The Little Big Things

by Thomas J Peters

  Build up your competitors!!

  Build up your entire industry!!

  And … if you hear a competitor is missing deadlines, losing revenue, or experiencing any kind of failure, instead of piling on the criticism, consider lending a quiet helping hand. Trust me, it will redound to your long-term benefit.

  Decency rules!

  (And, paradoxically, the more “dog eat dog” the competitive situation, the more the “decency advantage” matters.)

  As one of my blog’s commenters, Nathan Schock, put it concerning this topic:

  “This is especially important for those of us who work in professional services located outside major metropolitan areas. As our entire industry improves in our city, the large companies are less likely to look outside our city for those services. Our advertising agency believes that anything that makes the industry better in our city improves our position.”

  Thank you, Nathan!

  Amen!

  SPECIAL SECTION

  The Top 50 “Have-Yous”

  While waiting in the Albany airport to board a Southwest Airlines flight to Reagan/DCA one morning, I happened across the latest Harvard Business Review, on the cover of which was a bright yellow “lead article” sticker. On it were the words “Mapping your competitive position.” It referred to a feature article by my friend and admired colleague, Rich D’Aveni.

  Rich’s work is uniformly first-rate—and I have said as much publicly on several occasions, dating back 15 years. Moreover, I’m sure this article is a fine one, too—though I admit I didn’t read it.

  In fact, it triggered a furious, negative “Tom reaction,” as my wife calls it. Of course I believe you should worry about your “competitive position.” But instead of obsessing on competitive position and other abstractions, as the B-schools and consultants would invariably have us do, I instead wondered about some “practical stuff,” which I believe is far, far more important to the short- and long-term “strategic” health of the enterprise, tiny or enormous.

  Hence, rather than an emphasis on competitive maps or looking for a “blue ocean” (empty space, per the popular book Blue Ocean Strategy), I urge you to pay attention to something like my Top 50 “Have-Yous,” as I call them. The list could easily be three times as long—but this ought to keep you occupied for a while. Of course, the underlying hypothesis is that if you proactively do the “small” stuff below, your “competitive position” will improve so much that mapping will become a secondary issue!

  Herewith:

  Have you called a customer … today?

  Have you in the last 10 days … visited a customer?

  Have you in the last 60 to 90 days … had a seminar in which several folks from a key customer’s operation (different levels, different functions, different divisions) interacted, via facilitator, with various of your folks? (Goal: Fully integrates us with our key customers—and makes it clear we want to get to know them on all levels.)

  Have you thanked a frontline employee for a small act of helpfulness … in the last three days?

  Have you thanked a frontline employee for a small act of helpfulness in the last … three hours?

  Have you thanked a frontline employee for carrying around a great attitude … TODAY?

  Have you in the last week recognized—publicly—one of your folks for a small act of cross-functional cooperation? (Small, social acts enhancing cross-functional bonding may be my Obsession #1.)

  Have you in the last week recognized—publicly—one of “their” folks (from another function) for a small act of cross-functional cooperation with your gang?

  Have you invited in the last month a leader of another function to your weekly team priorities meeting???

  Have you personally in the last week-month called-visited an internal or external customer to sort out, inquire, or apologize for some little or big thing that went awry? (No reason for doing so? If true—in your mind—then you’re more out of touch than I dared imagine. Pity.)

  Have you in the last two days had a chat with someone (a couple of levels “down”) about specific deadlines concerning a project’s next steps?

  Have you in the last two days had a chat with someone (a couple of levels “down”) about specific deadlines concerning a project’s next steps … and what specifically and immediately you can do to remove a hurdle? (Remember: Boss as CHRO, Chief Hurdle Removal Officer.)

  Have you celebrated in the last week a “small” (or large!) milestone reached? (I.e., are you a milestone fanatic? Are you a celebration fanatic?)

  Have you in the last week or month revised some estimate in the “wrong” direction (i.e., acknowledged that things were more problematic than previously estimated) and apologized for making a lousy estimate? (Somehow or other you must publicly reward the telling of difficult truths—and the reporting of bad news.)

  Have you installed in your tenure as a staff department boss a very comprehensive customer satisfaction scheme for all your internal customers? (With major consequences for hitting or missing the mark.)

  Have you in the last six months made a weeklong, visible, very intensive visit-“tour” of external customers’ operations?

  Have you in the last 60 days called an abrupt halt to a meeting and “ordered” everyone to get out of the office and “into the field” immediately with the order to fix (f-i-x, finito!) some/any nagging “small” problem through immediate practical action?

  18. Have you in the last week had a rather thorough discussion of a “trivial” “cool design thing” someone has come across—away from your industry or your function—at a website or in a product or its packaging? And do you urge/insist that everyone (every one) be on the lookout for, bring in, and present “incredibly cool stuff I’ve found” from “everyday life”?

  Have you in the last two weeks had an informal meeting—at least an hour long—with a frontline employee to discuss “things we do right,” “things we do wrong,” and “What would it take to turn this job into something approaching his or her ‘dream job’”?

  Have you in the last 60 days had a general meeting to discuss “things we do wrong” … that we can fix in the next 14 days? (With follow-up exactly 14 days later.)

  Have you had, in the last year, a one-day, intense off-site with each of your principal internal customers—followed by a substantial celebration of “things gone right” on both parties’ parts?

  Have you in the last week privately pushed someone to do some family thing that you fear might be overwhelmed by deadline pressure?

  Have you learned the names of the children of everyone who reports to you? (If not, you have 30 days to fix it. Nah, make that 15 days.)

  Have you taken, in the last month (two weeks?), an interesting-weird outsider to lunch? And do you keep careful track of “weird dude lunches”?

  Have you in the last month invited an interesting-weird outsider to sit in on an important meeting?

  Have you, in the last three days, discussed in a meeting something interesting, beyond your industry, that you ran across reading, etc.? (This means more than an email from you with a hyperlink or two.)

  Have you in the last 24 hours injected into a meeting “I ran across this interesting idea in [strange place]”?

  Have you in the last two weeks asked someone to report on something, anything that constitutes an act of brilliant service rendered in a “trivial” situation—restaurant, car wash, etc.? (And then discussed the relevance to your work—and then implemented on the spot some little thing from what they observed?)

  Have you in the last 30 days examined in detail (hour by hour) your calendar to evaluate the degree to which “time actually spent” mirrors your “espoused priorities”? (And had everyone on the team repeat this exercise.)

  Have you in the last two months had a presentation to your group by a “weird” outsider?

  Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group by a customer, internal customer, vendor featuring “working folk
s” three or four levels down in the vendor/customer/internal customer organization (and in your organization)?

  Have you in the last two months had a presentation to the group of a cool, beyond-our-industry idea by two of your folks?

  Have you at every meeting today (and forevermore) redirected the conversation to the practicalities of implementation concerning some issue before the group?

  Have you at every meeting today (and forevermore) had an end-of-meeting discussion on “action items to be dealt with in the next 4, 24, 48 hours”? (And then made this list public—and followed up in 4 or 24 or 48 hours.) (And made sure everyone has at least one such item.)

  Have you had a discussion in the last six months about what it would take to get recognition in a local-national poll of “best places to work”?

  Have you in the last month approved a cool–different–very different outside training course for one of your folks?

  Have you in the last month taught a frontline training course?

  Have you in the last week discussed the idea of Excellence per se? (What it means, how to get there—concerning a current project.)

  Have you in the last week discussed the idea of “Wow”? (What it might mean, how to inject it into an ongoing “routine” project.)

  Have you in the last 45 days assessed some major internal process in terms of the details of the “experience” that surrounds its use, as well as the measured results it provides to external or internal customers?

  Have you in the last month had one of your folks attend a meeting you were supposed to go to, which therefore gives them unusual exposure to senior folks?

  Have you in the last 60 (30?) (15?) (7?) days sat with a trusted friend or “coach” to discuss your “management style”—and its long-and short-term impact on the group?

  Have you in the last three days considered a professional relationship that was a little rocky and made a call to the person involved to discuss issues and smooth the waters? (Taking the “blame,” fully deserved or not, for letting an issue fester.)

  Have you in the last … two hours … stopped by someone’s (two-levels “down”) office-workspace for five minutes to ask “What do you think?” about an issue that arose at a more or less just completed meeting? (And then stuck around for 10 or so minutes to listen—and visibly take notes?)

  Have you … in the last day … looked around you (“eyeballed”) to assess whether the diversity of the group pretty accurately mirrors the diversity of the market being served? (And began to act on the disparity, if it exists?)

  Have you in the last day at some meeting gone out of your way to make sure that a normally reticent person has been engaged in a conversation—and then thanked him or her, perhaps privately, for his or her contribution?

  Have you in the last four months had a half-day, full-team session specifically aimed at checking on the “corporate culture” and the degree we are true to it—with presentations by relatively junior folks, including frontline folks? (And with a determined effort to keep the conversation restricted to “real-world” “small” cases—not theory?)

  Have you in the last six months talked about the Internal Brand Promise—i.e., what you and the organization promise employees in terms of respect and growth opportunities?

  Have you in the last year had a full-day off-site to talk about individual (and group) aspirations?

  Have you called a customer … today?

  HAVE YOU … STARTED?

  Obviously I hope you’ll use this list. Perhaps as follows:

  1.Circulate it to your team.

  2. Agree on no more than a half-dozen items to act as a Starter Action List.

  3. Pick one item.

  4. Do it today.

  5. Repeat once a week.

  NB: Obviously, this list is meant to be suggestive, not definitive. You can develop your own, tailored to your situation. The “big idea”—which animates this book—is to go after these “small things” that collectively are the heart and soul and guts of an effective organization devoted to “Excellence in all we do.”

  Re-imagining

  144. Create a “Cathedral”! (If Not, What?)

  I was asked to keynote the first major conference, organized by the Australian Institute of Management, honoring the life’s work of Peter Drucker. I felt an enormous responsibility—and allowed my imagination to soar on the topic of organizing fundamentals. I began with a bare-bones definition. Organizations should be …

  … no less than cathedrals in which the full and awesome power of the Imagination and Spirit and native Entrepreneurial Flair of diverse individuals is unleashed in passionate pursuit of … Excellence.

  “Cathedral/s” is a Big Word. My usage is not intended to be religious in any formal sense—hence the lowercase “c.” But, in terms of human potential (quasi-religious?), I do see all effective organizations as driven … first and foremost … by an Unstinting Commitment to Members’ Growth.

  A classroom in a primary school should … obviously … be such a “cathedral.” But so, too, an accounting or training department. No doubt of it: Organizations must effectively serve their external customers to survive, let alone thrive. But my line of logic is, at least to me, crystal clear and admits no alternatives:

  We cannot expect Excellent and Imaginative and Energetic Service to be routinely provided to our Customers unless our frontline employees (with customer contact and in support functions) who provide that superior service are themselves engaged in a Vigorous Personal Quest for Growth and Excellence.

  I don’t, as I’ve said several times before, ask you to “buy my act.” I do ask you to think about it—and the consequences (enormous!) thereof.

  Is, in fact, your unit of any size …

  “… no less than a cathedral in which the full and awesome power of the Imagination and Spirit and native Entrepreneurial Flair of diverse individuals is unleashed in passionate pursuit of … Excellence”?

  And if it is not, or if that or something akin thereto is not the aim, then tell me what the alternative is.

  Please.

  Cathedral.

  Imagination.

  Spirit.

  Entrepreneurial flair.

  Diverse.

  Passion.

  Excellence.

  Or???????

  (NB: This challenge—organization as cathedral devoted to human development—is simply gargantuan. And one I thought about—a lot—before issuing. And by now I’ve tested the idea all over the world—from Dubai to Shanghai to New Delhi to Helsinki to Joinville, Brazil, to San Antonio, Texas. In sit-down discussions there is agreement that “If not this, what?” is, in fact, a sane question—at least worthy of serious conversation. I am wholeheartedly convinced that something like this makes commercial sense.)

  To “get started” in this instance is largely cerebral—talking it through with colleagues at work, with friends in small and large businesses of your acquaintance. You can make assessments of businesses close to home: One community bank plays it this way—and another doesn’t. Or auto body shop A vs. auto body shop B. While doing some positive “people stuff” is good, this is of a whole other order of affairs; this is indeed a commitment to building and maintaining no less than a “cathedral.”

  Are.

  You.

  Up.

  For.

  It.

  (And, I repeat, if not, what’s the alternative?)

  145. Enable Dreams. (If Not, What?)

  Matthew Kelly’s parable-based The Dream Manager is not ordinarily my kind of book. But Kelly’s premise got to me—and it has become a centerpiece of my work. The idea is simple: Everyone has a dream! And if we can help him and her fulfill those dreams, then he and she will be more engaged human beings—which will, practically speaking, pay off for the organization as it strives to serve its customers. Kelly writes:

  “A company’s purpose is to become the-best-version-of-itself. [But] an organization can only become the-best-versio
n-of-itself to the extent that the people who drive that organization are striving to become better-versions-of-themselves.”

  When you ponder that (slowly, very slowly, please!), it is both obvious and profound: “We,” the team, is only as good as the engagement and commitment to personal growth and achievement and Excellence by each and every individual. (Obvious in football and dance—why not groceries and the accounting office?) “The question is,” Kelly continues, “What is an employee’s purpose? Most would say, ‘to help the company achieve its purpose’—but they would be wrong. [Ponder, slowly, again.] That is certainly part of the employee’s role, but an employee’s primary purpose is to become the-best-version-of-himself or herself.”

  As stated, the book title is Dream Manager. In fact, Kelly asserts that explicitly helping people achieve their dreams—directly business related or not—is a, or even the, primary task a boss has. The boss, to both serve her customer or get things done in general, becomes a “dream enabler”—e.g., works with the 28-year-old maintenance man from Ghana to achieve his dream of a junior college degree. To repeat the chain of logic: If that 28-year-old feels wholly supported in his personal-growth dream, odds of his aspiring to do and doing his maintenance-man job with Excellence become very high.

  So … are you?

  That is, are you (explicitly) a “dream enabler”?

  (Or, to start, do you know what your employees’ dreams are?)

  LEAD, FOLLOW, AND GET OUT OF THE WAY

  Our goal is to serve our customers brilliantly and profitably over the long haul.

  Serving our customers brilliantly and profitably over the long haul is a product of brilliantly serving over the long haul the people who serve the customer.