Month: January 2021

A mistake I’ve made – and see too many high-potential young leaders making – is trying to improve their skills on too many fronts simultaneously. 

Focus matters.  Intensity produces lasting results.

Be like the professional golfers who occasionally play full games but devote most of their practice time on small elements – hitting out of sandtraps, putting, short approach shots, shaping a shot from left to right, etc.

What does that look for someone in a business situation?

Rather than “working on my communication skills,” try focusing on writing better email subject lines for two weeks.  Sharpening your presentation intro sentences for the next 4 presentations.  Including a “call to action” in conversations so people know precisely what you’re asking for, by when.

Rather than “be better at data analytics,” hone your use of pivot tables in Excel for two weeks.  Practice looking distributions of data rather than settling for an average. Ask two people for the raw data behind their chart and explore it with Power BI.

Instead of “thinking strategically,” practice asking yourself, “What’s the reasoning behind my boss’ request?”  Take 30 minutes and make notes about how competitors might respond to your company’s new product line.  During the next two meetings with senior leaders, take notes about what is NOT being said.

You acquire mastery of a craft by practicing component skills for short intervals.

The Star Trek universe is sometimes described as “post-scarcity,” meaning that energy is limitless, all disease and poverty has been eliminated, and there is no need for money.

I’ve seen all the ST movies and nearly all the different TV series. They’re (mostly) enjoyable and explore fun topics.  But post-scarcity?  Hogwash.

Thermodynamic laws are what they are. Using energy always creates entropy as waste heat. Even the alchemists of old, pursuing endless gold, understood that the only thing in the universe with infinite supply is human ambition and pride. Therefore, no future society will ever be post-scarcity. Unequal distributions are simply a fact. This creates the need for markets (resources, their collection and allocation) and a means to measure value in a market — money.

As Scott Adams of “Dilbert” fame wrote, the future will not be like Star Trek because humans will be in it. Despite Gene Rodenberry’s fantasy about the Star Trek future, all the best plots revolved around greed, ambition, good vs. evil, and…scarcity of things like time, dilithium crystals, hybrid wheat, and medicines. The only good episode that featured abundance was “The Trouble with Tribbles” and even that one had a Klingon spy! 

Leadership must always operate amidst scarcity of something you value.  Cultivating “if only I had” fantasies wastes precious time – instead, cultivate a powerful imagination of solutions that fit with your scarcity.  Alternatively, what does your competitor (or enemy) lack that can be exploited for strategic advantage?  An enormous fraction of behavior is predictable if you can associate it with scarcity.

These Covid times are fun-killers.  Many of the ways we’re used to having fun are limited or unavailable.  Travel. Music events. Sports. Bars and restaurants. Taking kids to amusement parks. Getting together with other hobbyists.

What’s there to do except work more?

This is very dangerous for leaders. 

Workaholism leads to boredom, which leads to the death of new ideas.  Organizations shrivel without new ideas and re-creation.

I challenge you to find avenues as stimulating and fun as your best days “at work.”  You’ll discover that many of your best ideas come while you’re having fun. 

Make fun a priority, for the sake of your organization, and so you can thrive.

There is value of planning for deliverables in the next six weeks – it’s long enough to get a substantial result yet short enough you can’t procrastinate.  Many organizations operate in quarters.  Six weeks can be either the first half of a quarter, or the finishing half.  Focusing hard for six weeks still leaves you multiple opportunities every calendar year to pivot and adjust your vector.

There is another reason I advocate a six-week planning cycle as part of a larger view of ultimate success:  It fits the dynamic nature of the uncertainty which underlies all great opportunities. 

I find it interesting that fast-growing businesses think about a year’s progress in a quarter.  This creates urgency and push, while allowing for adjustments as the environment changes.

Simple steps:

1. Decide what outcomes you want at the end of the six-weeks.  It helps me to imagine what I want to be able to say to my boss.  Sometimes I even pre-write the report!  That effort of writing about the result sparks my thinking of what it takes to get there.
2. Identify information you need, people you need to meet, decisions that need to be made, and what needs to be created and communicated.
3. Get appointments on the calendar.  It can be quite difficult to get a meeting set up with busy people in the next 2 days but is usually easy 2-4 weeks out.
4. Block working time on your calendar.  Label these with the specific task and outcome.  Make them private if you’re concerned about confusing someone or raising needless suspicions.  Be sure to block time for communicating results to stakeholders.
5. Work your plan. Communicate and celebrate!
6. Return to step 1.

Give the six-week planning cycle a try.  You’ll deliver more and find the process energizing.

Many experienced business leaders study military strategy and benefit by

• Having language to describe competitive and political situations & actions
• Reaching “Aha” moments when they recognize what’s going on and good next steps
• Principles that underlie the human dimension of conflict

The US military operates on these key principles:

• Objective (Direct every military operation towards a clearly defined, decisive, and attainable objective)
• Offensive (Seize, retain, and exploit the initiative)
• Mass (Concentrate combat power at the decisive place and time)
• Economy of Force (Allocate minimum essential combat power to secondary efforts)
• Maneuver (Place the enemy in a disadvantageous position through the flexible application of combat power)
• Unity of Command (For every objective, ensure unity of effort under one responsible commander)
• Security (Never permit the enemy to acquire an unexpected advantage)
• Surprise (Strike the enemy at a time, at a place, or in a manner for which he is unprepared)
• Simplicity (Prepare clear, uncomplicated plans and clear, concise orders to ensure thorough understanding)

The best 100 pages on maneuver warfare – and perhaps all of strategy for a dynamic business – is the US Marines’ manual of maneuver warfare, required reading for officers.  I recommend the full document, but if pressed for time check out this 12-page synopsis.  I used to make this required reading for managers working for me.  Many of the elements valued by businesses are here – focused, adaptable, responsive, flexible, agile, results-oriented, pushing decision-making to the people closest to action, training & equipping, managing tempo, and more.

Many businesses must be able to operate at scale.  The Army War College has published significant documents about logistics – managing troops, support efforts, and materiel. I personally find this topic dull but it is crucial to success. I have personally met IT leaders at Walmart, Amazon, and Microsoft who study military history for principles and tactics to manage their big operations.  Most MBA programs today heavily leverage the learnings from the history of military engagement logistics.  Generals Omar Bradley and Dwight Eisenhower were students of General George Marshall who said, “Amateurs talk tactics. Professionals talk logistics.”

Robert Green’s book The 33 Strategies of War is a detailed resource.  I suggest you review this summary.  Machiavelli’s The Prince is also a classic text on the human dimension.  What’s useful here is the commentary about the human dimensions of warfare: how to manage your team, instilling confidence in leaders, maintain morale, anticipate what the enemy might do, discourage the enemy, solicit political support.  It’s not hard to extrapolate to business situations.  Deceptions is a major factor in successful warfare, but that is less useful for businesses operating in free markets.

I hope this gives you a starting point. 

A friend recently asked me: “What does a typical day/week look like for you? How do you organize your time? Have you developed a writing routine, or does it just fit into “flex time?”

Important context:  I am still working full-time, albeit from home during this pandemic.  Our children are grown and gone, so it is just me, my beloved wife, and our dog.  Therefore, I have some time and energy privileges that others do not.  My specific gifts are teaching and encouraging.  I have strengths in absorbing and synthesizing diverse information, and communicating. 

I usually wake up about 4:00am without an alarm.  Early morning is my most productive time.  I use the time before starting my “job” to read 10 chapters from the Bible, sit quietly with my journal and listen, deep reading on a book, write, stretch out, shower and get dressed.  This is also the time window when I’m getting ready to teach at church – usually a focused Bible time and meditative prayer asking what specifically this group of people needs to hear from the Word this Sunday.

These days I start work about 6:30am.  I get a few things done until about 7am when it is time to walk with Watson, our dog – usually at least 20-30 minutes, often 40 minutes.  About half the time I’ll listen to a podcast (I like long-form interviews and discussions) and the rest of the time I’m intentionally praying and listening and working out problems in my head. 

My “job” hours are roughly 6:30 am to 5ish PM most days.  I’m frequently on Zoom calls and do a considerable amount of writing in my role as a manager.  I work hard to be efficient and manage my energy rather than my time. The key to success for my rhythms “at work” are taking many mini-breaks during the day.  Two minutes for a few pushups and sit-ups or walk out outside to get a few breaths of fresh air.  Ten minutes for reading breaks.  Five minutes to jot a few notes about future writing projects or doodle an idea. Five minutes for intercession for people on my prayer list.  Look up industry articles while I eat lunch.  Alternate use of my standing desk and sitting down.  I will check news headlines during the day, rather than letting that dominate my morning or evening rituals. I designate parts of my schedule to be for deep work, and parts for administrative work which takes less original thinking (which I prefer to do in the early afternoon). I haven’t been able to make the Pomodoro method work consistently well, but the concept of rhythm changes and breaks is essential, so I don’t burn out.

At the end of my “job day” I run through my “I’m leaving work now” ritual.  This helps me create the right mental framework, especially when working from home.

Then it’s time for the second walk with Watson.  I usually use this walking time for reflection and intercession for others. My beloved and I catch up over dinner.  A few nights a week we do a CrossFit workout together with our coach over Zoom.  

I wind down by responding to emails and more book reading.  I’m usually in bed about 8pm.  I have a “thankful” ritual and ask God to teach me what I need to better glorify him. The only benefit of serious apnea is that I can fall asleep in seconds nearly every night. 

Last year I decided that I’d read enough contemporary books and no longer need to read “everything” to “be informed.”  I have a 10-year project to reread the Great Books of the Western World (I went through them all when I was 18-19 years old; weird, I know) and about 40 other classic books which have been valuable for long periods of time.  These give me perspective and many new ideas. I’m usually reading 2 or 3 books at once, dipping in as I have breaks.  I have learned to read with great concentration and speed. I find that I need to feed myself good input in order to be a productive writer. 

Finally, a bit about my writing… I’m usually working on multiple short blog posts and sections of my weekly newsletter every day, and on my book writing projects probably 3 days out of 7.  Writing is rewriting; I edit almost everything before sharing.  I correspond with multiple people, both deep friends and people who contact me with questions.  Most of the time I’m pushing myself to generate at least 500 publishable or shareable words a day.  Probably 10-30% of my writing work is really for me as I try to sort through ideas and issues. 

What’s different on weekends:  More time for writing projects and reading, a delightful rhythm change for house cleaning and around the house chores, times for naps and conversations, more dedicated time for journaling, and regular times talking with family members and friends.

My biggest vulnerabilities:  I love movies and good TV series and can easily get sucked into them rather than doing the better things.  I am not nearly well-disciplined enough about eating.

I realize this schedule is not for everyone, and in many ways is quite selfish.  I expect the days will change somewhat when I’m no longer working at a “job,” but I do expect to continue my practices for extensive input and productive writing. 

I am committed to reading harder books, and I want you to read harder books, because it’s good for us and for the people in our sphere of influence.

I define “harder book” in relative terms for you – a book which stretches you, requires sustained focus and commitment, and strengthens you.  Strive also for books which are worthy of multiple re-reads to extract more from them over time.  

Here I will focus on the why, rather than how, or which books to read.  If you don’t have a powerful why the mechanics don’t matter.  (Though I will recommend Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book and my own recommended book list from Bold and Gentle.)

Read harder books in order to:

• Gain new insights. 
• Gain perspective that cannot come from “trendy” books of the day.
• Develop a stronger mind. 
• Add richness to your imagination and ability to find creative solutions.
• Be recognizably different from your peers and your competition.
• Because you know you should.

Ah, yes, the excuses that are bubbling up in your mind…

Be honest, now – how many of these excuses are just lies you are telling yourself? 

The whole challenge of prioritizing work – both at individual and group levels – has been on my mind lately.  There are no formulas and fixed rules will fail, but there are guidelines.

A critical skill is to say No or at least Not Now.  There’s room for dialogue about project value from the “bottom up” perspective, but my observation is that making the clear call of This and Not That require authoritative (which is different than authoritarian) leadership.  There is only so much energy available, so where to focus it, and why?  What is true at the racetrack is true in real life:  If you bet on every horse in the race you will have bet on the winner, but the odds are constructed so you lose money.

Most organizations have a broad portfolio of projects and objectives.  The nature of operations work — execute a process to create a product or deliver a service — will take every bit of energy you can give it;  there are always opportunities to do more, including process improvements.  We must intentionally grant and protect energy going into discovery and creating innovative solutions.  The principle is two-fold: set a cap on operations and existing product support (looking for efficiencies), and carve out enough for creating the next new things.

A big mistake I’ve seen (and made) over and over in my career: Believing you can optimize for more than 1 thing.  Determine the #1 criterion for optimization, and make sure everyone knows it.  You can pick a secondary optimization criterion after that.  I’ve never seen a 3^rd optimization criterion be effective.  Choose which problems you prefer to have.  A painfully-learned lesson – be wary of situations where two key stakeholders want to prioritize a portfolio on different criteria.  That guarantees a no-win and a surplus of irritation.

Concentration and focus produce valuable results sooner.  We generally try to execute too many projects in parallel.

An under-appreciated aspect of managing a portfolio (yours, or a group’s) is leaving margin.  Not everything works perfectly.  No one can run past their red-line for long without consequences.  New opportunities will surface and if there is no intentional margin then those opportunities are nearly impossible to exploit.  I find it fascinating that in enzyme pathways and healthy ecosystems most processes operate at about 80% of theoretical maximum – and things go badly awry when those same processes operate above 90% for long. 

[Important to hold in tension with this last paragraph:  Laziness and sloth is unacceptable.  We must be self-disciplined.  Exercise physiologists in the US Army teach that your first sensations of pain come at the 50% mark, most likely as a self-protection mechanism to limit actual damage.  When you start thinking you can’t do more, you probably have 30-40% left in the tank.  The mind wants to quit long before the body. The mind-body relationship is deep and complex.  We can and should push ourselves for excellence and achievement, so long as we are also getting appropriate recovery time.]

There is also the importance of making adjustments as new information becomes available.  You can drive hundreds of miles in the dark even though your headlights only go 200 feet if you are watching and steering as you go forward.   Drowsy drivers hit ditches; same for drowsy project managers. 

I suspect we need to step our ability to be integrative thinkers, not accepting simplistic either/or scenarios.  “If you can define the problem differently than everybody else in the industry, you can generate alternatives that others aren’t thinking about.” (Roger Martin)

What have I missed?