The Americans and Japanese decided to engage in a boat race. Both teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak performance levels. On the big day they felt ready. The Japanese won by a mile.
The American team was discouraged by the loss. Morale sagged. Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found, so a consulting firm was hired to investigate the problem and recommend corrective action.
The consultant's finding: The Japanese team had eight people rowing and one person steering. the American team had one person rowing and eight people steering.
After a year of study and millions spent analyzing the problem, the consulting firm concluded that too many people were steering and not enough were rowing on the American team. So as race day neared again the following year, the American team's management structure was completely reorganized. The new structure: four steering managers, three area steering managers, and a new performance review system for the person rowing the boat to provide work incentive. The next year, the Japanese won by TWO miles!
Humiliated, the American corporation laid off the rower for poor performance and gave the managers a bonus for discovering the problem.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Together is Better
I have found a new running buddy. He is a 26 year-old athlete who played college baseball and is a family friend. I think I am getting him addicted to this running early in the morning. Some highlights:
- when you want to sleep in and not run, you can't. Instead, someone is waiting for you.
- Someone who is in definitely better shape and runs a little faster than you do, and pushing you a little harder . . . makes you a better runner
- Running goes faster when you have someone to talk to along the way. When you are approaching the end, it's like "wow, we are already here".
As with a running buddy, a leader needs a team or colleague(s) for the same motivation and success
- the entire team and unit is motivation in itself . .. the team is dependent upon you. Business is not necessarily an individual sport.
- Colleagues (who might know more than you on some subjects) will push you and in the end you will have a better product (plus you might have learned something new)
- We face challenges all the time in business, those times seem to be easier and quicker when you accomplish it as a team, instead of doing it alone!
Dont do it alone, find a team or buddy!
- when you want to sleep in and not run, you can't. Instead, someone is waiting for you.
- Someone who is in definitely better shape and runs a little faster than you do, and pushing you a little harder . . . makes you a better runner
- Running goes faster when you have someone to talk to along the way. When you are approaching the end, it's like "wow, we are already here".
As with a running buddy, a leader needs a team or colleague(s) for the same motivation and success
- the entire team and unit is motivation in itself . .. the team is dependent upon you. Business is not necessarily an individual sport.
- Colleagues (who might know more than you on some subjects) will push you and in the end you will have a better product (plus you might have learned something new)
- We face challenges all the time in business, those times seem to be easier and quicker when you accomplish it as a team, instead of doing it alone!
Dont do it alone, find a team or buddy!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Evaluating Job Offers
As you develop a network of colleagues, you may asked to provide advice to someone on job offers. In addition, I have been lucky to have job offers in the past (and hope in the future). The advice I give is to focus on seven key elements.
1. Content of the Position
-What are responsibilities and authority of the position, the day-to-day activities, the what is to be done and how is it to be done.
- imagine what you will be doing in a month, six months, two years
- you should be honest with yourself and look at the negative aspects of the position (and there are such aspects to every job)
2. Challenge of the position
- Does the position provide the opportunity to make a significant difference to the success of the unit or the organization as a whole, immediately, short term, long term?
- You have to be realistic and recognize whether there's too much challenge or whether the tensions and stress connected with the challenge may more than you want, particularly if the stress is likely to be sustained over a long period.
3. Work environment
- you need to assess the climate and environment of the position, department or organization.
- remember you will not be working in isolation and what happens around you is important and will have a major impact on how you will operate, whether you will be happy and whether you will succeed or fail.
4. Chemistry
- How well will you get along with your direct supervisor, peers, colleagues, subordinates.
- are your values aligned with the organization?
5. Concern for Results and People
- Your reputation and future, livelihood, and job satisfaction are at stake and thus, you should be concerned about whether you are investing yourself in the right company.
- Ideally, an organization that has an outstanding future and strives to be better no matter how good it is now. The best can get better!
- Does the organization go beyond profits, and concern for the people who work there?
6. Compensation
- Not this is at #6, but will be different for different people, especially at different stages of their career.
7. Location
- If there is relocation involved (which so many executives turn down positions that require relocation), assess the impact on family, change in lifestyle, climate, removing oneself from family and friends.
- Assess the community where you will be living
Maybe these seem obvious, but changing jobs or selecting a new one is an important decision.
1. Content of the Position
-What are responsibilities and authority of the position, the day-to-day activities, the what is to be done and how is it to be done.
- imagine what you will be doing in a month, six months, two years
- you should be honest with yourself and look at the negative aspects of the position (and there are such aspects to every job)
2. Challenge of the position
- Does the position provide the opportunity to make a significant difference to the success of the unit or the organization as a whole, immediately, short term, long term?
- You have to be realistic and recognize whether there's too much challenge or whether the tensions and stress connected with the challenge may more than you want, particularly if the stress is likely to be sustained over a long period.
3. Work environment
- you need to assess the climate and environment of the position, department or organization.
- remember you will not be working in isolation and what happens around you is important and will have a major impact on how you will operate, whether you will be happy and whether you will succeed or fail.
4. Chemistry
- How well will you get along with your direct supervisor, peers, colleagues, subordinates.
- are your values aligned with the organization?
5. Concern for Results and People
- Your reputation and future, livelihood, and job satisfaction are at stake and thus, you should be concerned about whether you are investing yourself in the right company.
- Ideally, an organization that has an outstanding future and strives to be better no matter how good it is now. The best can get better!
- Does the organization go beyond profits, and concern for the people who work there?
6. Compensation
- Not this is at #6, but will be different for different people, especially at different stages of their career.
7. Location
- If there is relocation involved (which so many executives turn down positions that require relocation), assess the impact on family, change in lifestyle, climate, removing oneself from family and friends.
- Assess the community where you will be living
Maybe these seem obvious, but changing jobs or selecting a new one is an important decision.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
BLAH!
If you have children, you know that your kids bring every kind of illness home from school. (Cough). Well, I got the typically headcold that moves down to the chest . . . (cough). I ache all over . . .
I promised a friend (cough) that I would run this morning, which I did. However, I sure did not feel like it (cough) . . . at the beginning, in the middle or at the end. I did finish (cough). Tomorrow is another day.
It just reminds me (cough) that as a leader/manager, you have to do things that you do not feel like doing, but you do it (cough). . . and you do it the best you can . . . It could be budgets, it could be distributing increases with a limited amount, it could be letting people go.
Remember, tomorrow is another day. (cough) You have to have "bad" days, so you have can have those great days. Here's hoping you have a great day.
I promised a friend (cough) that I would run this morning, which I did. However, I sure did not feel like it (cough) . . . at the beginning, in the middle or at the end. I did finish (cough). Tomorrow is another day.
It just reminds me (cough) that as a leader/manager, you have to do things that you do not feel like doing, but you do it (cough). . . and you do it the best you can . . . It could be budgets, it could be distributing increases with a limited amount, it could be letting people go.
Remember, tomorrow is another day. (cough) You have to have "bad" days, so you have can have those great days. Here's hoping you have a great day.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Virtual Leadership Training
Most of people get promoted into a leadership or management positions feel that they did not receive enough training. While some training can help, it is very difficult to train for the constant "putting out the fires" scenarios. Most of the learning is from on the job experience. Here is an article on video games providing those experiences of being in a leadership position. Interesting.
From MMO To CEO
Matthew Kirdahy
Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/leadership/innovation/2008/07/16/leadership-online-videogames-lead-cx_mk_0716ceo.html
Sean Conover has two jobs. One is at a computer forensics lab in suburban New Jersey; the other is in a fantastical galaxy inhabited by 250,000 intelligent life forms driven by power and greed. In one place, he takes orders. In the other, he gives them.
There are many more like Conover, and with good reason. It's in this virtual space where tomorrow's business leaders are being born. Mom may mock videogames no more.
The experience of playing online role-playing games can mold and shape real-world business leaders. Any of the tens of millions of people playing "World of Warcraft," "EverQuest" or "EVE Online" will tell you these games are about serving a greater purpose. Sure, you're free to explore at will and engage enemies from dungeons to mountain tops, but the majority of players with common goals band together to take perilous risks and build empires.
When Conover gets home from his 9 to 5 job, he logs onto a virtual world as "Darius Johnson," chief executive of "Goonfleet," a corporation composed of more than 2,800 players in "EVE."
The leadership experience has challenged Conover the same way the modern CEO is challenged. He worries about economics, employee morale, production, training and even a succession plan, which he's devising. (After all, the next guy has to be able to weather the storm too.)
There are hundreds of helpful online games out there. Gamers will pay as much as $15 per month to play. Some games are offered for free; others only ask players to pay for various in-game elements to enhance the experience, one that may ready you for the C suite.
According to a May Harvard Business Review article, titled "Leadership's Online Labs," there are an estimated 50 million registered online gamers worldwide in the genre commonly called "massively multiplayer online role-playing games" (MMORPGs or MMOs). "World of Warcraft" maintains the largest subscriber base at 10 million. "EVE" has 250,000. The report also cites the Palo Alto Research Center, saying these gamers--who are 85% men and are, on average, 27 years old--spend 22 hours a week playing.
The article's authors, Byron Reeves (Stanford University), Thomas W. Malone (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Tony O'Driscoll (North Carolina State), found that leadership in online games offers a sneak preview of tomorrow's business world. In fact, they said these games exhibit leadership abilities crucial to the future of business.
Among these games, "EVE" is structured most like the real world. Groups of players that come together to reach a common goal are called "corporations," which can then form alliances with other corporations.
Sometimes, reality mimics fiction--or at least videogames. CCP, the publisher of EVE, formed a nine-member Council of Stellar Management, to which the players elected Conover. The council functions much like a board of directors for the game. CCP even hired an economist full time to study the behaviors of EVE.
Conover admitted that while the game's business environment, set in outer space, behaves like one in the real world, there are some major differences. "EVE" and most games like it encourage risk-taking, but "you can take risks in a videogame that in business [would make] the shareholders revolt," he said.
Then there's the obvious.
"Essentially, my job is to make sure [the members] are having fun," Conover added. "For some it's mining an asteroid, for most it's shooting people," he said.
Hilmar Veigar Petursson, CEO of CCP, said the game is meant to develop a person's core leadership skill set. "EVE" caters to a hardcore audience. "There isn't a lot of difference [between] what you can apply within the game and out of it," he said. "It's more about social skills than gaming skills. It's very hard to stay on top."
Michael Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, owned by Activision Blizzard, maker of "World of Warcraft," said his game provides people with a chance to assume leadership roles when they might not have had the opportunity in real life. This is apparent in the formation of guilds, where communication is paramount. Players band together to form groups for economic and social reasons.
Morhaime said that for this reason, he thought fans who enjoyed the single-player experience of previous Blizzard titles would shy away from "World of Warcraft." He found the opposite to be true. "The reason behind that is it's such a social experience," he said.
These games can also fuel the entrepreneurial fire.
Some gamers, like Trey Ratcliff, may be inspired by the experience and start their own company. Ratcliff is a former "EVE" player who is now CEO and co-founder of John Galt Games. He said he always had an entrepreneurial spirit and even ran a company before he played "EVE," yet he drew on his experiences in gaming and as a professional consultant to pursue a leadership role in business.
Ratcliff said his company is developing an online game called "Web Wars." He's keeping the major details quiet, but did say it would be free to play, with in-game options to spend money. Plus, it's sure to incorporate all of the leadership challenges the genre presents to online gamers worldwide. "Every human has this genetic predisposition as a leader, artist, whatever it might be," Ratcliff said. "You can nurture that nature much quicker with MMO's. There were all these great leaders out there [who] never had a vehicle to have them rise to the top."
Until now.
From MMO To CEO
Matthew Kirdahy
Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/leadership/innovation/2008/07/16/leadership-online-videogames-lead-cx_mk_0716ceo.html
Sean Conover has two jobs. One is at a computer forensics lab in suburban New Jersey; the other is in a fantastical galaxy inhabited by 250,000 intelligent life forms driven by power and greed. In one place, he takes orders. In the other, he gives them.
There are many more like Conover, and with good reason. It's in this virtual space where tomorrow's business leaders are being born. Mom may mock videogames no more.
The experience of playing online role-playing games can mold and shape real-world business leaders. Any of the tens of millions of people playing "World of Warcraft," "EverQuest" or "EVE Online" will tell you these games are about serving a greater purpose. Sure, you're free to explore at will and engage enemies from dungeons to mountain tops, but the majority of players with common goals band together to take perilous risks and build empires.
When Conover gets home from his 9 to 5 job, he logs onto a virtual world as "Darius Johnson," chief executive of "Goonfleet," a corporation composed of more than 2,800 players in "EVE."
The leadership experience has challenged Conover the same way the modern CEO is challenged. He worries about economics, employee morale, production, training and even a succession plan, which he's devising. (After all, the next guy has to be able to weather the storm too.)
There are hundreds of helpful online games out there. Gamers will pay as much as $15 per month to play. Some games are offered for free; others only ask players to pay for various in-game elements to enhance the experience, one that may ready you for the C suite.
According to a May Harvard Business Review article, titled "Leadership's Online Labs," there are an estimated 50 million registered online gamers worldwide in the genre commonly called "massively multiplayer online role-playing games" (MMORPGs or MMOs). "World of Warcraft" maintains the largest subscriber base at 10 million. "EVE" has 250,000. The report also cites the Palo Alto Research Center, saying these gamers--who are 85% men and are, on average, 27 years old--spend 22 hours a week playing.
The article's authors, Byron Reeves (Stanford University), Thomas W. Malone (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Tony O'Driscoll (North Carolina State), found that leadership in online games offers a sneak preview of tomorrow's business world. In fact, they said these games exhibit leadership abilities crucial to the future of business.
Among these games, "EVE" is structured most like the real world. Groups of players that come together to reach a common goal are called "corporations," which can then form alliances with other corporations.
Sometimes, reality mimics fiction--or at least videogames. CCP, the publisher of EVE, formed a nine-member Council of Stellar Management, to which the players elected Conover. The council functions much like a board of directors for the game. CCP even hired an economist full time to study the behaviors of EVE.
Conover admitted that while the game's business environment, set in outer space, behaves like one in the real world, there are some major differences. "EVE" and most games like it encourage risk-taking, but "you can take risks in a videogame that in business [would make] the shareholders revolt," he said.
Then there's the obvious.
"Essentially, my job is to make sure [the members] are having fun," Conover added. "For some it's mining an asteroid, for most it's shooting people," he said.
Hilmar Veigar Petursson, CEO of CCP, said the game is meant to develop a person's core leadership skill set. "EVE" caters to a hardcore audience. "There isn't a lot of difference [between] what you can apply within the game and out of it," he said. "It's more about social skills than gaming skills. It's very hard to stay on top."
Michael Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, owned by Activision Blizzard, maker of "World of Warcraft," said his game provides people with a chance to assume leadership roles when they might not have had the opportunity in real life. This is apparent in the formation of guilds, where communication is paramount. Players band together to form groups for economic and social reasons.
Morhaime said that for this reason, he thought fans who enjoyed the single-player experience of previous Blizzard titles would shy away from "World of Warcraft." He found the opposite to be true. "The reason behind that is it's such a social experience," he said.
These games can also fuel the entrepreneurial fire.
Some gamers, like Trey Ratcliff, may be inspired by the experience and start their own company. Ratcliff is a former "EVE" player who is now CEO and co-founder of John Galt Games. He said he always had an entrepreneurial spirit and even ran a company before he played "EVE," yet he drew on his experiences in gaming and as a professional consultant to pursue a leadership role in business.
Ratcliff said his company is developing an online game called "Web Wars." He's keeping the major details quiet, but did say it would be free to play, with in-game options to spend money. Plus, it's sure to incorporate all of the leadership challenges the genre presents to online gamers worldwide. "Every human has this genetic predisposition as a leader, artist, whatever it might be," Ratcliff said. "You can nurture that nature much quicker with MMO's. There were all these great leaders out there [who] never had a vehicle to have them rise to the top."
Until now.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Leadership outside of business
This past weekend, I attended a Cub Scout campout with my sons. Yes, this was a real camp out (tent, out in the wild, campfire, etc.). My back is still hurting (I bought a blow up mattress to sleep on, however, during the night the air all came out).
There were many activities during the day and night. I was picked to lead one of the activities, building a rocket that we would launch under air pressure. I am still not sure how I got picked, in these kinds of activities I am normally happy being a helper.
Anyway, I found myself enjoying leading this group of eight year olds.
- the kids were very focused on getting the project complete
- everyone contributed
- good ideas were built upon other good ideas and in the end had a great "product"
- after completion and carrying over the rocket, you could see the team was proud of their accomplishment
- when it was launched, the exultation that was experienced by the team was so rewarding to me (even surprised myself)
Bottom line: again, the same leadership techniques can be used in all scenarios, does not have to be business (settting out a vision/goal, keep focus, get all members to contribute in their own special way, listen to all ideas as ideas together produce a better product, all are proud when they accomplish a good result, nothing is better than shared success).
In my current individual contributor role, I do miss leading a team (maybe I will just get involved in leading more activities).
There were many activities during the day and night. I was picked to lead one of the activities, building a rocket that we would launch under air pressure. I am still not sure how I got picked, in these kinds of activities I am normally happy being a helper.
Anyway, I found myself enjoying leading this group of eight year olds.
- the kids were very focused on getting the project complete
- everyone contributed
- good ideas were built upon other good ideas and in the end had a great "product"
- after completion and carrying over the rocket, you could see the team was proud of their accomplishment
- when it was launched, the exultation that was experienced by the team was so rewarding to me (even surprised myself)
Bottom line: again, the same leadership techniques can be used in all scenarios, does not have to be business (settting out a vision/goal, keep focus, get all members to contribute in their own special way, listen to all ideas as ideas together produce a better product, all are proud when they accomplish a good result, nothing is better than shared success).
In my current individual contributor role, I do miss leading a team (maybe I will just get involved in leading more activities).
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Joke of the Weekend XXVIII
For those Project Managers out there . . .
Project Management Proverbs
1 It takes one woman nine months to have a baby. It cannot be done in one month by impregnating nine women.
2 Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it.
3 You can con a sucker into committing to an impossible deadline, but you cannot con him into meeting it.
4 At the heart of every large project is a small project trying to get out.
5 The more desperate the situation the more optimistic the situatee.
6 A problem shared is a buck passed.
7 A change freeze is like the abominable snowman: it is a myth and would anyway melt when heat is applied.
8 A user will tell you anything you ask, but nothing more.
9 Of several possible interpretations of a communication, the least convenient is the correct one.
10 What you don't know hurts you
11 There's never enough time to do it right first time but there's always enough time to go back and do it again.
12 The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the sweetness of making a date is forgotten.
13 I know that you believe that you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant.
14 What is not on paper has not been said.
15 A little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning.
16 If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs, you haven't understood the plan.
17 If at first you don't succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried.
18 Feather and down are padding, changes and contingencies will be real events.
19 There are no good project managers - only lucky ones.
20 The more you plan the luckier you get.
21 A project is one small step for the project sponsor, one giant leap for the project manager.
22 Good project management is not so much knowing what to do and when, as knowing what excuses to give and when.
23 If everything is going exactly to plan, something somewhere is going massively wrong.
24 Everyone asks for a strong project manger - when they get them they don't want them.
25 Overtime is a figment of the naïve project manager's imagination.
26 Quantitative project management is for predicting cost and schedule overruns well in advance.
27 The sooner you begin coding the later you finish.
28 Metrics are learned men's excuses.
29 For a project manager overruns are as certain as death and taxes.
30 Some project finish on time in spite of project management best practices.
31 Fast - cheap - good - you can have any two.
32 There is such a thing as an unrealistic timescale.
33 The project would not have been started if the truth had been told about the cost and timescale.
34 A two-year project will take three years, a three year project will never finish.
35 When the weight of the project paperwork equals the weight of the project itself, the project can be considered complete.
36 A badly planned project will take three times longer than expected - a well planned project only twice as long as expected.
37 Warning: dates in a calendar are closer than they appear to be.
38 Anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time left to change anything.
39 There is no such thing as scope creep, only scope gallop.
40 A project gets a year late one day at a time.
41 If you're 6 months late on a milestone due next week but really believe you can make it, you're a project manager.
42 No project has ever finished on time, within budget, to requirement
Yours won't be the first to.
43 Activity is not achievement.
44 Managing IT people is like herding cats.
45 If you don't know how to do a task, start it, then ten people who know less than you will tell you how to do it.
46 If you don't plan, it doesn't work. If you do plan, it doesn't work either. Why plan!
47 The person who says it will take the longest and cost the most is the only one with a clue how to do the job.
48 The sooner you get behind schedule, the more time you have to make it up.
49 The nice thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.
50 Good control reveals problems early - which only means you'll have longer to worry about them.
51 It's hard to remember your job is to drain the swamp when you're up to your a--e in alligators.
Project Management Proverbs
1 It takes one woman nine months to have a baby. It cannot be done in one month by impregnating nine women.
2 Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it.
3 You can con a sucker into committing to an impossible deadline, but you cannot con him into meeting it.
4 At the heart of every large project is a small project trying to get out.
5 The more desperate the situation the more optimistic the situatee.
6 A problem shared is a buck passed.
7 A change freeze is like the abominable snowman: it is a myth and would anyway melt when heat is applied.
8 A user will tell you anything you ask, but nothing more.
9 Of several possible interpretations of a communication, the least convenient is the correct one.
10 What you don't know hurts you
11 There's never enough time to do it right first time but there's always enough time to go back and do it again.
12 The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the sweetness of making a date is forgotten.
13 I know that you believe that you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you heard is not what I meant.
14 What is not on paper has not been said.
15 A little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning.
16 If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs, you haven't understood the plan.
17 If at first you don't succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried.
18 Feather and down are padding, changes and contingencies will be real events.
19 There are no good project managers - only lucky ones.
20 The more you plan the luckier you get.
21 A project is one small step for the project sponsor, one giant leap for the project manager.
22 Good project management is not so much knowing what to do and when, as knowing what excuses to give and when.
23 If everything is going exactly to plan, something somewhere is going massively wrong.
24 Everyone asks for a strong project manger - when they get them they don't want them.
25 Overtime is a figment of the naïve project manager's imagination.
26 Quantitative project management is for predicting cost and schedule overruns well in advance.
27 The sooner you begin coding the later you finish.
28 Metrics are learned men's excuses.
29 For a project manager overruns are as certain as death and taxes.
30 Some project finish on time in spite of project management best practices.
31 Fast - cheap - good - you can have any two.
32 There is such a thing as an unrealistic timescale.
33 The project would not have been started if the truth had been told about the cost and timescale.
34 A two-year project will take three years, a three year project will never finish.
35 When the weight of the project paperwork equals the weight of the project itself, the project can be considered complete.
36 A badly planned project will take three times longer than expected - a well planned project only twice as long as expected.
37 Warning: dates in a calendar are closer than they appear to be.
38 Anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time left to change anything.
39 There is no such thing as scope creep, only scope gallop.
40 A project gets a year late one day at a time.
41 If you're 6 months late on a milestone due next week but really believe you can make it, you're a project manager.
42 No project has ever finished on time, within budget, to requirement
Yours won't be the first to.
43 Activity is not achievement.
44 Managing IT people is like herding cats.
45 If you don't know how to do a task, start it, then ten people who know less than you will tell you how to do it.
46 If you don't plan, it doesn't work. If you do plan, it doesn't work either. Why plan!
47 The person who says it will take the longest and cost the most is the only one with a clue how to do the job.
48 The sooner you get behind schedule, the more time you have to make it up.
49 The nice thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.
50 Good control reveals problems early - which only means you'll have longer to worry about them.
51 It's hard to remember your job is to drain the swamp when you're up to your a--e in alligators.
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