On This and That Favorite Quotes On This and That... On Working with Clients On Tools On Being a "Consultant" On Customization On Initiation versus Implementation On Training Development On the Transfer of Training On Designing Basketball Offenses and Effective Organizations On Working With Clients You can't really call yourself an improvement consultant without a systematic approach for working with clients. Mine is summarized below. It applies to any kind of client work I might do, and proceeds through three stages, with each stage iterating back-and-forth between two steps: Clarify the purpose and boundaries of the effort. Commit to the specific objectives and approach. Investigate the current situation and the possibilities for improvement. Invent solutions, e.g., develop strategies, design a process, create resources, etc. Initiate action by creating and executing plans to implement the solution. Close loops by evaluating the completion of plans, the effectiveness of solutions, and the overall project approach used. This same general approach applies whether I am asked: to design a new process or redesign an existing process, to develop new strategies for an organization, to develop a training program, or to work with a team that has a specific, measurable performance gap. Ultimately this approach relies upon multiple, successive approximations at each stage and continuous improvement loops, particularly in the final stage. It intentionally limits the amount of analysis and requirements determination up front, and is not unlike the rapid prototyping process espoused in software development, which has evolved for reasons similar to my own. It has been my experience that at the outset of almost any complex initiative, it is almost impossible for clients to describe the exact product, service, or improvement they want in clear, concrete terms. This is true whether you are being asked to develop an information technology system, an order fulfillment process, or a training program. However, when rapidly shown working approximations of their unclear and often ambiguous requirements, clients are able to respond to the prototype to achieve clarity and agreement about what they do and don't want. In addition, they are able to evaluate their own requirements in real-time with actual results from trials, so that requirements evolve in conjunction with facts, rather than dreams and aspirations alone. Simply put, this approach works better, faster and cheaper than any other. Return to top On Tools I have a set of tools and methods that are proven, practical, and form the basis for most of my consulting and training work with clients. But I'm the first to tell clients that tools are no panacea. I often tell clients and workshop participants to "Use the tool, don't let the tool use you." While they are no substitute for knowledgeable people, working together to make change, they can be useful, when used well: Tools provide me with a set of reusable "objects" that can be mixed, matched, and combined into a logical sequence in order to quickly produce a customized approach that meets a client's unique needs. Tools provide clients with a set of templates for addressing their most common issues, i.e., Decision Making, Problem Solving, Planning, Process Analysis, Prioritization, Measurement, Creativity, Teamwork, etc. Tools provide structure to an otherwise "messy" process… teams working together to make change. They help to democratize the team's interactions, and enforce a level of rigor that elevates the team's collective I.Q. Tools have embedded within them certain thinking processes. Every tool has its own way of thinking about problems. By learning the tools, you learn the thinking process. Buckminster Fuller once said something like "Don't teach me new ways of thinking… Give me tools that make me think in new ways." Ultimately this is what tools can provide. A new way of thinking that can help us to address our most intractable problems. Return to top On Being a "Consultant" I don't like the word consultant. People expect consultants to be in possession of answers which they are paid to reveal. The older I get, the fewer "answers" I have. Instead, the most valuable thing I can offer is questions. The renowned Peter Drucker said "The best thing I can do for companies is to be ignorant and ask them some questions." The word collaborator more truly describes my relationship with clients than consultant. Webster's defines collaborate as... to work jointly with others in an intellectual endeavor. I don't have stock answers, but instead collaborate with my clients to co-create solutions that work. I get inside client organizations and build long-term relationships. I don't have very many clients and like it that way. The ones I keep are truly partnerships. Return to top On Customization Everything I do for clients is customized. Admittedly, this is not very efficient. For consultants it is much more lucrative to have packaged programs and offerings and sell these "as is" in quantity. However, in my experience this is not very effective… it does not lead to success for my clients. So instead, I have developed a set of proven, practical tools and methods which I bring to each project as a starting point. I then work through a process that allows me to customize my approach to each client's unique challenges. The customization process, in which I work to understand the client's issue, select the appropriate tools and methods, customize materials/resources for use with the client, and determine the best way to deploy these… that is where the value is created. Because without this customization, the implementation that follows is subject to a much greater chance of failure than clients should tolerate. Return to top On Initiation versus Implementation Most consulting approaches involve analysis and design, then conclude with a stage commonly called Implementation. Unfortunately, the word "Implementation" seems to suggest to both consultants and clients alike that we are almost done. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is at this stage that the real work is just beginning, which is why I prefer the term Initiation, to suggest instead that this stage represents the beginning of the most important work, rather than the end. This phase typically involves multiple, successive approximations and continuous improvement loops. You can't get very good at anything in just one or two iterations of evaluation and improvement. However, I have found you can reliably achieve excellence in almost anything that is allowed to benefit from multiple, ongoing cycles of evaluation and improvement. It is amazing how good you can get at anything, if you just follow a disciplined, ongoing approach for evaluation and improvement. Initiation is the stage when these cycles of refinement, and therefore the real work, begin… Return to top   On Training Development My past includes working as an Instructional System Designer, so I understand the approach typically used for design and development of corporate training--Assess, Design, Pilot, Evaluate and Finalize. And while I utilize many of the elements of this common approach, I do so in a much different way than traditional ISD efforts. It is my belief that training development should not progress toward a pilot program and conclude with final revisions based upon evaluation of this pilot. Rather, every session of each course should be: treated like a pilot, evaluated as a work-in-process, and open to possible revisions. Treating every program like a pilot allows you to significantly reduce the cycle time for development of customized instruction from concept to first delivery. In the traditional approach so much is riding on success of the pilot, that it typically takes a long time to prepare for and conduct this event. By contrast, I can typically get a course up and ready for the first "pilot" within a week of the initial request. In addition to speed, the ultimate quality you can achieve is much greater. By evaluating and improving after multiple sessions, a course can be refined to become much more effective than if most of the evaluation occurs at a single pilot event, and changes are "locked in" after that. One caveat… This type of approach to training development, with limited time from request to first pilot, only works if the developer has subject matter expertise and proven materials with which to work. This is why I have concentrated my consulting and training in a few areas, and over the years have developed both expertise and excellent materials in these few areas. This way, I am able to respond to a client's request, customize from a tool kit of existing materials, and be ready for the first pilot in very short order. After that, it is just teach/evaluate/improve/repeat. In general, I have never found any program or process able to achieve excellence in just one or two iterations of the evaluation and improvement cycle. However, I have found you can reliably achieve excellence in any program or process that is allowed to benefit from multiple, repeated cycles of evaluation and improvement. It is amazing how good anything can get, if you just follow a disciplined, ongoing approach for evaluation and improvement. Return to top   On the Transfer of Training It is a common occurrence. People get trained… during the class they demonstrate proficiency in the content and approaches being taught… then they go back to their job… and don't use anything they have learned. This problem is so common, virtually everyone in corporate America has experienced it at one time or another. In training circles, it is described as a failure of the training to "transfer" to the workplace. I have been the victim of this tranfer problem in the past, and have studied it and found there are several common root causes. The good news is that most of these causes can be addressed by simply bringing the job into the classroom. In other words, I have them learn and use what they are learning in real-time, during the training session. For example, when I teach process improvement tools and methods, my preferred approach is to teach the methods to a group of teams, where each one has been formed specifically to improve a selected process, and given an objective AND accountability for doing so. After this team formation, the teams are then sent to the workshop in order to learn how and launch the effort. During such a workshop, trainees have a heightened interest in learning the tools and methods, because they have a specific objective to use them to make improvements. In addition, the workshops allow them to begin the analysis and generation of possible solutions for their specific process. The transfer problem is in the room… and can be dealt with in real-time. Doing it this way turns good training into impactful interventions. I describe my workshops using a phrase coined by Geary Rummler, as "interventions wrapped in a training artifact." While this has been my preferred approach for many years, in the last few years it has become absolutely essential for a simple reason… the time pressures on employees. Even the most hard-working, well-intentioned employees have little time in their normal day to day to reflect on how they do things, and make needed changes. Simply put, everyone is so busy doing, they don't have time to do it better. The use of improvement workshops provide teams with more than the skills and knowledge to make change… it provides them with a chunk of time in which to do it. Return to top   On Designing Basketball Offenses and Effective Organizations There are basically two different approaches to the design and implementation of an offensive system for basketball. The system can have players follow patterns or precepts. Following is a brief explanation of these design options. Patterns Patterns have players line up in predetermined spots and execute prescribed movements. Because players start in the same spots and make similar cuts/screens on each possession, defenses usually adjust and begin to "cheat the play". So good coaches teach their players "counters", which are the equivalent of contingency plans… once the defense starts doing X, you do Y. Maryland's 2002 national champions run a form of the pattern offense called "flex", in which the same basic movement is repeated over and over… backsreeen, downscreen, reverse the ball, repeat. Paul Westhead's Loyola Marymount teams with Hank Gathers and Bo Kimball used their fast break style and three point shooting to set numerous scoring records, and were perceived by many as running a completely free lance offense. In fact, Loyola Marymount players ran very specific fast break patterns. As soon as they got possession of the ball, each player ran defined routes… the point guard came back to the ball and pushed it up to the arc, the shooting guard ran to the right corner, the small forward to the left wing, the power forward to the rim, and the center trailed to the key for a reverse pass from the point guard. If no shot was available on the initial break, they would then run secondary break patterns. These were also prescribed plays, and during a game the coach would change the pattern they were running at different times, but none of this was free lance. Precepts An offense based upon precepts allows players greater freedom. They line up wherever they like, and make their own decisions about where and when to cut and screen. In essence, players can do whatever they want. Their movements are simply guided by a set of deeply ingrained rules, or precepts. The same basic movements are used as in patterned offenses (back-screen, down-screen, cross-screen, re-screen, screen for the screener, ball screen) but with less predictability. Players practice these various movements over and over, and then decide which movements to execute on any given possession based upon reading and reacting to how the defense is playing them. This type of offense is often referred to as a passing game or motion offense. The Chicago Bulls teams that won six championships with Michael Jordan gained notoriety for their Triangle offense, which is basically a motion offense initiated by establishing a triangle of three players on one side of the court. Players have multiple options on any ball or player movement. Bob Knight is famous for the motion offense. His approach is truly based upon precepts, and the practice of various movements over and over, until the players implement these in creative, unpredictable combinations during games. Many coaches have attended his clinics and attempted to implement his approach. Almost every coach will tell you he/she runs some form of motion offense. However, many coaches implement a system that they refer to as a "motion" offense, but they are actually running is a patterned system in which players repeatedly downscreen (wing to block) and crossscreen (block to block). While there is lots of motion in this type of offense, it is still more of a patterned offense than a true precepts-based approach. As previously mentioned, players have the most freedom in a system built on precepts. The irony is that coaches famous for teaching offensive precepts are often perceived by fans and commentators alike as being the most regimented. Bob Knight is the best example of this. Known as a strict disciplinarian, even a tyrant by some, he teaches offensive schemes based upon precepts. His players actually have a great deal of freedom on offense. In Knight's system, with that freedom comes responsibility, and this is what often leads him to jump on players… what he requires is not that they follow a pattern, but that they creatively and effectively execute the precepts. So yes, Knight is a disciplinarian, but in actuality, his players have tremendous latitude within the system he has designed. So what does any of this have to do with the design of organizations? It should be obvious that most complex systems are designed using a combination of both patterns and precepts. Organizations are systems, designed using these same options. An organization designed using patterns tends to have clear structures and prescribed procedures that everyone is expected to follow. Most of us are familiar with the organizations built around patterns, since most of them are (or historically were) designed this way, with a clear hierarchy and prescribed procedures. Organizations designed around precepts are newer and less familiar. They often appear to less structured and predictable, since employees are given greater latitude in the procedures they follow. However, a clear logic drives decision making and daily work in a precept-based organization, providing a valuable mix of consistency and flexibility. If you set out to design an organization around a set of precepts, the following have proven effective. Build the organization around a set of interlocked teams. Each person is a member of one team, and the leader of another team one level below. Using a fractal approach, assuming teams of seven members, an organization of over 16,000 employees can be organized with just five levels from top to bottom Each team has a "whole job" to perform with a meaningful purpose. Each team utilizes a similar approach, in which it: identifies its' customer, clarifies customer requirements for the team's product/service output(s), designs its process to meet these needs, and manages its own performance using a set of key performance measures that determine how efficiently and effectively the team is meeting customer requirements. Each team is responsible for coordination of work within the team itself, and the coordination of its efforts with other teams. Difficulties that cannot be resolved within or between teams are resolved one level above. Each team ensures its members possess redundant capabilities, and can fulfill multiple roles. This provides the flexibility to shift resources to the greatest need at any given time. Each team provides its members with support and mutual respect, sufficient variety and challenge in their current work, and room for growth in the future. Often organizations designed around a set of precepts will try to provide greater consistency between teams by adopting and adhering to a set of principles, values, or beliefs. Values such as: Focus on the customer Fact-based decision making Be open and honest Continual improvement of everything Perform today, prepare for the future Think global, act local These are just examples of the types of norms that you may organize around. In practice, every system is organized around a combination of both patterns and precepts. An understanding of these design options is helpful to the effective design of anything. Return to top Favorite Quotes... All models are wrong. Some models are useful. -- George Box, Statistics for Experiments Failure is an event, never a person. -- William D. Brown You can only govern men by serving them. The rule is without exception. -- Victor Cousins I never said it would be easy, I just said it would work. -- W. Edwards Deming If management were to spend as much time and effort to improve process as they do on ranking, rating, reward, and punishment for people (teams, departments, divisions) at the top and at the bottom, the results would be stupendous improvements of our economic position. -- W. Edwards Deming, The New Economics, p. 27 Wherever there is fear, there will be wrong figures. -- from The New Economics, pg. 44 ©1993 by W. Edwards Deming Hammer and anvil both shape the red-hot horseshoe--only the naive believe the hammer does it all. -- Henry M. Boettinger, Moving Mountains, pg. 9 We often think that when we have completed our study of one we know all about two, because one and one are two. We forget that we have still to make a study of *and.* -- A. S. Eddington Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. -- Albert Einsten It is not the things themselves which trouble us, but the opinions that we have about these things. -- Epictetus In times of rapid change, experience is your worst enemy. -- J.Paul Getty It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages. -- Henry Ford Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be, and he will become as he can and should be. -- Goethe Stupid is as stupid does. -- Forrest Gump Paradox does not have to be resolved, only managed. -- Charles Handy, The Age of Paradox In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned find themselves equipped for a world that no longer exists. -- Eric Hoffer The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do. -- John Holtz Wisdom consists not so much in knowing what to do in the ultimate as in knowing what to do next. -- Herbert Hoover No man ever yet became great through imitation. -- Samuel Johnson There is a time to admire the grace and persuasive power of an idea, there is a time to fear its hold over us. The time to worry is when the idea is so widely shared that we no longer notice it, when it is so deeply rooted that it feels to us like plain common sense. At the the point when objections are not answered any more because they are no longer raised, we are not in control: we do not have the idea; it has us. -- Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards There is nothing so practical as a good theory. -- Kurt Lewin The most exasperating fact about big companies in crisis is that they got there by doing what once made them big. They come by their troubles honestly. -- Roger Martin, Changing the Mind of the Corporation, HBR, Nov-Dec 1993 A dilemma seeks to obtain both goals simultaneously, not eschew either. -- Robert McLaren Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. -- Margaret Mead While certainly not dead, strategic planning has long since fallen from its pedestal. But even now, few people fully understand the reason: strategic planning is not strategic thinking. Indeed, strategic planning often spoils strategic thinking, causing managers to confuse real vision with the manipulation of numbers. And this confusion lies at the heart of the issue: the most successful strategies are visions, not plans. -- Henry Mintzberg, The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning, HBR, Jan-Feb 1994 When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. -- John Muir The overthrow of beliefs is not immediately followed by the overthrow of institutions; rather, the new beliefs live for a long time in the now desolate and eerie house of their predecessors, which they themselves, preserve because of the housing shortage. -- Fredrich Nietzsche People don't argue with their own data. -- Bob Pike An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out and that the growing generation is familiarized with the idea from the beginning. -- Max Planck, The Philosophy of Physics, 1936 I have seen the enemy, and he is us. -- Pogo It is by logic that we prove. It is by intuition that we discover. -- Henri Poincare All are but parts of one stupendous whole. -- Alexander Pope It is not enough for a company to get smaller and better and faster, as important as these tasks may be; a company must also be capable of reconceiving itself, of regenerating its core strategies, and of reinventing its industry. In short, a company must also be capable of getting different. -- Competing for the Future by CK Prahalad and Gary Hamel, pg. 15 [S]ystem-as-cause, the notion that it is useful to view the structure of a system as the cause of the problem behaviors it is experiencing rather than seeing these behaviors as being foisted upon the system by outside agents. -- Barry Richmond, pg. 140 of the SD Review, Vol 10, No. 2-3, Summer-Fall 94 It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. -- Theodore Roosevelt Reality is made up of circles but we see straight lines. -- Peter Senge, The 5th Discipline Solving a problem simply means representing it so as to make the solution transparent. -- Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, 2nd ed., pg. 153 One way to change people is to see them differently. -- Barry Stevens Freed from cosmic worries, spared of wars or depressions, bereaved of global enemies, Americans are gazing at their navels and grousing about the lint. It's human nature. -- Paul Taylor, The Washington Post National Weekly Edition, Sept. 4-10 There are people who are afraid of clarity because they fear that it may not seem profound. -- Elton Trueblood Most managers get into trouble because they forget to think in circles. -- Karl Weick, The Social Psychology of Organizing, pp. 86 You can buy all sorts of useful advice. I will give you some for nothing. If you want a plan implemented, a company reorganized, work redesigned, or many problems solved all at once, get as many key stakeholders as possible in one room and ask them to work on the task together. Use a wide-angle lens. Reaffirm dignity. Help people find meaning in their work. Move toward your vision of community in the workplace. -- Marvin Weisbord, Productive Workplaces, pg. 252 Anybody who offers to sell you an exemption from the clarifying experience of muddling through to Renewal is a charlatan. -- Marvin Weisbord, Productive Workplaces, pg. 278 The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order. -- Alfred North Whitehead Return to top