5 Tips for Leaders Navigating Uncertainty

From Executives at P&G, CVS, Hannaford, and Intel

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

“We have successfully retained the opportunity for improvement.”

When the CEO said this to kick off a meeting, I knew we were in for an adventure. He smirked at the corporate double-speak, paused for the laughter, then outlined all the headwinds facing the business. But the only thing I remember from that meeting was his opening line.

I think about it all the time. Because it seems to apply all the time.

And despite the turmoil brought on by a pandemic, a war, and an economic slowdown, we have successfully retained the opportunity to improve how we deal with uncertainty.

That isn’t to say we haven’t improved over the past three years. In fact, at an event sponsored by NextUp, four executives from P&G, CVS, Hannaford, and Intel shared what they learned and how they changed while navigating uncertainty.

Listen more

Dave DeJohn, Director of Operations for Hannaford, talked about the importance of listening deeply and constantly to employees, especially those on the front lines. Consistent with its core values of family, community, quality, and value, store associates are trained that the customer is always right. However, as incidents of verbal abuse increased during the lockdowns, employee satisfaction and mental health declined. By closely listening and observing what was happening in stores, Hannaford’s leadership modified their customer service approach to “the customer is always right, within reason” and empowered employees to stand up for themselves and each other when faced with hostile shoppers.

Stronger relationships lead to stronger results

Every executive shared stories from the early days of working from home – technical glitches, kids invading calls, and even cats positioning themselves awkwardly in front of cameras when the human stepped away. Far from being signals of a lack of commitment or professionalism, these moments transformed roles and titles into human beings, juggling all the things humans must juggle. Once people started seeing others as fellow humans versus bosses, peers, or subordinates, they connected on a human level and formed genuine and trusting relationships. Those relationships led to better collaboration, more effective troubleshooting, and better business results.

Concise concrete communication is critical

In periods of uncertainty, information is power. But it’s also constantly changing. For that reason, constant communication is a must. But in a large organization, communication often comes from multiple departments – employee relations, HR, health and safety, operations, and marketing, to name a few – and that can be overwhelming. For this reason, DeJohn learned that keeping every message concise (ideally the length of a tweet but no more than a short paragraph) and concrete (specific, tangible, tactical rather than high-level platitudes) proved critical to keeping people aligned and moving forward.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you need to

Keris Clark, VP of Sales at P&G, spoke about the drastic shift in her work/life balance when she could no longer travel to see customers or attend meetings. Instead of taking the first flight from Boston to Seattle for a meeting and then a red-eye back home, she suddenly had time to work out, cook, and spend time with family. As travel became safer and invitations to far-away meetings came in, she thought more critically about whether or not to book the tickets. Like most of us, she still travels for some things, but it’s no longer the default option now that more people are used to video calls and other ways of working.

We can do things differently and still deliver

COVID’s effect on the supply chain is well documented, and Tiffiny Fisher, Chief of Staff and Technical Assistant for Intel’s America region, gave us a view into Intel’s situation in the earliest days of the pandemic. With fabrication, assembly, and testing sites throughout Asia, Intel had to work quickly to figure out how to continue operating while staying with government lockdown guidelines. Ultimately, hundreds of employees volunteered to leave their families and live in hotels near Intel facilities so that they could continue operating. It was a huge sacrifice by employees and probably not one that anyone would want to make again. Still, it proved that Intel, with the support of its employees, could quickly make massive changes to its operations while continuing to deliver results.

Uncertainty can be deeply uncomfortable, even frightening, even though we face it every day. Building the skills to navigate it and learning lessons about what works and doesn’t can make it easier. But if you still struggle, don’t worry. It just means you’ve successfully retained the opportunity for improvement.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Change Management Best Practices for Maximum Adoption

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Change Management Best Practices for Maximum Adoption

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

Change is inevitable but so often dreaded in the workplace. A successful transition requires planning and execution, and the ability to adapt quickly to those changes. Change management involves planning around a change to ensure its successful adoption. A well thought out and properly planned change management strategy can help ensure a successful and cost-effective transition to a new process or system.

First and foremost, it is important to manage expectations. Make sure people understand how the change will impact them, and how they can benefit from the change. It is essential to address any perception the stakeholders may have about the potential outcomes. Hopefully, they will all become supporters of the change and get on board with the goal.

Once expectations are managed, it is important to strive for maximum adoption of the change. This means understanding the people impacted by the change and their likely reaction. It’s tempting for leaders to rush the adoption but patience is necessary. Here are a few best practices to ensure change is adopted quickly and easily:

1. Start with communication

When introducing a change, communicate the “why” of the change. Explain why it is necessary, what the expected benefits are, and how it will help the organization succeed. This will help employees to understand the importance of the change and motivate them to get on board.

2. Involve the impacted stakeholders

It’s always helpful to involve those who will be impacted by the change from the beginning. Involving the impacted team in the change planning will encourage them to take ownership and help drive the adoption. They can provide good insight on potential pitfalls and how best to roll out the change.

3. Provide training

Good training can make the transition to the new process, system, or way of working much easier. Provide training before the change is rolled out to ensure everyone is on the same page. This will minimize confusion and eliminate any skepticism in the employees.

4. Have a plan

Effective change management involves having a solid plan for roll-out and clearly defined goals. Implementing a well-thought-out plan means not having to go back and re-do things as you roll out the change. A plan will help make sure everybody is in sync and on the same page.

5. Monitor progress

Monitor the progress of adoption and measure the impact of the change. This will allow you to make any necessary changes or adjust any existing plans. Monitoring progress is essential for ensuring a successful transition and adoption of the change.

There are many different approaches to change management, depending on the situation and what is needed for successful adoption. However, these best practices can be applied to most changes and greatly increase the likelihood of success.

To illustrate this, here are two examples of successful change management.

Case Study #1

A large manufacturing firm needed to replace their legacy accounting system with a new automated system. The company first involved stakeholders in the change planning process and held a series of workshops to ensure everyone understood the needs of the change. Training was provided to the stakeholders involved in the transition and a detailed plan was put in place outlining the steps to implementation. As the project moved ahead, progress was regularly monitored and feedback was sought from employees. The project was completed successfully with minimum disruption to business processes and no unplanned hiccups.

Case Study #2

A mid-sized consulting firm needed to change their customer relationship management (CRM) software. They went the extra mile and identified all key stakeholders in the transition process and clearly outlined the “why” of the change. They also created a timeline for the project to ensure all actions were taken in the right order. They provided extensive training and allowed employees time to get familiar with the new system before implementing it. The project was completed ahead of schedule and the transition was smooth, resulting in increased customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

Change can be a difficult transition, but by following the change management best practices outlined here, you can ensure maximum adoption of the change and successful transition to the new process or system. From communication and involvement of stakeholders, to monitoring progress, these are just a few practical change management best practices that can help you manage successful transitions.

Image credit: Pixabay

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4 Things Leaders Must Know About Artificial Intelligence and Automation

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4 Things Leaders Must Know About Artificial Intelligence and Automation

GUEST POST from Greg Satell

In 2011, MIT economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee self-published an unassuming e-book titled Race Against The Machine. It quickly became a runaway hit. Before long, the two signed a contract with W. W. Norton & Company to publish a full-length version, The Second Machine Age that was an immediate bestseller.

The subject of both books was how “digital technologies are rapidly encroaching on skills that used to belong to humans alone.” Although the authors were careful to point out that automation is nothing new, they argued, essentially, that at some point a difference in scale becomes a difference in kind and forecasted we were close to hitting a tipping point.

In recent years, their vision has come to be seen as deterministic and apocalyptic, with humans struggling to stay relevant in the face of a future ruled by robot overlords. There’s no evidence that’s true. The future, in fact, will be driven by humans collaborating with other humans to design work for machines to create value for other humans.

1. Automation Doesn’t Replace Jobs, It Replaces Tasks

When a new technology appears, we always seem to assume that its primary value will be to replace human workers and reduce costs, but that’s rarely true. For example, when automatic teller machines first appeared in the early 1970s, most people thought it would lead to less branches and tellers, but actually just the opposite happened.

What really happens is that as a task is automated, it becomes commoditized and value shifts somewhere else. That’s why today, as artificial intelligence is ramping up, we increasingly find ourselves in a labor shortage. Most tellingly, the shortage is especially acute in manufacturing, where automation is most pervasive.

That’s why the objective of any viable cognitive strategy is not to cut costs, but to extend capabilities. For example, when simple consumer service tasks are automated, that can free up time for human agents to help with more thorny issues. In much the same way, when algorithms can do much of the analytical grunt work, human executives can focus on long-term strategy, which computers tend to not do so well.

The winners in the cognitive era will not be those who can reduce costs the fastest, but those who can unlock the most value over the long haul. That will take more than simply implementing projects. It will require serious thinking about what your organization’s mission is and how best to achieve it.

2. Value Never Disappears, It Just Shifts To Another Place

In 1900, 30 million people in the United States were farmers, but by 1990 that number had fallen to under 3 million even as the population more than tripled. So, in a manner of speaking, 90% of American agriculture workers lost their jobs, mostly due to automation. Still, the twentieth century was seen as an era of unprecedented prosperity.

We’re in the midst of a similar transformation today. Just as our ancestors toiled in the fields, many of us today spend much of our time doing rote, routine tasks. Yet, as two economists from MIT explain in a paper, the jobs of the future are not white collar or blue collar, but those focused on non-routine tasks, especially those that involve other humans.

Far too often, however, managers fail to recognize value hidden in the work their employees do. They see a certain job description, such as taking an order in a restaurant or answering a customer’s call, and see how that task can be automated to save money. What they don’t see, however, is the hidden value of human interaction often embedded in many jobs.

When we go to a restaurant, we want somebody to take care of us (which is why we didn’t order takeout). When we have a problem with a product or service, we want to know somebody cares about solving it. So the most viable strategy is not to cut jobs, but to redesign them to leverage automation to empower humans to become more effective.

3. As Machines Learn To Think, Cognitive Skills Are Being Replaced By Social Skills

20 or 30 years ago, the world was very different. High value work generally involved the retaining information and manipulating numbers. Perhaps not surprisingly, education and corporate training programs were focused on building those skills and people would build their careers on performing well on knowledge and quantitative tasks.

Today, however, an average teenager has more access to information and computing power than even a large enterprise would a generation ago, so knowledge retention and quantitative ability have largely been automated and devalued, so high value work has shifted from cognitive skills to social skills.

To take just one example, the journal Nature has noted that the average scientific paper today has four times as many authors as one did in 1950 and the work they are doing is far more interdisciplinary and done at greater distances than in the past. So even in highly technical areas, the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively is becoming an important skill.

There are some things that a machine will never do. Machines will never strike out at a Little League game, have their hearts broken or see their children born. That makes it difficult, if not impossible, for machines to relate to humans as well as a human can.

4. AI Is A Force Multiplier, Not A Magic Box

The science fiction author Arthur C. Clark noted that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” and that’s largely true. So when we see a breakthrough technology for the first time, such as when IBM’s Watson system beat top human players at Jeopardy!, many immediately began imagining all the magical possibilities that could be unleashed.

Unfortunately, that always leads to trouble. Many firms raced to implement AI applications without understanding them and were immediately disappointed that the technology was just that — technology — and not actually magic. Besides wasting resources, these projects were also missed opportunities to implement something truly useful.

As Josh Sutton, CEO of Agorai, a platform that helps companies build AI applications for their business, put it, “What I tell business leaders is that AI is useful for tasks you understand well enough that you could do them if you had enough people and enough time, but not so useful if you couldn’t do it with more people and more time. It’s a force multiplier, not a magic box.”

So perhaps most importantly, what business leaders need to understand about artificial intelligence is that it is not inherently utopian or apocalyptic, but a business tool. Much like any other business tool its performance is largely dependent on context and it is a leader’s job to help create that context.

— Article courtesy of the Digital Tonto blog
— Image credit: Pixabay

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An Executive’s Guide for Market Adaptability and Goal-Based Alignment

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Shifting Sands

An Executive's Guide for Market Adaptability and Goal-Based Alignment

GUEST POST from Teresa Spangler

A rolling stone gathers no moss, but a business executive, unlike the stone, can’t just roll along. We’ve got to navigate the shifting sands of business markets while juggling not just two but a myriad of short-term and long-term goals. So, how do we get from being a ‘dazed and confused’ executive to a ‘smooth operator’? Buckle up; let’s embark on this wild ride together.

Welcome to the Quicksand!

Business markets these days change faster than a chameleon on a rainbow. Technology advances, consumer trends, competition – you name it. It’s like trying to build a sandcastle on quicksand. But with a strategic approach, even quicksand can become solid ground. Here’s how:

1. Turn into Business Chameleons

Agility is the still the new cool. Embrace it. An agile organization is like a well-oiled transformer, ready to change form and function with market trends. Bill Gates is known for being a long time agile leader. “Success today requires the agility and drive to rethink, reinvigorate, react, and reinvent.” In the face of regenerative AI and so many technological advances this quote has never been truer! Transforming your organization into business chameleon leaders could have significant benefits. You’re rarely left behind and always ready to grab new opportunities.

How to:

Promote a culture of flexibility: Encourage the “Yes, we can!” spirit.
Make innovation your best friend: Regular brainstorming sessions, innovation labs, or ‘Shark Tank’ style pitches can be fantastic.
Flex your strategies: Don’t stick to one path like a GPS with a weak signal. Adapt, change, and grow.

2. Balancing Act with Objectives

Picture this: You’re walking a tightrope, balancing a feather in one hand (short-term goal) and a bowling ball (long-term goal) in the other. Sounds tough? This scenario may be! So let’s come down to steadier grounds. Balancing short and long-term goals is an art and a science.

· Strategic Planning and Prioritization

o Planning is at the core of balancing short and long-term goals. It involves setting clear, measurable goals and creating a roadmap.

o Begin with your long-term goals (3-5 years), and then break them down into shorter-term goals (1 year, quarterly, monthly). This way, you create a clear path towards your long-term vision.

o Prioritize your goals based on their impact on your long-term objectives. This ensures you’re always working towards your big picture goals, even while tackling immediate tasks.

· Flexible Resource Allocation

o A flexible resource allocation strategy is key to balancing short and long-term goals.

o Allocate resources (time, money, staff) to both short-term projects and long-term initiatives.

o However, remain flexible and ready to reallocate resources as needed. For instance, you may temporarily divert more resources if a short-term opportunity arises that could greatly benefit the business.

· Regular Progress Reviews

o Regularly reviewing progress towards your goals is crucial.

o Set specific milestones for both short-term and long-term goals. This will allow you to track progress and make necessary adjustments.

o If you find you’re consistently missing short-term goals due to focusing too much on the long-term (or vice versa), it’s a sign that you need to reassess your balance and possibly adjust your strategy.

Balancing short-term and long-term goals is an ongoing process. It requires strategic planning, flexible resource allocation, and regular progress reviews. By employing these strategies, you can ensure your business stays focused on the present while keeping an eye on the future.

Benefits:

Ensures survival today (short-term) and success tomorrow (long-term).
Enhances value for stakeholders.
Builds resilience in the organization.

Arm Yourself with Tools and Techniques

Like a Swiss army knife, these tools can get you out of any sticky situation:

Scenario Planning: Picture yourself as a fortune teller. Create different future scenarios based on market trends. Plan your strategies accordingly.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): These are your compasses in the business wilderness. They help you stay on track with both short and long-term goals.
Regular Strategy Reviews: Like annual medical check-ups, regular strategy reviews ensure your business is in good health and shape.
Stakeholder Engagement: This is not just a buzzword. Engage employees, customers, shareholders, etc. They provide valuable insights and help align business objectives.

3. Embracing Technological Disruption

In the business world, technology is the game-changer, the grand maestro orchestrating a symphony of innovation. For executives, it’s not just about staying up-to-date with the latest tech; it’s about anticipating the next ‘big thing’ and leveraging it to get an edge.

How to:

Build an innovation-focused IT team: Encourage them to explore emerging tech trends that can revolutionize your business.
Invest in training: Ensure your team has the skills to handle new technology.

Benefits:

Improved operational efficiency.
Greater customer satisfaction through personalized experiences.
Competitive advantage in the market.

4. Expansion into New Markets

Growing businesses often look to expand into new markets – it’s like exploring uncharted territories. It’s challenging but can be incredibly rewarding.

How to:

Research extensively: Understand the new market’s dynamics, customer behaviors, and potential competitors.
Adapt your product/service: Modify your offerings to cater to the needs of the new market.

Benefits:

Diversification of revenue streams.
Increased brand recognition and business growth.

5. Building Strategic Partnerships

Think of it as having a dance partner to help you waltz through the shifting sands. Strategic partnerships can provide resources, technology, or market access you don’t currently have.

How to:

Identify potential partners: Look for companies that complement your business and share your values.
Clearly define roles and objectives: Make sure both parties understand what they’re bringing to the table and what they expect in return.

Benefits:

Access to new resources, technology, or markets.
Shared risks and costs.

6. Customer-centric Approach

In a world where the customer is king, ignoring their needs is like shooting yourself in the foot. With every market shift, customer preferences change. It’s important to listen, learn, and adapt accordingly.

How to:

Gather feedback: Use surveys, interviews, or focus groups to understand your customer’s needs.
Incorporate feedback: Modify your products or services based on the insights gathered.

Benefits:

Increased customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Greater market share and profitability.

7. Sustainable Business Practices

The world is waking up to the importance of sustainability. And businesses are no different. Incorporating sustainable practices can help businesses stand out and thrive amidst market shifts.

How to:

Go green: Implement eco-friendly practices in your business operations.
Promote sustainability: Ensure that your business partners, suppliers, and customers know about your commitment to sustainability.

Benefits:

Enhanced brand image and reputation.
Attracting conscious consumers and, thus, increasing market share.

8. Effective Change Management

Change is scary. It’s the boogeyman under the business bed. But as the market shifts, change is inevitable. The key is managing it effectively so your business can adapt and your team is on board.

How to:

Communicate: Let your team know about upcoming changes and how it impacts them.
Train and support: Provide the necessary training and support to help your team adapt to the changes.

Benefits:

Smooth transition during periods of change.
Maintaining high morale and productivity levels in your team.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLES

Case Study: The Phoenix Rises

Remember Blockbuster? They were the big kid on the block in video rentals. Then, along came a little-known company called Netflix. Blockbuster didn’t adapt quickly, and we know how that story ends. Netflix, on the other hand, has continually adapted. They went from mailing DVDs to streaming, licensing content, and creating their own. It’s been quite the journey from the ‘little engine that could’ to the ‘big engine that did.’

Case Study: The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of LEGO

LEGO, a beloved brand for many of us growing up, hit a wall in the early 2000s. Competition from video games and a lack of product focus almost led to their downfall. But they didn’t give up. LEGO turned things around by aligning their short-term and long-term goals, returning to their core product, and expanding into new ventures like movies and video games. It’s a testament to the fact that even when the sands shift beneath your feet, you can build a castle with the right strategies!

Case Study: The Digital Transformation of Domino’s Pizza

Once upon a time, Domino’s Pizza was just another pizza delivery company. But when online ordering began to gain traction, they seized the opportunity. They invested in their online ordering system and mobile app and embraced social media marketing. Today, Domino’s is seen as a tech-savvy pizza company. Their share price skyrocketed, and they’re now stiffly competing with Pizza Hut.

Case Study: Starbucks’ Embrace of Sustainability

Starbucks, one of the world’s largest coffee chains, took notice of the growing trend toward sustainability and decided to make a change. They’ve committed to reducing their environmental impact, from sustainable sourcing of their coffee to reducing waste. This commitment has helped Starbucks enhance its brand image and cater to environmentally conscious consumers.

Plazabridge Group Case Studies

The journey through the shifting sands of market change is daunting yet exciting. The real magic happens when we, as executives, adapt to these changes and ensure that our objectives align.

So, as you put on your boots to trudge through the sands, remember to keep your compass (goals) in hand, your team by your side, and your eyes on the horizon. And remember, the journey through the shifting sands is always easier when you’re not dragging your feet. So, let’s adapt, align, and conquer!

EMPLOYEES THE ENGINE TO YOUR BUSINESS

Let’s not forget, EMPLOYEES are not just cogs in the wheel. They’re the engine of your business. Engaging them in the efforts is like adding rocket fuel to your engine. They understand the ground realities, customer pain points, and operational hurdles. By involving them in decision-making, you benefit from their insights and build a more committed workforce. As the saying goes, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”

Staff engagement is like a secret weapon for businesses. It’s about creating an environment where employees feel valued, heard, and motivated to contribute their best. Here’s how you can tap into this powerful resource:

How to:

Encourage feedback: Let your team know their opinions matter. Whether through suggestion boxes, regular team meetings, or anonymous surveys, create channels for them to share their thoughts.
Involve them in decision-making: When making decisions that affect your team, include them. It could be through brainstorming sessions or by assigning them to task forces.
Recognize and reward: Appreciate the hard work and celebrate the wins. It could be a simple ‘thank you’ note or an employee of the month award. Recognition goes a long way in boosting morale and motivation.

Benefits:

Increased productivity: Employees who feel engaged and valued will likely be more productive.
Reduced turnover: Engaged employees are likelier to stick around, reducing the costs and disruptions associated with high staff turnover.
Better decision-making: By tapping into your team’s insights, you can make better-informed decisions.
Enhanced customer service: Happy employees often lead to happy customers. When your team is engaged, they’re more likely to deliver superior customer service.

So, there you have it, visionary leaders! An eight-step playbook to help you navigate the shifting sands of market changes. From being agile to aligning your goals, embracing technology to involving your team – it’s all about staying adaptable. As we journey through the shifting sands together, remember – it’s not just about surviving the change. It’s about thriving amidst it and becoming stronger on the other side. Now, let’s get out there and conquer those sands!

Navigating through the ever-shifting business sands can feel like being in constant flux. But as we’ve seen, by becoming agile, balancing objectives, embracing technological disruption, expanding into new markets, and building strategic partnerships, businesses don’t just survive but thrive. Yes, we all know, in the world of business, change is the only constant. With greater adaptability and alignment of goals, you can ride the waves of change to success. So, roll up your sleeves and get ready to dive into the dunes!

Image credit: Unsplash

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Reverse Innovation

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Reverse Innovation

GUEST POST from Mike Shipulski

Innovation is a result of accumulated knowledge acquired over decades that is made manifest with mundane means.

It can be helpful to understand the required mindset by working things backward.

If you want innovation, solve new problems.

If you want to solve new problems, wall off design space responsible for success.

Block the team from reusing the same old recipe for success so there will be discomfort.

Without discomfort, there can be no innovation. Seek it out.

Prohibit solutions that live in familiar design space to demand the product or service do new things.

When the product or service must do new things, new lines of customer goodness must be created.

To create new lines of customer goodness, you’ve got to look at new facets of the customers’ lives.

To look at new facets of the customers’ lives, look more broadly at the jobs customers want to do.

You can ask customers what new jobs they want to do, but they won’t be able to tell you.

When you want to understand which new jobs will change the game, watch the work.

When you watch the work, watch more than the work. Watch everything.

When you come back to the office with new jobs that will disrupt the industry, you will be misunderstood for at least a year.

Misunderstanding is a precursor to innovation. Seek it out.

Misunderstanding blocks support for new work, but at least you’ll know you’re on to something.

When you get no support for the new work, do it anyway.

Rinse and repeat, as needed.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Customer Service is Like Being Married

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Customer Service is Like Being Married

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

The buying cycle for a customer typically includes a little research, talking to a salesperson, making the purchase, and whatever happens after the sale. That could include a follow-up from the salesperson, dealing with customer service for a problem, or any other interaction you have with the company or brand after the sale is made.

Many companies spend a lot of money and expend tremendous effort to get you in the door or to their website. They entice you with marketing messages, advertising, and anything else that could tip the scale to move a customer from thinking about buying to actually making the purchase.

Marketing messages and advertising campaigns create credibility. A salesperson’s promises make you feel good about doing business with them and their company. And if all goes well, eventually, a sale is made.

Some refer to this moment as “closing the deal.” I always joke about that phrase. “Closing the deal” signifies an ending, but in reality, it’s the beginning of the financial relationship. To put it in dating terms, everything else was courting the customer. Once the customer decides to buy, it’s like you proposed to them, and they said, “Yes.” And when the sale is finally made, it’s like getting married. And that is far from the end. It’s actually the beginning.

Once you can officially call someone a customer (versus a prospect), it’s time to keep them. In other words, you want to make the relationship last.

According to the American Psychological Association, in 2022, approximately 40-50% of first marriages end in divorce. And the No. 1 reason for divorce is simple: a lack of commitment. So, my question to a business is, “What percentage of your customers churn out after the first sale?” In other words, what’s the divorce rate of your customers?

Once the sale is made, there is the honeymoon phase, in which the customer is excited about the purchase, and you let the customer know how excited you are about doing business with them. How long does that last? Ideally, the honeymoon phase should never end. While the excitement compared to the first time doing business may ebb and flow, the customer should always feel appreciated and, in marital terms, loved.

So what do you do to court your customers and, more importantly, keep your customers in the honeymoon phase? You don’t need to answer me. Spend time with your team and discuss what you do after the sale is made to keep your clients from divorcing you and starting a new relationship with a competitor.

Image Credit: Pixabay

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Four Keys to Effective Team Communication

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Four Keys to Effective Team Communication

GUEST POST from David Burkus

Communication is what makes a team a team. Otherwise, it’s just a group of individuals working away at their desks, handing work up to some unnamed boss. In reality, people don’t work in a vacuum. And much of one individual’s work requires coordinating with one or more teams. Effective team communication makes individuals and teams dramatically more productive.

But unfortunately, a majority of employees say poor communication is the reason they’re falling behind and missing deadlines. That means, as a leader, one of your primary responsibilities is helping the team communicate and collaborate effectively.

In this article, we’ll outline four keys to effective team communication.

1. Match the Tool to the Goal

The first key to effective team communication is to match the tool to the goal. There are so many different collaboration tools available to teams today. From “old school” methods like in-person meetings, memos, and email to modern methods like video conferencing, Slack, and maybe even the metaverse. But every tool chosen comes with certain strengths and certain weaknesses. And as a result, different tools are more appropriate for different tasks. For instance, if the goal of the communication is to generate ideas, then face-to-face meetings are likely still the best method. But if you’re just presenting information to the team, video conference should suffice—or even better, just record yourself talking over the slide deck, send it out as a video, and save everyone from one more meeting.

Smart leaders consider the goal of the communication they are asking their team to engage in, and then select the appropriate medium of communication accordingly. More importantly, they don’t just choose the medium they prefer—but they consider the entire team and chose what is best for everyone.

2. Amplify Unheard Voices

The second key to effective team communication is to amplify unheard voices. On any team, there are certain voices that are louder and more frequent, and others that go unheard. Sometimes this is because of existing gender, racial, or ethnic biases that leave certain voices unnoticed or quickly dismissed. But often even the medium of communication chosen favors some team members and leaves others less likely to contribute. The setting of in-person meetings can favor loud, extroverted participants and signal introverted, more contemplative participants to contribute less often. The technology required for video conferences often favors more tech-savvy participants than those with great ideas who can’t figure out how to get off mute fast enough to share them. Even email communication can favor those with better written communication skills or those who utilize long-form writing as a tool for thinking.

Smart leaders understand their team and know who is favored or un-favored by the chosen tool for communication. Armed with that knowledge, they make a plan to pay attention to the oft-unheard voices and amplify those comments to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard, and everyone’s opinion considered.

3. Create A Safe Environment

The third key to effective team communication is to create a safe environment. This doesn’t mean a “safe space” where team members will never encounter an idea they disagree with. Rather it refers to a team environment of psychological safety, where team members feel safe to express their disagreements, and also their “crazy” ideas, suggestions, and perspectives. Psychologically safe teams are marked by a mutual sense of trust and respect—and those are two different qualities. When team members trust each other, they express themselves fully. But only if they feel their expression is respected by the team will they continue to trust them.

Smart leaders build trust by signaling their own vulnerability and admit when they don’t know the answer (which not only shows their trusting the team but also gives the team a chance to express different ideas). They also build respect by modeling active listening when others are sharing and showing a willingness to consider all ideas—not just defend their own.

4. Don’t Be Always On

The fourth key to effective team communication is to avoid being in constant communication—don’t be always on. While it may seem like high-performing teams are constantly communicating, it turns out many are marked by long periods without any real-time messaging. They definitely communicate—but they do it in quick bursts where everyone shares updates, problems, and the team solves in problems or roadblocks mentioned. Then they go their separate ways and trust each other to performing independently—which also allows each person enough time to focus and do the deep work that “always on” environments prevent.

Smart leaders teach their team to communicate in bursts, running meetings efficiently and infrequently. But some leaders inherit teams already in constant communication, so rather than flipping immediately to bursty communication they develop “no meeting Mondays” or certain small periods of time for team members to block out communication and focus—then gradually expand that time until the team is communicating less but better.

When you take these four together, and communicate in bursts in a safe environment, amplifying unheard voices and using the appropriate tools, you’ll find that your team’s communication improves. You’ll find the quality of their work improves. And you might just feel like your team is doing its best work ever.

Image credit: Pexels

Originally published at https://davidburkus.com on March 13, 2023.

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Basketball, Banks and Banana Splits

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Is failure everywhere?

Basketball, Banks and Banana Splits

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

When asked to describe his test for determining what is and isn’t hard-core pornography, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart responded, “I know it when I see it.”

In that sense, pornography and failure may have a lot in common.

By accident, I spent the month of April thinking, writing (here and here), and talking about failure. Then, in the last week, a bank failed, two top-seeded sports teams were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, and the New York Times wrote a feature article on the new practice of celebrating college rejections.

Failure was everywhere.

But was it?

SVB, Signature, First Republic – Failure.

On Monday, First Republic Bank became the third bank this year to fail. Like Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, it met the definition of bank failure according to the FDIC – “the closing of a bank by a federal or state banking regulatory agency…[because] it is unable to meet its obligations to depositors and others.”

It doesn’t matter if the bank is a central part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, is on the cutting edge of new financial instruments like cryptocurrency, or caters to high-net-worth individuals. When you give money to a bank, an institution created to keep your money safe, and it cannot give it back because it spent it, that is a failure.

Milwaukee Bucks – Failure?

Even if you’re not an NBA fan, you probably heard about the Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo’s interview after the team’s playoff elimination.

Here’s some quick context – the Milwaukee Bucks had the best regular season record and were widely favored to win the title. Instead, they lost in Game 5 to the 8^th-ranked Miami Heat. After the game, a reporter asked Antetokounmpo if he viewed the season as a failure, to which Antetokounmpo responded:

“It’s not a failure; it’s steps to success. There’s always steps to it. Michael Jordan played 15 years, won six championships. The other nine years was a failure? That’s what you’re telling me? It’s a wrong question; there’s no failure in sports.”

If you haven’t seen the whole clip, it’s worth your time:

The media went nuts, fawning over Antetokounmpo’s thoughtful and philosophical response, the epitome of an athlete who gives his all and is graceful in defeat. One writer even went so far as to proclaim that “Antetokounmpo showed us another way to live.”

But not everyone shared that perspective. In the post-game show, four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal was one of the first to disagree,

“I played 19 seasons and failed 15 seasons; when I didn’t win it, it was a failure, especially when I made it to the finals versus the (Houston) Rockets and lost, made it to the finals for the fourth time with the (Los Angeles) Lakers and lost, it was definitely a failure.

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I can’t tell everybody how they think, but when I watch guys before me, the Birds, the Kareems, and you know that’s how they thought, so that’s how I was raised.

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He’s not a failure as a player, but is it a failure as a season? I would say yes, but I also like his explanation. I can understand and respect his explanation, but for me, when we didn’t win it, it was always my fault, and it was definitely a failure.”

Did Antetokounmpo fail? Are the Bucks a failure? Was their season a failure?

It depends.

College Rejections – Not Failure

Failure is rarely fun, but it can be absolutely devastating if all you’ve ever known is success. Just ask anyone who has ever applied to college. Whether it was slowly opening the mailbox to see if it contained a big envelope or a small one or hesitatingly opening an email to get the verdict, the college application process is often the first time people get a taste of failure.

Now, they also get a taste of ice cream.

Around the world, schools are using the college application and rejection process as a learning experience:

LA: Seniors gather to feed their rejection letters into a shredder and receive an ice cream sundae. The student with the most rejections receives a Barnes & Noble gift card. “You have to learn that you will survive and there is a rainbow at the other end,” said one of the college counselors.
NYC: After adding their rejection letters to the Rejection Wall, students pull a prize from the rejection grab bag and enjoy encouraging notes from classmates like, “You’re too sexy for Vassar” or “You’ve been rejected, you’re too smart. Love, NYU.”
Sydney, Australia: a professor started a Rejection Wall of Fame after receiving two rejections in one day, sharing his disappointment with a colleague only to hear how reassured they were that they weren’t alone.

“I know it when I see it” – Failure

I still don’t know a single definition or objective test for failure.

But I do know that using “I’ll know it when I see it” to define failure is a failure.

It’s a failure because we can define success and failure before we start.

Sometimes failure is easy to define – if you are a bank and I give you money, and you don’t give it back to me with interest, that is a failure. Sometimes the definition is subjective and even personal, like defining failure as not making the playoffs vs. not winning a championship, or not applying to a school vs. not getting in.

Maybe failure is everywhere. Maybe it’s not.

I’ll know it when I define it.

Image credit: Pixabay

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When the Startup Romance Dies

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When the Startup Romance Dies

GUEST POST from Greg Satell

Every startup is exciting and romantic in the beginning. The founders usually know each other well and want to work together. They bring on others who are likeminded and committed to the mission of the enterprise. Long hours and shared experience makes the business feel less like work and more like a family.

Yet as the company grows and more people are brought on, the social fabric begins to fray. Roles, which once were fluid and interchangeable, begin to formalize and solidify. Tight camaraderie gives way to office politics. What was once a “family” begins to seem like just another place to work and earn a living.

The story is so common that nobody should be surprised when it happens, but inevitably most are, which is why few entrepreneurs prepare for it. Often, because they still feel connected to the senior team, they don’t even realize it’s happening until it’s too late. That’s a shame, because the breakdown of the family atmosphere can be avoided if you prepare for it.

The Dunbar Dilemma

In 1992, anthropologist Robin Dunbar published his groundbreaking paper on optimal group sizes. For humans, he estimated the maximum group size that can maintain stable relationships to be about 150, now known as the Dunbar Number. Other researchers using different methodologies have come up with slightly higher numbers, but the general principle stands. Go past a certain point and natural connections start to break down.

That’s why around when an organization hits 150-200 employees, the “family atmosphere” starts to break down and take on a decidedly more corporate feel. Early employees don’t feel the same bonds with the latecomers and new employees don’t build the same camaraderie when they join the company.

Inevitably, the change in atmosphere is attributed to the type of people hired, rather than the number of people in the organization. So the first step to solving the problem is to simply acknowledge that running a larger enterprise is different than running a small one. Culture will no longer take care of itself, you have to work to build and maintain it.

All too often, entrepreneurs attempt to reorganize the company at this point. That’s almost always a mistake. Valdis Krebs, who researches organizational networks, notes that reorganizations can often sever informal ties that you aren’t aware of but that are crucial to how the company functions.

The Importance Of Boundary Spanners

In the early 1970s, sociologist Mark Granovetter began researching how professional, technical and managerial workers found jobs in the Boston area. He was somewhat surprised to find that they often found work someone they knew, but not a close contact, like a friend or family member, but someone more removed, like a friend of a friend or a distant cousin. He called this principle the Strength of Weak Ties.

Further analysis shows why it works. Those who are closest to us know pretty much the same things we do, because they frequent similar places and do similar things. So if we want to gain access to new information, we need to broaden our scope and connect with people further out on the social spectrum.

In a small startup, the strength of weak ties plays a negligible role, because everybody knows each other through first-degree connections. However, once the Dunbar threshold of 150-200 people is passed, that’s no longer true. As the company grows, information increasingly needs to flow through second and third degree connections.

Network scientists call people who link disparate networks in an organization boundary spanners and they are crucial for maintaining culture as an organization grows. Once you understand the importance of boundary spanners, you can start redesigning programs and platforms to optimize for connection.

Redesigning Programs And Platforms For Connection

Every organizational culture is unique, so there are no hard and fast rules for designing programs and platforms to optimize for connection, but the best place to start is to build on what you already have. Often, companies accidentally find that an existing program that was built for another purpose effectively builds boundary spanners.

For example, Facebook originally designed its six week engineering bootcamp to help it scale by immersing new engineers in its methods and codebase, no matter what their level of experience. However, what it found was that bootcampers would build bonds during those six weeks that would persist long after they moved to disparate parts of the company.

In a similar vein, Experian found that its employees that participated in its “Le Tour de Experian” bike rides to benefit charity would build bonds that would span across organizational boundaries and lead to professional collaborations. So it built Employee Resource Groups and Clubs to build connections across a wider variety of interests.

Other companies, such as General Electric, encourage high potential executives to work in different divisions to create boundary spanners. Still others create seminars and best practice programs. There are many ways you can network your organization, once you learn to prioritize connections to build boundary spanners.

Evolving Leadership & Culture

In the early days of a startup most of the energy is necessarily focused on action items, such as developing a product, coming up with a go-to-market strategy and executing basic tasks. Job titles tend to be fluid and everybody pitches in where they can. With a small number of people, work can often be organized through quick huddles and whiteboard sessions.

Yet as the organization grows, more formal procedures and processes begin to take shape. Communication, necessarily, becomes more formal and less ad hoc. Roles within the company solidify and employees are increasingly expected to “stay in their lane.” Entrepreneurial leaders begin to spend less time focusing on the details of day-to-day execution.

This is when it is crucial for leaders to evolve from operational managers to what General Stanley McChrystal, in his book Team of Teams, calls “empathetic crafters of culture.” In a larger organization, a leaders role cannot be merely to plan and direct action, but needs to increasingly focus on shaping connections within the firm.

Perhaps most of all, entrepreneurs need to understand that the transition from a small startup to a significant enterprise doesn’t necessarily mean you have to lose “the family.” It just means that the leadership and culture need to evolve. That won’t simply happen all by itself. You have to put in the time and effort to make it so.

— Article courtesy of the Digital Tonto blog
— Image credit: Pixabay

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Generation AI Replacing Generation Z

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Generation AI Replacing Generation Z

by Braden Kelley

The boundary lines between different named generations are a bit fuzzy but the goal should always be to draw the boundary at an event significant enough to create substantial behavior changes in the new generation worthy of consideration in strategy formation.

I believe we have arrived at such a point and that it is time for GenZ to cede the top of strategy mountain to a new generation I call Generation AI (GenAI).

The dividing line for Generation AI falls around 2014 and the people of GenAI are characterized by being the first group of people to grow up not knowing a world without easy access to generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools that begin to transform their interactions with our institutions and each other.

We have already seen professors and teachers having to police AI-generated school essays, while the rest of us are trying to cope with frighteningly realistic deep fake audio and video. But what other impacts on people’s behavior will we see as a result of the coming ubiquity of artificial intelligence?

It is important to remember that generative artificial intelligence is not really artificial intelligence but collective intelligence informed by what we the people have contributed to the training/reference set. As such these large language models are predicting the next word or combining existing content based on whatever training set they are exposed to. They are not creating original thought.

Generative AI is being built into nearly all of our existing software and cloud tools, and GenAI will grow up only knowing a reality where every application and web site they interact with will have an AI component to it. Generation AI will not know a time where they cannot ask an AI, in the same way that GenZ relies on social search, and Gen X and Millenials assume search engines hold their answers.

Our brains are changing to focus more on processing and less on storage. These changes make us more capable, but more vulnerable too.

This new AI technology represents a double-edge sword and its effects could fall on either edge of the sword in different areas:

Option 1 – Best Case

Generative AI will amplify creativity by encouraging recombination of existing images, text, audio and video in new inspiring ways using the outputs of AI as inputs into human creativity

Option 2 – Worst Case

Generative AI will reduce creativity because people will become reliant on using artificial intelligence to create, creating an echo chamber of new content only created from existing content, leading to AI outputs becoming the only outputs and a world where people spend more time interacting with AI’s than with other people

Which of these two options on the impact of AI reliance do you see as the most likely in the areas where you focus?

How do you see Generation AI impacting the direction of societies around the world?

Are you planning to add Generation AI to your marketing strategies and strategic planning for 2024 or beyond?

Reference

For reference, here is timeline of previous American generations according to an article from NPR:

Though there is a consensus on the general time period for generations, there is not an agreement on the exact year that each generation begins and ends.

Generation Z – Born 2001-2013 (Age 10-22)

These kids were the first born with the Internet and are suspected to be the most individualistic and technology-dependent generation. Sometimes referred to as the iGeneration.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This description is erroneous, the differentiating factor of GenZ is that they experienced the rise of social media.

Millennials – Born 1980-2000 (Age 23-43)

They experienced the rise of the Internet, Sept. 11 and the wars that followed. Sometimes called Generation Y. Because of their dependence on technology, they are said to be entitled and narcissistic.

Generation X – Born 1965-1979 (Age 44-58)

They were originally called the baby busters because fertility rates fell after the boomers. As teenagers, they experienced the AIDs epidemic and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Sometimes called the MTV Generation, the “X” in their name refers to this generation’s desire not to be defined.

EDITOR’S NOTE: GenX also experienced the rise of the personal computer and this has influenced their parenting of a large portion of Millenials and GenZ

Baby Boomers – Born 1943-1964 (Age 59-80)

The boomers were born during an economic and baby boom following World War II. These hippie kids protested against the Vietnam War and participated in the civil rights movement, all with rock ‘n’ roll music blaring in the background.

Silent Generation – Born 1925-1942 (Age 81-98)

They were too young to see action in World War II and too old to participate in the fun of the Summer of Love. This label describes their conformist tendencies and belief that following the rules was a sure ticket to success.

GI Generation – Born 1901-1924 (Age 99+)

They were teenagers during the Great Depression and fought in World War II. Sometimes called the greatest generation (following a book by journalist Tom Brokaw) or the swing generation because of their jazz music.

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