Change Craft

Change Craft

by | Nov 1, 2024 | Leading

“A woodworker must “apply a thousand skills” to find the ideal use for each piece of wood, respecting the “soul of the tree” and shaping it to realize its true potential”  

George Nakashima, architect, artist, builder of beautiful wood furniture worked until his nineties. Now his children carry on his craft.

In the fourteenth century Geoffrey Chaucer wrote a visionary poem, Parlement of Foules, about birds choosing mates and people living joined to nature. He began with a wish for more time to perfect his craft as a poet:

“The lyf so short, the kraft so long to lern”

What writer, woodworker, or musician, or for that matter, electrician, or plumber hasn’t said, “I need more practice to be up to this craft?”

Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers described K. Anders Erikson’s research at the Berlin Academy of Music to posit that it takes 10,000 hours of focused practice to become world class at anything.  

The phrase “focused practice” is critical. It means not just total practice time. I’m sure I’ve logged more than 10,000 hours playing the guitar since I started at age thirteen. I’m better than I was at thirteen, but not that much better.

No, this is “focused practice,” that is, practice focused on improvement, breaking down the craft, practicing each part in isolation, getting rigorous feedback, and practicing again, then putting all the craft segments back together. Ten thousand hours of that kind of practice and I’d be a lot better guitarist, woodcarver, or writer.

Ah, but the “lyf so short.”

What is a craft?

The English word “craft” has its origins in the Anglo-Saxon “cræft,” which comes from the German “kraft,” meaning “skill or strength at planning and making.” When we think of craft we think “handmade,” or small batch production, like handmade tables, hand-woven blankets or craft beer.

The building trades, carpentry, electric wiring, plumbing, etc., call their work crafts. Actors talk about their craft; musicians and painters talk about the craft foundations of their art. Craft is based upon unique knowledge and skills, or competencies, the craftsman uses to plan and make with quality. That craftsman increases competence with focused practice.

Is leading change a craft?

Does leading change have unique competencies? Absolutely. Is there an opportunity for focused practice? Uh. . .

Most managers have only a few opportunities to lead change in their career. At least, that used to be the problem. These days between changes in technology, global markets, the environment, demographics and people’s attitudes, it seems like we are facing “constant change.”

Some are stuck in the past, when the craft of change leadership was a rarely used capability that could be left to consultants, staff, and other specialists. Some think a new technology implements itself, or that entering a new market on the other side of the world is about language translation, or that people should “just suck it up and work all the time, like I did.”

The basics of change craft

I could write a book on the subject. In fact, I’m writing a book on this subject, Change Leader? Who Me? Wisdom for those new to leading change, due out at the beginning of next year.  This book is mostly about leading change in business, where I spent my career, but I think the concepts are applicable in the public sector, or in personal change as well.

Start with some basic questions.

The most important question is Why?

Because the customers changed –  different needs, wants, or expectations. Competitors changed – different providers (e.g., international) or they are better, faster, cheaper.

Or there is a new technology, an opportunity for us to be better, faster, cheaper. Or the rules of the game have changed – new regulations, community standards, a new owner with new targets.

So what?

Do we have to change? Is not changing an option? What is the impact of not changing? When?

These first two questions are about the change mindset, which I wrote about a few weeks ago here. Change happens when people, individuals or groups collectively, internalize the dissatisfaction with the status quo, envision a different future and act, despite any fear of loss. It is the primary job of the change leader to adopt a change mindset and help others to as well.

Who will help make this change happen?

John Kotter, Harvard professor and author of several books on change leadership has a change requirements model that includes the usual concepts, vision, urgency, communications, short term wins, etc. Kotter though recommends “Building a Guiding Coalition” for the change. He describes this as often a diagonal slice of the organization, with executives, middle managers, and opinion leaders. In my experience these are often people who are outside the current power structure and may be people who have been vocally critical of the status quo.

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great: Why some companies make the leap. . . and others don’t, recommends the first step  of change to be “Decide who’s on the bus.” Even individuals making personal change can benefit from this analysis. Who supports you in the change you want to make? Who can help in ways beyond moral support?

My list of criteria for who is on the bus:

  • Has internalized the ‘Why’
  • A true problem solver who invests the time to define and analyze a problem, not just someone who suggests “solutions” before having the facts.
  • Extraordinary communication skills – looking for clarity over eloquence, and simplicity, over “sounding smart.”
  • People others listen to. (This often has nothing to do with positional power, but everything to do with “craft capability.”)
  • A least one person who immediately jumps to the “worst case scenario.” This is your risk assessor, your unintended consequences seer. (You don’t want a whole team of doom and gloomers, but one or two with a sense of humor can help avoid disaster.)

What is changing?

People may answer by type of change, more innovation, continuous improvement, integration (aligning systems, processes, and people, to “get on the same page). There is often a progression in types of change, Innovate -Integrate -Improve -Integrate -Repeat.

People also answer this question in terms of discipline, new strategy, technology, operational processes, people-stuff like training, organization, etc. There are often more disciplines that need to change than were initially thought and people-stuff is always central. Companies don’t change unless people do, including the change leader. Who me? Yes, you.

How to change?

I use a simple model:

  • Insight – discover new data about the why of change.
  • Action – plan, mobilize, take small steps, measure at every stage.
  • Results – project results at each stage, inputs, activities, outputs, measure.

And one last thing, expect backsliding, missed targets and failure. Reframe, regroup and…

Don’t Give Up!

With some focused practice you can be a change craftsman.

Who me? Yes, you.

Halloweenophobia

Halloweenophobia

by | Oct 27, 2024 | Living

“The creepy spiders need to be lower. Kids are short, They need to turn their head and be looking directly into those red eyes.”

“You are normally such a sweet person. What happens to you at Halloween?”

“Being scared is what Halloween is all about?”

“I thought it was about the candy.”

“Nah, it’s about conquering your fear. The candy is just a side benefit.”

We get a little carried away at our place in late October, not as much as we did when we had a house with a front lawn and bushes to turn into spider webs and ghosts. We gave a lot of stuff away when we downsized to a condo, but not the creepy spiders nor the orange lights. I still dress up, usually in my wizard costume, hat, robe and staff. I have a wooden staff, but a couple of years ago one of my kids gave me a plastic one with an egg on top that lights up in different colors, which is a hit with the little ones.

The name Halloween came from Hallow Evening, the night before All Hallows Day. Hallows were saints and the European medieval Christian church wanted people to go to church to revere the saints and martyrs of the faith on November 1st and again on November 2nd All Souls Day, to revere all who passed in the faith and commit to living a holy life in their honor.

Most now realize that the church chose this particular day to celebrate the dead to coincide with the ancient Celtic pagan festival of Samhain (pronounced Saw-when in Gaelic).

The Celts were an ancient people spread across all of Europe. They were the Gauls that Caesar fought, the Galatians that Paul wrote to, the Helvetii of Switzerland, and many other clans. The remaining “Six Celtic nations,” where you can still find their cultural influences, and languages, are Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, Wales, Brittany, and the Isle of Man”

The Celts were a primitive pagan people. They were pastoral/ agricultural, raising sheep and cattle and growing fodder and vegetables. Celts divided time by dark and light. Days began and ended at sundown. Winter was the dark start to the year, summer the light. Samhain was the end of the last harvest and the beginning of the dark time of year. It was New Year’s Eve.

Samhain was also a time when the barrier between this world and the Otherworld was thin. The spirits of the dead, especially the recently departed, came home to say last goodbyes. That was OK as reverence for your ancestors. Grampa’s ghost might be a little pale, but he was still Grampa. Other people’s ancestors? Screamy woman? Recently executed murderer? Not-so-much reverence as fear.

So the Celts put out food for their pale peeps and scary decorations to keep the others away. They burned bonfires, danced in the streets, and mastered fear through partying. The Church coopted the reverence for the dead, and tolerated the party, Happy Halloween.

“Trick or treating,” or gangs of costumed kids demanding candy in lieu of getting your windows soaped or your yard decorated with toilet paper was an American invention, now exported to some other places in the world. Just kidding about the  extortion racket part; we do have some scattered  “Devil’s Night” vandalism, but the whole holiday has turned into a neighborhood fancy dress party with parents dressing up and going around with little ones.

Halloween is a time to have pseudoscary fun, meet your neighbors, and overdose on sugar. There was a time when some houses used to hand out fruit or home baked goods or bags of popcorn, but then someone started rumors of razorblades in apples and hippies handing out marijuana brownies and now the only things parents view as safe are prepackaged products of Mars and Hershey.

Costumes are a reflection of pop culture, lots of Disney princesses, Marvel superheroes and Harry Potter characters. My wizard costume predates the JK Rowling classic, but everyone calls me Dumbledore.

There are a few costumes, that are truly scary, home-made zombies asking for brains, vampires with real looking teeth, light gray palor, and bloodshot eyes asking for a “donation,” and teenagers in Jason hockey masks from the Halloween movie series, or Freddy Kruger claws from the Nightmare on Elm Street movies.

Some people, like my wife and me, enjoy being scared. Horror movies, and authors like Stephen King exist for people like us. We love a suspenseful story, where the dead come back to life eating the brains of those struggling to get by after the Apocalypse. When the story is over, I look around at our deteriorating world and its problems seem more solvable.

Not everyone feels this way. Billie and I share the experience of emotionally scarring our youngest children by taking them to a horror film with their older siblings, she Cujo, me Nightmare on Elm Street. One of them has forgiven the infraction.

I’m not sure if a love of the horror genre really helps me face my fears.

I do things that stretch my tolerance for feeling uncomfortable, going up in a hot air balloon, parachuting, and mountain climbing for fear of heights. I’m not really afraid of heights, nor even falling from heights. I do worry about landing after falling.

Most of the other things that make me uncomfortable are really easy to rationalize. Getting old? What choice do I have? Dying? It happens to all of us sometime? Not being loved? I am truly fortunate and grateful.

I try to help some others face some of what scares them. So if a very small Spiderman freaks out at our red-eyed creepy spiders, a kindly old wizard is there to say,

“He doesn’t bite. His eyes are red because he’s tired. He would really like it if you pet him, Mr. Spiderman.”

Whatever It Takes

Whatever It Takes

by | Oct 19, 2024 | Living

This picture was on a birthday card I received last week.

It is a real photo of Rolland “Rollie” Free setting the motorcycle land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats September 13, 1948 eleven months after I was born. Rollie Free raced Indian motorcycles before World War II. He set a record at 111 miles per hour. He served in the Air Force and was stationed in Utah near Bonneville during the war.

Rollie had a bone to pick with Harley-Davidson, which had apparently reneged on an offer to support his racing career. He “acquired” and retuned the Vincent Black Shadow from its owner John Edgar for the specific purpose of breaking the Harley record.

During the first runs in Rollie’s signature prone style, the wind ripped his leathers and he was still below his goal of over 150 mph. He stripped down to a borrowed bathing suit, cap, and swim shoes and set the record, (150.313 miles per hour) apparently mindless of the equivalent of coarse sand paper under his bike wheels.

The record stood till 1950 when he broke it again (152mph) and again in 1960 (160.78 mph), but he fell off the bike and quit racing motorcycles. He still raced cars. He died in 1984 and was inducted into the American Motorcyclist hall of fame posthumously in 1998.

There is something admirable in the passion, single-mindedness and zeal to “do whatever it takes.” If I’m honest, possessing that attitude has been quite beneficial in my life. However, there is a line between passion and prudence, between purposeful and perilous, between enthusiastic and foolhardy. That’s a line you often don’t see until you’ve crossed it.

People called Rollie “borderline insane,” “hyper-competitive to a fault, and a “regular nut job.”

I have never done anything like Rollie Free, but in my life, I have been called “gung ho ,”all-in,” and a “work-machine.” I have sometimes taken extraordinary risks to make something work.

 In 1967 I was in a summer stock production of Peter Pan. At nineteen, I was assigned to head the flying crew. We were on a budget so the director ordered flying harnesses without pullies or hydraulic assists. He wanted Rena, playing Peter, to fly in from offstage and up to the top of a scenery cave that stood about twelve feet above the stage. I determined the only way to make that happen was for the flying tech (me) to jump off the catwalk by the third pin rail offstage in the fly gallery to the one by the second pin rail a distance of fifteen feet. If I missed I would fall about twenty feet to the hardwood stage floor.

This maneuver worked in rehearsal. In performance one of the two flying harness guy wires broke and I sent Rena up and into the back of the proscenium. Fortunately, Rena wasn’t physically injured, and finished the performance, but may suffer from PTSD to this day. (Rena, I am deeply sorry.)

Still it took me a while to realize that “whatever it takes,” isn’t always the safe strategy. I worked full-time for a consulting firm in my second year of business school, which meant that I often worked into the night. I came home once at 1:00 am, and had just fallen asleep, when my pregnant wife, nudged me and said “it’s time.”

I said, “Try to go back to sleep.” That did not go over well.

I was slow to learn.

I worked hundred-hour weeks, which the people I worked for loved, but which ultimately made me sick. I was the only independent consultant I ever met who went to work for himself and worked less than I did as an employee.

I trained for a marathon and learned first-hand about the dehydration headaches and nausea of over-training. Several pricey speeding tickets and one thirty-day license suspension taught me “don’t drive faster; leave earlier.” I learned to manage my workload through the not-so-simple task of saying, ”No” to more work.

Years of working for chemical and oil and gas clients increased by awareness of personal and process safety. I still have the urge to stand on the top step of a ladder, but I have learned to get a bigger ladder, or to hire someone else to do work at heights.

I still describe myself, by saying “whatever I do I really do.” Now, however, that describes my ability to intensely focus. I’m still learning that I must intersperse, my “whatever it takes” with some mindless distraction and family and friends time.

So I’m rarely found doing Rollie Free stuff anymore, not even scaled down to my level. Everybody grows up sometime.

But, I guess, my reputation lingers:

Old enough to know better too cool to care Rollie Free in prone psition on a racing motorcycle

Strategy: It’s the Thought that Counts

Strategy: It’s the Thought that Counts

by | Oct 12, 2024 | Consulting

I wrote a book on consulting. I am writing another book on leading change. This quote by Dwight D. Eisenhower is in both books.

“In planning for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”

This quote is attributed to Eisenhower in Richard Nixon’s book Six Crises. It is also mentioned by General David Sarnoff’s published papers. (Sarnoff was a Brigadier General on Eisenhower’s communications staff during World War II and the CEO of RCA before and after the war.)

“In planning for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”

“This makes no sense,” my primary editor, my wife, said to me in frustration. “First, he says plans are useless then he says they’re essential; which is it.”

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this reaction. When I facilitated leadership teams at strategy off-sites, some leaders said “Huh?” Then, as now, I tried to explain.

“What Eisenhower is saying is that the plan itself isn’t what’s important. No battle ever went according to a plan. What’s important is the process of planning, the thought that goes into anticipating the enemies movements, and advantages and disadvantages. That thinking allows the general to act and react during the battle not slavishly follow a plan.”

This explanation didn’t work with those leaders either. I put it down to the strange way I think and therefore communicate. I take in information intuitively, filling in blanks, and making connections that aren’t apparent to seventy-five percent of the population. So I talk in a shorthand that assumes others make the same connections I do. I get the “Huh?” reaction a lot.

I tried the other similar Eisenhower quote:

“No battle was ever won following a plan, but no battle was ever won without one.”

Worse and more of it. “Which is it?”

To me, this concept is critical for business strategy. It ain’t about the report or the deck from the strategy consultant,. “It’s the thought that counts.”

Why is it that strategy consultants find that clients fail to implement the pristine strategies they design? It’s because the client didn’t do the thinking; the consultant did.

To be fair this complaint is old. These days many expert strategy consultants involve the client in data and framework analysis and conclusion formulation. Process consultants facilitate leadership teams in gathering the data, analyzing it, and formulating strategies. However, I’m sure somewhere there is still a client who makes the cringeworthy comment:

“Change? We don’t want to change; we just want a new strategy.”

Among business majors, MBAs, consultants, and some client managers, the word strategy has a golden aura, delivered in a flash of inspiration from some mystical place – the collective unconscious?- or wherever really smart people get their ideas.

A strategy is a plan. That’s it – just a plan. Sure, it’s “a plan to achieve an objective in the face of competition.” Still just a plan.

I’m told that the word strategy comes from the Greek word strategos, meaning generalship. We might ask why pick the language of war? Business leaders often use war words, conquest, slaughter, defeat, decimation. I don’t really get that. I mean, we are just talking about whether customers shell out shekels for your product or the other guy’s. But what do I know.

I know that a strategy is just a plan.

Cue the Eisenhower quote:

“In planning for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”

Remember:

“It’s the thought that counts.”

Here is an outline of what I think the thought is:

Understand (collect data and analyze)

  • Understand the customer,
    • Who -demographics, psychographics, buying history, share of wallet
    • What they need, want, wish for
    • Where – location, preferred channels
    • When – buying seasons,
    • Why – purchase criteria
  • Understand the competition
    • Who – Major players and minor, alternative products
    • What – offers, business models, advantages and disadvantages
    • When – do competitors’ seasons vary?
    • Why- customers buy from them (and not you)
  • Understand other forces (suppliers, community standards, regulation, etc.) that shape consumption and competition
  • Understand ourselves
    • What are we good at, business model (how we get revenue, operate, make profit)
    • What are we traditionally not good at -why- can we innovate-improve or integrate ourselves out of this problem.

Look for trends rather than point in time conclusions. What is different? What trends that may not be recognized? What new technologies that may change the game? What new groups of customers, new needs, anything that presents opportunities? Is there something in the standard marketplace that you can change, improve, find another way of doing, stop doing because it adds no value?

Plan (There is really nothing mystical about a plan)

  • What are you going to do and why? (specific actions)
    • In product or service design ( How can you differentiate hardware or physical stuff, software – or use instruction, service – personalized connection to the customer).
    • In marketing (Price, place, promotion)
    • In operations (Make vs. Buy, Quantity, Quality, Timeliness)
  • How are you going to do that? (Detailed inputs, activities, outputs and metrics for each and contingency plans for when things get off track.)
  • Who is going to do what? (Actual people who will be held accountable for each action.)
  • When? (A lack of specificity or over-optimism in deadlines is one reason for strategy implementation failure.)

Yes, it is complicated and there are many unknowns and unknowables, but still doable.

Who plans?

Executives formulate strategy and operations managers execute it. Yeah, right. Or worse strategy consultants formulate strategy, present the deck to the C-suite executives and operations managers executes it.

What’s wrong with this picture?

People have been separating the planning function from implementation since Frederick Winslow Taylor wrote Scientific Management in 1911, despite numerous social science experiments that prove how inefficient this practice is. Understanding gets lost in the hand-off. Operators don’t get the “why” of the new strategy or they fixate on one output metric (quantity) and short circuit another (quality) with disastrous results.

But you can’t invite the whole company into the strategy offsite. No, but you can invite a cross-section of the firm and arrange for level and functional communications sessions using those who were there.

And remember

“Strategy is a gift: It’s the thought that counts.”

But. . .

It’s integrated action based upon that thought that gets results.

Traveling the Consulting Road is now available

Who Leads the Leader?

Who Leads the Leader?

by | Oct 6, 2024 | Leading

This picture is a cartoon archetype. A guru, hermit, wiseman sits before the mouth of a cave high in the mountains. Before him sits a young seeker, a supplicant, whose backpack indicates he has climbed high into the mountains looking for answers to his burning question:

“What is the meaning of life?”

The punchlines almost always imply that seeking wisdom externally is unlikely to find it:

“Life? Life is just one darned thing after another.”

“OK, I’ll teach you the meaning of life, if you teach me how to climb down off a mountain.”

“No, No, I’m not a Life Coach, next mountain over.”

Which brings us to the question, where does a leader go for help? A personal guru or spiritual advisor? A leader in another organization? A staff confidant? Her team? A consultant? A coach? A mentor? A therapist?

It depends.

Help

It depends on the kind of help.

If the leader is looking for specific expertise to help the organization, then a staff person, or an expert consultant,  or university researcher might be the appropriate choice?

If the leader is unsure how to get the organization to do something, improve, innovate, integrate, then a process consultant might be more appropriate?

If the problem is more personal, the leader’s own behaviors are getting in the way of goal attainment, then perhaps a coach might help?

If the problem is developmental and within the context of an organization, an industry, or a discipline then perhaps relying on a mentor relationship might help?

If the problem is rooted in deeper emotions and is showing up in other areas of life, then perhaps a therapist could help?

Leadership is itself a helping profession, so any of these helping professionals might also provide a model of how to help others.

There are many leaders who ask the people in their own organizations for help, the leadership team, staff specialists, a colleague, or a friend. This works for leaders who ask for input regularly and demonstrate that they want the “straight skinny” and not to be flattered. Some will not believe you and flatter you anyway and the first time you get defensive or blow up at bad news you destroy all the candor you earned to that point.

Help is defined by the recipient: you have to ask for it and you have to accept it.

Change

One of my favorite punchlines for this cartoon appears in a callout over the seeker’s head:

“Change? Wait, what? I don’t want to change. I was just curious.”

If you ask for advice, people have an expectation you will act on it. Maybe not all of it and maybe not all the time, but people you ask for help expect that you will do something differently as a result, even people you are paying to help you. Coaches expect you to take action on your goals. Strategy consultants expect you to implement the strategy. Mentors expect you to grow.

The leader who asks everyone on his team for advice and follows none of it, soon earns diminishing followership. Also, be careful of playing favorites, you know, asking everyone, but always doing what Marie suggests.

Dependency

Another punchline for this cartoon:

“So, Grasshopper, you feel self-actualized? You have resolved your imposter syndrome and been recognized for achieving your goals? Are you sure others are not just flattering you? Could you be lying to yourself?”

I believe that most consultants, coaches, therapists and even mentors are genuine and offer help solving a problem to put you in a place to solve this problem yourself in the future, to in effect “work themselves out of a job.” If, however, you find yourself asking for the same kind of help over and over again, stop and ask “Why? Whose interests does this serve?”

I have a friend who hires a new personal trainer every year. Sometimes it works. He ran a marathon in under three-and-a half hours. Then he got into triathlons and raved about his swimming and bike coaches. He skied with a professional instructor for two weeks at Jackson Hole and paid for the instructor to fly and ski with him in Vale. (I tried to convince him to fly me to Vail without success.) Now he doesn’t ski.

To be fair, this man devotes most of his energy to his business, which, obviously, pays him quite well. It is clear what his priority is, but I wonder if he is dependent on advisors in that arena too.

Leadership Wisdom

Leaders rise in unusual, abnormal circumstances, war, change, emergencies. I often say that two of the accountabilities of the leader are:

  • to clarify direction (vison) “This way” and
  • to attract followers “Follow me.”

It’s OK to ask for help.

Maybe you need help clarifying direction, knowing what to do, when or how. Maybe you need help, getting people “on the same page,”  organizing, mobilizing, staying on track, or achieving results. Maybe, as the instrument of whatever change you seek, you need to work on yourself.

It’s OK to ask for help.

Yes, you must be clear about the kind of help you need and ask the right person. Yes, you still have to act on advice even if it means uncomfortably changing something about yourself. Yes, the answer may not be forthcoming because it is within you. But ask anyway.

Here are some other punchlines for this cartoon:

“To achieve your greatest goals sometimes all you have to do is ask.” Steve Jobs

“We cannot teach people anything. We can only help them discover it for themselves” Galileo

“Life is a bubbling fountain.”

“Wait, WHAT?! I climbed all the way up here and that’s it?! ‘Life is a bubbling fountain?’”

“You m-m-mean. . . Life is not a bubbling fountain???”