Rex Miller » business

We Live in the Cloud – A Day In the Internet

admin — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 13:52:03 +0000

7 Deadly Innovation Killers

admin — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:05:41 +0000

Tradition – once upon a time this is how someone decided it should be done (otherwise known as NIMBY – not in my back yard).
The Status Quo – change may upset the primal forces of nature and then everybody dies.
Root-bound – no room for anything new or the chance to transplant anything (the budget pot is too small, the urgent pot to constricted, the political pot too intertwined).
Groupthink – “this is what WE think you should think…if you know what is good for you.”
Rigidthinking – an attitude with no latitude. Also called rubber band thinking, if you stretch it at all is snaps back into place.
In the Box – a paradigm that frames everything within a defined set of questions, assumptions or avenues to pursue. A closed system of options.
The Idea Graveyard – where organizations send ideas to die.

One of the biggest challenges we have as leaders is to create a culture where innovation flourishes. The counterintuitive thing about innovation is in seeing it as something that is a natural human trait. Many times innovation is “killed” by the culture of an organization rather than not existing in the first place.

Healthy things grow. As leaders, we want to make sure we aren’t getting in the way of our organization’s ability to do so.

Focus on the 5%

admin — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:05:22 +0000

Gallup provides an assessment called Strengthsfinders that helps people find their unique capabilities. Its not a psychological test but one of talents. When you take the assessment you receive your top five talents (out of 34). These are your difference makers. You are one in 33 million.

Our company’s observation is that 85% of what you and I do someone else can do better. I’m very happy to pass that work to those who love to do it. We can train others to do 10% of what we do. But there is a remaining 5% that only you can do.

When you have that opportunity to flow in your 5% either by circumstance or because you developed these talents into strengths – you experience passion and enthusiasm. Others experience a high level of excellence in what you do.

We know that about 50% of our talent comes from nature and the other 50% from nurture. The secret is to discover early nature’s contribution so you can nurture those talents in the direction they want to go.

Watch this video of a very young boy whose 5% is very clear – AND – who experiences passion when he does his thing.

Paul Potts sold mobile phones at a retail outlet after college. Growing up he was bullied but found shelter in his singing. When he walked out on the stage of Britain’s Got Talent in March of 2007 the world discovered his 5%.

We’re all a bit like Paul Potts. We pursue life with hidden talents and wonder if the world will ever see the one thing that makes us unique and special. That discovery doesn’t have to happen by luck. We can seek it, find it and grow that 5%. Watch Paul’s audition. I’d be curious to hear what you felt AND what you think your 5% might be.

Do you get work done at work – or elsewhere?

admin — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 20:05:28 +0000

Jason Fried, founder of 37 Signals and maker of web collaboration tools like Basecamp, Backpack and High Rise spoke at the Midwest TED conference in the fall of 2010.

He describes why its so hard to get work done at work – and ways to improve that.

This presentation is a great companion to Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us.

Our work increasingly requires thought, discretion and creativity. As Jason Fried says, our work is a series of work moments with interruptions in between.

Daniel Pink makes the point that the new nature of work is less “algorithmic” (simple and pre-determined) and more “heuristic” (exploratory and experimental). The motivation that works best for one becomes counter-productive for the other.

According to Pink, extrinsic motivation works okay for straight forward tasks. Intrinsic motivation (autonomy, mastery and purpose) are required the more the work is around thinking, decision making and creativity.

When we align Fried’s and Pink’s ideas we find that most organizations are out of sync with both the environment and reward structures for productivity in the 21st century.

This also fits with my early research on the nature of Print based organizations that use extrinsic rewards and punishments assuming that workers need to be monitored. Broadcast based organizations that use extrinsic rewards as incentives to tap into human potential and emerging Digitally oriented organizations that focus on the intrinsic value of the work as motivation.

Our work at TAG Consulting helps organization’s migrate toward intrinsic alignment with mission and work.

What kind of incentive structure does your organization offer: rewards and punishments, incentives for achievement or meaningful work?

How many undistracted hours of work a day to you get, on average?

I would love to see your answers to these questions.

The Best Social Media How To for Business!

admin — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:34:56 +0000

Slideshare is the Youtube for PowerPoint presentations.

It provides an incredible treasure trove of ideas. The number 1 rated

presentation for 2010 is “Social Media for Business.”

Make sure to study this one.

Social Media for Business

View more presentations from Presentation Advisors.

Anti-Creativity Checklist

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:17:56 +0000

This video is one of the top Harvard Business Review blog posts from 2010. Its captures the hidden thoughts that get in the way of creativity and innovation.

Youngme Moon is the Donald K. David Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School.

High Performing Green Retrofit with an Under 5 Year Payback!

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:10:37 +0000

High Performing Green Retrofit with a less than 5 Year Payback: Audio (Click to hear the 1 hour presentation)

Link to the Prezi Graphics

The green movement will never make significant reductions in CO2 until it does three things. The first is to tackle the built environment which produces 48% of green house gases. Second, it must tackle the existing building stock of 4.7 million buildings. Third, it must focus on a new model for project delivery that takes the waste and inefficiency out of the process to bring the current payback of 15+ years to under 5 years.

The Future of the AEC Industry – 2010

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:04:58 +0000

The Peter Prinicple for a New Millennium

admin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:30:16 +0000

The eight phases of a project provide a nice on-ramp for discussing why projects so easily go sideways.

Project Initiation
Wild Enthusiasm
Disillusionment
Chaos
Search for the Guilty
Punishment of the Innocent
Promotion of Non-Participants
Definition of Requirements

Its the 40th anniversary of the book The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong.

The premise goes something like this:

Employees who do well get promoted until they finally reach a level outside their competency. Once reached – they stay put. That leaves companies filled with people who have reached their level of incompetency.

Over the last few years we have plenty of examples of failed plans, policy, corporations and our entire financial system. The Peter Principle offers an easy explanation. However, something more profound may be taking place.

When the mindshift consortium looked at the frequent failure of late construction projects we ran into a brick wall with this line of assessment. As hard as we tried to find a clear culprit – architect, contractor, sub-trade or owner – it was never that simple.

Then the light bulb turned on – the system for design and construction has reached its level of incompetency. We took a system that was clearly successful 50+ years ago and kept promoting it to more complex challenges. Eventually the complexity of the challenges outstripped the system’s ability to cope.

One member said, “The current system causes good people to do bad things.”

It is time to revise The Peter Principle so that it addresses the deeper source of incompetency – systemic dysfunction.

Unfortunately, we’re trained like heat seeking missiles to find culprits.

Dysfunctional systems AND getting the right people in the right chair require NEW leadership skills.

I worked with an organization this week dealing with both issues. Two years ago they went through their near-death experience and brought in a new leader. After stabilizing they have been able to get back on track with most of the same leadership core using the existing structure. With 33% growth and a major expansion planned for 2010 the organization’s leader was feeling the stress of an organization bogging down but without insight as to why.

Over two days we looked at the talent configuration of each leader, their current role, the logic of that role and the aggregate talent configuration of the team. We then plotted these against the anticipated needs of a larger and more complex organization. Using tools developed by CoreClarity we were able to see clearly that the organization had moved into a new phase requiring greater Strategic and Execution capacity. The current leadership core had been performing at a very high level as specialists for their area.

We were able to avoid a common and often tragic error of pushing these leaders higher into Strategic and Executive requirements that they had previously not functioned in. We also had a tool that showed us exactly how to prepare these leaders to make the move if that is where they thought they could perform at their best.

Organizations confronting strong challenges in today’s economy will need to do more than wait this one out or work harder with what they have. It will require a dispassionate look at whether the system that got you here is suited to take you forward. It will take tools to provide an evidenced based understanding of what your organization is naturally good at. It will take coaching and training to reconfigure and better align with current realities.

If you would like to find out more about this alignment process let me know and I’ll send a sample executive summary adapted from one of the organizations I’ve recently worked with.

This video from Jim Rohn provides a key to adding value – to yourself, to your organization.

When The Other Shoe Falls

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:41:57 +0000

There are a lot of mixed signals regarding the current “economic recovery.” I found this post from The Pragmatic Capitalist blog very useful to see how some key underlying fundamentals will work through the economy.

My takeaways include:

Companies will continue to shed jobs but show improved P&L’s through cost cutting – not growth.
Massive loan resets and required refinancing in both residential and commercial real estate will see estimated defaults of $1 trillion in commercial real estate alone.
This is not the kind of recession where we hunker down and wait it out. This has radically reset the thinking of companies moving forward. We’re in the trough of a “New Normal.”

When you read the recap below click to the original posting to see the charts that help put the pieces of the puzzle together. You will see the link below at “This guest post originally appeared at the author’s blog.”

If there is a silver lining – perhaps this will bring business, their local communities, civic organizations and churches together to discover new ways to help each other and reinvent ourselves as we move forward.