Entrepreneur: Disciplines of Thought That Can Help You Rethink Industries and Unlock 10x Better Solutions - A Review

What is "Innovative Thinking"? Is it something that can be taught?

It would appear that Osama A. Hashmi's answer is a definite... maybe. I must admit that when I first saw the title Entrepreneur: Disciplines of Thought That Can Help You Rethink Industries and Unlock 10x Better Solutions I was skeptical at best. However, being a bit of a business strategy junky, I put my doubts aside and gave it a read.

Hashmi's writing style is very accessible. He doesn't bog you down with pseudo-science as many business writers do, but rather leaves you feeling like you just had a good long chat with as friend at a corner coffee shop. With nice short chapters, it feels more like a conversation than a lecture. It's the kind of book that you can fit into a busy life, a little here and a little there.

"OK Waldo, you like the format, what about the content?"
It's hard to point out a flaw in the content, mainly because there's little new. However that is, in itself, a positive thing. After all, there is something terrifying about a "completely new process of thought." That's not to say that the content is in some way lacking. Hashmi presents his ideas with a clarity that makes them easy to understand. If you're like me, you will find this little book more reassuring than revolutionary.

Of course, there is a problem with the book. That problem I have with it is the same problem I started with... the title. "Unlock 10x Better Solutions"... really? Hashmi himself has included a chapter entitled "To  Innovate, Stop  Listening  to Bozos  Like  me." If you finish this book and don't feel a little cheated by the title, then you are either a quite young, or new to the world of business.

So should you read this book? Most definitely. It's not so much what the author TELLS you, but what he ASKS you. Again, you walk away from each chapter feeling like you just had a really good chat with a friend. In the cut-throat world of business, that has tremendous value.

Contracts Written in Disappearing Ink

Credit: Peter Kaminski

They say "A Picture Paints A Thousand Words." If that is the case, then it stands to reason that a thousand words must paint a picture. But what happens to the picture if you start to erase some of the words?

According to Mario Elia; a Doctor from London, Ontario; this is what the Province of Ontario is doing with it's contract with Physicians. They agreed to a certain rate of pay, but are now changing the game to suit their own purpose. Essentially, they have made election promises and expect the doctors to pay the bill.

Now I'm not going to get into the political side of this issue. We are currently under Liberal Party rule, but the same thing was done by the New Democrats under Bob Rae (referred to colloquially as Bob Rae Days), and the Progressive Conservatives under Mike Harris made dramatic cuts to health care as well. I personally have a very difficult time trusting any politician.

This story is, however, an excellent illustration of #EthicalDebt at play.When (if) our government goes back to the bargaining table, our physicians (if there are any left in Ontario) will have a hard time agreeing to any contract. They will be, justifiably so, suspicious that the contract may be written in disappearing ink. I chose the image that accompanies this post because the artist says:

« The [Buddha] board has a sandstone-like texture that turns ink-black when you paint on it with plain water. Over the course of 20-30 minutes, the water evaporates, and your drawing disappears. »

For how long is your signature a sign of your commitment?

Do your contracts (or the spirit within which they were signed) only last as long as circumstances are in your favour? ...or do you stand by your word?

If I asked your business associates or customers the same question, would their answers agree with yours?

So, you are different. That's great! What about the people you manage? Have you said one thing, but put your people in a position that they can never deliver? Have you already identified the "scape goat" for your failed promise?

Ethical Debt is a line item on your moral balance sheet. You can talk all you want about honesty and transparency, but when the people look at the picture that is you, does the image align with what the public relations department has painted, or were they painting on a Buddha Board?

The Keys To Collaboration - A Review

They say Teamwork Makes the Dream Work. Unfortunately, teamwork can also cause nightmares. In The Keys To Collaboration: How to Build A Great Team or Fix the One You've Got, Lane Sherman provides practical and actionable guidance for success among teams. Many books on the subject of teamwork rely on broken metaphors or sports analogies. This book is for the busy professional who doesn't want to waste time reading such drivel, but wants some clear, no-nonsense direction.

In Part One, Mr. Sherman correctly points out that not all collections of individuals working toward a common goal are actually teams. An often overlooked consideration is the difference between Working Groups and Teams. This distinction is critical for leaders, as all other collaboration efforts hinge upon it. He then goes into the details of his Five Key Factors of Collaboration and explains the tasks that you, as a leader, will need to undertake.

In Part Two, the author guides you through the key conversations that will ensure that the team members are equipped for success. These conversations are related back to his Five Key Factors in a manner that is easy to understand and builds upon the foundation that was built in Part One.

Part Three covers the day to day management of the team. It is interesting to note that while entire books have been written on this part, it is one of the smallest parts in the book. This is the main differentiator between this book and others that you may have read on the subject of teams. The mechanics of team leadership are actually pretty basic. However without the first two parts, perfect execution of management does not guarantee success... which then makes the fourth part of this book so critical.

Part Four is most likely the reason you will purchase this book. Either something went wrong and now you need to fix it; or you want to avoid the dysfunctional teams you've had in the past. Here, the author provides six steps that again, build upon the foundation of his Five Key Factors of Collaboration to guide the team back to the path of success. Even if you are just starting a new team, this is an important section so that warning signs can be identified and corrections made early.

Parts Five and Six deal with tools and activities that will be very useful to most teams, but especially remote teams.

With almost 20 years of professional experience working with both groups and teams, I can vouch for the value of this book. You will certainly find yourself referring to it again and again, especially if you collaborate with dynamic teams.

Who's Your Best Teacher?

Unknown image source. Please advise if you know who to credit.

I saw this today, and initially thought "yeah, that seems true," but then I quickly changed my mind. While recognizing the lessons that a mistake teaches is important, there exist many better teachers. The problem with this statement is that some mistakes are so expensive that they may render the lesson useless.

I occasionally say "Nobody is completely useless, they can always serve as a bad example." A better teacher is someone else's mistake. The beauty of this teacher is that it doesn't cost you anything.

Now if you just spend your time looking at other people's mistakes, you may be making the mistake of not focussing on your own business. That's where Management Consultants come in. Yes I know, we're not free (in fact most are not cheap either), but the money invested in hiring a management consultant can at least be budgeted.

So, your "best" teacher may actually be a management consultant. You focus on running your business, and hire me to address the concerns that are keeping you up at night.

Let's talk. Give me a call for a free consultation.

Company Culture vs. Freedom of Speech

Credit: Manymeez

Ontario's electricity distribution company, Hydro One, has fired an employee for interrupting a live interview with the now famous FHRITP taunt. For those of you who are not familiar with the FHRITP taunt, it equates less vulgarly to "have sexual intercourse with her". The language used is quite profane and the way it is delivered, in this case anyways, is one of encouraging the male being interviewed to not take the lady seriously, and to view her merely as a sex toy.

So now that I have given you the background, let's discuss Hydro One CEO Carmine Marcello's decision to fire the individual in question. Some people have pointed out that the individual in question was not, at the time of the incident, representing Hydro One; and in fact, even Marcello acknowledged that the Hydro One leadership didn't know that he was an employee when they first discussed it. This person was not wearing any Hydro One branding, so Hydro One's reputation was not at stake. For these reasons, may people feel that he is being unfairly punished for exercising his freedom of speech. Many people feel he shouldn't have been punished at all, while others feel that the punishment was too severe.

I submit to you that he is not being punished at all. He is merely experiencing the consequences for his actions. He had, and exercised, the right to say whatever he wanted wherever he wanted to say it. Good for him. Was the statement that he made worth losing his job over? ...his reputation? ...his pension? I kind of doubt it. It's not like he was protesting some great injustice. He was being a buffoon. He was wasting the fifteen minutes of fame to which we are supposedly all entitled.

What about Hydro One? While their former employee had the right to free speech, I would suggest that Hydro One has the right to determine what kind of person fits in its culture, and what kind does not. Somebody who is willing to use that kind of language on a public (and recorded) platform, would also use that kind of language in a private setting where, perhaps, a single female employee is surrounded by men. This is not a question of defending Hydro One's reputation. This is a question of showing the women who work for Hydro One that the statements of equality that they make are not mere rhetoric. It is a question of doing what is right, regardless of the fallout.

No doubt some left-wing labour lawyer is going to try to take Hydro One and Mr. Marcello to court over this dismissal. I hope that when the dust settles, a precedent is set that gives companies the courage to respond in a similar way in the future. Our mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters deserve more respect than morons such as this former Hydro One employee have demonstrated.

Well done Mr. Marcello and Hydro One! In my opinion, you have earned a healthy #EthicalCredit.

Gambling on Bailouts

Credit: Phil Long

So, according to the Business News Network (BNN), "Canadian taxpayers [will] lose $3.5B on [the] 2009 bailout of auto firms". Does this surprise you?

If a company cannot make it on it's own, what made anyone think that bailing it out of trouble would change anything? It's just a matter of time before the big automakers come, hat in hand, looking for more. Of course, the unions wouldn't agree. As reported in the BNN story, the unions would rather see the government strong-arm the companies into expanding operations. After all, the unions are big business, and they want a bailout too. That $3.5B would have been much more usefully invested in public transportation, or some clean energy venture.

If you open a generic donut shop next to a Tim Horton's, should you be surprised that it fails? One of the reasons that the Future Shop stores are closing is because they are often located in the same neighbourhoods as Best Buy. I'm just glad that nobody from the government offered to bail them out. The fact of the matter is that poorly run companies close. Likewise, employees who demand concessions that force the companies into a bad position, lose jobs. It's all very unfortunate, but not very surprising.

There are many people with new clean energy ideas that don't have the funds to get started. If the federal and provincial governments are prepared to just throw away $3.5B, imagine the jobs that could have been created if they just gifted $1M to 3,500 companies in the clean energy sector. Imagine the progress that we could make on climate change? Rather than Canada being a manufacturer of greenhouse gas emitting machines, I for one would like to see Canada become the world leader in clean energy research and development.

WR

Blessed are the Flexible.

"Flexibility" credit: Shelley Rodrigo

Is agility in government even possible? According to a study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Canada's Public Policy Forum, it may be. While I would certainly applaud any effort to make government more effective and efficient, my experience in the software industry tells me that their biggest risk will be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Software development methodologies have evolved quite dramatically since the days of Alan Turing. Usually, its evolution was brought about by advances in technology that made the next methodology possible. Where programmers once had to manually colour in little numbered boxes on punch cards in order to convey their instructions, we can now write computer programs that are almost natural language. I don't imagine the day is too far off when computers will be programmed in a conversational manner similar to the science fiction of the 1980s.

I had the good fortune to witness the evolution into Agile Software Development. This approach did away with complex, fully documented designs that required multiple sign-offs in order to proceed, and even more sign-offs to change; and was intended to replace it with high-level designs, and multiple smaller steps allowing for course correction as needed. The problem that many development shops faced was that the move to "agility" was misinterpreted as doing away with all up-front design. They effectively threw their software babies out with the design bathwater. The promises of agility were often not realised because entire sections of code had to be rewritten for the lack of forward planning.

The authors of the above mentioned report make some very good observations. The identification of: Adaptability, Innovation, Collaboration, Visibility, and Velocity as key elements that define agility is a good start. Furthermore, the approaches they suggest for the public service leadership to achieve agility certainly have merit. However, I feel that two elements still threaten our proverbial baby. A clear definition of agile, and buy-in from all stakeholders.

It is imperative that the pillars of public service such as accountability, effectiveness, and efficiency be preserved. They may be modified to reflect the new reality, however they must not be abandoned in the same way that many programmers abandoned forward planning. As a tax payer, I still expect my government to work for me in the most efficient and effective way, and I still expect them to be accountable. There is no more room for multi-million dollar boondoggles.

In order to succeed, this move to agility will involve a complete organizational transformation. Anyone who has studied the subject will tell you that one of the key elements to success in such transformation is obtaining stakeholder buy-in. And at the risk of sounding cynical, I suspect THAT will be the biggest hurdle. Whether it is the combative relationships between management and the various unions; or the partisan political influences on the civil service; or the arm twisting of the unions and other lobby groups on politicians; or the fiefdom building efforts of middle-managers; I find it very difficult to imagine a restructuring plan that would satisfy the various stakeholders enough that they would not only tolerate it, but become its champion.

I hope I am wrong. As with the software industry; when it is done correctly, there are huge benefits to be had by being agile and receptive to change.

There's a proverb to the effect of:

Blessed are the flexible.
They shall not get bent out of shape.

Here's to flexibility.

WR