Leadership, Technology and Society

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Kerry Stackpole

Paige CompositorA fearsome battle about the future was being fought.  It wasn’t about political philosophy, geopolitical boundaries or land rights.  It was about the future of printing, more specifically composition and typesetting.  The battle in 1895 pitted an unknown watchmaker Ottmar Mergenthaler against one of America’s premiere humorists Mark Twain and an inventor James W. Paige.

The battle waged over which new mechanical device would replace the laborious and tedious work of hand setting type letter-by-letter with a new more mechanized solution.  The work was difficult, the machines were complex and dangerous.  The improvements in productivity and the gains in the consumption of printed material were enormous as a result of this extraordinary innovation.

One of these machines drove Mark Twain into bankruptcy.  Twain so believed in the Paige Compositor he spent over $350,000 (about $5.8 million in today’s dollars) on the invention writing check after check to support the dream.  He burned through his earnings as an author and the inheritance of his wife, Olivia.  The other machine, became the centerpiece of the revolution in line composition, typography and typeface design as both craft and art.  Ottmar Mergenthaler’s Linotype machine brought about extraordinary changes to the typesetting and offset printing industry.

I had the privilege of joining with a festive crowd of industry veterans at the Baltimore Museum of Industry to view the recently released documentary “Linotype – The Film”.  The collective knowledge, experience and wisdom in that room was a marvel to behold.  Women and men who had operated the Linotype during their career shared tales of their experiences.  Being sprayed with hot lead or catching a hand or a finger in the gears of the machine.  Knowing just by the sound of the machine that a malfunction was at hand.  The wonder and marvel of this huge mechanical device forming lines of type consistently and at a speed previously unknown to the industry.  The Baltimore Museum of Industry has a working Linotype machine and an extraordinary array of printing equipment from an earlier time.  It’s fascinating to be able to see and hear the Linotype machine whir, click and clink its way to the creation of a line of lead type.  The nostalgia in the Museum’s print shop, among the assembled crowds and indeed throughout the documentary itself was thick and wistful.

For leaders, it was a vast reminder of how quickly our environments can change.  How do we choose between one technology or the other?  In today’s social media, digital frameworks and e-tools there will surely be winners and losers, just as there were between the Linotype machine and the Paige Compositor.  As a leader how do you choose?  What criteria gives you the edge in making the right choice?  What have you already learned that will strengthen your decision-making powers?  The fear of lost jobs with automation in typesetting was hugely disorienting.  Yet, growing productivity in typesetting gave rise to a huge demand in printed materials, which in turn gave rise to more jobs and opportunities.  No one could have known or guessed such an outcome.  Where are those opportunities today?

While the legacy of the Linotype machine still lives on in museums and printing shops around the United States and in parts of the Continent, the one and only surviving Paige Compositor can be found at Mark Twain’s homestead in Hartford, Connecticut.  Leadership can be a lonely place when you make the wrong bet.

 

 

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Why Leaders Should Practice Forgetting

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Kerry Stackpole

Leaders and ForgettingWhen it comes to common knowledge, leaders have a lot to learn about forgetting.  Why?  Because forgetting is essential to finding new, innovative solutions to long running problems and challenges.  It’s way easy to reach into one’s memory grabbing a solution that worked pretty well on a similar problem years ago.  Guess what?  It’s probably not a similar problem in today’s world.  It probably won’t fix it.  It might make it worse.

I was reminded of this leadership dilemma by a recent Wall Street Journal article describing the musical career of singer-songwriter Norah Jones.  The writer John Jurgensen quotes Zach Hochkeppel, senior vice president of marketing at EMI Music.   “She [Jones] wants fans her own age,” Hochkeppel is reported as saying. “To maintain this über-adult fan base is really difficult. You have to do the same record over and over, or come up with stunts.”  Ouch.  Are über-adult audiences really that unyielding?  Isn’t it possible this “common knowledge” about audiences is irrelevant in today’s shifting markets?  I’ve listened to a lot of Norah Jones music in the last decade from her most popular Come Away With Me to The Fall to the Chill Album with Peter Malick.  It’s all different and all charming in its stylings.  The same?  Not so much.

It’s hugely difficult for leaders to overcome the tendency to live amidst our memories.  They are, after all, what got us here.  Yet for those willing to re-connect to their “beginner’s mind”, it’s quite obvious as author Marshall Goldsmith reminds us, what got you here, won’t get you there.  The notion behind a beginner’s mind is that you let go of knowing.  Don’t know instead.  Be open to new ideas and be eager to learn.  Set aside your preconceptions and give yourself permission to consider the possibilities.

As leaders we are pretty hardwired at knowing what we know.  Our deliberations and our decision-making define our work and in large measure our success.  Yet as every leader learns–sometimes in the hardest way possible–is how little we really do know.  The blazing uncertainty of today’s marketplace, the continued acceleration of technology and the surprising discovery that workplace skills essential to success in a global economy may be in short supply is forcing leaders to seriously reconsider.

If the time has come for you as a leader in your organization to re-think strategy, reconsider business models and or accelerate the essential innovations required for success, you might want to take that first step and start by forgetting.

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Innovation At The Start

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Kerry Stackpole

Kao'd At The Start Wired 4 LeadershipI recently had the opportunity to spend a day and a half with innovator John Kao at the ASAE Great Ideas Conference to discuss the “Four Questions of Strategic Innovation”.  Kao, well-known for his extraordinary creative expertise also shares a deep abiding commitment to helping others leverage innovative solutions to address significant problems.  His diverse approach to teaching was unique, his approach to problem-solving inspiring and his clarity about the far and near-term value of innovation were enlightening.  Innovation at the start requires a big canvas.

In addition to being an extraordinary thinker and provocateur, Kao is also an accomplished jazz pianist.  I couldn’t help wonder how many other seminar leaders ask for a “Baby Grand” piano in their workshop sessions.  He took to the piano throughout our meeting.  Sometimes he played during the breaks—or more often—when he asked us to reflect on key initiatives or strategies related to our own innovation goals.  His mastery at the keyboard created an immediate change in the setting, reminding me of the wonderful quote “Innovation like jazz, sometimes occurs in the quiet spaces between the notes.”

There was a lot to learn and ponder in between the notes and throughout the sessions.  Everything from what exactly is innovation and what sort of road map takes you where you need and want to go as you seek your next success.  Staying power and understanding the unique position of your organization as an “innovation engine” were huge takeaways as was the emerging reality there is no one “playbook” or “recipe” that assures success.  Innovation it turns out is pretty organic in nature and the key leadership disciplines that allow you succeed in other venues, will probably help you succeed in innovation.

  • Be clear about the strengths and weaknesses of your team.
  • Know what processes or products you want to focus on.
  • Resolve the creative tensions.
  • Understand your organization’s risk thresholds.
  • Create an environment free of judgements and preconceptions.

Most importantly, get started now.  A sense of urgency it turns out—for so many things in life—is a huge motivating force and a critical variable in creating success for your organization, your team and your own leadership.

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Process or Vision? The Making of Great Leaders

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Kerry Stackpole

Vision or ProcessCan great leaders succeed by focusing on process over vision?  Is luck a more important indicator in the success of great companies?  Why is it leaders point to their own talents when things go well, but tend to fault economics, market conditions, regulations or the shortcoming of others for failures?

An article in this week’s Guardian UK takes aim at bankers in the United Kingdom including those at the top of Barclays and RBS.  The article reports that after a public outcry Stephen Hester at RBS waived his large bonus while Bob Diamond at Barclays has declined to say what he’ll do in light of missing RSE (Return on Shareholder Equity) by 13%.  The writer makes the point that in good times, the public were led to believe it was the “sheer genius” top executives and their teams that led to record profits and the resulting bonuses.  In light of poor returns, it’s all about economic conditions and regulatory interference.  Can leaders really have it both ways?

This month’s Associations Now features a Jim Collins interview in which “luck” is discussed and debated as a meaningful variable in the life of great companies.  It is certainly easy to dismiss luck as any sort of meaningful variable in leadership.  Acknowledging luck seems counter-intuitive to many leaders. Yet there is an element of good fortune in every leadership story.  A moment when an important element fortuitously went your way. Can you be a great leader if all your successes are nothing more than lucky breaks?  Probably not.  Acknowledging the opportunities created by a random lucky breaks helps leaders stay humble and sharp.  Collins says there something else about “luck” that cannot be overlooked.

How important is process over vision?  In a review of The Real Romney by Michael Kranish and Scott Helman book reviewer Benjamin Wallace-Wells writing in The Washington Post explores the unique talents and skills on display as Mitt Romney and his team at Bain restructured American industry.  There are some who believe it saved the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake.  It also may have been at the core of the strength of the investment returns created by Bain Capital in the 80′s and 90′s as they restructured countless, struggling companies with striking success. For their firm it solidified Bain as the “go to” consultants for fixing troubled firms and industries.  For investors, it created extraordinary returns.  Yet the question remains, can great leaders succeed by focusing on process over vision?

As Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “Well done is better than well said.”  The case for execution is well known to leaders and managers alike.  Yet questions remain.  What are the risks of brilliantly executing the wrong vision or process?  Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan in their breakthrough book, Execution – The Art of Getting Things Done  make the point that leaders who execute look for deviations from desired managerial tolerances—the gap between the desired and the actual outcome in everything—then they move to close the gap and raise the bar still higher across the organization.  Leadership clearly demands the ability to visualize and articulate a possible future for your organization while you continually assure that vision’s implementation.  Does execution create a competitive strength unmatched by vision?  You decide.

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How 50 Wise Women Are Changing Our World

Posted on December 25, 2011 by Veronica Verdolini

The Washington Post delivered a wonderful and informative Christmas gift to its readers–an illuminating story about the growing array of talented women in leadership–and the writer and force behind the success of Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Women conference, Pattie Sellars.  Written by On Leadership editor Lillian Cunningham the article, The Rolodex that defined power, describes the dramatic success of the Most Powerful Women Conferences and the struggles both inside and outside the editorial salons at Fortune Magazine on how best to illustrate and think about the ranking and portrayal of women leaders on the rise.  In the article, Sellers tells of insisting the women be ranked. “It’s the only way that guys will read this thing, because guys are into stats and status and size and rank.” she told her editors.

In an era of when the gains of women in the workplace are taken for granted by many, Sellers stories, the conference and the team at Fortune Magazine continue to showcase the struggles, disparities and the awkward challenges of being first.  Sellers also showcases the assets and advantages women leaders share, the benefits of using power for good and the strength of camaraderie women leaders find with one another.

Lest you think the Most Powerful Women event exclusively celebrates women, two men made it onto the invite list. You’ll want to read the article to find out who and why.

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How Safe Is Your Organization?

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Kerry Stackpole

In 2011 approximately 275,000 organizations automatically lost their tax-exempt status because they did not file legally required Internal Revenue Service annual reports for three consecutive years. While the IRS believes the vast majority of these organizations are defunct, a review of the Revocation of Exempt Organizations roster show a surprising number that are not–or at least didn’t intend to be.  Which gives rise to wondering who exactly is leading these organizations and why are they ignoring their fundamental responsibilities?

While it’s easy to dismiss revocation as an action of an out-of-control bureaucracy where complexity rules and common sense is an oxymoron, but that reaction truly misses the point.  Every leader has a foundational set of responsibilities that simply may not be ignored.  Ignoring them risks not only your own career, but in a broader sense the integrity of your profession.  We cannot expect those we lead to respect us, our decisions or our commands when we so blatantly and irresponsibly ignore our most fundamental obligations.

Working and serving with volunteer leaders and voluntary boards it is easy to understand the operational complexities and difficult choices volunteers face serving in these roles and sharing these responsibilities.  Understanding the real challenges facing members, being certain the association is maintaining its outward focus to serve those needs and assessing the effectiveness of it all, is definitely not for the casual observer nor feint of heart.

Still too many boards fumble while working to get it right.  The very nature of their voluntary service—part-time engagement, competing business and family obligations, limited meetings, ill-defined reporting schemes, ideological splinters, and limited or non-existent safeguards—all serve not only to increase the risks but limit the volunteer’s ability to garner perspective, glean incisive intelligence and truly understand just where the organization stands. One place to look is an ineffective or dysfunctional relationship with the chief staff executive.  What do Board’s want from their senior staff leaders?

Research by Tecker International identified four beliefs that volunteer boards want to have about their senior staff.  They want to know senior staff:

(a) Authentically value and appreciate what they do to earn a living
and genuinely like them as people;

(b) Place the needs and interests of the organization and its mission
over personal career goals;

(c) Are sufficiently familiar with the conditions of the organization
and its environment to help them understand what is going on; and

(d) Are sufficiently knowledgeable about the dynamics of associations
to give them good advice about choices in discussions of challenges
and opportunities.

It’s not just Boards.  Staff leaders have a critical role to play in building and sustaining mutual trust and respect.  Sadly, the stories of dishonesty, mis-direction and less than transparent reporting by trusted  leaders are commonplace today. (a rudimentary Google search will bring you over a half million hits)  Some deceptions are big and brash, like the saga of Bill Aramony at United Way.  Others are considerably smaller.  All serve to undermine the essential confidence in our tax exempt organizations and trust in those we call leaders.  So what do you do as a leader to assure greater success?

One place to start is revisiting the core standards of your chosen profession and engaging your team in discussions about just what they mean for your organization.  If your organization has a code of ethics or conflict of interest policies bring those to the table too.  If not, perhaps now is a good time to get started.  You can use the work of your industry, other associations, or the guidance of your legal counsel as a starting point.

ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership established a set of Core Ethical Standards to which it encourages its members to aspire:

  1. Respect and uphold public laws that govern one’s work;
  2. Be honest in conducting the member’s business;
  3. Respect the confidentiality of information gained through one’s work;
  4. Act fairly;
  5. Foster an ethical culture through one’s work; and
  6. Take responsibility for one’s conduct.

Rick Cohen writing in The Nonprofit Quarterly tells a story about a building inspector who agreed to wear a wire to help prosecutors catch a crooked developer.  He did it Cohen writes, “to stand up in his own individual way for governmental integrity, for the public interest.”

If you want to lead you must be prepared to “stand-up” every day for what’s right, what’s required and what’s essential for the progress and continuity of your organization.  Don’t let what you don’t know limit that.

Posted in Ethics, Governance, Leadership, Servant Leadership, Volunteers | Leave a comment

Seven Strategies for Growth in Tough Times

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Kerry Stackpole

Ever worry that you’ve used up all your ideas for recruiting new customers, retaining long-time clients, or filling up the seats at your seminars? Is your business in danger of being like all the rest?  Try looking beyond your business for fresh inspiration. The following marketing strategies are drawn from techniques that corporations, small business, and “plain old students” of human psychology are using to turn the current hard times into better ones.

1. Show that your firm is aware of your customer’s problems and committed to their success. Empathy can go a long way. These days a surprising number of businesses are stretching payment due dates, forgiving payments for one or two months, and even allowing clients to develop their own payment terms as needed. Your organization may want to do the same as a means of gaining loyalty and retaining customers without incurring huge risk. For example, some gyms offers a six-month dues holiday for unemployed members.

2. Build bridges between those who are leaving the area and those who are just arriving. Consider offering a provisional membership or new customer discounts, a means through which a new person can acquire the remainder of a previous customer’s membership or take advanatge of a loyal customer discount earlier than usual. This kind of carryover can prevent disconnect while building familiarity and then loyalty.

3. Remember that keeping a current customer is cheaper than acquiring new ones time and time again. This subscription-marketing concept translates well to most all businesses. After all, industry estimates indicate that getting a new customer costs seven times as much as keeping the one that you already have. Multiyear service renewals and even discounts for renewing or purchasing early make a lot of sense these days.  Similarly, you may be aware of firms that offer prompt-payment discounts to motivate customers to pay their invoices faster. To accelerate sales and improve cash flow, your organization might consider giving 2 percent off payments received within 10 days of invoicing.

4. Meet the needs of niche markets by segmenting customer products and services. Corporate America provides endless examples of how this can work. American Express offers more than a dozen variations on its charge card. You can get it with bonus points, annual fees, or no fees. It comes in platinum, gold, green, or blue. You can also get it with the option to pay your balance in full every month or the option to stretch your payments out. How many choices do you give your customers? An obvious way to start meeting individual needs is with e-delivery of books, seminars, and other services.

5. Look for opportunities to get and give free items. Nowhere is it written that an organization has to buy all its own materials. Be alert: Firms within your industry that are downsizing probably have surplus gear, supplies, and, yes, even products they need to move. These items may make terrific incentives for signing deals early, signing up for multiyear terms, or simply enrolling for a course. Also consider how surplus items can meet customer needs. For example, do you have affiliate or vendors with goods and services that you can offer to regular customers for charity auctions, purchase incentives, and program support?

6. Always market with an eye to price sensitivity. Often we assume that our customers realize what’s included in the price of our products, services or events. We’re usually wrong. When customers get extra value from your services, spotlight that—especially if you have upstart competitors that charge lower initial fees but add on the price of other services.  Think Southwest Airlines versus the rest on baggage fees.  Make it easy for customers to compare apples to apples.

7. Learn the fine art of bundling. Does your organization offer services or special loyalty programs? Consider including the fee and materials in a bundle at a price that’s slightly lower than the total would be if everything came a la carte.  And do you have a best-selling product or service in your mix? Study purchasing patterns to see which other materials customers order with your best seller, and then market them to customers together or offer them as a bundle on your Web site.  But don’t stop there. Can you combine other services or fees as a one-price package? Is there a way to offer product updates or service renewal as part of a purchase bundle? Make no mistake—smart bundling can bring greater convenience and economy to both you and your customers.
When it comes to making the most of these seven lessons, much of it comes down to being aware of your customers’ unique circumstances—and delivering value even before you’re asked. So be flexible. Use your ingenuity. And stay alert to how learning from others’ experiences can help you find innovative solutions to your marketing problems.

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Why Quick Thinking Helps You Thrive

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Kerry Stackpole

If changing an unproductive habit, resolving a professional stumbling block or making mistakes were as simple as being aware of it, we’d all be living perfect lives. For most of us linear living is simply not possible, so we live messy, imperfect lives in which mistakes, shortcomings and outright failures stand alongside our most joyous, successful and exuberant lives.
Change has always been part of our landscape. To say so is almost cliché. What is less recognized and rarely acknowledged today is the velocity and complexity of change. Ad F. Scheepbouwer, CEO of KPN Telecom Netherlands points out that in telecommunications, “We have seen more change in the past ten years than in the previous 90.”  One of the results of this rapid influx of change is the equally rapid development of a change gap—the disparity between how much change is expected and how much leaders believe they can successfully handle.
Research conducted by the IBM Corporation reports that between 2006 and 2008, the “change gap” jumped from 8% to 22% among CEO’s responding to the survey. The rapid pace of change creates fresh challenges throughout organizations as efforts are made to integrate a fast moving array of new technologies, market opportunities, and people skills. Technological advances are reshaping value propositions, influencing products and services and changing how organizations interact with their members and customers. As specialized information businesses, associations and professional societies are well positioned to successfully get ahead of change and potentially drive it for their members and stakeholders. The key to doing so is to recognize that speed and urgency are the currency of the day.
An imperfect swift decision may still offer greater benefits than a slow agonizing one when it comes to leveraging change, capturing new markets and expanding the influence of your organization.

 

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Steve Jobs and His Legacy

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Kerry Stackpole

Steve Jobs died yesterday at the age of 56.  I always found a bit of childish delight in knowing that someone of such extraordinary accomplishment shared by a coincidence of life the exact same birthday as my own.  Steve Jobs was a passionate and unrelenting innovator who taught us the importance and essential beauty purposeful design brought to our lives.  He gave us things we didn’t even know we needed, until they arrived.

In a post earlier this year I shared a story told by Steve about his meanderings during college and the resulting impact on typography.  His ideas and his work altered the future of industries and individuals.  There was no small change in his undertakings.  “Think Different” wasn’t an advertising slogan, it was a mantra for his leadership and success.  That Steve Jobs will be missed is undeniable.  That he will forever be remembered is too.

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Why Leaders Need To Think Creatively

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Kerry Stackpole

“The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution…To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old questions with a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance…”               – Albert Einstein

Often thought to be the exclusive domain of artists, actors, scientists and writers, creativity is oft deemed an unworthy tool for business. Innovation and creativity rise and fall in popularity as a business tool never quite rising to the level of a fad, but oftentimes equally disregarded in good economic times.  After all, in the world of business one dwells in the probable, likely, financially sustainable, and most fancifully market-driven economics. If creativity and capitalism co-exist, is it only for the temporal purpose of competitive advantage?

Joseph Schumpeter, the noted economist thought otherwise. “This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism.” he wrote. “It is what capitalism consists in and what every capitalist concern has got to live in.” For all practical purposes embracing a willingness to cannibalize our greatest works in search of even greater achievement is inherently an essential component of both capitalism and mission success.

Embracing the concept of fresh eyes—the sense of seeing something for the first time even though you have witnessed it many times before—is an essential mindset for Creative
Destruction.  Coming to understand our creativity is entwined with coming to understand
ourselves as leaders both in a personal and professional sense.  When it comes to rethinking the future, it helps to know about where you are now.  Ask yourself these questions and start thinking forward.

Awareness:
What am I feeling right now?

Focus:
What do I want right now? Do I need to step back, pause
and look at this moment more objectively?

Fresh Eyes:
What’s happening here? How did we get to where we are?

Choice:
What am I doing right now to prevent myself from getting what I want?

Posted in Executive Development, Innovation, Leadership, Servant Leadership | Leave a comment