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I really appreciate you!

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Today’s Story

I worked for a Fortune 500 company for about 10 years.  There were a lot of things that I loved about it, and a few that really bugged me.One of the things that made me CRAZY was the HR review process.  It had so much potential, but was bureaucratic and political – and it really tied the hands of managers so that we really had almost no power over raises, bonuses and promotions.When I hired team members I would tell them

“There are some wonderful things about being here.  Our HR process is not one of them.  I can’t pay you an amazing amount of money, I can’t give you amazing performance ratings, but I promise you this:  You will have a great experience being on this team.”
I left that role about 6 years ago, and I’ve stayed in touch with team members.
Recently, one of them said
“Tom, after you left, the magic left.” 
Another said
“Tom, truly you have changed my life.  I talk with others regularly about the lessons I learned from working with you.”
Frankly, I’m not that great, and I’m sure that those guys could make a HUGE list of my errors and weaknesses, but apparently I left a positive impression.

Action Point

What did I do?

One of the tools in my toolbox was handwritten, personal notes.

I bought some post it notes with “From Tom Cooper” printed on them

When someone did something helpful, I’d write a specific note like:

“Sanjay, Thanks for the work you did on the ITIM issue.  I appreciate you for the way you kept the project team members from arguing, and helped them focus on the technical issues.
Tom”

 

I’d drop by their office and leave it on their keyboard.

You know what I saw?  YEARS later those post it notes were STILL stuck to their monitors.

It didn’t take long, I didn’t have to get permission from anyone, and it cost me almost nothing.

 

Going Deeper

  • I came across this GREAT article with a number of ideas and specific recommendations about SIMPLE recognition.

One Final Thought

  • What is one specific thing you can praise a team member for?
  • Can you do it in writing?
  • Today?
Give it a try, and then email me and tell me how it went. tom@BrightHillGroup.com

Cooper News

Think this works?
Holly left a note in my car a while back.  I think it was 2 cars ago, and about 12 years ago.  I still have this note in my car….
Holly Loves Tom

What if your experience leads you to the WRONG decision?

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Today’s Story – Does your experience help or hurt you?

Some of you will remember my blog/video about leaving my snow shovels in Maryland – and then having a FOOT of snow show up here in North Carolina.

I’ve been thinking about that, and wanted to share something I learned through that experience.

My uncle is a flight instructor for a flight school.  One of the ideas he has taught me is the idea of “positive transfer of skills” versus “negative transfer of skills”

  • Sometimes our experience helps us, (positive transfer)
  • Sometimes we THINK it helps, but it really is a setback for us (negative transfer.)

 

My Experience

In my case, I was anxious to shovel my snow because of my experience in MD for the last 20 years.

In MD, after it snows, many times the daytime high temperature is above freezing and the nighttime temperature is below freezing.

This means that the snow turns to slush and then becomes a rock hard block of ice securely fastened to the pavement below.  It is EXTREMELY unpleasant to scrape a driveway clear of ice – even when working with rock salt (which I also left in Maryland.)

As I was shoveling, I felt a little smug.  After all, my lazy neighbors were not touching their snow.  Didn’t these silly southerners realize just how tough it was going to be if they didn’t get started right away?

Reality: My “experience” didn’t help!

Here’s where the negative transference of experience comes into play: 

Those “silly southerners” were a LOT more experienced with Charlotte winters than I.

In fact, I bet that some of them were shaking their heads with a thought of “silly Yankee” out there working so hard.  If they spoke to someone else about it they probably said “My neighbor was out madly shoveling snow from his driveway, bless his heart.”  

(“Bless his heart,” I’ve learned, is a southern expression of sympathy toward someone who should know better, but clearly does not!  And that’s putting is as nicely as possible.)

The Southern Experience

Why were they staying indoors?  What did they know that I didn’t?  BECAUSE In the south, it doesn’t stay below freezing for long, if at all!

Two days after a foot of snow: all driveways – shoveled and unshoveled were clear.  In fact, a foot of snow shuts down the city for a couple of days – so there’s no need to worry about having to go anywhere!

 

Which gets me to Today’s Action Point

As a leader, you bank on your experience – and you count on positive transfer of that knowledge.  Today I want you to think: “My gut says X – but what if I’m wrong?  What if my experience is a NEGATIVE transfer this time?”

There’s a military adage about this: “generals always fight the last war, especially if they have won it”.

* What might you “know” that actually works against you?

* What risks are you protecting against that are actually time wasters?

* What business rules need to be rewritten?

 

One Final Thought

Sometimes being an expert is the worst possible thing for success.
What can you approach in a new way?
What assumptions are you making that you can discard?

What can you do if they "just don't get it"?

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Today’s Story

I was working with a client recently who was facing a dilemma.  Her project was being delayed by a key influencer, and that meant that she was not going to deliver on time.

More than her pride was at stake – she was convinced that this delay would be bad for the company – but the key influencers making the decisions were not on board with her thinking.

What can you do when they just don’t “get it”?

Action Point

When they don’t get it – one technique is to walk them through a simple example so that you and the other person have looked at the data together.  Once you’ve walked through the calculations together, you have a much better chance of them buying into your analysis.
Today’s email is a little longer than usual, but I wanted to give you a specific example.
Here’s the situation:
  • You believe it will cost more than THEY believe it will cost (money, time, headaches, etc)
  • Until THEY believe it, there’s no way they will change their behavior.

But how do you get them to believe your calculations?

A tool I have used is the “incidence, expense” tool – Even though you have 100% knowledge of the facts, you “learn with them” as you “discover” the costs together.

For example, let’s say that:

  • You know that something is a problem which will cost $20,000.00
  • Your sponsor (or other influencer) doesn’t believe it.

Right now – “THEY” don’t have a $20,000 problem.

“YOU” have a $20,000 problem.
To help them “get it” you could say:Project Manager (PM):

“What does it cost us when a customer who has not gotten this upgrade calls the helpdesk? “Sponsor: “We’d have to research that.”

PM: “You know, I talked to Joe at the helpdesk – he says it takes 1 hour per call – and our fully loaded rate for a helpdesk person is $50/hour – so I think that means it costs $50/incident.  Does that sound right?”

Sponsor: “I guess so”

PM: “How often does this happen?”

Sponsor: “Do you have the numbers on that, too?”

PM: “Actually, I have done a little research on that, too.  Our helpdesk has been getting 50 calls/week.
50 calls/week times $50/call sounds like $2500/week if calls come in at the current rate – does that sound right?”

Sponsor: “That makes sense”

PM: “And we know from the people who already converted that when the conversion happens, customers stop calling the help desk about this problem.”

Sponsor: “Is that right?”

You: “Yes.  Now we’ve been talking about a potential 2 month delay in the schedule.
If each week is costing us $2500, and we extend the schedule by 8 weeks – hmm – I think that would be a cost overrun of $20,000 – does that make sense?”

Sponsor: “A $20,000 overrun?  Wow.  What can we do to fix that?”

PM: “I’ve looked at that with the team – They tell me that we can hit the original schedule – but it will require a couple of changes.”

Sponsor: “On time?  What do we have to do?”

PM: “The team tells me that if we can make this project a higher priority than Project Y they can get it done when we originally planned.”

Sponsor: “The VP responsible for project Y will not be happy about this, but avoiding a $20K overrun is worth it.  Let’s do it.”

There are always hard dollar costs (as in my example,)  soft costs and opportunity costs.

Usually execs don’t buy into the benefits that are not hard dollar costs,  but even if they don’t, you can mention them after the hard costs.  Execs like to address soft costs (decreased frustration, increased efficiency) to help bolster your argument.

Going Deeper

I came across this idea in a FABULOUS book called Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play
It’s a great read on negotiations – and a solid resource for project managers

 

One Final Thought

It doesn’t matter how sure you are that you’re right.  Until THEY know what YOU know, you’re not going to get the buy in that you need.
Walking them through a simple example can make sure that you’re both on the same page.
Have you tried it?  What happened?  I’d love to hear about it.  Send me an email!

Cooper News

Good news!  I’m now in the running for “fun parent!”
My oldest gave me the good news this week.
(I’m usually *NOT* the fun parent.)
In case you want to be in the running (or actually achieve) fun parent status,
here’s what moved my campaign forward:
1. Taking the kids to the Lego movie: “Everything is Awesome…”
      (now I can’t get rid of that earworm tune!)
2. Suggesting they stop the ice cream truck (and funding the purchase.)  It was in the 70’s, and the ice cream truck came trolling through the neighborhood.
I’m not sure what will push me over the edge into full, official fun parent status, but my son tells me I should keep up the good work!Coopers at lego movie 2 2014

 

Today's Action Point: There's a snowstorm! Did I blow the risk assessment?

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“The Story” 
There’s been a record snowfall here in Charlotte NC.  We’ve had several inches, a ton of sleet, and as I write this, it is snowing HARD!

We’re expecting another 3-4 inches today.   The whole city has come to a standstill.  My kids are thrilled that they can play in the snow, too.

Action Point:
Today I want to talk about projects and risk.  I took a risk when I moved to Charlotte.  In fact, I left my snow shovels in the house I sold.
Who needs snow shovels in the south?  Did I blow it?

Actually, no!

When you evaluate risks for your project, you need to think of two things:

  1. What is the likelihood of INCIDENCE?  What are the chances that the thing will happen?
  2. What is the IMPACT if it does happen?

In this case, the INCIDENCE is actually low – Charlotte North Carolina almost NEVER sees this kind of snow.
The IMPACT is pretty low, too – Sure, we’re “snowed in” for a couple of days, but this snow will be gone soon, and we have everything we need here at the house until the snow melts.

Because the INCIDENCE risk is low, and the IMPACT is acceptable – we chose to ACCEPT the consequences – and shovel with a little shovel.

More Info
For more on this topic, check out this great interview with project risk expert Carl Pritchard

One Final Thought:
What’s a project risk you’re prepared to accept?
When did you mess up by not having a good risk management plan?  What happened?
Please email me and tell me how it went. tom@BrightHillGroup.com

Cooper News:
Our family is having a blast making snowballs and sliding down the hills.  Here’s a shot of my oldest girl catching snowflakes on her tongue.stephanie snow on tongue

 

I’m grateful that the kids do a bunch of the work, too!

Mark shoveling

What Are You Afraid Of, Anyway?

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Today’s Story
What does it mean to be brave?
 I tell my kids that TRUE courage is when you feel afraid, and you do it anyway.
 We all face scary decisions, and mostly our response is to choose to do nothing – that’s why most of us (including me) tend to procrastinate.
But how does fear really help us?  We are conditioned to avoid failure, so we do.  The natural thing to do is freeze.  The truly successful people can move beyond what’s natural and take action, even when they are afraid.
Action Point – DO IT AFRAID!
Failure is the ONLY pathway to success.  No one is an overnight success.  The headliner spent years working in obscurity.  The Olympic medal winner finished last over and over again before achieving success.  We don’t seek to fail, but we realize that failure is a part of the process.

 Going deeper

 One of the bloggers I follow is James Clear.  He wrote a great piece called  Treat failure like a scientist

His post is worth your time.

One Final Thought
What would you attempt if you knew for certain that you would not fail?
DO IT AFRAID!
Send me an email to tell me about it!  Tom@BrightHillGroup.com
I recently held workshops on
“Dealing With Impossible Customers – Using Agile Tools” with a fantastic expert in Scrum,
AND
“Too Busy To Plan” – and what you can do about it – a public workshop and a corporate version.
We talked about goal setting, realistic timelines, starting small, and overcoming fear.
Check out the note I received from one of my clients:
“Hi Tom,
Great event as usual!  This is the year I will feel the fear and do it anyway.  Because as you said failure is the pathway to success!”
Fear testimonial - edited.jpg
Man, do I love getting notes like that!

Today's Action Point: "What Was That All About?" – eliminating miscommunication!

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“What was that all about?” 

“Dad, here are mom’s slippers.”
“Son, I sent you to get her laptop!”
“Sorry dad.”

How do we get slippers from laptop?

Ever have a team member come to you with a report and you think:

“That’s not even CLOSE to what I asked for.”  How could things have gotten so off track?

I find that this happens a lot with my teens (and pre-teens.)  Sometimes it’s a listening problem, but if I’m being honest with myself I need to recognize that many times it’s my fault.

Action Point:
What can you do to be more clear?
What if you made a moment or two to think about HOW you’ll say what you want, and how to engage your listener?

I’ve picked up a few “formulas” for communication – and wanted to share one today.

  1. Observation – here’s what I noticed you doing / not doing.
  2. Impact – here’s the impact that’s having.
  3. Suggestion — here’s what you can try going forward.

Getting back to those slippers,
(Observation)

“Thanks for your help.

Hey – I’ve noticed that sometimes when I ask for your help you end up picking up something entirely different than what I asked you to get  – like those slippers you’re holding right now.”

(Impact) 

“It seems pretty inefficient to have you go twice, plus it’s frustrating to have you get what I didn’t want.”

(Suggestion)

“Next time, let’s try this:  When I ask you to get get something, please repeat back what I asked so I know we’re on the same page.  Can we make that work?”

More Info
For more formulas on communication, including

  • Explaining a problem
  • Talking about your products or
  • Communicating your vision,

check out this blog post from another coach

One Final Thought:
Help your team by giving them specific feedback using the Observation, Impact, and Suggestion formula –
then email me and tell me how it went. tom@BrightHillGroup.com

Cooper News:
I’m in DC this week.   We’re helping my mother in law work on downsizing in prep for her move.  She’s coming to live with us!  I’m also doing some work with corporate clients on “Managing Difficult Customers”, Goal Setting and Goal Achievement, plus I’m meeting with friends, too.

 

Contact Me

BrightHill Group
240-668-4799

PO Box 1561
Harrisburg NC 28075

info@BrightHillGroup.com