GUEST POST from Matthew E May

A few months ago I introduced you to the work of Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, a research neuropsychiatrist at the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine, in a column called The Neuroscience of Change, Or How to Reset Your Brain. The challenge in business, especially if you’re a business owner or leader responsible for change, is helping others make that change, helping people “reset” their minds.

Change is never easy. “Like driving a car with standard transmission for the first time, changing a hardwired organizational habit can be nerve-wracking. It is now clear that human behavior in the workplace doesn’t work the way many executives think it does,” Schwartz wrote in an article for Strategy+Business, coauthored with David Rock, executive director of the Australian-based NeuroLeadership Institute.  ”That in turn helps explain why many leadership efforts and organizational change initiatives fall flat.”

Now, for the small business owner starting up, or the entrepreneur with just a handful of associates, leadership in the traditional sense of the word probably isn’t the most pressing issue. We just need to get up and running in a lean and agile way and get our stuff to market, right?

But at some point we all run into the issue of creating or managing change: markets change, customer requirements change, competitors sneak up on us. Given the pace of change today, we’ll soon find ourselves at the back of the pack if we can’t establish and maintain a position of primacy. Doing just that drops us on the doorstep of leadership.

That’s where neuroscience can help leaders, though. It can help business people lead and influence what Schwartz/Rock term “mindful change,” meaning change that “takes into account the physiological nature of the brain, and the ways in which it predisposes people to resist some forms of leadership, and accept others.”

That sounds like a scientific formula, but it isn’t. In fact, Schwartz/Rock claim that “there is a great deal of art and craft in it.” Still, understanding the neuroscience of leadership can help make that art and craft work more effectively. Thanks to neuroscientific discoveries, we can now safely make several conclusions about human behavior change that just a few years ago would have been labeled incorrect.

We now know, for example, that:

Change is pain. When change comes to our workplace, it’s unexpectedly difficult because it provokes the feeling of physiological discomfort.

Behaviorism doesn’t work. “Change efforts based on incentive and threat (the carrot and the stick) rarely succeed in the long run.”

Humanism is overrated. The reality is that the conventional and empathic approach of connection and persuasion doesn’t sufficiently engage people.

Focus is power. “The act of paying attention creates chemical and physical changes in the brain.”

Expectation shapes reality. Whatever one’s preconceived notions may be, they have a deep and profound impact on what one actually perceives.

Attention density shapes identity. “Repeated, purposeful, and focused attention can lead to long-lasting personal evolution.”

These conclusions are significant for anyone in the position of needing to change behavior. And in business, that amounts to nearly everyone. The question becomes: what do we do about them? How can a leader effectively change their own or other people’s behavior?

“Start by leaving problem behaviors in the past,” advise Schwartz/Rock. “Focus on identifying and creating new behaviors. Over time, these may shape the dominant pathways in the brain. This is achieved through a solution-focused questioning approach that facilitates self-insight, rather than through advice-giving.”

What they mean is this. Let’s say you (as leader) have a stated goal of hitting $6 million in revenue by year-end. The company misses the mark. If you ask people why $6 million didn’t make it to the top line, they will make new mental connections that are useless in making the situation better: “The client couldn’t make up their mind.” “We didn’t have enough people.” “We didn’t have enough time.” “The economy is too uncertain.” The reasons might be valid, but they don’t support or generate any change.

Instead, you should focus attention on new circuits people need to create in order to achieve the objective in the future by asking questions like, “What do we need to do to resolve challenges like this?” The question provokes the very insight that people need to constantly remind themselves of the stated objective, and to keep their mind’s eye on the target. And if you ask regularly about progress toward the goal, it reminds people to give the challenge even more thought.

Sound too easy? Can it possibly be true that the answer to most challenges of change is simply to focus people on solutions instead of problems, let them come to their own answers, and keep them focused on their insight?

“Apparently that’s what the brain wants,” write Schwartz/Rock. “And some of the most successful management change practices have this type of principle ingrained in them.”

Originally appeared on AMEX Open Forum

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GUEST POST from Matthew E May

Stuck In A Brainstorm? Try A Bodystorm Instead

“Another brainstorming session…yay.” It’s not always voiced, but I’ve conducted enough creativity sessions to know that this is the exact thought and sentiment held by at least a few participants in every brainstorm session. Let’s face it, we’re jaded.

The reason is simple enough: most brainstorming is ineffective, mostly due to a lack of structure, focus, skilled facilitation and technique in pushing past the same old tired, top-of-mind ideas. It just doesn’t work to lock busy folks up in a room and essentially say: “C’mon people now, smile on your user, everybody get together, try and solve one big problem right now!” (All apologies to The Youngbloods for corrupting their great lyric.)

The fact is that we all have brain drain as it is just from the routine firefighting we do to make it through the day. Asking us to “just be brilliant” on demand is a recipe for disengagement.

Still, staying ahead in business requires constant innovation, and innovation demands new, different and better ideas. And, waiting for the kiss of the muse doesn’t work any better than trying to force new ideas. What’s needed is a way to stimulate new connections by breaking old patterns and making new ones. Something I’ve tried recently with great success is “bodystorming.” Yes, you read that right.

Bodystorming is a way to creatively engage in a hypothetical situation to derive new ideas. It requires you to conjure up an experience – complete with necessary artifacts and people – and physically “testing” it out. The focus is on interacting with your environment and noticing the choices you make while in it. I learned the technique from Stanford’s d.school design thinking bootcamp. The reason I like it so much is that it gets us out of a purely mental mode and into doing-thinking mode, in a fun and engaging way. You generate some unexpected ideas that you wouldn’t have through traditional brainstorming, open discussion, or even sketching.

Let’s say you’re a Starbucks team trying to come up with new ways to improve the caffeine-lover’s experience. To body storm the challenge, you might set up a few foam cubes, move them around a few different ways to simulate different floor plans, assign people roles as customers and “barristers,” and act out a customer actually ordering a coffee.

“If you are trying to ideate in the context of hospital patients, try walking through the experience to come up with new ideas,” advises the d.school. “If you are designing products for the elderly, rub some Vaseline on your glasses to view the world through older eyes. Bodystorm by moving around and becoming aware of the physical spaces and experiences related to your solutions. Pay close attention to decision-making directly related to your environment and related emotional reactions.”

What I’ve noticed is that bodystorming facilitates three critical aspects of innovation. First, it improves your ability to empathize with a customer or user and better view the problem from their perspective–you essentially become the target, which isn’t always easy to do. Second, it promotes building up ideas in a natural, organic way. There’s a tendency to think “yes, and…” and “what if…” rather than the usual “yeh, but…” that seems to be the first thing that pops into our head when we hear a new idea being described. Third, it prompts digging deeper into the all-important, often overlooked question: Why?

Now, before you jump in feet first, try another technique taught at the d.school as a warmup. It’s called “stoking.” A “stoke” is just a brief, simple physical activity that primes the creativity pump. It could be something as simple as charades or dictionary. The d.school suggests trying one of these three in their design thinking bootcamp:

Category, category, die!

Line folks up. Name a category (breakfast cereals, vegetables, animals, car manufacturers). Point at each person in rapid succession, skipping around the group. The player has to name something in the category. If they don’t or can’t, everyone yells “die!!” and that player is out for the round.

Soundball

Stand in a circle and throw an imaginary ball to each other. Make eye contact with the person you are throwing to, and make a noise as you throw it. The catcher should repeat the noise while catching, and then make a new noise as he throws to next person. Try to increase the speed the ball travels around the circle.

Yes

Everyone walk around the room randomly, and then one person can make an offer: “We’re all at a cocktail party,” “We’re baby birds,” or “We don’t understand gravity.” Then everyone should shout in unison the response, “Yes” and proceed to take the directive by acting it out. At anytime someone else can yell out the next offer. The answer is always “Yes.”

imagecredit: umn.edu
Originally appeared on AMEX Open Forum

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GUEST POST from Matthew E May

What do Cornflakes, the microwave oven, Post-Its, the Walkman, Teflon, Scotchgard, Aspartame, Rogaine, Kitty Litter, Ivory soap, Velcro, Rayon, and Skateboards all have in common? None were planned! All were unexpected treasures found by observant individuals paying attention to what was right in front of them. While trying to get one thing right…the thing turned left, and they followed it.

That’s the power of observation. That’s the role of genchi genbutsu (go look, go see) in design and innovation.

Jim Jenks liked surfing, and he liked pizza. What he didn’t like was the flimsy trunks for surfing and the “blah” shorts sold in stores for going out to eat. One day, at a pizza joint in Encinitas, California, he looked down and said, “Look at this tablecloth. This print would make a great pair of trunks.” That was the day multi-million dollar Ocean Pacific Sunwear was formed.

When Harley-Davidson sales dropped in the mid 1980s, CEO Vaughn Beals required all senior managers to make cross-country trips on Harleys, go to biker rallies, and even socialize with the Hell’s Angels. Willie Davidson, grandson of the founder and VP of Styling, noticed almost every Harley had been modified and customized. He adopted the best ideas he saw and incorporated them into future designs: chopping the chassis, adding chrome, painting flames and sculpting gas tanks.

Robert Milch, founder of Igene Biotechnology, didn’t find his “real” product until he came to the unexpected understanding that he was selling the right product to the right customers for the wrong purpose. He had been fairly successful marketing converted whey to bakers as a substitute for nonfat dry milk. But his product, MacroMin, didn’t take off until bakers told him that they also “misused” it as a partial substitute for egg whites, at a fifth the cost.

Levi-Strauss noticed customers were shrinking their jeans to get a tighter fit and just the right length: Levi released preshrunk jeans. They noticed customer were taking their new jeans and driving cars over them, then dropping them into the washer and adding bleach: Levi released stone-washed, pre-faded jeans. They noticed kids were wearing ripped jeans: Levi released pre-ripped jeans.

Need some fresh ideas? Get out more.

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GUEST POST from Matthew E May

Around this time of year, most of us, and our businesses, tend to slow down just a bit from the normal dawn-to-dusk mad dash. We smile a bit more. We wave people in before us in traffic, and let others with less in their shopping carts go first in the grocery store. And we reflect.

When I was working with Toyota, I learned the art of hansei (pronounced hahn-say). Hansei is the Japanese word for reflection. But its meaning is closer to introspection. Hansei finds its roots in Eastern philosophy and religion, but it is a profound skill to be mastered. Japanese school children are taught from kindergarten how to perform hansei, and it is a vital part of learning and improving.

The key insight is this: Hansei is performed regularly, as a discipline, irrespective of performance! In other words, whether you got an A or a C on your report card, you conduct hansei to better understand the process that lead to the specific result.

In business, the fruit of a formal hansei used for planning purposes is new insights which can used to set new goals, strategies, and directions.

But here’s the thing: most us don’t reflect often enough, or consider it a tool worthy enough to use regularly. Generally we do a post-mortem when we fail at something, but too often the goal is fault-finding, not learning. And mostly we pop champagne if we exceed all expectations, and leave it with a big attaboy. But there is no real learning in that, because whether you miss a mark under or over, there’s a gap there that demands better understanding. IF we want to get better, that is.

The late Peter Drucker suggested a practical reflection method which amounts to a daily routine of recording in a personal journal your key decisions and actions, along with a projection of the expected outcome. You then review your performance and satisfaction, feeding back from outcomes to expectations. He suggested getting additional input from a superior, peer or subordinate.

Over time, trends show up, pointing out strengths and weaknesses. Drucker wrote, “I have been doing this for some fifteen to twenty years now. And every time I do it I am surprised. And so is everyone who has ever done this.”

I have a simple daily hansei regimen that I look forward to (with a glass of good Malbec) which has definitely yielded some surprises, in the form of both good and not-so-good ideas. Here’s what to do:

1. Make time. Try to set aside at least 15 minutes per day to begin with. But don’t be limited either way…if you only have 5 minutes, use it. If you’re on a roll, don’t stop.
2. Review experience. Use the Army After Action Review technique of answering three simple questions as they relate to your day: What was supposed to happen? (What did you think would happen?) What actually happened? What accounts for any differences or gaps between what you thought or expected to happen and what actually happened?
3. Spot trends. As time progresses (and after you’ve done this for a while), note any recurring themes, and write down any potential connections among seemingly unconnected things.
4. Riff and project. Think of a few “what if” ideas that come to mind based on the first three steps. Jot down opportunities to test out those new ideas. Take your “what ifs” and turn them into “if-then” hypotheses: what do you think will happen if you do (X)? Make some quick notes—to do’s, not-to-do’s, etc.—that will initiate your thoughts and provide some preliminary direction.

Hansei is meant to help you improve your performance and creativity by getting your thought and actions better aligned by making them more visible to yourself. The hardest part, of course, is step one. It helps if you don’t view reflection as a chore or strict linear writing exercise. So you might want to avoid using a lined journal. Instead, consider perhaps my current favorite, the Dot Grid Cahier, offered by Behance.

As your 2011 picks up steam, do like Drucker said, and use the art of hansei to surprise yourself!

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GUEST POST from Matthew E May

One of the things that troubles me is that all too often we sell ourselves short, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Example: often when I give a speech or workshop, I ask people to raise their hands if they consider themselves a problem-solver. Nearly every hand goes up. Makes sense…you probably solved 25 problems (most of them tiny) before you sat down to work this morning.

Then I ask them to raise their hands if they consider themselves a good learner. Again, nearly every hand goes up. THEN I ask for the true innovators to raise their hands. On a good day, maybe 2% will raise their hands.

It’s not because they aren’t innovators. It’s because they think about innovation in the wrong way…about innovations. Gadgets and gizmos. Not innovation as a creative action. Here’s the thing: the iterative loop underneath problem-solving, learning (creating new knowledge, not acquiring that of others) and innovation is one and the same.

We need a better definition. One accessible to the everyman. How about this, stolen from David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue:

“Innovation is figuring out a way to do something better than it’s ever been done before.”

Then I re-ask the innovators to raise their hands, using this definition. Almost everyone does.

Studies by folks like the National Society for Performance & Instruction show seven core qualities of creative actions. Innovative people:

1. Intend to do things differently.
2. Direct their energy toward goals they care about.
3. Make high demands on themselves.
4. Focus on important problems, trying to find opportunities within them.
5. Spend a significant amount of time trying to formulate the problem in depth before attempting to solve it.
6. Consider a wide variety of alternatives before committing themselves to a specific direction.
7. Often make many attempts, none of them quite satisfactory, before they come up with the right solution.

I’m betting that if you are reading this blog, you’re trying to do something a little better everyday, better than it’s been done before, in some area of your world, on some level. And if I’m right about that, then you’ve got some mix of these seven going on.

So in my book, you’re an innovator. So start thinking about yourself that way!

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GUEST POST from Matthew E May

If you follow this blog you know I’m a huge fan of “I Wrote this for You.” (Iain Thomas contributed a piece for this blog here.) Here’s Iain talking at a recent TEDx event is South Africa. It’s a heartwarming story about the power of story. It’s a must-see, if you want to change the world. And even if you don’t.

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GUEST POST from Matthew E May

“Tiger-gate” is the media focus of the week. Looks like another one bites the moral dust. Another checkmark in the “how the mighty fall” column. A whole new meaning to Nike’s tag line. Skootch over, Kobe. All that.

Be that as it may, I have my own Tiger’s tale, and it’s one that has stayed with me for the entire eight years since it happened. In fact, I use the story in many of my speeches. (You can view my presentation on YouTube HERE.)

The year was 2001, eight years ago to the week…

I walked into the small workout room of the country club I belong to in southern California, to find none other than Tiger Woods. Each year in December he hosts the last PGA event of the year: a small invitation-only challenge tourney at the course. Proceeds benefit Tiger’s educational foundation for disadvantaged youths. (The big news this week, of course, is that he will not be in attendance at his own event). On this particular Monday, the Monday of the tournament week, it was just him and me in the gym. The fact that he was the only golfer in there pumping iron told me something. I guess I was watching him more intently than I realized, because he said “You obviously know who I am. Who are you?” I told him I was just a member, but that I had read an interesting Time magazine cover story on him the previous year, the gist of which was about how he took the biggest risk of his career immediately upon turning pro.

In 1997, with barely seven months under his belt as a professional golfer, 20-year old Tiger stunned the golf world. It wasn’t that he had won five PGA Tour tournaments. Or pocketed a $60 million Nike endorsement deal. It wasn’t that he had won the 1997 Masters by twelve strokes. It was his decision to reinvent his swing after achieving all that.

Pundits and peers thought he was crazy. Commentators speculated on his early demise. But Tiger knew his swing wasn’t as consistent, controlled, or efficient as it could be. It took eighteen months of rewiring, practice, and frustration, during which time he was virtually winless. He knew he was getting better, and was quoted as saying, “Winning is not always the barometer of getting better.” Slowly but surely, Tiger’s new swing became a deadly controlled substance. With no loss of power, he could hit any type of shot on demand, better and more accurately than ever. The payoff was a record six straight wins starting in late 1999.

He’s reengineered his swing now three or four times. Every time he does, he remains winless for a time – but then comes roaring back, usually with a string of wins like the one in 1999.

So I asked him: “What really drives you you to keep breaking what isn’t broken?” He said, “The number 18.” I immediately thought: “Aha, that’s the number of majors Jack Nicklaus won. So that’s the goal.” I said as much. Tiger said, “That’s what people think, and I let them. But 18? That’s a perfect golf score.”

That says it all right there. The point is this: The pursuit of perfection is not focused on achieving perfection, it’s focused on chasing it. Approached as a process, it can drive breakthroughs. Approached as goal, it can actually block innovation. Perfection is unachievable…it’ll never happen. Unless you’re Buddha I guess. That’s what throws people, at least in our Western culture. We’ve become impatient with mastery. If you can’t achieve perfection, why bother pursuing it?

Answer: because you have to. Otherwise you’ll always be a follower.

It’s how the best get better.

In 2007, Tiger pocketed a cool $11,260,000.00 for taking first in the inaugural FEDEX Cup. He did it again this year. You don’t mess with that kind of success, right? WRONG. As he accepted his millions for winning the Tour Championship and the FEDEX Cup, and after dazzling the gallery with one immaculate shot after another, he was asked if we can expect him to ever play any better than he is right now. Instant response: “Yes. I think my game is moving in the right direction.”

If only his personal life was following alongside…

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GUEST POST from Matthew E May

Over at the American Express Open Forum Idea Hub, I’ve posted “How to Set a BHAG.” A BHAG is a Big, Hairy Audacious Goal, and it’s a term coined by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras.

I’m constantly asked about the challenge of complacency — you know, things are going well, but there’s a comfort setting in, and people are riding a different wave than when things were a struggle. The complaint goes something like this: “We’re stuck. Stuck in the old school, stuck in the status quo, stuck in stall mode. We want things done differently, but we can’t seem to get there from here. We’ve lost our edge. The days of rapid innovation are disappearing in the rearview mirror. There’s widespread lethargy.”

In short, the entrepreneurial spirit is M.I.A. and “How do I create a burning platform for change?” is the question.

G.K. Chesterton once said: “Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame.”

In that quote is the answer to the question! You must create limits and constraints to frame the challenge and drive innovative thinking. The best way to do that in the midst of success is to set stretch goals…BHAGs.

You see, the problem is an addiction to abundant resources. And that addiction to resources is blocking innovation. The cry is for more money, people, and space to innovate. But wait a minute! That’s probably not how the company started. Somewhere in the company tree is a story of humble beginnings. Maybe it didn’t start in the proverbial garage, but it started with little of everything: money, space, labor. But it was those limits that made people more creative and resourceful than they are today. What WAS in abundance: goals, and a passion for reaching them.

So, reset the bar. Get back to the future. Get the band back together. Get back to basics. Get back to blocking and tackling. Return to your roots. And all the other cliches that spring to mind for vanquishing the complacency that comes with success. To recapture the start-up spirit, recreate the kinds of limitations that drive new thinking.

Then trust people to solve the problem.

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GUEST POST from Matthew E May

Have you seen it? Best Buy 2.0, I mean. They’re going up everywhere. They’re less than 10% of the normal 40,000 square foot big box Best Buy. I’m not talking about the store-within-the-store structure they use for selling cellphones. I’m talking about stand-alones of the same flavor going up in malls and downtown areas.

Best Buy Mobile. Little boxes, just for cellular. Radically original idea? Nah. They bought half of Carphone Warehouse’s retail operations to form a joint partnership. Now they offer nearly a hundred phones from nine carriers. And borrowed from Apple: help customers set the darn things up and get them working before leaving the store.

And it comes at a time when a good number of retailers are closing their doors. They’ve got over 40 already in the U.S. Fourth quarter 2008 sales were nearly double that of the same quarter of 2007. And as everyone knows, fourth quarter 2008 was a retail nightmare.

All in all it’s a fairly elegant strategy, if you think about it: expansion through subtraction.

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GUEST POST from Matthew E May

I agree with Tom Hayes and Michael Malone in their belief that “Entrepreneurs Can Lead Us Out of the Crisis.” Why? Because entrepreneurs have the agility, flexibility, and grit to make change happen. Innovation is the chief tool of the entrepreneur. Hayes and Malone outline about a half dozen ways the new administration can help them. And those ways are by and large subtractive, a key element of elegance.

1. Kill Sarbanes-Oxley. It’s massive, expensive, and sucks needed capital.

2. Remove the shackles on tax-free retirement money, or remove taxes on accounts intended to fund new ventures. (like a 529)

3. Eliminate payroll taxes. It’s a burden, and stops the creation of new jobs.

4. Lower capital gains taxes on venture capital investments in early stage startups.

5. Help big business think small to return to an entrepreneurial mindset by providing an incentive to take risk and create new jobs. There’s none of that in the stimulus package for large companies.

6. Seduce entrepreneurs. How? A presidential summit like Reagan’s in 1982. Obama holds sway…he needs to aim it at small business.

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