The Innovator's Dilemma

When most people think of abstract conversations, they categorize it as mental masturbation. This is unfortunate because abstract conversations are the source of innovation.

You may say that I am making a bold statement. Or you may be saying to yourself that there are many ways to innovate. Innovation is not maintaining. While it includes improvement, most of us think of innovative people and companies as those that create something that did not exist before. So what do abstract conversations have to do with inventing?

If you think about every invention, the primary source of the invention first existed as

What Hidden Treasure Do You Possess?

“I was a hidden treasure, and I longed to be known.” – Unknown

This is clearly one of the paradoxes of being human. We all have untapped potential. However, we also have an unspoken fear. We fear that one day we may perform

What Does It Take to Become the Leader’s Leader?

Whether advising on board of directors, directing as Chairman of the Board, or serving as CEO, these administrators are unmistakably leaders. Nevertheless, they do not have all the answers. The best leaders request guidance for the tough decisions. That is, they continuously seek out other leaders in whom they can confide.

To be a confidant to the leader, it is important to have been a leader. In many cases, some of the best confidants are people who

Raising Your Ambitions

"It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself, but at some more ambitious goal beyond it." – Arnold Toynbee

This comes down to how you see yourself. It is said that when the children of the Kennedy family were young, they would go out and play after church. Each child wore a hat. If they came home without their hat, they would be punished by their parents. So they decided to play a game that required them to put their butts on the line.

Every Sunday they would find a wall and throw their hats over the wall. No matter what it took each child had to get over the wall to get their hat. Each Sunday they threw their hats over taller walls.  And each Sunday they came home with their hats. 

Perhaps all the while the goal was to go over the tallest wall. However, they had not developed the skill and teamwork to achieve it. Therefore, they practiced on lower walls until they developed the ability to conquer the tallest.

If we look at the Kennedy family, it would seem that scaling walls gave them the mental preparedness for much greater achievements. Imagine if you would, that their goals were never about retrieving hats on the other side of the wall. Imagine that their childhood games were always part of a bigger plan that became the Kennedy legacy.

They had always seen themselves as accomplishing greatness and overcoming obstacles became part of their playground instead of something to avoid. To do that, you have to see yourself as already there. You just have to be responsible for the mental and physical (skills) preparation.     

The Unwritten Rules of Best Buy's Corporate Culture

In March of this year, Best Buy CEO, Brian Dunn, told 400 employees to say good-bye to their jobs and closed 50 stores. In April, Dunn said good-bye to Best Buy after an investigation by the board. He was having a relationship with a female employee, an act that was against company policy.

Later, the board learned that Chairman and founder, Richard Schulze, knew about Dunn’s relationship and never reported it to the audit committee. The board subsequently asked Schulze to step down as Chairman of the Board.

From the board’s perspective, Dunn showed very poor judgment by having a relationship against company policy. Therefore, his only choice was to resign. During the time leading up to this, Best Buy missed its revenue targets for the 4th quarter of 2011. The concern was that Dunn might have made other poor decisions that affected the corporation’s performance.

Both Dunn and Schulze’s behavior raise an issue of policy. While every business has written policies, it also has unspoken policies, practiced without conscious effort. Dunn created an unspoken policy: relationships with coworkers are acceptable as long as no one knows.

On the surface, there seems to be no big deal in having a relationship with an employee. Except, the company’s written policy prohibited and acting otherwise undermined the culture of the organization, undercutting the company’s success. For Dunn, this resulted in Best Buy trudging through a revenue lapse.

Since he was breaking company policy, it may have made it very difficult for him to enforce policies in general. It’s like your parents saying don’t smoke as they take another puff from their cigarette. Whatever the leader does, his subordinates will follow.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it lowered people’s tolerance for mistakes on Best Buy's part. Take the Best out of Best Buy they would be goodbye. Undoubtedly the new CEO will have to correct these problems immediately

It is always easy to know what to do after the fact. However, I would like to know what you would have done if you were in either position.

What do you think? I would love to hear what you think. 

Killing Trust

"Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every organization needs trust. Without it, people can feel invalidated and become resentful.

From a counterintuitive perspective, trust is always accompanied by mistrust. They come in pairs whether you like it or not. Therefore, if you want to eliminate mistrust, you will have to kill trust. If there is no dependency on trust, people will have to relate to one another as their commitments. By killing trust, people are honored as their word and their actions are always a direct correlate of their words.

As for greatness, I lost both my parents when I was 21. As the oldest of 4 children, I was committed that what was left of the family continued to move forward in a powerful way. One of the ways I did that was to treat my brother and sisters, whose ages were 19, 16 and 12, as though they were truly great. Without question, they accomplished things that you would never expect from someone their age, even though I asked them to do tasks that they had no idea how to do.

While my expectations were for greatness, I guided them through many endeavors until they were successful. This built confidence and allowed me to delegate increasingly complicated tasks to them each passing day. Whether they succeeded or failed in the beginning was irrelevant. It was more important that I was committed to their greatness and took the time to develop it.

As Mr. Emerson states, developing greatness in people will always outperform trust.     

Who’s The Most Important Person In Your Life?

Of Course, the first answer is you. You get one life and you own it. It’s your future. And you get to say what it will be. After you, who do you see as most important? If it is not your spouse or significant other, how do you expect to experience the joy and success life has to offer? 

The Company You Keep

"The best mirror is a friend's eye." – Gaelic Proverb

Everyone knows that your closest friend can tell you things about yourself that you may find difficult to see. True friends will be honest with you and tell you how some of your behavior harms your chances for success in love, family and business.

However, there are other things a friend can tell you without ever saying a word. Look at your closest friends. What is the condition of their lives? Are they happy with where they are in life? Are they successful? Do they struggle financially? Do they gossip about other people’s faults instead of taking deliberate actions to improve themselves?

There are many more questions you can ask about your closest friends. If your friends are unsatisfied with the condition of their lives and struggle financially, get ready. You are headed for the same.

If you understand your friends’ view of life, you understand that they are close to you because you most likely share similar views. If you do not like what you see, find new friends to mirror.

On the other hand, if you have friends that stretch your imagination and expose you to new and exciting events and perspectives, you are on a great path. That is, if your friends hold a powerful vision for their future and are comfortable financially, know that you are most likely on the same path.

In the end, regardless of who your friends are, strive to be a valuable contributor. You can be the catalyst for moving your friends in a new and empowering direction. 

Granted, if they want to stay in their unhappy comfort zone, you have a very tough choice to make. Are you bold enough to stand up for your future? 

It’s All In the Design

Innovation, like sports, has a design. You cannot just do anything and say you are doing well. That is contrary to Nike’s “Just Do It” commercials. In basketball, for example, you cannot just throw the ball in the air and say you scored, nor can you dribble anywhere and go down court. There are boundaries to the court. There are constraints to the design of basketball and the way you play. It is within these constraints that each player has the possibility of being extraordinary.

Quoted: Churchill on Strategy

“However beautiful your strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” – Winston Churchill

Strategy is a means to an end.  However, a strategy without a clear vision for what the end game is can lead you to an endless path of doing things that give you no satisfaction. That would be like running in a race without ever knowing where the finish line is. It would be impossible to know if you were running at the correct pace. In your mind, you may think you are winning because you are running at a great pace for the 100-meter dash, except the race is 1 mile. Most likely, your strategy will not take you the distance.

Is Wal-Mart Becoming Its Own Worst Enemy?

(Via FrumForum)

There are allegations that the Mexican division of Wal-Mart gave bribes to Mexican government officials and other people connected with Wal-Mart de Mexico’s incredible ability to secure permits quickly. The whole story is so convoluted that is sounds like a mystery soap opera.

In September 2005, a senior lawyer at Wal-Mart received an email from a former executive of Wal-Mart de Mexico. The former executive accused Wal-Mart de Mexico executives of paying bribes to a number of officials to speed up the process of securing permits to open new stores. He stated that he was an attorney for Wal-Mart de Mexico in charge of securing construction permits.

Wal-Mart corporate sent in investigators. They found a paper trail of bribes totaling $24 million. Furthermore, it was found that Wal-Mart de Mexico executives knew about the bribes and made a concerted effort to keep them hidden from corporate. The findings were so unbelievable that Wal-Mart hired a former FBI special agent to validate the findings. After his preliminary findings, he suggested the investigation be expanded. Much to his dismay the investigation was shut down and some of the executives in question were promoted. 

One of the biggest concerns was that Wal-Mart did not call the appropriate authorities to investigate wrongdoing. Some assert this was done because Wal-Mart de Mexico is such a success story.  Approximately 20% of all Wal-Mart stores are in Mexico. Of Wal-Mart’s 2.1 million employees, 209,000 are in Mexico. In fact, Wal-Mart de Mexico is one of the most profitable and the largest foreign subsidiary.

The CEO of Wal-Mart de Mexico, Eduardo Castro-Wright, during the time of the allegations is said to be brilliant. He was seen as the possible successor to CEO corporate.  

However, this story hit the New York Times.  The Times interviewed the former lawyer who originally reported the allegations, Sergio Cicero Zapata.

Mr. Cicero said that before the case was shut down, several parties were brought in to investigate the allegations. Mr. Cicero stated to those investigators that his job was to make payments to lawyers that are called “gestures”.  In turn, those lawyers took the money to the appropriate government officials, environmental inspectors or building code officials as bribes. 

After further investigations, it was found that Mr. Cicero’s wife was a lawyer for one of the gestures. He denied it.

As investigators attempted to dig deeper, they were blocked by the executives being implicated. For some reason, the executives defended themselves adamantly and were allowed to be part of the investigation. As a result, investigators started to resign or were told they were no longer needed.

To this day, it is unclear as to the validity of Mr. Cicero’s allegations. The executives of Wal-Mart de Mexico were finally given the right to take charge of the investigation. They claimed there was no evidence of wrongdoing. They stated that gestures are a legitimate part of doing business in Mexico, especially in real estate. They defended their position and completely discredited Mr. Cicero.

With so much being hidden at such a large monster like Wal-Mart, you have to wonder if their only enemy is themselves. Their success is what can undo them from the inside.   

What do you think? I would love to hear what you think. 

Quoted: Einstein's Fantasy

“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing absolute knowledge.” – Albert Einstein

While most people may imagine that Einstein was very scholarly and focused on studying concrete numbers and science, his quote sends a very different message. 

What's Important To You?

In the mid ‘90s, one of my clients had a jar filled with candy. Inside of each candy wrapper, there was a saying. I chose one that asked, “If you lost everything you had, what would you have?” My response was “I would have everything. As long as I have myself, I have all that I need and I can rebuild my life with who I am”. 

In 1996, I gave away everything I owned, my car, house and even a decent amount of money. I unloaded everything to fulfill a childhood promise I made to myself. I was leaving the US to live abroad.

What Language Do You Speak?

When I say language, my reference has nothing to do with English, Spanish or Chinese. I am asking you if you know if you speak the language of success or excuses. I am also asking you to consider the language you use when you are thinking, or speaking to yourself.

I am asking, “What do you language?” Your language is in your words, your tone, your appearance, the way you get things done and the movement of your body. Those are ways to language in the world. Do you really hear what you say when you encounter problems? How do you move? Do you language negatively when you encounter something that is considered great?

Quoted: George Bernard Shaw on Blaming the Circumstances

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." – George Bernard Shaw

It’s amazing how each of us creates an identity. The identity we create has a body of knowledge and experiences that we depend on. As a result, the identity functions on automatic and helps us survive in this world. If you observe, you have a particular response to situations given the stimulus. 

In other words, who we are has gotten us to where we are. When we encounter circumstances we like, we are happy. When we are faced with what we don’t like, we fight, take flight or freeze. The identity we have predetermines our actions. And it is difficult to see it is our identity that is driving our thoughts and actions.

This same identity that guides us may also trap us. We believe the identity we have is the right one and it protects us. Without question, it has gotten us to where we are. Yet, our response to stimulus is so predictable that we can’t see the possibility of completely new ways of thinking and doing things.

However, those who clearly see what they want in life understand they must become someone else to get there. More importantly, they will modify the environment, and in some cases, they will creatively destroy the environment, to create the circumstances that will support their goals.

Creative destruction is not as painful as it sounds. It requires you let go of limiting beliefs that were given to you by the environment you were born into. That may mean letting go of relationships and objects that represent the past.

Go ahead! Lighten your load and move into the circumstances you desire.

What's Your Combination?

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article called Employees, Measure Yourselves (April 2^nd, 2012 section R1). The article talked about devices that companies could make available to employees. These devices allow workers to monitor their performance, from their heart rate after a stressful meeting to how long they spend chatting on Facebook. 

The article mentioned that this is not an opportunity for employers to play big brother. Already, many organizations monitor employee productivity by keeping track of what sites they visit and how much time is spent on each one.  

What's Holding Back Your Creative Genius?

At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done - then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago. – Frances Hodgson Burnett

Even though the world is filled with brilliant people that have valuable ideas, this quote is the dilemma that every creative inventor faces. Perhaps this disbelief many idea collect dust on the shelves. 

When you have a new idea, people try to convince you that it is impossible. They tell you that you are wasting your time with nonsense. When they see your persistence and start to understand the benefits of your idea, they begin to have hope.

When all the pieces are almost together, they start to cheer you on. However, once it’s done, they look at you as though any one could have done it years ago.

If you are creative and have great ideas, never waste your time looking for agreement from the masses. If you wait for their approval, you may put off your greatest ideas indefinitely. Instead, take an unstoppable stand and implement knowing that there will be problems along the way. Nevertheless, know that you have the drive and ambition to work through them.

Good luck geniuses!!!

Should We Embrace Chaos or Fight For Certainty?

Peter Drucker had a profound way of looking at life and its encompassing complexities. He knew that business, government, societal structures, etc. were all intertwined to form a complex system. None of the elements exists independent of the others. Therefore, you cannot effectively provide solutions for one element without addressing them all. He uses weather patterns and quantum physics to demonstrate his point. 

J.C. Penney: Don't Discount the Importance of Setting Goals

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I'll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I'll give you a stock clerk.” – J.C. Penney

In 1979, the Harvard MBA program conducted a study. In interviews with the graduating class, they found that 84% had no specific goals at all. Another 13% had goals, however, had not written them on paper. Only 3% had clear written goals and plans to accomplish them.

In 1989, the 13% with goals earned twice as much as the 84% without goals. The 3% earned a staggering 10 times as much as the entire 97%.

Going to Harvard gives you an edge in the job market. Except, without written goals and a plan to fulfill them, you could end up working in the stock room for J. C. Penney.

Your goals and plans are your personal road map for life. Do you have one? Or are you depending on luck?

How To Avoid The One Hit Wonder Trap

I often talk about creating breakthroughs. While it is fulfilling to accomplish a breakthrough, what do you do once the breakthrough is realized? Too often the thought is to do more, better or different of the same thing. This could be a strategy that has a high probability of getting you stuck in a rut.

Can You Let Go of What's Most Important to You?

"The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become." - Charles Du Bos

Unfortunately, for most of us, letting go of who we are is like dying. Far too many of us believe we will be nothing if we let go of who we are. Can you step out of the person you have always been and take actions that are uncharacteristic of you?  

One of the most difficult aspects of being a human being is that if you depend solely on what you know, at some point, you will experience tremendous restrictions in life. What we know directly impacts who we are. Why? We develop thought processes and behavioral patterns based on the information we have been given about life. That includes social constructs. In fact, we become attached to what we know and live with certainty that what we know and who we are is good enough. For some, there is the belief that there is nothing better.

At the same time, can any of us be so arrogant to believe that what we know is sufficient enough to handle what we don’t know we don’t know? There are possibilities in your everyday life waiting to be discovered. And what you know may not help you. The only obstacle to those discoveries will be what you know and who you have become.

Can you open your mind to the possibility that you can become a greater you without the you from the past? Be daring. Let go of past behavioral patterns you learned from your environment and explore the richness of the unknown greater you.  

The 90% Rule

If you are committed to working your way up the corporate ladder, you need to clearly demonstrate you have your job handled. However, you also don’t want to be the showboat who has all the answers. To meet that balance, the 90% rule should be part of your strategy. It is an effective way of managing relationships with your direct reports, superiors or board of directors.

Simply stated, it means that 85%-90% of your job is handled by you without input from your boss. In your next meeting with your boss, go into his or her office and say, “I have 90% of my responsibilities handled. I would like some input from you on the remaining 10%.”

Carl Rogers On What It Means To Be Educated

“The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.” – Carl Rogers

While information gives you access to what is already known, it in no way guarantees you will know what to do with it. One action may be appropriate given certain information. Yet, the same information in a different situation may require completely different actions.

Unfortunately, many people take information and try to use it the same way in all situations. Take, for example, the notion that all men cheat. How is that information applied to men who do not engage in infidelity?

If a person has not learned how to learn and change, they may never experience the fact that all men do not cheat, even when they are with a man who does not cheat. If you do not develop the skills to learn and change, there are many possibilities in front of you that you may never experience.

Allow yourself to develop a new perspective. Speak openly with people who do not support your point of view and understand theirs instead of yours. Then find the common ground between the 2 of you. Learn subjects that have little interest to you and look for the relationship it has with what you already know. 

Are You This Manager? Don't Shoot the Messenger

Friday evening an elementary school buddy of mine called me.  He runs a branch of a company in the service industry.  He has been named manager of the year several times and he runs one of the most profitable branches. While he never brags about his accomplishments, he lets you know he has worked hard to achieve them and is appreciative for the opportunity to be where he is.

The conversation with my friend went something like this:

Friend:  Ted, I need to ask you a question. In the past, I know I have resisted many things you have said to me. However, I need you to know that I do hear you and have tried some of your ideas.

I have a situation at work. It is not that I think something is wrong with me as a manager. I need to understand what happens with employees. I need to know when does an employee become an adversary?

Quoted: Washington Irving on 'Misfortune'

Washington Irving

"Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them."   Washington Irving

At first, it may appear that this is saying misfortune is a blessing in disguise.  However, more to the point, it is saying that whatever occurs is in the eye of the beholder. What we call rising above may have everything to do with an individual’s perspective.

In everyone’s life, something occurs every second of the day. What you see as misfortune and what you see as a great opportunity may have more to do with how you view the world.