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Rocky Balboa on Strategy(?)

March 27, 2007 By Leave a Comment

One evening last week, I finally had the opportunity to watch the movie Rocky Balboa on DVD. In the spirit of full disclosure, I was born in Philadelphia and thoroughly enjoyed the local flavor of the first Rocky film back in 1976.  Even though Rocky II , V fit under the Hollywood mantra of “if you at first you have a blockbuster success, then run it into the ground, the reviews of Rocky Balboa had me interested in this finale to the saga.  I had planned to see this flick back in January with a friend of mine in Santa Fe, but we ended up having to cancel our plans for five consecutive weekends because of the freaky New Mexico weather.

So I settled in with a cup of tea and turned on my DVD player.  For those who have not seen the movie , the premise is that the aging Rocky’s beloved wife Adrianne has passed away and he spends his time at his restaurant named after her telling boxing stories to patrons.  In the meantime, an all-sports TV network puts together a computer simulation of a match between Rocky in his prime and the current heavyweight champion Mason “The Line Dixon (Sylvester Stallone has an affinity for campy names for fighters).  Rocky wins this simulation, much to the chagrin of the current champ’s handlers, who then get Rocky to come out of retirement to fight Mason so the latter can even the score.

At this point, you are probably wondering what this movie has to do the topics normally addressed on this blog.  Well, I am always looking for film clips to illustrate various conversations that I have in training or coaching settings and Rocky Balboa provides one.  It’s about competitive advantage and strategy. There is a scene in which Rocky’s trainer assesses the situation to plan his boxer’s strategy for the match.  The trainer does an objective assessment of Rocky’s strengths and weaknesses.  He points out that Mason Dixon is just too fast to try to beat him with speed, that Rocky’s knees won’t hold up to a lot of road work, and that calcium deposits in his joints preclude a lot of sparring.  Rocky’s main strength is his punching power and his ability to take a punch, so the trainer develops a weight-lifting regimen to put power behind his punches so that with every punch Mason will feel like he’s “kissing the front end of train at full speed.

What I liked about this segment was that it represented the kind of ruthless assessment of strengths and weaknesses that some organizations fail to do well.  I’ve facilitated strategic planning sessions where it seems more like a mutual admiration society.  The scene also provides a great example of the importance of crafting a strategy that is based on the competitive advantage that an organization has and then , and this is important , sticking to it.  I’ve witnessed organizations that at the first sign of adversity give up on a strategy too soon.  And by the way, the organizations that I’ve seen cling to a strategy too long, usually have not done that ruthless assessment of strengths and weaknesses.

I wish more businesses had the clarity of Rocky’s trainer.  After all, the competitive marketplace can feel like a heavyweight fight and it is not how you start, it is how you finish that counts.

Filed Under: Leadership, Observations, Work place issues

An Open Invitation for Topics for Future Posts

March 21, 2007 By Leave a Comment

It has been several months since I launched www.workingwithothers.com and the response that I have received has been very gratifying.  The subscriber list is growing, a number of people have commented on my posts, and many have sent emails with great questions and feedback as well as to say that they look forward to reading the entries and sharing them with their staff and co-workers.

So far my observations about the world of working relationships has driven the subjects.  I’d like to extend an invitation to all readers of this blog to suggest topics related to getting work done through and with others that you would be interested in seeing presented. I’ll do the best I can to include those suggestions in future posts.  Thanks!

Filed Under: Observations, Work place issues

Whose Decision is it, Anyway?

March 20, 2007 By Leave a Comment

From time to time I watch groups struggle with decision-making. The key issue usually centers on the absence of any dialogue about how decision-making will occur in the group. I’m amazed at how many groups and the leaders of those groups dance around this issue.

Many groups will agree that they will use consensus to make decisions without really understanding what consensus means. Most groups believe that consensus means agreement when in fact it means that every one feels heard and can support the decision of the group even if each member may not agree with the decision.

The bigger issue is more akin to Will Carey’s TV show, “Whose line is it anyway? The question for the group is “whose decision is it? Is it the leader’s decision, the group’s decision, or a group member’s decision? Most of the angst that I see in teams around decision-making centers on this very issue. Think about your own work group. Does the group have clarity about whose decision it is in each area of the group’s accountability?

Filed Under: Leadership, Management Development, Work place issues

How Quickly Do You Make Decisions?

March 15, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Last night I listened to a re-broadcast of NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross.  One of her guests was the author of How Doctors Think, Jerome Groopman MD.  Dr. Groopman’s main point was that doctors tend to latch on to the first thing that a patient says with the idea of making a diagnosis within the short period of time in which health plans now expect physicians to see a patient in an office visit , approximately 12 minutes.  He cites the significant number of incorrect diagnoses that occur because most physicians fail to ask the simple question , “what else could be going on?

While listening to Terry Gross’ interview with Dr. Groopman was sobering, it made me wonder about the listening skills of most decision-makers in the business world.  In a world that seems to insist on a fast pace and short-term expectations of success, how often do they latch on to the first piece of data that gets presented and make a quick decision only to find that they’ve missed a key piece of information that would suggest a completely different course of action.  When I work with managers at all levels on the topic of decision-making, I share a line from a poem by the 13th century Sufi mystic Rumi:  “Stipulate with every transaction that you need three days to make sure! Sniff with your wisdom nose. Get clear. Then decide.  I think we could all learn from this advice.

Filed Under: Leadership, Management Development, Observations

Ways to De-Motivate Direct Reports

March 14, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I’m co-facilitating a management development program this week.  When I do this work, I often think about the managers I have had earlier in my career.  Given that the research suggests that 80% of the people who leave an organization leave because of a bad manager, the probability of a person encountering at least one is pretty high.

One of the characteristics of at least one bad manager that I had was to consistently cancel our weekly update meetings because of other “more pressing issues.  Not only did I go for weeks without meeting with this person, this manager had the audacity to ask me to complete my own performance review because the manager “did not have time.  At the time, I thought that I was the only one who had experienced such behavior.  Unfortunately, this kind of managerial negligence occurs more frequently than one would expect.

Most employees want to know what is expected, how they are doing (i.e., feedback), and the chance to develop.  Meeting with a direct report on a regular basis is a critical management responsibility that offers an opportunity to provide these basic wants for employees.  Failure to do so is likely to result in a de-motivated employee who is likely to look elsewhere for employment.

Filed Under: Jobs and Careers, Management Development, Work place issues

How Included do Your Employees Feel?

March 13, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Author Caroline W. Casey tells a story of a New York street person who was arbitrarily pointing at people while saying, “you’re in, and you’re out. Needless to say this practice was a little disconcerting to those involved.

When a new work team forms, or a new member joins the team, the questions running through the minds of the team members center on inclusion. “Am I really a member of this team? “Do I feel like I belong? “What is my role on the team?

One of the popular business books I see in use in a number of organizations is Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. In that book, Collins talks about getting “the right people on the bus. In other words, he stresses that great companies make certain that they have the “right people working on making the organization’s vision a reality. Unfortunately, there are organizations that define the “right people in a way that can exclude some very talented ones from the mix because those people did not fit the company’s “image of the right person , whatever that means. And that exclusionary behavior can be overt or very subtle. The net result is that individuals who could add value at an organization leave because they don’t fit in.

So what is the turnover like in your company? Are many leaving because they don’t “fit in. Maybe it’s time to look at how your company helps to promote inclusion.

Filed Under: Observations, Team Development, Work place issues

We Can Learn a Lot From Our Children

March 12, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I had the privilege of hearing Kim Nelson, President of the Snacks Division at General Mills deliver a presentation to a group of new managers.  One of her messages was about “The Best Lessons on Leadership You Learn From Your Kids. It was a very insightful component of her talk and it helped me think about the relationship of our personal lives to our work lives and vice versa.

Some of the best leaders with whom I have worked have at least one characteristic in common , they show up as the same person at both home and work.  In other words they bring their entire self to work and that same person is fully present at home as well.  When I do the MBTI”with managers and leaders, someone will say something like, “I’m different when I’m at work.  That is, they leave the way they really are at home.  How unfortunate.

Great leaders have evolved their style and their way of being so they are comfortable in their skin regardless of whether they are at home or at work. And in reality children can help us be our true selves.  Maybe that’s because those lessons they learned in kindergarten about working and playing well with others are still fresh in their minds.

Filed Under: Leadership, Observations, Work place issues

Taking a Business to the Next Level

March 6, 2007 By 2 Comments

I often work with emerging companies , organizations that have survived the initial growing pains of a start-up, have sustained profitability, and now are considering what’s the next level of development.  There are several questions that these companies must address as they consider what continued success will look like:

1.    What are the specific business results that you want to attain and by when , and is everyone in the company committed to those results and clear on what it will take to achieve them?
2.    How do you expand the business without losing sight of the things that worked well up to this point , like great customer support or high levels of responsiveness?
3.    Do you have a strong pipeline of developing leaders who can take the business to the next step?
4.    What changes in the organization’s structure are necessary to sustain growth?

What I find is that companies tend to do is focus on question 4 before they’ve addressed question 1.  Without a commitment to a set of results on the part of the key members of the organization, answering the remaining questions will not have a context.  For example, the result some seek is to be able to take the business to a point where it becomes an attractive acquisition for a larger entity; others may want to focus only on sustainable growth rates.  Clarity and commitment around results then makes it easier to answer the remaining questions.

Finally, remember that intended results drive decisions about the appropriate organization structure; in other words, we organize around a purpose.  And every organization is perfectly organized to get the results it gets!

Filed Under: Observations, Organizationnal Design and Behavior