Phil Larson

The Day You Launch a Product You Begin to Lose Ground

http://americanprinter.com/columnists/phil-larson/022515-phil-larson-grow-sustain

Every product enhancement must continue to be enhanced. There is always a better mousetrap. Better does not mean changed. Better means it meets a customer need in fresh ways that help them achieve their goals. That is better.

What about the internals that make that happen. Here are a few tips focused on the print services industry as they adapt to changing volumes, order types, and media integration. The principles apply to any and all businesses and organizations.

Build A Better Business – Build A Better Life Forward

Marketing Within

Decades of working in corporate politics can leave you scarred and scattered. There is no need for that. In a series for American Printer, I’m reviewing tips for a specific service provision to large corporations. Enjoy and apply to your endeavors. This particular service is multi-channel marketing as an ongoing service. Many print service providers are finding survival means adapting and becoming new. Whether you are internal to an organization or serving the larger engine of an organization, the rules are similar.

Take a read and ask a question. This is only one of a series of articles addressing this service. Others cover staffing, workflow, conceptualization, and will move on to business model for effectiveness.

http://americanprinter.com/columnists/phil-larson/multi-channel-marketing-012315-ampr-phil-larson

Where is the Blue Sheet?

Pursuit of excellence demands detail attention. Audit trail, decision criteria, review stats, goal progress, and historical databases seem like a plague that plugs up progress. Not really. Only if they are not consistent with the flow of the organization engine and customer demand do they interfere. They are necessary actions that meet legal requirements, compliance mandates, risk mitigation, and goals tracking.

Delegation in a clear format is one of those pesky details. An abrupt email rarely captures all the specifics needed for good delegation. A text is a waste. A phone call will result in missed pieces. When it is a matter of substance, take some time to write it out in discussion. Hallway interruptions need to be recorded and followed up.

For one financial organization, I worked with multiple unlike departments. Each had a separate form of management flow. The corporation had a loose knit, meeting driven mode of management. Confusion reigned. Fear of failure walked the hallways. Authoritarian dictates were the norm. Power brokers and politicians love this environment. They can manipulate in back rooms. But the customer and the owners suffer most when a sales support piece hits the streets and does not work in the sales process due to unclear objectives. All the fingernail flying meetings won’t fix a new software rollout for accounting that lacks key compliance fields for entry.

As a manager of a few service areas, this was always a challenge. Our departmental customers were politics driven and would change a request after we had moved forward at significant expense. We learned to use a “Blue Sheet” to contain the chaos.

Really, the Blue Sheet was a problem, request, and change capture instrument. Later, our team convinced the organization over a series of years to move in the IT areas to online capture and communication in these areas. That left many areas untended. So the service departments I managed used Blue Sheets.

In the early days of small computers, I remember pleading with my senior executive for a desktop to keep track of our service areas. His reply was absolute wisdom. “All you need, Phil, is a good pencil and a piece of paper.” That reply made me angry. But, he was right. I went back and invented my first “Blue Sheet” and gave a pocket sized version to every team member for working directly with customers. It worked. Our service reliability improved and I could sift through a month’s pencil capture and note trends and take action that made big differences. Later, we put it all on a desktop database for deeper analysis.

When a team member came into my office, they became accustomed to, “Where’s the Blue Sheet?” Working with hundreds of requests, service orders, problems, and changes a day, the Blue Sheet gave us specific guidance on single issues. Regular work orders had an online capture system. Irregular needed something, too.

A Blue Sheet (we used blue paper) captured critical contact information, issue symptoms, probable cause, delegated action approach, expectations and any due dates and times, and assignment. With that, a team member could run without continually looking behind and asking questions. There were no needs for continual meetings after that was captured. When one or two or more needed to meet on the issue for a decision and direction, we pulled the Blue sheet to ensure we were continuing on target. Improved information could be added and directional changes could be noted. The holder of the sheet owned responsibility for accomplishment until handed off. If resolution or service provision lingered beyond a few days, a more formal project definition and action plan could be drafted.

Everyone of us has a litany of lingering items that need “Blue Sheets”. They won’t get resolved to satisfaction of the stakeholders without taking a few moments to capture key information items.

Sit down today with an outline that works for you that can capture quick information and thoughts. Sometimes a simple piece of paper and a pen suffice. Where’s your Blue Sheet?

Five Leadership Tips for Tough Times Every Mature Executive Needs to Learn.

From the archives. As I work with developing a non-profit group in a tough situation, this lesson sparked to mind. Hope it serves you today.

SOLUM SERVICES

Five Leadership Tips for Tough Times Every Mature Executive Needs to Learn.

Working as an agent of change in support of executives comes with scars and stars. The stars are the memories that have power to change us for the better. The scars are best left as lessons learned and give time and attention to heal. But, wow, when you work beside a star boss or on a star team, your life is never the same.

There are five top performing bosses and the teams that surrounded them that have taught me powerful lessons in living and management. Let me share these with you. You can grow in a minute under the right coaching. It would take a book to list all the lessons each of these leaders taught me, so I’ll just highlight five lessons that I believe every mature executive should learn.

Schille’s All Stars: Hard Times…

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Do One Thing

A few years ago, a transition occurred in my life. They happen. Life is full of transitions. It was a catalyst for a life change for me that I will never regret. God took a normal evil and produces good for me and others every day. Life is good. Friend and family are wonderful. There are more transitions ahead.

How did friends handle this moment of transition?

One asked me, “Are you okay?” But, he was unprepared to follow through and doesn’t return phone calls.

One asked me, “How can I help?” And, encourages regularly and faithfully.

One asked me, “What happened?” But only wanted gossip.

One looked at me told me to get back and refuses my phone calls.

One denied all knowledge and deferred to others.

One listened and only responds at whim.

One thanked me for my service and faithfulness and expressed genuine regret.

One listened and asked for money from me for their business and offered no support.

One listened and asked me to join their multi-level marketing organization.

One looked at me, accused me, threatened me, and looked away.

One listened, extended compassion, extended support, and continues to followup.

One listened, connected me with meaningful service alongside them, and continues.

One spoke at me and refused to raise head or eye to make contact.

One never did anything.

One remains silent, not knowing what to say, but staying faithful in love and friendship.

It is interesting how people treat you in moments of change. All of these were “friends”, a few still are.

In all these cases, there is really more than one that responded this way.

As a friend, how do you respond? How do you support others? What is your motivation?

I’ve supported many transitions in organizations and families over 3 decades of management and community service. Some were my transition, some were transitions of others. Truthfully, these responses are typical in each transition. People like change and transition on their terms and their timing. People act all sorts of weird ways when they don’t understand or have demanding motivations driving them. They are normal ways people respond to change.

Each of these responses comes from either a motivation of self preservation, greed, control, power, loyalty, gratefulness, disinterest, encouragement, or compassion.

Each of these represents a person, to whom many hours and years of service and support and encouragement were extended and prior to the transition called me, “Friend”. How do you support your friends in transitions?

How should I respond to others in transition?

The golden rule still applies. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Though people may treat you many different ways, choose how you will treat others, now. Who in your sphere of influence has gone through a transition and could use a helping word or action to move forward? Don’t let the machinations of selfish desire dictate who you will be. Be the best of responders. Overcome normal evil with good.

Why do I say, “Normal evil?” Well, many times we categorize transition or change as something bad. It is not bad. It just is what it is. Without transition and change, we would stay the same. BORING! You can always put good interpretation or bad interpretation on a situation. You can always choose to accent the good or the bad. Choose.

Don’t be silent. People need to hear your voice and see you. How wonderful it was one day, when visiting a company to have one of those from a transition run up, hug me, and say how much they missed me. Yes, that is a grown adult response. A face to face handshake is powerful. A card in the mail is marvelous. An email of concern and encouragement is powerful. Silence communicates fear and distrust. Make a noise.

Don’t go away after you do one thing. How lonely you must be to only value a person when you see them in your space every day. That is not friendship, but convenience.

How should I respond to my transitions?

Close the Book: Today, I am closing the book on one particular series of events. I am putting it in my past. It has taken many months of processing and consideration. The people involved are important to me. They are more important than any event. Every day I have risen to the day, accepted new challenges, faced demons of disloyalty and dishonesty, and enjoyed company of compassion and concern. Today, I bury the history and have a memorial service. I’ll light a candle, raise a toast to blessing and health, and move on with life, love, and laughter. Someday, you need to grieve and go on. Don’t live in the past.

Celebrate: Today, I celebrate the freshness of friendships that encourage, support, listen, and walk alongside. There are some great people in the world, who understand and value friendship. There are some not so great people in the world, who only understand what they can get out of you for the moment. Be one of the greats in the face of the not so greats. Don’t let them get you down. There is too much of life to enjoy.

3V Decision Criteria

Posit this! Every action you take, every thought you make should be measured against the 3V criteria. Validity, vitality, and veracity need to mark your reputation and the reputation of your organization or business. Consistent failure on any of these over your history will eventually mean failure of your endeavors. You may make money, fulfill the purpose of your non-profit, and have fun without them. You are not successful. You will fail or your successors will fail.

As a leader, ingrain these in your psyche. Your personal reputation and continuance depend on them. When others doubt you (and they will), your ability to face the mirror in the morning and be true to yourself is what will move you forward in life. When you revel in victory, the congruence of these in the actions and intents that took you to the mountain will sweeten the taste. When you struggle with results, the confluence of these bolsters confidence better days await.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man. William Shakespeare

Validity

A valid thought or action is in the right time for the right reason. Every venture has a sequence and a rhythm. Today may not be the right moment to launch a new product line. It might be a good product, but the operation is not ready to support and the customers have not been informed.

An invalid is someone struggling with a disabled portion of the balance. An invalid action is the same. It struggles in some measure due to imbalance. Something is wrong with the preparation or timing or maybe the idea itself.

Be valid in your actions and thoughts. Match the time and reason.

Leaders struggle with this concept. Our vision for direction and purpose can overwhelm our ability to move with right time and reason. Continual steps out of time will cause others to doubt your leadership. Do all you can to ensure this is the right time and reason in relation to the people, progress, priorities, processes, projects, tools and technologies, and products and services. (Five Ps).

Progress and priority are factors to assess when testing for validity. Are other factors aligned to make this work? Has sufficient progress been made in all areas relative to support? Is this a priority that will happen? Is there commitment?

Be valid as a leader.

Vitality

A vital thought or action is full of energy and passion and purpose. It fulfills the destiny and design of the organization or operation. It takes energy. (Energizers)

Leaders need energy in constant measure. How painful is it to watch a leader with a great opportunity to implement a valid solution and yet they do not have the force of life to execute? It happens. We let our passion and purpose become diluted by invalid action and distress. Don’t. Stay on track. Keep your energy up.

Vitality is easier when you are working with purpose and design. It is tough to support an initiative that does not fit the purpose of an organization. You’ve been involved in those. They stifle creativity and stymie progress. Some board member wants to please a friend and asks you to run in circles to help them out while critical issues lack attention. It sucks away vitality.

Veracity

A veracious thought or action is marked by integrity, ethicality, and honesty. It is true to all involved. There is no hint of injustice, unfairness, or dishonesty. Now this is a tough one to hit in today’s business and community environments. It is worth all the effort you can give it.

Disconnect on this item is huge. Hypocrisy is evident when your corporate intent is simply words on a page for marketing and recruiting.

Be the same leader at home, at work, and in the community. Do what you do in the best interest of the other person. “You can have anything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” Zig Ziglar. ““Treat men exactly as you would like them to treat you.” Jesus of Nazareth

Be direct with communication. Be transparent. You don’t have the latitude to dispense everything you know to everyone you know. That is a matter of right discretion. You do have the requirement to be authentic and considerate.

Summary: Every leader will be judged by results. Results will be consistently productive when you tend to validity, vitality, and veracity.

Manage Well: Eclectic Tips on Excellence by Philip Larson

Link: http://amzn.com/B00JG0M1BG

Energizers

Where do you get your energy? Consider that question. Consider the alternatives. Are you being robbed of energy by concerns and consternations at work and home? How do you replenish energy depleted by stress? High performance requires high energy.

Multiple times today, I’ve been asked by managers where I get my energy and how I keep my energy and have I always had energy. While speaking at the Association of College and University Printers, the question kept being asked. These are some great people. So, I committed to answer.

Energy comes from fulfillment of purpose. Give yourself to your heart passion. If your schedule at work and home is blocking pursuit of passion and purpose, energy will drain and not come back. Take 30 minutes a day to work on your passion. Give yourself the energy you need. If you can find a way to live your passion, that is going to give you the highest amount of energy.

Energy comes from right balance of work and play. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and Jill a lagging lady. Get out and play. Make time to do what you love to do. Read, relax, soak in the sun, fish, golf, chess, or whatever is enjoyable. Do it. Schedule it.

Energy comes from helping others achieve their goals. All of us like to grow. Most managers love to see their staff grow. It is what we do. It is an internal driver for a good executive and manager. Block off a few minutes this week to help a staff member conquer a project or gain some training.

Energy comes from right people environment. Do you have acidic people surrounding you? Cut off the pain. Some acidic workers cannot be cut off. They might be your boss. Limit your time with energy draining whiners and complainers and over controlling types. Love yourself.

Energy comes from rest. Get it. Get all you need. It will enhance productivity in all the other hours.

Energy comes from exertion. Yes, you need to get good exercise. Work out when needed and let energy flow in the hard moments.

Energy comes from pace. Your job and life have a biorhythm and a pace. Find it. Manage it. Respect it. When it overflows, step back and get it back on track.

Energy comes from storage. Store it up. Don’t spend yourself out every day. Save some for tomorrow.

Energy comes from release. Release your thoughts. Forgive and forget the problematic situations and people of the day and start tomorrow new.

Energy comes from spiritual connection. Take care of your heart along with your mind and body and relationships.

Every executive and manager needs to manage their energy. Your staff and your customers and your family and friends depend on you to have great stores of energy at right moments.

Where do I get my energy? I love my life, my friends, my family, the business of consulting, the businesses I serve, operations and communication business, and many activities in which I chose to participate. That is the answer, chose to participate. Choose energy over worry. Go ahead, own the future, it belongs to you.

The Future Looks Bright

Manage Well – available on kindle now.

Power Principle Choices: These subjects were selected by members of teams I’ve managed as their favorite sayings learned working with me. In a surprise session, they unveiled a 31 day flip book with key sayings they had heard from me over and over. Apparently, they are such a part of my vernacular they decided to keep notes. Managers are teachers.

After working with a team in one company, I met for lunch with the manager. It had been ten years since I worked in that company.

He shyly said, “We still use the PAL method.”

I responded, “What is the PAL method?”

He then explained that I had signed every directive and procedure with my initials, PAL. They had studied the methods behind the memos and made a system out of them. That is an honor. But, I reminded him they should be learning and growing and not get too bound in prior principles. However, principles are timeless. Look for the principles.

If it works for them, then I am honored. If it works for them it will work for you. There are few others I snuck in besides the 31 and a few I left out for the next book. Enjoy

Management is a craft. A craft is when talent is developed with training and application. There needs to be a base talent for leading and managing on which you build knowledge and skill and mix a little artistic individual expression. No two individuals manage exactly the same. How boring would that be?

After years of studying, going to classes, getting degrees, learning from mentors, reading every day, teaching in conferences, counseling with mentees, and just plain doing the do, one of my frustrations is the secretive nature of leaders. It seems they want you to drag the most important tips out of them. Really, that is intentional. A good leader never gives away everything. In fact, I’m going to give away the unspoken rule of leadership that did not make it into the team member selection, because I rarely state it publicly.

“Hold wisdom close. Only release it to anticipating learners.”

One wise wisdom steward said it this way. “Correct a fool (someone who does not want your correction) and he will turn and shame you with it.” Ouch! How true. Over time, when a leader meets this truth a few times, she becomes guarded with what she shares and with whom.

Learners Look

Continual learning environment is a must. Executives and managers make it happen. Leadership is involved. Learning is the never ending story. An organization with a bend towards learning produces excellence.

Learning is not training. Training is a part of learning. Learning is a lifelong commitment, a morning attitude, and an approach toward information and experience. It is a must.

“Personally, I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” Sir Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister

At a time when individual operations and entire organizations cannot afford to make mistakes, it seems there is great potential for highly-visible errors. The complexities of implementing multi-channel, response-driven customer communications pressure. Learners Look Modified workplace rules, legislative and executive mandates on business, and global pressures stretch staff. Can we expect operations run on a shoestring budget with no time or money for skill upgrade to accomplish adapting? Can we expect staid operations and staff, who’ve become resistant to change, to survive? Not really.

You Don’t Want This To Be You: Learners Look

The US Army sent out letters to families of soldiers killed overseas. They featured a salutation of “Dear John Doe,”. What probably happened? Did someone put “John Doe” as a place holder into a mail merge letter and forget to merge? Did the data scrub go bad? Was a routine process double check missed while someone checked Facebook?

But why did it not get caught? No one noticed that all the letters had the same salutation? Was it because the shop doing the work was rushed? Or did the shop not have a quality- control person who knew what to look for? Or was the QC person off running some production equipment and never had the chance to check before the mailing went out? We may never know.

The end result is damaged reputation and emotional distress. This error is reported by national news organizations. The shop was named in the articles. The price they charged the Army was published. An Army official was quoted as saying the Army was contemplating “appropriate action against the contractor.” Ouch! Worse was the impersonal impact on grieving families.

Oh, and a General (the Army Chief of Staff) had to hand-sign 7,000 apology letters. I wouldn’t want to be the shop that made this unfortunate mistake, and I feel for them. But it is a good example of what can happen when processes are not followed or things get rushed. This particular error may not be attributed solely to a learning issue, but inadequate attitude of attention and learning could certainly have played a part.

There are three active attitudes in a learners’ team.

Learners constantly assess, inspect, and appeal. They are ‘in the stuff” every day, all day. A learner will see an error outside of expected routine checks. They notice compliance variances and modify. They see process issues that threaten on time delivery of services. They become experts at their jobs. They invent shortcuts for production and service delivery that speed customer time to market. You will find a learning shop team huddled over an issue as a team coming up with solutions.

Learners are led. Executives and managers set the curve. One astute client executive commented, “I’ve had a good day, I learned something new about this operation.” This was the senior most executive in a large insurance company. He looked every day to learn something new about the trench work. Managers should be bringing fresh insights to the team. Managers should be increasing their customer knowledge every week. An executive or manager cannot be the best at what their people do, but they should be the best leader at what they do. Be curious.

Learners look. If it ain’t broke, break it. There is no excuse for lax process. Learners take apart what looks fixed. They don’t break it to be mean. They break it to find a better way, a cleaner routine, a process stripped of extra steps, or a more predictable performance. Learners learn by looking under the hood.

Summary: The “looking learner” environment in an operation will produce predictably excellent results. Unfortunately, our workplaces easily drift into drone mentality through blind adherence to institutional objectives. Creativity takes spark and acknowledgement from leaders. Learning is stimulated by example.