GUEST POST from Mike Myatt

This is the final post in a three part series on trust. The first post was an interview with Chris Brogan, the second was on creating a No Spin Zone, and today’s post is on the topic of Broken Trust. Some of my work happens to be in the field of crisis management, and given the recent calamity surrounding what seem to be an ever increasing number of personal and professional indescretions by our elected officials, I thought I’d share some thoughts on what I’ve learned over the years. While I have long made it a point not to sit in judgment of others, as it is very difficult to properly connect the dots from afar, it is my belief that there is something to be learned from any gross error in judgment. In today’s post I’ll attempt to stay away from personal accusations and will provide you with my thoughts about what can be learned from such tragic and public mistakes.

Regardless of how you feel about the recent actions of South Carolina Governor Sanford, former New York Governor Spitzer, Blago, and various other senators, congressman, mayors etc., these individuals are after all more than businessmen and politicians, they are human beings who are husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, and community members. Even when the facts stack-up against someone, and there is no doubt as to fault or guilt, I always find it tragic when people’s lives are reduced to personal attacks, gossip and innuendo. Humans are imperfect creatures, and I have yet to come across any business leader or politician who can’t rattle off several decisions that they wish they hadn’t made. It just so happens that some mistakes are more public and tragic than others, and for most people, it is much easier to point the finger at those who have been in the spotlight rather than to deal with their own private indiscretions.

It is also important to note that there are indeed at least two sides to every story, and that what often times appears in the media as hard news can actually be editorial commentary that may, or may not, portray the reality of a given situation. Furthermore, just knowing someone who knows someone, will rarely provide you with accurate information relating to the actual events of a situation…especially one veiled in controversy. Where there is controversy you will always find the attack dogs ready at the leash to exploit the situation to the advantage of their personal, political, or professional agenda…sad, but true.

Okay, enough of the platitudes…I’ll climb down from my soap box for a moment and provide you with some thoughts surrounding some of the indiscretions that have dominated our headlines of late. However, I would encourage you not to focus on the issue du jour, but rather to take a step back and read the following commentary with the bigger picture in mind. As you read the following comments think about your perspective on people in general, as well as about how your broader outlook on life:

The Facts: Wrongdoing is certainly wrongdoing, and even the best of intentions don’t justify deviant behavior. That being said, good intentions rarely have anything to do with the breach of trust. We are talking about public officials that are stewards of the public trust, and regrettably, personal decisions that impeach one’s character matter. Whether mistakes involve acts of a criminal nature, violation of the public trust of constituents, or the emotional devastation to family and friends, these were ultimately conscious decisions that were ‘made’, and the price for such decisions have unending consequences. As you watch a person’s reputation go up in flames, careers come to an abrupt end, and worst of all the emotional and psychological pain inflicted upon family and friends, you cannot help but wonder how a person allows these things to happen.

Why this Happened: From my perspective these matters are rarely as simple as people would like to try and make them. They are rarely due to momentary fit of passion, rage, mental exhaustion or breakdown. Rather you’ll find in most cases that these ‘indiscretions’ have typically gone on for years. Through my reflective lens of observation, they normally appear to be a case of poor decision upon poor decision, further compounded by an out of check ego, pride, arrogance, an addiction to power, and quite possibly an extreme case of narcissism bordering on sociopathic behavior. When all is said and done, I believe you’ll find the consensus opinion to be that most people who fall hard, have lost touch with reality, have become lost in themselves, and almost view themselves to be untouchable or invincible. It is truly sad to watch the transition of someone who was once selfless become totally selfish.

What We Should All Take Away From This: Nobody is invincible or above the law…Some notable quotes also seem to apply here: “pride comes before the fall”, “don’t let your ego write checks you cannot afford to cash”, and “your sins will surely find you out”. In this media and technology driven world nothing will be kept a secret for long. Whether recorded in audio, video, IM files, phone records, credit card history, e-mail archives, personal testimony, or any number of other forensic audit trails, NOTHING IS TRULY PRIVATE. Therefore, my suggestion is that you consider your thoughts and actions carefully when decisioning anything of consequence. I would recommend putting any meaningful decision up against the following litmus test:

1. Perform a Situation Analysis
• What is motivating the need for a decision? Who will the decision impact (both directly and indirectly)? What data, information, analytics, research or other supporting information do you have to validate your decision?
2. Subject your Decision to Public Scrutiny
• There are no private decisions. Sooner or later the details surrounding any decision will likely come out. If your decision were printed on the front page of the newspaper how would you feel? What would your family think of your decision? How would your shareholders, constituents, and employees feel about your decision? Have you sought counsel and/or feedback before making your decision? When I’m faced with a tough decision, I’ve learned to take pause and ask myself what decision would make my wife and children proud?
3. Conduct a Cost/Benefit Analysis
• Do the potential benefits derived from the decision justify the expected costs? What if the costs exceed projections and the benefits fall short of projections? What are all the possible rewards and when contrasted with all the potential risks, and are the odds in your favor or are they stacked against you?
4. Assess Whether it is the Right Thing To Do
• Standing behind decisions that everyone supports doesn’t particularly require a lot of chutzpa. On the other hand, standing behind what one believes is the right decision in the face of tremendous controversy is the stuff great leaders are made of. My wife has always told me that “you can’t go wrong by going right” and as usual I find her advice to be spot-on. Never compromise you value system, your character, or your integrity. Do the right thing.

Lastly, here is some food for thought. It has been my experience that those most critical of certain behaviors likely have their own issues
they’re trying to distract attention from (case in point, Mr. Spitzer aggressively prosecuting prostitution crimes). What we should all be concerned with is not judging others, but rather how we treat other individuals in general during both the best of times and in worst of times. Don’t allow yourself to be a fair weather friend, a gossip, or insensitive jerk. Rather understand that most of us are not privy to the inner thoughts of others and their motivations.

We need to keep in mind that all people make mistakes, and that mistakes alone don’t necessarily make you evil, they just make you human. While it is much easier to avoid disaster than it is to recover from it, perhaps the most important lesson is that it’s not the mistake you make, but what you do with your life after the fact…will your fall define you as a failure and disgrace, or will the event serve as the impetus to correct your thinking and actions such that you redefine yourself to become a better and more trustworthy human being?

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GUEST POST from Mike Myatt

As a follow-up to my interview last week with Chris Brogan, New York Times bestselling author of “Trust Agents”, I felt that it was only appropriate to take a closer look at the topic of trust. My feeling is that business should be a no spin zone because trust really does matter. However in the wake of some of the recent, and highly publicized business, financial, and political scandals, one may question the existence of truth in business or government. If you peel back the layers on most of the debacles that often transform themselves into highly sensationalized headlines, you’ll see that said problems often begin with rationalizations, justifications, posturing, and spin being substituted for the truth. I think sometimes we all need to revisit reality, and examine why we do the things we do. Hopefully the text that follows will be of some use in this regard.

Try this thought on for size. I believe that truly great leaders view business as a no spin zone. The most successful business leaders of our time have built their personal brand by letting right thinking, right decisioning, and right acting serve as their guide. If you have to manipulate the truth to gain an advantage, the advantage is not worth the perceived gain, for any advantage gained in deceit will surely come at a very high cost…the sacrifice of your honor and integrity. In today’s post I’ll address the often overlooked benefits of truth telling as a key success metric.

While there is not an adult breathing today that hasn’t told a lie, not everyone is pathological liar. A key difference between those that succeed and those that fail as leaders is whether they are known for their honesty or lack thereof. One of the best traits you can possess as a leader is to be known for your candor. Whether in written or oral form, communication that is clear, concise, on point, and truthful will gain the respect and admiration of peers and subordinates alike. While many wannabe leaders possess the ability to selectively self-edit on the fly as they wax eloquent for the purpose of persuading their audience, true leaders understand that all the justifications and rationalizations in the world cannot replace the value of the truth.

The truth is an interesting tool in that it is often a difficult master to serve. Telling the truth is not always easy, and may subject you to substantial opposition and controversy over the short run, but it will do nothing but help build your reputation, success and sustainability over the long haul. While I’ve come across many executives that have been able to achieve short term success via less than honorable conduct, these successes to the one have been short lived as poor business practices will eventually be found out and in turn will unwind any ill gotten gains. However I have yet to meet a CEO or entrepreneur who has endured the test of time without having an exceptionally strong moral compass. When reflecting about how you communicate and conduct business with others consider the following thoughts:

1. Telling the truth is a habit

• For those not grounded in the truth you’ll find that it requires practice. Each truth-telling event strengthens you for another, and each one gets easier, until telling the truth becomes second nature. It is never to late to start telling the truth. Regardless of whatever your past indiscretions might be, you can change your future by beginning to tell the truth today. Truth is a habit well worth forming.

2. Telling the Truth is the right thing to do

• Lying is wrong. It’s just that simple, and oh by the way, omitting, editing, spinning, blurring or repurposing the truth is also wrong. Selective truth telling is synonymous with being a liar. Resist any form of deceit or manipulation if you want to achieve sustainable success.

3. The heaviest baggage you can carry is a lie

• By opting not to tell the truth then you are simultaneously opting to take on the heaviness of the burden of deceit. Each time you encounter a person, circumstance, or situation that reminds you of the untruth, your conscience will weigh you down as you become a fugitive in your own mind running from the lie you told.

4. Lies will always come back to haunt you

• We’ve all witnessed some fairly elaborate cover-ups over the years, and as we’ve all seen they always turn out the same way…in disasters that could have been avoided had the truth been told to begin with. You might be able to run, but you can’t hide from your lies. While you might be able to conceal your deceit for a time, your lies will always resurface at some point in the future…it may be a week, a month or a decade but they will find you out.

5. Lies create a barrier to personal and professional development

• Time, energy and worry are often spent on hashing and rehashing wrong acts and untruths. Instead of wasting resources on fruitless endeavors you could be invest in transacting business, building relationships, learning, or any number of other positive things.

6. Truth strengthens your reputation and enhances your personal brand

• If you consistently and effortlessly tell the truth a strange thing happens…other people will notice. You will quickly earn the respect of others by becoming known as a person of character and integrity. There is no more valuable mental association you can tie to your personal brand than that of integrity.

7. Truth deepens the quality of relationships

• There is a distinct difference between the surface level acquaintances that will gravy-train your success and the deep professional relationships and true friendships that will endure the test of time regardless of circumstances.

8. A clear conscience leads to a healthy mind

• Its a nice feeling to be able to look at yourself in the mirror each morning and actually like what you see. I don’t know about you, but I have better things to do than try and remember all the different stories that I’ve told to people. The truth is a gentle, healing sponge that keeps your conscience clear, provides you with a positive outlook and a confident and formidable presence.

9. Truth is a powerful example

• As a leader you have in fact chosen to be a role model and as such it is incumbent upon you to model the truth. When friends, peers, subordinates, competitors, vendors, partners, suppliers, investors, lenders, etc. see that you actually walk the talk, you will not only have earned their confidence and respect, but you’ll find that they will also try to model that behavior.

I think the Bible says it best: “The truth will set you free.” It has been said that a person is only as sick as their secrets, and I would strongly encourage you to be honest and forthright in your communications and actions as you’ll be healthier, happier and more successful. Remember that business should be a no spin zone…

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GUEST POST from Mike Myatt

An interview with Chris Brogan

by Mike Myatt

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Brogan. Chris is the President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency. With the market being awash of so called social media “experts,” Chris, who would never refer to himself as such, is absolutely the real deal. In addition to running a successful agency, Chris has reached celebrity status as a blogger, social media advisor, and most recently as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of “Trust Agents”.

If you want to see Chris at work, just follow him on Twitter where his followers (now numbering more than 100,000) represent one of the most fiercely loyal and engaged communities on the web. However, what I admire most about Chris is that with all his success he has remained one of the true nice guys in the business. On with the interview…

The world of social media has not only become big business, but it’s also become one of the most crowded niches in today’s business world. What has been the thing that differentiates you from the legions of other social media advisors?

I don’t try to compete with other social media types. Instead, I try to work with companies on ideas that improve their business communications efforts. My background in social media is 11 years long and growing. My background in online community participation and then leadership starts in the mid-80s. So, instead of being a marketing professional who figured out social media, I’m a social media native who learned some things to help people do vibrant things with their marketing and internal communications.

What inspired you to write “Trust Agents”?

I’m working on building out information that others can use to empower their own efforts. Blogs are great, but the idea of a book was that people could share it with their colleagues, their bosses, their clients, whoever needs to know. It’s a chance to share the bigger ideas of what I think works underneath the movement of using social media, and to give people much more than the ‘which tool is cool’ type stuff I’m reading mostly these days.

How is social media impacting your clients?

My clients realize that these tools allow people to be human again, that we can have a face on the brand. There are plenty of opportunities for people to build relationships. For example, one of my clients, Citrix Online (who do GoToMyPC, GoToWebinar, etc) were looking to reach more people interested in the mobile and distributed workforce. We created workshifting.com, which is a group blog that engages people without being any kind of an ad for their product. In fact, nearly none of the posts have anything to do with their products directly. Instead, we write about the kinds of challenges facing people who workshift for some parts of a week. My other clients, Cisco, Microsoft, Sony Electronics USA, etc, are all enjoying the chance to connect with people in a much more personable level.

Up to this point, can you point to any single defining moment in your career?

I’m not sure I’ve had my most defining moment. Personally, hitting both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller’s list for my ideas was great, but as my clients go, or in my overall business, I haven’t really hit my biggest success just yet. My clients are happy and have all kinds of appreciative things to say, but I don’t feel like I’ve really taken things high enough or deep enough or successful enough.

How do you gauge your success on a day-to-day basis?

On a day to day basis, my sense of success comes from trying to be as responsive as possible, to the most people possible, and from working on delivering actionable ideas to people for their efforts (be those clients, or readers of my blog). Any day I can help someone move the needle forward is a good day for me. Working with big clients gives me the chance to try big ideas, and when we can see some signs of success, that’s what matters the most to me.

What is the toughest part of your day?

Great question. Not being able to respond fast enough to everything is my cross right now. I’ve over 129 unprocessed emails right now collected over the last few days. I’m traveling so much and working some very long hours, and very few of them are in front of a computer to answer email, so I’m frustrated but trying to accomplish more every day. I’m re-reading Leo Babauta’s The Power of Less to try and improve that all the more.

If you could give any advice to our readers what would it be?

Be helpful, be consistent, be everywhere. I’m doing everything I can to equip people to do new things with their business goals, but I feel this advice is timeless and yet timely. We’ve somehow become selfish, as businesses and as people, and my goal is to help empower people to think about others as much as they can, and to derive sustainable business value from doing it.

What’s next for Chris Brogan?

I’m working on editing my second book, which will be a much more typical ‘about social media’ book, and working on the proposal for the third book (my second with Julien Smith) which will be a shift from where “Trust Agents” left off. We’re writing about how human business works, and what we believe will be the DNA of disruption. It should be quite different from “Trust Agents“, and yet, in compatibility with what we’ve written there.

Conclusion

As you can tell from the interview, Chris is focused, smart, and totally engaged with his market. You’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who models the definition of customer-centric like Chris does. Thanks for sharing Chris…

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GUEST POST from Mike Myatt

The need for speed is something that all CEOs need to keep at the forefront of their minds. In the world of athletics there is widely accepted principle that states: “Speed Kills.” In most sporting events speed will prevail over strength, and often times speed will end-up being the deciding factor between victory and defeat. As important as speed is on the field of play, it has been my experience that it is even more important in the world of business. While there is little debate that speed can create an extreme competitive advantage, it is not well understood that the lack of speed can send a company (or an individuals career) into a death spiral. Agility, fluidity, decisiveness, commitment, and focus all lead to the creation of speed. In today’s blog post I’ll discuss why you should feel “The Need For Speed.”

General George S. Patton said it best: “A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” The pursuit of perfection is one of great adversaries of speed. In fact, at the risk of being controversial I’m going to take the position that perfection does not exist. I hate to break it to you, but those of you who regard yourselves as perfectionists simply exhibit perfectionistic tendencies in an unrealistic attempt to achieve what cannot be had. The pursuit of perfectionism does not result in an increase in quality, but it will result in time delays, cost overruns, missed deadlines and unkept commitments. I would suggest that rather than seeking what cannot in most cases ever be achieved that it makes more sense to seek the highest standard of quality that makes economic sense relative to the constraints of an ever shifting marketplace.

Time to face the facts…we live in a digital world where the speed of engagement, response, interaction, communication, delivery etc., was once a unique competitive value proposition, but is now a requirement for survival. There are those that would argue that speed in synonymous with undisciplined decisioning, but I would caution you against confusing speed with reckless abandon…I’m a big proponent of planning, assessment, analysis and strategy, but only if it is concluded in a timely fashion. ‘Analysis Paralysis’ leads to missed opportunities and failed initiatives. Speed is your friend…embrace it…leverage it…win with it.

Earlier in my career I served as Director of Internet Strategy for what was at that time the world’s largest web-enablement firm. While serving in that position I coined the term ‘e-velocity’ which we trademarked and used to describe the influence that technology was having on the pace at which business had to be conducted in order to remain competitive. It used to be acceptable to take 12 to 18 months to roll-out an initiative, but in today’s world you better be able to do it in 90 days or it will be obsolete before it gets to market.

When I first started in business it was usual and customary to produce 5 and 10 year business plans, but today I work off of rolling 90 day tactical business plans. The latest advances in Business Process Management (BPM) have seen a reduction in the planning and budgeting cycle from 120 and 90 days to 45 days. But, is 45 days good enough? How many days constitute a responsive cycle time? Many believe the right number is between 5 and 10 days. Why is cycle time reduction important? Because shorter planning and budgeting processes facilitate greater flexibility and responsiveness.

In today’s competitive business environment you must quickly be able to assess risk and make timely decisions. You cannot be successful being guided by fear and hesitation. When in doubt, remember that “Speed Kills” and that “he who hesitates is lost.”

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GUEST POST from Mike Myatt

Today’s post was inspired by a witty piece authored by Wally Bock on the topic of fads. If you’re not familiar with Wally’s work, I’d recommend checking him out on a regular basis. When you looked beyond the humor, Wally made some great points about the impact (or lack thereof) of the latest fads, trends, business theories, gimmicks, concepts conveyed in business books, etc. Trends have a significant impact on business. Does your business exploit trends or do they exploit your business? What was the latest fad chased or trend adopted by your business? Why did your management team jump on the band wagon? Has the trend or fad generated an increase in revenue or gains in efficiency and/or productivity? In today’s blog post I’ll examine the impact trends can have on your business.

Let me also point out that trends and fads don’t necessarily constitute innovation. In fact most often the organizations that demonstrate a “herd mentality” when rushing to adopt the latest trends are the farthest thing away from being innovative. The result is that they will likely experience little more than yet another in a long line of great adventures that ended in frustration due to the time wasted and the investment squandered. The reality is that many businesses are quick to recognize great ideas, but they often have no plan for how to successfully integrate them into their business model.

My advice to you is not to let your business get caught up in trends and fads, at least not without some initial analysis being conducted to determine the likelihood of success. Failed initiatives are costly at several levels. Aside from being costly, a flawed execution can cast doubt on management credibility, have a negative impact on morale, taint the brand, adversely affect external relationships and cause a variety of other problems for your business.

Every sound business initiative begins with a solid strategic plan. However while most anyone can cobble together a high level strategic plan, very few can author a strategy that can be successfully implemented. In order for your enterprise to turn a trend or fad into a monetizing and/or value creating event you should develop a strategic plan that attempts to measure the idea against the following 15 elements:

1. The trend or fad should be in alignment with the overall vision and mission of the enterprise.
2. If the initiative doesn’t provide a unique competitive advantage it should at least bring you closer to an even playing field.
3. Any new project should preferably add value to existing initiatives, and if not, it should show a significant enough return on investment to justify the dilutive effect of not keeping the main thing the main thing.
4. Put the idea through a risk/reward and cost/benefit analysis.
5. Whether the new initiative is intended for your organization, vendors, suppliers, partners or customers it must easy to use. Usability drives adoptability, and therefore it pays to keep things simple.
6. Just because an idea sounds good doesn’t mean it is You should endeavor to validate proof of concept based upon detailed, credible research.
7. Nothing is without risk, and when you think something is without risk that is when you’re most likely to end-up in trouble. All initiatives should include detailed risk management provisions.
8. Adopting a trend or fad should be based upon solid business logic that drives corresponding financial engineering and modeling. Be careful of high level, pie-in-the-sky projections.
9. Any new initiative should contain accountability provisions. Every task should be assigned and managed according to a plan and in the light of day.
10. Any trend being adopted must be measurable. Deliverables, benchmarks, deadlines, and success metrics must be incorporated into the plan.
11. It must be detailed and deliverable on a schedule. The initiative should have a beginning, middle and end.
12. Strategic initiatives must not be disparate systems, but integrated solutions that eliminate redundancies, and build in tactical leverage points.
13. It must contain a road-map for versioning and evolution that is in alignment with other strategic initiatives and the overall corporate mission.
14. A successful initiative cannot remain in a strategic planning state. It must be actionable through tactical implementation.
15. Senior leadership must champion any new initiative. If someone at the C-suite level is against the new initiative it will likely die on the cutting-room floor.

The bottom line is that new ideas are beautiful things. Properly implemented, capitalizing on trends can keep business from stagnating and cause growth and evolution. Just follow the 15 rules above and stay away from being an agent for change for the sake of change.

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GUEST POST from Mike Myatt

In recent months I have observed a decent amount of politically correct discourse on the topic of team building and equality. The gist of the argument seems to be that for teams to be productive, employees have to feel ’empowered’ by having an equal voice. I can sum-up my feeling on this in one word – ‘ridiculous’. To be blunt, the concept of equality in the workplace has only made team building more difficult as employees seem to have a sense of undeserved entitlement with regard to their roles and responsibilities. And as odd as it may sound, one of the greatest impediments to building productive teams is practicing management by consensus. In today’s post I’ll share my thoughts on team building and equality…

Hear me loud and clear… While all men and women may be created equal, they are certainly not all equals in the workplace. While the thought that all employees should have an equal say may get some air time in business school, I have found that often the theoretical discussions that take place in halls of academia have little to do with the realities that exist in the world of business. You must also keep in mind that the classroom is one of the few remaining bastions of true equality (at least until the grades are posted). The business world is not fair…it is regrettably most times rather merciless. In a highly productive organization the power and influence of your voice is earned through trust and performance, and not entitlement.

Team building basics are often overlooked by ineffective leaders or unproductive companies. However great leaders and highly productive organizations always focus on team building as a key priority. I have found that highly productive executives and companies clearly understand the value, leverage, efficiency, and economies of scale that are generated by assembling highly focused, motivated, and productive teams. If you are a CEO or entrepreneur and don’t see team building as a priority, then the text the follows is written for you.

I’ve often said that theory without action amounts to little more than useless rhetoric, and while most companies are spinning their wheels pontificating on the merits of team building, it is the truly great organizations that put theory into practice. Great leaders intrinsically understand that team building catalyzes collaboration, creates both disruptive and incremental innovation, facilitates a certainty of execution, and is one of the key foundational elements associated with creating a dynamic corporate culture.

It is one thing to be able to recruit talent, something altogether different to properly deploy individual talent, and quite another thing to have your talent play nicely and collaborate with one another. It is the responsibility of executive leadership to set the tone for great teamwork by putting forth a clearly articulated vision, and then aligning every aspect of strategic and tactical decisioning with said vision. A lack of clarity, the presence of ambiguity, obviously flawed business logic, or constantly shifting priorities/positions are the death of many a venture. However CEOs that implement a well thought out and clearly articulated vision create a sense of stability and a bond of trust amongst the ranks. This in turn leads to a very focused, coordinated, and ultimately a very passionate work environment. It is not too difficult to get your crew all oaring together when these characteristics are firmly in place.

I have been highly regarded throughout my career for building extremely effective teams, and what I can share with you is that team building is not about equality at all. Rather team building is about alignment of vision with expectations, and getting team members to understand exactly what their roles are, and to perform said duties with exacting precision. Building productive teams is about placing the right people, in the right places, at the right time, and for the right reasons.

Team building should have nothing to do with ego, tenure or titles, but rather it should be all aboutcompetency, collaboration and productivity. Leaders must clearly communicate to team members what their duties, roles, and responsibilities are, as well as setting forth a road map for performance expectations. Team building, group dynamics, talent management, leadership development, and any number of other functional areas are much more about clarity, focus, aligning expectations, and defining roles than creating equality. If you examine the most effective teams in the real world you’ll find numerous examples which support the thoughts being espoused in this text.

Whether you look at athletic teams, military teams, executive teams, management teams, technical teams, design teams, functional teams, or any other team, you’ll find that the best of the best have structure, a hierarchy of leadership, a clear understanding of roles, responsibilities and expectations, clear and open lines of communication, well established decisioning protocol, and many other key principals, but nowhere is equality found as a key success metric for teams.

While I’m a true believer in candor in the workplace, and have always encouraged feedback and input at every level of an organization, this doesn’t mean that everyone has an equal say, because they don’t. Moreover those that hold less of a vested interest, that don’t have as much as risk, that don’t have the experience, or those that may be looking-out for self interest more than the greater corporate good should not be considered equal with those that do.

While I concur that there is no “I” in team and many other statements to that effect, such statements are not meant as endorsements for management by consensus. They are simply meant to foster a spirit of cooperation. Understanding how to lead and motivate groups and teams should not be considered one in the same with creating false perceptions of equality that don’t exist. Show me any team created of equals and I’ll show you a team that will never reach its full potential.

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GUEST POST from Mike Myatt

by Mike Myatt

Is leading change difficult? Only if you don’t know what you’re doing. As much as some people want to create complexity around the topic of leading change for personal gain, the reality is that creating, managing and leading change is really quite simple. In fact, catalyzing and leading change isn’t very daunting at all if you understand a few key principles. To prove my point, I’ll not only explain the entire change life-cycle in three short paragraphs, but I’ll do it in simple terms that anyone can understand…

1. Identifying the Need for Change

The need for change exists in every organization. Other than irrational change solely for the sake of change, every corporation must change to survive. If your entity doesn’t innovate and change with market driven needs and demands it will fail…it’s just that simple. The most complex area surrounding change is focusing your efforts in the right areas, for the right reasons, and at the right times. The ambiguity and risk can be taken out of the change agenda by simply focusing on three areas:

1. Your current customers…what needs to change to better serve your customers?
2. Potential customers…what needs to change to profitably create new customers?
3. Your talent and resources…what changes need to occur to better leverage existing talent and resources?

2. Leading Change

You cannot effectively lead change without understanding the landscape of change. There are four typical responses to change:

1. The Victim
• Those that view change as a personal attack on their persona, their role, their job, or their area of responsibility. They view everything at an atomic level based upon how they perceive change will directly and indirectly impact them.
2. The Neutral Bystander
• This group is neither for nor against change. They will not directly or vocally oppose change, but neither will they proactively get behind change. The Neutral Bystander will just go with the flow not wanting to make any waves hoping to perpetually fly under the radar.
3. The Critic
• The Critic opposes any and all change. Keep in mind that not all critics are overt in their resistance. Many critics remain in stealth mode trying to derail change behind the scenes by using their influence on others. Whether overt or covert, you must identify critics of change early in the process if you hope to succeed.
4. The Advocate
• The Advocate not only embraces change, they will evangelize the change initiative. Like The Critics, it is important to identify The Advocates early in the process to not only build the power base for change, but to give momentum and enthusiasm to the change initiative.

Once you’ve identified these change constituencies you must involve all of them, message properly to each of them, and don’t let up. With the proper messaging and involvement even adversaries can be converted into allies.

3. Managing Change

Manging change requires that key players have control over four critical elements:

1. Vision Alignment
• Those that understand and agree with your vision must be leveraged in the change process. Those that disagree must be converted or have their influence neutralized
2. Responsibility
• Your change agents must have a sufficient level of responsibility to achieve the necessary results
3. Accountability
• Your change agents must be accountable for reaching their objectives, and
4. Authority
• If the first three items are in place, yet your change agents have not been given the needed authority to get the job done the first three items won’t mean much

You must set your change agents up for success and not failure by giving them the proper tools, talent, resources, responsibility and authority necessary for finishing the race.

There you have it; in three short paragraphs I’ve given you the formula for change, and the question now becomes what will you do with it?

If you’re interested in reading more about change feel free to read the following posts:

1. Don’t Fear Change – Embrace It
2. Time for a Disruptive Business Model?
3. Great Ideas Aren’t Innovation
4. Creating Innovation Metrics

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GUEST POST from Mike Myatt

While the security aspects of intellectual property (“IP”) are often sacrificed for speed to market considerations in today’s world of mash-ups and knock-offs, I believe when it comes to IP it is possible to have your cake and eat it too. The protection of all forms of intellectual property (“IP”) should constitute common sense and require no real explanation, however the courts are littered with case law precedent that has been decisioned against some of the largest and most sophisticated companies on the planet. What should be routine business 101 protocol, can easily turn into major financial and operational debacles if you don’t have a solid grasp of IP law. In today’s post I’ll discuss the basics of identifying and protecting your intellectual property.

The issues surrounding IP are basically three-fold:

1. What actually constitutes intellectual property and what doesn’t?
2. What is the best method to protect what is deemed as IP
3. Is intellectual property worth protecting?

The answers to the aforementioned questions really lie in the eye of the beholder…Some companies take a very aggressive stance on attempting to classify virtually everything as intellectual property in an attempt to create competitive barriers and gain a competitive edge. Other firms only consider IP as it applies to protecting proprietary technology, while other firms almost ignore the concept of IP altogether (some out of ignorance and some by design).

As to cost…well sometimes protecting IP is absolutely worth the costs involved, and in other circumstances any dollars sunk into protecting IP is more akin to a frivolous investment that can actually show a strong negative return.

I have witnessed companies invest human and financial capital to adopt a trade name without doing their research only to receive a cease and desist letter, or even worse, to be sued for IP infringement. I have watched other firms invest the time and resources into protecting a piece of intellectual property via the appropriate form of registration, but not be prepared for the cost associated with defending their mark against an aggressive and better capitalized competitor.

I have observed other companies who made a valid attempt to protect their IP, but chose the wrong form of protection only to have better IP counsel exploit their flawed strategy. I have watched yet even more firms lose control over their IP to employees or contractors because they did not understand the ramifications of not using work for hire, non-compete, or non-circumvention provisions.

A company’s intellectual property can be virtually anything (tangible or intangible) from a trade name, product or service name, technology, business process, marketing copy, images and the list goes on…Companies can protect their IP through the use of a variety of legal mechanisms and registrations of which the most common types include:

• Patents
• Copyright
• Trademark
• Know-how
• Trade Secret
• Mask Works
• Contract

Without going into the details surrounding all of the above protection alternatives, and to keep things simple, let’s use the example of a corporate website as it applies to copyright protection (keep in mind that certain things within a website can also be patentable, trademarkable or protected by contract). A basic website is composed of a multitude of copyrightable elements including textual content, graphical content, source code, custom applications, and numerous other items.

Although as an entrepreneur or senior executive you might personally draft some of the text for your website, your internal staff or outsourced agency/contractor usually edits and refines your draft text, creates the graphics, source code and applications. Who owns what? Are you protected? Do you care?

It is important to have proper written language incorporated within your employment agreements and vendor contracts to assure your right to move your site, modify it, and not have it held hostage or taken offline. Ideally, your contracts and agreements should specify that you own the copyright for the graphics, source code, applications, etc., but at a minimum you need a license to use those materials and to create derivative works.

Lastly, in addition to cost considerations there is also the potential for financial upside to a well conceived and protected piece of intellectual property. IP can produce revenue, be carried as an asset on the balance sheet, add to corporate valuation, or produce a personal income stream to an individual that licenses IP back to the entity.

Bottom line…IP considerations should be incorporated into your business strategy and tactics in a fashion that provides you with the greatest possible benefits while managing your risk. In order to achieve the balance between risk and reward you should retain the services of a reputable IP law firm.

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GUEST POST from Mike Myatt

by Mike Myatt

“Ideas Don’t Equal Innovation” and I can prove it…It is my hope that today’s post will serve to help dispel the myth that ideas are inherently good things. Let me state right from the outset that I place little value on ideas. Not only do raw ideas have little intrinsic value, but they are often very costly. While I stipulate to the fact that ideas can sometimes lead to great things, I also submit that it is more frequently the case that ideas lead to disappointment and disaster. Those of you familiar with my work are probably wondering if it is really me authoring this text…if you’re baffled at how a champion of innovation can simultaneously be an idea-basher, I urge you to read on, and I promise the congruity will become apparent.

I want to start by actually defining what an idea is, and is not. Ideas in and of themselves do not constitute a philosophy, principle, or strategy. An idea is not synonymous with a competitive advantage, an idea is not necessarily a sign of creativity, an idea does not constitute innovation, and as much as some people wish it was so, an idea is certainly not a business. To the chagrin of many reading this post, ideas in and of themselves are nothing more than unrefined, random thoughts. Ideas on their own accord are really quite useless. The truth can often times be harsh and difficult to hear, but it is nonetheless the truth.

Ideas are a dime a dozen…take a moment and reflect on all the ideas you’ve spawned over the years, or the many ideas that have been birthed by your friends, family, and professional associates and you’ll quickly see that most of them never got lift-off. The problem is that most ideas never get implemented, and moreover even the best ideas when improperly implemented can cause great harm. You see, while creativity is a clearly a valuable asset, unbridled creativity where random, disparate ideas abound outside of a sound decisioning and execution framework will create distraction and chaos much more often than they will lead to innovation.

In fact, it is most often the organizations that demonstrate a “herd mentality” when rushing to adopt the latest ideas that are the farthest thing away from being innovative. The net result of being a late stage trend follower is that you will likely experience little more than yet another in a long line of great adventures that ended in frustration due to the time wasted and the investment squandered. The reality is that many businesses are quick to recognize great ideas, but they often have no plan for how to successfully integrate them into their business model.

My advice to you is not to let your business get caught up in embracing random ideas At least not without some initial analysis being conducted to determine the likelihood of success. Failed initiatives are costly at several levels. Aside from being costly, a flawed execution can cast doubt on management credibility, have a negative impact on morale, taint the brand, adversely affect external relationships, and cause a variety of other problems for your business.

Every sound business initiative begins with a solid strategic plan. However while most anyone can cobble together a high level strategic plan, very few can author a strategy that can be successfully implemented. In order for your enterprise to turn an idea into a monetizing and/or value creating event you should develop a strategic plan that attempts to measure the idea against the following 15 elements:

1. The idea should be generated within a solid framework for decisioning. It should be developed as a solution to a problem or to exploit an opportunity. The idea should be in alignment with the overall vision and mission of the enterprise.
2. If the idea doesn’t provide a unique competitive advantage it should at least bring you closer to an even playing field.
3. Any new idea should preferably add value to existing initiatives, and if not, it should show a significant enough return on investment to justify the dilutive effect of not keeping the main thing the main thing.
4. Put the idea through a risk/reward and cost/benefit analysis.
5. Whether the new idea is intended for your organization, vendors, suppliers, partners or customers it must easy to use. Usability drives adoptability, and therefore it pays to keep things simple.
6. Just because an idea sounds good doesn’t mean it is You should endeavor to validate proof of concept based upon detailed, credible research.
7. Nothing is without risk, and when you think something is without risk, that is when you’re most likely to end-up in trouble. All initiatives surrounding new ideas should include detailed risk management provisions.
8. Adopting a new idea should be based upon solid business logic that drives corresponding financial engineering and modeling. Be careful of high level, pie-in-the-sky projections.
9. Any new ideas should contain accountability provisions. Every task should be assigned and managed according to a plan and in the light of day.
10. Any new ideas being adopted must lead to measurable objectives. Deliverables, benchmarks, deadlines, and success metrics must be incorporated into the plan.
11. It must be detailed and deliverable on a schedule. The initiative should have a beginning, middle and end.
12. Ideas need to be incorporated into strategic initiatives and not constitute disparate systems. They should be incorporated into integrated solutions that eliminate redundancies, and build in tactical leverage points.
13. Ideas should contain a road-map for versioning and evolution that is in alignment with other strategic initiatives and the overall corporate mission.
14. A successful idea cannot remain in a strategic planning state. It must be actionable through tactical implementation.
15. Senior leadership must champion any new idea being adopted. If someone at the C-suite level is against the new idea, it will likely die on the cutting-room floor.

The bottom line is that new ideas are beautiful things when they become solutions or lead to opportunities. Properly implemented, capitalizing on process driven creativity can keep business from stagnating and cause growth and evolution. Just follow the 15 rules above and stay away from being an agent for change for the sake of change.

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GUEST POST from Mike Myatt

Measuring innovation is where the rubber meets the road. While it’s very easy to wax eloquent about innovation, I’ve found that for most companies, measuring innovation is quite a tall order. Moreover, even for those organizations that do measure innovation, are they measuring the right metrics, for the right reasons?

I’ve authored many previous posts on the topic of innovation, and have lectured often on the necessity for executives to completely embrace innovation as a core focus area. The power of innovation to totally transform a mediocre business into a category dominant company is really only deniable by the ignorant or the prejudiced. However even those businesses that embrace the concept in theoretical fashion can fail to implement productive innovation management programs if they do not understand how to measure its impact. In today’s post I’ll address how to measure innovation.

So, how do you tell if an innovation initiative is successful? According to Scott Anthony at Harvard Business Online, perceptions of inital successes or failures are often times misleading when it comes to whether innovation will be successful on a sustainable basis. To validate his assertion, Scott presents a simple case-study of two innovation initiatives and asks which one would you deem as being the most successful:

• Innovation A: This initiative enjoyed huge first-year revenues of $200 million thanks to “a clear value proposition, clever positioning, and a strong distribution network.”
• Innovation B: This initiative offered what was at best an ambiguous business model and generated only $220,000 during its first year.

So which initiative was more successful? “It’s obvious, right?” he says. “Innovation A is the winning proposition.” Not so fast… Is revenue the only thing that matters? Just because something is easy to measure, and appears to be an obvious win, in and of itself this doesn’t necessarily constitute a victory. Were the right things done? Were the right metrics measured? Let’s see…

• Innovation A was Vanilla Coke. “It was a line extension that largely cannibalized sales of Coke’s other products,” says Anthony, with the note that Coca-Cola unceremoniously discontinued the flavor only three years later.
• Innovation B was Google. Enough said.

The Take Away: “Before making a decision about an innovation,” notes Anthony, “make sure you know what type of idea you are evaluating. Then make sure you use the right metrics for meauring the success of that idea.”

There is great truth in the old axiom “you can’t manage what you can’t measure” and perhaps nowhere is it more applicable than as applied to the practice of innovation. Let me be clear… measuring innovation is not difficult at all if you understand it. The problem lies with the uneducated managers and executives who view innovation as a vague, ambiguous, and undisciplined area that sucks time, resources, and investment without demonstrable return. While the aforementioned sentiments couldn’t be further from the truth, they nonetheless represent the opinion of many uniformed people in a position of authority. They simply don’t know what they don’t know.

There are three CIOs in the corporate world – the Chief Information Officer, Chief Investment Officer, and the Chief Innovation Officer. Of the three I believe the one position that a company cannot due without is the Chief Innovation Officer. As with any other important discipline, your enterprise needs to place someone in charge of innovation. Without a dedicated innovation champion it is likely that your initiatives will die a slow and painful death. Furthermore your CIO needs to be set up for success and not failure. This means that he or she must have total buy-in from executive leadership that innovation is a corporate mandate and not a corporate albatross.

Let me attempt to simplify what many strive to make complex. Innovation is simply a philosophical mindset that is used as a catalyst to accelerate growth and efficiency. It is a business driver and nothing more. However the reason innovation is one of the most powerful business drivers is simply because it is a disruptive, high velocity, and high return discipline that can create a much greater impact than other drivers.

The truth of the matter is measuring innovation is as simple as aligning your innovation initiatives with your business objectives. While innovation can be measured in many different ways, the following bullet points will give you examples to use when framing your metrics and analytics:

• What to Measure: Focus on measuring the things innovation is designed to impact: process, growth, differentiation, and profitability.
• Innovation as a Percentage: Measure the trends. Look at the sales growth or contribution margin caused by products or services launched within the near term (i.e. past three years) as a percentage of the overall line item. The greater the influence of innovation as a growing percentage of the whole category being measured, the more healthy, vibrant and sustainable your enterprise is.
• Track Efficiency Gains: Measure speed to market, milestone hit rates, benchmark productivity, and other metrics designed to measure innovation’s impact on process and efficiency.
• Track Competitive Separation: Measure how innovation is impacting win/loss ratios, changes in market share, increases in brand equity, competitive differentiation and other competitive metrics tied to innovation initiatives.

The bottom line is that most of the current market data indicates that companies that embrace innovation as a key business driver are the fastest growing and most profitable companies in the market. Businesses that use innovation to create, disrupt and disintermediate will attract the best talent, have higher brand loyalty, and have the best chance at long-term sustainability. Don’t hesitate. Innovate!

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