by Adam L Stanley | Oct 11, 2016 | Leadership, Technology
Having effective technology conversations
One of the biggest challenges for any technology leader these days is communicating. How do you discuss the value you are driving? Scorecards, dashboards, performance management, talk like a CEO, and on and on. How do you sell a new idea or service? Start with the business perspective, link to tangible EBITDA improvement, learn from consumer products. Lots of questions. Lots of blogs. But the most basic communication challenge is much more fundamental. And that is this: How do you think about technology?
You’re the CIO and we pay you something greater than nothing annually to think about technology. So, how do you … well, think about technology? After all, more and better technology — think AI or machine learning — signals the beginning of scaled automation, which some say could one day replace 1 in 2 jobs globally. So you should have a point of view and a way to structure your thinking that makes it easy for me, the layman CEO, to understand today’s tech as well as how you think about disruption. If they haven’t said this to you, they are thinking it.
Too often, technology leaders replace legitimate conversations about technology — and how to think about and strategize around it — with a lot of buzzwords and process jargon that doesn’t really help leadership conceptualize the present state and the future state. I’m going to try to explain how I look at technology at the macro level. For those of you that work with me, you may recognize this from a Tech Talk for our Americas business. Proof that I practice what I blog and vice versa.
Four Strategic Focus Areas
For at least the last 15 years, I have started with four principles. They have changed somewhat over time but in general I find these are easy to understand and apply to all sorts of businesses, including different service lines within my current business. My strategic priorities are simply to continue to deliver value through these four drivers:
- Utility – A strong foundation for future growth, with scalable and stable core services
- Productivity – Enabling efficient service delivery for all of our colleagues, regardless of role
- Connectivity – Enabling the power of our large global platform to effectively service local market needs
- Insight – Driving business growth through strategic use of information in analytics
I sometimes think of these four elements as components of a balanced technology portfolio, akin to a food pyramid, but for technological adoption.
For those of you who do not have children or work in schools, here is the food pyramid, the US government’s recommendation for balanced food “portfolios”:
Note: the new food pyramid is clearly the result of some consulting team getting paid loads to take something very simply and make it bizarrely complex so I will simply ignore that one.
It’s critical that CIOs and other technology leaders move beyond the buzzwords to try to structure their thinking. Executives are busy people. They’re constantly pulled in a thousand different directions. That’s why you see studies like this one from MIT’s Sloan School of Management: basically, 67 percent of senior leaders can’t name the priorities of their org. That’s bad on surface, yes, but it’s also pretty logical. Senior leadership is a constant battle between these three forces:
- What needs to get done
- What you want to get done
- What would be nice to do
That plays out in tech and tech adoption more than anywhere. That’s why you need some kind of rubric, concept, or way of thinking to escalate up the chain.
Back to my four areas.
Utility
Utility is the base level — akin to breads, cereals, rice, and pastas. Here, you get the basics right. You build a strong foundation for future growth. The key in the utility stage — which is going to take you a bit of time; more on that in one second — is stable but also scalable core services. Runners know they need carbs to gain energy necessary to push their muscles and finish the race. Likewise, without the Utility level of technology (your “grains”), you cannot grow your business. The network may be boring, but it’s the only thing connecting each of your offices, factories, and teams.
Here is something people often forget: You can INNOVATE within the utility layer. When I was a kid, most children ate plain old white bread. Now, they eat gluten free this, multi-grain that, and the bread aisle has dozens of choices. The basics have gotten better for you. Likewise, utility services must also continue to improve. We are moving to SD-WAN in our network space and away from traditional network architecture. We are using cloud storage solutions to replace file shares. Innovation at this level produces cost efficiencies and a stronger foundation. So, contrary to those who talk about “plumbing”, people or partners in this space are critical to your technology organization.
Productivity
Productivity is how you begin building on utility. This means that, regardless of role, there needs to be effective service delivery. How do you build and improve tools that enhance our ability to execute our business? This is not just about collaboration tools, and is not the same as plumbing. This could include robots that automate cleaning bathrooms or presentation tools that generate dynamic reports with fewer hours required by graphic designers.
Manufacturing businesses constantly work on productivity and it is a major focus. But often professional services firms focus exclusively on “knowledge worker” productivity. In addition to the fact that I find that term completely offensive (maybe I’m too PC in thinking that implies other workers are not knowledgeable), it limits thinking. Productivity for Finance professionals can be generated by implementing cloud based, mobile friendly financial management and reporting tools like Workday. For a business development team, its effective client data management and presentations tools. For a janitor or engineer, it means service task management, or easy access to instructions for repeatable work.
And, yes, there is LOADS of innovation in this space. Get the pattern? You can innovate everywhere but you do need to think about the end goal. And in this layer of the “food pyramid”, you’ve got to get your fruits and veggies. You have to allow your people to better do their jobs.
Connectivity
Connectivity is when you start moving to really grow the business through technology. “Milk: It does a body good” was the old slogan when I was a kid. It is great for growth, strong bones, and good teeth. Meat likewise gives you protein that helps build muscle mass. Likewise, connectivity is where you truly start to leverage technology to grow.
You have this large global business, but you want it to effectively meet local market needs. In the connectivity space we must make it easier for colleagues to share knowledge, find the right expert wherever they might be in the company, and create a richer experience with which you can connect with your clients. My blog is called Connections and the heart of this stage is connections. In my blog “Make Life Connections instead of networking”, I discuss the power of a network. Harnessing the intelligence and experience of the best people is critical for any business and in this stage we look for ways to more effective make these value driving connections.
Insight
Finally, you get to insight. This is the “sweets and oils” section of my technological adoption pyramid. The difference in metaphor? Sweets and oils should be used sparingly, but … insight, which is all about driving business growth through advanced analytics, should be used consistently but ONLY once your business can arrive at this stage.
Dominic Barton, one of the global heads of McKinsey, has outlined something similar for the next 10-20 years of business. Analytics — using information as a competitive advantage — is still one of the cornerstones, but herein lies a problem.
Many companies try to jump all the way to the advanced analytics stage of this four-step model. They waste millions building massive “data lakes”, hiring data scientists, and celebrating “Big Data”. You absolutely cannot do that. Some businesses feel they can’t wait that long, but that’s a mistake. If you try to jump all the way to advanced analytics without the basics in place, a number of problems can result:
- You’re capturing the wrong intel
- You don’t have the right people to help analyze and present on it
- The data is duplicated or not scrubbed
- The pursuit of data is harming day-to-day technological needs
“Waiting patiently” is not a currency of most modern business, but in this case it’s all about moving through the steps in a logical way as opposed to rushing to where the revenue might be. When you try to hit the revenue stages too fast, many other functionalities can crumble around that pursuit. Like the food pyramid, if you eat too many sweets without your fruits, veggies, and grains, you may be fat and happy for a little while. But eventually, you are not healthy and begin to suffer.
Moving beyond the pyramid
Now, in the next post I do, I’m going to talk a little bit about disruption and how wrong a lot of us are in our thinking there. Disruption is very real — we get calls from dozens of startups every day trying to offer us services that we didn’t know we needed. But while disruption is real, our approaches to it (how to beat it back, embrace it, or drive it ourselves ) are hackneyed, old thinking. But that’s for the next post.
For now, I’m curious to hear: do you have ways that you think about technology and adoption cycles internally? I’m less about the cute acronyms and more about bringing along the most people possible to the mission and methodology. What say you?
Be well. Lead On.
Adam
Related Posts:
The Power of Authenticity
Investing in talent for the long-term
Peer accountability is critical to success in teams
Adam L. Stanley Connections Blog
Technology. Leadership. Food. Life.
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by Adam L Stanley | Sep 11, 2016 | Life, Quotes and Inspiration, Relationships
Never Forget
September 11 – Fifteen Years Later
Adam Stanley – 2001
Many of you have read my stories from the Morning and Afternoon of the awful nightmare that was September 11, 2001. It took two years for me to be able to share my morning story broadly, and several more years to talk about the rest of the story.
I will never forget the tragedy. But I will also never forget the way we rallied together. On this 15th anniversary, I choose to remember it all. The horror and the light that emerged from the darkness.
I remember the friend of a friend of a friend who opened her house to me that night. The four strangers that shared a rental van with me so we could find a train or plane to wherever.
I remember the massive headache I had until I was finally out of the city, literally crossing the border into the city of Chicago in that Philadelphia procured rental van with four strangers. And sharing hugs with my partner, my family, and my friends in Chicago. The joy and love I felt when I was finally able to listen to my voicemails, check email, and see so many people that cared.
I remember the heartache on September 22, when I first returned to New York and tried to start working again. It’s hard to describe but feeling a mixture of relief you could just move on, sadness so many people would never return to their desks, and a bit of melancholy thinking of how little what you were doing actually meant in the grand scheme of things.
I remember the wretched sickness of the smell of burnt steel, and human decay. Walking back to the building so close to Ground Zero. Going up to the cafeteria where I first saw the tower burning and seeing a vast emptiness where once two great towers stood. To my office where the CFO and I had stood watching the events unfold, in anger and tears.
I remember the concerts, the signs, the flowers everywhere, the photos of missing loved ones. I cry thinking of the faces of those who did not know for sure for weeks. Some still do not have any remains to bury.
I remember the names. Oh God the names. That was, and remains, the most difficult part for me. It has been 15 years and I still cannot say for sure that I did not know someone else that perished that day. So many people died. Who amongst the long list was an ex-lover, a former coworker, a grade school friend? Who had sat next to me on the plane the previous day? Was one of the flight attendants someone that greeted me with a smile on one of my countless flights around the country? Someone I stood in line with at Barneys New York nearby, or one of the coffee trucks.
I remember the news. Constant, unending reminders of what happened. Pundits from all over the country, many of whom were nowhere near Ground Zero, pontificating about what happened. Troops being deployed by a Pentagon still mourning the loss of so many of their own. Stories of the heroes and photos of the perpetrators. I remember shutting it all out as much as I could.
I remember the different views of my friends and colleagues. Some of us walked through or were in the building when the tragedy started. Others were merely blocks away. Some worked in midtown but lived near the World Trade Center. Some were out of town when it happened. Others had never even been to New York but were fellow Americans. Many people had a story simply because wherever they were in the world, their hearts were horrified by what had happened.
It was hard for me to talk to anyone for a while after that day. My story was different than their story. And in many ways that made it hard to comfort each other. I could no more comfort someone who personally saw someone falling from one of the towers than I could be comforted by someone who only watched the horror on television. But there was hope and their was a spirit of resilience. There was a sense that we would overcome what happened and be stronger as a nation and as a people.
The media will lead you to believe we have lost all of that. That we have become more divided now than we were then. I do not believe that. I remain full of hope that we can rise above hatred, bigotry and all forms of evil. By the grace of God, we can be better and live better. We can love.
My Ask
My ask is simple. Do not use this 15th anniversary of that terrible day as a means to justify hatred, elect a political leader, or prove just how much more patriotic you are than the next person. Use it to show love. However you know how. “Never Forget” the lives that were lost. But also never forget those that were saved and those that saved. Never forget those who called you that day just to say hello and tell you they loved you. Never forget the renewed sense of optimism you had and the determination to rebuild and prove that we were not defeated. Never forget the people of many races, socioeconomic backgrounds, and religions that rallied together to help those in need.
Never forget that in a moment of pure terror, there was light somewhere near you.
Bring that light back. And the bad guys will never win.
Be well. Lead On.
Adam
Related Posts:
Remembering 9/11 – 15 years later (2016)
Remembering 9/11/01 – My Morning in Lower Manhattan (2011)
Remembering the kindness of strangers – September 11 (2014)
Retracing My Steps (2017)
Adam Stanley – 2016
Adam L. Stanley Connections Blog
Technology. Leadership. Food. Life.
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by Adam L Stanley | Aug 4, 2016 | Leadership, Relationships, Teamwork
Helping your organization move on
Let me start out this post by saying it’s NOT about politics. In fact, let me repeat that one more time right up top: it’s not about politics. It’s about how a figure in the 2016 political landscape — nope, not Trump — can teach you something about business and culture within organizations.
I was watching a few nights of the Democratic National Convention last week and when I saw Bernie Sanders speaking to the crowd, I sent a one-word text to a good friend of mine: Brilliant.
Why did I think it was brilliant?
Bernie Sanders took his followers through three major stages of any process:
- Celebration
- Application
- Dedication
This is insanely hard to do. In fact, just the other week — after seeing Bernie at the convention — I was having lunch with a colleague and we were talking about merger integration. As I think most people know or realize, most mergers fail. (83% is a conventional number thrown around.) And yet, we see them every week — in this summer alone, we’ve seen Microsoft grab LinkedIn (for a lot) and Verizon grab Yahoo (for not nearly as much). That part makes sense: mergers are one of the fastest paths to growth.
Here’s what is harder: in every merger or acquisition, there’s a company and set of leaders who “won” or will “win” in terms of their ideas, processes, and culture coming through stronger. This happens in politics, obviously: Clinton beat Sanders, and Trump beat Cruz and Rubio and others. It’s the nature of competition that certain people, and ideas, win out over others.
Every company and leader that gets into these positions, though, has a Bernie Moment. It’s where you can choose to move from application to dedication on behalf of another set of leaders, or another company.
You can’t miss the Bernie Moment. When you miss it, your merger/acquisition is headed for that 83% failure rate stat above.
So what’s the method for arriving at the Bernie Moment? I’d say it breaks down into five parts:
Celebrate the previous victories
If you watched Bernie’s speech at the DNC, he spent the first couple of minutes on himself. He talked about all the votes he received. He mentioned that donations averaged $27 (the crowd loved that part). He mentioned all the voters who had never participated before. He defined it as a movement, essentially.
This was a crucial step because you had 5-10 minutes of yelling and hollering in a happy way. The crowd was chanting “Bernie!” almost the entire time. This needed to happen first, because if he had gone right into supporting Hillary, his supporters would have booed the hell out of that. A TV moment like that isn’t good for Hillary, and it isn’t good for what Bernie accomplished in this campaign cycle.
For a leader, then, it needs to begin with celebrating the wins that came before. That gets everyone aligned around the greatness of the cause and the work.
Be honest about change
After the crowd was fired up, Bernie admitted defeat. He lost. It wasn’t useful to sugarcoat it. He came right out and said it:
I understand that many people here in this convention hall and around the country are disappointed about the final results of the nominating process. I think it’s fair to say that no one is more disappointed than I am.
If you’re familiar with the standard stages of grief, it looks something like this:
As a leader or when building out a culture/movement, though, it doesn’t move in this exact way. Bernie almost began on the far right side — affirmation, hope — then moved down to depression. It’s almost the reverse of the standard grief curve, which usually happens when a loved one dies or something else terrible happens.
By now, though, Bernie had fired up the crowd then reset them in reality. Now it was time for the transition point.
Transition
Here’s what he did here:
Let me be as clear as I can be. This election is not about and has never been about Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders or any of the other candidates who sought the presidency. This election is not about political gossip, it’s not about polls, it’s not about campaign strategy, it is not about all the things that the media spends so much time discussing.
This election is about and must be about the needs of the American people and the kind of future we create for our children and our grandchildren.
In short, this is what he was saying: the mission is the mission, and the mission is important. It’s not about the people. It’s about the purpose.
This has TONS of implications in mergers/acquisitions, because usually what happens in those contexts is that one culture is totally absorbed by the other — so the “losing” culture is chucked out the window, essentially. If you have one culture based on financial metrics only and one culture based on collaboration/sharing, and the latter culture loses, well, those people who liked collaboration feel they now have to adapt or get a new job ASAP.
Leaders often try to skirt this issue by appealing to mission, purpose, and core values. That’s the “transition” moment in mergers. That’s when you move from “We were two companies” to “Now we’re one company, and let’s be honest, stuff will be different around here.” But you can make people focus less on what’s going to be different by appealing to a purpose. That’s what Bernie did and what a good leader can do.
Moving On
In standard grief cycles, this is “acceptance.” Bernie transitioned to supporting Clinton and encouraging others to support her as well. Days earlier, when he even remotely suggested this, he was booed. But here, he had to move on. Now, it’s easier to move on when you can …
Find a common enemy
In an article from The New Yorker about how the gun industry markets itself (and please remember, again, that this post is not meant to be political), there was a reference to the acknowledged technique of generating revenue by emphasizing the boundaries of a community. “We all have the need to belong,” he wrote in a presentation entitled “How to Turn One of Mankind’s Deepest Needs Into Cold, Hard Cash.” In a section called “How Do You Create Belief & Belonging?” he explained, “You can’t have a yin without a yang. Must have an enemy.”
Must have an enemy. It’s very powerful. You can argue Trump does this too, re: Clinton (“Crooked Hillary”) and immigrants.
Bernie made Trump, and his implied lack of focus on mission/purpose, the common enemy. In this way, he wasn’t necessarily “siding” with Hillary so much as he was working alongside her against a common foe.
This is really important in business. You wouldn’t do the merger or acquisition unless there was some value-add on both sides, right? So the value-add was there, the financials and legal repercussions were vetted, and it proceeded. Now you’re together. It’s going to be hard but you’re together against a common enemy — your competition, or the idea you’re trying to take down. When Google buys a company, for example, hopefully it’s fitting into the matrix of “organizing the world’s information.” The acquired company has common enemies with Google now — other tech rivals, but also processes that are making it hard for people to acquire and organize information.
You need to appeal to the common enemy. Almost all of our brains are wired to think in terms of “ingroup” vs. “out-group.” Business has been organized in those terms and constructs for generations.
The Recap
That’s the five-step path to your Bernie Moment, then:
- Celebrate
- Accept fate and be honest
- Transition
- Move on
- Find a common enemy
It worked for Bernie — he’s continuing his movement — and it can work for your business, whether you’re Satya Nadella and Jeff Weiner or two guys merging local ice cream stores. Just think about the process and try not to miss your Bernie moment!
Be well. Lead On.
Adam
Related Posts:
The Power of Authenticity
Investing in talent for the long-term
Peer accountability is critical to success in teams
Adam L. Stanley Connections Blog
Technology. Leadership. Food. Life.
AdamLStanley.com
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by Adam L Stanley | Jul 20, 2016 | Leadership, Life, Relationships
Are you allowing your colleagues to get to know YOU?
Recently, I was asked by Todd Tukey “What advice would you give a 14 year-old based on what you’ve learned to date?” Todd was writing a series of blog posts intended to empower youth. (Here is first post)
I thought long and hard about this question. I turned over different tidbits on my education, leveraging support networks, and never being afraid to ask for help. Obviously I thought about working hard, the value of teamwork, etc. I thought about striving to be the best, setting clear goals, and more. The things that were coming to my mind were aspects that drove the first 10 years of my career, and continue to be important.
But in the end, they all paled in comparison to one thing that’s driven my career, my relationships, and my friendships the most: being unapologetically me.
When I got to that place and understood the power of authenticity, I wanted to sit down and write something about it. Then I checked myself. So many people — especially the leadership “gurus” — bring up authenticity as a topic. It can seem kind of old. It can also seem preachy. And then my other fear, which is maybe a bit misguided, is that if I put down a bunch of revealing thoughts on authenticity, I’d somehow jinx myself.
I turned all that over in my head for a while and finally decided to put down some thoughts. Here goes.
Being phony is stressful.
Duh.
Maryam Kouchaki, a professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University, has done a bunch of work around being authentic vs. being phony in work contexts. Here’s a quote from one of her write-ups that struck me:
“We shouldn’t overlook the psychological distress that comes with inauthentic behavior,” she says. “Just as an immoral act violates widely accepted societal moral norms and produces negative feelings, an inauthentic act violates being true to oneself, and it can take a similar toll.”
We talk a lot about immoral actions at work, especially in the context of inflated CEO pay or executives taking liberties. But all in all, that stuff is rare. People being inauthentic at work? That happens every minute. It happens for different reasons, but I’d argue No. 1 is notions around professionalism. People are afraid that if they act ‘real’ at work, it might offend a boss or higher-up — and that will limit their career trajectory. I know. I’ve felt that way myself.
Over time, I’ve come to look at it like this: some people will love me. Some will hate me. The majority fall somewhere in the middle. But as you work and develop other relationships, you can’t alter your personality or hide key parts of who you are. That decision — to be yourself, always — is one of the most critical career choices you ever make. It’s a lot bigger than whether to jump from Job A to Job B, if you plan to be inauthentic at both spots.
Harness the power of letting yourself be YOU.
Here are a few benefits I saw from pursuing authenticity at work:
My work relationships got stronger
Early in my career, I thought that to succeed you had to like the same things as your colleagues, do the same things that your colleagues do, and talk about the same things as your colleagues. When I made the decision to be myself, talking about things that mattered to me, I realized just how wrong I was.
My colleagues actually were interested in knowing more about who I was. I hadn’t been very social out of work in those days, and my colleagues were assuming I just wasn’t a social person. Once I contextualized that, and started being me, those dynamics got deeper. I felt like I wasn’t “hiding” anything anymore.
My personal relationships also got stronger
For a long time, I kept a strict ‘church and state’ between my partner at home and my work (same with my family/friends and work). It was a very strong, very defined line for me.
Over time, as I broke down those walls, I saw some of my personal relationships change. My friends and my partner saw why I was working late. They met other people who were there until 8pm dealing with a difficult banking client on a consulting engagement. They were also able to see what made me happy in a work context, what made me upset, and get to know the personalities of the people I was spending 10-12 hours/day with. This made my personal relationships stronger because we had more of a lexicon. There was more to discuss. And now my partner and friends had access to a part of my life I had previously closed off.
My output got stronger
Think of it like this: if you have a colleague with limited English language skills in an American meeting, what tends to happen? When a big idea is being discussed, that colleague might have a great perspective but struggle to verbalize. He expends so much energy trying to explain/contextualize the idea in English that the value of the idea diminishes. He’s putting all his effort towards form, whereas it should go to the more valuable facet, output and outcomes.
That’s an imperfect analogy, but it’s how I think about authenticity too. When you’re worried about every step you’re taking in terms of corporate culture (or pleasing bosses or anything else), that’s occupying a lot of your headspace. It’s hard to be strategic when you’re always checking yourself. But when you’re being yourself, in a state of flow, the ideas and output are there. I was able to deliver more and sell more. All my standard business performance metrics went up.
Hopefully my approach to this topic wasn’t too tired compared to other stuff you’ve seen or read. If you’ve had experiences at work where you’ve had to check your real self, let me know about them. What did you do? How did your thinking evolve?
Be well. Lead On.
Adam
Related Posts:
Defining the Perfect Employee – Top Traits Series Trait 1: Hard working AND talented
Investing in talent for the long-term
Peer accountability is critical to success in teams
Adam L. Stanley Connections Blog
Technology. Leadership. Food. Life.
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by Adam L Stanley | Jun 10, 2016 | Leadership, Relationships, Teamwork
I started to make this blog post one of my #SoapBox rants. It is in fact a topic about which I am passionate. Largely because I have seen really bad behaviors and would love to do my part to get rid of them. I’ve blogged about Trust, Empowerment, and Accountability, but never really dug deep into accountability. While I think many organizations are starting to do a really good job at defining expectations and holding people accountable, it is still too often the manager that is calling the tasks and managing the tough conversations. A few people have really argued that peers can play as active a role in this and they should. And I agree. So this post is about holding each other accountable, across silos and organizational hierarchies.
————————–
There is a dirty little secret in many organizations that teams oftentimes don’t want to collaborate, driven perhaps by the idea that while we do a lot of our work in teams, we still promote individuals. If you follow the two-pizza rule and assume most teams are 8-10 members dispatched to work on a business need, in a given fiscal year probably 1-2 of those people (at most) will get advanced. If you’re in the 7-9 who don’t get advanced and that keeps happening, you might eventually become a bit disgruntled about the idea of constant team-building.
Here’s the other problem with teams besides the motivation aspect: how they’re run. Oftentimes, teams are very driven by process — which is a good thing, as it sets rules and expectations for how the work will get done — but there’s a large concern over who owns the process, i.e. the team lead. This is also good in one respect (accountability), but bad in another — and ironically, it’s also accountability.
I saw this recently in an organization. One of the leaders designed a portfolio dashboard for project management in his group. It was pretty awesome — there was easy-to-access, intuitive information about timelines, budgets, due dates, and roles. Here was the problem: the tool was created by someone not responsible for creating that tool based on the operating model and org structure (it should have been the PMO). Because the team wasn’t getting what they wanted from the PMO, they did an end-run and created a better solution. Of course, this type of action can lead to a decent amount of politics and finger-pointing over responsibility, as opposed to a focus on being the most productive we could be.
Sadly in many cases, the way we structure teams is typically representative of the way we structure whole organizations. Hierarchy defines decision-making authority in the most formal sense. Since hierarchy may never die — despite what we’ve been told about millennials — we should, in a way, get used to this.
Think for a second about how ineffective this can be. You’ve probably seen this cycle a dozen or more times in different jobs you’ve had, but here it goes: an employee escalates an issue to a team manager, who then must go and talk to a peer manager. The peer manager has to go talk to the employee, who presents his/her perspective to the peer manager — who now has to go back to the team manager and explain the perspective. The team manager can now go to the employee. It’s like a massive version of reply all chain threads, but in real life and not in your inbox. It kills time and saps productivity, and yet, that’s typically how we deal with team management and issue escalation.
Escalations and circles of perceived accountability should be the exception and not the rule. I think of my work this way: 95% of real change comes from the direct reports of my direct reports. They do the actual work. I should be focusing on strategy and growth. If I’m spending all my time quashing escalations, we’re all in a free fall.
There’s a potentially better way to run teams, though: universal accountability.
The basic principle is simple, but very hard to execute: anyone on a team can hold anyone else accountable if it’s in the best interest of the team. And yes, that means you can cross hierarchical lines and call out someone that outranks you.
In a post on the Harvard Business Review blog, “The Best Teams Hold Themselves Accountable”, Joseph Grenny summarized a theory based around this series of logic:
- In the weakest teams, there is absolutely no accountability: You’ve probably seen this a few times wherever you work, or in previous jobs.
- In mediocre, middle-of-the-road teams, the boss/team lead is the source of accountability: This team might get a few things done, which is good, but there’s a tendency towards HIPPO Management (highest paid person’s opinion) and other flaws of ideation.
- In high-performing teams, peers manage each other: This is hard to arrive at because of how people tend to contextualize bosses and hierarchy, but actually drives the best results.
How can you apply this to your team?
Focus on team composition a lot more
You need to think a little more thoroughly about team composition. Oftentimes teams are thrown together based on a few silos that have ownership of a product or service or project. There can often not be much thought given to who’s involved and what role they’d play. As a result, you have a random smattering of individuals and a team lead. That team could come together and achieve some great business results, but I wouldn’t necessarily throw $20 on that happening in Vegas. It’s more likely that role confusion will lead to overlapping responsibilities, which will lead to team members chasing their tails, and ultimately the team lead will be on the hook for the flaws.
2. Hire the curious as much as (or more than) you hire the smart
Universal accountability will tend to work better on teams with a high degree of self-awareness and curiosity, as those teams are more willing to embrace changes to conventional team management models. Cass Sunstein, a professor at Harvard Law, has written and spoken extensively about what makes teams smart or dumb — and while he embraces universal accountability, he admits the bigger driving force of a successful team is ‘C-Factor,’ or the ability to embrace new ideas while working together. Hire people that are comfortable with change and ambiguity as long as they are learning. Hire the curious.
3. Reward problem solving without escalation
Perhaps as importantly, publicly scorn premature or unnecessary escalations. When I was a kid, my parents often told me “everyone hates a tattletale”. Of course, they did not mean to say I should never tell them if something awful happened to me. They simply wanted me to learn to self-heal and self-resolve conflicts as much as possible. Little did I know then they were teaching me a life lesson. The more you can solve problems direct with the source, the more effective you will be. Celebrate the problem solvers.
4. Model the behavior
You likely have issues with your peers as well, and your frustration is very visible to your teams. Show them you hold your peers accountable and they are more likely to model this behavior with their peers.
In an average day, you will only have so many productive hours outside of meetings and required client events, so you need to make the most of them. Every hour spent dealing with someone else’s drama or problems is an hour you could be driving value. Try to build a culture of universal accountability and see how much more you can get done.
Ever been on a team where Universal accountability was the norm? Could it work in YOUR organization? As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Be well. Lead On.
Adam
Related Posts:
Defining the Perfect Employee – Top Traits Series
Trait 1: Hard working AND talented
Trait 2: Pride in work product
Trait 3: Fun to work with
Investing in talent for the long-term
Adam L. Stanley Connections Blog
Technology. Leadership. Food. Life.
AdamLStanley.com
Follow me on Twitter | Connect with me on Linked In | “Like” me on Facebook
by Adam L Stanley | May 6, 2016 | Leadership, Relationships, Technology
Don’t ask for a seat at the table. Claim it!
Stop it. Just stop.
10 years ago, when IT was still an enabling function for most companies, you’d attend trade shows and conferences and there were seemingly endless discussions about “getting a seat at the table.”
Five years ago, this conversation was relevant for many companies that were recognizing the importance of technology to the business — but still not believing CIOs could actually drive the change.
Today, more and more I meet CIOs that are business leaders and run IT. This is a good thing!
But the next step is crucial. Now we need more CIOs and their direct reports claiming their seat at the table so that companies can do more internal promotion and less external recruitment.
But many CIO-chain reports still don’t know how to claim that seat at the business decision-making table. And my soapbox is for these leaders.
The short version: If you want to be relevant, you must be relevant. Do you know the business deeply and are you clear on the key things you can do to grow revenue, improve profitability and drive results? Make sure you do before you try to pull up a chair at the table!
Here are a few tips for those trying to claim their seat:
Stop trying to be the controller and be a partner
A “corporate IT” function focuses too much on rules and restrictions. It’s where business process can often bury actual business results. It doesn’t ask good business questions, and it tells business leaders what they must do, not how they could do. This leads to business leaders consulting with IT only when they have to, and not when they want to discuss strategy.
How to fix: Go watch HBO’s Silicon Valley Season 3, Episode 2 for a laugh about how “IT guys” talk to “sales guys.” Then come back here and realize this: hardcore business decision-makers want conversations and presentations in terms of actionable results — and they want them in their vocabulary, not yours. If you want a seat at the table, start by thinking about your limitations process-wise. Then invert those limitations into what can be done and re-focus your presentation ideas that way. No executive wants to hear a bunch of process tech-speak about neural nets or back-ends. They don’t really care. They want to know how results will be achieved. So you need to provide that context. That’s partnership, instead of a roadblock. Roadblocks don’t typically get the seat at the table.
Have a point of view
In line with the above, one of the potential reasons for my success getting to the table may be the fact that I frankly don’t know all that much about the details of technology. Please don’t ask me how to build a server or write code. There are so many people who know much more than I ever will. That is ok. Leadership isn’t about knowing everything; many managers miss this point. Leadership is about knowing how to drive decisions and results, and who to engage on each topic that is the subject matter expert there.
How to fix: Have a point of view about how technology drives value for your business, helps you engage with clients and colleagues, and wins work. Bring to the table your perspective of how technology is changing your industry.
Know the business and speak the language of the business
I often joke with my teams that every one of my colleagues I meet in the hall has a figure above their head. The figure represents the particular contribution to EBITDA of their service line or division. In order to effectively communicate your contributions, you must be able to make your argument in business terms — not in technology terms– quantifying the value of your proposed involvement in fulfilling the company’s strategy.
How to fix: Understand the mission of your company, but also understand the two sides of strategy. What do I mean by that? There’s a “big speeches” strategy, where a CEO tends to speak in aspirational words and concepts. That’s for public consumption, the media, and regular employees. Then there’s the strategy the CEO discusses with his/her top lieutenants, which tends to be more specific and focused. You need to understand both sides, because you need the aspirational terminology — that vets you to be a major leader and outwardly face new groups of people — but you also need to know the real deal from the closed door meetings. We talk about “code-switching” in society a lot, and it’s crucial in business. You need to be able to quickly switch back and forth from PR-facing top leader to organizational execution internally. They are different languages.
Sell the business
Never forget that every employee of any company must focus on the end customer. Every one. So, maximize every chance you have to tell someone about the company, its products or services. Try to seek out mentors amongst the business development or client account teams that can teach you how to sell the story. Your first job is to run technology, but wouldn’t it be great if a dinner conversation at a charity event you attended led to a new client?
How to fix: This one is blunt, but simple. If you want the seat at the table or the higher salary, you have to sell or be tied to the bigger clients or deals. Those are the people that get the seats first and keep them in most companies. You can make arguments that it shouldn’t be that way, but it is — and will be for a long while still.
Be social
Business is inherently a social enterprise. Relationships are built over coffee, drinks, and being in the trenches during critical projects or incidents. Because you are in technology, you will spend much of your time in the trenches with other technologists. That is great. Getting to know your teams is important. But be sure to spend some time with the colleagues in the business. Be sure there is balance as you don’t want them to think you are just the party guy or the smoozer!
How to fix: Become comfortable with ideas opposite from your own and stop spending time with people just like yourself. The more relationships you build, the closer to the power vortex you can get.
Claim your seat today.
You’ve tried to communicate the value you bring to the company, but executives at your company just don’t get it? Speak Up. Challenge yourself to be more social, to get to better know the business, to sell the business. Have a point of view and make it known. Don’t ask for a seat at the table. Claim it!
Always remember: Business leadership tends to be driven by measurement, value, and relationships. If you understand your value and the corporate value prop, that’s Step 1. Great. If you understand measurement as a whole and how your company tracks and measures goals and KPIs, that’s Step 2. Awesome. If you invest time in building relationships in and out of work — hitting goals, but also networking and schmoozing and putting yourself in front of the key stakeholders — that’s Step 3. Now you’re ready to claim a seat at the table.
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Be well. Lead On.
Adam
Related Posts:
Defining the Perfect Employee – Top Traits Series
Trait 1: Hard working AND talented
Trait 2: Pride in work product
Trait 3: Fun to work with
Investing in talent for the long-term
Adam L. Stanley Connections Blog
Technology. Leadership. Food. Life.
AdamLStanley.com
Follow me on Twitter | Connect with me on Linked In | “Like” me on Facebook
You’re the CIO and we pay you something greater than nothing annually to think about technology. So, how do you … well, think about technology? After all, more and better technology — think AI or machine learning — signals the beginning of scaled automation, which some say could one day replace 1 in 2 jobs globally. So you should have a point of view and a way to structure your thinking that makes it easy for me, the layman CEO, to understand today’s tech as well as how you think about disruption. If they haven’t said this to you, they are thinking it.
Utility is the base level — akin to breads, cereals, rice, and pastas. Here, you get the basics right. You build a strong foundation for future growth. The key in the utility stage — which is going to take you a bit of time; more on that in one second — is stable but also scalable core services. Runners know they need carbs to gain energy necessary to push their muscles and finish the race. Likewise, without the Utility level of technology (your “grains”), you cannot grow your business. The network may be boring, but it’s the only thing connecting each of your offices, factories, and teams.
Productivity is how you begin building on utility. This means that, regardless of role, there needs to be effective service delivery. How do you build and improve tools that enhance our ability to execute our business? This is not just about collaboration tools, and is not the same as plumbing. This could include robots that automate cleaning bathrooms or presentation tools that generate dynamic reports with fewer hours required by graphic designers.
Connectivity is when you start moving to really grow the business through technology. “Milk: It does a body good” was the old slogan when I was a kid. It is great for growth, strong bones, and good teeth. Meat likewise gives you protein that helps build muscle mass. Likewise, connectivity is where you truly start to leverage technology to grow.
Finally, you get to insight. This is the “sweets and oils” section of my technological adoption pyramid. The difference in metaphor? Sweets and oils should be used sparingly, but … insight, which is all about driving business growth through advanced analytics, should be used consistently but ONLY once your business can arrive at this stage.
Let me start out this post by saying it’s NOT about politics. In fact, let me repeat that one more time right up top: it’s not about politics. It’s about how a figure in the 2016 political landscape — nope, not Trump — can teach you something about business and culture within organizations.
In a post on the Harvard Business Review blog, “
Be social