Mike Ferguson's Business Blog Archive

Mike Ferguson, Fresh Ground Consulting

Infrastructure. Great word and a critical aspect of any system.  The systems that move ideas, information, and outcomes through your office are just as important as the systems that move products through the manufacturing process. We would do well to think as much about our personal workflow infrastructure as manufacturers do thinking about the infrastructure in their production plant.

Last week I noticed I had a project that kept getting bumped back, or “deferred” within my system for organizing my work. This can happen for many good reasons. Generally, a project or action gets deferred because I’m waiting for something or someone. The scope of the project or an assessment of resources required can change, causing adjustments to the timeline. If it is a shared project, I could be waiting for someone else to complete their portion. In this case, I wasn’t waiting for anything or anyone but me.

Whenever I encounter hesitation in any system, my own workflow especially, I want to understand the reason, and not always in order to fix it. Sometimes the system is self-correcting, or even self-preserving. The reason the horse won’t move is because there is a mountain lion on the trail up ahead. Many times, the cause for the delay or incomplete processing appears, from a  distance, to be completely unrelated.

I understood that I was procrastinating on my project, but I didn’t understand why. It was a project I enjoyed working on and which I was more than competent to complete successfully. So, I had to break the project down into small parts and put it back together again.

When I did this I discovered that my planning was incomplete. I had been focused on the valuable outcome of the project and neglected to considered the workflow infrastructure required to get it done. There was a component to the project that required some items and information to be moved to a new space while remaining readily accessible. In my workflow system, this is essentially “reference material,” those things that are needed too often to be archived or stored, but not often enough to be considered active.

While I had listed as a action item the fact that things needed to be moved, I had not thought much about the fact that the space to which I wanted to move them was not prepared. In my mind, I dismissed this as obvious, as something I need not include in my list of actions. This often happens, I think, when it comes to the mundane infrastructure of organizing our work.

Of course, stuff had to be moved someplace and that someplace needed to be able to accommodate the stuff. It’s not that I didn’t understand, or forgot, that space needed to be created. The problem was that I did not include clearing the space as a commitment, or action item, in my planning because it felt too obvious.

But the commitment still existed in my head and because the final step in the project could not be completed, I was not taking the first step.

At this point, you’re probably thinking I wasted half a day figuring out I had to add an action to a project and put it at the top of the list. I should explain that the entire process described above took only a few minutes. But it reminded me of the times I have sat with someone in their office as they finally acknowledge that no, the stacks and stacks of paper on their desk do not represent a system and no, they don’t really know where everything is.

A conversation about clearing their desk becomes a conversation about how full their filing cabinets are, which becomes a conversation about how packed the storage closet is, which becomes a conversation about what types of documents can be thrown out and when.

And on it goes. If they don’t kill me first, we eventually end up with a list of actions that, when complete, will result in their desk being cleared. But clearing their desk is near the end of the list, not at the top. If we simply list “clear my desk,” it will never get done because on some level we know that the file drawers are full and there is no more room in the storage closet. We may even start clearing the desk, but the first time we cannot file a piece of paper because the drawer is too full, we stop. The paper goes back on our desk and we feel defeated and resolve to make the best of things as they are.

If you're feeling like a project is stuck, inventory your personal work flow infrastructure for blockage and then keep moving upstream, adding the steps necessary for removal of impediments  to your action plan.

www.freshgroundconsulting.com

Posted by Fresh Ground at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mike Ferguson, Fresh Ground Consulting

Great leaders have learned to understand, appreciate, and manage a variety of work-styles. They may not articulate their understanding the same way an organizational psychologist would, but on some level they have firmly grasped the concept that different people contribute different strengths and styles to running an operation and getting things done. More importantly, they understand their own strengths and weaknesses.

One of our operating principles at Fresh Ground Consulting is to bring energy and thoughtfulness to managing our workload. This idea emerged from encountering many different situations throughout my career that benefited by achieving a better balance between thought and action.

Ernest Hemingway famously advised that one should never confuse movement with action. I have always been suspicious of a lot of movement, in myself as well as other. Movement makes me feel like things are getting done when, perhaps, very little is being accomplished. As a leader, seeing a lot of movement in your organization can also feel like progress is being made when it’s really just a lot of running in circles.

Effective leaders stay out of the movement trap by looking behind the curtain and asking probing questions and actually listening to the answers. The questions they ask all the time are simple: “What is getting done? What’s next?” So, the people who work for them learn that looking busy is not enough.

Allowing movement to be mistaken for action is not sustainable and highly inefficient. The failed process will crash regularly, forcing real action into the system, but because the system is then in crisis, the people in the organization will not be operating at optimal effectiveness and, what's worse, success will feel random, untraceable.

Some of the “fastest” companies I have ever worked with, organizations that accomplished a stunning amount of quality work, have also been the quietest and least frenetic.

As a manager, when I meet with staff I want to understand what they are doing, not so I can micro-manager how they do it, but so I can fulfill my responsibility as a manager to see that things are actually being accomplished. For most of my career, I have managed managers, so I try to pay very close attention to how they track not only their own projects, but the projects and progress of those they supervise. They learn quickly that I like to see things written down and by our third meeting they have usually compiled an impressive to-do list, which they display proudly to demonstrate how busy they are.

A simple to-do list is better than no list at all, so I reinforce the behavior while communicating that it is an incomplete tool unless they can answer the question that is at the heart David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) approach: “What’s the next action?”

Managing our personal workload and the collective workload of an organization requires a variety of styles, but also balance between thought and action, between energizers and incubators. If you’re not sure where the balance point is in your organization, and if you suspect a lot of movement without momentum, it might be time to revisit the concept of “Management By Wandering Around” and spend a day in other people’s offices asking them what is getting done and what happens next.

www.freshgroundconsulting.com

Posted by Fresh Ground at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mike Ferguson, Fresh Ground Consulting

Our days are generally full of words. We listen. We read. If you’re reading this now, I can’t help but be grateful that among all the words competing for your eyes and ears right now, you’ve chosen these words.

Think, for a moment, about all the words coming at you from so many sources all day long.

Still there?

The phrase, “information overload” has been in use for a long time and now seems old fashioned and almost trite, as if that simple description can no longer capture the daily flash flood that is the data stream.

Like most people, I play “Where’s Waldo,” searching for bits and pieces or narrow veins of meaningful information in the flood. I have a tool box full of various types of filters to help me.

For leaders, the amount of information inflow is plainly absurd. Without filters, the systems they oversee would collapse. Not only do they need filters at the tactical level, such as systems for dealing with email, snail mail, news, reports, etc., they need filters at the strategic level.

The most commonly cited strategic “filter” in this regard is, at the same time, one of the least utilized in practice: “Actions speak louder than words.”

This idea, that accountability be attached to intent, has been echoed in various ways in proverbs and by leaders of all kinds since ancient times. But my favorite iteration in terms of management comes from a man whose actions have always been of greater value than his words, Warren Buffett, who said, “The best judgment we can make about managerial competence does not depend on what people say, but simply what the record says.”

Whenever I assist an organization with strategic planning, this is the most challenging aspect of the process. I must remain very active in facilitating the process or the planning group will spend too much time articulating the larger elements of the plan and not enough time on assigning metrics and accountability, without which, the plan is just words.

The logic of planning dictates that these tactical elements be applied after the larger strategies have been established. Without vigilance within the planning, real metrics and accountability will be short changed in terms of the degree of thoughtful consideration they are given, compared to mission, vision, goals, etc.

The symptoms of a “mostly words” plan are apparent. Whenever I see a plan with a lot of “TBD” where metrics and accountability should be, I know the planning group did not receive outside facilitation, or everyone, including the facilitator, became infatuated with creating strategies. Another symptom is seeing the same person named over and over as the “owner” of various initiatives. This often happens when the leader of a group assumes responsibility for facilitating the planning process. As the time allotted for planning winds down, he will assign himself and/or some of his key people as owners out of expedience. This is worse than leaving them blank.

Our days are filled with words and more words, and so much of the time we struggle to attach meaning to them. Your planning process should rise above the flood waters by including meaningful details, complete metrics for measuring success, and tactical ownership at all levels of the organization.

www.freshgroundconsulting.com

Posted by Fresh Ground at 06:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mike Ferguson, Fresh Ground Consulting

Leadership scholar, Warren Bennis, said that leaders are rarely the smartest person in a group, that they are more curators than creators. He said leaders “are appreciators of talent and nurturers of talent and they have the ability to recognize valuable ideas.”

I have worked with business leaders who have a near prescient ability to recognize emerging talent. They are always surrounded by bright, passionate, committed people who produce results. Their companies often have a reputation for innovation, as the leader anticipates trends as well as she anticipates talent. The working environment is high-energy, fast-paced, and always full of fresh new challenges.

Too often, this workplace is also full of fresh new faces as well because the person leading the company can recognize talent, but can’t get out of its way. She “turns and burns” her best employees at such a constant pace that other companies see her as a recruiting agency and training center.

Leaders like this tend to run their company in perpetual start-up mode and experience rapid but ultimately limited growth. It’s not enough to recognize talent. The most successful leaders also nurture talent. A talent nurturing leader is as easy to recognize as one who burns talent out. Here are just a few of the things I look for in an organization where talent is allowed to mature.

All organizations have turn-over, but in those where the leadership recognizes talent and allows it to flourish, the turn-over will be lower than the industry average, especially among key positions. When one company has produced a very large and talented pool of former employees, it’s not a sign of health. When talent is truly nurtured, it will be allowed to mature and will not be viewed as a threat.

The best business leaders do not necessarily shun the spotlight, but they do insist on sharing it. When I ask a senior executive to tell me about his company, I listen carefully to how he interprets that question. How much time does he spend talking about the accomplishments of the people who work for him, and how much time does he spend talking about “his” accomplishments, his ideas, and his vision. And one must listen beyond the language. Many entrepreneurs are in the habit of saying “my company,” but if you listen, they are actually talking about and giving credit to their team. On the other hand, some mangers are practiced at using “we,” when they clearly mean “me.”

Sharing the credit tends to occur naturally in an environment of shared responsibility. Key people are given real responsibility and authority, and the freedom to use their best judgment. Their authority is not taken away arbitrarily and they do not have to guess when they are and are not expected to use their own judgment.

In the same way that a company changes as it grows, no one leadership approach works throughout the life of an organization. The single-minded, hard-charging, fly-by-the-seat entrepreneur that is necessary to shepherd a company through start-up, gives way to a leader who extends his reach and influence through others, allowing the company to grow. This transition can occur with the same person at the helm, but they must be able to both recognize talent, and allow it to flourish, perhaps to a degree that is personally uncomfortable.

www.freshgroundconsulting.com

Posted by Fresh Ground at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mike Ferguson, Fresh Ground Consulting

We are currently working on website content for two clients at Fresh Ground Consulting. Whenever I am writing content I am looking for the story behind the list of facts I must communicate. The who, what, when, where, and how are usually necessary information and easily discovered. The element that is rarely provided in the source material is why anyone should care.

I believe that one of the tests of effective content is whether or not it responds well to the question, “So what?” When I complete the first draft of anything, I ask myself, “So what?” If I haven’t answered that question on the page, it’s time to start rewriting.

One of our clients is creating something that, on the surface, would appear to be nothing new. He had asked a copywriter to create content for his website, but he wasn’t happy with the result. The writing was solid enough, but something was missing.

After meeting with the client for over an hour, I understood what it was. The content was missing him, the person behind the vision. Without him, it seemed like something we’ve all seen before. Once we began to include the personality behind the vision, there was a reason to be interested.

Although a lack of uniqueness was a symptom in this case, uniqueness alone is rarely the answer. If the answer to the question, “So what?” is, “Because it’s unique,” that is not truly compelling. It might be interesting and briefly grab my attention, but it won’t keep me engaged unless there is something behind it.

How many “great” commercials have you seen where 15 seconds after seeing the commercial you could not remember the product? You could remember the images or the story or the jokes, but you had to strain to remember the product.

I recently relearned this lesson when I started this blog. I created clever (in my own mind) titles for each entry, but after I had written blog entries for a few weeks, I looked back at the titles and realized that none of them answered the question, So what? None of my titles told the potential reader anything about the subject of the blog or what insight they might gain from reading it. So I rewrote them (see right-hand column).

A clever or unusual title might attract a few people curious to know what I could possibly be talking about, but there are more people willing to click a link when they think they might gain some useful insight.

Our other content client has many unique aspects about his business, but they are simply a list of facts, like the hours of operations, until we frame them as characters in the story of why you should care.

Despite what you might read in books that teach you how to write “words that sell,” this is not accomplished by including certain words in all the copy on your website, words designed to cause mass hypnosis among readers so they buy, buy, buy whatever you sell, sell, sell. These are useful tactics if you’re engaged in direct marketing or its online equivalents, and if there is a page on your website where you ask for the sale, it doesn’t hurt to use some words that push in that direction.

The bulk of your website, especially the pages most likely to be viewed initially by a visitor, should engage the reader in your story and make them want to be a part of that story.

www.freshgroundconsulting.com

Posted by Fresh Ground at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mike Ferguson, Fresh Ground Consulting

Some managers are great in a crisis. They’re so good in a crisis that they create them. They procrastinate in order to experience a time crunch or a chaotic environment. They over-look details during planning so they will have to think fast on their feet to solve the resulting problems during execution. They enjoy the rescue because it’s fun, they get to be creative, they don’t have to follow an established process, and they feel like they work better under pressure and with the rush of adrenaline.

In a crisis, the expectations change to “just fix it, don’t let it get worse.” In team sports, the clutch player, the one who sinks a thirty-footer at the buzzer for a win, gets more immediate praise than the player who just methodically scores point after point all through the game.

This type of manager is often a perfectionist with a great imagination. When things are running smoothly, he thinks there is no excuse for not performing to perfection, and he imagines vividly what anything less than perfect will look like. Of course, his prophecy is fulfilled, but once in the throes of crisis he is no longer distracted by all that can go wrong. Something has already gone wrong and he actually relaxes into focusing on the rescue because he has no other options.

Managing from crisis to crisis can become addicting and is a difficult habit to break. To move away from this cycle, managers usually need objective and regular feedback as they become self-aware of the patterns. While the process is different for everyone, the key is redirecting the energy that is wasted on imagining what less than perfect looks like into developing systems and routines for every day, redirecting imagining energy with positive activity.

The question that managers who are addicted to chaos or crisis ask themselves, consciously or not , is, “If I’m not fixing something or rescuing something then what do I do?” The answer is simple. As a manager, their job is to manage to get things done without entering crisis.

Creating systems and routines for managing our daily workload, if we commit to them, can create a healthy and productive sense of urgency and immediacy and regular positive feedback. Real crisis, even self-inflicted, is inevitable and everyone gets a “crisis fix” from time to time. Getting organized also even outs your workload and decreases the tendency to work in spurts, but it is not easy. Exercise accomplishes the same thing for your body and evens out the adrenaline flow.

There is always the chance that the constant chaos in your workplace is beyond your control, but in my experience it is unlikely. Even if the culture in your organization is one of ongoing crisis, by stepping out of the tornado and methodically putting points on the board by first organizing your own workspace and work flow, you will make a greater contribution to those who choose to keep flying about in the wind.

www.freshgroundconsulting.com

Posted by Fresh Ground at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)