March 11, 2010 by Bret L. Simmons · Filed under: Leadership, Video
You can’t change the past, but if you don’t learn from it you are trapped into recreating it and all its problems. The only way to generate a unique and flourishing future for your organization is to foster a community of continual learning.
Peter Senge’s first law of The Fifth Discipline is today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions. The problem you inherited today is likely the result of a series of solutions that seemed right at the time made by people that are probably no longer around.
Your challenge is to learn to avoid sowing the seeds of tomorrow’s problems with today’s solutions. To do that, you are going to have to train your mind to identify and comprehend the complex chain of causal factors that led to the effects that now consume your time and threaten your operations. Systems thinking is a discipline that you can – must – develop over time.
It’s foolish to behave as if any decision you make today will not have unintended consequences. Part of your decision making process has to be anticipating the problems that today’s solutions might cause. The unintended consequences should be part of the documentation of any decision. This will help the learning of those that inherit the problems you created.
When they rightly ask “what were they thinking?” they should be able to find your assumptions and identify the ones that held true and the ones that proved incorrect. If you have people working for you that are unwilling to examine their assumptions or that stubbornly resist learning from the failure of untenable assumptions, do everything you can to help them find a good job with your competitors.
Competitive advantage belongs to those that understand why things work or do not work.
Remarkable leaders owe it to themselves to engage with others respectfully, and the credit returns to them abundantly in the form of organizational effectiveness and individual growth and well-being.
When others engage us respectfully, they reflect an image that is positive and valued. They create a sense of social dignity that confirms our worth and even our sense of competence. In so doing, they help us create a secure basis for seeking out connection to others. Respectful engagement thus empowers and energizes us, creating a heightened sense of our capacity to act both in relation to other people and with respect to ourselves. By the same token, acts of disrespectful engagement reflect an image of a person who is of limited value and worth. Not only do they sap our self-confidence, they encourage us to withdraw and withhold, moving away from rather than connecting with other people. Respectful engagement creates high quality connection and high quality connection creates respectful engagement. It is a powerful virtuous cycle. (pp. 25-26).
How we treat others matters to them. Because it matters to them, it affects us and everything we hope to accomplish with our leadership.
Show me a leader that behaves as if how she/he treats others does not matter and I will show you a fool.
March 8, 2010 by Bret L. Simmons · Filed under: Leadership
I am drinking a cup of latte from Peet’s coffee on campus as I write this follow-up. Recall that I lamented about the vanishing cup of $.99 coffee at Peet’s before switching over to Starbucks, then I talked about how someone in management here on campus read my blog post and provided some impressive service recovery.
Today I went back to Peet’s for the first time to give them another chance. Much to my great surprise, the manager, Michelle, recognized me and introduced herself. We had a nice conversation about some of my assumptions about the $.99 cup of Joe.
Turns out I was probably wrong.
I assumed that Joe was Joe, since the customer sees no differential pricing on coffee based on the bean. My assumption was that Peet’s charged their stores the same price for a case of coffee regardless of the bean. Michelle told me that the case of coffee they sell for $.99 costs much less than other beans they carry. So it makes sense that when they run out of that bean they would discontinue the more affordable Joe.
I still don’t completely get it, but Michelle’s personal touch and the good coffee has me in a state of mind where for the time being, I really don’t care. I’m back as customer of Peet’s Coffee.
Give your customers a reason to find fault and they will. Impress them with great product and service and they won’t be as quick to notice your imperfections in their peripheral field of view.
In case you are wondering, the .$99 cup of coffee was on the menu today.
My new article entitled “Learning to Brand” is now live on The Student Branding Blog. Borrowing a concept from Peter Senge, I suggest that the most successful personal branders will be those that can learn faster than their competitors.
BTW, in the video I am sitting on a tree stump that had some geothermal activity under it, which is why you see steam seem to rise out of nowhere.
