Archive for making decisions

Setting strategic values in your business

September 9, 2007 / Luke / No comments

Have you ever noticed that Virgin are the same no matter where they are? Consider people that work for them… they all look like they are having fun don’t they? I have worked in a few places that felt like death on a stick. If you met someone who left there and you talked about it what is the thing they remember most of all? How bad it was to work there! In most places there are strategic level values that filter down to the place where we work. The day to day reflects the bigger picture ‘feelings’ and ‘values’ that are at work in the organization. What is it that you wish your business to be known for? A good ‘heart’? A fun place? Well here are some of the things you will have to think about in order to make that happen.

What do you want your values to be?

Gloria Jean have worked well in this country to portray a loving image. They are very public with their charity work and make it known what their values are. What do you want people to think when they think about you? Work it out. For me, I want people to engage with me (either through my work as a lecturer or whatever) and feel like they got something out of it. If my business is teaching… I want people to say certain things about me… so I set strategic values that I live by in my teaching. For example, I want people to leave with a concept… so I use a narrative structure and teach around one idea. If nothing else you will leave that lecture with that idea.

Say you are a tree-lopper. You want people to think something of you don’ t you? You want people to say, ‘that tree-lopper is the best damned tree-lopper that I have ever used I want to use that person again!’ What is the impression you want to give to them? What are the values you want them to recognise? Get the picture? If not, consider it this way. What do you want people to say (i.e. word of mouth marketing) about your business? Write down a list immediately!

Building in values from the top down

Most westernised business have some semblance of a traditional hierarchy. Now before you pick up your rocks let me explain what I mean. There is usually a managerial structure in place that allows you to recognise a so-called chain of command. The person who is at the top of the chain has to create the flow on to the other people in the business. Once you have worked out what you want your business to represent you need to begin working in the values as a matter of practice. This is not an easy thing to do especially if those in the business are resisting it. However, you must persist with this over an extended period of time. Think of ways you can demonstrate these values without the use of coercion and bullying. Be clever!

Finding leaders to work with

Every movement in the history of man is based on a set of values. Setting these values should NOT as spurious as a mission or value statement. Nothing wrong with such things but there must always be practical outlets on a day to day basis. Hiring the right kind of people who share your values is more important than hiring people who are competent. I didn’t stutter! Your business would do better strategically if you had people with passion in the stead of good skills because that passion will flow on to your customers and they will recognise it.

Being consistent

The final phase after working in the values you want your business to reflect from the top down through key leaders is to be consistent. One thing you have to admire about a business with values like Virgin for example, is the consistency of their approach. Sure, they don’t always get it right but each time I have encountered them either on a plane or someone else I have found their approach to be consistent and my engagement with their brand likewise. This is clearly a strategic vision that has been cautiously worked in over time. It’s this kind of consistency that has made it what it is today.

Working with the right people

A general manager friend of mine said something which I have not forgotten. He said that it’s very hard to flow with people who don’t have similar values. It’s easy enough to say but without the right people willing to work with the strategic value set you have chosen for your business it simply will never come to pass. Author John Scott says that the highest form of power is collective mobilisation. When people work together it creates cohesion that no other social power can match. The problem can be that people often get sidetracked by career, selfish goals and other things at the neglect of the strategic vision. Nothing wrong with having goals or looking to get ahead, that’s important. A careful balance is suggested here.

A good strategic set of values is only as good as the environment it’s going into it. Think of your business as a seedbed that grows values overtime. With the right group of people growing the values day after day the right kind of results can ensue and good leadership is always important. Without these elements… you will NEVER have the values flowing out of your business that you desire.

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4 ways to find a problem

September 6, 2007 / Luke / No comments

How do we even know we have a problem? Well this post will show you four ways you can know you have a problem.

1. Look for symptoms.

The first thing you need to do to consider carefully the evidence you have before you. What are the facts? Write a list of everything you think the symptoms are and consider them carefully. What is the evidence telling you? Remember problems belong to people and people form the world around them largely in their heads. Evidence can be created and facts manipulated. Look carefully at these things and see if a conclusion can be drawn… does a problem then become evident?

2. Looking for things that concern us

A clever trick our mind plays on us is that it makes us think that problems are somehow separate to our understanding of them. That is, people will use the language of ‘well I have this problem’ or ‘the problem is I have …’. All the while not realising that what bothers them is in their mind. When you take a good hard look for things that bother you then you will begin to see the areas of life that you think are problematic. If you are from the mathematical tradition you will think I why I just said is rubbish. But consider this, you now have found a problem because I am bothering you!

3. What is effecting us?

Another way you can identify a problem is to look for things that you don’t control that are effecting you. For example, say you are out in the rain getting wet… you are in total control of where you stand but you are not in control of the rain. Problems are exactly the same. However, you can recognise that which comes from the outside and that which falls on you simply by thinking… what are the things I am not controlling that are effecting me in this situation. By doing this you can begin to see bigger picture realities. These bigger picture things are often how other people treat you, how your work operates, how the economy operates and political things. You can’t control those things to suit yourself but you can recognize their influence on you and begin to identify the problems you are seeing.

4. Looking for things that are ‘all in your head’

The final way to identify a problemis the issue of their not being a problem. Now, there are things that effect us in the way the world operates as discussed above but there are times when the problem we have is nothing more than a construction of our psyche. In a recent interchange with a person I work with I noticed that they were greatly upset by something I had said in a group email that was not even intended for them. I ended up having to apologise for something that I didn’t even do wrong. Why was this the case? The person who read what I had wrote took issue as if it was directed at them when it was directed as somebody else. They created the problem. Apart from them thinking it was an issue there really was no issue at all.

These kinds of problems are usually related to underlying issues of the mind and emotions. I ended on this point because it’s a really important one… what you think the problem is… the problem is. If you have a tendency towards technical solutions you will look for technical problems. If you are led by your heart then you will gravitate to heart solutions. Ultimately the rest is up to you but that is another post for another day.

There is a podcast associated with this post which you can download for free here. Thanks for reading.

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Making the right decisions: Favouring effective decisions over efficient ones

August 27, 2007 / Luke / One comment

In a recent post I discussed making the right choices. To continue this I would like to say that most choices we have to make are of the heart and of the head. Heart decisions are the effective choice most of the time where as efficient ones are of the head. Head choices are come to through a reasoning process like this one. Clearly there are some choices we make that are the right ones and others which are the optimal ones. Recently I had to move house and thanks to the ridiculous prices of houses in Brisbane I can’t buy. So I have to rent. My daughter started school about 18 months ago so I began this process by figuring that I could move to a cheaper suburb and save some money. I thought I had this all figured out.

Then one night I heard my daughter crying herself to sleep. So I asked her what the problem was. She told me that she didn’t want to leave her school. So here I am with a choice to make. Do I move to save a few bucks or stay where I am and stretch. What’s the trade off in a situation like that. What’s ironic is that I wrote about this not more than a month ago and here I am having to make this kind of choice. What kind of reasoning process will help me here? If I move to save money my daughter will be upset and uprooted. On the other hand if I stay my daughter will be happy but I may have to move in another year because I can’t afford it. One of these decisions is an effective choice and the other is efficient… what do I do?

The pro’s and con’s in the lifehacker post simply do not apply to me and I suspect that a great majority of people find such things innocuous. My family is not a business and I shouldn’t make decisions that are business like so far as my children are concerned. What I should do is do what I can to stay near her school and give her a stable environment. If I can’t then all I can do is make the most effective choice I can. That is the right thing to do.

Effective Choices

Effective choices are often those of the heart. Once I was stuck in the middle of bitter argument between two colleagues which made me feel very uncomfortable. They just decided that (for whatever reason) they didn’t like each other anymore. The problem was, one was the boss and the other was an employee. Ultimately the employee lost because the boss had more power and eventually got rid of the other guy. I was caught in the middle of this and being a young academic at the time didn’t know as much about politics as I do right now. I had plenty of opportunity to warn the person being fired that this was their fate. However, I never did. A few years later the same thing happened to me (I got fired!) in a similar way. When it happened to me I realised I had been making ambitious choices to the detriment of those around me. Since then, I learned a valuable lesson: Always make the right choice. The choice that is most effective over the choice that is most efficient.

Effective choices are the right thing to do. In any given situation you will know what is right if you look into your heart. Ambition is good so long as it’s mixed with integrity. Why? Being the best should be your goal but if what you are doing is destroying other people to get there then you are not making effective choices. What do you want people to think about you after your gone? He was a mongrel… I am glad he is dead! No. I should think you want people to think about your integrity, your character and how no matter what you always made the choices that were the most effective.

Efficient Choices

We live in a business environment that is ‘process’ and ‘profit’ minded not ‘people’ minded. All you have to do is open up the latest copy of Business Review Weekly to see that most business people are trained as efficient thinkers. I have spent the best part of seven years working with people who can tell you every reason why the economy is failing yet not once mention how people are involved. We can hear of a lack of oil and then fear sets in. What happens next… people panic and the so-called ‘economy’ falls to bits. I recently watched Die Hard 4.0 (Live free or Die Hard) and they used this to great effect. People were in a panic and it caused huge problems for the economy. People are not part of the problem… people are the problem!

Efficient choices are those that are ‘optimally’ satisfying… given the known constraints. We have a whole swag of decision making practice built on the backbone of this kind of logic. The idea of satisficing… making the best choices with the amount of information you have is one such idea. No I know we don’t always have all the information but that doesn’t mean we go on and make decisions that rely on us being ‘optimal’ so far as our heart is concerned. People use such ideas as an excuse to make efficient decisions. Just because you don’t know something does not mean that you can say, ‘well I did my best.’ Nonsense! According to what? You did you best so far as you are concerned but what did you exclude? ‘Well I just didn’t have the information.’ You didn’t have it or you just didn’t look for it?

I wish more business people would start making effective choices and buck the current trend in this nation. This current plague of materialism is informing the decision making process so much that corporate people are forgetting the simplicity of human relationships. It’s very easy to make optimal decisions but much harder to make decisions that are real tough choices. It’s easy (optimal) to remove people out of the way but it’s just not the right thing to do. When it’s time to let someone go do so with tact in such a way that the person is left with their dignity not via text message!

In closing this article I would like to point out that what dictates the right choice is not management theory, not your work environment and not your friends. It’s you. You are totally 100% responsible for you. You can make the right choices right now by always looking at each situation and asking yourself this question: what is the right thing to do in this situation. Don’t ask: what is most efficient or the most optimal but rather what is right? You know this answer already so go ahead and start making these kinds of choices.

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Why is business so heartless?

August 25, 2007 / Luke / One comment

Sometimes I wonder why people forget that human beings are the ones that work in a business. As these people say: it’s easy to maintain your heart and keep your business growing. Recent trends in emotional intelligence point us towards the need to pay more attention to these things. Have you ever noticed that in each place you have worked there seems to be an essence to it? There is a spirit to the workplace. There is a heart. Modern business focuses a lot on making money and profiteering but very few businesses focus on the heart. Now, a wise man once said to me you cannot have a business and have a heart at the same time. Not true.

Some people put profits before people and in their mind separate business from being human. Phrases like, ‘well this is business’ is your way of saying, ‘I value money over human relationships.’ Another one I hear is, ‘I am in business to make money.’ Of course you are but exactly who are you going to make money from? Who is going to help you make money? People. Behind every employee is a heart. Each time you mistreat people you shifting your heart away from business and onto things that are less important.

Heartless people… heartless practice

I am amazed at how people think they can succeed by bullying and coercing people into making them do things. Recently, a person who was working for me was told that they might not have any work. Instead of talking to me directly they went straight to my supervisor and told them I had to hire them because of their qualifications. When that didn’t work they went even higher. My reaction was one of shock… all I said was there might be no work. When I was asked about it I had no idea how to respond and felt as if my role as supervisor had been marginalised. Due to this I was later forced to remove two other people who were less qualified but had more heart. Qualifications are important but not more important than the human spirit.

I have had close personal friends do me this way as well, people who favoured the business end and the money in preference to friendship or collegiality. I have heard it said that we should never go into business with our friends because the heart decisions we will have to make will obscure our judgement. On the other hand I have also heard that if I can’t trust the people I am in business with then my business is unlikely to succeed. I would say it this way, trust people you are in business with and treat them with the heart first. Never allow your desire for money overrule your heart in business. This is a great mistake and one that you will live to regret for years.

Keeping the balance

There is however a chance that you will look for heart issues where there are none. You can always put people first and make those kinds of choices but there comes a time when decisions need to be made for the sake of the business. What happens when you can’t pay someone? Wave goodbye and say ‘good luck’. No. There is still a way to deal with this in the heart way. Help the person find alternative employment. Exhaust all avenues, go the extra mile. People love to do the wrong thing and then make excuses for it. ‘Well I just had to let him go.’ Of course … but how did you set them on their way… what did you do to help them? After all, didn’t they work for you for years? How about showing some respect for the time they gave to you outside of regular hours? Sadly, we keep expecting more for less.

In closing this post I would like to remind you that you are a human being first and whatever comes next second. Your identity is born through the fact that you are a human. When you say things like: business is business. You are separating the heart from business. Business is heartless because we have placed the heart on the outside when we make decisions. Even in contemporary so-called spiritual practices we do this by focusing on what we can accumulate for ourself instead of focusing on what we can do for and with others. I would ask you to rethink how you handle your customers and your co-workers. Do you treat them with heart or as a resource to be exploited. People will always have heart no matter how tough their exterior may be. Why not bring the heart back to your business and do what’s right.

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Learning from past mistakes

August 20, 2007 / Luke / 3 comments

The greatest thing you can ever do is make mistakes. I hear people say to me all the time… if only I could erase my past mistakes then I would be free. That, is a misunderstanding of epidemic proportions. If you erased your mistakes you would erase a great percentage of what you know and the information you have already got in your possession. Why would you want to do that? Because of how much it hurts.

The pain we feel we make drastic mistakes is terrible. When I failed in business for the second time I was devastated. I spent about a month in a complete daze because my whole world and all of my dreams came crashing down with it. To say that I was ruined would be an understatement. Then after a period of time I began to realise I know a few things about failing in business I could teach others. I began to share my stories of failure with people at the university where I work. The students gained genuine insight in what NOT to do. As a result of that my reputation as a not-so-bad teacher increased dramatically. The fruit of that was people following me into other courses and a great wrap from my boss.

When I was sharing with people the mistakes I had made I realised that one of the most important things for me to do is milk them for all their worth. It would be a tremendous shame if you simply let them slip through your fingers. What amazed me about this losing experience was that it has become leverage to me. Now, I can see others making similar mistakes and I can warn them about it. They often come back and thank me later. Now, I am still not physically rich but I am rich in knowledge and this I would argue is of much greater value.

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Making the right decisions

August 14, 2007 / Luke / 4 comments

In the ever growing material lives we lead I am amazed and what people will trade off to get ahead. Now, think for a moment what are the right decisions? I think we can say it this way. There are decisions that should be made and those that should not. There are many reasons for me to ask this question when I take a look at the lives of those around me. The conniving and backstabbing I have seen over the course of my life convinces me that people are interested in making decisions that are wrong. The right decision is one that is made on the basis on what your heart says NOT what you think is best for you.

Here is an example of what I am talking about. Say you are a financial manager of a company and there is pressure on you to ‘cook the books’ to make it look like the company is doing better than it really is. Is that the right decision? No it’s not! Why not? Over time your decision will become like poison to those around you. Every decision you make has the potential for consequences that go beyond your local environment. Every choice you make effects other people whether you know it or not. What will the consequences be if you ‘cook the books’. Chances are you may ruin your company or at the very least loose your job.

What about your children? Do you work so much that they never see you? I have been there working 80 hours a week because I thought I had to. I wanted this or that but as I heard a wise man once say, ‘whatever you compromise to keep you’ll lose.’ In Australia there is a crisis of materialism. Everywhere I look I see bigger houses, smaller yards, less community and more business. There are countless books on getting ahead and making more money out of this or that. These books lack heart. There is no moral voice saying, ‘hold on but what about the future.’ We have a daycare generation growing up with parents who would rather spend money renovating their house than they would with their kids.

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The cost of a house is so high now that it takes two working people to pay the mortgage and in some cases that’s not even enough. How did we get here? What caused us to think that this was worth it? It’s not. Having a house is not a dream worth having if it means that children grow up in a materialistic society. Money is great and I like it but when you attach your values to it and make your decisions through it you have become something less than human. Ask yourself this question: what are trading off in your decision making process to come to this. Why do you need to work so hard and never see your children?

Making the right decision is doing what’s best for your family first and putting all else second. You can kid yourself if you like and say that making the right decision is to work hard but that’s nonsense. Choose to live a life where you work the right amount of hours and spend the rest of the time loving and caring for those that love and care for you. Buck the trend. Do something different… make choices where you put your heart first and your head second. Now that’s making the right decisions.

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