BIG BIZ BUZZ: A Communique

The Systems Development Lifecycle - a fundamental, natural human process

2011-11-01T21:26:00.000-04:00

Folks:

One thing you need to understand about the System Development Lifecycle (SDLC) is that each model is simply one author's way of describing (or “modeling”) a fundamental, natural process that we humans use instinctively to make anything from tonight's family dinner, to a global Business Information System (BIS), to landing a person on Mars.

While there are, admittedly, quite a few more tasks to be completed in landing a human on Mars than in getting tonight's dinner (unless I'm cooking...but that's another story!), both activities take an idea and bring it to fruition. The base process is the same every time. It's the same whether there is one person or one hundred thousand people involved in making the idea come true.

The thing that's always amazed me, though, is that although most of us use this process every day, it is such an ingrained part of us that most times most folks don't even realize they're using the SDLC...it's just the way things get done.
Join me as I use the SDLC to put together tonight's typical family dinner. We'll:

Start with a problem (“darned kids are hungry again! I just fed them last night!”),

Develop some options to solve the problem (“Let's see, what are my options. I guess I could let them go hungry, I could order pizza (again), or I could try to cook something for them here”),

Choose the best option for our situation (“I better make dinner here. I'll catch heck from my lovely better half if I feed the kids pizza three nights in a row!”);

Develop a specification (“Let's see, I better give them some veggies tonight...and no fish! There's no way I'm fighting to get little Janie to eat THAT again!”);

Design the product / system / dinner (“Cookbook....where the heck did that darned thing get to?!?”);

Build the product (“Ok. I've got the peas and carrots in the microwave. It says fifty minutes at 300 degrees for the chicken nuggets and fries...but the kids are hungry...I can speed this up....fifteen minutes at 500 degrees should work, right?”);

Test the product (“Ooooo...are those burned?”)

Fix the problems and retest (“If I scrape off the black spots and use a lot of ketchup, the kids will never know the difference!”)

Deliver the product to the customer (“Come on, Janie, eat! Daddy worked really hard on this dinner! You'll hurt Daddy's feelings if you don't eat!”)

Maintain, update and/or correct errors (“Hello, Bocce Club Pizzeria? Yeah, it's me again. Same order as last night. Yeah, delivery. Thanks. And if you promise not to tell my wife, there's an extra $20 in it for you. Yeah...again.!”)

Well, this is typical dinner at my house (at least when my wife works late!). But I think you get the idea. The SDLC isn't some complex process that was developed by and can only be implemented by some secret (and exorbitantly expensive) cabal of Information Technology (IT) Professionals and Business Consultants...although as an IT Professional and Business Consultant, I will admit many of my colleagues would love everyone to believe that.

Of course, the more complex the idea you are trying to bring to fruition, the more time and money it is going to take to make it happen. A typical Mom (or Dad) preparing dinner for her family might complete the entire project lifecycle - from need Identification (“darn, the kids are probably hungry!”) to Project Wrap-up (“Whew, the dishes are FINALLY done!”) - in an hour or two; while the team working to put a person on Mars will take decades and maybe trillions of dollars to get through theirs.

Understand that. regardless of which model you use to describe this process, each of the steps must be completed and, with a few exceptions that aren't relevant to this discussion, those steps must be completed order.

It's the way it works for virtually every human endeavor.

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Wikipedia is Not Satanic!

2011-06-09T22:14:00.002-04:00

I am currently an active (albeit part time) member of the faculty of two universities and one college. All three of these institutions of higher learning (and all universities and colleges, I assume) have a policies against students using Wikipedia as an approved research source for assignments or scholarly papers of any kind. As an employee of these institutions of higher learning, I understand the policies and fully comply with them, even though I do not agree with them. And here's why I don't.

As a training, business management and IT (Information Technology) professional outside the university setting, however, I have found Wikipedia to be at least as well, and sometimes better, verified and supported than "mainstream" sources in the area(s) of these professions.

While I absolutely agree that one needs to be careful to verify the information found in Wikipedia, the exact same thing is true about EVERY source, even such mainstream paragons of research virtue as this course's text book, the Encyclopedia Britannica and virtually ANY mainstream media outlet. At least Wikipedia makes it clear when material in an article is NOT confirmed, verified or fully / properly supported. They flag those articles with a notice to that effect and ask for help from readers verifying and/or correcting the material.

To my knowledge, none of the mainstream outlets does this.

If you look at the number of cases in recent years where such paragons of mainstream research virtue have published fiction as fact ("faction"); where other people's work is published as their own; where unverified statements and works of "faction" from one media outlet is propagated around the world by other media outlets who don't bother to check even their most basic facts. Virtually every mainstream media outlet has had more than one of these type incidents in recent years, including The New York Times, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, NBC, and FoxNews.

Do a Google search on "plagiarism scandals in _________" (fill in virtually any profession, publication or broadcast channel) and you may be surprised at exactly how poorly vetted these "trusted" sources really are.

Visit http://gawker.com/5721413/plagiarism-scandal-reveals-espn-people-actually-write-down-that-stuff-they-say to see a few of the current scandals.

Read the article on "Plagiarism in medical / scientific literature" found at http://journals.lww.com/cardiovascularpharm/Fulltext/2010/12000/Plagiarism_in_the_Medical_Scientific_Literature.17.aspx.

Additionally, the fact that virtually anyone can offer articles for publication (not every article submitted is automatically published) means that it is easier for new ideas to be published and offered for professional peer review than in the "established" professional journals where financial gain and internal politics often play a larger part in what gets published than "truth" and "fact". In most articles on professional topics, the fact that there are so many practitioners reading the article and the fact that practitioners in the field have an opportunity to comment on and challenge the article, actually works to make Wikipedia a better-vetted source than any other I'm aware of.

Having said all this, of course, and in compliance with University / College policy, I, of course inform all my students in all my courses that Wikipedia is not an acceptable source to use for their assignments...but I can't stop them from using it in the real world.

There. I met my "toe-the-party-line" professional obligations.

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This BLOG is based on an answer I wrote to a student's question on 01/08/2011. I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Cats and dogs and kids and peace and quiet

2011-05-17T13:43:00.000-04:00

I originally posted the following on the emigrant.ie's discussion boards in response to a question about cats, dogs and the grander meaning of life. I just found it and thought some of you might enjoy reading it. The original posting can be found at the link associated with this posting.

We currently have (along with assorted kids, fish and "wild" animals roaming the property) 4 cats and a dog. Three of the cats are older (10 to 14 years old) who have not gotten along with each other in all the years we've had them (since kittenhood for all of them). The 4th cat is the latest stray...about 3 - 4 months old and quickly learning not to bother the other cats.

The dog was a "drop-off" we took in as a puppy back in March. She's part of the family and has come to an uneasy truce with at least one of the cats. She is constantly trying to "play" with the kitten, but her size, noise and exuberance seem to scare the kitten (who's a bit skittish, as strays often are) away.

Since my wife and I are also all too often "all-too-pragmatic" people, we set certain rules that limit interaction between the species within our family's pet population - carefully watching the interactions to ensure no one ends up dead, mangled or too emotionally scarred for life.

On the other hand, since we have heard stories of cats and dogs living together in harmony and, since we are also eternal optimists in this area, from time to time we attempt to "forcibly integrate" the family pets - putting them into (heavily controlled) situations where they are forced to interact with each other. It is rarely successful from an integration standpoint, but it is (almost) always entertaining.

If you've read this far, you're probably beginning to wonder what all this has to do with answering Wildside's initial question.

The simple truth is - I don't know.

I was actually hoping that the act of documenting these experiences would bring some earth-shattering, universal truth to light for me...and that by relating these truths in this message, I would become the "hero of the thread" (a position which actually exists when I'm "in my happy place").

Unfortunately, all this has done for me is to highlight the fact that I have no answer to any of this and that the only thing I know to do is to keep slogging through each day - trying to contain the violence in each situation and celebrating the small victories (like the fact that at least one of our cats can now sit in the same room as the dog without constantly trying to scratch her nose).

Ouch, my head hurts now!

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

We are Americans...let's start acting like it..

2011-05-04T09:02:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't heard, Osama Bin Laden, public enemy number one, has been killed by a US Navy Seal Team who raided his hiding place in Pakistan.

Understandably, there has been much rejoicing over and numerous celebrations of his death.

Unfortunately, too many of these celebrations and too much of this rejoicing is more evidence of blood lust than justifiable gratitude and thankfulness that an enemy has been vanquished.

I think this is a very good time to stop and reflect on what this momentous event, and our reactions to it, say about us . While some relief and thankfulness is right and proper, the wild public celebration of death and destruction needs to stop.

We are Americans. We hold ourselves to a higher standard. We are better than that.

We see value in every human life. We don't rejoice in death and killing. We do not revel in slaughter and gore. We are not barbarians clothing ourselves in the bodies and washing ourselves in the blood of our enemies.

We don't gloat over the vanquished. We quietly extend our hand to help a vanquished enemy become a friend and mourn the loss of life on both sides that every war inevitably brings. We heal the wounds, we rebuild the cities and we help repair the damage once the fight is over.

We are Americans. We forgive.

We are publicly grateful for our forefathers who gave their lives to gain and keep the freedoms we have. And we are quietly proud and thankful that our nation still produces men and women with the fortitude and will to keep and protect these freedoms for us and the courage to extend them to others. And we are sorrowful that we still live in a world where it is sometimes necessary for those good men and women to sacrifice their lives in that pursuit.

We are Americans. Let's start acting like it.

Pray for America.

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

e-Books and electronic readings

2011-04-30T11:42:00.000-04:00

I recently read an on-line discussion of the new "electronic Books" (e.g. Amazon Kindle, iBooks; Sony Reader, etc.) and it got me thinking (again!) about the advances in electronics, display technology and software made over the last decade.

I've really only seen one Kindle and that only for a short time. I WAS impressed, though that they seem to have solved that "can't see the screen in direct, bright sunshine" issue.

I was on a beach in the mid-day Florida sunshine and saw a woman reading one about 50 feet away. Even from an oblique angle at that distance and with my poor (corrected) vision, I could distinctly make out separate lines of text (I couldn't read the words, but that was an eyes / distance thing!).

I also liked that they've done a LOT to bring as much of the "look and feel" of a paper book to the electronic screen. The pages turn, the "paper page" has a textured look to it and the fonts looked like they'd been type-set, not generated by a computer.

Having said all that, though, I'm still not sure I'll ever give up my paper books.

With all your experience with on-line sources and electronic readings, what do YOU think?

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Business Information System Terminology

2011-04-12T23:23:00.001-04:00

Business planning systems typically fall into one of three categories: MRP (Manufacturing Resource Planning), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning); or SCM (Supply Chain Management) systems. Although these terms are sometimes used interchangeably in some organizations, and despite the fact that as systems have matured the demarcation lines between MRP, ERP and SCM have become blurred; these terms and the systems they refer to generally indicate three different levels of system scope and complexity. As you might also have imagined, each step up the “evolutionary ladder” of business planning systems also typically represents a “step up” in purchase price and system maintenance costs. We’ll address this issue later in the article.

Automated Data Processing Systems the precursor to the modern business planning systems, these systems were focused on automating the bookkeeping functions within the organization. Companies such as IBM, ADP, Oracle and other big names cut their teeth automating business bookkeeping and accounting tasks. The lessons learned, the principles developed, and the benefits customers gained from these early business process automation efforts laid the foundation of the industry of business information systems we know today.
MRP (Manufacturing Resource Planning) Systems represent the first and, at least theoretically, the least complex stage of business planning system development. Initially titled “Material Requirements Planning” systems, MRP is now generally accepted to mean “Manufacturing Resource Planning” systems. As you might have guessed, current MRP systems typically encompass the manufacturing and manufacturing-related operations within a single organization or location. Some consider the early MRP systems to be the computer industry’s first attempt at building true management information systems outside the “pure accounting” functions of a company.

Typically built around the Bill of Material (BOM), early MRP systems were little more than computerized parts/material tracking and ordering systems, generating data and basic information for use by off-line planners. These systems were a huge improvement over older manual manufacturing planning methods. MRP systems also represented a watershed moment is computer systems development, proving to customers that the computer had many more possible applications than simplifying accounting & payroll functions.

As MRP systems technology matured and stabilized, systems capabilities naturally expanded from simple parts tracking and ordering systems to encompass more and more of the manufacturing and manufacturing-related planning, reporting and control tasks, activities & operations within customer organizations.

Although MRP systems have been with us the longest, they are by no means obsolete systems. The fact that they’ve been around quite a while means that most MRP systems are extremely stable, (relatively) easy to use and require little system maintenance. MRP systems are still being built, sold, maintained and improved by vendors and many companies find this level of business planning and control is sufficient to meet their needs.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Systems represent the second generation business planning and control systems. They generally encompass planning and reporting for all the operations, organizations and locations within a single company (or family of companies). Enterprise Resource Planning systems came about because, as customers’ reliance on MRP systems grew, system developers/sellers added more and more functions and capabilities to satisfy their customers’ needs. Unfortunately in many cases, these functions and capabilities were added to the systems piecemeal, tacked onto the system architecture wherever they would fit. . This often meant that the systems themselves got became cumbersome to use and a nightmare to maintain. And in many companies with operations spread across wide expanses of geography, each location / operation / division used a different MRP system, making the sharing of management information within the company a virtual impossibility.

Recognizing these problems, MRP system manufacturers started working with customers to develop more streamlined systems which could meet the management and control information needs throughout the customer’s entire enterprise. While ERP systems sometimes incorporate and often replace earlier (legacy) MRP systems, because they were being built as “next generation” systems, they were able to more effectively incorporate expanded technology capabilities and build on “lessons learned” from years spent developing, improving and maintaining MRP systems.

ERP systems also represent a step forward in the capabilities arena. Many of these systems were designed to encompass the virtually every area of a company’s operations – from manufacturing to finance, to human resources, purchasing and shipping and receiving. This allowed true “enterprise wide” business planning and control and, although the initial switch-over from a MRP to an ERP system could sometimes be painful, the ability to standardize and share planning and forecasting data and information among and between all organizations, divisions and locations of the organization gave early adopters a true competitive advantage over their competitors.

SCM (Supply Chain Management) Systems are the latest growth stage for business planning systems. As the name implies, Supply Chain Management systems typically offer all the functions and capabilities of the MRP & ERP systems, but expand their reach outside a single enterprise, allowing companies to standardize, share, and update business reporting, planning and forecasting information with their entire supply chain: including suppliers, customers, shareholders and, in some cases, government regulatory agencies.

Although the concept of a system to track, report on and manage a company’s entire supply chain has been around pretty much since the beginning of MRP development in the late 1960’s or early 1970’s, until the late 1990’s data storage and processor technology hadn’t developed sufficient robustness or speed (in other words, the cost was prohibitive) to handle the massive computing and storage requirements such a system demanded. The internet-driven demand for increased storage, processing and long-haul data transfer capabilities (which started in earnest the mid-1990’s) has increased computing capabilities and lowered prices to the point where true Supply Chain Management systems are not only feasible, they are now affordable for many companies.

True SCM systems almost always require cooperation between suppliers and customers, between developers and planners, and, often, between competing SCM systems.

As you can see, there is a definite hierarchy in business planning systems. Not every company needs or even wants a full-blown Supply Chain Management system, but most companies could benefit from at least some form of MRP, ERP or SCM system – even companies who deliver services rather than building product.

There are a myriad of MRP, ERP and SCM systems on the market. Each of these (and, dare I say, each of the selling companies) has its good points and its bad. Most have some “unique” feature - things that other companies don't offer and that the seller hopes to make you believe are indispensable to running and managing your business. And virtually all these business planning systems come complete with “maintenance agreements” which promise to (and sometimes actually do) keep your system up-to-date and growing right along with your business...and which, of course, ensure the seller builds and maintains a steady income stream in the years after the initial system sale.

____________________________ I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

February Football Half-Time Fiasco

2011-02-07T11:33:00.002-05:00

Well another "Big Game" come and gone...and a bit of a disappointment, this one was, too (I don't want to use the term "Super B__L" term and risk getting the NFL's Legal Team after me!).

The game was "OK", but since I really didn't care about either team, there wasn't any real emotional connection.

There were a few good new advertisements, but there certainly weren't any ground-breakingly interesting ones. Certainly there were none that we'll still be talking about next month, let alone next year at this time!

And then, of course, we had the half-time show. Putting it bluntly: It sucked!

While I do try to keep an open mind and I'll admit we don't have a stereo TV (nor a flat-screen digital, for that matter), but from a pure "quality of the production" stand-point, that was a horrible show. I suspect the sponsor of that debacle is re-thinking their investment in next year's 15 minute stadium spectacle.

The instruments were drowned out by crowd noise and the over-pumped vocals to the point where, for most of the time, it was an a cappella performance...and a poor one at that. Case in point, when the camera cut to the line of horn players blowing up a storm, there were no "horn" sounds at all. The musicians instruments seemed to have had no amplification! The performance by Slash was another example...his guitar was no where near as loud as the singer's voice.

The artists' voices, on the other hand, came across flat, dull and (sometimes) off key. I suspect this was due in part to the fact they couldn't hear their accompaniment, and in part because they were singing louder than normal to try to get above the crowd noise.

As for the glowing people, while an interesting tableau, it didn't seem to have any real connection to the (non-existent) music nor the words of the various songs being sung.

I like (some) of the Black-eyed Peas', Usher's and Guns & Roses' music...but last night's half-time show was not one of their better performances. I suspect we won't see a thread here 5 or 6 years from now, wistfully reminiscing about how great this performance was (remember the recent discussion of U-2's Super Bowl performance).

I listen to a lot of different music, but I won't be listening to that performance again. :-)

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Management Tasks: Organizing

2010-11-08T11:30:00.000-05:00

Dictionary.com defines “organizing” in part as:

“to systematize...to give organic structure or character to...”

As managers, it's our responsibility to make sure the team, the materials and the work is given some (hopefully) logical, rational structure.

So exactly how do we do this? How do we decide what goes where, who does what and when it all happens?

help us organize the people, the work and the resources we have to do the job.

First, we've got to know what it is we're trying to do. This, of course is one of the things we hope our plan will do – give us a clear idea of what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and what tools we have to get it done.

Second, we've got to know the organization we've already got in place – what's working and what's not. For new programs / projects / companies, this is a pretty simple thing – we've got no organization. In this happy case, we can do whatever works best for us, our personality, our management style and our people. We're free to arrange things pretty much any way we want. we decide who works for who, where folks sit, where the copier is located and, sometimes even pick the color scheme for the facility. It's a great gig when we can get it.

However, most managers aren't that lucky. We often have little in who works for us, where our offices are located, or what the floor plan looks like. And we'll virtually never have a chance to pick a color scheme (“institutional green”, anyone?).

In most companies, critical things like facilities, equipment, tools and staff are assigned to projects based on priorities established well outside the project itself. And the lower priority our project, the less say we'll have over any of the things that are assigned to us.

When we find ourselves in this situation and we've done everything short of tendering our resignation to get what we want, don't complain. Just take a deep breath, paste a big smile on our faces and remember, “adversity builds character”.

Then we take a critical look at the people, tools, facilities and materials you've got to work with. Identify those pieces that already work well and leave them alone. If there are folks who've worked well together in the past, keep them working together on your projects whenever we can

Then find the stuff that isn't working so well and fix it. Reassign people, rearrange furniture, re-plan work, get new tools; whatever it takes to get your team working efficiently and effectively.

Third, we've got to decide where things go. “A place for everything and everything in its place”. Do we team our people by specialty (Engineering, Production, Accounting, etc.) or by what part of the project their work most affects (hydraulics, wing, fuselage, etc.)? Do we assign tasks by position or by the likelihood the work will get done? Do we use the company's central stock room for project specific parts or establish an project stock room for “our stuff”?

Finally, we've got to keep tabs on the work...and be ready to re-organize when the structure we put in place doesn't work. I don't advocate re-organizing out of hand or on a whim (rotating bald tires), but there are times when how we've organized things gets in the way of getting the work done. When that happens, we need to be able to recognize it quickly and change fix the problems.

Remember, though, that reorganizations cause problems of their own. They almost always add stress, interrupt work flow and reduce morale. Even moving one person from one desk to another will have it's issues, so we need to plan carefully and make sure the benefits of the reorg far outweigh the problems it will cause.

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If you need help getting organized, feel free to contact me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Management Tasks - Planning

2010-10-06T13:44:00.001-04:00

Planning is a tough subject to teach. Written descriptions of the planning process tend to be dry and boring. Case studies and examples, while more interesting than a plain process description, tend to be too general and off topic. There don't seem to be any really good movies made or novels written about teams completing their critical “Annual Planning”...and all the planning pantomimes I've seen have been....well...let's just say they were “disturbing” and leave it at that.

So the rest of this posting will attempt to describe planning words......for you to read. Try not to fall asleep.

As I said, planning is one of the most critical management tasks. For many people, it's planning that they think of when they hear the word “management”. “The Plan” is often the most obvious (dare I say “only”?) evidence that a manager has actually done any work at all.

A typical development project has three planning stages / phases that must be completed before work can start:

Concept development
Specification development
Work & resource scheduling

Others will have their own ways of describing these steps, and some experts might add or delete a few from my list, but this is how I have come to think of it.

Concept Development is all about possibilities. This is the time to let imaginations run wild, to look at “crazy” ideas and to have fun thinking. The beginning of this phase is also the time to ignore all the operations, financial and other constraints that will become so critical later in the planning process. During the early stages concept development, getting the team's imaginations going is critical.

As managers, it's our job during this phase is to make sure that all viable possibilities are explored, and to make sure options aren't dropped from consideration prematurely. It amazes me how often an idea that is initially ignored or ridiculed by the team turns out to be the optimal solution. Customer desires / needs should be used to guide work done during this phase of the planning.

At the end of the concept development stage you should have a clearly defined conceptual framework within which the final remainder of the project will be developed. This framework should be as flexibly defined as possible, but it needs to have sufficient detail and structure to allow designers, planners and operational personnel to figure out what they will need to do to turn the concept into a reality.

Specification Development is the next step in the process. In this stage, the concept starts to become more than a good idea. This is the stage where the final deliverable items are defined, where quality standards are developed, and where risks and restrictions are used to modify and refine the concept.

It is here that those real-world operational, customer, financial, technology and other constraints that we happily ignored during most of the concept development phase start to wield their power. Here is where the final product, process, deliverable or system starts to take shape.

During this stage the first design decisions made, budgets are developed and approved and specific personnel requirements are defined. In detail. For everything that needs to be done.

At the end of this stage you should have a completed, detailed technical specification and/or Statement (or Scope) of Work (SOW) that has been reviewed and approved by all stakeholders. It is typical (and highly desirable) to have an approved budget at the end of this stage.

Work and Resource Scheduling - the final phase in planning, this is where the final “Who, what where and when” details of the project are worked out. This is what most people think of when they think of planning.

Here we decide the specific tasks (down to the one week or one day detail) that need to be done in order to successfully complete the project. We decide how many people we will need with what skill sets and experience levels. We figure out what resources, materials, equipment and facilities we will need. And, of course, we figure out when we will need all these people, places and things...and how we can get them and not break the budget.

The output of this phase should be a completed schedule showing every task to be completed, who's going to complete it, what they need in order to complete it and when / how long it will take. Preferably this schedule will be input into some sort of information system and “automated”.

Programs like Primavera, Microsoft Project and others have become very good tools for developing and tracking project tasks, resources and personnel.

One final thought.

Before we go, though, there is one thing you need to keep in mind about planning:

the act of planning is often of greater value than the plan itself!

Remember, most plans are obsolete before they're even published. Competitor's actions, customer tastes, technological advances and simple personnel turnover can all force the plan to change.

But if we've done a thorough job of planning, if we've gotten to know our environment, if we've identified the risks and gotten a solid understanding of our options, these changes will have fewer and less severe impacts on our business. And that, after all, is the whole point of planning, isn't it?

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Integrity

2010-09-27T13:22:00.000-04:00

The first trait on my “Traits of a Good Manager?” list are high personal integrity and moral courage.

Integrity (2010), according to Dictionary.com, is: “adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.”

The first step in this process, as I discussed in my May 27, 2010 blog, is for each of us to figure out what moral standards and ethical principles we are going to follow.

We must first form, and then inform, our conscience!

We must model the behavior we want from our employees. Without integrity, it's tough, if not impossible, to lead people for very long.

Integrity brings moral courage with it. Integrity forces us to tell the truth even when it puts us (or the company) in a bad light. Integrity is the foundation of our commitment to doing the right thing even when it might cost us our job (or the company money). Integrity gives us the courage to stand up and say “this isn't right when no one else dares.

And it is Integrity that gives us the authority to lead”...and the right to call ourselves leaders.

So, my friends, I hope you'll take some time to look at your life and your actions and change them to conform to the words you spout to your people every day.

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Management Basics

2010-09-20T13:35:00.002-04:00

In last week's entry, I talked about Management as a profession. There I listed a number of the key tasks and skills accomplished by professional managers. In this and the next few blogs, I will look at these tasks and skills in greater detail.

The primary management tasks are:

Leading
Planning
Budgeting
Organizing
Staffing
Communicating
Directing
Risk management

Character / personality traits critical to a successful manager:

High personal integrity and moral courage.
An ability to communicate clearly through the written and spoken word.
A desire to know people and help them improve their performance.
An innate sense of justice and a desire to be fair and evenhanded in his/her treatment of others.
A commitment to excellence.
High tolerance for stress.
An passion for order and organization.

This list is in no particular order, nor is it comprehensive. Ask any manager, though, what are the main things he or she does and I'm pretty sure most of these will be in virtually every manager's list.

As for the character / personality traits, I know there are a lot of managers out there missing one or more of the critical traits I listed; heck, I've worked for a few myself. I suspect, though, that most folks would want their bosses / employees to have at least these few good traits. I know they're the biggies I look for when hiring managers...and when deciding whether to work with a client or not.

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Whether you agree or disagree, I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Management is a Profession

2010-09-13T13:53:00.002-04:00

Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary defines a profession as “...an occupation or vocation requiring training in the liberal arts or the sciences and advanced study in a specialized field.” Dictionary.com defines a profession as “...a vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science: the profession of teaching...”.

Management is a Profession.

It has a defined body of “specialized” knowledge. It has specialized tool and techniques. It requires certain skills of its practitioners. These management tools, techniques and skills are equally applicable, useful and effective across industries, activities and cultures.

Management is a Profession.

It's practitioners and their skills are as transferable across industries as those of the medical, engineering, security of legal professions. The skills necessary to successfully plan, organize, staff, support and control a half-billion dollar software development project are the same necessary to successfully run a half-billion dollar power plant construction project.

Management is a Profession.

And yet, it never ceases to amaze me how many otherwise intelligent people in other professions fail to get that. Often the same people who accept that an electrical engineer, a human resources specialist, a lawyer or even a CEO can be effective in any industry refuse see accept that effective project managers can be effective regardless of the type of project or the industry in which they practice their profession.

For some reason, these folks fail to realize that management is a profession in and of itself and that it is just as likely that a project manager who is effective running a half-billion dollar software development program will be just as effective running a half-billion dollar power plant construction project. I've seen companies turn highly-skilled engineers into untrained, ineffective “project managers” simply because these individuals “know our business”. The fact that they knew nothing about putting together a coherent plan, had never developed a budget, did not understand how to control costs, and really hated dealing with people didn't stop these companies from setting up their nominal manager for certain failure.

Management is a Profession.

Professional managers are trained to plan and schedule complex projects, coordinating the work of myriad different professions to successfully complete the project. Professional managers are skilled at identifying, avoiding and mitigating risks in all areas. They are trained to develop detailed budgets. They understand how to direct and control the work of others; to reduce costs and earn the company a profit. Professional managers are trained to find, organize and motivate other skilled people to achieve the company's specific goals and objectives.

Professional managers understand the importance of communicating clearly. They are skilled at reading, understanding and negotiating practical, workable contracts that eliminate problems, rather than contribute to them. They help guide other professions in developing the standards and specifications needed to effectively define the amount and quality of the work to be done. Professional managers are able to get folks in diverse different professions to understand each others' terminology, skills and professional needs.

Professional managers are experts at building solid customer relations and they know how to repair customer relationships that have broken down. They provide a buffer between upper management and the operations personnel tagged to “get the job done”.

Management is a profession...and professional managers are critical to the success of virtually every commercial, and most non-commercial organizations in the world today.

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Is Social Marketing Right For You?

2010-09-06T12:10:00.001-04:00

You hear a lot about social networking these days and the value that “being connected” can bring to your business. You can tell it's the latest trend, because all the “business experts” are pushing us to get onto Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn. There are classes and courses and a lot of folks who profess to be “gurus” on how to use these great new tools to help your business grow.

Let me tell you a secret: there is no secret to making social networking work for you.

It's just another way to reach your current and potential future customers. As with every other marketing method, approach and tool, you've still got to address the basics.

1. You've got to know your customers. You've got to know who they are, when and where they buy, how they make decisions and what they want and need. If your prime customers don't use Facebook and still think “twitter” is a semi-embarrassed laugh in church, then social networking is probably not going to work for you.

2. You've got to know your tools. You have to spend time to learn how Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites work; how people use them and how they will work best for you.

3. You've got to decide what type of relationship you want with your customers. Social networking is all about building long term relationships. If you're not looking for long term relationships with your customers, social networking is probably not going to be very effective for you.

4. You've got to be consistent. Your message, your conversations, your persona and your actions on social networking venues need to be consistent with your marketing in other media / venues. And because word travels so much faster in a social networking environment than in other venues, it is critical that your words accurately reflect your actions and vice versa. Nothing gets around social networks quicker than a company claiming perfection but delivering crap.

5. You've got to know who you are. Know who you are before you venture into this world. If you don't have a clear sense of who you are and what you stand for, people will know it...and they'll tell their friends about your inconsistencies very quickly. So before you start any social networking, make sure you know yourself.

6. You've got to know your product / service. And finally, you've got to know what it is you have to offer. Your product has got to live up to or exceed your Facebook claims. Your marketing group cannot promise things your operations group can't deliver...and the product's got to meet or exceed your customers' marketing-driven expectations!

So there it is. Social networking is just another way to reach your customers. It's not going to “change the face of marketing”; although it has definitely increased the speed at which your message...and your mistakes...are spread.

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Procrastination

2010-09-01T09:27:00.002-04:00

Well, it's three days until the start of the Labor Day weekend. I guess Summer's almost over.

There's a large part of me (OK, OK, I know - what part of me isn't large?) that's tempted to just screw off the rest of this week, waiting for the holiday. Even though I know that in my situation I really can't afford to just leave work undone for three or four days. As a small business owner / independent contractor, the sooner the work gets done, the sooner I get paid. So I really can't afford to screw off for three days.

But the temptation is still there...and it's still pretty strong, actually.

For folks whose weekly pay check is not really tied to the amount of work they do in any given week, the temptation is often irresistible. For some reason, in the week (or two) before a holiday, everything seems less important, and everything is certainly less appealing than kicking back and slacking off to “get ready for the holiday”.

And it's not all that tough to do.

Getting in thirty or forty minutes late (“Holiday traffic is starting early this year!”). An extra 10 or 15 minutes at lunch. Thirty or forty minutes talking “business” with my colleague in the next cubicle. Leaving twenty or thirty minutes early (“Gotta beat the holiday rush”).

It adds up pretty quickly.

Now that six hours of solid work I give you on a normal day is down to four or five. And of course, there's the hour or two I need to spend playing that on-line game Information Technology (IT) just keeps forgetting to block - mainly because the IT techs are in the middle of a never-ending tournament.

Now I'm down to two or three hours of distracted (“how the heck do I get into that IT tournament?”) work time.

Let's face it, it would probably be more productive to just let me take sick time ('cause there's no way I'm going to waste my vacation time) for the next three days.

Sound familiar?

Well, even if you won't admit it, I guarantee that even in this bad economy, it's happening in your office as you read this. And if you're reading this at the office, I guess that means you're slacking off, too; surfing the web; doing “research”.

So how do we stop all this slacking in preparation for the weekend?

I'll tell you tomorrow.

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Breaking Trust

2010-08-27T14:05:00.004-04:00

Someone very close to me recently did something that violated the trust I had in them and put an almost fourteen year relationship in grave jeopardy.

In the overall scheme of things, the actual act – petty theft in legal terms – was not an earth-shaking crime. What is so bad is that they crossed a line I never thought they would cross.

And it's shaken me.

It's made me question how many other times it's happened, and how many other things they've done that I never thought they would do. It's changed how I feel about them and it's changed how I treat them...and how they treat me. And knowing myself as I do, I'm pretty sure this incident will color my relationship with this person for the rest of both our lives.

And the funny thing is that when I look at the situation dispassionately (which took me quite some bit of time to be able to do), the fact that it happened is not all that shocking. I knew they had a tendency to take things, but it had always been little things and for some reason which now completely eludes me (and which would probably seem ludicrously illogical if I ever do remember it), I left the stolen item easily accessible, despite my awareness of their problem.

Some of it was laziness. I didn't want to have to unlock and re-lock the file cabinet each time I needed to access this thing.

Some of it was that I simply wanted to believe the best about this person - something I'm not sure I'll ever want to do again.

And some of it, I suppose was just plain stupidity – ignoring the facts that were right in front of me. Something I'm not usually prone to do.

I suppose by this point most of you are wondering just what purpose, other than allowing me to vent, this little story could possibly serve you, a business professional.

Well here it is. Any security officer will tell you that most thefts, most information leaks, and most security breaches are crimes of opportunity. The thief is given an easy, ready opportunity to commit the crime.

Many times, these individuals see the opportunity early, but resist the temptation a number of times before they give in. The simple act of finding the cabinet locked, the door shut, the papers filed away or the password activated on the screen saver is enough to stop them.

So, I suppose the point of today's blog is this: take the time to safeguard your “stuff”. It can save you time, money, aggravation and maybe most importantly, it can help others be their “better selves”.

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

How Can My Manager “Manage” Me If She's Never Done My job?

2010-08-25T09:08:00.002-04:00

I suspect this question has been asked by employees, contractors, indentured servants and slaves since the dawn of time.

Despite the fact that it's usually asked just after we've been directed to do something we see as a huge waste of time, it's actually a valid question. And one that can be argued from either side.

On the one hand, it is argued that the more a manager (or supervisor) knows about the operations she manages, the better she will be at managing that operation.

This argument seems to hold up most consistently at the supervisory level. Here, we are dealing with relatively unskilled work where the manager will be expected to train the employees he or she manages in the jobs they are expected to do. In this case, it is imperative that the manager fully understand each job and master all the tasks his subordinates will be expected to do. Additionally, it's helpful if the manager is capable of effectively transmitting that knowledge to his or her subordinates.

On the other hand, it is argued that management is a distinct profession with specific skills, a specific base of knowledge and specific tools separate and distinct from the people, projects and things being managed.

This argument seems to hold up most consistently in situations where the manager is dealing with skilled workers doing jobs the manager may never be qualified to do the work the people he or she is managing are expected to do. A good example of this is a manager running an engineering development or R and D (Research and Development) project. Here, the manager may be expected to plan and control the work of people considered experts in their field who are eminently more qualified in their fields than she can ever hope to be. This doesn't mean that she'll be ineffective as a manager, it just means that she won't be the one designing the new product or conducting the research.

And this is as it should be. As a manager, she has been hired to plan, organize, schedule, and manage the effort. Her job is to make sure that the experts on her team have the tools they need to get the job done and to shield her team from as much “administrative crap” as possible.

Of course, this doesn't mean that a supervisor can't be effective simply because he hasn't mastered every job of every person working for him. Nor does it mean that a manager won't get the job done simply because she also happens to be the lead researcher on the project.

Personally, I think that the more a manger knows about the work to be done, the more effective he or she will be at making sure the team has the right tools, resources and time to get the job done.

Of course, I could be wrong.

What do you think?

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I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Vacation

2010-08-16T16:44:00.003-04:00

Vacation.

I was going to write a whole long treatise on how valuable vacations can be to reducing stress in the office. How making your people take and use their vacation time can pay dividends for the company in the long run. I was going to mention that even though most folks have trouble getting back to work, the break from routine can help improve creativity in the long run.

I was going to write a great blog entry.

But then I looked up from my screen and saw the blue waves crashing onto the beach; the other folks relaxing on the sand, the families building sand castles and I said to myself:

“What the hell am I doing working while I'm on vacation?!?!?”

Have a great week. I'm gonna shut down and relax.

If you need help with anything this week, leave a comment here or e-mail me at: mailto:TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com">TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com and I'll get to it on Monday. I can help.

A Contract Is a Tool. Use It Like One.

2010-08-11T13:44:00.001-04:00

A contract is a is a tool. Like any other tool, the contract is only effective when it's used and maintained.

Over the years I've worked with a lot of companies who spend a lot of time, money and energy negotiating complex, complicated contracts that spell out in excruciating detail every little task that needs to be done, every little right that needs to be respected and every little punishment for failing to perform. They have big signing ceremonies where both Parties get to hand out gold pens and slap each other on the back, congratulating themselves for a job well done! Everybody is happy. Everybody is sure that the hard part is over now, the contract is signed. All is right with the world.

Then they print out two copies of that contract, put it into two sets of beautiful binders (because, of course, a single binder won't hold a contract that large), one for each side, and then each side places their binders in a place of honor on a high shelf in the main conference room and then...

Nothing.

That's it. That's all they do with that contract; they let it sit on that shelf, allowing the pretty binders to add an air of prosperity and professionalism to the conference room and, I suppose, to the whole company.

But that's it.

Of course they show the pretty binders to important clients and vendors. And the C-level's use them as a backdrop for all those semi-annual “see-what-a-great-leader-I-am” webcasts that so inspire “the troops”. Yup, everybody's proud of that contract.

Problem is, no one ever actually looks at the contract. Most of the folks responsible for performing under the contract will never see it. Few will ever open it, even fewer will ever read it; and virtually none will ever think to use it for the purpose it was intended – as a framework for success in planning, managing and doing the actual day-to-day work.

And then the unthinkable happens.

Disagreements between the folks doing the work. Problems arise on the manufacturing floor. Work slows.

Feelings get hurt. People start to take sides.

More problems arise. More feelings get hurt. It's “Us” against “Them”, now. Critical designs can't be agreed upon. Critical parts don't fit and don't work right. Money stops.

Now people get angry. Each side now fully focused on the blame game. Work stops altogether. Both sides now are more intent on pointing fingers and placing blame than in actually doing any work.

Eventually, of course, some smart person (usually the lawyers who, by this time, are all up in the middle of the finger pointing fight) remembers that there's a contract somewhere that might help us “get those guys”.

So now they decide to use the contract. Once again, it's a tool they can use. Unfortunately, now the only way any of the folks already involved in the fray can think to use it is as a bludgeon. So they flail around, dragging each other into court, swinging their contractual bludgeon.

And the work the contract was intended to describe? Well, it never actually gets done. The money all gets spent – on lawyers and courtrooms, incomplete designs, useless parts and the like – but nothing useful ever comes from the debacle. It's too bad, too, because the idea was a really cool one and the product would have sold millions.

Sound familiar?

It doesn't have to be this way. Written correctly, used regularly and maintained professionally, the contract could have helped both sides work together harmoniously, identifying risks and solving problems as a team.

The moral of the story?

If you're not going to use it, why spend the time, money and aggravation negotiating a contract?

If your contracts are ineffective or your projects end in disaster more often that not, leave a comment here or e-mail me at: mailto:TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com">TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com. I can help.

Little Errors, Big Distractions. Six Tips to Help Improve Your Business Writing!

2010-08-06T13:28:00.000-04:00

Writing for business is a tough thing to do. You've got to come across as intelligent, interesting and rational even when you're writing about the most mundane things. I've assembled 6 tips to help add some polish to your next weekly status report.

If there's a “First”, there's at least got to be a “Second”...

...and if possible, a “Third”, a “Fourth”, etc. I'm not saying the reading public is simple minded or anything, but, if you forget to include at least a “Second” point, the majority of readers will shift focus to finding the “missing” points, rather trying to understand the ideas you are trying to convey. While many will only go off track for a moment or two, even that slight break in flow can have a big impact on how effective your words are.

Proofread the darned thing!

If you're expecting your readers to spend their valuable time to wade through your pearls of wisdom, have the common courtesy to take your valuable time to wade through it first to at least find and correct any grammar, usage, and punctuation errors!

If it's worth taking the time to put it on paper (or into an electronic file), then it's worth taking the time to write it correctly! And that includes, e-mails, text messages, Facebook and LinkedIn messages and every other business communication.

I find that when I force myself to read aloud each word that's on the screen, it's easier to identify issues, clarify confusing expressions and greatly improve the flow and emotional impact of my writing. It you can get someone else to read or listen to you read) your work, that can be a great help, too.

Cut The Cute!

Cute might sell to little girls and Mommies, but it's annoying as hell in business communications unprofessional, too.

If you want your peers to think you're a joke, your boss to ignore you and your customers to think you're a flake and spineless push-over, just start adding an emoticon to every paragraph, dot every “i” with a heart, and include links to sparkly pictures of unicorns, fairies or fuzzy little animals in your signature block.

Cut The Words.

Although it's not always true in fashion, in business communications, brief is beautiful.

I'm a verbose guy – just ask my wife and kids. Knowing this, however, I force myself to do a lot of cutting before I release even a first draft for other folks to read. It's a good idea if you do the same.

You're not a lawyer, don't write like one.

Most lawyers can't even write like a lawyer (should), so what hope is there for you? Big words don't make you look smarter, they make you look pompous and ridiculously out of touch with the real world.

In business communications, write the way you talk, (unless, of course, you talk like a hillbilly, a gansta, or a seven year old girl (see “cut the cute” above). Use correct, “plain” English (or whatever language they're written in).

And if “legalese” is absolutely required, call a lawyer, that's what they're paid to do.

Write Like You've “Got A Pair”.

Take a stand when you write. Be positive and confident. State your case clearly, concisely and right at the beginning! Then support your position with appropriate facts, figures and “expert” opinions.

And remember, there's a difference between confident and arrogant. Don't be arrogant (or obnoxious, or annoying, or even abrasive!).

Follow these tips and you'll be amazed at how much moire effective your writing will be! Remember, though, well written crap is still crap.

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If you need help writing better crap, leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Performance Evaluations - Making The Grade More Palatable

2010-08-02T12:45:00.000-04:00

In addition to being a (world class) business consultant and contract negotiator, I am an educator. A teacher. A college professor, to be exact.

I tell you this not to brag (well, not entirely!), but because being a teacher means that I spend a lot of time analyzing, evaluating, critiquing and rating (grading) other people's work. It's not my favorite part of the job, but it is, unfortunately, a part of the job.

And, as will happen with anything one does for more than 20 years, over the years I've been teaching, I've learned a few things. And one of the least obvious, but most important things I've learned is that for many people, receiving an “objective” performance score (grade) on performance quality standards that include some subjectivity, is a real distraction.

Folks tend to focus first (and longest) on the number you “gave them” and the “points I lost”, rather than on the "points they earned" or the actual quality of their work. They quibble over the minutia of a point or two; ignoring the larger underlying performance issues. I am more likely to hear “Why did you give me an 84 and not an 86?”, rather than “What do I need to do to earn an “A” next time?”

I've found this is true not only in academic grading systems, but in employee evaluation systems, as well.

It seems the more “objective” we try to make our evaluation systems, the more temptation there is for the student / employee to focus on “the number” rather than the performance underlying the number.

So how do we fix this? How do we get folks to quit worrying about a point or two and focus on the bigger picture?

That's a good question. And here are a few things we as individual evaluators can do to help, regardless of the performance evaluation system(s) we're working with:

First, a face-to-face meeting where you can take time to explain the evaluation, to identify specific strengths and discuss areas for improvement before giving the “score” is the most effective way I've found. It's critical here to make sure your verbal comments agree with and support your written comments and that both are consistent with the performance score.

Second, giving them time to read the written evaluation and ask questions / voice disagreements after you've verbally explained the evaluation is critical as well. In the best case, they'll have time to review it immediately following the verbal discussion.

And finally, listen to objections and complaints with an open mind, and be willing to change the evaluation comments or adjust the score when there is a valid reason to do do. None of us is perfect.

And finally, always, always, always make sure that you take the above actions before the evaluation is completed and formally entered into the grading / performance evaluation system. This will go a long way toward letting your students/employees know you're doing your best to be fair and unbiased in your assessments...and that is the biggest thing we can do to get their focus off the minutia and on to the larger issues we need them working on!

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If you need help getting your evaluation system more effective, let me help. Either leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Web 2.0: Separating Fact From Fiction

2010-07-27T13:13:00.000-04:00

We hear a lot of talk about Web 2.0 (read “web two point oh”) these days. In the news, in the business press and on the world Wide Web itself. It seems everybody and his brother has a “Web 2.0 compatible” this or a “Web 2.0 capable” that, or can “...help get you working with the latest “web 2.0 aps!”

Like I said, we hear a lot about Web 2.0 these days. Unfortunately, much of what we hear is confusing, conflicting or downright “counterfactual”.

So, let's see if we can't add a little clarity to the discussion.

To start, Web 2.0 is not any single product, company or technological advance. There is no “web 2.0” database”, no “web 2.0” software nor even a “web 2.0 technical specification” to which developers must adhere. Like the terms “green”, “low fat” and “natural”, “web 2.0 is used and abused by anyone who chooses to use it.

Web 2.0 is simply a name used to distinguish one period in the development of the Internet and the World Wide Web from other periods. In a broad sense, “Web 2.0” is an “age” in the same way that “The Middle Ages” and “The Protestant Reformation” are two ages distinct from other periods in history.

The Web 2.0 "age" is currently seen as the period of time during which Internet based information systems moved from delivery systems for "static" information to hosting systems for more fully active and interactive information and communication.

Although the term has a definite date of birth, the period of time that the term “Web 2.0” describes is much less distinct, with some debate over exactly when (and even IF) the Web 2.0 age started. And on the timeline of all recorded human history, “The Web 2.0 Age” is not much more than a single point in time.

There are some (most notably Tim Berners Lee, the man widely recognized as the architect of the World Wide Web, though, who believe that the use of the term is premature at best and completely inappropriate at worst. These people point to the interactive Internet we now enjoy as having always been the intent and goal of the initial developers of the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Many of these folks feel the term "Web 2.0" is little more than marketing hype intended to make it easier for software and system developers to re-package and re-brand tired old products as "the next big thing".

Regardless of which point of view you take, the fact is that the term has entered the lexicon and appears to be here to stay.

Welcome to the "Brave New World**"

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If you need help sorting fact from fiction in your web 2.0 operations, leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

(** the term "brave new world" is from Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act V, Scene I and was used as the title of an Aldous Huxley book published in 1932)

The Customer's NOT Always Right!

2010-07-20T16:40:00.000-04:00

"The customer's always right!”

I'm amazed at just how often I hear those words coming from the mouths of otherwise smart, logical people who run successful businesses. And even more amazingly, they actually think they believe it, too!

I've heard supposed “certified experts” in CRM (Customer Relationship Management) use that tired old chestnut as the primary theme of high-priced, long-winded books, CD's, seminars and lectures. They tell you all about how “the customer knows best” and how we all need to “mine the customer's mind” if we hope to build Customer Relationships.

Not me.

I've worked with too many customers in too many situations for too many years to fall for that one. And I've been a customer who's been wrong, or said or done the wrong thing way too many times to even pretend to believe that I'm always right.

I have little patience for and even less desire to do business with companies who don't understand that.

No, the customer isn't always right...but the customer is always the customer and the reason we are and can remain in business!

This is a critical distinction. It means that while we must always treat customers with courtesy and respect, we can disagree with them when they're wrong. It means that we have a right to bring our expertise and imagination to the table. It means that we can demand that the customer gives us and our people the same respect and courtesy we give them and theirs.

Of course this doesn't mean that we need to go out of our way to highlight their ignorance (or demonstrate your superiority) or embarrass them; that's no way to build a solid customer relationship. It does mean, however, that we are obligated to use our “superior” knowledge and expertise to serve their best interest. It means that sometimes we must risk alienating (or even losing) the customer by correcting their serious misconceptions. Sometimes, their understanding is more important than our income.

This approach to the customer relationship has implications in other areas of our business, too. It should color how we build our products, how we deliver our services and how we work with our customers to meet their needs and solve their problems.

Healthy relationships are two way affairs. Both parties need to recognize and accept the other's strengths and weaknesses. Both parties need to acknowledge that the other has a right to their point of view.

And that's pretty much it.

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If you need help convincing your customer (or your boss) that it's OK to disagree with a customer, contact me. I'd be happy to help. Leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Religion In The Workplace?

2010-07-15T12:10:00.000-04:00

To build an "ethical organization", we must first establish and clearly articulate a firm fundamental definition of what we see as "right" and what we see as "wrong". This is the "morals" part of the equation.

Once this basic definition of right and wrong is articulated, we must look at and define what specific behaviors are "good" and what behaviors are "bad" in the day-to-day workplace. This means that we must not only provide a formal set of behavior guidelines, but it also means that as owners, executives and managers, we must set the example ("model the behavior") by living up to those same standards of behavior ourselves. This is the "ethics" part of the equation.

Whether you're starting from scratch building a new organization or re-building a shattered one (a la Enron, Worldcom, Countrywide, etc.), these two steps must be done.

Here, I must remind those who want to keep religion out of the workplace that virtually every one of the various major religions in the world have already both articulated a set of basic moral principles and developed (more or less) effective codes of ethics.

This is not to say that I believe that conversion to any religion should become a condition of employment. I don' think forced/coerced conversions are ever a good idea.

I do believe, however, that there are certain fundamental principles of "right and wrong" that have been common to virtually every successful human civilization and organization throughout history. I also believe that the major religions have spent a lot of time and energy working to articulate those principles and ideals and that they have developed some useful guidelines for living those principles.

And in keeping with my fundamental aversion to "reinventing the wheel", I think that if you're trying to build a moral, ethical company and corporate culture, they are a convenient place to find well thought out, structured, "ready-made" guides to leading an "ethical life".

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If you need help building your ethical organization, let me help. Either leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Life On The Road!

2010-07-12T12:50:00.000-04:00

We were sitting at the bar, lamenting how horribly difficult it was being on the road...sitting in the hotel bar drinking while our families lived their lives an ocean away.

It was a tough life, to be sure. Nothing to do but drink, shoot the breeze with colleagues, and joke with the hotel staff who, after nearly 7 months living there, had become a virtual surrogate family.

Tough indeed.

Just then the phone rang. In the bar.

It was my wife (the front desk staff knew when to transfer it to the bar). nearly in tears because the well pump had failed and there was no water in the house and she had no idea what to do and she hated me always being gone and I needed to do something right now.

4,500 miles away, what could I do? If I jumped on a plane that evening, it would be very late the next day before I got home – assuming I could even get a flight on this short notice.

And then what would I do? I'm not the most handy guy when it comes to fixing electric motors. In fact, I hate it and I suck at it.

As you can imagine, this wasn't quite what my wife was hoping to hear. It did, however, give her something other than the water problems on which to focus her frustration and anger.

I quietly ordered another beer as I listened. VERY quietly.

She muttered something like "that's right, I'd forgotten how utterly useless and aggravating you are in these situations."

She then reminded herself that she'd have ended finding someone else to fix it even if I was at home and what the hell was she thinking calling me with a problem like this? She might as well just call the neighbor and see if HER husband would come over and fix the damned thing.

I listened quietly. Not too quietly, but just quietly enough so she wasn't immediately aware that I was drinking another beer.

My colleague was laughing it up with the bartender and the waitress...He'd been through this before, too.

"Well, sorry I bothered you" she said. "I need to get off the phone so I can call Karen and see if she'll send Jim over to look at the damned thing."

I sighed heavily, the guilt obvious in the sound.

"It's OK." she said, "I know this isn't easy for you either, being too far away to do anything and having to listen to me whine."

"No, honey, it's the least I could do. I'm sorry I'm not there for you. If you want, I can catch a plane tomorrow."

I wasn't due home for another 5 (billable) weeks...a fact of which we were both acutely aware.

"No. I'm fine. I'll take care of it......but I need to get off the phone now, it's getting late.

"Ok, dear, I'll let you go." disappointment obvious in my voice. "Do you want me to call later to see how things went?"

"No need. What can you do from there anyway? Gotta go. Bye. I love you."

"I love you, too. Bye."

She hung up.

I ordered another beer.

Yup, life on the road sure is tough. :-)

___________________________________________

If you need a professional consultant to help straighten out your remote operations, leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com. I'd be happy to get on the road for you!

© 2008 Tom Fawls. All Rights Reserved

Sleep Is Over Rated

2010-07-08T09:40:00.000-04:00

I'm tired.

And it's not just the “get a good night's sleep, you'll feel better in the morning” kind of tired, either.

I'm dog tired.

Bone tired.

Dead tired.

I'm Beat. Knackered. Exhausted. Burned down. Burned out. Broke down. Fried.

I'm tired of life, tired of living and tired of lies,

I'm tired of caring, tired of not caring. I'm tired of winning. I'm tired of losing and I'm really, really tired of never knowing which is which.

I guess I'm just plain sick and tired.

But I'm here.

I'm still plugging away. Still trying. Still working. Still caring. Still crying. Still breathing.

I'm still alive, after all.

And until that changes, I suppose I'll just stay tired. As the saying goes “I'll sleep when I'm dead.”

So I'm hoping that that's the point of this life...keep working even when you're tired. “Push through the pain”, as they say.

Well, I've gotta get back to work here. I hope you have a great day...and keep on plugging!

________________________________

If you're exhausted, too, leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

STUPID QUESTIONS 101: "How?"

2010-07-01T13:46:00.000-04:00

Since starting my career as a project manager in the mid-1980's, I have led numerous engineering teams developing complex commercial and military systems and products. With degrees in Accounting and Systems Management, I'm usually the only non-engineer in the technical meetings and, understandably, the degreed engineers tend to assume I'm a bit of a technological idiot.

Knowing this, I have learned to use stupid questions to great effect...and “How?” is one of the most effective questions to use when working with professionals in technical fields. I've found that, for me, not having a technical degree actually helps in these situations. Rather than risk criticizing their work by pointing out the errors, I simply play dumb ask them to “explain how it works.”

A good example of this was on one very complex project I managed, the initial system design was missing a rather critical communication link between two major subsystems. After working on the design for almost 2 months, neither the design team nor the QA team had noticed the missing link.

Knowing that finding fault with the design would put my engineering team on the defensive, I played the know-nothing, non-technical manager. I told the Project Engineer I was having trouble understanding the data paths and asked him to explain them to me.

He brought the system diagrams into my office, cleared a space on my work table, unrolled the diagrams (13 or 14 sheets) and proceeded to trace data pathways through the system. Six times he traced them without noticing the “missing link” and six times I looked confused and said “I know you probably think I'm an idiot, but I just don't get it. Can you show me one more time how the data gets from Subsystem A to Subsystem B? Thanks for your patience.”

After the sixth time he was not only ready to kill me, but he definitely thought I was the dumbest Project Manager in the company. And yet, knowing this, I still asked the seventh time (who says “third time's the charm?!”). He was halfway through the seventh explanation when the light bulb went on. He stopped his explanation mid-sentence, rolled up the system diagram, and walked out of my office without saying another word.

Three days later, he walked back in the office, unrolled the (updated) system diagrams, stabbed his finger onto the new data pathway and started explaining the design as if three days had not gone by. When he was done, I apologized for my obtuseness, thanked him for the explanation, and signed the system approval sheets.

Nothing was ever said about it again, Neither and I nor my Project Engineer (PE) ever acknowledged the issue had even existed. But the error was corrected, my PE saved face and, most importantly, the customer got a solid, more robust system.

Persistent Stupid questioning saved the day.

So don't be afraid to ask the stupid question...or to sound stupid asking an embarrassing question. It is often the least best way to get the job done.

___________________________________________

If you need help asking stupid questions, contact an expert. Either leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

STUPID QUESTIONS 101: “Who?”

2010-06-28T11:27:00.000-04:00

“Who are you?”

The Who liked this question so much, they used it as the title for a whole album back in 1978.

I find this is the essential starting point for starting any new venture. Whether it's commercial, charitable or purely personal, it is critical that you know who you are and who your organization is...or who you want it to be.

Of course there are two parts to this question. The first is “Who do I say that I am?”. The second is “Who do my actions say that I am?” It is critical that we ask and honestly answer both these questions. For too many of us, the answers will be on different ends of the spectrum...who we think we are (or wish or want to be) is nowhere near the reality of who our behavior say we are.

I was halfway around the world leading my first foreign sales effort the first time I faced a situation that offered me a clear choice between putting my morals aside and “going with the flow” or living up to the moral and ethical standards.

I won't give any specific details here, but I will say that (to my eternal shame) I didn't even realize I had made an unethical decision until I offered the same choice to a colleague who had accompanied me. As I was explaining the situation to him, a look of disgust crossed his face and before I could finish he said “What the hell is wrong with you? This company doesn't do that! That's not who we are!”

I can still see his face and still hear the shock in his voice, more than 20 years later. His statement has stuck with me ever since..and, thankfully, has kept me from making similar compromises on many, many occasions.

That one instance made it frighteningly clear to me just how important this question is to each and every one of us...and how easy it is to completely miss the implications of seemingly mundane decisions we face each and every day.

Know who you are....and live the life you profess. It makes the world a much simpler place.

__________________

If you need help figuring out who you are, Let me help. Leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

STUPID QUESTIONS 101: Where?

2010-06-24T10:23:00.001-04:00

“Where do I go from here?” was actually the first thought that popped into my mind as I started writing this morning.

I've sort of hit a wall writing the “Stupid Question 101” posts, so it wasn't really a shocking first thought of the day. But it did get me thinking about where I have come and where I want to go with my career and my business. And as I thought more about it, I realized that “Where?” is a great question for clearing your vision...and for getting you back on track and moving toward making your vision a reality.

“Where?” is a tool that can force us to see where we've been and look at where we're headed.

“Where we have we been?”; “Where do we want to be in 100 years?” and “Will our current direction take us where we want to go?” are all critical questions that need to be answered before you can effectively decide where to focus your efforts today.

Of course, once you've cleared your vision; once you've figured out what track you need to be on, then “where?” can help you decide how best to get on track. And how best to stay there. That's when questions like “where are our customers?”, “where do we produce our product?” and “where should we locate our facilities?” come into play.

And each time you answer one of these, you also need ask “Will help get us where we want to be a hundred years from now, or will it side track us?”

If the folks at Countrywide Mortgage, Enron, or Morgan Stanley had bothered to ask THAT question (and answer it honestly!), they might have seen that their short-term greed would put their companies out of business inside of 10 years, not help is continue thriving in 100. But that's a topic for another day.

For today, just remember to keep asking “where?”...it will help you keep your eyes on the horizon.

____________________

If you need help seeing your horizon, let me know by leaving a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

STUPID QUESTIONS 101: When?

2010-06-22T13:40:00.001-04:00

Whenever I start planning a new project, “When does this need to be finished?” is usually the first question I ask. Like any good former military officer, I prefer to use “backward planning” - starting from the due date and working back to a start date.

“When?” is one of those questions that can be painfully annoying when you're the one being asked. “When will it be done?”; "When will it be delivered?”; “When are you going to quit asking me annoying questions?”

Answering “when?” usually requires some sort of “guesstimation”...and that makes many people uncomfortable. The problem with answering “when?” is that a smart manager / customer won't let you get away with an indefinite, inexact answer. They want facts. They want specific dates. They want exact times. You can't fudge “when?”.

Answering “when?” carves your answers in stone and holds them up so anyone can measure your performance. Answering “when?” is scary...and most people will avoid it whenever possible.

Which is why the best managers don't let folks get away with nebulous answers. They also, however, understand that most times the best answer that can be given is an estimate and they will understand (and plan for) some fluctuations.

So next time you ask “When?”, remember two things: first, get a specific, exact answer and second, understand that not every exact answer is going to be accurate.

____________________________

Need help figuring out when? Leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Stupid Questions 101: What the !@#$%$^& ?!?!

2010-06-17T15:47:00.000-04:00

Next in line on our Stupid Question Primer, is “What?”.

While the most popular use of this word - “What the @#$#^% ?!?”; can be very effective in certain circumstances, today we'll be looking at some of the less dramatic uses of this question.

“What?” can help clarify your thinking, narrow your focus or streamline your operations. “What?” is useful in all sorts of situations.

“What are we trying to accomplish?” or “What are you working on?” Your people should understand what they're working on and why. The first time you ask one of these questions, you might be surprised at how many people in your organization don't really have a formal assignment. Forcing yourself to answer this question before you assign work, will help you eliminate truly useless tasks...and help your people understand where you're heading.

“What needs to be done?” Be proactive. Getting your people to look beyond their own jobs, to see things beyond their own desks that need to be done goes a long way to killing the “not my job” attitude that besets too many companies as they grow.

“What do you need?” simply asking the question places an obligation on us to help out. To work to get those asked the things they need. Sometimes we won't be able to meet their needs, but we may be able to point them to someone who can. And sometimes, this simple act of asking the question with genuine concern will make all the difference in the world.

“What can we do without?” In these tough economic times, it's one of the most commonly asked questions. The trick is to carry this thinking with us into the good times. To keep looking at our organization, our operations, and our own habits to cut the fat and keep the business in “fighting trim”.

“What's worked for our competitors?” There are always things you can learn from them...even if it's only what not to do. Being able to see the good in your competitor can help you improve many aspects of your own business; from sales to operations to planning.

“What went wrong? What do we do to make sure it doesn't happen again?” notice we're not asking “Who's fault is it?” in this question. The goal is to get to identify the causes of the problem(s) and fix them, not to find the perpetrator and hang them. Of course, in the case of sabotage or gross negligence, finding the guilty party might not only be appropriate, but critical to preventing similar incidents in the future.

“What don't we know? What did I do wrong?” or “What needs to change?” Are all higher level questions I tend to only hear from customers who are comfortable enough with themselves and their organizations to change themselves when necessary. These companies understand that nobody is perfect and that the best way to handle bad news is taking it head on and dealing with it as it comes.

Leaving these questions unasked (or asked but unanswered) can kill your business.

All too often, though, we let fear; bad habits, complacency and internal politics stop us from pursuing the answer to this critical question. Take the time to ask the “What?” questions. I suspect that in the long run you'll be glad you did.

____________________________

Need help figuring out what to do? Ask for help! Either leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Stupid Questions 101: Why Ask "Why?"

2010-06-14T12:51:00.000-04:00

While asking “Stupid Questions” is an easy concept for most people to grasp, using them effectively and using them to build up team cohesiveness takes a bit of practice. Done wrong, you come off as a slow, pedantic, plodder at best; a complete idiot at worst.

Now I'm not one to worry that much about what others think (I am, after all, a Project Manager), but as any mathematician will tell you, sometimes the crowd is right. So, in the next few blogs we will talk about how when and why to use each of the stupid questions listed in my 10 June 2010 Blog.

I usually use “Why?” as my first stupid question. I am constantly amazed at how often folks simply do not have a coherent rationale for their statements or decisions.

I do it because it forces folks to articulate the rational and reasons driving their actions. Forcing them to verbalize the reasons means they actually have to take a moment and think about what they've done or want to do; to find underlying rationale and articulate that to a third party (me). Asking this question consistently gets the team in the habit of looking at their recommendations critically beforehand.

This reduces the number of times they embarrass themselves with customers, vendors or colleagues, because they have a better grasp of the situation and are prepared to answer potentially embarassing, critical questions.

When I ask “why?”, or any other stupid questions, for that matter, I try to wrap the question in a few more words – I find it softens the blow so to speak. One word sentences tend to come across a bit to blunt for most situations. People tend to see them as aggressive personal attacks and they get defensive, digging in their heels and closing down to new ideas.

I have been managing engineering teams and leading system/product design projects since the mid 1980's. For many of those years, I have been a troubleshooter / turn-around specialist, stepping in when projects are significantly behind schedule, over budget and missing critical technical milestones. When you're trying to fix situations like these, personal attacks are not usually the best approach to take right out of the gate.

So rather than a simple “Why?”, I might ask “Why are we doing it this way?”; “Why did you eliminate that option?”; or “I don't quite understand the rational here, can you explain it to me?”.

Asked with the properly obsequious attitude, “Why?” can put the person being questioned in the position of teacher, rather than suspect. This shift in roles gives them an ego boost – which is often a great help in building team cohesiveness – as well as providing a safe, face-saving reason for them to review their designs, ideas and approaches.

In the long run, this approach gives other members of your team the power to lead.

Of course, to do this successfully, you've got to be confident enough in yourself and in your ability to guide the work “from the shadows” to put your ego aside for the good of the project, the team and the customer. But that's a topic for another day.

____________________________

If you need help asking stupid questions, let me know! Either leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

The Secret to Business Success? Ask "Stupid Questions"!

2010-06-10T14:46:00.000-04:00

The second secret I want to share with you in our ongoing effort to reveal the management secrets the “experts” would rather you didn't know is almost as simple as the first:

Asking Stupid Questions can save your business!

This, of course, is a really good thing for me, because (and my wife and kids will be happy to confirm this), I'm great at asking stupid questions.

Stupid Questions, for those of you sifting through all the useless questions from your last department (or project status) meeting, are those questions that every healthy toddler can't seem to stop asking in their search for attention, understanding and truth.

“Why?”
“What?”
“When?”
“Where?”
“Who?” and
“How?”

Asking these simple questions is the first critical step in avoiding career ending disasters.

The second step is knowing when to ask them. While a toddler will questions ask any time, any place of anyone, as adults, we should probably use a little discretion...but not too much. When the project is just starting, ask “Stupid Questions”. When things don't “feel”right, ask a Stupid Question. When something doesn't make sense to you, ask a Stupid Question. When your team doesn't seem too sure of their designs, their solutions, or the direction they're heading; ask Stupid Questions. And when you hear that little voice in your head telling you “I'm sure someone has already looked into that”; ASK A STUPID QUESTION!

The third, and maybe the most important step, is to have the courage and the persistence to keep asking Stupid Questions until you get “the truth”. I say “...until you get the truth” because browbeating your people into telling you what you want to hear is usually more harmful than not asking any questions at all. You need to grow a thick skin and train yourself to ignore withering gazes, snide remarks and annoyed employees and bosses). Ignore the sarcasm and force them to come up with a common-sense answer and convince you of its truth.

Much of my career has been spent straightening out projects, businesses, and departments that have gone badly off track. Time after time, I step into toxic organizations and disastrous situations that could have been avoided had anyone involved taken the time to ask those few simple, “stupid” questions.

In my own career, the times I've gotten into the deepest trouble were those times when I knew in my gut that something wasn't quite right, but I went along anyway; thinking “surely someone else has looked at that” or “so-an-so must have seen that”.

Unfortunately, as simple as this concept is to understand, having the courage, confidence and stamina to be the “...one crying in the wilderness”, it can a tough, scary thing when you actually have to do it. But hang in there., the rewards can be fantastic.

And I'll close with a Chinese proverb I think is wonderfully relevant here:

"He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever."

Quoted from http://www.quotationspage.com.
___________________________________________

If you need help asking stupid questions, I'd be happy to help. Either leave a comment here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

Managing Is Easy!

2010-06-07T17:25:00.000-04:00

Over the years, I've read quite a few business management tomes by quite a few management guru' s who each have made quite a bit of money making management quite a bit more confusing and difficult than it needs to be.

Here's secret that few of these charlatans will share with you: Business is easy. Management is easy.

Both these disciplines have been around since the dawn of recorded history and the basic principles that make successful businesses and successful managers today are no different than what made successful businesses and managers 6,000, 8,000 or even 10,000 years ago.

Case in point: virtually every over-paid, under-worked management guru in the market today makes some lesser or greater use of Sun Tzu's “The Art Of War” is referred to by virtually every one of those (in)famous, over-priced management gurus who've worked to make the “Art of Management” more complex and confusing over the last 30 years.

The Art of War, for those who might not have heard about it yet, is a book written by a Chinese general (Sun Tzu) about two hundred years before the birth of Christ. While written for and well known among military audiences for centuries, in the last 30 years, it's become the guidebook for anyone looking to make millions off the ignorance and fear of the business management masses.

People have been planning, implementing and successfully managing businesses, companies, governments and armies for thousands of years. The basic principles of management haven't changed in all those thousands of years. Managers must still do the same basic tasks; they use the same basic processes; and they encounter the same basic problems they've been encountering since the dawn of time.

About the only thing that has changed in all these thousands of years is the context in which we practice our craft. Obviously, technology today is vastly different than technology then...but, really, that's about the the only part of the job that's different. The most valuable (and most difficult to manage) tools in a manager's arsenal – People - haven't changed in that time.

People today are pretty much the same as people two, three or four thousand years ago. We have the same foibles, faults and failings today as folks had back then. And we have the same capacity for caring, compassion, and chivalry, too.

And that's why writings like Sun Tzu's The Art of War, Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince and God's Bible are as relevant today as they were when they were first written.

That means, too, that the skills we'll need for managing tomorrow, next year or even next millennium probably won't be all that much different than the skills we need today or the skills Sun Tzu needed twenty-two hundred years ago.

Keep this in mind as you read the next few postings, where we'll look at some simple, but effective “uncommonly common-sense” things you can do do be a more effective manager.

___________________________________

Got questions about this posting? Post them here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@Council4SmallBiz.com.

A MOMENT OF SILENT PRAYER

2010-05-31T19:04:00.000-04:00

Memorial Day is here. A day of remembrance. A day to honor our heroes, our neighbors and our loved ones who have passed through this life before us; especially those who have given their lives fighting our country's wars.

Take a few moments to remember the sacrifices others have made to secure the freedoms, rights and “stuff” you have. Think about ways you can work to build a nation where truth, honesty and good conscience are held up as ideals. Pray for a country built and run not on power and greed, but on the idea that every single individual is worth as much as any group or organization. Work to bring about a nation where no one person; no one group is more favored, “more equal” than any other.

A moment of silence.

BRING YOUR CONSCIENCE TO WORK. PLEASE!

2010-05-27T06:48:00.002-04:00

Of course, once you manage to build a corporate conscience you're faced with the now more confusing than ever dilemma of how to get your employees on board with it.

Current political correctness rules say you should hire folks who have a “detachable conscience”. You know, a conscience that they take out and put in a jar each morning as they enter the workplace.

The idea, of course, is that every individual will put aside their own beliefs about right and wrong; replacing those ideals with whatever more morally flexible, more “sensitive-to-the fringe”, more politically correct whim of the moment that happens to be in vogue (or should I say “in vague”?).

But as anyone who's spent more than a few minutes living or working in such an overly sensitive; artificially concerned organization knows, the folks who find it easiest to ignore their own ideals are the ones most likely to ignore (or even sabotage) yours.

To build an organization that does the right thing in every situation, you need people who have a clear sense of right and wrong. You need people whose understanding of right and wrong coincide with yours. You want people who are willing to stand up and say “this is wrong” and who'll work to correct it.

So what do we do? How can we ensure that our hard earned corporate conscience is strengthened by regular use? How do we make sure our organization's conscience doesn't simply atrophy and disappear; becoming simply one more failed corporate manifesto hanging in a dusty frame on the wall of the employee lounge?

First, stop worrying about offending folks. Every idea of any value offends someone. You just need to make sure you're offending the right people...and in the right way.

Second, start focusing on doing the right thing first time, every time. Nothing helps create a culture focused on doing good faster than having executives and management who's first question in a crisis is “What's the right thing to do?”; not “What's the cheapest way out of this?”.

Third, Make “following the Corporate Conscience” a part of every employee's job...and part of their regular evaluation. Acknowledge your people when they live up to your ideals. Praise them when they point out the company's faults with a sincere desire for improvement. Reward them when they work to correct the faults they find. Promote them when they work quietly to help others do the right thing.

Fourth, hire people whose have a conscience; particularly if it's compatible with your corporate conscience. You can do this without running afoul of the employment laws. Just be up front with prospects about who you are, what you believe and what you will expect from them if they're hired. Give them examples of situations that might arise in the job they're pursuing where they might feel some moral conflict (there are any number of standardized employment tests that address these situations).

Fifth, review the corporate conscience and how it's implemented with the organization often. Encourage employees to identify conflicts, inconsistencies and errors. Change it if it needs to be changed.

If you do this right, you'll have an organization with a sincere desire to do the right thing first time, every time. You're people will be happier in their job and you'll have a whole lot of jars to add to your next recycling campaign.

___________________________________

Got questions about this posting? Post them here or e-mail me at: TomFawls@CouncilforSmallBusiness.com.

EVERY COMPANY NEEDS A CONSCIENCE

2010-05-25T09:31:00.002-04:00

Disney's Jiminy Cricket got it right: “Always let your conscience be your guide.”
Unfortunately, that's pretty hard to do if you haven't got one.

My last posting talked about the need for setting decision parameters within your company. Building a “corporate conscience” is the first, most critical step in this process.

It can be an uncomfortable thing to talk about in today's way-too-over-sensitive, “never-offend-anyone-about-anything” world. To some, mentioning conscience, behavior standards or “right and wrong” is one of the worst sins you can commit.

Too bad. Every company needs a conscience.

And if you're too afraid of offending someone to develop one before you need it, you'll be way too scared of popular opinion to do the right thing when the time comes.

Every company needs a conscience. Every corporation needs to build “doing the right thing” into their day to day operating, acting and deciding habits. Every organization should be striving to make “following our conscience” second nature for all people at all levels of the orga0nization. This is especially true in a culture where diversity of thought, belief and behavior is the norm.

Someone needs to set a standard.

Someone needs to develop a corporate philosophy; build a corporate culture, and establish corporate “ways of working” that apply to and guide everyone in the organization to the “right” decision no matter what the problem, no matter what circumstances; and no matter whether it's today or two hundred years from now. You want an organization where people make the “right” choice in every decision, in every circumstance and in every time.

Sounds difficult, right?

Not really. Conceptually, it's not all that tough an idea to grasp. It's something most of our parents tried to instill in us when we were kids.

The secret is to ask the right questions...and to make sure you answer these questions fully, completely and, most importantly, honestly. Below are 10 questions that can put you on the road to building solidly “right” conscience.

1.“Who are we?”
2.“Why do we exist?”
3.“What do we believe?” (Or “What do we stand for?” or “How do we see the world?”)
4.“What do / will we do?” (and maybe just as more important, “What don't / won't we do?”)
5.“How (and why) do we do what we do?”
6.“How will we treat our customers and how do we want to be treated by them?”
7.“How will we treat our employees and how do we want to be treated by them?”
8.“How will we treat our contractors and vendors and how do we want to be treated by them?”
9.“How will we treat our competitors and how do we want to be treated by them?”
10.“How will we treat the environment?”

I know these seem a pretty esoteric, “touchy-feely” list of questions addressing some things that couldn't possibly be of any help in making business decisions. Surprisingly, though, it's these esoteric, philosophic questions that, if decided, established and ingrained into your organization before a crisis arises, will provide the surest guide to doing the “right” things and making the “right” decisions when the crisis hits.

Practically speaking, of course, building a company that lives up to its own best ideals is not a once in a while effort. It takes disciplined practice, patience, commitment and consistent application at every level to make “doing the right thing” the hallmark of the organization.

And don't be surprised if, while working through the questions above, you uncover issues you didn't know you had; start conflicts you didn't expect; and identify moral / ethical weaknesses that make you uncomfortable (and, hopefully, strengths that make you proud). That''s a good thing. It means you're doing it right. Every organization has issues; conflicts and weaknesses. It's only the good ones that acknowledge them early and honestly and work to resolve them before they become problems.

To build an organization where people are expected to ask “Is this right?”; “Is this consistent with who we are as a company?”; and “Is this decision consistent with who I am as a person?”, you'll need to raise and resolve issues. Your organization, your executives and your managers should be supporting and rewarding those who consistently step up and ask “is this right?” they should be praising the people who persist until the company “does the right thing”.

Executives, managers and supervisors should be setting this example themselves in their daily dealings with employees, customers, shareholders and the world in general. It's only when this type of behavior becomes the norm, the expected, that companies can look at themselves and know they've met the challenge.

Don't be afraid to start. This approach works for large multi-nationals and small, one-person consultancies. It works in manufacturing and service organizations; government and commercial organizations; and profit and charitable organizations. process will work for on-person companies. It's the first, and most critical step in developing a solid strategic plan, too.

Get started today....and let me know how it goes.

Tom

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If you need help getting your discussion going, post your questions here or send them to my e-mail: TomFawls@CouncilforSmallBusiness.com.

RISK RULES!

2010-05-21T09:46:00.000-04:00

About a week ago, our oldest son fractured his leg for the second time this year. The doctor explained she wasn't 100% sure it was fractured this time, but she put him in a cast anyway, rather than risk him doing more permanent damage to the leg.

He's understandably disappointed. He'll miss the Spring football season and much of the Summer practice session, where the boys compete for a limited number of varsity positions.

Also understandably, he's decided to focus on the “might not be broken” part of the doctor's diagnosis rather than the “risk of permanent damage” part. And he's started his own (premature, if it's broken) physical therapy sessions with the leg. My wife and I are pushing for caution and patience – something that's difficult when you're 17.

This whole thing got me thinking about how different people approach risk differently. Age, experience, and personal outlook and priorities all come into play when deciding on how to approach each risk (and problem) we encounter in our life.

Companies are no different. They often face similar choices: "do we take action that could have catastrophic results or do we wait and possibly miss out on the chance of a lifetime?"

Depending on the people involved in the decision, the organizations affected, and the personal ambitions of those making the decisions, it is amazing how diverse the range of possible courses of action can be. One group might decide to go “pedal to the medal” into the fray, consequences be damned, while another group will hesitate and equivocate until the universe makes the decision for them.

The company's competitive circumstances, the environment, or the company's economic health at that particular moment could make either decision the right one or the wrong one. The problem is figuring out which is right for your particular company at this particular time.

The best way to do this is to have help that's knowledgeable, dispassionate and interested in your long-term health. And who cares more about your long-term health than you?

That's why I recommend you take the time to develop a set of decision guidelines and risk management / problem resolution processes before you're actually facing a hard choice.

If you decide, rank and write down your priorities beforehand (People over money? Power over prestige? Making the team this season over walking for the rest of your life?), you're less likely to let the emotion of the moment make critical decisions for you. You're better able to establish calm, thoughtful ways of working, sensibly decide your risk tolerance, and establish workable decision parameters if you're doing it when things are calm and you've got time to think.

As parents, my wife and I have established guidelines (some formal, most informal) for making emotionally charged decisions like this. I think it's safe to say, most parents have.

If your company hasn't, I urge you to take some time over the next month or two to figure out what the “right” decision will look like for your organization's next crisis.

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If you need help getting your decision processes started, post your questions here, or send them to my e-mail: tomfawls@CouncilforSmallBusiness.com.

Customer Disservice - Processes From Hell

2010-05-18T09:05:00.000-04:00

For the past few months, I have had the excruciatingly painful experience of having to deal with “Customer Service” at three different banks (OK, 1 bank, 1 credit union, and 1 “financial services” company that lends money to companies and consumers for various things) trying to get them to resolve some rather serious “errors” in our accounts.

The three institutions' customer problem resolution processes have a number of eerily similar features that seem purposely designed to delay, confuse and frustrate customers to the point that they just quit trying to resolve the issues and give in to whatever the bank says is the truth. In my case, this would have meant paying thousands in interest, fees, and “penalties” on unpaid debts that I simply did not owe.

Below are problem areas these processes have in common. So let's look at the problem areas:

Have Only One Publicly Available Contact Phone Number. Too many numbers might confuse your idiot customers. All three companies have just one single contact phone number listed on their web sites (and with directory assistance). Google searches for alternate phone numbers were unsuccessful (their internal security seems to work, though!). This single number is listed as a “customer service” number and it routes all customers to the same call center. This is great for cutting costs and for making it easy to put customers into an endless "do loop". Of course, it can , but horrible for helping customers resolve problems.

Make Sure Your On-line “Contact Us” Form Provides No Feedback. Remember, “ignorance is bliss” and they're just ignorant customers anyway. Feedback might confuse them, or worse, be able to be used against you in a court of law (see items 7 and 8 below). None of the three lists a contact e-mail address on their website, instead they offer an on-line form with no information as to where the form will be sent, nor any feedback other than a “message sent” notice.

Make Sure Your Customer Service Reps Have No Authority. Giving authority to anyone but senior executives will cost you money! You can make them responsible for keeping customers happy, though. This way, you can save money on call center personnel, by making sure you always have new hires working to resolve customer issues. Customer service personnel staffing the call centers have little to no information and virtually no authority are to correct any real problems / errors.

Make Sure Your Customer Service Reps Have No Access To Operational Departments Who Might Actually Be Able to Resolve The Customer's Problems. Customer Service Personnel are not allowed to forward the call to anyone within the company, nor to give out any contact other than that available on the company's web site (refer to #1 and #2 above). All contact with other departments (if any) is done out of sight of customer. It is only through the individual initiative of individual customer service reps willing to “skirt the system” (and, in some cases, risk their jobs) that customers get any satisfaction.

Don't Allow Problems to Be Escalated More Than One Level Above The Customer Service Rep. The customer might actually get his or her problem resolved! In all three organizations, customer service personnel informed me they are only allowed to escalate problems to the call center shift supervisor. The call center shift supervisors for all three informed me that (a) they are not allowed to escalate any problems to a higher authority; and (b) they are not allowed to give any contact information to the customer except the phone number to the Customer Service Desk (which I had called to reach them) and the web form with no feedback (see items 1 and 2 above).

Do Not Keep Any Promises to Follow-Up With The Customer. Most will just give up and quit trying. Call Center Shift Supervisors for all these companies seemed to have been provided with a first name (and sometimes, an initial to a last name) to give me once it became obvious that I was not going to go away. I can only assume these names are all fictitious, since not a single one of these individuals ever called me back, even though In some cases, I was provided a date and time for the call-back.

Force Your Customers To Hire An Attorney If They Want To Talk With Anyone Beyond The Help Desk. Nothing makes a customer cave in and pay than being forced to choose between paying a few hundred / thousand dollars and getting involved in a long, drawn out legal battle. Customer Service Personnel at all three banks informed me that the companies only released contact information for other departments (including Legal) to attorneys. This means that in order to resolve any problem that Customer Service personnel are not able/allowed to resolve (see items 1 through 6 above). The customer is forced to hire an attorney. I can think of only one reason for this policy: to push customers who have the temerity to press their claims to cave in and just “pay the damned money”.

Ignore the Law and As Many Government Rules, Regulations and Regulators As You think You Can Get Away With Avoiding. All three banks ignored certain aspects of the Fair Debt Collection and credit reporting laws; as well as various federal rules and court processes, and ignored a court orders. For me it was a great lesson in the benefits of three bank bailouts over three decades; we've taught these organizations that the laws and the rules don't apply to them.

I'm a cynical guy, but I'm not one who sees conspiracies behind every little coincidence I encounter. Unfortunately, sometimes “coincidence” just doesn't seem to cover the realities we encounter in day-to-day life. The amazing similarities between these three banks' problem resolution processes; their myopic focus on getting money out of me; and the almost identical excuses offered by their customer service reps each step of the way makes it hard for me to believe these processes weren't specifically designed to reduce their customers' “will to fight” and allow the banks to collect unwarranted fees pretty much “at will”.

Having said that, however, whether you share my cynical view of these institutions' processes or not, companies looking to build solid, useful, customer-friendly problem resolution processes can learn a lot from these banks' bad example. Avoiding the these eight elements will go a long way to ensuring your company remains a reasonable, rational, responsive organization.

Scott Adams might just have it right: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-05-15/ .

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If you have questions about designing and implementing effective customer service processes, post your questions here, or send them to my e-mail: tomfawls@council4smallbiz.com .

Don't Leave The Lawyer In Charge!

2010-05-13T18:33:00.000-04:00

Too many attorneys have an over-inflated view of their own innate superiority. They believe that being an “expert” at the law automatically makes them an expert at pretty much everything else; particularly at running a business. Unfortunately, these lawyers aren't above broadcasting advertisements and making statements that browbeat already scared clients into accepting this fantasy as fact.

Hence the jokes:

   Q: What do you call 25 skydiving lawyers?
   A: Skeet.

   Q: What do you call a lawyer gone bad?
   A: Senator.

   Q: What’s the difference between a lawyer and an onion?
   A: You cry when you cut up an onion.

Unfortunately, despite the jokes, too many managers fall for these advertising tactics; letting fear of the Law (and their attorneys) rule their world. For many, this fear drives them to give their attorneys full authority and final say on every business decision they make, whether or not that decision has any legal implication at all.

I once worked with a client who decided not to pursue a solid multi-million dollar business opportunity because his “lawyer didn't think it would work”. The lawyer objected not because it was illegal, unethical or had any legal risk, but because he just couldn't “...see how the company is going to make any money by adding another product and opening a new market." The client chose to follow his attorney's advice despite the fact that, by his own admission, the attorney had no knowledge of the client's industry, had only the barest understanding of the client's business, and hadn't even bothered to read the client's business plan that actually addressed the attorney's concerns.

Based solely on this inexperienced attorney's concern about an area in which he admitted he had no expertise, the client let a lucrative business opportunity pass him by.

Of course eighteen months later, after watching his chief competitor build a solid second business off the same opportunity; the client called to tell me how disappointed he was that I had let this huge opportunity slip by unnoticed. He then – with prompting from his idiot attorney, I'm sure – let me know that he was considering suing me for malpractice because I hadn't alerted him to such an obviously profitable opportunity.

He quieted down after I sent him copies of the memos I'd sent him almost two years earlier alerting him to the opportunity; detailing the pros, cons and possible risks of the opportunity; recommending he pursue the opportunity; and warning him that relying on the advice of anyone as inexperienced as his attorney when making critical business decisions was not the wisest course of action for the business.

While this is an extreme case I guess the point I'm trying to make here is this: Managers have a responsibility to run the business. While seeking (and heeding) the good advice of experts and skilled professionals is part of running the business, the final decision is always ours.

That means that we need to understand the capabilities and short comings of every individual advising us (including our attorneys) and weigh their advice accordingly. We need to stop letting fear of being wrong drive us into giving our unqualified attorneys rights and authority over areas where they have little training and even less real world experience. We should be as hesitant to put an attorney in charge of product design or deciding what new markets the company enters as we would be putting letting our Lead Engineer represent us in court. We need to learn to trust our own knowledge, experience and, yes, our own common sense when it comes to deciding what is best for our business.

Don't get me wrong, I encourage every client to have their attorney review the legality, enforceability and legal risk of every contract before they sign it and every major business decision before they implement it. However, I also tell clients to remember that lawyers are experts in a relatively narrow field of endeavor - the Law. Outside that narrow field, their advice should carry no more (and probably much less) weight than any other unqualified third party with an interest in the business. In this sense, attorneys are no different than experts in Engineering; Design, Marketing, or Business Management.

Every good attorney (and yes, despite the opening jokes, there truly are good attorneys) understands this and works to make sure their clients understand it as well.

So stop being afraid of your lawyer.

(All jokes quoted from http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Lawyer.htm on 13 May 2010 )

How Far Will We Go?

2010-05-11T11:55:00.000-04:00

It's amazing how rapidly standards change in today's world.

What was the greatest evil yesterday is the greatest good today; while the good that is eternal is now politically incorrect.

How did it start? Where does it end?

Unfortunately, the changes that brought us to this current point in history have been moving us forward, working to make ours a more understanding, a more patient, a more loving society seem to be disappearing. For the last few decades, it seems like we've been moving backward toward chaos and carnage, not forward toward order and honorable peace.

Our society, our economy, our nation exhibits all the destructive character traits that are the hallmarks of every great society in its decline:

Arrogance
Pride
Fear
Greed
Self indulgence
Anger

I recognize that the seeds of these sins lie within the breast of each and every man, woman and child who ever did, does now, or ever will live on this plane of existence.

I also believe, however, that each man, woman and child can choose to set aside this nature and work to be better than his "natural destiny"; to move above and beyond his or her own petty pleasures and desires. We can aspire and strive to know God and love our fellow man. Humans, with God's help, can put others ahead of themselves. They can choose to do the right thing over the easy thing. We can choose sacrifice for the good of others over satisfying their own desires.

Fifty years ago, this was type of character that society held up as the ideal. Then, our ideals were people of substance; selfless men and women who sacrificed for the good of the world, the good of the nation, the good of their neighbors and family. The future they looked for, the future they strived for, was a future that would last well beyond their own lifetime. They felt a responsibility to care for future generations. To set, to strive to meet, to teach their children standards that were sometimes difficult to achieve, but that, by the mere striving toward, brought “Good” into the world.

Today, our ideal men and women (dare we call the “idols”?) are arrogant, the self-centered, greedy, violent and outrageous. for too many, short term gain rules over long-term good; Cash truly is king; and an individual is only as valuable as what they can take from them right now. “Getting mine” seems to be the greatest good.

We kill the defenseless and defend the contemptible. "Personal Choice" and “Quality of life” have become just another way of saying: “You're only valuable if I say you're valuable!”

And before my confessor writes a scathing indictment of my behavior; please understand that I'm not pointing the “I'm better than you” finger, here, either. I'm as guilty as anyone here. Maybe more so. I was raised better. I was taught Right from Wrong. I know better and yet I continue to choose “Wrong”. I've contributed my share to the decline of family values, the lowering of standards; the general malaise that is our society today.

So this call to remember the good we strived for; this call to change; this call to action is directed, first and foremost, at me. And I guess that's the point of my posting this here. I'm going start by changing the way I think, act and live. And maybe, just maybe, that will help repair the damage I've done to the fabric of our world.

By now, those of you who've waded through the rest of this post are probably wondering what this all has to do with business. Well, I'm a firm believer that without a solid moral / ethical foundation no human enterprise will last for long...especially a business.

We'll talk more later.

How Not To Care For Contract Employees

2010-05-06T10:18:00.000-04:00

The way some companies treat their contractors amazes me.

A friend of mine was recently terminated from a company with whom she'd been working as a contract employee for almost ten years.

No warning. No text message. No e-mail. No “thank you very much for your services”. They simply locked her out of the system.

She only discovered that she'd been terminated when she tried to log in to her on-line account and received a message that her account was unavailable. When she called the help desk to report the problem, she was informed that she had been terminated for “falsifying company records”.

Seems the issue had "...been reviewed by QA and their decision is final." As the help desk employee put it, she "...can protest, but once QA approves it, no on is ever reinstated."

There are two problems with this scenario: first, she didn't do anything. She's never falsified a document in her life.

Second, she's been given no information about the documents she is accused of falsifying and she has been given no opportunity to defend herself. The help desk has refused to forward her to anyone in the company who could tell her about the charges...and the company's website has virtually no other contact information except the help desk number.

So now she's out. No notice; no warning; and no way to defend her reputation.

She doesn't know if she's going to be paid for the work she's done in the last few weeks. She's lost a ten-year business reference. She doesn't know how she's going to replace the income this work was bringing in. And as for the customers with whom she's built solid working relationships...who knows what they'll be told?

And understand that she was not a "trouble employee"; she has been an exemplary contractor. During the nearly 10 years she's been working for the company, she's had an exemplary performance record. She's been commended by a number of customers she's worked with and the company has regularly called on her to fix problems other contractors have caused – the last time being as recent as last month.

She has, in fact, done so well for them that she's often paid a premium to do quick turn-around jobs and other customer critical jobs.

Of course I'm sure her higher pay rate doesn't anything to do with this!

Needless to say, my friend is quite upset. And also, needless to say, I'm helping her draft a letter asking for review and demanding the libelous statements be removed from their files. I suspect we'll be making veiled references to lawyers, contacting customers and taking other appropriate action to restore her good name.

This practice has grown more and more common as the pool of available labor has increased...and, I suspect, it will only become more commonplace as the economy worsens.

Makes you wonder what the hell is wrong with some companies.

The Importance Of Being Honest

2010-05-04T15:29:00.000-04:00

Our water system quit working again today.

My wife and I live in a rural area and get our water from a well. For the last few weeks, an electrical problem of some sort has been tripping the breaker or keeping the pressure switch that kicks the well pump on and off from working.

I have reached the limit of my knowledge of how to fix this problem...which means I have to call someone to troubleshoot and repair the system.

That used to be an easy thing. We simply called the company we bought the system from and they came out to fix it. When we bought the system in 1997, we paid almost 33% more for a lifetime parts warranty that was supposed to cover full repair or replacement of any and all parts on the system. All we paid was the labor.

The company recently changed ownership and the new owner has decided to stop honoring the warranty we purchased. According to the company's receptionist, (I have been unable to get the owner to speak with me), the owner believes that the warranty my wife and I (and other customers) paid for is simply a “company policy” that he can change it any time it suits his needs. She explained that the company is not “contractually obligated” to live up to any of its warranties.

Unfortunately, I didn't find this out until October 2009 when I received a bill for some maintenance work that included the cost of parts. The parts were more than 66% of the total bill.

When I called the company to remind them that our system was covered by a lifetime parts warranty, I was informed of the new owner's position on warranty commitments. It was further explained to me that the company had a new, more aggressive policy for “dealing with customers in my situation” - they now send disputed bills to a collection agency and let them “...deal with customers like...” me.

I paid the bill because it was only a few hundred dollars and was simply not worth the time, money and aggravation that would have been involved in taking the company to court to enforcing the warranty.

I suspect that's what the company was counting on; that most customers in my situation would simply pay their bill and go away. Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that this is what has happened. My wife learned from the local handyman's wife (isn't the “wife network” wonderful?) that over the last year or so her husband has picked up a number of this company's former customers who were angered over the company's new warranty policies.

This small company has lost a number of customers because of their unilateral decision to renege on their contract. Even worse, by failing to be up-front and proactive in notifying customers affected by the change, they have angered some of their customers to the point where those customers now actively work to keep people from purchasing from the company.
What does this mean for your small business? I think there a few lessons here.

1.If you must change policies that affect your customers; be honest about it. Don't hide the changes. Give your customers some advance warning and give them the courtesy of explaining the rational behind the decision. Give your customers a chance to be magnanimous about things...offer them something of value in exchange for their agreeing to let you off the hook. Most customers will understand a company's need to change an obligation that is creating an undue financial or performance burden on them.

2.When doing a cost/benefit analysis, consider non-monetary impacts of the decision. Look at the possible negative publicity and negative impacts to the company's good name and reputation. This company not only lost a number of customers who'd been with them for years (we'd been working with them for 12+ years); they actually angered at least one of these long term customers enough so that I now actively warn others not to buy from the company.

3.Check with a lawyer to make sure you understand all the legal implications of your decision. Even though my wife and I chose not to go to court to enforce our rights, the company does, in fact, have a legal responsibility to live up to their lifetime parts warranty...and having to fight a customer in court can impact both

Oh yeah....when I paid our bill, I added a note to tell the company that we would never call them again and that I would make an effort to tell others about their new policies. So, because I try to be a man of my word, let me just say that if you ever live in the Central Florida area and need a water purification system installed (or need any plumbing done, for that matter) don't bother calling Frey Water Systems, Inc...they don't live up to their commitments.

(*Apologies to Oscar Wilde for stealing the title!)

Ways of Working

2010-04-30T12:21:00.000-04:00

With any new endeavor, the first step is often the hardest. That has been especially true for me getting this blog up and running.

The technical aspects haven't been the difficulty - Blogspot.com made it easy to get the site up and running. The difficult thing has been finding the motivation to force myself to write this first post...and to tighten up my ever flexible schedule to force myself to update it once or twice a week.

I think I've finally done it.

I use the word "force", because, as much as I like writing and as much as I LOVE giving advice, I am absolutely horrible at sticking to tasks that repeat over the long term - even tasks that I know are good for my business! Over the years, I've learned that I am more likely to keep up with these tasks if (a) they actually bring in income; (b) I've made a formal commitment to someone other than myself to actually do the task, and (c) if that third party actually checks up on me.

Sooo, knowing this about myself, I've finally taken the advice that I've given to numerous clients over the years: recognize the reality of how you work, and figure out a way of working that overcomes your weaknesses.

So that's what this blog will be about - helping you find ways of working that overcome shortcomings; eliminate difficulties; increase discipline and motivation; and generally help you run your business better.

I look forward to working with you all!

Tom