Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle
New Thinking from Framework Consulting
This is a great article by Jean Lowrie-Chin in today’s Jamaica Observer.
Click here to go to to the article.
It talks about a speech given by Richard Hamming, who has analyzed the approach taken by Nobel Laureates over the years, and echoes much of the discussion that we have been having on this blog on the topic of pursuing what we love in life. It turns out that this is what has driven the Laureates over the years.
This is all quite encouraging!
In a prior post, I decided to come up with the “final” answer as to how consulting firms come up with the prices we charge.
I now have an addition to that final answer, which makes it even more “final”.
As a professional, I charge my clients for the results they want produced, rather than the time it takes to produce the result.
Employees, on the other hand, get paid regardless of how long results take to come (for the most part, and up to a limit.)
Executives have the luxury of delaying projects, and altering the timing of activities and deliverables on projects when they are working with consultants, at no additional cost to the bottom line. This works well in uncertain conditions, when the timing of sensitive work is critical. A delay of several months is expected to be absorbed by the consultant as part of the cost of doing business.
A group of employees, on the other hand, will incur salary and overhead costs whether there is a project delay or not. Executives sometimes feel pressured to get people busy when they know that the clock is ticking, and costs are being incurred on a daily basis.
Consulting costs tend to be significantly higher, therefore, because the consultant or firm is giving the executive more flexibility and choices as to when project activities are executed. This can sometimes make the difference between success and failure, especially when projects are of high-impact.
My experience working in the Caribbean is one of high uncertainty, in the sense that business is frequently disrupted and plans are forced to change. The source could range from a hurricane to a devaluation.
What is helpful for consultants is to remember that they have a business to run, and their pricing must reflect that fact. “Having a business to run” is very different from “getting paid to do some work,” which is a trap that I fell headlong into in the my early days in this business.
At my first stay at Sandals back in January I was amazed at how they were able to take the best of Jamaica, and deliver it in a way that not only a tourist would appreciate it, but also in a way that a local Jamaican would.
I could see them shift gears. When they realized that I was Jamaican, the accent would disappear and they seemed genuinely happy to see me there, and several times went the extra mile to make the stay a memorable one.
And they succeeded fabulously.
However, Sandals is the exception to what I perceive to be a general low level of customer service afflicting the region.
This is not to say that the service delivered to tourists is not different. In fact, in a prior blog I spoke about the three levels of service: Tourist Service, Frien’ Service and Res’ a Dem Service.
Tourist Service is rendered to foreigners, and the more foreign-looking, the more likely the service is to be polite, helpful and solicitous. It does not apply to locals.
Frien’ Service is the best service a Caribbean local can expect to receive. It is warm, connected and intimate, and comes when the server recognizes the customer from some prior acquaintance or connection.
Res’ a Dem Service is the cold, indifferent, mash-up-face service that is given to the general public, and I have seen it in every CSME island that I have visited in the region (and also Bahamas).
Our people often cry racism when they see tourists being treated better, but the cause is not racial hatred… it is more like a welcoming nature to outsiders.
While these are gross generalizations, I have found that they have a spark of truth deep inside. The reasons Sandals has been able to be so effective, is that they are able to create an environment in which their employees deliver Frien’ Service to people that they do not know, but act as if they know. Also, they expose their new recruits to an extraordinary level of service that they themselves have never personally received before.
Here is a sample of some of the guests’ reports.
The fact that makes this remarkable, is that there is not a single island I have visited in which there is a local company giving excellent service to local people, unless they are consuming a very high end, and expensive, service.
Regular, everyday service is consistently delivered as Res’ a Dem Service.
In a project I once studied, I noticed that the North American consultants that were used never did define what they meant by “excellent service”. It seemed self-evident and self-explanatory.
When they spoke to upper managers, they too understood what “excellent service” meant. After all, many of them had studied in a First World country, and had taken trips to visit Macy’s, Harrod’s and DisneyWorld.
However, what they failed to realize was that they knew what excellent service was because they had received it first-hand from a consistent service provider. Having a good impression of Disney service comes from multiple first hand experiences that are mutually reinforcing. The consultants and senior managers had all had the very same experiences.
However, the average Caribbean person has not had that kind of experience. Instead, they know Frien’ Service and Res’ a Dem Service. The latter is the default, delivered when they have no connection to the person in front of them.
Companies and consultants need to be very careful to not just define the experience, which is a cognitive requirement, but also to create opportunities to give employees an idea of what consistent, high quality service feels like when the recipient is not a tourist or a friend.
This can be done in several ways, and I think that Sandals does this by immersing their employees in a culture in which it is easy to give good service, as a function of the way they are themselves treated by their management.
I cannot say with certainty that this is so — I have no first-hand knowledge of what happens on the inside. But when I read the remarks in the link given above, and reflect on my experience I know down deep in my bones that the smiles are not faked, and the extra mile that employees go is not just done in order to get something in return (indeed, there is no tipping allowed.)
The fact that Sandals has been able to do this on a large scale across several properties on different islands (presumably effectively) tells me that it is built into the Sandals system.
And this is what our public services, banks, retail stores, food shops and mini-buses across the region have not begun to do — develop a way to systematically deliver a positive customer experience, starting with their front-line staff.
I recently read a fascinating New York Times article about following what you love in life.
The article, by the authors of Freakonomics, started out by asking why it was that the best soccer players all seemed to be born in January, February and March.
It turns out that the reason has nothing to do with the Zodiac, seasons or school holidays. When young boys and girls are moving up in the soccer systems in their respective countries, they are all subject to age group requirements, and it turns out that the requirements coincide with calendar years. For example, to play Colts football (under 14), the players must have been born in 1992 or earlier.
Naturally, players born in early 1992 are larger (on average) than those born in late 1992, and therefore would have received that little extra encouragement from early on that the others would not have received. They would have been encouraged to develop whatever talent they had more frequently. In other words, if they had a dream to be a footballer, it would seem to those around them that they would be more likely to follow the dream than the rest.
It brought to mind a conversation I had back in 1992 with a new boss of mine. Her name was Norma, if I recall rightly.
I had just changed managers, and we were having an intro meeting, to really get to know each other. During that meeting, I told her that I really did not care about performance review, as others opinions of me just didn’t matter to my career.
This was plenty big talk for a 25 year-old.
But it was true. I had been doing a lot of growing and reading up until that point, and had very recently read a study that said that the difference between the largest and smallest raise in the typical department was some $2000. I was stunned.
I considered myself a high performer, and to learn that the difference was that small made me think that those who busted their butts to get to the top were separated from those who were lazy and did no work by a mere… $5.58 per day after taxes. That worked out to some 70 cents per hour.
This was clearly ridiculous.
I was in a rat race for a 70 cents per hour difference? That worked out to a Coke back then, or a candy bar.
A friendly supervisor could not believe it either, and he checked the numbers for our own department, and the numbers were almost exactly what I had read.
I felt like a fool.
And I stopped competing, as my dream was not to be promoted, but to leave and start my own company.
Even as I was telling Norma that the review does not matter to me, I could tell that she did not believe me.
Until, that is about six months later when it came time for her to deliver the review. I kept putting it off and putting it off, until it finally was overdue and we sat down to speak in a cafeteria in Bedminster.
She started in, and I could see that she had forgotten.
She continued, and I interrupted her by saying “But Norma, don’t you remember? Performance review does not matter to me.”
She stopped and stared at me. Her world and my world paused… I explained that it was not personal, no reflection on her, it was just that I was not interested as I found that it made no difference. The people who were evaluating me, I explained, have no idea what I am doing here, and I knew that nothing they said was related to what I was doing.
Poor Norma. She was flabbergasted. I was a bit surprised that she had forgotten, and also nervous because I was basically upsetting the status quo by not pretending that this mattered.
From my recollection, we went on to talk about other interesting things, unrelated to the review, relieved that the pretense was finally over. I can’t say that we became close after that, but I would say that had an understanding from that moment.
It was a turning point for me and my career, and when I did eventually resign to go my own way several months later I was stronger for having dealt with my fears in a straightforward way — by telling the truth.
At the same time, I do understand what it was like to be caught up in a rat race. AT&T Bell Labs was, at the time, not only my employer but one of the best places in the world for a scientist or engineer to work. Getting fired was almost impossible back then. And, I remember vividly an old-timer telling me that I should not think of leaving, but instead should stay until I was vested in the pension plan… at the 30 year mark.
Many AT&T veterans were skillful at one thing — staying an employee of AT&T.
In the years since I left, AT&T split into several pieces and my department was disbanded. The company was recently acquired for very little, and the number of employees before the acquisition was at a very small fraction of the 100k+ men and women that I remember being on payroll.
I’m unsure as to why the soccer article reminded me of Norma, and the conversation. I guess that I am grateful that even though she was shocked, she did not try to talk me out of my thinking. In fact, she applauded it, which gave me some assurance that I was not mad. Just different.
Just like those January-March soccer players got some encouragement to later become world stars, I also benefited from the same. What a workplace it would be if people could only be encouraged to follow their hearts.
In 1991 I was exposed to a fact that I have never forgotten.
In a training course that I have long forgotten, I learned that the profession I was about to enter full-time (I was an AT&T employee back then) had a bi-modal distribution of incomes.
What it simply meant was that consultants fell into two distinct groups — one group that earned a lot (median US$75k at the time) and another that earned much less (median $US45k.) The study went on to describe the difference in marketing techniques between the two groups.
Given that this was a time before the internet truly existed as we know it, the marketing techniques did not include an on-line component. However, the difference basically came down to consultants that used content-based approaches that reached a mass audience, and those that did not.
“Content-based approaches?”
Basically, it was saying that the more successful group relied on speeches, public seminars and other relatively high-risk, high-reward approaches to get the messages in which they believed, into the listening ears of large groups. They also wrote books, articles and other pieces for publication, once again for mass consumption.
The less successful group, from the research, relied on cold calls, free workshops, letters and paid advertisement to try to reach a relatively small number of prospects with little more than a shout of “here I am!” These were all very low risk techniques.
It is not too hard to extrapolate these findings to the world we live in 15 years later. Now, there are just more tools to use, most of them involving new technology.
However, the basics are the same — the market rewards those in the profession who develop a unique point of view, and then are willing to develop the speaking and writing skills to get their point of view in front of audiences in high-risk, high reward ways.
Nowadays, we have more avenues available to us through internet technology.
A consultant said to me a few weeks ago that he basically “did not believe in the internet” and thought that clients had no interest in viewing web pages. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I have not had a paper brochure for more than eight years or so, and do not plan to ever have one again, and that no-one had ever had a problem visiting my site to download over 30 articles or 40 blogs with content that spoke to them in ways that a brochure could not.
The truth is, it is not the website that makes the difference, but just as it was in 1991 — what separates the higher earners from the others is courage. In 1991 and also in 2006 it is the high-risk, long-term payoff activities that have the best return. Some examples include:
I have taken the cowardly route in all of these at different times, and have to work hard to keep on taking risks. And then I come back to that old article, and looking at that bimodal distribution gives me faith that it all might work out one day if I continually give up any fear of looking foolish!
P.S. I recommend the book “Creating a Unique Brand in the Consulting Profession” by Allan Weiss as the best and only book of its kind that I have ever read, and even though it was written a mere five years ago, it is already stale (no mention of blogging, which was in its infancy).
I think most Jamaicans view the advent of CSME with some interest, but no real passion. After all, this is not Miami we are talking about… and truth is that we know more about Broward Mall, Pembroke Pines and Miami Lakes than we do about Long Circular, the Savannah, St. Lawrence Gap or Broad Street.
Our minds are firmly planted in Greater Miami.
This is a pity, because while the hoopla around CSME may not “grab us,” it is a timely reminder that the whole “10-1 leaves 0” business actually has left us poorer than our smaller counterparts in the Federation of old, and unlikely to catch up in the near future. We need to be careful not the make the same mistake twice.
While the changes initially planned by CSME are modest, they are a concerted move on the part of the region’s governments to bring us into alignment with much larger forces in the world.
These forces are stunningly described in the book “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman, in which he talks about what he calls the 10 Flatteners, and how they are enabling China, India and other countries to experience massive growth in their economies.
His book serves partly as a warning to the United States, which is echoed by Richard Florida in his book “The Flight of the Creative Class.”
9/11 laws that make residency and citizenship in the United States more difficult are only hurting that country’s ability to compete at the heart of its strength — technological innovation. Scientist and engineers who are unable (for example upon completion of their PhD’s) to stay in the US and work are taking their skills and returning to China and India. This is leaving the US bereft of much needed talent in colleges, research laboratories and industries.
Furthermore, the US is seriously considering erecting its own Berlin Wall along its border with Mexico. Instead of flattening barriers, new ones are being created to keep America “safe.” It is no wonder that some are wondering if this is what Bin Laden was hoping for all along — the US drowning its own strength in its own fears.
It certainly runs counter to the direction that most countries want to move in, and the direction in which Caribbean countries must go. In particular, the poorest countries in the region (Jamaica, Guyana and Haiti) have experienced an exodus of their Creative Classes in recent years. In most cases, the emigre left their country of origin unwillingly, with its warm climate, familiar feel and spicy cuisine. It makes visitors to the region wonder why anyone would ever leave.
CSME is probably too late for those who left to live in the US and Canada for economic opportunities, but it is not too late for those of us who remain. Perhaps we might be able to leverage the 6 million people in our region, and the combination of skills and natural resources
to create opportunities that might attract back those who have left, and persuade those who stay that their best bet is not to join a long line to get a US visa, but instead to browse a website or jump on a plane, and learn what is happening across the region.
Perhaps we can join together in igniting some measure of economic success that we could not achieve apart. If so, then the CSME is an excellent start.
P.S. If you are visiting this blog after the IMCJ conference: Welcome! The presentation is available by visiting www.fwconsulting.com and clicking on Ideas and then Download(s).
A speech I gave recently was covered in the HRMATT March 2006 Newsletter.
A pdf with the summary of the speech is on the fourth page of the newsletter, and a link to it can be found by clicking here.
He had his light and phone cut off. He lived out of his car for a while. He was ashamed to tell others how little money he had. He told his clients to find someone else, and they refused. Everyone who knew him told him was crazy, and that he should cash in on his MBA.
Today he is the coach of the fastest man in the world — the holder of the record for the 100m dash, Asafa Powell.
The man behind it all its Stephen Francis, known to Wolmerians who went to school with him as “Clagga” (or was that “Clappa”?)
His personal story of sacrifice and achievement is a dramatic one, as the events I mentioned above all happened in the space of 4 short years, according to the story told in the Gleaner entitled: Creating World Champions.
I remember him well as a rather disheveled, bright guy who was a member of the Schools Challenge Quiz Team from the year he was in fourth form, and I was in first form. He was not athletic, and did not take part in sports, but like anyone who was on the Schools Challenge team he was able to study, and retain a tremendous amount of information.
He eventually got a degree in Accounting, and then an MBA, and somewhere along the line he decided that he was interested in something new: Track and Field. I remember hearing the news that he was coaching Wolmers Track Team — it seemed like madness to me, as Francis was a brains, not an athlete!
After his MBA, he got the kind of job you could easily retire from — a consulting position at Peat Marwick. I am sure his parents were proud. I imagined that they relaxed, knowing that he had “set himself up.”
I can only imagine what they thought and said when he quit that job to follow his dream of training athletes…
The article is fascinating. In a way I should not be surprised as he has a combined background that can only be a powerful asset to his athletes — after all, not many track coaches have MBA’ s from top schools like the University of Michigan.
And there are not too many that have coached the fastest human being on the planet. In fact, there is only one.
This past weekend I attended a personal development seminar based on The Work of Byron Katie.
Byron Katie is actually a woman who, at the depths of a suicidal depression, developed a body of thinking that fits nicely into 4 questions and a turnaround statement, that is basically the opposite of the original stressful thought.
There is a great deal of information on her website: www.thework.org and I have been using these questions and the line of thinking she has invented for about two years now, with great effect in my personal life, and also in my business. I guess you might say that I used as much of it as I could on my own, before actually investing in a two day trip to DC to do it in person.
Through doing the work, I have been able to develop a stronger capacity to question the thoughts that come into my head. While I conceptually knew that “I am not my thoughts, but instead I am the thinker,” which is a fairly common statement in most personal development courses and books, her steps give ana easy way of quickly dealing with stressful thoughts at the moment they arise.
While we all know at some level that stress is not caused by life itself, but instead by our thoughts about life, this is a difficult idea to put into practice.
In short, her four questions are a way to meet the stressful thought with four quick questions, and over time I have noticed that the lag time between the stressful thought and the questions has only gotten shorter — which has lead to a more peaceful inner life.
Given that I know it works from experience, I believe that I’ll be developing some offerings for my clients based on The Work. I would say that it passes the first test for new ideas that I have, which is “Do they work for me?”
Just a quick update on the books that have recently attracted my attention:
Reading List (paper books)
Listening List (audible.com mp3’s on Creative MuVo Slim)
eBook list (Palm Tungsten eReader)
I got a new Creative Zen that has 30Gb of space, but I haven’t yet moved over my audible.com account to that device.
I am going through my usual list of magazines: Time, Runners, Bicycling, Tritahlete, plus the occasional others. And of course, there is my daily reading list of : Jamaica Observer, Jamaica Gleaner, Trinidad Guardian, Trinidad Express, New York Times, Sun-Sentinel — and now and then I read the Barbados Advocate.