set about creating map a new path or ‘life map’ forward for yourself. However, what is becoming more and more obvious to me is that although we maybe very good at reading other people and motivating them to change, when it comes to ourselves it is very unlikely that a book on its own could ever do it, not even mine!
So when Robin Sharma mentions “Willpower gives you the energy to act. …..It gives you the control to live the life you imagined rather than accepting the life you have”, you will need to remember that you first have to understand your past and establish an environment in which you will be able find the energy to change into the person you would more like to be, to have the career that you would more like to have. To do what you want, without feeling guilty or a burden upon others.
If it can be considered that it is willpower that drives interim managers, and to a large extent it is true (many interim manager’s profiles reveal people that like to make an impact on their environments, and to do this they need a great deal of willpower), then willpower becomes the energy source that drives them and their desire to influence their environment becomes the motivator.
On a corporate level bringing about change is relatively easy for those professionals with the right skills and experience. However with change on a personal level, everything becomes so much harder. Motivating oneself to change is never easy. We begin with the best intent and motivation, telling ourselves that this time it will be different, but so often we fall back into our old ways. In his book ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’, Robin S. Sharma gives the reader all the tools to bring about significant personal change and growth.
I said in my blog ‘Who is Your Guru?’ back in November 2007 that I would report back on this book, it has taken me much longer than planned because I have been unsure about it. On the one hand, its meaning is good but Sharma tends to repeat the same concept in too many different ways and thereby adds unnecessary complexity and it becomes a little tedious. In fact, I think that if his book was half its length then it would become an even bigger international best seller than it already is.
If you are seriously looking to change your life in any significant way, I can recommend Sharma’s book, even if you only adopt one suggestion, it can be enough to justify the purchase and the investment of reading it. (I quite like the idea of dedicating at least 10 minutes per day looking at an object in detail). When I was a student, it was my pint of beer, today its something else. But Sharma’s style might not be to your liking. It is rather mystical and you are always aware that it is a story beyond belief.
Being the pragmatic person that I am, in my book I suggest some exercises to discover just who you really are and how to set about creating map a new path or ‘life map’ forward for yourself. However, what is becoming more and more obvious to me is that although we maybe very good at reading other people and motivating them to change, when it comes to ourselves it is very unlikely that a book on its own could ever do it, not even mine!
So when Robin Sharma mentions “Willpower gives you the energy to act. …..It gives you the control to live the life you imagined rather than accepting the life you have”, you will need to remember that you first have to understand your past and establish an environment in which you will be able find the energy to change into the person you would more like to be, to have the career that you would more like to have. To do what you want, without feeling guilty or a burden upon others.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Business Intelligence (BI) – An analogy
This week I sat down to write a short piece to illustrate exactly what Business Intelligence (BI) is. A colleague of mine needed something to support a presentation he had to give to his directors. What I wanted to achieve was to create a lasting image of what BI is, how it can be useful and why it is absolutely needed in order to out smart the competition by seizing on opportunities that only knowledgeable and responsive companies have. So I wrote this story (in fact I wrote it a long while ago to explain something completely different to a bunch of investors, it worked then so hopefully it will work tomorrow in its new context)!
Imagine you are a fighter pilot in a state of the art F16. You are flying high over enemy territory when suddenly there is a blip on your radar screen. Your on board computer systems tell you that the blip is most likely another aircraft. Business intelligence is knowing whether the pilot of the detected aircraft is an enemy or a friend, before he even knows you are in the sky.
Today, most companies (without sophisticated Business Intelligence systems) can see a blip on their radar screen and, after some deliberation, can detect if the blip is another aircraft and if it is from their own squadron. But when it is not one of theirs, then they can not be sure about anything. The aircraft can be enemy or friendly (from another geographic location). Thus for companies with inadequate BI systems, fast global decisions can be risky and flawed. Quite simply their Chief of Staff (CEO) and Wing commanders can not see the complete global picture in front of them, and any picture they might have will most likely not take into account all of their assets, resources and opportunities.
To win in a competitive market place companies need to be able to detect enemy aircraft before they even leave the ground. This might sound like a dream but good (well integrated) global Business intelligence systems can give this kind of advantage.
Thus for me business intelligence is knowing what information you need to have and why you need to have it. It is no use simply gathering data on every measurable event. You need to know what matters and what does not. And then you need to know what you are going to do with the knowledge, once you have it. Far too much time and money is wasted by middle management collecting data to prove that their departments are running smoothly.
The best BI systems integrate external events with internal events and allow company managers to create opportunities by making intelligent decisions, based on real data. A classic utterance from a manager from an under performing company without good BI: ‘If only I had known that there was a shortage of my product in that geographic region, I could have shifted my overstocked product there and sold it at full list, instead of dumping it at a knock down price in the market where it was originally sent to!’
Interim managers need to be aware about BI, what it can do and how to implement it. It is a lot more than just a Balanced Score Card feeding results into an Excel spreadsheet.
As T.S. Eliot wrote “After such knowledge, what forgiveness” This can mean anything depending on how you interpret it, but to me it means ‘how can we excuse ourselves for the fact that we did not know better, and the mess we made because of it?’
Imagine you are a fighter pilot in a state of the art F16. You are flying high over enemy territory when suddenly there is a blip on your radar screen. Your on board computer systems tell you that the blip is most likely another aircraft. Business intelligence is knowing whether the pilot of the detected aircraft is an enemy or a friend, before he even knows you are in the sky.
Today, most companies (without sophisticated Business Intelligence systems) can see a blip on their radar screen and, after some deliberation, can detect if the blip is another aircraft and if it is from their own squadron. But when it is not one of theirs, then they can not be sure about anything. The aircraft can be enemy or friendly (from another geographic location). Thus for companies with inadequate BI systems, fast global decisions can be risky and flawed. Quite simply their Chief of Staff (CEO) and Wing commanders can not see the complete global picture in front of them, and any picture they might have will most likely not take into account all of their assets, resources and opportunities.
To win in a competitive market place companies need to be able to detect enemy aircraft before they even leave the ground. This might sound like a dream but good (well integrated) global Business intelligence systems can give this kind of advantage.
Thus for me business intelligence is knowing what information you need to have and why you need to have it. It is no use simply gathering data on every measurable event. You need to know what matters and what does not. And then you need to know what you are going to do with the knowledge, once you have it. Far too much time and money is wasted by middle management collecting data to prove that their departments are running smoothly.
The best BI systems integrate external events with internal events and allow company managers to create opportunities by making intelligent decisions, based on real data. A classic utterance from a manager from an under performing company without good BI: ‘If only I had known that there was a shortage of my product in that geographic region, I could have shifted my overstocked product there and sold it at full list, instead of dumping it at a knock down price in the market where it was originally sent to!’
Interim managers need to be aware about BI, what it can do and how to implement it. It is a lot more than just a Balanced Score Card feeding results into an Excel spreadsheet.
As T.S. Eliot wrote “After such knowledge, what forgiveness” This can mean anything depending on how you interpret it, but to me it means ‘how can we excuse ourselves for the fact that we did not know better, and the mess we made because of it?’
Monday, April 14, 2008
The Interim Manager and the ‘Ringo Star phenomenon’
Someone once told me that although Ringo Star was technically not necessarily the best choice of drummer for The Beatles, his contribution to the group was certainly as important as any of the other individual members. The reasoning behind this seemingly crazy point of view is that Ringo Star was the Beatle who kept the group emotionally together. He was the one who lightened up the situation when the others were arguing or pulling in different directions. In short, he kept them together for as long as it was possible for any mortal. For him the groups' collective performance was the prime concern.
The question this week is – do you have a Ringo Star in your board of directors or management group and is he, or she, the person that binds the group of individuals into a team? If so what other qualities does he, or she have, perhaps their talents are a little hidden but are there none the less? It’s worth thinking about, before making purely rational decisions when it comes to re-structuring…
The question this week is – do you have a Ringo Star in your board of directors or management group and is he, or she, the person that binds the group of individuals into a team? If so what other qualities does he, or she have, perhaps their talents are a little hidden but are there none the less? It’s worth thinking about, before making purely rational decisions when it comes to re-structuring…
Sunday, April 6, 2008
The Perfect E-mail
This weekend I have been taking advantage of the good weather by spending some time working in my garden instead of in front of my computer screen. The decision left me with very little time to write this week’s blog. Ironically though, the lack of time became my source of inspiration.
Recently a business colleague told me the expression “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” He told me that he thought Blaise Pascal had said it. But subsequent research has shown that actually Mark Twain, Voltaire, Ciscero and even T.S. Elliot are all attributed for saying it. (I like to think it was T.S. Elliot because anyone who knows me well will tell you that I am a fan of the poet and indeed he can say so much with such few words, although it can take a while (read ‘a life time’) trying to work out what he actually means.
‘The perfect e-mail’ should be short and to the point. It should be clear without ambiguity, polite and have the result on the reader that was intended by the writer. (So many man hours are lost by making excuses for rushed e-mails which can be avoided by getting them right in the first place).
The trick to e-mail writing is to begin by typing the objective in a maximum of one or two words, such as; to amuse, to inform, to castigate, to motivate etc.. Once this is done write your message as fast as you possibly can. When it is finished, do not re-read it. Stop and switch your attention to something else for at least half an hour. After a suitable pause, re-read your mail with your hands behind your back. After re-reading it, delete all the words you possibly can without destroying the meaning. Ask yourself if it is still in line with the objective.
A big mistake in e-mails is to try and bring two subjects into one mail. Inevitably people reply to one of the subjects but (annoyingly) completely forget the other. It is far better to send two short e-mails, each with their own subject.
E-mails are not suitable as long documents (these are best left as attachments). If the attachment contains important information, paraphrase it in just a few words in the e-mail so the reader sees why he or she should read the attachment.
So, the next time someone sends you a long, boring and irrelevant e-mail you can send them a link to this blog and perhaps they will get the message? To make it easy for you, below you will find a draft text which you can simply cut and paste into your reply. (I wonder how long it will be before someone sends it back to me)!
Message:
Thank you for your e-mail, unfortunately I did not have sufficient time to give it the attention it possibly deserved. However to assist you with future correspondence I would like to refer you to an article (see link below) that I think you might find helpful?
Kind regards
(add name here)
Recently a business colleague told me the expression “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” He told me that he thought Blaise Pascal had said it. But subsequent research has shown that actually Mark Twain, Voltaire, Ciscero and even T.S. Elliot are all attributed for saying it. (I like to think it was T.S. Elliot because anyone who knows me well will tell you that I am a fan of the poet and indeed he can say so much with such few words, although it can take a while (read ‘a life time’) trying to work out what he actually means.
‘The perfect e-mail’ should be short and to the point. It should be clear without ambiguity, polite and have the result on the reader that was intended by the writer. (So many man hours are lost by making excuses for rushed e-mails which can be avoided by getting them right in the first place).
The trick to e-mail writing is to begin by typing the objective in a maximum of one or two words, such as; to amuse, to inform, to castigate, to motivate etc.. Once this is done write your message as fast as you possibly can. When it is finished, do not re-read it. Stop and switch your attention to something else for at least half an hour. After a suitable pause, re-read your mail with your hands behind your back. After re-reading it, delete all the words you possibly can without destroying the meaning. Ask yourself if it is still in line with the objective.
A big mistake in e-mails is to try and bring two subjects into one mail. Inevitably people reply to one of the subjects but (annoyingly) completely forget the other. It is far better to send two short e-mails, each with their own subject.
E-mails are not suitable as long documents (these are best left as attachments). If the attachment contains important information, paraphrase it in just a few words in the e-mail so the reader sees why he or she should read the attachment.
So, the next time someone sends you a long, boring and irrelevant e-mail you can send them a link to this blog and perhaps they will get the message? To make it easy for you, below you will find a draft text which you can simply cut and paste into your reply. (I wonder how long it will be before someone sends it back to me)!
Message:
Thank you for your e-mail, unfortunately I did not have sufficient time to give it the attention it possibly deserved. However to assist you with future correspondence I would like to refer you to an article (see link below) that I think you might find helpful?
Kind regards
(add name here)
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