The best kind of change initiative at any level is one that is not formally announced and occurs covertly.  I learned this from my father.  And, as usual, the message was presented in a manner that made me work to understand the lesson.

It was the [...]]]> By Michael B. Tatham, President, The Tatham Group 

The best kind of change initiative at any level is one that is not formally announced and occurs covertly.  I learned this from my father.  And, as usual, the message was presented in a manner that made me work to understand the lesson.

It was the middle of the summer and I had just graduated from The University of Toronto with an Honors Bachelor of Arts.  Currently employed in a ‘stepping stone’ job I was contemplating my career path.  I decided that my best option to set me up for success was to build all of the skills and tools I needed for the business world by getting my MBA.  Walking into my dad’s office with a couple of cold beers and my best sales pitch in hand I was confident I would walk out with the funding.

After patiently listening to my reasons for spending a few hundred thousand dollars to learn an MBA business framework he took a slow sip of his beer and smiled.  Without saying a word he handed me a thick folder labeled resumes. Then went back to his computer to work.  Clearly the only answer I was getting was within the folder.

The contents were an interesting collection of magazine and newspaper articles and letters from past clients dating back as far as the early 70’s.  The article on top was from Fortune in 1993.  It was about reengineering and quoted many experts and consulting firms with the strongest being: “Reengineering is so hot that the label is being slapped on everything from requests for new chairs to across the board layoffs.”  The other articles focused on the TQM movement.  Often the articles outlining the reasons for its failure were written by the same experts that touted it as an organizational savior.  So why were these intelligent people and organizations changing their tune?

I turned to the client letters to find the answer.  Each was focused on the development of a ‘quality’ culture.  The leaders writing the letters were pleasantly surprised to be experiencing the change and while thanking Tatham for the guidance were simultaneously asking ‘how’d this happen?’

There was a theme emerging.  The companies who had tried to apply a cookie cutter quality framework in the articles had a client letter to The Tatham Group (then Tatham Process Engineering).  Dad had been collecting the articles as resumes for new clients! A strategy that proved fruitful.

Having discovered the purpose of the folder I headed back to his office and asked, “How did you know that these companies would be open to buying your approach to change?”  His answer: “People, companies and consultants all love to ride the hot label of the day.  They will announce it, build a structure to support it and develop resources to maintain the trend.  It will either morph into something completely different or fail.  Once they’ve tried it the standard way I know they will be open to trying something different.  They’ll be ready to take the risk on something unconventional.”

He then went on to explain one of the foundations of our business and reasons it has not faded out with the times.  The best kind of change initiative at any level is one that is not formally announced and occurs covertly.  Besides conflicting popular opinion on change management, what does that mean?

1. Don’t broadcast that a new change initiative is about to start.
2. Change the mindset of the people at all levels not just the structure.
3. Give the front line people (the troops) tools to pull on that are easy to use, appeal to common sense and are dynamic enough to produce results even when the environment changes.
4. Stop chasing best practices or industry standards.  If you do look to others learn from their failures not their successes.  Build something unique to your organization that fits the specific needs, culture and goals that aren’t (or shouldn’t be) the same as others.
5. Let it evolve naturally through experience, celebration of failure and the right level of conflict to produce something better than theorized. Be comfortable not knowing what the framework will look like in the end or if there will ever be an end to its creation.

Tatham’s System helped them discover their own framework for quality.  And the key to success was pride of authorship, building off what works and encouraging leaders to release the creativity already within the organization instead of insulting the intelligence of the employees by asking them to replicate the work of others.

Similar to the organizations in the folder, my father taught me that it’s not the leader with the fanciest titles, most letters following their names, who announce themselves by applying their theories to build frameworks for today that are the most successful.  It’s the ones who are adaptive, creative, who quietly develop a structure organically through experimenting, failing and adjusting that win.  Their business systems remain agile and one step ahead of the organization so people can grow into them instead of out of them.

I recently read an article that talked about the lack of diversity in leadership teams and consulting firms.  The focus wasn’t on the usual suspects for diversity discussions – gender, age, race, etc.  Rather it was on the lack of diversity of thinking – MBA clones.  Conspicuously missing are the artistic and creative minds.  The balance needed to keep fresh ideas flowing, creative tension, innovative and imaginative thinking.  I would never have predicted that my English and Fine Arts degree would be considered a competitive advantage over a MBA in the business world.  Guess that was money well saved.

Every entrepreneur knows there are costs and benefits to starting their own business.  As a company of one there is a lot of stress and more work to do than time to do it.  There is also the ability to make quick decisions, maintain a personal relationship [...]]]> By Laurie Clarke, COO, The Tatham Group

Every entrepreneur knows there are costs and benefits to starting their own business.  As a company of one there is a lot of stress and more work to do than time to do it.  There is also the ability to make quick decisions, maintain a personal relationship with every customer and be flexible to quickly change what and how you do things.  Add a second person and the benefits are harder to maintain.  Add a few hundred, thousand, tens of thousands and leaders start to feel like their job is more about managing the chaos and less about leading the business.

Organizations today fall prey to the sheer size and scale of the entity.  It’s a well oiled machine that is almost impossible to stop.  And yet, many leaders still encourage their employees to ‘think outside the box’, do things differently, innovate and get creative.  Even in the most dynamic environments this can be difficult to do as organizational structures are, by definition, setup to box in the current way of operating.

So how do you do things differently?  How can employees think outside of the box they are so nicely put, and being managed, in?  What can you do to design and execute operational innovations?  One of the best ways we have found is to create, what we call, a business-within-a business.  How do we do that?

1. Create a team of people who do real work for customers every day.  Who do you choose?  Easy.  Make a list of the people you ‘can’t live without.’  Throw in an unlikely candidate – someone who thinks differently from the group and asks all those annoying questions you love to hate.   Add a technology guru and you are all set.

2. Remove the team from the hum drum of day-to-day activities.  Take them out of their jobs functionally and physically.  A large room with all the technology requirements to do their work but no work to be done.

3. Supply them with our team guide to business innovation

4. Experiment freely, failing often, in order to build a new business.  What if you could remove the organizational boundaries of today?  If you only had one customer?  What would you do? How would you provide this product or service?  What else can you do?  Are there new potential customers?  How best should the organization be structured to meet these needs?  What role can technology play?  Does it exist today?  Can we build it? Don’t theorize.  Do it.  With real customers.

5. Take your new business and prototype it with a small group of people within the ‘old’ business.  Fail.  Learn.  Experiment.  Repeat to success.

6. Implement for the whole organization.  Or in other words, define the boundaries of their new box.

7. Repeat steps 1 through 6 in order to stay relevant in today’s business world.

In order to make this work leaders need to be comfortable with the unknown.  You must give up control,  be patient and, most importantly, be prepared to make magic happen when the team needs you to fund and resource building the new box.

I will admit it.  I’m a perfectionist.  I hold myself to a high standard and then strive to reach beyond it every day.  Colleagues tell me to relax a bit – ‘done is better than perfect’ is a saying I hear frequently.

And they are right in [...]]]> By Laurie Clarke, COO, The Tatham Group 

I will admit it.  I’m a perfectionist.  I hold myself to a high standard and then strive to reach beyond it every day.  Colleagues tell me to relax a bit – ‘done is better than perfect’ is a saying I hear frequently.

And they are right in some cases.  As a mother of a two year old and newborn I have adopted this way of thinking with regards to housework, play dates and planning for special events.  In business, I certainly agree while working in the realm of product development. You learn more after you let the idea fly than holding onto it and guessing how to improve the product or service.  Although even if it is introduced less than perfect my goal is to quickly get it to that level.

However, reading Geoffrey James’ advice on Inc.com, How to Master Any Skill, I felt validation in my perfectionists approach to forming new habits.  Geoffrey says that the key to mastery lies in five, simple to understand but difficult to execute, steps.

1. Script exactly what you want to do.  ”Run 5km every morning at 5:15am.”
2. Act the behavior perfectly – repeat it exactly in order to make it a habit i.e. run (not walk) 5km (not 4.5km) every morning (not just Tuesdays) at 5:15am (not whenever I wake up).
3. Get back up on the horse when you fall.  No excuses to give up completely even if for a week I can’t do it because the kids are sick, I’m travelling for business or I just had a baby a month ago.
4. Envision yourself doing the behaviour.  Imagine crossing the finish line at a 5km run for charity.
5. Embrace it as part of your identity.  ”I am a runner!”

The hardest step for me is step three.  To forgive myself for not being perfect and continuing on to build the skill.    I must remember that while Geoffrey states that it’s not just practice that makes perfect but rather perfect practice makes perfect, it is still just practice.

Tom Myrick led a bank-owned insurance business to over $1billion in revenue.  He applied his experience as a process owner, product manager, and consumer products marketer.  Most of all, he instilled in a discipline of listening to the customer.

“What is my aim in philosophy? To [...]]]> By Tom Myrick, Financial Protection Services Expert

Tom Myrick led a bank-owned insurance business to over $1billion in revenue.  He applied his experience as a process owner, product manager, and consumer products marketer.  Most of all, he instilled in a discipline of listening to the customer.

“What is my aim in philosophy? To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations 309

A fly in an open bottle, frantically bouncing off the glass in efforts to get through it, never thinks to simply turn around and walk out.

Our insurance business discovered a “best in the world” supplier for processing customer claims in the scenic town of Kent, a short train ride out of London.  This company, of no more than 100 people, developed an innovative way of handling claims for the income interruption protection (credit insurance in the UK) that cancels customers’ loan payments if they suffer a layoff, illness, or disability.  All this company wanted to do is that one process for that one product, and do it better than anyone.

When we sat down next to their employees to watch them in action, we were stunned to see they had turned the typical claims process around 180 degrees.  Instead of directing customers to review instructions sent at account-opening, fill out forms, obtain proof of layoffs from ex-employers, and get proof of illnesses and injuries from doctors, they did all that work FOR the customers.  How could that possibly be cost efficient?  Here’s how:

• They spent extra time on the customer’s first phone call, completing the online claim request form on the spot, so it would require only a signature.
• They obtained employer and doctor names, immediately googled them to find the addresses and phone numbers, and promised to obtain the substantiations needed.
• During that initial call, the questions they asked would screen out customers unable to qualify for benefits, thereby saving the work of going through the entire process only to be declined.
• They had eliminated the weeks of back-and-forth phone calls, mailings, and faxes we were used to dealing with in the U.S. — wasted motion that drove our costs upward and customer delight downward.

They had invested more in the initial contact, but more than offset it by eliminating most of the follow-ups while wowing customers with the ease of the process.

My husband is a closet technology geek.  In his downtime he dabbles in computer programming.  He enjoys the challenge and I appreciate the Jetson-esque ease of an automated home.

Yesterday he was explaining to me the ‘behind the scenes’ workings of our entertainment system.  I politely nodded [...]]]> By Laurie Clarke, COO, The Tatham Group

My husband is a closet technology geek.  In his downtime he dabbles in computer programming.  He enjoys the challenge and I appreciate the Jetson-esque ease of an automated home.

Yesterday he was explaining to me the ‘behind the scenes’ workings of our entertainment system.  I politely nodded my head and confirmed “All I will have to do to use it is push one button, right?”  During his presentation, a screen popped up that asked to calibrate the TV in the event you play 3D media with the Playstation.  This prompted me to ask if there were any 3D games for preschoolers, which led to my husband explaining that the Playstation isn’t capable of playing 3D media.

The debate began.  He had technical information, input from media experts and knowledge of electronics to support his argument.  I was bringing common sense to the table – why would it ask to calibrate the TV if it wasn’t a feature?  A bit of back of forth brought us no closer to an answer.  Finally he said, “I know how to settle this.  Lets try it!”  And out comes the Avatar Blu Ray.  Which played brilliantly with full effect.  I do love a well-executed experiment!

This exchange reinforced a few observations from my work with businesses as well.

1. Technology folks want acknowledgement and appreciation for how difficult their work is.  Users just care about it being easy – and how quickly it will be working.  I’ll admit to also being interested in the final cost.
2. Often the technical data and support is overwhelming when an issue is raised.  Even verified by experts.  Sometimes they are wrong.  Applying common sense can at least open things up for discussion.  Always ask the opposing questions.  It’ll only serve to confirm the predetermined answer or bring you to a better one.
3. Nothing ends a debate faster than an experiment. Seeing is believing.  We have found that almost every situation can be tested with an experiment from rocket science, chemotherapy treatment, and account opening to testing the 3D capability of a game console.
4. Just doing it costs less time, emotion and money than talking about things over and over again.  Leaving thousands of decisions and loops open is exhausting for the brain.  And kills productivity and innovation.  Roll up your sleeves and get working on ending the discussions in an indisputable manner – through your own experience.

As I put my feet up, I dimmed the lights, turned on the TV, receiver and Avatar with a push of a button.  I got lost in the magical world of Pandora and wondered what it would be like if more businesses resolved disputes this way.  My guess is there would be a whole lot less meeting and a lot more enjoyment of engaging work.