I'm Still Thinking...

My wife and I went to see Spring Awakening at the Civic Center last week.  Pretty much all week, I was complaining about going.  After all, small-town German 19th Century teenage sexual coming-of-age angst isn't exactly my cup of tea... but when you have season tickets, you at least open your mind to trying new things (insert flashbacks of my mom saying, "Just try one bite of spinach, Tim...").

So I went.  I was impressed with the set design.  Very austere, yet functionally versatile.  The lighting wowed me.  I tend to geek out on the technical aspects of performances and notice those little details.  I liked that the band was on stage with the actors rather than relegated to the orchestra pit.  The plot was as expected.  A bunch of teenagers trying to figure out their own bodies (as well as each others')... with a less-than-happy ending.  And then there was the music... completely edgy alternative rock which flew in the face of the actors and the plot.  One of the song titles was "Totaly F&*#-ed" - certainly nothing this fan of jazz would normally listen to.  I went away from the show thinking, "It was OK, but I doubt I'd ever see it again."

So nine days later, I'm still thinking about it.  I've downloaded a few of the songs to my iPod already.  I thought about how all of the adult roles were played by only two actors, which all of the youth were played by distinct actors (great symbolism).  I spent time listening to the lyrics and how powerfully they portray the sentiment of the stage plot.  I'm not sure but I may actually LIKE "Spring Awakening."  But it took me time to process it... on my own... with nobody pressuring me.

That happens a lot in business and in life.  We come face-to-face with something outside our comfort zone, and our perceptual filters put up a road block with flashing lights that say, "Do not enter."  So new ideas and proposals automatically get shut down.  Imagine if there were a two-week waiting period concept perculation.  How many ideas that we initially reject would eventually be embraced?

In project management, we like answers and responses and approvals right away.  I understand this need for speed on decision-making.  But after my own "spring awakening," I'm starting to wonder how many really good ideas get shot down because somebody doesn't have a chance to think about then.  Before your next "no" maybe you should ask how quickly they need an answer... you might be surprised how much you think about it afterward. 

Save Your Money, Bob

A journalist friend of mine emailed me yesterday with Bob Vander Plaats' press release to run for Governor of the State of Iowa in two years.  Maybe I'm just a little battle worn after two years of presidential campaigning, but I can't help but think he's wasting his time and money (as well as those of other people).  Again, those who have read this blog know I fall on the side of the political conservative; however, I like being able to step back and look at the big picture of politics.

The reality is that it will be hard to unseat Governor Culver.  Anyone who thinks they'll be able to run on the basis of the economy is fooling himself - it stinks for everyone, so no one politician will be able to change it.  In the two years he's been in office, Governor Culver has shown fairly solid leadership through some large disasters, and he hasn't done anything irretrievably stupid.  Even his suggestion about leasing out the lottery could be spun as "Hey! At least I'm weighing all the options and trying to be creative."  Vander Plaats big platform issue tends to ride on moral conservatism, which is going to be a hard sell to a moderate state.  Unless one of the Republican candidates can create a real case that the status quo needs to be upheaved, it's going to be a tough campaign.  Of course, maybe Vander Plaats is just jumping in too early.  Like I said, we're all a little tired with the Presidential Inauguration just last week.

Now I don't dislike Bob; I actually voted for him when he ran a few years ago and lost out in the primary.  It's just the political and social environments are going to make it an uphill battle for any challenger.

How often do we see that in office politics?  Before you jump into a highly political situation, you may want to ask yourself some good questions:

• What are my motives for getting involved?
• What do I hope to accomplish by injecting myself into the office politics conflict?
• Do I have the resources needed to go the distance?
• What value do I bring to the conflict to help it come to resolution?
• Am I getting involved at the right time?  Should I hold off and wait and see how the situation plays out?  Conversely, have I missed the opportune moment to get involved?
• How will other stakeholders react to my getting involved?

Will Bob Vander Plaats win the governor's race in 21 months?  Well, history will play that one out.  From this angle, he's one pony I wouldn't be betting on.

Are You an AC in a DC World?

My older daughter loves the Science Center of Iowa (and I love taking her there).  It always seems there is something new to talk about, to learn, to experiment, and to explore.  The last time we were there, we learned about Nikola Tesla.  He was a peer of Thomas Edison, although few people know about him.  His inventions were a bit ahead of their time, and as such, he was regarded as something of a mad scientist.  (They always make "mad scientest" sound like a bad thing... I don't get it.)

Anyway, in Edison's day, direct current (DC) was all the rage in electricity.  Why let that pesky electrical current go in more than one direction?  Why should it need to?  Well, Tesla thought it should, which created a parting of the ways between the two scientists (that, and the fact that Edison stiffed Tesla on his salary, but that's another blog post for another day).  Eventually, to prove his point, Tesla built a tower in Colorado Springs to demonstrate his point.  It was big and loud and scary... but it worked (more or less).  It was also subsequently dismantled since it frightened the locals.  Eventually, history proved Tesla right, and discovered safer ways of harnessing an electrical current that could go in more than one direction.  Still, when we think of electricity and light bulbs, Thomas Edison is the guy who gets all the credit since he didn't scare people.

The world has been full of "free thinkers" who are ahead of their time.  Sometimes, they are really ahead of their time, like Galileo.  Other times they may be just a little ahead of their time.  I was on a project a few years ago where I made some suggestions about requirements gathering which frightened the villagers... er...um... project team.  Of course, this same group had never heard the term "straw man" for creating a prototype or an early draft/iteration of a solution, either.  To my knowledge, it was years later before they made any real progress toward a solution, and according to my sources, it looked amazing like what I suggested when I was contracting with them.

What I learned from the experience is to never assume an audience is more mature (professionally, intellectually, or emotionally) than one thinks they should be.  Ask a lot of questions before making pronouncements about a solution.  Get the senior leaders on board so they can back you up.  Be prepared to prove your point in multiple ways.  Obtain supporters both inside and outside your project team.  Handle your detractors firmly yet politely (after all, those villagers with pitchforks and torches can really sting if you're not paying attention).  Be prepared to go back to the drawing board to reassess BOTH your solution and your approach for selling it.

Eventually, you'll have to make a decision to move forward or to scrap it.  Thinking through some of the issues above can mean life or death to a well-meaning project that's just a little ahead of its time.

Inauguration Day

Congratulations, President Obama.  No, I wasn't a fan of yours (as anyone who has read this blog will attest), but I have been watching you the past couple of months during the transition period, and I have to admit I'm cautiously optimistic.  You're not afraid to stand up to and/or tweak your own party.  I can admire that.  You've obviously made some strides to work for the approximately 50 million people who did not vote for you, and you've caught my attention (in a positive way).  Your message today was rhetoric at its best... we'll all be watching and working to see how we as a country can convert rhetoric into results.  You've inherited a lot of issues and problems.  And even though I'm a Republican, I'm not going to complain that "my side didn't win."  There's been enough divisiveness over the past two years, and it is time for us to come together as a country to make things work again.

So celebrate tonight.

Tomorrow it will be time to Carpe Factum.

Aardvarks and Jump Drives and Creativity... Oh My!

My friend, Mark Yontz (freelance writer and editor extraordinaire) sent me this picture of a baby aardvark the other day with the comment, "You do such a good job of tying pics with words and telling a story, so I thought I'd challenge you to see if you could do something with an image of a baby aardvark."

Hmmm... the blogospheric equivalent of a Bobby Flay Throwdown.

I looked at the homely little critter carefully and decided that elephants and kangaroos should never be allowed to mate.  Elephants... big ears... big trunk... long memory.  Kangaroos... pouches... Australia... jumping.  Memory... jumping... and my brain started thinking about jump drives (which have been in my thoughts a lot with transferring from my old laptop to my new laptop).  That is quite a mental leap to get from an ugly little critter to a piece of technology; however, that's how creativity works... really nothing more difficult than firing up the synapses to connect ideas.

I'm about to start teaching my Creativity for Business MBA course at Drake this coming weekend.  I'm inheriting 31 people who may or may not believe in the power of creativity... of using their own imagination to come up with new ideas based on whatever they're dealt.  Many people are being dealt rotten hands right now because of the economy.  A lot are wallowing in their present circumstances.  The creative ones are wondering how they can use their own "ugly aardvark picture" to think about and obtain something useful.

As we start a new week full of historic events and lots of promise, how can you use your ugly aardvark to create something fantastic?

(Thanks, Mark, for the creative challenge.  I hope I lived up to your expectations.)

The Gloves Must Come Off

Since we are talking about my latest experience with the SWAT team, a funny thing happened later in the evening.  After it was too dark to do any more non-flash photography, I volunteered to be a role player (bad guy) in some of their scenarios.  During the few couple of runs through the exercise, I was compliant and followed orders.  Then the field training officer suggested I could be a little contrarian with the cops (he knows me too well).  Hence, I got roughed around a little, and was cuffed a few times.  Our last time through the exercise, the cuffs refused to unlock.  Try after try to uncuff me was met with equal failure.  They were having a great time joking that I would have fun explaining to my wife why I was showing up at home in handcuffs.  Finally, 15 minutes, 7 cops, and 3 sets of keys later, I started to pull off my gloves and found the problem:  the cuff of my glove was caught in the cuff.  So while I pulled on my cuff, one officer turned the key while the other manipulated the cuff which finally freed me.

We have the same problem in office politics.  Sometimes there is something seemingly unnoticeable that is "caught" in the conflict.  We may not notice it at first and keep trying the same old techniques to resolve the conflict as before, only to make matters worse because we haven't stopped to understand all angles of the office politics issue.  Only when we "take off the gloves" do we see what is really happening underneath and be able to solve it.

This glove-cuff-catch may come in the form of our personal beliefs about a person (ever try negotiating project resources with a workaholic sponsor who thinks everyone should put in 100-hour work weeks?) or it may be company policies (what procedures are making everybody's jobs more difficult instead of easier?).  Our job as office politicians ia to figure out how to pull off the gloves to figure out these catches... BEFORE they occur.

Ask yourself the following before you engage somebody on a conflict or a politically sensitive point:

• What are their beliefs and perceptual filters about me?
• What are their beliefs and perceptual filters about the issue between us?
• How can I mitigate these to get a favorable result for both of us?
• What are my beliefs and perceptual filters about them?  (be honest about it)
• What are my beliefs and perceptual filters about the issue between us?
• How can I use these or move past them to get a favorable result?
• Are there elements of the organizational culture which is impacting our relationship?
• Are there policies and procedures which are getting in the way?
• Do any sacred cows need to be grilled up to help us move forward?

 

Each of these may be catching in the cuffs which are preventing you from moving forward.  Will I still play bad guy for the cops when they need it?  Sure.  I'll just make sure it's in a warmer climate so the gloves can come off.

Noise: 1 - Voice: 0

The other day, the local SWAT team was out in force, doing some training on entries and apprehending suspects.  (Yes, I'm still volunteering as their photographer, and yes, the book is still on target for a 2009 release... but more on that later.)  A couple of challenging aspects of this particular training were the temperature and the facilities.  For point of reference, an all brick/concrete building in the middle of an Iowa winter is COLD.

The SWAT team brought along a portable generator and some very high-powered heaters to mitigate the frigid temps, but they were EXTREMELY LOUD.  While they helped provide some temporary respite from the cold, they made communication somewhat challenging.  Orders of "Police! Put your hands on your head!" was generally met with a response of "Huh?" or "I can't hear you."  Most of these guys have fairly booming voices, so for the heaters to compete for attention is fairly significant.

In communicating directions for our accomplishments, we sometimes don't realize that we're competing with noise.  The noise is generally not obvious, and comes in the form of perceptions (have you ever tried listening to somebody you don't like), health (try communicating when tanked up on cold medicine), fear (everybody is wondering if they will have a paycheck next month), among other things.

How do you know if you are competing with noise?

• Body language: folded arms and lack of eye contact are generally good indicators
• Divide and conquer: ask multiple senders their interpretation of your message
• Feedback loop: are the responses fitting the message?

OK, those are the easy ones...  the stuff they teach you in Communication 101.  What happens when the noise is being created by something beneficial, like our heaters?  What do you do when your message runs counter to a needed company policy, a popular employee benefit, or a sacred cow of your organizational culture?  The first step for you as a communicator is to recognize this constraint.  Too many people take corporate communication too lightly, only to be burned by their own messages.  Once you know what you are up against, you can tailor your message and your medium to fit the audience and the situation.  Keep in mind, your revised approach may mean that you AVOID or DELAY the communication.  Also remember, your delivery of the message, no matter how well thought out or executed, may still yield a negative response.  The trick to communicating your accomplishments is to be constantly and acutely prepared... loud heaters notwithstanding.

Fix Your Rear-View Mirror

2008 is behind us, and we're into the middle of the first week of 2009.  People are looking ahead.  Some with hope for the new leadership.  Some with dread due to world events and the economy.

How are you doing at looking back?  The old adage that "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" rings very true in 2009.  Before you start making all of your plans for the new year, perhaps it's time for an "accomplishment audit" of the prior year.

Ask yourself (and your colleagues, and your superiors, and your subordinates, and your customers, and your suppliers) the following:

• What energized you in 2008?  What got you excited and thrilled?  Why?  Can you recapture it?

• What drained you in 2008?  Can you isolate the causes?  Can you avoid them in 2009, or can you at least mitigate them?

• What goals did you achieve in 2008?  Were they your highest priorities?  What will they do to help you in 2009?

• What was left undone from 2008?  Why didn't you get to it?  Is it still important?

• What relationships did you build in 2008?  Have they been positive and beneficial for both of you?  Were there relationships you wanted to forge in 2008 but were unable to do so?

• What relationships did you reduce or eliminate in 2008?  Has the reduction been helpful to you?  Are they relationships that should have been maintained?  Can you salvage them?

• What was the most fun you had in 2008?  Was it planned or unexpected?  Can it be maintained in 2009?

• What legacy will 2008 be known for in your life?  How did you expand your reach to others?

If your rear-view mirror isn't working, now is a good time to fix it.  Doing so may mean the best possible "Carpe Factum" of 2009.