Musings at Altitude

One of the wonderful things I get to do while cruising at 37,000 feet is go through my photo files.  I typically do this while listening to my favorite tunes on my iPod, and I often wonder what folks sitting next to me think while I sit there tapping to the music and smiling while I look at pictures.  Each picture reminds me of something, and one of the ones I looked at today is below:

This is a picture of the credenza that is in my office at home, but it’s not the credenza that makes me smile, but instead, it’s the story around my credenza (and my desk) that’s so special.

About 14 years ago while I was in the Air Force, I had the great privilege of working in the White House Communications Agency (WHCA) as one of the 800+ active duty military members providing communications services to the President and his staff.  While at WHCA, I worked with some tremendously talented people, several of which I still work with today.  But one particular Air Force officer stands out, because unlike the rest of us that were passionate about careers in information technology and telecom, this one officer was looking forward to his retirement so he could pursue a career in furniture making.  At the time, I thought he was joking…seriously.  After getting to know him, I thought he was in the perfect job for him – managing large teams of people and deploying tons of equipment all over the world.  I also felt that he would make an incredible living by accepting one of the many offers I was sure he’d receive from the big telecom companies.  But that’s not what he wanted to do.  He wanted to make furniture.

In 1997, I left the Air Force to pursue my passion for business, and a short while later, he retired from the Air Force and moved to North Carolina to pursue his passion to build furniture.  I was on my third job after leaving the Air Force when he and I re-connected as he was deep into his master woodworking classes.  At that time, my wife and I were watching the construction of her dream home, and I was anxiously waiting my private office in this new home.  The call was timely – he needed a project for one of his classes and I needed a desk worthy of the new office I would soon be working out of. 

We talked; he sketched some drawings; I said “wow”; and he built me a beautiful desk.  I gave him an “A” for the desk, and I can’t remember what he got for the class.  But I was incredibly proud to receive a product from his education, and I was even more proud to see him following the path that made so little sense to me when we were both at WHCA.

A few years later, I called him again and asked if he could make me a matching credenza.  By this time he was an expert at wood inlay, and he was also good at upselling.  As I talked about the credenza, we settled on a design in the cabinet doors that would reflect two things that mean so much to me – a falcon (my school mascot) and the mountains of Colorado.  As you can see, he captured both beautifully.

As I think back on all the conversations we had about our futures, the two of us were at a very similar point in our careers at that time, and yet we both took very different paths to pursue what we loved.  Although folks couldn’t believe that I was leaving the Air Force without retiring to pursue my passion for commercial business, even fewer folks could understand why he spent 20 years building a resume for information technology and telecom, and then pretty much threw it all away (or so they thought) to focus on furniture. 

As I look at the picture above, I have to smile in knowing that Warren Snow is a great example of “do what you love, and love what you do.”  After a 20 year Air Force career, he used his retirement check and his retirement benefits to pursue what he really loved – making beautiful furniture.  I stand in awe of Warren.  I stand in awe of all those who do what they love and love what they do.

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It’s hard to follow up a “things that make me smile” posting with a discussion on “omission”…but this one is still nagging at me and if I don’t follow up now it will continue to nag at me till I get my thoughts out.

Let’s start with a definition of omission – “something left out, not done, or neglected” – www.dictionary.com.  And let’s also agree that it applies to all walks of life, not just to business.  For example, Christ talks about omission in his lesson of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37).  In this parable, He talks about a priest and a Levite walking down a street and seeing an obviously wounded man laying in the street.  Both of them passed by quickly looking the other way.  But a Samaritan saw the wounded man, had compassion on him, and got him to safety and took care of him.  The priest and the Levite by ignoring the wounded man in the street directly portray omission – seeing something that needed to be done or seeing someone that needed some help, but instead turning the other way.  The Samaritan on the other hand showed an example of commission, taking action based on the need that existed. 

As another example, one of my favorite songs from my teenage years was Harry Chapin’s “Cat’s in the Cradle”.  It’s a powerful song about the relationship between a father and son, and the second verse goes like this:

“My son turned ten just the other day,

He said, “thanks for the ball Dad come on let’s play,

Can you teach me to throw”, I said “not today,

I got a lot to do”, he said, “that’s ok”;

And he walked away but his smile never dimmed

And said, “I’m gonna be like him, yeah

You know I’m gonna be like him.”

In this case, the father is neglecting his son and in an act similar to the priest and the Levite, he turns his head and rushes on by rather than responding in the right way to an issue right in front of him.  Unfortunately, the son does indeed grow up just like his Dad, ignoring his own father then when his father wanted to then spend time with his son.

In business, just like in these examples from other aspects of life, sins of omission occur when we:

• see things that need to be done and don’t do them
• see things that seem to be too good to be true and don’t probe deeply to find out if they are indeed as indicated
• see things being done wrong and hope others will do something about it so we ignore them
• have a chance to get someone to check our work but don’t do it because we believe so confidently that our work is right
• see someone obviously having a bad day at work and don’t ask what’s wrong or if you can help because you don’t want to spend the time to really respond if they want to talk
• have a gut feeling that says something is wrong but we don’t act on that instinct, instead preferring to hope all is well when it most likely isn’t

There are so many more than these, but I think we can all remember times where we didn’t act when we should have or didn’t respond to that gut feeling that something was wrong and then regretted it later when things actually were very wrong.

I said earlier that sins of omission stick with you for a long time.  I have so many nagging memories of times where I looked at numbers and sensed something wrong but didn’t act.  Or other times, I sensed a deep irritation in my client but instead of confronting it and addressing it I toiled on and then had to live with the negative outcome that then occurred. 

I also have a couple of very vivid memories of listening to my gut and thankfully being right.  In one particular case, I interviewed with a gentleman who was offering me the world to work for him, and I sensed something very wrong.  I turned down that job and only a few short months later that gentleman was arrested and convicted for embezzlement.  I believe this was divine intervention because the unrest I felt after interviewing for that job made me physically sick – literally.  In another case, I watched as my company just racked up the profits, and I couldn’t believe how profitable we were.  I smiled as the numbers kept growing, but something seemed very wrong.  I finally reacted (slower than I should have though), and sure enough, we were not accruing for required taxes and as soon as they were deducted we were back down to a good but not nearly so great a company.

In today’s environment where we have so much data and so many direct inputs from “sensors” all over the organization, warning signs pop up all the time.  In some cases, flares are launched as people sense and see things that are out of the ordinary or recognize events that could cause catastrophic consequence if not immediately addressed.  In many big companies with their lethargic response mechanisms, any sensor data that shows negative trends or grossly out of norm events will result in more data gathering and no action until absolute certainty exists that something is wrong.  Unfortunately, by the time that certainty is gained, the adverse consequences are already impacting business results.  In many small companies, the worry meter is pegged when the first sensors launch warnings, but the response is tabled as those that need to respond are so focused on the many other pressing issues of the small business that hope becomes their strategy and in that hope they think the warnings are false alarms so nothing will need to be done.

One of the sad facts in business is that folks are rarely rewarded for being proactive – mainly because we never really focus on what might have happened if we hadn’t acted in whatever way we did.  Instead, we reward people mightily for reaction, even if those reacting were guilty of not acting to begin with thus causing the crisis to react to.  Sins of omission lead to reaction which leads to rewards for cleaning up situations, even those that should never have occurred to begin with.  Acts of commission make great companies but not individual heroes.   Those responses to sensor data that correct something in advance of the crisis (or prevent something from being wrong that could lead to adversity) are rarely mentioned in the weekly reports and even more rarely rewarded through the bonus structure.  Imagine if they were.

But back to the issue of data.  There is so much data available today and so much trending that is done, that any time something is out of ordinary in a company today, someone, in fact many someones, ought to be probing the data being given, researching the issues that appear out of the ordinary, and making things right in advance of adversity occurring.  There really is no excuse for sins of omission today in business.

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I am blessed…seriously blessed…and I want to share with you some of the very many things that make me smile:

(1) being home for 3 weeks straight – hasn’t happened in just about a decade

(2) the first significant snow of the year

(3) when the auditors walk out of the building

(4) taking my 14 year old to the bus stop

(5) the first sip of a quad grande soy with whip caramel machiato

(6) fellowship on Fridays

(7) the end of a very long conference call

(8) any time I’m right when discussing any issue with my bride

(9) any time I’m right when discussing any issue with my 14 year old

(10) any time I’m right

(11) the moment a serious challenge is overcome

(12) any time my favorite bloggers add new postings

(13) an answered prayer

(14) pulling into the driveway at the end of a long day

(15) an unexpected thank you after an act of kindness

(16) another pound gone when stepping on the scale

(17) providing a reference for a friend seeking a job

(18) sharing a “whine and wine” session with your friends

(19) the daily picture of the g’baby

(20) trying to get into the wrong car in the parking lot

(21) that clink of the wine glasses when sharing a toast with my bride

(22) getting through my “to do” list on any particular day

(23) words of encouragement from an unexpected source

(24) the smell of bacon on Saturday morning

(25) remembering something due just in time to get it done

(26) the silence in an elevator when total strangers don’t want to talk and all look at the display as the elevator goes up or down

(27) the thud that occurs when automatic doors don’t automatically open

(28) turning the lights out in the office at the end of a long week

I’m looking forward to refilling my reservoirs this weekend – it’s been a long week, but I’ve still found many reasons to smile!

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I grimaced while watching the Jets-Patriots game this evening.  The Jets played an awesome first half and leaped out to a big lead.  The Patriots scored right before half and then carried that momentum into the second half and charged back within one touchdown with only a few minutes left in the game.  The Jets got the ball back with just over 2 minutes to go and only needed to make one first down to run out the clock.  Instead of staying aggressive, they went conservative and sure enough, they ended up punting the ball away with just over a minute to go.  The Patriots returned to offense and the Jets went into a “prevent defense”, the scourge of all defenses.  I wanted to leave the room or close my eyes because I knew what was coming – big chunks of yardage given up with each play and ultimately a touchdown with only 1 second remaining to tie the game.  It seems to happen that way all the time – you get conservative to preserve the lead and instead you give up the lead by being conservative.

Business is no different.  When you get conservative to preserve any gains you’ve made, you end up losing many of the gains you worked so hard to achieve.  Don’t get conservative when times get tough!  Instead, speed up your cycles, make faster decisions, take quick inventory of what the market is giving you, attack the areas where gains can be made, and regain momentum in smaller but more decisive chunks.

PS.  The Jets won the coin toss in overtime, went on offense, and turned Brett Favre loose to attack the holes in the defense.  As a result, they moved the ball down the field for a game winning field goal.  I can’t help but believe that overtime could have been avoided and the Jets could have won the game in regulation if they hadn’t gone away from what got them the lead and instead became too conservative in offense.  I also can’t help but think that the Patriots would have marched right down the field and won the game themselves if they had won the coin toss.  The Jets got a second chance and won the game because of the right call on the coin flip – that was a close call for the Jets.  That’s an unacceptable risk for business.

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Business can be a brutal battlefield – business lives are saved or lost by the decisions made by the business battlefield leaders.  And business battlefield leaders today are inundated with sensory data that drives decisions and actions…or sometimes indecisiveness and inaction. 

 

[Photo from www.army.mil]

I’ve both led in business battles and witnessed other leaders in business battles, and I’m convinced that action trumps inaction, and on the magnitude of sin scale, sins of omission create so many more business casualties than sins of commission.

In the coming days, I’ll be writing more about “omission”.  Omission comes in many forms but primarily from a failure to act.  When your gut tells you that something is wrong, it probably is.  When the sensory data that is being collected from your business is incredibly bad or incredibly good, that’s a clear sign that questions need to be asked and urgent action needs to be taken.  When the results dramatically vary from the trends, unless something phenomenal has been done to dramatically affect the results then all kinds of warning notices need to be launched and intense probing needs to occur.

Unfortunately, casualties in business that result from sins of omission are burned into your memory for a lifetime…you never forget and you are constantly haunted by those warning signs that went off and the inaction that then occurred.

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One of the most memorable things about owning my own business in the late 90’s and then being part of a Silicon Valley start up right after 9/11 was the incredible sense of urgency when we were accountable for meeting payroll in the first case or keeping the company alive till the venture funding returned in the second.  In every active business moment, we had a sense of urgency that was shared throughout the team, and we shared the burdens of decision making as costs were pruned and people were let go during the cash crisis we faced in both cases.  Every cut hurt deep, but every cut was required to ensure the day to day survivability of the company.

In these tough economic times, folks who went through “survival training” as start ups or small businesses during the late 90’s and early years of this decade are well prepared to think quick and respond to the uncertainties of today.  But many of those who trained so well back then have moved into mid size and big company roles, and those skills that were honed during the tough times of the past seem numb now for some of them since they are now comfortably situated inside the bigger companies.  For some reason, big companies by nature reward methodicalism and in some ways complacency.  People are appreciated for muted responses to incredibly urgent issues…I guess it’s perceived as an act of maturity and stability to be able to patiently think through the challenge before deciding to act.  In the OODA loop scenario, when things are the most tense, big companies get great comfort from a long OOOOOOOO (that’s observe and orient) before any DDDDDDAAAAA (that’s decide and act).

As I think back on the fall of so many financial institutions in this country over the last 90 days or so, I can’t help but think that the lethargy of business decision making and the complacency of those in charge played a major role in the lack of action until only one possible action was left.  And today, even with the obvious examples of inaction in advance of failure, so many companies are hanging on to past practices and wishful thinking in a desperate hope that the economic crisis won’t collect them as well.

In today’s environment, every single company should be taking action – of some kind – of any kind.  If you believe Jack Welch and agree that you need to be changing faster than the environment around you, then change should be constant right now.  Any hesitation could be catastrophic, and as we’ve seen, catastrophic could be total implosion and collapse.

I love comparing business to sports, and when teams are faced with crisis on the playing field, they simplify the offense, get aggressive on the defense and take chances to win.  I’m a believer that the same applies in business – when things get tight (seems like that’s an understatement for today), then we should simplify the play book, focus tightly on the things we do best, get more aggressive in offense and get more aggressive on defense as well.  Here are two examples that are a far stretch in this case, but relevant:

(1)  I love professional football, but I hate watching games where the team in the lead goes into a prevent defense near the end of the game when the pressure builds and the other team gets more aggressive.  More often than not, by becoming conservative they actually give up the score and then – even worse – sometimes lose.  If being aggressive gets you the lead, then it seems like being aggressive will allow you to keep the lead when things get tense.  This seems to apply to business as well.

(2)  I enjoy watching NASCAR too, and we’re in for a treat this coming weekend when Jimmie Johnson wins his third consecutive championship.  Over the last few weeks, the commentators have talked about two different strategies to ensure the win – (1) race to finish, not necessarily to win; and (2) race to win.  Jimmie Johnson races to win in every single race, and because of that aggressiveness, he only has to finish in the top 36 this last race to win the championship.  I wonder how different the standings would be now if Jimmie Johnson became cautious once he got the lead rather than stayed aggressive.  I can’t believe it would be better than the massive lead he has now.  It seems like business is the same way.  When things get tense and the pressure builds, the things that led to success during the boom times should be the perfect and much needed approach during the tough times as well. 

In business, instead of getting conservative or slowing down, jack up the offense and defense and keep the accelerator floored.  Accelerate the decision making and then take decisive though simpler actions.

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I spent almost 4 hours on conference calls today.  That’s typical of most Mondays.  I’ll spend another 4 hours on conference calls on most Tuesdays as well.  Then at least an hour on Wednesdays.  Probably 2 hours on Thursdays.  And maybe another 2 hours on Fridays.  That’s about 13 hours on conference calls on most week…way too much for me to feel comfortable or excited about.

Today, though, I had to laugh as I finished one particularly long call and I got 2 very different messages from participants – one during the call and then one at the conclusion:

Participant 1 – “I couldn’t take it anymore” [just before he hung up]

Participant 2 – “Great collaborative call today” [right after the call was completed]

I think back over the more than 5 years that I’ve spent with my current company, and during the first 2 years, I spent no more than 2 hours a week on conference calls.  During the next 2 years, that probably doubled, so no more than about 4 hours a week on conference calls.  And now as I’ve entered my 6th year with the company, I’m up to about 13 hours per week on the phone.  In fact, I’m on conference calls so much now that my team is threatening to take the door to my office off its hinges in protest to get me back focused on them.  And sadly, I can see the 13 hours now climbing even higher as we work through the economic crisis that affects us all and as we work even harder on collaborative efforts to leverage best practices and to reduce costs.

As I put all this in perspective, on most conference calls I feel exactly like participant 1.  I’ll stay tuned in and clued in for a short period of time but as the call drags on I lose interest and lose focus.  On those rare calls where I feel like participant 2, it’s typically because the call is focused on an urgent and compelling issue with a clear need for decisive action.  The issue and the need for action thus drive intense focus from all those participating and in many ways forces alignment of purpose and common commitment to problem resolution.

It would be nirvana to me if every single meeting or conference call was driven with a clear purpose and an urgent need for decisive action.  Unfortunately, most organizations and most individuals do not operate this way.  Instead, meetings and conference calls are needed for information sharing and reporting rather than decisive action.

As the demands on time get more acute in this increasingly tense business environment and as the mandates for more timely and more abundant information become more extreme, large conference calls or lengthy meetings will become a thing of the past – they just take up too much time.  Executives will be forced to depend on emails and business reports for routine information sharing, and then meetings and conference calls will only be used for two things:  (1) to quickly collaborate and decisively resolve any issues prior to immediate action; and (2) to strategically plan and leverage the collective passions and expertise of an entire team against multiple possible outcomes.

As you might have guessed, I’m a big fan of getting to this nirvanic future as quickly as possible!

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My wife has a “hunk” calendar that she eagerly rushes to the kitchen to view every morning.  It’s one of those tear offs, with daily pictures of good looking guys in various stages of showing off their physiques.  My daughter gave that to her for Christmas last year, and judging by the excitement it creates with my wife every day, I’m supposing that she’ll get another one as a gift this year.

For me, I wouldn’t mind a daily tear off calendar with pictures of my new granddaughter – that would bring the smiles – and that would give me that special perspective every morning that would set me up for contentment at work and contentment in life.  With the cameras on cell phones today, I pretty much get pictures every day now anyway, so that calendar wouldn’t be that hard to put together.  Maybe those who would have to put that together will read this blog and take that big hint!

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I made a comparison on October 23rd of “Babies vs. Startups”, and I talked about how fascinating it was for me to watch my only months old granddaughter get more focused and more stable and how much it reminded me of the startups that I’ve been so fortunate to be part of.

Today, for no real reason I can think of, I began thinking about my 14 year old and my two others that have graduated from their teenage years, and I started comparing how I treated them to the treatment that is given to companies as they also move through the various stages of growth.  

For my teenagers, as they got old enough to make decisions, we provided some basic rules to live by (kept peace in the house) and then as they demonstrated that they could live within the rules, then we increased our trust and thus further empowered them to make more and more decisions on their own.  By trusting and empowering, I’m sure they “spread their wings” a bit more than they might have otherwise, but I also believe it allowed them to experience the reality of their own decisions a lot earlier than they may have otherwise.  I’ve known other parents who took a very different approach, and the older the kids got, the tighter the rules became.  Rather than trust and empower, some parents prefer to reduce the chance of errors by creating an environment of compliance and control.  Many of those parents hope that they can get their kids through those years at home without the adversity that may come from them making their own and often times bad decisions.

Amazingly, in business the exact same views exist.  For some soon to be mid size companies (or even growing lines of business within a very large company), the rules begin changing as the perception of risk grows as the business evolves.  For the lucky companies, as they get bigger and show clear understanding of the important rules that they must operate within, they experience increased trust and empowerment as their authorities increase and the expectations continue to grow.  For other companies not nearly as fortunate, with success comes greater process, increased risk aversion, and even more rules to contain growth to a level that allows comfort for those in critical overseeing roles. 

In both teenagers and growing businesses, substantial challenges exist as growth leads to greater opportunity and greater opportunity leads naturally to greater risk.  The decisions of a 14 year old are very different than the decisions of an 8 year old, and the consequences of those decisions can be much more dire if the wrong decision is made.  In a similar vein, the decisions of a mid size business are very different than the decisions of a start up (because of more capital, greater geographies, more people making those decisions), and thus the consequences can also be much more dire if the wrong decision is made.

But in both cases, we know the tendencies and the maturities of both (the teenager and the mid size company), and based on those tendencies and their history of decision making, we can trust and empower to a level that is appropriate.  If a teenager or a company have shown great maturity in their relatively short lives, then greater trust and empowerment is warranted, and the freedom to stretch and to achieve at a level that otherwise may not have been possible seems very appropriate.  If for any reason they then give us reasons to doubt, only then do we tighten up the rules and increase the compliance and reporting processes.

Ultimately, I’m a trust and empower type of guy and I bristle at senseless process and demands for compliance that ties the hands of those that are working so hard to win on this battlefield of business.  I’m grateful for the upbringing I had at home and then the early experience I had in business that made me this way.

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I spend a significant amount of any business day now on conference calls.  As with most companies today, we have enormous challenges because of the economic conditions, because of the changing market and thus the changing buying patterns of our customers, and because of the incredible desire to hit expectations and deliver dividends even with the brutal affects on our revenues and thus income.  Each issue in itself drives intense dialogue.  All issues together drive a constant demand on time and thus the significant amount of time on conference calls.

For me, the worst use of my time is a conference call.  I get distracted easily and find myself occupying my time with anything else that presents itself as a priority.  Those distractions could be emails (I have a constant stream of them), overdue responses to specific packages (I have an enormous backlog of things I owe people), or callbacks to voicemails (no day ends without several in the queue).  Since I can’t multi-task, any time I divert my attention to any of these distractions, I lose focus on the call and the hours on the phone are then wasted.

But this week was different because I began putting into action my strategy of carving out time to focus on those high priority things, and then putting time in between any of the otherwise onerous conference calls to connect with our team and be visible to our business enterprise. 

I must say, after one week of trying, I have a strong sense of accomplishment now that I’ve managed my schedule just a little bit better and mixed in those emotionally uplifting people meetings amidst all the less than stimulating conference calls.

Business by nature is one heck of a roller coaster ride – significant highs and significant lows – and one of the primary roles of any business leader is to moderate those roller coaster peaks and valleys for both the leader and for his/her team.  I get my greatest sense of accomplishment when I create smiles in our team and when I create that sense of accomplishment for me.

Now I need to figure out how to track it and use what I’m learning to generate significantly more smiles and to create an even greater sense of accomplishment.

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