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Block And Tackle

Strategy is important. You want to make sure you are going the right way.

Emotions are important. You need to work as a team to be successful.

Blocking and tackling are more important than strategy and emotions.

If you can't block and tackle, that is preform the most perfunctory of business applications, than you have an acute problem. Lack of strategy and lack of team unity are chronic problems. Chronic problems take a long time to develop into acute problems. Acute problems get noticed by others quickly because, well, they're acute.

You don't have the luxury in business to get all the strategy and organizational behavior issues hammered out before attacking the tactical, practical, issues related to the business. You have got to get after everything all at once.

Boom Goes The Dynamite

Now that's what I'm talking about....from today's WSJ.

1. The U.S. factory sector saw its best month of expansion in October since April 2006.

2. The Institute for Supply Management reported Monday that its index of manufacturing activity jumped to 55.7 last month, after standing at 52.6 in September and 52.9 in August.

In aint a recovery until we start making stuff again.

Emotions Matter

Emotions matter.

Politicians know this. The captains of the financial industry know this (I’m reading the book Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System---and Themselves. More on this later)

Business folks in general don’t get this.

Case in point, when I was laid off the guy that did the laying off asked if I wanted to know how he made his decision. At this point in time I was already out of a job so I figured what the heck, indulge me.

“Well,” he says. “The first thing that I did was to take out all the emotion.”

Great, I’ve got a family to feed, but I’m not sure how to do it right now and you, you’ve taken all the emotion out of everything. Hoo Rah.

Emotions matter…..which is why this is so great.


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Wooden: A Game Plan For Life

I can't remember where I read this, but the exercise is to recall the last five Superbowl winners. Now recall five of your teachers who made a positive impact on you. The point being that it's the people in your life that make the dramatic difference.

That's the premise of the legendary John Wooden's latest book A Game Plan For Life. While the book will not win any Pulitzer prizes, it is a refreshingly honest book about the people who made and impression on John and, in turn, the people that he helped.

For example, John writes of drawing strength from Mother Teresa's admission that she questioned her faith in God. To him it made his own shortcomings more tenable. More often than not business books are written from the perspective of the infallible (Giuliani, Welch) which implies imperfection on the part of the reader; these guys didn't have any self-doubt so you're not as good since you do.

Again, the books not going to change the course of human history, but for those looking for a good airplane book this one's not bad.

Slowing Down Less Than Everyone Else

A lot of times I've been credited with being a fast finisher. But it's almost an optical illusion. I'm not gaining speed. I'm just slowing down less than everyone else. - Carl Lewis

Business is a marathon swim, not a sprint. Those who stay on task and don't slow down end up being the winner. (Assuming you are going the right way, but that's an argument for another time.) This is a different approach than going out and pushing yourself as fast as you can early on.

A good illustration of this is Kevin Nuemann's mile split times from the Grand Rapids Marathon

He finished in 3h 47min for an 8:40 min/mile pace, but he gave back a full 7 minutes in the last 7 miles of the race. If he had been able to hold an 8:30 pace (shown with the red line) he would have finished in 3hr and 42 min; and he would have been able to take the first 13 miles slower.

In business a lot of times someone will rile up the organization in the name of forward action, but that pace is not sustained for the long haul. (This person then goes off and riles up something else.)

The correct approach, I believe, for a business is relentless forward movement through incremental efficiecies; aka the Toyota way. You don't need to sprint, but you do need the resilence and perseverence to get better in small increments everyday.

So, when evaluating the chances of an organizations success bypass the organizations with the exciting sprint strategy, and bear hug with two hands the organizations that are relentlessly, methodically, and un-excitedly making small steps at getting better.

And There It Is

According to Gary Hammel, super smart guy and Professor at the London Business School, writes:

There’s probably no organizational attribute that’s more important today than adaptability. In our topsy turvy world, every organization is teetering on the brink of irrelevance, and unless it can change as fast as change itself, it will soon tumble off the ledge.1

Yet at the same time mastery of any given topic requires tenacity, dedication, and devotion to the task at hand.

How to tell when you should adapt and when you should harden up? That my friend, it a great question

Notes:
1. http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2009/10/21/outrunning-change-the-cliffsnotes-version/