For 12 years, I’ve had an ad on my desk that says “Are you afraid to think?” to push myself to consider new points of view, new ways of doing things, new possibilities, rather than sticking with only what I know. When I read Heroic Checklist in Fast Company, it reminded me of this ad. Why?
As described, people think that checklists are “basic”, “routine”, and “dull”. I would have said the same. And, while I loved the stats that Chip and Dan cite, like:
When Michigan ICUs put the checklist into practice over a period of 18 months…[snip] saving the hospitals an estimated $175 million…[snip] Oh, and it saved about 1,500 lives.
…what this article made me realize is that checklists actually free you to think. You no longer spend your time remembering steps, but rather noticing what is happening around the steps in your specific situation. Following a checklist does not make you dull or routine, it presents you with time and freedom that can be used for knowledge work — where you are more valuable.
TIP: The authors of this article are Chip and Dan Heath, who wrote Made to Stick, which I’ve blogged on already. While I find Fast Company to be a top quality magazine, generally, I’d subscribe to Fast Company for their column alone. It is that good.
Let me give you a checklist example close to my heart right now. Last year, I did my first Half Iron triathlon. I had a flat. I started to fix it and realized that I was too anxious to remember all the steps quickly. I ran my bike back to the start. While the official race saviors fixed my flat, a woman told me that she puts a checklist in her flat pack. Honestly, at the time, I thought, “Isn’t that cute? I don’t need no stinkin’ checklist. I just need more experience.”
Now, as I face my first IronMan (t-10 days and counting), a checklist for a flat is what I want in my flat pack. I know I can change the flat, but I need to pay attention to details to do it quickly and notice any issues that could cause problems later. I don’t need to spend time second guessing if I put air in the tube before or after putting it in the tire. I do need to notice if the tire is not seated correctly. A checklist would free me to think, rather than remember. Brilliant!
Based on the recent launch of a cool ad campaign of Holiday Inn Express (take a quiz and possibly win a free shirt that express your breakfast identity — powered by Spreadshirt), I recommended a “shop launch checklist” to our sales team. Nothing went wrong with the launch that prompted this, but I saw it could have been easier on the team. Creating multiple shops (for free t winners and non-winners) — each with many details and the strenuous tracking requirements of a contest — would have been easier if the team could have only focused where their thinking would add value, rather than the dull routine work of remembering when to dot an i and cross a t.
So, what is on my shirt today?
humbled by simplicity
A special request for my friends and family:
In 10 days, Evan and I are attempting our first IronMan. There is a terrific report written by an IMBrazil 2007 finisher that covers how lonely this course is. I wondered how we could take the spirit of you with us, and I had an idea. You know I’m addicted to personalized shirts now, as I love this form of expression. I’m asking that you to go to the Spreadshirt Designer, design a shirt that would inspire you (a quote, a graphic, a saying, one word), order it, take your picture in it, and email me the pic. We’ll take them with us on the 112 mile bike ride for when we need a boost. For free standard shipping, enter goeggers as the coupon during check out. You should order by Sunday to get the shirt in time. If you can and want to do this, thanks for giving us this special boost for the tough miles!
[For my EU friends, by late morning, goeggers will also work for free standard shipping in the EU Spreadshirt Designer. The .com coupon works now.]
May 15th, 2008
By referral of my friend, Phil Terry of Creative Good, I am reading The Americanization of Edward Bok. I double Phil’s recommendation for anyone that wants to read about an inspirational life from very early years; to understand an entrepreneurial mind from the late 1800s; and to learn a bit about publishing during this time. This man was a friend and confidant to nearly every famous author of this time, not to mention all of the US Presidents and other statesmen. An engaging read.
But, what was that about Mark Twain? It is such a coincidence that I read a passage in the book about Mark Twain’s response to an interview by Mr. Bok. Mr. Bok had secured an interview with the notoriously interview-shy Mr. Twain. He sent the written interview to Mr. Twain for his approval. The response (only the first two paragraphs included, the rest is just as brilliant):
My Dear Mr. Bok:
No, no — it is like most interviews, pure twaddle, and valueless.
For several quite plain and simple reasons, an “interview” must, as a rule, be an absurdity. And chiefly for this reason: it is an attempt to use a boat on land, or a wagon on water, to speak figuratively. Spoken speech is one thing, written speech is quite another. Print is a proper vehicle for the latter, but it isn’t for the former. The moment “talk” is put into print you recognize that it is not what is was when you heard it; you perceive that an immense something has disappeared from it. That is its soul. You have nothing but a dead carcass left on your hands. Color, play of feature, the varying modulations of voice, the laugh, the smile, the informing inflections, everything that gave that body warmth, grace, friendliness, and charm, and commended it to your affection, or at least to your tolerance, is gone, and nothing is left, but a pallid, stiff, and repulsive cadaver.
That paragraph, written by a brilliant author, I hope gives you an idea of what it takes to write versus talk. The problem… email is talk in ”printed” form. Most often you miss everything that Mr. Twain calls out, and therein lies the problem.
I read this passage on the plane on Saturday, as I had just had three conversations the past week with people that were emailing problems back and forth and not picking up the phone. This included senior managers who weren’t talking to their team members regularly, but thought it was OK because they were emailing them daily. There is immense value in talking to someone, and it is worth your time. If you think that email takes less time, you are not spending the time writing that the issues deserve.
Before you hit send on an important, even semi-important, email, ask yourself, are you using a wagon on water? If the answer is possibly, then pick up the phone or stand up from your chair and walk a few cubes down… start to talk.
I have a dizzying array of meetings each week. Not all of them are great. The best ones have agendas prepared in advance (something I request of every meeting I’m in) and send to me at least a day before the meeting. This allows me time to think through what is needed and prepare some thoughts and responses. I would not trade that dizzyness for more emails. Meeting with team members gives me more energy than an email could, because of the soul that Mr. Twain points out comes across in a talk.
If you are a manager, have regular one-on-ones with your team members. If you find yourself with nothing to say in those meetings, then you are missing the point, and you and your team member need to prepare for those meetings more. Spend time in advance reviewing emails sent since the last meeting and thinking about goals, then you will have plenty to discuss.
What’s on my shirt today?
email is cheap
talk is valuable
P.S. Creative Good is a wonderful organization. If you don’t know them, you should.
May 13th, 2008
…but then when they are launched you can!
A good amount of my day is taken up with things I can’t talk about publicly. They would expose a person, an event, or an exciting new shop. For example… CNN launched little shirt icons next to their video icons on their homepage, so readers can buy headlines they like on t-shirts. I can say that now because — thanks to an awesome Spreadshirt team — this is live as of this morning.
My favorite review so far?
From Jossip: “It would’ve been so easy to harp on CNN.com for its new feature, which allows visitors to make any select headlines into a T-shirt. But also? It’s kinda the most brilliant Web 2.0 initiative we’ve seen from stodgy old Time Warner since … since.”
I also like that Wired led with “CNN.com Scampers Meekly Into the T-Shirt Game”, as imagining CNN scampering meekly anywhere with their large footprint just tickles me. And I am enjoying the commentary about the headlines people want to see… mostly around political statements with the election season heating up.
I get the confusion people have around “just tshirts” and how easy it is to dismiss them and this idea. Obviously I’m among the converted with Jossip in saying that it is “kinda” brilliant to do this. While not every headline will be a hit, the majority of headlines will have some group that feel close to that one headline, and they can now have their headline and wear it too. As Wired said a year ago:
In an age of media saturation, T-shirts are a tight-knit nano-statement.
I haven’t found my headline nano-statement just yet, but when I do, I’ll tell you. In the meantme, what is on my shirt today? Appropriately, since I just flew in this morning (overnight):
Modern Sandman
(Sorry that there are only S Women’s left)
P.S. If you are visiting CNN from outside of the US, you might be redirected to the International edition. If so, just click on the “US” link in the upper right hand corner, where it is labeled “Edition”.
April 22nd, 2008
Though those that grew up with me would laugh, I am often asked how I stay calm in various, stressful situations. The reason my friends and family from long ago would laugh is that I’m not known by them as having an even temper. I’m passionate about life and that comes out pretty clearly and quickly, but what I’ve learned from my experience that they haven’t seen… perspective.
HSBC has been running an ad campaign for about a year that hits perspective well. The ads juxtapose two images with labels, then show the images again with the labels switched. My favorites:
With each of these I can remember my own perspective turning point. I am not and never have been interested in having children, and earlier, I often wondered why anyone woud do it. As my friends have had kids and I’ve gotten up close and personal with kids, I’ve seen what a sense of fulfillment and happiness children can bring. It has not changed my beliefs for my life, but it does make me much more calm and centered when I’m sitting on a flight next to a screaming, breast feeding baby. (I am completely serious.)
In business, even when I don’t have specific experience perspective, I do ask myself, “Why would that be happening?” And then try to realize what different perspectives there might be. This helps come to not only a sense of calm about the status, but a set of possible solutions based on different perspectives.
As I am writing this, I’m reminded of a Dan and Chip Heath Fast Company Make Goals Not Resolutions article from this Winter. Their analysis of how you achieve your resolutions is to visualize how you are going to reach what you want. Perspective is exactly that… visualization from different angles. In this case, it is to understand and succeed.
What is on my shirt today? In another post, I’m going to cover my thoughts on Danny Meyer’s book Setting the Table, which is an extraordinary book on business and hospitality. He introduces the word
umbuntu
as a South African greeting, which was translated as “I see you.” As Danny says, “That simply and effectively addresses the core human need to be seen and to feel seen.” To me, understanding someone’s perspective is the best way to really see them.
April 20th, 2008
Yes, it has been too long since I’ve written. So long, I won’t even try to apologize, but ask that you know I want to be here writing. Life has just not been cooperating with that specific goal. I have however started writing snippets (or tweets as I believe they are called) via Twitter. You can see some samples on the right side of this, and choose to follow me via Twitter if you want. My tweets are little comments on what I’m reading, hearing or seeing at that moment, which is in a way “what are you doing”, but more “what are you thinking about what you are doing”.
Like other nights, it is 8:24p and I haven’t done my work out yet, my dog and husband need attention (not in that order) and I haven’t eaten for about 9 hours. But, I wanted to leave you with a product demo that I found awesome. This YouTube video of the ABC3D book is a great demonstration of a simple, but powerful, video of a product. It represents the product well, really shows you what it is, isn’t distracting, and had to cost very little to make (in terms of direct and indirect costs). Over 300k views in 2 months. The one problem… no link to where to get the book, though they claim preorders are available. If you are going to do an AWESOME job in promoting your product make sure you let people know how they can buy it, or at least give them the info that your product will be out soon, and get their contact info!
With that, I’m off to eat!
On my shirt today:
Buy
more
shirts
April 3rd, 2008
We had an exciting holiday season at Spreadshirt. We hit records and had INCREDIBLE performance across our teams — marketing, production, customer service, and IT that keeps it all humming. Why can’t we have Christmas every few months? It is a real adrenaline rush! But, to the point of this post…
After the Christmas shopping days, we all got a chance to take a breath, and what did I do? I worried. I am not a political activist by any stretch, but I am a voter, and I take it fairly seriously. I felt uninformed, so I spent time reading about the candidates to check what I thought I knew and learn more.
Where did I end up? I don’t feel that I have a candidate for whom I can vote at this point. I’m concerned about our economy, not a steep decline, but a slow, anguished one that keeps us comfy until we hit the rocks. More people are swinging this way too, according to USA Today’s early December poll on important issues for the Presidential race. The war in Iraq was down 14% as an issue and the economy up 23%.
I know I’m more keenly focused on this, but have any of the candidates noticed the state of the US dollar in the world’s economy? The US dollar is at its lowest point in over 10 years compared to the Euro and Canadian dollar. [Note: I want all of these markets to remain strong!] My favorite “commentary” on this status is that US rap star Jay-Z flashes Euros in his latest video, rather than dollars.
I don’t see that any of the candidates get that the economy is the key issue — the war has a different light with a strong economy. Focusing on one issue is hard… remember Carville had to post a note to remind the (original) Clinton campaign about this: “It is the economy, stupid.” From my perspective, it is STILL the economy, stupid.
So on my wish list? To see the candidates answers to the question in the “Lessons in Leadership: The Three-Minute Manager” article from Fortune’s 12/24 edition. (Annoyingly enough, I cannot find a link to this online, but it was a good issue as a whole! My favorite article: 101 Dumbest Moments in Business.) The question posed to three management gurus was “What do you do if you discover a huge loss at your company?” Of course, for the candidates I would change this to “huge loss within your country”. The responses were broken into four categories:
- Assess. What is your first move?
- Fix. How do you clean up the mess?
- Take responsibility. Don’t pass the buck.
- Study others. Who’s done it right, and who hasn’t?
I’d like to see the candidates answer as succinctly and clearly as these gurus. Anyone have any pull at any of the campaign HQs?
Don’t worry, this won’t turn into a political blog this season. As I said, I’m not an activist, just thought I’d share what I did over the holidays.
What is on my shirt today? Well, it is a gift I gave for the holiday season:
Whine less
Wine more
Done in Greg’s hand (1st line) and Santa’s Sleigh (2nd line) fonts, and Burgundy (a.k.a., maroon) flex on a white shirt.
January 2nd, 2008
I’m getting a little defensive over the Wal-Mart “thing” due to living in the Northeast and Germany, where Wal-Mart has been chewed up and spit out. I have to admit that I hate having the Wal-Mart conversation with many people in both of these places. Most typically, they boastfully say, “Well, Wal-Mart couldn’t succeed here.” I’m not completely sure why that is something to be proud of in itself. I think that folks are saying it because the big company didn’t overrun their town or country and turn everyone into mindless (money-saving) zombies with small businesses left in the wake. But that’s not the point of my post… that’s another conversation that maybe I’ll find interesting enought to write about at some point. My point is that
- Even though they are a very large corporation and I’m quite sure there are people involved with Wal-Mart that have both deliberately made unethical decisions and mistakenly made bad decisions
- And yes, turning a ship that big is hard, and they can’t react in the way they used to be able to react
- And yes, they have lost some of their charm with Mr. Walton gone
… I still respect what Wal-Mart has done and I’m proud they are from Arkansas… my home state.
I’ll give you my top 5 reasons why I respect Wal-Mart:
- Before Ben & Jerry’s, Google, and Southwest, Wal-Mart shared success throughout the ranks. Yes, across the South, there are people who were cashiers at Wal-Mart who are millionaires now. Sam Walton believed in his employees and rewarded them with stock in the company through ESOPs and stock grants.
- Note… The company doesn’t have that leverage for employees now due to their size. This is a law of nature, not something evil they are doing to their employees.
- Sam Walton was a communicator, and he built a company that values communication. Being from Arkansas, I saw examples of this from friends who worked there. I knew about the Saturday morning meetings that drove the business for years and years. I know about the incredible satellite network used for communicating across the country to all the remote places where Wal-Mart was.
- Wal-Mart defined relentless focus on execution. An example: Their distribution centers lay out let stores have the minimum amount of space dedicated to storing inventory without risking selling inventory… they used 40% of what most competitors did. Why? They knew that stores were about selling and they wanted maximum space to selling space. Wal-Mart knows what is important to them and then execute with keen focus against that.
- Wal-Mart is not a slave to their systems. Their systems are built and bought to support their business. (I was a vendor to them… this one I know keenly.) For example, their retail systems were designed to give local flexibility with centralized control. Stores were allowed to adjust prices as needed to respond to local competition, but only to a certain point, as defined by the business objectives set in Bentonville. In all my interactions with Wal-Mart, I have to say they are the best at being the master of their systems.
- Sam Walton set up the company to learn. This is one reason they’ve struggled more in recent years, there are very few people from whom they can learn. Mr. Walton set the company up to be driven by benchmarking themselves across industries and departments. Every single group was expected to benchmark with people that were the tops in their areas… across marketing, communications, HR, retail, distribution/logistics, etc.
I recently learned from the book What I Learned from Sam*Walton that there was an internal rally cry at Sam’s Club, HEATKTE, which stood for “high expectations are the key to everything”. This is how Mr. Walton ran the company. He expected more… all the time… from everyone. He was tough, but inspirational, and he built an outstanding company that has been the most successful company in my lifetime.
Please know I am not saying Wal-Mart is perfect. I don’t think this. I also don’t think they deserve the ire they have stirred up in people. Before you bash them, make sure you know the facts. The company has done a great deal of good and are a model company in many ways, particularly looking at the first 4/5ths of their existence.
OK, I’ve gotten that off my chest. Feel free to hurl insults my way for standing up for the big evil American corporation.
December 17th, 2007
[Aside… At 3:20a I shouldn’t be doing this, but I don’t learn…]
I’m reading Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science. There’s a great description of a then recent study (book from 2002) from HBS on learning curves in different industries. One “industry” that the HBS students decided to study was the medical industry — surgeons specifically. In this case, they followed 18 cardiac surgeons as they learned a new technique of minimally invasive surgery.
The surprise from this study was that the surgeon on one the fastest learning teams was relatively inexperienced to the surgeon on one of the slowest learning teams. The fast learning surgeon:
-
Picked specific team members and kept a consistent team for max learnings
-
Conducted a dry run before the first case
-
Scheduled six operations for the first week to increase knowledge retention between cases
-
Held a planning and update meeting before each surgery and a debrief afterwards
-
Tracked results carefully
The slow learning surgeon did not carry out these points.
It reminded me of one of the areas where we are struggling a bit now as we grow. Folks are understandably frustrated by the number of people with whom they “have to” coordinate now. I’ve often thought about this and wondered how you inspire the excitement of working with a team more. Sure, it is easier to be “fully in control” yourself, but you miss so much learning and improved solutions… and really collaboration fun. Yes, it takes work… and more work than if you were able to do things yourself. You need to have the dry runs, and the planning and debrief meetings. Basically, without this kind of structure, you do have the overhead of a team, without the rewards.
Hope this spurs some thoughts for you as it did for me.
What is on my shirt…
What do you pack
to pursue a dream?
… as I go off to pursue a dream! (By the way, this is written on my shirt in our new Santa’s sleigh font. Perfect for this thought…)
December 12th, 2007
First, my apology, and then we’ll move on. I am sorry for not posting in so long. I do not know what happened. I enjoy writing and I’m not doing enough of it. My days have turn into evenings, which turn into nights, which turn into early mornings, which turn into 2-3 hours of sleep. Most of you know that I am OK on little sleep, but I need 4-5 hours to feel good, and I haven’t been getting that lately. I think the question becomes… what have I been doing?
We’ve been working on budgets at Spreadshirt. We are doing a more extensive round than before, so that means lots of meeting and work. Along with this, we are also talking about our priorities for 2008. These are always fun processes because you are talking about the future, but they are also wrought with one word, “No.”
“No” is a post I’ve been meaning to write for awhile. First, let’s take the definition of the word. The Oxford English Dictionary says no is “a denial”, “a refusal”, “the negative side or party”, and “a person who votes against a proposal”. Ouch, such harsh words for two little characters. But, it shows how powerful language is. These two letters often bring up lots of emotion. So, whenver I’m saying “no”, I try to think how the other party thinks about the decision. What does it mean from their perspective?
Remember you hired your team to be the best advocates for their department/group. If they aren’t passionate about your saying no, then are they the best advocates? You need to remember that there is trade off between local (departmental) and global (corporate) optimization, but there should be push back on a no vote. Because, as defined, no is a denial. (Note… Your team won’t always understand your reasons for this denial, but as a leader, try.)
As more help in understanding why “no” is so hard, I had a revelation a few years ago when reading a terrific Fortune article by Jerry Useem on decision making. The piece that I repeat to myself (for two+ years now): (bold added by me)
Start with the Latin decidere. It means, literally, “to cut off.” Decisions force us to foreclose other opportunities–jobs not taken, strategies never attempted, options unpursued. Would that sales gig in Houston have worked out better? You’ll never know.
This little piece helped me understand why people have problems with decisions. I never have had a problem with decisions… in business, in personal life, in shopping even. I make a decision and move on. Though not conscious, I think it is because I don’t look at a decision as cutting off anything, but rather the flip side… I look forward to the road taken, or at least, if the road looks bumpy, I look forward to having a road to take, rather than sitting at the crossroads waiting. Thanks to Mr. Useem, I now understand the struggle with decisions more, and can help coach them to the right answer.
So, as I said when I started this blog, I want to learn from you too. What is your experience with decision making? Are you consistent across business and personal decisions? Do you struggle with any particular types of decisions? Do you think that these definitions and latin roots have an impact on how we look at decisions and ”nos”?
P.S. Jerry Useem also interviewed Jim Collins on decision making and it was a good piece too.
What is on my shirt today? What else?
I (heart)
decisions
December 10th, 2007
I was going to post something more thoughtful tonight, but the new season of The Unit started last night and Evan and I had to “sling” it tonight. What can I say? I worked at Los Alamos, remember? I’m amused by secret government operatives, since I knew a few spooks there. ;-)
So, something a little less serious tonight:
- In case any of you are forgetting what I look like, here are some vids for you:
- This brings up point number two… yes, those are dark circles under my eyes. As I looked at myself in the mirror tonight, I thought “Hmmmm… I should have added ‘deal with jetlag’ as some percentage in my ‘what a CEO should be doing’ post.” I’d say that’s another 10%. Jenny, I hope that didn’t scare the horses. ;-)
- And point number three… I’m almost, possibly ready to go public with this… I am considering… doing Ironman Brazil in May. There I did it. Evan’s keen on doing one as soon as possible, and this one is open, and early in the season. My friend (and Ironman) Paul Mccarron told me when I started with my first sprint (Duxbury 2005 — I did not think I would finish!) that I would end up doing an Ironman. How did he know? So far, training has been going well. Thanks to Matthias (co-founder and CTO Spreadshirt) who is making me run FASTER and more often. One thing I know for sure… I will have the best shirt!
Well, on that note, I need to go and work on the circles under my eyes. I hope you are all well. Thanks for indulging me tonight.
September 27th, 2007
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