Discipline makes Daring possible.

Musings from The Disappearing Boss on People, Process and Responsible Autonomy for small-business employers.

Category: Discipline makes Daring possible

Sweeping
April 7, 2020

Sweeping

Yesterday, on my early morning walk/shop I went past a local pub.  It’s an enormous 1930’s pub, surrounded by an equally enormous car park.   Empty of course.

Except for one man, sweeping.

“That is going to be the cleanest car park ever.”  I quipped.

“I’m doing it for cardio, I’m not a jogger.”

But he was also doing it like it was a Zen garden.  Systematically, methodically, calmly.  Sweeping everything into neat little piles, one in each marked parking space.

Beautiful.

And I never thought I’d say that about an empty pub car park.

Spring cleaning
April 6, 2020

Spring cleaning

The office I worked in 12 months ago is gone.

It’s hidden under the shortcuts, distractions and “that’ll come in handy”‘s of the past year.  Some bits of it don’t even apply any more.  the world has changed since then.

Time to tidy up.

Tidying up isn’t just about de-cluttering and discarding.   It’s also a chance to reminisce and rediscover.   To remind myself that I’ve got many things right,  that I know what I’m doing, and that what I’m trying to achieve hasn’t changed, only the way of going about it.

It’s also a time to refresh and  re-focus on what I’m trying to do and look forwards at how I’m going to make it happen now.

Of course I’m not just tidying up my office.  I’m tidying up my business.

Spring cleaning, ready for the year ahead.

Managing blind
April 3, 2020

Managing blind

If you know about Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP), you’ll know that people have preferred channels of communication and expression.   Some people lean towards images, others towards words, others towards feelings.

Not surprisingly, these preferences apply to how people take in the information that convinces them of something, for example, whether or not someone is doing a good job.

Try it.  Ask yourself  “How do I know someone’s doing a good job?“

Is it by seeing them do it?  Is it by reading a report they’ve produced?  Is it by hearing someone tell you?   Is it by doing it with them?

The preferred channel isn’t the whole story though, we also have a preference that relates to time and frequency – how many times we need to experience the signals of a job well done, in order to be convinced that the person doing it can be safely left to themselves.

Some people are immediately convinced, they only need to see/read/hear/do once, and they are happy to let the person carry on.

Others need a few instances before they are convinced.

Yet others need to keep receiving the evidence because they are never quite 100% convinced, no matter how many times they see/hear/read/do.

Clearly this has implications for what might be appropriate roles for the individuals in your team, depending on the kind of business you do.   And there are dangers in it, as I’ve talked about before.

It is of particular relevance if you are a manager or business owner, when one or more of the usual channels are not available.

The first part of the answer for most businesses, is to switch to measuring outcomes, not work.

The second is to run spot-checks at a reasonable frequency, which can take different forms.

For example you could arrange to ‘accompany’ someone as they perform their job.   You give notice, so they are prepared, because you are not so much checking what they are doing as monitoring the reactions of the people they interact with as they do it.

Or you can ‘mystery shop’ – the non-creepy equivalent of observing covertly, from a distance.   Better yet, get a professional to do it for you on a regular basis.

And you can give everyone a stake in success, by truly sharing ownership.

The point of this post, and some of the others I’ve written this week, is to show that there may be reasons beyond the immediate crisis that are making you and your team feel uncomfortable and demotivated.

Of course the priority now is get set up just enough to survive.

But there is no need for things to be worse than they are, and soon you will have some time to invest beyond survival.

By taking the time to understand individual working styles, so you can work with the grain of every member of your team (including yourself), you’ll come out of the other side stronger.   And you’ll have showed your team you care.

Here’s the book reference again: “Words that Change Minds”, by Shelle Rose Charvet.    Check out the website too.

Variety
April 2, 2020

Variety

Many years ago I had a job interview for Booz Allen.   Almost the first thing the interviewer said to me was “You’re a bit of a butterfly aren’t you?”

They were wrong.  I was just following a normal pattern for someone with my appetite for change.

In work,  I’m motivated by evolution rather than stability, and every 3-5 years or so I feel the need to make a big shift.   I’m not unusual, that’s how most people like to operate at work.

My interviewer was possibly in a different camp.  I asked them how long they’d been with Booz Allen.   “20 years.”  Clearly in the ‘I like things to stay the same over a long period of time’ preference.  Or perhaps their motivational kicks came from working with an international consultancy firm – if the job involves the required level of variety, there’s no need to switch jobs to get it.

I’ve also met people at the other extreme, who are motivated by constant change and uncertainty, and who will pivot almost every year.

The point here is that even without a crisis, it’s worth understanding your own and other people’s appetite for change.  People will be de-motivated, under-perform and eventually leave if they aren’t getting what they need from the job they are in.

In a time of crisis and uncertainty this is even more important.  A few will thrive on it.   Most will find it uncomfortable, unsettling, but bearable.  A few will find it almost intolerable.

Bear this in mind as you shake down to remote working.  Of course the priority is to get things working and keep going.   But if this situation lasts, or you decide to change your way of working altogether it’s worth adjust things in line with these preferences.

It may well be that moving people into different roles will help them and you get through it better.

PS the man swapping hats with Charlie Chaplin is Harry Lauder, a music hall (variety) star in his day, and according to Gibbs family tradition, a relation of ours.

Switching focus
March 31, 2020

Switching focus

It’s been amazing to see how quickly many businesses have been able to switch to some sort of online delivery model over the last week or so.

Continuing my musings on ‘Working Styles’, here’s something to bear in mind though, especially for your sales team.

To be good at sales, or customer service, or support, people need to be get some of their motivation from other people – they need to be externally focused.

So far, so good.   But the context of sales can vary, and individuals can have very different working style preferences and still be excellent sales people – as long as the context they are in remains congenial.

For example, a good salesperson can have a reactive preference – that is, they act on things that happen, rather than initiating events.   That’s perfect for physical retail, where customers don’t want to be pestered, yet want attentiveness when they ask for it.      People with a proactive preference, on the other hand are more suited to a field sales role, where they have to go out and find clients, or for pulling in customers through promotions outside the premises.

Bear these preferences in mind as you switch to online.   Working against the grain of their preference will be more difficult for both proactive and reactive people.  You could, for example have the reactive people man your chatlines and customer service lines, while the proactive people do online networking and phone calls.

To find out what preferences the people in your business have, I recommend “Words that Change Minds” by Shelle Rose Charvet.   I’ve used this approach many times, to help with franchisee recruitment, and to help individuals identify what they should be looking for in a job or career.   It can be done in 20 minutes, via a telephone interview.

Now would be a great time to find out what makes your people tick.

Give yourself a break
March 27, 2020

Give yourself a break

After a stressful and uncertain week, with many things still to be resolved before we can all adjust to the new normal, it will do us good to take a break.

Even if all we can manage is 5 minutes.  Even if that 5 minutes is at some strange time of night.

Switch off from the news.   Log out of email and social media.  They aren’t helping.

Find a place to sit where you can be as near to fresh air as possible.  Even if that’s just an open window.

Sit.

Breathe.

That feeling in your stomach? The butterflies?  The anxiety?  You’ve had it before.  And you got through before.  You got the job.  You learned to drive, swim, ride a bike.  You did the parachute jump.

That feeling isn’t only fear.  It’s excitement.

Things will never be the same again.   They will be better if we dare to make them so.

Writer’s block
March 26, 2020

Writer’s block

Like many people, I guess, I’m finding it harder to write every day during this crisis.    Who wants to listen to me?  What have I got to say that is worth saying?  I’m not famous.  I’m not powerful.  I don’t feel relevant.

But.

I can read, and learn and think, and listen.  And I can pass on stuff I think will help.

So here are 3 things I learned this morning that I think are worth sharing:

  1. Out on my early morning walk, more people said ‘good morning’, ‘hello’ or ‘thank you’ than I’ve ever had before.  We said these things at least 2 metres apart, but we said them.   Keeping our physical distance has given us an excuse to really see each other.  I hope we can keep this politeness up.   It feels good.
  2. Richard Murphy shared this article today, from Tomas Pueyo on Government’s options for dealing with coronavirus.   It is well worth a read.   Science is always good.
  3. Richard Murphy also shared his own AccountingWEB article today, on looking to the future.   I’m going to quote the last 2 paragraphs here, because I think he’s right, we have to start thinking about this stuff now:

“Reaction five: Recovery

But the fifth, and crucial stage, is the one we need to already anticipate, however, overwhelmed we now feel. This will be the recovery stage, and although that might seem a long way off at present (and the wait may well seem interminable) it will happen. When it does, there will be at least as many problems as there or now, and in the immediate months to come. These need to be planned for, and good accountants will be doing that very soon.

Picking up a mothballed business and returning it to a thriving state is not easy. It demands a lot of working capital. Many businesses will have almost none. As a result, all the usual problems from overtrading will rear their ugly heads remarkably quickly when the recovery begins, and those businesses that might have made it through the immediate crisis might then discover that they cannot make it to the end of the year unless they begin to plan now.

Planning for the future

Many of us are facing enforced time at home, with too much Netflix for company. My suggestion is that anyone with responsibility for a business should use at least some of this time to think about their plans to reopening their activities when this crisis is over. 

Deciding what goods, services, outlets and staff are key to that process, and working out how to phase the returns to normal is critical to survival. In particular, new product mixes, ways of delivery, supply chains and customer interactions all need to be thought about if success is to be likely. 

This is not the time to sit and do nothing if businesses are to survive. There’s a massive amount to do. And now is the time to do it.”

So that gives me my theme for the next few weeks or months.   How to use the unsettlement of the current crisis to think differently about how we do things, and lay the foundations for a more secure, sustainable and profitable future business.

Phew!  I can feel useful again.

 

PS Seth Godin is right.   There is no such thing as writer’s block.  You just have to write.

How to quickly capture a business process/procedure/work instruction
March 25, 2020

How to quickly capture a business process/procedure/work instruction

With teams suddenly dispersed, all that tacit knowledge of ‘what it is we’re trying to do, and how to do it’, is much harder to access.  You can’t simply shout across the office “How do I do X again?”

It will be very tempting to start automating everything.   But you need to think about what you’re automating first, else you can get trapped in the software manufacturer’s model of how your business should work.

So here ‘s a quick guide to capturing ‘What we do round here’ that will work over Zoom, Skype etc.

Key Principles:

  • Assume competence.
  • The quicker you test it, the quicker you can improve it.
  • If it feels like you’re trying to fit too much in, you probably are.
  • It’s a prompt, not a novel.
  • Practice makes perfect.
  • It’s about the process not the people.

How to go about it:

  • Start with the most critical process.
  • Get someone else to help you.
  • Sketch the whole thing as a series of bubbles – 7  plus or minus one should cover it.
  • Start with the 80% case.
  • Start at the very beginning.
  • Carry on right to the end.
  • Think ‘Get Outcome’.

Follow the rapid improvement cycle:

  • You tell a colleague how it works, they write it down
  • They do it, following what you told them.
  • You observe, and where it goes wrong, between you, you modify the instructions to get the outcomes you want.
  • You clarify how it really works (not how you think it works).
  • They suggest ways to make it easy for them to do.
  • They write up the improved version.
  • Save the latest version where everyone can get at it.

Repeat until you have a work instruction/procedure/process that can be run reliably by anyone who needs to.

Automate the bits humans shouldn’t be doing.   Then let the humans get on with the rest.