Making The Message Simple

I was humbled today.

I enjoy taking pictures of the various sports teams at my sons high school.  I have a Canon 40d and a "big" lens so I am allowed on the sidelines of all the games.

I have been thinking about getting a newer Canon camera that is better for photographing sports.   It is called the Canon Mark IV and it shoots 10 frames per second.  It is amazing.  It is so much better then my little 40d which "only" shoots 6.5 frames a second.

Before I left my house to shoot a soccer game I sat down to "glance" through my owner's manual. I wanted to understand a bit more about the auto focus points inside my camera's viewer.  Well, much to my chagrin, I happened upon the section that dealt with the setting for the number of pictures the camera will take continuously. I was horrified to read that for four plus years I had the camera on the 3 frames per second setting not the 6.5 frames per second.

So tonight I took my humbled self down to the stadium and was amazed at how my "new' camera performed.  I just saved myself several thousand dollars, by reading a simple instruction manual.

This experience made me think about my "Nothing New" sales retreat.  How many times have we put ourselves on auto pilot and done something the same way without even thinking about other data or potential steps in our process?

When you communicate with people, respect them by breaking your message down to its most simple state.  Then add complexity as you see understanding.

Are You Courageous?

I had a very thought provoking conversation with a peer today, who is also a manager.

During the course of the meeting we were talking about how to help our direct reports be more creative and show more initiative.  You see the old model of telling directs everything they need to do is out.  Most individuals say that they want to work where they are able to be assigned a project with clear goals and then figure out how to accomplish it.

We talked about how this tends to break down when the project isn't sexy, or when roadblocks appear, or when there is the perception that the individual on the project is working harder than anyone else on the team.

We figured that it took real courage to stand up and grab a project and see it though no matter what.  We also felt that it took confidence to understand what an individuals talents were and then courage to continue to work in those area's of strength.

We talked for a bit more about what holds people back from the ideals of the above and decided that communication had a role.  Communication to help the direct understand all the areas where help was needed and the resources that would be available to the individual that stood up to handle the project.

The rest is up to them.  Do they want to be told what to do or do they want to choose what they want to do?

What do you think?  What does it take to step up and stay up until a project is over?

Team Meetings - Learn From My Failure

Almost a year ago, I had just finished reading Patrick Lencioni's Book Death By Meeting, when I got a request to do a presentation in front of a group of mid-level managers.  As luck would have it, they needed help with their team meetings.

I was really excited and walked through all the materials that were available from Patrick's group, on his website www.tablegroup.com.

If you dig a bit you will find his job aide for team meetings entitled, The Weekly Tactical Meeting Guide.  After walking through this I was convinced that this was EXACTLY what the group needed.  I was smart enough to call a couple of the managers and run a few ideas by them, but not bright enough to dig deep and find out how interested they would be to implement something totally new.  That should have been the first sign to "slow things down" and provide a small piece of this books ideas, then work on the invitation to come back and share some more during another gathering.  Of course, I missed this sign.

The day comes, I leap onto the stage, "begin with the end in mind" and tell a story with a nice hook, leading the audience to be interested in what they could learn from my presentation.  As I progressed I felt the crowd starting to slip away.

If you look at the job aide the first part of the meeting is a "Lightning Round" where the manager zips around the room and hears a 60 second update from everyone on the team.  I should have recognized that in teams of 12-15 that takes some significant time.  I thought through that, but felt that getting an update from everyone in 15 minutes would really help the manager get a feel for where the team was.

Months later I did this with another team with varying results.  You have to have a timer to get people used to speaking for 60 seconds.  You also have get the individuals on the team focused on giving a quality report and not just a verbal smile sheet.  When certain members of the team go overtime, with how amazing their week was, the eye-rolling from the rest of the team is amplified.

The second section on the worksheet was where the presentation fell apart.  Patrick suggests that the manager sets the agenda for the meeting here, after listening to the team in the Lightning Round.  You could have heard a pin drop as the group digested this and then turned on me.  They didn't throw things, but the questions started to come and you could tell that the group was VERY uncomfortable with this, to the point of not doing it.

To be fair this is something that I have NEVER seen modeled and requires the manager to be very sharp as they have to put the meeting together on the fly.  However, it is also a great opportunity for the team to bond together and take their experience as a whole to solve the challenges from the Lightning round.

This is where I compounded my mistake. I moved to the tactical and then strategic portions of the job aide thinking that this would save the presentation.  FAIL!

I should have recognized that ploughing ahead wasn't the right thing to do, and circled back to the Lightning round and spent more time on that, and how the managers could use that information to understand and then provided training, role-plays, and leadership opportunities in future meetings.

The Lesson Learned

Just because I thought the whole job aide was amazing didn't mean the audience did.  I should have tested my presentation out with 3-5 of the managers in the group, listened to their feedback, and then made some changes.

I also should have acted when I started feeling the audience slip, and moved back to the ground that they felt safe on - The Lightning Round.  After all, if the grouped adopted just this one idea, they would have been much better off throughout their year.

Please be smarter than I was with this opportunity.

Time Management - The Presentation Paradox

I recently attended a 90 minute men's group meeting whose purpose was to motivate and inspire.

The Meeting Agenda was as follows:

• Welcoming remarks and introduction - 12 minutes
• 1st Presentation - 12 minutes
• 2nd Presentation - 10 minutes
• 3rd Presentation - 10 minutes
• 4th Presentation - 10 minutes
• Short 5 minute break
• 5th Presentation - 12 minutes
• Final Presentation - 15 minutes
• Close

The meeting started four minutes late.  Here are the timings of each presentation.

• 1st - 14.5 minutes
• 2nd - 12 minutes
• 3rd - 11 minutes
• 4th - 19.5 minutes 
• 5th - 4 minutes
• Final - 15 minutes

What was scheduled for 69 minutes took 76 minutes.  No big deal right?

It was a big deal because it effected the audience, the "flow" of the program, and caused the fifth presenter to chop their remarks by 60%, in order to get the program near it's agenda.

Timing Rules for Presentations

1. Start right on time.  If you start late you push everyone back for the rest of the day.
2. If things start late, the first presentation has the job of ending early to get things back on time.  Otherwise, see rule one.  If the first presenter misses this it is up to the second presenter to get things back on track etc.
3. Understand that the "biggest" speakers are usually at the end of the program, or end of the day.  It was a MAJOR problem when the 4th presenter took TWICE their allotted time.  There is NO excuse for that.  The usual comment would be to ask why that person didn't get signaled to finish their remarks. That is a tough one as it is really hard to signal a non-professional speaker, and communicate that they need to finish, without totally throwing them off their game and disrupting the presentation.  Professional's would not have that problem as they end on time.
4. Don't run long.  In fact, make it a game to end on time.  I can remember Elizabeth Dole's speech at a National Political Convention.  She had a specific amount of time and if you watch the tape you can see her finish and subtly tap her watch.  Apparently, she finished on the exact second.  The audience will punish you for running long by pulling out the smartphone, iPad, Blackberry, or engaging a neighbor in a whispered conversation.

Timing seems like a little thing, after all what is five minutes either way?  Unfortunately it is never JUST five minutes.  Be a professional and know your presentation cold.  Plan on a 50%, 75% and 100% version.  Lift your head out of your notes and see how things are running on the agenda.  You will be a hero if you truncate your remarks to get the program back on time.

Pick Your Best Time to Make A Great Decision

The New York Times recently ran a great article by John Tierney entitled "Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?"

The article basically states that EVERYONE needs mental energy in order to make good decisions. When we are tired, a portion of our brain starts looking for immediate rewards.  Those rewards can have disastrous long-term consequences on our diet, or budget, or our need to be paroled.

The article is packed with examples, which means you should print the article out and mark it up for later use in presentations. Here are a couple of gems.

• Judges deciding who got paroled provided it 70% of the time in the early morning.  Anyone who was scheduled for later in the day received parole only 10% of the time.
• Grocery Stores understand that by the time you hit the checkout lane your willpower will be low from making dozen's of "good" decisions about what to put in your cart.  Therefore, they provide a host of sugary sweets to give you the shot of glucose you need to make it home.
• A man decides to buy a custom suit.  He enters the store and faces a very important decision at the start of the experience.  He is taken to a table filled with thousands of mini-fabric samples to choose the fabric for his suit.  A few minutes later, after being worn out looking at fabrics that seem to be similar, the man starts taking the recommendations of the tailor just to get out of the shop.  The large number of selections at the start of the experience killed the man's willpower to consider details at the middle or end of the experience.

The article then provides the key's to making great decisions

1. The idea is to conserve willpower throughout your day.  
2. Don't put yourself in situations where you need to make important decisions after making many small decisions.
3. Don't make similar decisions each day.  If you are going to exercise, don't ask yourself each morning if you are going to exercise that day.  Just make the decision to exercise X times per work and lay out your workout gear before going to bed.
4. Don't make important decisions later in the evening or when your energy is low.

How I avoid decision fatigue

• If I am asked to present to a group or in a meeting, I want to go first, right after lunch, or at the end of the conference.  All the other spots are low energy and I know that the crowd/leaders won't have the energy to pay attention, or make a good decision.
• If I have to make a decision I do it between 7-11 AM.  11 to 5PM is bad as I am tired and burned out from hitting things hard earlier in the day.  If I am allowed to get up and move around from 11 to 5 I am refreshed and can work and make decisions from 6-10PM.
• When you have a problem come in and talk to me.  Present the problem, provide two solutions, and then indicate the one you would select and why.  80% of the time I will go along with you.
• Travel tips: Always take the first flight of the day as the plane is already on the ground and the crew is coming over from the hotel.  This means getting up at 4AM so arrange things so you don't have to make important decisions on heavy travel days.
• I try and put as many of my everyday decisions on autopilot as possible.  I have built a morning routine that I do not have to think about. Exercising, reading the papers, and the first hour of the work day are the same everyday.  When I travel I work to find a great place to eat right near my hotel.  I keep the location in Evernote and then when I return I stay at the same hotel and eat at the same place again.  No decision required.

I really enjoyed this article because it provided me with multiple mini-stories that I can use in presentations to make my points, and spur the audience to action.

Just Stand Up

This morning I read a great article in the Wall Street Journal entitled "The Truth About Being a Hero" by Karl Marlantes.

The article states that "we all want to be special, to stand out...but now it's special in the eyes of your peers and it comes out in the form of being better than or having power over someone else."

Karl goes on to talk about his experience in Vietnam and how he struggled to not fall into some of the traps that are set for those who have won medals.

The real meat in the story comes when he describes being in a firefight and realizing that he and his men would be wiped out if he didn't do something.  "I did a lot of things that day, many of which got written into the commendation, but the one I'm most proud of is that I simply stood up, in the middle of all that flying metal, and started up the hill all by myself."

That got me thinking about how we lead at work.  How many times has your team, or group, or division needed someone to just stand up and take the first step?  What's stopping you from being that person?

I have found that I respect those individuals who stand up and start moving rather than waiting for me to tell them what to do or where to go.  Do they get things right every time?  No, but I have found that if they will just stand up and start, I can provide subtle course corrections along the way.

What's keeping you from standing up?

How To Motivate During Lunch

Last week I was asked to attend a retreat that celebrated the success of a group of top performing salespeople.  The group couldn't afford a motivational speaker so I was asked to fill in (I didn't take that as a slam).

Here are the details.

Audience: Top Performers
Time: 90 Minutes during lunch
Topic: Anything - Motivational in nature

This was a bit of a challenge, so let me walk you though my thinking.

First, I spent some time thinking about the audience.  If they are all top performing sales folks then as soon as I start speaking they are going to take what I am talking about and compare it to what they think and believe creates success.  If what I tell them veers off that line, or takes to long, or is deemed "squishy" then they will tune out.

The problem with them tuning out is that I will never know it.  They will look at me and smile, they will shake my hand at the end and tell me I did great.  They aren't being fake as this is what we do in a corporate environment.

Second, I looked at the time:  Having the lunch slot is really tough.  People are eating, talking and generally doing anything but paying attention.  It isn't there fault, but the slot can be difficult.

Third: The Topic.  "Anything motivational" is about as broad as you can get.

After thinking about this for an hour I did the following.

Pulled out my personal book reviews for Rapt, Drive, and Talent is Overrated.  I glanced through them and pulled out one idea from Drive (2nd page of book summary point #9).

I went and pulled the book off my shelf.


Daniel Pink has a section that starts on page 169 where he talks about a "FedEx" day.  This is where an employee would get some time to create something outside of their normal duties (i.e. Google).  This sounded like a catchy name for the exercise I was going to do.  That's all I got from that section...just the name.


The next idea came as I skimmed pages 154 and 155.  These pages talked about summing up your life in a sentence and then asking yourself if you got a little better each day.  These two things caught my eye for a number of reasons.

1. It seems like it would be a challenge to sum up your life in a single sentence.  Especially if the example sentence is "Lincoln: He preserved the Union and freed the slaves".
2. It puts everyone to work thinking about their favorite subject...themselves.
3. The focus then becomes the individuals not the speaker.  I have gone from being the main event to facilitating a discussion around the group.  This is much easier

The final idea is a foundational item.  Asking the group to reveal 1-2 secrets around how they got successful.

Now I had to take these items and combine them into an activity.  I wanted to do an activity because it would get the group moving, talking, laughing and thinking.  After about 20 minutes I would then get each person to share their thinking with the group.  That would go well because each person would have the spotlight for a bit, and share a bit of themselves with the group.  That knowledge would help someone in the group at some point in the future.

Finally, I created an activity sheet that would provide the details and instructions of my activity.  I choose to have the individuals draw, color, glue or cut out their secrets of success.  At first this seems like a bad, squishy idea, but it isn't.  I did this once before with a group of professionals and they loved it.  It is so nontraditional that it is reasonably fun for a short time.  You have to make sure that the directions are clear, that they don't "play" for too long, and that they have a purpose for their play.

Here it is...The FedEx Lunch

Energize Your One-On-One's

One of the constants in any managers life is the One-On-One.

Years ago I started out seeing them as a speed bump during my day.  They slowed me down, made me less productive, and introduced me to a variety of situations that I wasn't quite sure how to handle, as I felt I would have never gotten myself into them.

This has changed over the past five years as I have recognized how important they are for my direct report, and then how much "juice" I get from them.

I have a certain flow that I would like to share.  It is pretty simple.  For a more detailed, and very nice PDF I found online click Manager Tools. Mark and Mike do a nice job.

I do most of my interactions over the phone as my team is spread out across the country.

1) Set the expectation that the direct report will kick things off with their own agenda.  I like to have it sent to me through email before the meeting.  This allows me to place it in the employees Evernote file, so I can take notes during the meeting.  I also like to see the order that their agenda is in, it lets me know what they feel is most important.

2) Ask some good questions about the points on the agenda.  I don't like to let the employee race through their items at breakneck speed, giving me an item's accomplished report.  I continually ask them to take it up a level and tell me how their actions help our department.  Are they talking to the right people, are they helping people, are they making friends and treating people right?  What is their strategy for the meeting, why is each person invited, what will tell them that the meeting they run is a win?  I try not to play 20 questions but I really learn a lot from their answers.

3) After they are completely done I run through my list.  It is usually a list of things that I am working on.  I explain what I am doing, who I am working with, and how finishing the project can help the department.  I believe that it is my responsibility to help the employee "see" a broader view, "feel" some energy from that view, and finally "act" to help finish the business.  I like ask their opinion, and check how they "see" things that are going on at my level.  Their comments aren't always actionable, but most of the time they say something that causes me to think a bit differently.

4) At the end of the meeting I run through the action items, and we close.

It's usually a 30 minute meeting.  Long enough to be a strong touchpoint, but short enough that we don't get into the favorite TV show, political view, or religion.

The Power of Two

Over the past two years I have learned to really enjoy working with a peer who is 70% my opposite.

When I started a new role at my current company, I had one side of the business, and another individual had the other.  We each did our thing, in our own way.

About 3 months into the year we worked together on a project and found out that we really enjoyed working together.  I was the creative, he was the analytic.  We found that the common thread between us was the desire to a) understand our clients and b) provide amazing solutions and support.

I am not saying it didn't take a bit of adjustment, learning to moderately enjoy slowing down to look at the data, but I found that my groups output was much better when the analytic was involved.  The reverse was also true.  How do you make data come alive and move people to action?  I was able to help get people fired up.

Find someone that isn't like you and engage them in a project.  I bet you will both gain.