Dan Erwin

No Yoda, But a Collage of Mentors: Part 4

Question any leader or executive about their success and eventually they’ll tell you that their mentor played a big role. Today, however, there is no Jedi-Master Yoda, wise and powerful, taking on people and unlocking the paths to business immortality. The onus is now yours to find numerous mentors, build the relationships, learn from them, weave the skills together, and create your successful identity. No single master, but a collage of mentors. 

Finding your mentors
You’ll normally rub shoulders with skills mentors, people willing to help and mentor, during your first week at a company. It’s important from the outset to find the more capable people. Relational mentors, in contrast, are more difficult to locate. But you should watch interactions both within and outside your discipline, looking for potential mentors. Relational experts tend to be excellent facilitators, know how to question without making people defensive, have a lot of language at their fingertips, can read people well, create a motivational atmosphere and readily engage in team problem solving. As you become a good “noticer of mentors” you’ll have a leg up on your competition. 
 
Locating career and strategic mentors is a much more difficult game...

The American Apocalypse: A Premature Obituary

America’s rule of the globe is coming to an end. Destroyed, we’re told, by China. Fear is a terrific motivator—at least in the short term. So plenty of economists and business people go about earning their stripes with apocalyptic warnings about our soon demise. But, actually, that notion and its underpinnings are all nonsense.

Fear gets to us even when reason suggests otherwise. A few decades ago, the alarmism was all about the Japanese and their booming economy. And you know what happened there. Still the fear is a great vote-getter for some opportunistic politicians.

But Harvard’s Joseph Nye has put a dagger in the hearts of those who like to propagandize about our soon demise. You may not know Nye, but “all roads to understanding American foreign policy run through Nye.”  He’s the one who pioneered...

Just Get On With It

One thing better managers understand is that they get rewarded for what they do. Not what they plan. The Hungarian Nobel Laureate Albert Szen-Gyorti made this point in one of the greatest--and most hilarious--stories of the 20^th century.

The experience happened during military maneuvers early in the 20^th century. The young lieutenant of a small Hungarian detachment in the Alps sent a reconnaissance unit into the icy wilderness. It began to snow immediately, snowed for 2 days, and the unit did not return. The lieutenant suffered, fearing that he had dispatched his own people to death. But on the third day the unit came back. Where had they been? How had they made their way? Yes, they said, we considered ourselves lost and waited for the end. And then ...

What Happens When Your Theory No Longer Works?

All of us have our own theories about how relationships, careers and life are supposed to work. Typically, they are implicit, but they are just as powerful when we don’t recognize them. As I noted in a recent blog, theories sneak up on all of us. Our theories impact reality in profound ways that most never see, never think about or are even willing to believe. But our social theories profoundly influence how we think about ourselves, how we think about our world and how we act, even when a theory is now obsolete.

One of the most classic theories about work and pay was destroyed back in the 1930s by Henry Ford. The theory was that you should pay your worker as little as possible and expect 12 hours work a day. The old man looked at the Model T that he was making and trying to sell for $500 and decided that theory would no longer work. His market was limited by the poor salaries he paid his employees. Much to the chagrin of American business and Wall Street, Ford nearly tripled the salaries of his employees overnight, putting them on an eight hour day just so they could buy the car they built and have the time to drive it around. Wallah! There you have it. Ford became one of the richest men in the world almost overnite. . .

An Intriguing New Role for Climate Change: Threat Multiplier

"Tribes are killing each other over water," said Defense Secretary Kerry in a recent interview. Most of us, with just a half-hearted attempt at informal research, are well aware of the local and national implications of climate change. It's incontrovertible that low-lying ocean-front homes and business on the East Coast are in trouble. But when the Pentagon gets in the business of assessing the problem, that's a different matter.

Here in the Midwest, Insurance companies, food companies and pet food companies have been adjusting strategy and acting on the assumptions and implications of climate change for years. Yeah, that's right--years. Grain buyers at Ralston Purina, the largest dry pet food company in the world, were making assessments and long-term purchase agreements based on climate change issues nearly twenty years ago. Of course, firms like that have meteorologists on their payroll. They recognize that smart grain planning is a significant competitive advantage. Knowing that climate will significantly impact their business, they can't afford to play the political games of climate skepticism to please the stupid and rack up more votes.

Pentagon report
As reported by Coral Davenport, the well-known energy and environment reporter, "The accelerating rate of climate change poses a severe risk to national security and acts as a catalyst for global political conflict," according to a military-research organization.

The impact study is lengthy and detailed:

Climate change-induced drought is leading to Middle East and Africa conflicts over water and food resources. That also includes coastal areas in eastern India, Bangladesh and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. The consequence of that, which is already in play, is increased refugees.

A recent report also indicated that many arable areas of Africa have now been reduced to desert. Not just water, but also food are at issue.

The military is frustrated by the problem, and already planning for sea-level changes and storm surges around coastal areas for their own installations. Norfolk, Virginia, for example is the world's largest naval base and also home to nuclear submarine construction. That would impact jobs, and it would eventually have to go.

But the most significant issue the military will have to deal with is that "climate change is an active, driving force in starting conflict." There's a reason that many terrorists come from water-starved and food-starved areas of the globe.

Of course, the skeptics and crazies are still around. But as David Titley, a meteorologist and co-author of the military report, responded, the facts are indisputable: "The ice doesn't care about politics or who's caucusing with whom, or Democrats or Republicans."

I suspect that more and more it'll be a great time for architects, engineers and the construction industry. There's going to be a lot of rebuilding. And sustainability will factor into projects in unheard of forms.

Dollarphotoclub: Thomaz Kunst

Still Another Corporate Stumble on IT Workers

Back in March last year, I wrote about the inadequate recruiting practices of many organizations. It's becoming clear that as often as not the problem isn't so much the reputed skills-gap, but the barriers that organizations create for themselves. 

In a front-page article, the Star Tribune's Adam Belz nailed it. Although the skills-gap exists within pockets of the American workforce, he wrote, corporate transitions have revealed that firms are slow to hire and manage the tech workers they need. Of course, many institutions are convinced, wrongly, that their approach can't possibly be wrong. It's no surprise that many consultants with relevant expertise are slow to speak to execs until the problem surfaces through corporate analysis or frustration. You learn after a while that many execs take their time about accepting expertise from the outside. Although I see less and less of the "not invented here" syndrome, it still exists in some corporations. Understanding how to recruit tech people is especially important when non-technology firms hired more than half of the 400,000 computer and math jobs created over the past five years. But, as my Minnesota friends would say, "there you go." 

Belz did his homework. In a survey of more than 122 firms with 559 openings, he found that though organizations are quick to pin the problem on the shortage of people, more often that's not the problem. Indeed, survey responses found that firms are sticking to overly-specific job descriptions, pay too little, might have bad reputations for a place to work in IT, or plainly, don't know how to recruit.

Consultants in the know indicate that firms have antiquated thinking. They buy a new system and then rigidly look for someone with the specific skills of the software rather than considering someone who could quickly learn the necessary expertise. Implication? Firms lack understanding of the developer or the marketplace.

Some firms, one consultant said, also lack a strategic approach to consulting and spend their time filling out task tickets. Not too wise. But significantly, developers have little interest working for firms lacking a strategic orientation.

Still another piece of the problem, as I alluded above, is that major job growth is not in traditional technology and computer related firms, but in health care, transportation and warehousing, public administration and education.

Belz spoke to a number of mid-sized, non-software firms that are experiencing significant job growth in technology. Firms that are more successful in their recruiting of IT people look for those who know how to figure out programming and are quick learners.

What's all this mean? If you're an IT person, you're going to look for a firm that offers development opportunities,  pays well and lacks rigid-specific recruiting expectations. Small and mid-sized firms better pay attention to the IT consulting headhunters. Many of them have their head screwed on right and can help companies recruit and train more effectively. 

Winston Churchill: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing--after they’ve tried everything else.”

  

What’s the smartest foreign policy choice for the U.S. now? Remember that good strategy is inevitably about saying yes and no to the right issues. That being the case, how should U.S. politicians be answering this question? Richard Haass, the well-known diplomat, policy author and former President of the Council on Foreign Relations, flips the switch and pushes the reset button to answer this question in his latest book. In fact, he’s playing with heresy.

Set aside your doubts. Haass has not been inspired by Wile E. Coyote.

3 Rules for Mastering New Skills

How do you start something new? Whether it’s an exercise program, a simple task you’ve left on the back burner, or creating a new business from scratch—how do you get started? Doing so can be very intimidating. And it’s the lack of starting that kills most projects. In his now classic article, “Small Wins,” Karl Weick argues that when goals seem overwhelming, they sap our intrinsic motivation. Here are three timeless rules for starting something new.

1.    Start small. Weick finds that small wins are the key to motivation. So breaking skills down into chunks, small, modest steps that are achievable, reduces fear, clarifies direction and increases the probability we’ll succeed. Bob Sutton’s terrific book, Good Boss, Bad Boss, argues that “big, hairy, audacious goals” are not only unrealistic,

Big Data: The All-Important "Why" and "How"

Nearly 10,000 have visited my postings of two blogs on Big Data on a couple sites since January 17. There’s no question that big data is “hot” and that the business landscape is shaped by data more than ever before. Google’s Eric Schmidt tells us the world creates 5 exabytes of data every two days. That’s really big data. (FYI: Exabyte—Cisco says annual global IP traffic will reach two-thirds of a zettabyte or 667 exabytes in 2013).   But the real big data question is not how much, but so what?  

Recently, the Economist Intelligence Unit, with support from SAS Software, set out to answer that question.  They surveyed 752 senior executives from a broad range of sectors and countries. They also conducted in-depth interviews with 17 executives, consultants and specialists regarded as data pioneers. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of the respondents had been working with big data for at least three years, and nearly one-half of the respondents said that their companies are well ahead of their peer firms and have a defined data strategy.

What’s significant about the results is that they are reflective of a growing consensus in the field of big data. The consensus research also confirms my blogs on the big data IT fumble and the data scientist as “sexiest career.” The summary highlights of the research are as follows:

The link between effective use of big data and financial performance is strong. Top performing companies, the so-called strategy data managers, process data more rapidly, see the rewards across all business disciplines, place a higher premium on data than their peers, collect more data from everywhere and use data more broadly across the business.

The survey suggests that there is a correlation between big data and financial performance. But a chief problem with all survey research is the omission or de-emphasis of other factors. The firms surveyed tended to be successful firms prior to the use of big data. It’s probable that the big data leverages other success factors.

Still, it’s arguable that big data is a highly significant competitive advantage. At this point in its development, firms without that expertise are liable to be left behind.

Well-defined data strategy is always the top priority, not collecting and processing information. One of the intriguing research bits is that 46% of executives from companies that significantly outperform their peers financially have a “well-defined” data strategy. Inevitably and always, the strategy should be based on key business priorities. The role of the data strategy, then, is to identify the problems the firm wants to solve. But the data component serves those priorities and, therefore, is developed afterwards.

Strategy is key: big data merely supports strategy.

Talent matters as much as technology. Research finds that executives need to ensure that analytic thinking is not confined to the It department. Especially valuable is a sidebar, “What’s in an algorithm?” detailing training that works with employees with little or no knowledge of data science, showing employees how to create a data plan that results in a series of business recommendations.  Yet, a close reading of the language of the research conclusion indicates the need for still more clarity on this issue.

As I emphasized in my blog, Big data: the IT fumble, the uses of big data emphasize that IT and data science are very different animals. Any observant employee is aware that when it comes to data or even the use of the term, data, the ship is listing way over to the side of IT. The lack of professional data scientists for the discipline makes the problem even more serious. Data scientists will need to understand the business as well as cognitive and behavioral sciences. One principal at Deloitte Consulting recommends that companies may need to search academic departments or consider sharing a data scientist. So it can’t be emphasized enough that people are at the heart of the discipline, not data.

The biggest gains from big data impact are in customer-facing areas. The report recommends that social media and web-tracking technologies are especially useful for collecting customer data. Loyalty cards and user-generated web content have already led to significant changes in retail and entertainment. Of course, consumer products companies have long used customer data supplied by information and measurement companies like Nielson. Thus, marketing and sales groups have built-in experience and history of using customer generated data, making analogies to web-data an easier reach for those firms.

Evidence of the use and advance of data is everywhere. As the report indicates, an ecosystem of data-focused companies is springing up and creating new businesses. Still further, analysts at the McKinsey Global Institute estimate that just one sector—the US healthcare industry—could create US$300bn in value annually if it used big data to drive efficiency and quality.

The “why” of big data is fairly obvious. It’s the “how” that creates and will continue to create frustration, while at the same time creating significant business success. That’s typical of an evolving discipline.

Flickr photo: by Laura ATL

Where HR Goes Wrong--and What To Do About It

Recently I wrote a positive review of HR from the Outside In, by Dave Ulrich and colleagues. Upon serious reflection, I want to offer a caveat to that review. 

I began that blog by saying that this was the book I’d been dreaming about for years. Yes, it is an important book. But it doesn’t go far enough in highlighting the role of strategic business thinking as the core focus of company human resource management. Rather than framing the problem as six competency issues, the book would have generated a lot more insight about both the weakness and the solution to the typically secondary HR role in the contemporary corporation. Those of us who’ve consulted at numerous Fortune 100 and 500 companies are well aware that HR often, perhaps inrvitably, lacks significant political clout. That’s a terrible shame because the truth is that HR can make the difference between business success and failure for most any firm.  

The future impact
The authors clearly state, in the first page, that the purpose of their book is to support the alignment, integration and innovation of HR practices in individual and organizational performance. A couple paragraphs later they dissect their statement into three questions:

• What should HR professionals be, know, and do to be seen as personally effective?
• What should HR professionals be, know and do to improve business success?
• What should HR departments focus on to improve business performance?

They also make clear from the get-go that by business they refer to the company’s business, not merely the objectives of the HR department. They then proceed to examine six competencies to respond to those questions, emphasizing the role of “strategic positioner.” In that chapter they spend six pages discussing how to think and talk about the business’ strategic positioning. This is the richest part of the book, but there is much more to be learned about the strategic impact that HR can have upon the work force and the business.

What is to be done?
HR from the Outside In purports to be a cutting-edge, strategic book, but the description of the strategic focus, challenge and need is far more detailed than the brief chapter that addresses strategic positioning. This disconnect goes to the very core of why the discipline of HR exists in the first place. Until HR addresses that most basic issue in laser-like focus, attitude surveys, case studies, abstract conclusions and competency discussions will likely have marginal impact. 

Sure, strategy has become an over-used buzzword and gotten lost in the business jargon. Many of us know that IBM’s former CEO, Lou Gerstner, pooh-poohed strategy and went for tactics. Gerstner was talking out of both sides of his mouth, for strategically, he completely changed the business—and its customer, enhancing his firm’s long-term success and profitability. From the very outset, that was a strategic move. 

At bottom, the truth is that far too few understand strategy, and that’s a problem. Indeed, half-a-dozen years ago, Christian Mitreanu asked in an MIT Sloan Management Opinion whether it was a bad word? He didn’t get around to a rarified definition of strategy, but he made an important point: strategy must include an ongoing cultivation of understanding the business’ customer, which is at the heart of the matter. 

The ever-astute Roger Martin detailed this customer focus in a brilliant blog on strategy, entitled The execution trap. But at the least every HR manager and exec needs to put Michael Porter’s article, What is strategy? on the permanent front lobes and make certain that every HR move ties either directly or indirectly into the firm’s business. Porter argues that strategy rests on a unique set of activities that delivers a unique mix of value to the chosen customer niche. But you can memorize the rest of his seminal article. 

Now, why did I quickly summarize the meaning of strategy and point my readers to three articles? Very simple: over thirty years of consulting, I’ve become convinced that very few companies have a valued strategy—yeah, strategy is tough to create and execute—and it’s a rare bird in any company that really understands his firm’s customer and his firm’s business. 

What this means is that everybody in HR needs to be able to talk, create, think and execute HR tactics that tie directly into his firm’s strategy. That’ll mean that HR folk argue, fuss, disagree, collaborate and contribute magnificently to every single damn business discipline, beginning with their CEO.  So what Ulrich needs, desperately, is example after example after example where his readers are shown exactly how HR’s every move ties directly into the firm’s strategy. Ulrich and colleagues should know enough about adult learning to realize that two-or three examples ain’t enough—and that the strategic competency need to be drummed into every HR reader’s head. The other five competencies should all be subsumed under strategy. 

Until that happens, HR will continue to be a dead-end, talking about sets of HR competencies, and existing for its own sake, much like technology, glorying in its toys, existed for its own sake well into the ‘nineties. 

The good news is that if HR reframes the challenge, it becomes an opportunity. HR can help build institutions that enable more of us to achieve our potential, differentiating us from machines, providing us with more job challenges and harnessing the people-power to set very big things in motion. And, oh yeah, then we’ll sit at the right hand of the CEO.

Flickr photo: Knowledge Capital