Paul McKey - Synergistic Design

Redbean - My work is about helping organisations change - for the better. And when we embark on any change program, personal or organisational, one of the first issues we have to come to grips with is the possibility of failure. Failure in the sense that you didn’t meet expectations, or you couldn’t sustain the change, or you implemented poorly or you just made some errors of judgement. That is failure is relative. You might have got close. You could be way off.

Rarely do we meet or exceed all our expectations so failure is always present in some form. What I have found from recent research is that how we prepare for and deal with failure is a critical element of any change program’s success. And how we do that is primarily a cultural response to the word itself, how openly we can discuss the concept and what normally happens when failure occurs.

Some cultures and many people avoid using the word failure altogether, as if it has some power over them. Words don’t have power, only their meaning.

The literal meaning of failure is that one has not achieved a standard or goal, set by either themselves or others, for whatever reason. So the literal meaning of failure is fairly rational but the personal meaning is probably always disputable (as is success) and depends on who is setting the benchmark.

So word or the act of failure is an emotional trigger and those emotions are tied to the consequences any perceived failure might incur - including the denial of the benefits that would probably come with success. Humans love to strive and we don’t like to lose. That makes sense. But to change we must accept risk.

Yet it is those consequences of failure that will probably define your success. Entrepreneurs have a mantra to “fail early and fail often”. That’s how we learn and as long as we do learn this philosophy works. Ask any toddler.

How hard we strive then is defined by the risk where the excitement of the reward competes against the fear of the consequences of failure. So what if we started to remove the fear of the word, meaning and consequences of failure from our lives, organisations and culture?

A recent phenomena, at least in the western world, is the official apology. I am always impressed when a CEO, politician or public servant can stand up in public and say “I/we stuffed up”. This new trend is improving the world and our organisations. Yet many still see it as a sign of weakness.

All cultures differ in their response to failure yet generalising is dangerous.

Unfortunately the alternative to open acceptance of failure in our work and organisations is still too prevalent - arse-covering occurs all the time and is relative, from white lies to outright cover ups.

Transparency and open discussion is the first step towards successful change. My first hint that I am in an arse-covering culture is when people are reluctant to do that. Ongoing dialogue around targets and understanding how we can learn and improve when we reach/miss them is the oil that lubricates the process of healthy change.

So I apologise for the cheap psychology lesson but I know I am going to spend a lot more time discussing the meaning, measures and consequences of success and failure before I start new projects in the future. A lot of organisational change fails and I am trying to understand why. But I think most of it is in our heads…

If this article has failed to meet your expectations… well, it wasn’t my fault!

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Redbean - Another of the social entrepreneurs at the Social Enterprise World Forum in Melbourne recently.

Bronwyn has plenty of energy to put into the dual problems of poverty and environmental degradation.

When was the last time you saw someone getting this passionate about the steel industry?

RiseUp Productions

SEWF09

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Redbean - Tamra Ryan, CEO, of the Women’s Bean Project, in Denver Colorado explains the beginnings of this unique social enterprise.
Women’s Bean Project

From the Social Enterprise World Forum 09

Redbean - here is another instalment in my series of fabulous and interesting people I met at Social Enterprise World Forum in Melbourne recently.

Social Enterprises are one of the fastest growing business sectors on the planet. A passion for the people of world and our environment combined with savvy business plans is making this sector the place to be.

Here is Cathy Burke CEO of the Hunger project in Australia. The Hunger Project

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Redbean - If you want to know the key words and messages that appear on your blog or website try running it through Wordle.

Wordle.

Redbean - I live in the southern hemisphere so it is spring. I also live in the sub-tropics. That means the trees are losing their leaves. Is that counter-intuitive for you?

When white fellas came to this country about 200 years ago they dismissed 30,000 years of experience and labelled everything they saw with European names. Including the seasons.

Australia is currently the leading performing economy in the world in terms of growth in the past quarter. It grew by 0.6%. Business is gearing up again and there is a general confidence around the place. Yet reading the press and talking with my clients I am not hearing anything new. Everyone seems to be back to Plan A - Sell more stuff.

In the subtropics it can be argued we have the same seasons as those in the northern tropics though not as severe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Australian_seasons
This means that in Spring it is the dry season or Rarranhdharr in Yolngu language.
The indigenous trees know this too so they drop their leaves to conserve water. Not fully (there are only a handful of native deciduous trees in Australia) but just enough to survive.

Yet each ’spring’ we are inundated with images of flowers blooming and bees buzzing. Yet those images are surreal. They are images of the inverse of a repressed memory from over 200 years ago. One we can’t forget and continue to reinvent.

Does business do the same thing? Do we just have one picture on our wall of the good times. One based upon unlimited credit and excessive consumption? Are we just hibernating waiting for that time to return? We can’t seem to get out the door, take a look around and observe for ourselves. If we did we would see a different outlook.

Growing sub-tropical fruits you can watch them deal with the extremes of the seasons. They fruit before the wet season. So they flower in summer. In addition to native bees they use birds and migrating bats to pollenate. And unlike the European fruits have few pests and need little attention. My Sterculia quadrifida is currently bare and the fruit is ripening in time for the wet season.

Do you think business will ever come to understand the ‘new world’ we now live in? One where Seth Godin describes the “post-consumption consumer” as having less desire to return high debt and business having less ability to consume precious resources at past levels.

I hope so because in a bizarre sense it is business that has got us into this mess yet it is also business that will have to get us out of it. We have become so dependent upon business and the economy that we can’t unravel the connections. Yet it won’t be the dumb or even the ordinary business models of yesteryear that save us. No we have to build something smarter. And that is both the need and the opportunity!

So what is your new plan for dealing with the new world? Is it the same old image or are you going to get out and observe for yourself? If you need some help reviewing your strategy just let me know. We can start with a walk around my property and have a look at some of the four thousand trees that I had to plant after some white fella had tried to turn the original rainforest into a picture of the rolling green hills of England!

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Knowing when to bring in outside assistance and how to get value for your money is a skill every business manager needs to master. Below is a ‘classic’ post that explains how to engage a consultant based on your needs - and not what they are selling.

*****

I have two types of clients. Those that think I am too expensive and those that think I am too cheap. Both are suspicious.

I feel sorry for the former and very happy for the latter. Yet how does this conundrum come about?

The engagement of a consultant begins in a number of ways for a number of reasons. The major scenarios are;

1. You have a non-specific problem which requires some creative thinking and possible innovation (you are buying a creative process);
2. You have a specific problem which requires an efficient and predictable outcome (you are buying a solution);
3. You need to brainstorm 1 to be able to reach 2.

So are you sure why you are engaging a consultant? Do you want Brains work, innovative fresh ideas, or do you just want a pair of hands to help out? There is a big difference in both approach and outcomes. The first is consulting, the latter is really contracting. In fact David Maister (Managing the Professional Services Firm) divides consulting work into three major styles defined by the outcome you need:

Expert - Brains work solving unique problems. Time is irrelevant here but results are critical. Strategic, organisational change and new design work falls into this category. This is defined by a partnering model and the client relationship. Good relationships with a creative team should yield ongoing results and competitive advantage.

Experience - Hiring a firm who has done this sort of work before and can therefore save you a lot of time and money by utilising their expertise and processes. Many law or market research firms fall into this category. This is about product and quality of service.

Efficiency - This is straight out commodity work. Repeatable processes you require done at a standard quality and price. This is the sort of work now being outsourced to India by the banks, software developers and even some accounting and legal firms. This is primarily about price and time.

Many consultants, when offered, will jump at all three styles of work. They argue they are efficient, have a solution and that they can help you solve problems. In fact these are highly specialised areas of service which require completely different approaches and business structures. Yes small generalist, and large multi-division, firms do exist, but even within these you should still look for individualised approaches to feel confident they can deliver. Yet surprisingly most consultants use the same fee structure regardless of the style of work (this is an indication that they are fee centric, not customer centric - beware! )

Hence an experienced consultant doing efficiency work will always look expensive. Conversely a good process consultant who helps your organisation to solve problems and create unique opportunities will always look cheap since the ‘value’ they can bring should be many times greater than their fee. Good consultants will often charge a value-based fee. The result may be nothing. This is the risk. Yet the process should always provide a rich learning experience for all involved. You can ask the consultant to separate process and performance fees. This will lower your risk and provide some incentive to the consultant for a tangible outcome, not just another report.

A good consultant always brings an enquiring mind and modicum of cynicism to any task. I suggest these ‘fresh eyes’ are what you are really buying otherwise they are just a pair-of-hands and will always look expensive.

In summary then, your first step to a successful consulting engagement is to understand your needs sufficiently to define which style of service you require. One way to test this is to ask your prospective consultants which category they consider they fall into and why. This will expose their capability and allow you to evaluate if they will fit your needs and budget. Otherwise you will always remain suspicious.

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Leon Young from www.change2.com.au shared his thoughts on how to make corporate learning and sustainability more engaging.

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Redbean - In my ongoing fascination with the book industry - because it is a litmus test for digitising existing ‘analogue’ industries - here is a blog post that neatly spells out the converging forces at play.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/bits_of_destruction_hit_book_publishing_part1.php
by Bernard Lunn over at ReadWriteWeb

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Redbean - One of the common themes we hear after dominant players in any industry suddenly lose the plot is that their leaders were getting just the advice they wanted to hear - but not the advice they needed. When bosses in the car industry surround themselves with BIG car people they invariably make more BIG cars regardless of what the market wants.

And so it seems with News Ltd. Richard Freudenstein, CEO of News Digtital Media, was quoted in this week’s press as saying “For a lot of the things people want to do, the broadband we have now is probably quick enough to allow that to happen… it will just be an extension of what is already happening.” (20090730 - SMH - Broadband revolution fails to excite News)

For me this rates right up there with the lack of foresight, denial and other bad predictions of the visionless. You wonder whether these people actually use the services they sell. Or maybe it is just the vested interests talking, seeing that Fraudenstein is also a director of the pay TV operator Foxtel?

Pay TV and free to air TV are both under threat from increased broadband speeds and using denial of that fact as a strategy doesn’t sound too smart to me.

Note to Mr. Murdoch. I am available to advise you at exorbitant rates of pay but there is a caveat - I may not tell you what you want to hear.

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