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March 14, 2007

Trinidad Manufacturers Respond

The Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association has responded to the outcry from Jamaican businessmen that Trinidad remains a country in which it is difficult for outsiders to gain entry.

March 12, 2007

Jamaican Businesses Protest to Trinidad

This recent call, regarding the broken LNG deal, says it all.

In particular, the complaint that this unfairness has an ongoing historical basis, is one that I often hear here in Jamaica.

Perhaps this is more evidence of the need for a Trini-Jam Chamber of Commerce.

March 10, 2007

Customer Experience “Intelligence”

An article entitled Understanding Customer Experience recently came out in the February 2007 issue of the Harvard Business Review that echoed some of my earlier posts on the topic.

Here is one of those prior posts.

I am convinced that a focus on experience can be more easily taught to Caribbean service workers, than training based on abstract standards or vague definitions of “customer needs.”

Perhaps there is scope for something called “Experience Intelligence” which has to do with a customer service provider’s ability to scope out the experience that the customer is having in the moment. This phrase seems like a much more precise way to define this important skill.

March 9, 2007

Turnover Documents and Small Biz Owners

As a former President of my high school’s student council (Wolmers) I remember reading the organization’s constitution — with all the awe that a 16 year-old can muster. Part of my job (as
defined in the document) was to amend it and make it current — it was my first attempt to write a “turnover document.”

When I was appointed to a different position — Head-Boy — the following year, I was acutely aware that there was no document whatsoever that described the job, and all I had was the imperfect memory of my predecessors to try to follow. When I was about to graduate I panicked — and only made up for it by taking a very long walk with my successor around the school. In
an hour or so I did my best to pass on the experience of some 255+ Head-Boys that the school had had up until that point.

I suspect that my 18 year old mind did more to scare my 17 year old successor than anything else.

Yet, I am sure that my experience is close to what happens when executives turn accountabilities over to managers without doing the tedious work of systematizing their functions, and undergoing the painstaking coaching required to turn them over in phases. The result is a sharp loss of trust that is rarely replaced, because few executives realize that the source of the managers failure (and success) is actually in themselves, and not in the manager.

What does all this talk about turnover documents have to do with small business owners?

Simply put, even small business owners must work ON their companies, as well as IN them. In other words, they must work on the structure of their companies as much as those professionals who work in the largest multinationals.

Why so?

For example, I am having a challenge converting this issue of FirstCuts into html, and placing it on my blog. I do not know html very well, yet each month I have to determine why the html in Blogger (the blog host) works differently than every other place.

While I may or may not ever hire an IT specialist, I am suffering because I didn’t capture the procedures I used back in February, and now that I need them in March I am having to reinvent the wheel.

Secondly, in my opinion, the difference between a small, casual company and a small, serious company is the degree of infrastructure the owner has created to run the company on a consistent basis, whether there are ten people or just one person on the payroll. Only hobbyists can afford to run their company casually, and without infrastructure — and even hobbyists can make money.

However, at the end of their careers, hobbyists have little to show for their efforts other than a company that supported them at a casual level. Their company cannot be bought, sold or merged because its success is reliant on the personality of the owner, rather than the infrastructure they created to keep the entity viable.

These are the two reasons I can think of — if you’d like to add your own, please do so in the comments below.

March 9, 2007

FirstCuts Issue 9.0

FirstCuts

A Framework Consulting Online eZine

High-Stake Interventions — New Ideas Issue 9
March 15, 2007

Delegating in Caribbean Companies (part 2)
by Francis Wade

Editorial

A few weeks ago in Jamaica, there was a riot at the construction
site of a hotel being built by a Spanish hotel conglomerate:
the Fiesta Hotel Group.

The bottom line was that a worker was shot, cars were burned,
offices were looted and work was suspended for almost two weeks.

Now and then I receive a reminder that our work in the region can
have very dramatic results, and that when we discuss ideas such as
those we tackle in FirstCuts it is not just a matter of
intellectual interest, but also a matter of doing work that
impacts the lives of workers, families and communities.

Until next month,

Francis

Delegating in Caribbean Companies (part 2)

In last month’s issue of FirstCuts, I wrote about the need for
regional executives to think deeply about the process they use to
turn over accountabilities to new direct reports. I mentioned the
need for executives to systematize the work they do so that it can
be captured and passed on effectively.

In that issue, I discussed the need for Caribbean executives to
produce a “turnover document” for every new accountability. In
addition to writing such a document, they must also create ways to
progressively delegate the content of a new job. (To see the prior
edition of FirstCuts, visit http://urlcut.com/FirstCuts8.)

In this issue, we describe the way in which we have worked with
executives to produce the critical content included in a turnover
document. Once the document is produced, we advocate a phased
turnover of tasks to ensure that learning takes place.

Getting Rid of the Perfect Executive

Getting Rid of the Perfect Executive?

Well, maybe that would be unwise.

It is probably a better idea to get rid of the executive who somehow thinks or acts like he is perfect, because of the damage he does to those around him.

So goes the thinking I happened upon in two separate Harvard Business Review articles (I am wading through a pile of my unread back issues.)

One article is entitled “In Praise of the Incomplete Leader” and was written in February 2007 and was co-authored by Peter Senge. The other is called Wanted: Chief Ignorance Officer and was written back in November of 2003.

The basic idea I took away is that the executive’s job is too complex to pretend that any one person can figure it all out. Also, the more an executive defends the idea that they have figured it all out, the more difficult they make it for the people around them to be authentic, and therefore effective.

As the author the second article, David Gray, puts it, “… few of us would dare to cultivate a healthy ignorance, or nescience, within our own fields of endeavor, where we often take pride in what we purport to know.”

Here in the Caribbean region, we have been steeped in the school of all-knowing leadership, from Backra (the all-powerful slave-owner) to modern day CEO’s, parents, principals, priests, dons and politicians. Those in power like it that way. So do those who are not.

That is, until the person in power fails spectacularly (like the majority of our politicians) and it starts to become painfully obvious that the messiah’s manifesto and message aren’t enough to make a drop of difference.

This very old, colonial, British style is long outdated in Britain, but it lives on in the colonies, and especially those in management in our institutions. It is stale, stiff and dull, but it still gives some vague psychological comfort… kind of what it’s like to hang out with your grandfather.

The only thing is that at some point you must grow up, because your grandfather probably did not move with the times (mine had trouble believing that man had actually landed on the moon.)

Managers and executives must reach for a style that is authentic. With respect to publicly expressing feelings and emotions, this is a tall order for most of our region’s executives who probably aren’t too used to “sharing” in private, let alone before strangers.

However, the pace at which human information is growing might allow most executives to be authentic about their growing inability to know everything.

That would be a start.

March 5, 2007

When to Sleep On It

This is just a brilliant article — one of those that deeply resonated with me from the moment I read it and it goes well with that brilliant management/productivity tool so abhorred by corporations — “napping.”

Apparently, recent research is showing that sleeping on a problem is better than trying to consciously solve it.

In other words, when faced with a complex issue, if time allows, the best method to use is to spend a night to sleep on it, and then make a decision the following day.

Why does this work?

Apparently, the processes that the conscious mind uses are quite limited, and likely to introduce irrelevant information that produces poor decision-making. The unconscious mind, however, is a much better instrument and if given the chance, will do a better job.

According to the author, Ap Dijksterhuis, “The moral? Use your unconscious mind to acquire all the information you need for making a decision — but don’t try to analyze the information. Instead, go on holiday while your unconscious mind digests it for a day or two. Whatever your intuitions then tell you is almost certainly going to be the best choice.”

As someone who majored in Operations Research (and got 2 degrees in the subject) it seems to throw a huge spanner in the works of the profession… after all, we studied things like “decision theory” and “non-linear optimization” in order to bring more rational, WIDE -AWAKE thinking into the process.

I cannot remember a single thing from any of those hi-falutin’ courses.

I think it’s just much easier to sleep on it, and maybe while I’m sleeping my subconscious mind can run around and access the algorithms and heuristics I spent years mastering… that way, perhaps I can justify the thousands of dollars spent on an Ivy-League education, while still making good decisions.

I just might not make a good corporate employee, however, given the high importance I appear to give to sleeping (see my prior post on Nigger-itis.)

The relevant article from the Harvard Business Review List of Breakthrough Ideas for 2007 can be found here (as Idea #9).

March 5, 2007

How to Be an Expert

This is a great post in a favourite blog of mine — Creating Passionate Users.

It talks about expertise as something that anyone can develop at any age, and how it all depends on how much a person is willing to practice on the weak areas.

March 3, 2007

How to Grow a Super Athlete

I just read an interesting article in the New York Times that attempts to get at the source of a young athlete’s talent.

In a nutshell, it turns out that superior athletes are able to build additional thicker myelin sheaths, which are the jelly-like substances that cover over nerves. These sheaths operate as insulators, allowing the signals passing along the nerves to move more quickly, and more securely.

The way to accomplish this is through hours of repetitive practice.

This seems to reinforce a theme of several of the posts in this blog, about the importance of repeated practice to success in any field, and how essential it is to mastery.

March 2, 2007

Ways to Use a Calendar

In a prior post, I talked about how the most powerful time management system is one that a user designs for themselves. When users know the principles behind a good system they are much better equipped to design a unique approach that works for them.

One area that is often misunderstood is the use of a calendar in an overall time management system.

I have observed that people use calendars in ways that are unproductive, because they are stuck in an old paradigm of The Appointment Calendar.

The Appointment Calendar probably originated with the kind of calendar used in a Doctor’s office. It was a tool the receptionist used to ensure that different patients were not being scheduled at the same time. The doctor would glance at it from time to time, but he/she did not actually use it themselves. Instead, they would advise the receptionist when they would be in surgery, when they needed extra time with a patient and they were taking an afternoon off to play golf.

With the invention of different paper-based time management tools, and an increasing onslaught of time demands, professionals gradually began to use calendars themselves. First, there were filofaxes and DayRunners, then along came Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes, followed by PDA’s and even phones that can carry schedules.

Many professionals, however, and most those here in the Caribbean still use their calendar as an appointment book — a tool to schedule meetings.

This is the most basic of uses, and the advent of electronic tools (and the best paper tools) means that their calendars are probably being under-utilized.

How so?

The technology of calendaring is changing — making it easier for us to imagine a time when the rule will be that most of the time in a day is scheduled, rather than than less.

Starting with the idea of a Paper Appointment-book this is rather hard to imagine. Many of them only allow weekday scheduling, with one line each from 9-5pm. Even a nice pencil with a good rubber (OK, eraser for Americans) would not do the job.

However, a good time management system takes advantage of the power that is resident in the new technologies, and even the paper-based professionals could learn a thing or two here.

If the calendar could feasibly hold other things, what could it include?

In a prior post that really should have come after this one (as it uses these ideas) I wrote about the power of using the calendar as a tool to schedule three different kinds of actions: recurring tasks, actions needed to move projects forward and also an adequate amount of “goof-off” time.

The underlying principle here is simple: the mind is a terrible thing to waste, and one way we waste it is to try to get it to remember too much. Over the past five years, courtesy of hard practice, I have tired to get to the point where my time management system does all the remembering for me.

Caveat — I am an extreme case — most designers of their own time management systems will not necessarily want to start at the place I have ended after years of refining.

They may, however, want to start by using an electronic time management system to schedule the following weekly, monthly and annual repetitive activities, for example:

exercise
pay bills
buying Christmas presents and cards
remembering birthdays a week ahead of time
starting to plan for vacations
paying taxes and completing returns

This is just a sample, and probably way more than someone who is just starting would schedule. I have discovered that an amazing amount of the actions I take are repetitive, and that I help myself if I use my calendar to remember them rather than my memory.

In this way, a calendar is much more than something used to plan appointments and meetings. Instead, it becomes a powerful memory assistant — a place where commitments are translated into actual, planned hours and minutes.

The logic here is obvious — by actually using real, planned time, the user is less likely to make unrealistic commitments, because each new activity that one says “Yes” to, must co-exist with every other commitment that is already in place.

This is a long, long way from just having a schedule of appointments.

However, today’s tools are simply imperfect “memory assistants,” given that they were designed to replace appointment-books. They are not easy to use, and many professionals in the region are just getting used to the idea of “doing email” themselves.

Given the tricky nature of the electronic tools, it is important that a user customize the way in which they use their calendars. There are several dimensions that they need to consider when deciding what combination of paper and electronic tools they include in the design of their time management system, and what kind of calendar choices they have.

what tools are available to them? Which ones are they comfortable using right now?
does their job involve travel? Being away from their desk?
are they knowledge workers?
do they need to be on call at all times (e.g. most receptionist positions)
does their daily schedule change a great deal from moment to moment?

With respect to how they actually use their calendar, there are different approaches that a user can elect to follow. Of course, they all follow the basic rule of not scheduling mutually-exclusive tasks at the same time.

an Activity-Based Calendar allows completely free movement of individual activities
a Responsibility-Based Calendar only allows activities to be scheduled that match with the hats that one wears e.g. 6-8am Father, 8-830am Individual, 830-11130am Project Leader, 113o-1230 Individual, 1230-430 Counselor to staff, 4:30-10pm Father. Each slot would be designed to accomplish only a limited range of activities.
a Location-Based Calendar would recognize that between different times, the physical location would determine what would, or would not, be scheduled e.g. for someone who drives an ambulance: 6-9am Home 9-12 In the Ambulance 12-1 At Lunch 1-4 At Office Desk 4-8 At Home
a Project-Based Calendar would split the work day into different projects, allowing the user to focus on a single project at any given time
an Energy-Based Calendar would guide a user in designing the day around something like a biorhythm, perhaps using research that shows that there are two spurts of energy the average person experiences — early morning and early evening. More routine time demands would be scheduled during the other available time
an Interruption-Based Calendar would scheduled the most important work at the times when interruptions are less likely. Many professionals get their best work done very early in the morning, late at night and on weekends, when most people are away from their work and unlikely to interrupt them
an Appointment-Only calendar limits the calendar to meetings that are scheduled with other people that are difficult to change once they are agreed upon.

There is no right or wrong way to use a calendar, but the user must be educated as to the rules they must follow to make the system work. There is a delicate balance that is being created that they must monitor over time as their habits change, their responsibilities expand, and the amount of time demands increase.

The general rule is that, over time, the user should be using less and less of their memory to manage their time demands. As far as I can see, that means using more technology, not less.

This may seem daunting to some.

However, it is a fact of life — professionals that can use more computer and internet based tools are more effective than those who are not willing or able to learn.

At the moment, my observation is that time management is so poorly taught, and so rarely formalized that few professionals stand out in terms of their productivity, and if they do stand out their success is not ascribed to a system they are using. More often than not, they and others, use life and daily circumstances to explain the difference.

I believe that this will change: much in the way that athletic success has changed. Today, professional athletes use the best tools, inputs and assists that are available and leave little to chance. Not too many years ago, athletes are whatever they wanted whenever they were hungry. Today, nutrition is seen as a critical factor in performance.

The rise of the Australian Test team and the demise of the West Indian cricket team is perhaps a good example of systematic success.

In the future , the most productive professionals will be the ones who learned very early on how to take their time management system seriously, with a commitment to continuously improving it. After all, it is one of the few tools that EVERY professional shares, bar none.