Gardening and Managing Require Patience and Care

Now that it's summer in Chicago, I have gardening on my mind. Perhaps I'm delirious from the incredibly warm summer we're experiencing this year, but I'm anxious to share with you how tending to gardens reminds me of managing high performing teams. This may sound a bit unusual, but as I said, it's very warm in Chicago this year.

Both teams and gardens need oversight and direction. It would be so much easier if my garden would just thrive on its own once I got everything planted. However, over the years I've learned that if I spend a little time every day checking on things I usually catch little problems early and can handle them without significant effort. Obviously this is important with a team as well.

Diversity is as important for a team as it is in a garden. Some plants are quite nice on their own, but if paired with different plants, they individually and collectively become more beautiful. A number of plants have obvious beauty - they remind me of team members who are more vocal or confident in team settings. Then there are the quiet stars that fill in the gaps and show their own individual charm, while bringing out the loveliness of the superstars. Both require varying levels of attention and my garden would not be complete without their combined presence.

Unfortunately, I also have to be on the lookout for weeds. For example, there is a lovely plant in my garden with beautiful pale purple flowers and fragile looking leaves. Beginning gardeners might unknowingly believe they're quite lucky to have this particular plant growing in their garden. But an experienced gardener knows that the plant actually grows with alarming speed and winds itself around its garden mates so that they can't survive. These plants remind me of behaviors that, left unchecked, could do great harm to the health and performance of a team.

Both gardening and managing require patience. Sometimes when you think you're just not getting the results you wanted, you're surprised by unexpected growth and you realize all the hard work resulted in something very special and it was well worth the effort.

Performing Starts With Role Clarity

It’s not uncommon for my husband and me to go to breakfast on Sunday morning. One morning recently, we decided to sit at the counter instead of a table and I was instantly drawn into watching the work in the kitchen. As I sat and watched all the action, it was clear that they are the “best restaurant in town” because everyone knew their role and had a passion for getting it right the first time. But what in the world does this have to do with managing performance? Setting expectations starts with people understanding what’s expected of them and great performance is about getting the job done right.

At the restaurant, every employee was very clear on their role in delivering the product - customer meals. There was a person responsible for eggs, another for meats, another prepared pancakes, etc. When the orders came in, each person knew what they were responsible for doing and went right to work. There wasn’t any time wasted. They were able to move incredibly fast because they weren’t confused about what they needed to accomplish.

Another key observation was that while many people had a role in ‘creating the plate,’ only one person was accountable for checking the order to ensure everything was right before it went to the customer. It’s a simple example, but in business we often encounter problems when it’s not clear who is accountable for making sure the ‘plate’ is right, someone who is ultimately accountable to the customer.
Lastly, I’d like to point out that despite the fact that this restaurant is more expensive than the others in town, it’s always full. Customers, like us, appreciate when we get exactly what we ordered every time, and it’s delicious and fast. In other words, their performance exceeds our expectations – again and again. A great breakfast – and a great performance - starts with everyone knowing their role, executing it flawlessly and having one person accountable for the final product.

By the way, breakfast was delicious, as expected.

Performance Management and Sports

Watching the Chicago Blackhawks this year has reminded me of the similarities between how we manage performance in business and how it's managed in sports.

First of all, it's important that you have a play book. In business we think of this as our business strategy and those objectives that must be accomplished. Can you imagine what a sports team would do without a play book? What if a coach said to his/her team "hey, y'all just go on out there and play and it'll all figure itself out. And oh by the way, I'll just let you know when the game is over." It would be chaotic to say the least. Well, it's the same in business - we have to have clear objectives and everyone on the team needs to know what they're expected to do and by when.

In sports, measurement is done religiously. As I was watching the game tonight, the sportscasters had statistics on everything - they clearly measure performance and the players know what counts. The same must be done in business wherever possible and it's possible more than one might think. I believe that most people want to achieve their objectives and more but they need to know what they are in order to accomplish them.

And in sports, the players on the same team don't compete with each other while they're playing the game. The same must be true in business. You can't compete internally (and you know who you are!) without it eventually killing your team - don't do it! Look at how sports teams celebrate their wins - they hug and win together. That's how it should be at work as well.

And finally, just as the sports coach is constantly pushing for peak performance - knowing when to push and knowing when to back off, so too must the business leader coach his/her team. This is really an essential element to the work of a leader and it takes great skill and it requires that the leader actually knows the employee and how he/she is motivated. But when it's done right, it's probably the most rewarding work of a leader.

So I'm hoping that the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup this year, but if they don't I hope they know that they've been a great example of great teamwork. And great teamwork leads to great performance - I'm certain of it.

Stop and Smell the Roses

Forgive me if I periodically get a little "sappy". The last few months have afforded me the gift of being able to step back and appreciate all the blessings in my life. I think I've always done a pretty good job at this but I liken it to walking past a lovely garden on your way to "get somewhere" and you take a passing glance and "get" that it's lovely vs. having a little time to stop and smell the roses so to speak. There's nothing like it.

On Sunday I went to a wedding and watched two young people promise their lives to each other and then later that same day I went to the wake of a fireman who died far too early. I kept thinking that these types of experiences are really part of the rich tapestry of our lives and none of it should be taken for granted.

Each of us has an opportunity every day to change someone else's situation. Maybe it's just a passing compliment or it's tough feedback delivered with the intention of moving someone forward. Seeing that we're all human and deciding to make a difference, however small is incredibly powerful and probably the most truly meaningful contribution we can make in this life.

My wish for anyone reading this is that you will take the time to smell the roses whatever that means for you and that you'll be a positive force. It's my wish for myself as well.

Pondering Talent Management

Here's what some data points indicate relative to talent management activities:

• Two-thirds of all US companies are doing no workforce planning at all.
• 40% of newly hired executives fail due to poor acculturation.
• Development approaches haven't changed much since the 1950s.
• Retention is a tricky area; I don't have any specific broad-scale data on this one but I wonder if companies are retaining executives not so much because of some targeted activities but rather because employees aren't keen on taking risks at this time.

I read a great article by Peter Cappelli "Talent Management for the Twenty-First Century" and it appealed to me because as a Lean practitioner he suggests that organizations consider borrowing some principles from supply chain management (in particular just in time manufacturing) to manage talent. Here are a few of his ideas coupled with a few of mine:

• Make and buy to manage risk. He likens a deep bench of talent to holding expensive inventory and, with people, its inventory that can decide to leave. Lean thinkers instinctively understand this logic. This doesn't mean that we abandon internal development; this is incredibly important! But it does mean that we carefully decide when to build and when to buy.
• If you're not already doing so, consider creating talent pools that span the entire organization and develop employees who have competencies that apply to several different jobs.
• As with any other investment, the organization should expect a return on its investment when it spends money developing its employees. Development should be aligned with organizational objectives and measured.

Since this is a blog and not a book, I only have so much room for this topic. My hope is that organizations will look at talent management in much the same way as they look at any other investment - when the data reveals that the ROI is not adequate then measures are taken to first understand then address the problem. It seems a good place to start is by actually listening to managers and employees and looking at internal data (e.g., performance discussions, cultural surveys, exit interviews, etc.). When you "see" the problem, you can solve it.

Jack Welch has said "getting the right people in the right jobs is a lot more important than developing a strategy". I think developing the strategy is incredibly important but that strategy will be nothing without the right people in place to execute it so I'm in complete agreement with Jack!

Getting Started

One of my favorite quotes is "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" by Lao-Tzu. The reason I love this quote is that it seems that it's so easy to get hung up on all the "what-if's" and as a result we don't move forward. And yet as soon as we just do one thing, however small, we do indeed move forward and we increasingly realize that the path ahead is never as frightening as we imagined. This happens with all of us at some point and it happens with teams and organizations as well.

I've decided to start writing this blog as a way to personally explore my points of view on people, process and performance and who knows...maybe I'll help someone else along the way. I am certain I'll learn from the experience.

I've had a long career (over 25 years) and recently moved into "transition". A time of transition is a time to reflect and grow and I'm determined to do just that. So my first step is creating this blog - to create a place to document my professional beliefs relative to people, process and performance. Who knows where this journey will take me (or anyone who cares to take the journey with me)? I'm putting my faith in Lao-Tzu's guidance and just taking the first step; I know all the steps that will follow during this "transition" will move me forward and that's incredibly important to me.