*I am simply, unabashedly insane about enhancing cross-functional communication, arguably business’s issue #1, via the “soft arts,” such as sending flowers, not just, or mainly, via sexy software!! (Be prepared for me to be repetitive on this topic, coming at it from any angle I can conjure up.)
4. Master the Fine Art of … Nudgery!
My mostly dormant but longtime interest in “little things” with enormous impact was rekindled after the recent publication of Nudge (Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein), Sway (Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman), and a couple of other like books. I had studied their principal antecedent, the work of Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and his partner Amos Tversky, in the mid-1970s. They unearthed dimension after measurable dimension of human “irrationality” in a world where the myth of rationality and the likes of hyperrational “economic man” held center stage—and damn near every other part of the stage as well. Kahneman and Tversky again and again observed dramatic human overreaction to some tiny thing—and underreaction to some big thing. It was especially eye-opening to an engineer—me.
The central idea of the books just enumerated—and this book—is powerfully simple (as well as simply powerful): “Little” things can make enormous— staggering —BIG differences in situations of the utmost importance; situations that can, in health care, for example, save thousands and thousands of lives. Consider this tiny sampling of examples that I’ve collected from hither and thither in my wanderings:
Put geologists (rock guys) and geophysicists (computer guys), typically at war over dramatically different views of the world, in the same room, and … find more oil … than your “separate room” competitors.
Stanford University works to increase significantly the number of multidisciplinary research grants that it receives. That’s the basis for solving the world’s most important problems, the president contends. In fact, he calls it nothing less than the linchpin of that Great University’s future. One (big) part of the answer to this big issue is a “mere” building, a research building wholly and exclusively dedicated to multidisciplinary research—put the whole, diverse team cheek by jowl and watch the miracles of collaboration pour forth!
People whose offices are more than 100 feet apart might as well be 100 miles apart, in terms of frequency of direct communication.
Walmart increases shopping cart size—and sales of big items (like microwave ovens) go up … 50 percent!
Use a round table instead of a square table—and the percentage of people contributing to a conversation leaps up!
If the serving plate is more than 6.5 feet from the dining room table, the number of “seconds” goes down 63 percent, compared with leaving the serving plates on the table.
Want to make a program “strategic”? Put it at the top of every agenda. Make asking about “it” your first question in every conversation. Put the person in charge in an office next to the Big Boss. Etc. (Talk about powerful messages!)
Want to save lives? Issue everyone who checks into the hospital compression stockings to reduce the risk of deep vein thrombosis. Doing so could save 10,000 lives in the United Kingdom alone.
Want to save lives? One survivor of 9/11 had walked downstairs from a top floor—about once a month. Such “trivial” “drills” could have saved innumerable lives.
Frito-Lay adds new bag sizes, suffers no cannibalization of current offerings, and ends up creating totally new (and enormous) markets—racking up, eventually, billions in revenues.
Get rid of wastebaskets under desks—recycling leaps up.
Simply put hand-sanitizer dispensers all over a dorm, with no signs asking students to use them—and the number of sick days and missed classes per student falls 20 percent. (University of Colorado/Boulder.)
Let patients see greenery through their windows—and their average post-op stay duration drops 20 percent.
Go white (that is, paint roofs, roads, etc., white)—and reduce CO2 emissions by 44 billion tons.
“Broken windows”: Clean up trash, fix broken windows, stop miscreants for trivial offenses such as loitering or having open alcohol containers—and increase neighborhood safety dramatically. (Using this approach, Chief Bratton and Mayor Giuliani had spectacular success on a pretty big stage—New York City.)
If signing up to join a 401(k)-style tax-enhanced savings plan is the default option in a computer-based sign-up process … 86 percent of people will “join.” If they must “opt in” … just 45 percent choose to join. (This is a staggering, almost two-to-one difference—in a decision of enormous personal significance—and it’s based on a “trivial” difference in the design of the process.)
The preceding examples are merely indicative of the sorts of things (of which there are, more or less, a gazillion) that one can concentrate on. The toughest part of this message is that to do much with the idea you need an “attitude.” An attitude that this sort of thing can work, and a willingness to screw around and screw around and then screw around until you get “it” (whatever is under consideration) more or less “right”—and then keep fine-tuning, eternally.
LET ME NUDGE YOU … TO BE A NUDGE
Make Nudgery the centerpiece of your change strategy in almost all, if not all, circumstances. (The world may become your oyster—even if you are a junior oysterman.)
Here’s the good news about the Art of Nudgery:
(1) Amenable to rapid experimentation/failure.
(2) Quick to implement/Quick to roll out.
(3) Inexpensive to implement/Inexpensive to roll out.
(4) Huge multiplier.
(5) An “Attitude” required—not a one-off “program.”
(6) Does not, by and large, require a “power position” from which to launch experiments—this is mostly “invisible stuff,” below the radar, that most people don’t care about on the front end.
Consider:
Study* the Art of Nudgery! Practice* Nudgery!
Become a Professional* Nudgist!
(*As always, “even with” these so-called small things, the words “study,” “practice,” and “professional” are key, the sine qua non, without which there is … nothing. Thus, this not so little idea—nudgery—becomes no less than a true “calling.”)
Excellence
5. If Not Excellence, What?
If Not Excellence Now, When?
I’m here in this place on your palpable or electronic bookshelf because of …
Excellence.
That is, back in 1982 I cowrote a book called In Search of Excellence.
A lot of people were kind enough to buy it.
And I’ve been “talking Excellence” for the subsequent 25+ years.
(NB: Never write the word Excellence without capitalizing the “E.” This I command—not that I have the power to do so.)
I love “Excellence”—and not just because it paid for the farm I bought in Vermont in 1984.
I love EXCELLENCE—truth is, I think you should capitalize all the letters—because Excellence is soooooo Cool. (Cap “C.”)
It’s so cool.
It’s so heartening.
It’s so soaring & inspiring.
10It’s so worth getting out of bed for.
(Even in the winter in Vermont.)
It’s so healthy.
It’s so helpful to others.
(The striving more than the arriving.)
It’s so good for your morale—even on the shittiest of days.
(Especially on the shittiest of days.)
And, over the mid to long term (and in the short term, too), it turns on your customers and is … profitable as hell.
Professional driver Bill Young says:
“Strive for excellence. Ignore success.”
Amen. (Love it!)
(Excellence is a “way of life,” a “way of being”—not a steady state to be “achieved.”)
Anon* says:
“Excellence can be obtained if you:
“… care more than others th
ink is wise;
“… risk more than others think is safe;
“… dream more than others think is practical;
“… expect more than others think is possible.”
(*Posted by K. Sriram at tompeters.com.)
Amen. (Love it!)
Your “takeaway”: Asked how long it took to achieve Excellence, IBM’s legendary boss Tom Watson is said to have answered more or less as follows: “A minute. You ‘achieve’ Excellence* by promising yourself right now that you’ll never again knowingly do anything that’s not Excellent—regardless of any pressure to do otherwise by any boss or situation.”
(*I don’t really know whether or not Watson insisted on the cap “E”—from what I’ve learned, I wouldn’t be surprised. I do know he loved the word.)
TP: Amen. (Love it!)
Regardless of the location (China, Lithuania, Miami) or industry (health care, fast food), I title all of my presentations:
Excellence. Always.
If Not Excellence, What?
If Not Excellence Now, When?
I hate the word “motivation”—surely I’ve indicated that before.
I hate it because the idea of me “motivating” you is so outrageous—and arrogant.
To state the obvious …
… only you can motivate you.
What I can do (as boss or even “guru”) is to Paint Portraits of Excellence.
And then we can imagine ourselves in those portraits—in Pursuit of Excellence.
“Pursuit”: Excellence, I repeat, is not a “goal”—it’s the way we live, who we are.
EXCELLENCE. Always.
If Not EXCELLENCE, What?
If Not EXCELLENCE Now, When?
WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH …
GET EXCELLENT
Excellence in (Today’s) Tough Times.
Now.
More Than Ever.
In tough times, the pressure is such that there is often a temptation to cut corners.
Think “Excellence.”
Don’t cut corners.
In tough times, your morale is often shot, and it’s hard to get out of bed.
Think “Excellence.”
Set the alarm a half hour earlier than usual.
In tough times, it’s really tough to be a boss.
Think “Excellence.”
It is tough to be a boss in tough times—but tough times are the Ultimate Test for you and your team—EXCELLENCE is a more worthy aspiration than ever before.
6. Whither Excellence? Or:
Asleep at the Wheel.
One of our best business analysts, James B. Stewart, offered this “simple” commentary on the precipitous decline of General Motors (in the June 3, 2009, Wall Street Journal):
“It has been long in coming, this slow death of what was once the greatest and biggest corporation in the world. The myriad causes of its demise have been thoroughly chronicled, but to my mind one stands out: The custodians of GM simply gave up trying to build the best cars in the world. To accommodate a host of competing interests, from shareholders to bondholders to labor, they repeatedly compromised on excellence. Once sacrificed, that reputation has proved impossible to recapture…. Can anyone say GM builds the best cars in any category?” (My emphasis. Note that the “e” in “excellence” is not capitalized.)
And you?
Try this: Consider the three (or two or five) meetings you’ve been to today. Consider the three project milestones just buttoned up—or the three on the near horizon:
Has the word “Excellence” per se been used as a basis for evaluating your actions? Could you personally call the outcome of each meeting or the nature of the milestone/s achieved “Excellent”?
Key idea: The “Excellence Standard” is not about Grand Outcomes. In Zenlike terms, all we have is today. If the day’s work cannot be assessed as Excellent, then the oceanic overall goal of Excellence has not been advanced. Period.
That is, the “Excellence Watch” must be a daily affair—or you simply are not serious about the overall …
Aspiration of Excellence.
7. “Quality”: You’ll Know It When
You See It.
Six Sigma is “good stuff”—great stuff. No doubt whatsoever about it. From a more encompassing standpoint, the quality “movement” added billions upon billions of dollars to the bottom line in the USA alone.
Only … Whoops! Better car quality—which we surely got from GM and Ford—was supposed to have saved the U.S. automotive industry from the Japanese automotive onslaught.
As I said: Whoops.
Am I suggesting you scrap traditional quality programs? Hardly! But “quality,” as it’s commonly understood, is Six Sigma–flavored and readily measured. And there’s more to it. Much more. I believe that “quality,” like “Excellence,” is primarily one of those … “I’ll know it when I see it” … words. So quantify quality all you want (please do, please do!) … but don’t forget that quality is equally—nay, primarily—determined by something that is elusive, mysterious, emotional, indefinable. And … in the eye of the beholder.
Get smart!
Give the “soft side” of quality the respect it deserves!
8. Excellence Is …
Excellence is the best defense.
Excellence is the best offense.
Excellence is the answer in good times.
Excellence is the answer in tough times.
(Excellence is the answer in tough times.)
Excellence is about the big things.
Excellence is about the little things.
Excellence is a relationship.
Excellence is a philosophy.
Excellence is an aspiration.
Excellence is immoderate.
Excellence is a pragmatic standard.
Excellence is execution.
Excellence is selfish.
Excellence is selfless.
Excellence is what keeps you awake.
Excellence is what lets you sleep well.
Excellence is a moving target.
Excellence is that which … knows no bounds.
EXCELLENCE. Always.
If not EXCELLENCE, what?
If not EXCELLENCE now, when?
SPECIAL SECTION
Guru
Gaffes
I contend that something is badly out of whack. Consider the world of “business gurus” (myself included, to be sure) and their-our obsessions versus “the rest of us” and “life-in-the-real-world”:
Guru Focus (GF): Big companies and attendant first-order, industry-redefining strategic issues.
Real World (RW): Most of us, still, in 2010 don’t work for Big Companies; we labor in “SMES,” small and Medium-sized Enterprises. (Or the likes of government agencies.) And if we are in a big company or agency, most of our focus is the 17-person department in which we labor. (As to “SMES,” Germany has been, ahead of China, the planet’s #1 exporter, thanks mainly to focused, high-end, middle-sized companies, the “Mittelstand” enterprises.)
GF: Public corporations.
RW: Most of us work in privately owned companies. (Or in those government agencies.)
GF: Cool industries.
RW: Most of us aren’t in “Cool” industries, we do pretty ordinary stuff—like my pal, Larry Janesky, who makes a buck, and then another ($60 million, actually), creating “dry basements” that are free of toxic mold and can be used as a spare room or for a playroom or storing anything and everything.
GF: “Excellence” is reserved for GE and GE and GE (maybe Google and Apple, too).
RW: “Excellence,” bar none, is the fabulous, friendly, informative, instantly responsive pharmacy next door that takes on docs and insurance companies with vigor and usually victory. (Gary Drug Company on Charles Street in Boston, for me.)
GF: Boss-less, flat, friction-free, self-defining organizational settings.
RW: Most of us have “bosses.” Most of us are assigned tasks.<
br />
GF: “Getting ahead” means becoming a “Brand You,” in a world where what our peers think of us is more important than the boss’s evaluation.
RW: While “lifetime employment” may indeed be D.O.A., at any point in time most of us still must cater to our bosses to get ahead.
“Most of us try to use everyday language such as ‘the way we make a buck’ (instead of ‘business model’), ‘let’s grow this sucker’ (not ‘Is it scalable?’), ‘hire good people and treat ‘em well and give ‘em a chance to shine and thank ‘em for the stuff they do’ (rather than ‘strategic talent management’), ‘bust our asses to keep our customers happy and keep ‘em coming back’ (instead of ‘customer-retention management’), and ‘share the stuff you learn with everybody ASAP, don’t hoard it’ (rather than ‘executing a knowledge-management paradigm’).”
GF: “Cover boy” CEOs with G4s, trophy wives, and the kids from all three marriages in prep schools with tuitions starting at $70K.
The Little Big Things Page 3