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I have learned a lot about creating happiness from Buddhist Philosophy.  Buddha would have made a great team member for the Somerset Business Consulting Team because he dedicated his life to eliminating the suffering in the world.  The Somerset Business Consulting Team has taken the same exact vow; we just state our objective in the positive result that we want to achieve–creating happiness.

 Buddha taught that there were Four Truths in the world:

1. Suffering exists

2. There is a cause for this suffering

3. There is a way out

4. Perfect thought, perfect word & perfect deed

I have never had difficulty getting a consensus on Truth #1; there is plenty of suffering and gnashing of teeth in the business world.

There are those who will try to argue with Truth # 2, but any successful businessperson knows that we have to accept responsibility for our current circumstances.  All of our organizations are uniquely organized by us to get exactly the results we are currently getting.

The most useful “Truths” are numbers 3 and 4, so I would like to dedicate the rest of this post to how these can apply to the business world.

The Way Out

Knowing that there are causes for all organizational suffering and that there is a way by which it may be ended is only useful if you know how to do it.

Fortunately, Buddha did not leave this process to chance and provided a specific system that has been used for 2,500 years to reduce suffering in the world.

• Perfect Thought

• Perfect Word &

• Perfect Deed

The importance of perfect thought is the reason why the most successful people, families and organizations have mission, vision and value statements and strategic plans.  It makes sure that everyone is focused on and thinking about the same things and the right things. 

Buddha taught that you needed to seek mind control first.  Without perfect thought, you will not be able to progress any further toward your full potential.

However, perfect thought alone will not ensure your ultimate success.  You need to enlist perfect word or communication using all the communication tools currently available to make sure that everyone is engaging in the perfect thought that leads to perfect deed or actions. 

Perfect word or communication is essential leadership; the act of getting everyone on the same page and moving synergistically in the same direction.

The following is a quick list of basic communication tools at the disposal of leaders today.

• Email

• Voicemail

• Podcasts

• Videos

• Intranets

• Internet

• Memos

• Individual face-to-face verbal and body language

• Conference calls

• Video conferences

• Group meetings

Ultimately, success comes down to execution.  Perfect deed refers to our actions.  These are the choices we make with each present moment of our lives.  We literally create our future by the choices we make in each of our present moments.  We can create a future of reaching our full potential or a future of frustration and mediocrity through the cumulative effect of these decisions.

Buddha taught this about our actions and deeds:

My actions are my only true belongings.  I cannot escape the consequences of my actions.  My actions are the ground upon which I stand.

The power of the system comes through the synergistic and interdependent nature of the three distinct components: perfect thought, perfect word and perfect deed.

If you have engaged in perfect thought and communicated these thoughts effectively, you create an environment where perfect action can take place if you have the right people on your team.

Have you found a way out from all of the organizational suffering in the business world today? 

We would love to hear from you!

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The inspiration for today’s post was created as I participated recently on Liz Strauss’s blog.  She provided a post on July 3, 2008 called “The Pendulums, The Level, The Relationships and Commerce.”  Please see the link below for the complete post.

http://www.successful-blog.com/1/the-pendulums-the-level-the-relationships-and-commerce/ 

Below is an excerpt from her post:

After years in educational publishing, I began to see a pattern. The philosophy of the day would swing from open classroom and individualized instruction to high-structure and rote learning. It would take about ten years, then the pendulum would swing back again 

 Below her post in comment # 8, I wrote the following:

Liz, 

Happy belated birthday, I hope it was a great one.   

You are correct that we see the pendulum challenge everywhere.  For example, just look at Wall Street!  First we had the dot.com bubble burst and then the housing and subprime bubble all in the span of a decade.  You don’t have to look to far back to see many more examples. 

I wish I could explain why the most intellectually intelligent people seem to do the most stupid things.  The best I can come up with when I try to give us the benefit of the doubt is that you can chalk this phenomenon up to a simple lack of respect for the study of history.  The more honest and less hopeful answer is that some of these business disasters are also caused by pure unadulterated greed. 

The basic cycles do seem to repeat themselves in predictable cycles in business as well as education.  Jack Welch lists one of the important aspects of leadership as vision.  He defines vision as the ability to see around corners and literally see the future.  Seeing the future is made easier when we reference and understand the past. 

Seeing the future may seem superhuman, but it really isn’t.  Certainly, not all of us are capable of vision, but we will only know if we are to the extent we are actually looking. 

We get caught up in the irrational exuberance of the day to day.  We don’t find the truth because we don’t look for it.  We want to believe that the current business bubble du jour will not burst even though this is not rational thought.  We become too emotional and lose sight of basic common sense knowledge.  Things that seem to good to be true will not be sustainable over the long haul. 

I love Jim Collins’ story about Winston Churchill’s “Ministry of Truth” from “Good to Great.”  We all need these Ministries of Truth in our lives.  We need to surround ourselves with people with the wisdom to look to the past to assist them in seeing the future.  We need to make sure that they also possess the strength of character to speak out loud and clear and are determined and persistent enough to be heard. 

One basic truth in life is that common sense is NOT too common.  That said there are people who have this intangible talent and we need to seek them out and make sure they are part of our inner circles. 

Thanks again for the thoughtful post and have a great holiday weekend. 

Howard 

Do you have a Ministry of Truth? 

How do you stay level and avoid the Pendulum effect? 

Today’s post is from Jason Bainter, CPA, MBA (jbainter@somersetcpas.com) of Somerset’s Entrepreneurial Team.

I would like to talk a little about business and technology.  In today’s environment technology is rampant and every business person relies on technology. However, have you ever stopped to think just how sufficient technology is? In his book “Necessary But Not Sufficient,” Eliyahu M. Goldratt says

“… technology is a necessary condition, but it’s not sufficient. To get the benefits….we must also change the rules that recognize the existence of the limitation. Common sense.”  

It seems that in today’s environment too much reliance is put on technology. Granted computers can print out dozens of good reports but unless someone knows how to read those reports they are useless. Business professionals need to get back to fundamentals and start analyzing the information in those reports. 

It is worthy to note, that analyzing business reports are good only if they have been produced and are analyzed in a timely manner. Many times reports sit on desks for days or weeks and once someone gets the time to analyze them, the information is historical and no longer of importance. As Howard Cox noted, “Management information is not like a fine wine, the information DOES NOT improve with age.” Maybe your business situation isn’t a good one and you may think that putting off the analysis will somehow improve your situation. In reality, not knowing your situation is going to hurt more in the long term than the useful information you can pull out of the computer generated reports. Why put off fixing something, when you can start fixing it today. 

The bad thing is, analyzing this information is not taught in colleges; it is taught in the everyday workings of a business.  When reports are analyzed properly and timely, information is garnered that can help run a business efficiently and cost effectively. We, as business professionals, need to get back to the common sense approach of reviewing how our businesses are functioning and how to get more out of what we have. One technique that can help you is Pareto Analysis. Per Wikipedia:

“Pareto analysis is a statistical technique in decision making that is used for selection of a limited number of tasks that produce significant overall effect. It uses the Pareto principle - the idea that by doing 20% of work you can generate 80% of the advantage of doing the entire job. Or in terms of quality improvement, a large majority of problems (80%) are produced by a few key causes (20%).

Pareto analysis is a formal technique useful where many possible courses of action are competing for your attention. In essence, the problem-solver estimates the benefit delivered by each action, then selects a number of the most effective actions that deliver a total benefit reasonably close to the maximal possible one.”

This technique will help your analysis be successful by measuring only that which matters the most and is of utmost importance.

Technology is a great asset and is a necessary evil, but it is not sufficient to rely on just technology, you must rely on your own understanding of your business and the years of knowledge that you have to create a profitable and fulfilling business. 

How sufficient is technology at your business?

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The mission for our Blog is to be “Your playbook for creating happiness and building business value.”

However, it has been a few weeks since I dedicated a post specifically to creating happiness. As I reflected on this over the long holiday weekend, I decided it was time to go to the dentist; specifically, Dr. Paddi Lund. You can learn more about Paddi at his website http://www.paddilund.com/.

Dr. Lund’s book “Building The Happiness-Centered Business” is a masterpiece of wisdom and simplicity. His book is a very quick, easy and enjoyable read, and it makes a compelling case for re-evaluating our business practices at their very core.

There are several big thoughts in the book, but my favorite is the concept that we all too often get caught up in a cycle of believing we can buy happiness with unhappiness.  

His point is that we might spend 40 or more hours a week settling for working somewhere that does not make us happy. We engage in this misery in order to earn a paycheck with which we attempt to purchase happiness in the form of houses, cars, vacations, etc.

This is a foolish and futile endeavor to say the least. Paddi suggests turning this model upside down and striving to create happiness at work. If you succeed in that effort, then you can leverage the results of that happiness at work on happiness at home and in the world itself.

Therefore, as an employee, you should seriously reconsider employment that does not fundamentally make you happy. As an employer, you can significantly differentiate your business and win the war for talent by focusing on manufacturing happiness as opposed to products and services.

There are two more big thoughts in his book. One is that business systems are the key to simplifying business and making the consistent creation of happiness possible. Without business systems, you are left with chaos.

This point reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite business gurus:

Procedure is what separates us from the evil forces of chaos.
   –Buzz Lightyear 

Secondly, Paddi discovered that most of the unhappiness in his business was not related to the amount of money that they made or the pace of the work, but it was largely determined by the way he and his teammates treated each other.

He put all of these concepts together to create a “Courtesy System” of 8 performance standards to create happiness at work. For example, performance standard number one is to speak very politely using a person’s name and to say “please” and “thank you” at a minimum.

The remainder of the courtesy system is just as simple and filled with common sense. The reason it works is that common sense is not very common and, therefore, must be indoctrinated within your business culture.

You may be wondering how something so small as a rigorously enforced courtesy system could create such a huge difference in organizational results. The answer is contained in “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” by Malcolm Gladwell.

Gladwell describes the science behind the solution as the criminology concept of “the broken windows theory.” This theory is also highlighted in detail by Rudy Giuliani in his “Leadership” book.

The metaphor of the broken window is that it is much more likely for a normally law abiding citizen or even the criminally inclined to throw a rock through a window if there is already one broken window. It is about the power of context.

The examples given in Gladwell’s and Giuliana’s books for the proof of the theory is how New York City was able to transform itself from the most crime infested big city in America to the safest within the decade of the 90’s. They reduced their murder and other violent crimes rates by prosecuting misdemeanors like squeegee men, public urination, graffiti & turnstile jumping.

What systems do you use to manufacture happiness at work?

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I wanted to use today’s post to implore you to be authentic both organizationally and individually.  

I have thought about this lately as it relates to the common pitfall of trying to be too politically correct.  The bottom line is that if you try to be everything to everybody you run the increasing risk of ending up nothing to nobody.

When we try to sanitize ourselves and/or our workplaces, we just end up with plain vanilla ice cream.  The result is bland and lacks a certain spice that makes life both at home and at work worth living to its fullest.

I am NOT suggesting that we be insensitive, uncaring or bigoted.  Quite the contrary, diversity is necessary within an organization in order for it to reach its full potential.  Optimum performance requires us to value each other’s differences, and this is how we create the synergy of 1+1=11.

What I AM suggesting is that you create what Jim Collins and Jerry Porras described as a “cult like culture” in their book “Built to Last”.  Below in an excerpt from Chapter 6:

We found that visionary companies tend to be more demanding of their people than other companies, both in terms of performance and congruence with the ideology.  Joining these companies reminds me of joining an extremely tight-knit group or society. And if you don’t fit, you better not join.  It’s binary: You’re either in or you’re out, and there seems to be no middle ground.  It’s almost cult-like.

Just to be clear, in one post I have suggested that I want you to be unsanitary and cult-like.  Generally, both of these terms carry negative connotations.  But I believe that they both have positive meaning within the context of striving for true authenticity both individually and organizationally.

Some great examples of extraordinary leaders that have practiced this principle are Jack Welch and Rudy Giuliani.  Their authenticity generated much criticism during their tenures as CEO and Mayor respectively.  They wisely stayed to course and did not fall into the trap of sanitizing themselves until they were no longer distinguishable from any other leader.

Some examples of extraordinary enduring organizations with an unsanitary and cult-like culture are Wal-Mart, IBM, Nordstrom, HP, Proctor and Gamble, Motorola, Philip Morris, Marriott, Disney, 3M, J&J, Merck and the United States Marine Corps. 

The bottom line here is that if you do not stand for something, you are likely to fall for anything.

In closing, here is one more passage from Chapter 6 of “Built to Last”:

Nordstrom reminds us of the United States Marine Corps - tight, controlled, and disciplined, with little room for those who will not or cannot conform to the ideology.

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The idea for today’s post came to me as I reviewed Liz Strauss’ blog posting from June 15, 2008 titled “Five Tools Chris Brogan Uses for Listening and 8 Ways We Get the Most From Listening Tools.”  Please see the link below for the complete post.

http://www.successful-blog.com/1/five-tools-chris-brogan-uses-for-listening-and-8-ways-we-get-the-most-from-listening-tools/#comment-999371

I have summarized my favorites from her 8 ways to get the most from listening for you below:

• Listen for the odd response that is way out of line. Someone on the edges of the responses could be offering an Einstein-like response.

• Listen for the spaces between the words. Ask some question about what’s not being said and listen again and again.

• Listen for the things that you don’t want to hear.

• Listen to find the people who have more to offer than opinions, but innovative ideas and product plans.

• Listen to find the evangelists who love your company, who defend you when you’re attacked. Let them know they’re appreciated.

• Listen for ways that you might bring back what folks said to show the people who work hard on your products that people are paying attention to them.

Below her post in comment #6, I provided the following as it relates to active listening and the importance of listening:

Liz,

Thanks to you and Chris for the list.

The subject area is so important; I just wanted to add my two favorite listening related tips.  

First, Stephen Covey emphasizes that you should listen with your eyes as much or more than you listen with your ears.

Second, I always remind business executives that you need to be listening to your best customers because they represent your competitor’s best prospects.  If you aren’t listening to them, someone else surely will!

Thanks again,

Howard

What are your favorite listening tools, rules and success stories?

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The Somerset Business Success Strategies blog is dedicated to being “Your playbook for creating happiness and building business value.”

One of the means we use to that end is to provide you with Growth Tools.  Many of the tools will necessitate some type of organizational change to become effective.

An email exchange I had with a client this week really got me to focus in on this age old problem of change management.  Please see the content of that email below:

No matter how well intentioned, it is very easy to fall back into predictable familiar patterns.  It takes roughly 21 days to build a sustainable new habit.

Organizational change is a little like going to the moon.  Most of the thrust is needed from takeoff until you break the Earth’s atmosphere.  Takeoff for you was Friday the 30th.  Breaking free of the Earth’s atmosphere for you will occur after approximately 21 days of sustained effort to integrate the new tools you have learned into your daily routine.

Once you get into outer space or your new frontier of change, really all it takes is constant, little, minor adjustments, but very little thrust.  Moon missions were only on their intended paths about 3% of the trip.  Therefore, they required constant checking and re-checking of the flight path. 

However, the adjustments needed to get the flight back on track were minor and took very little energy as long as they engaged in the constant checking and re-checking to make sure they were not too far out of their plan. 

If you let your change initiative, get too far off track, it is almost like starting all over again.

As I reflected on the massive difficulties and frustrations organizations go through to evolve and change and the resulting amount of headache and heartache involved it occurred to me that we are using the wrong tool for the job.

For those of you who attempt home improvement projects around the house, you can well appreciate the value of having the right tool for the job.  It makes the job at hand infinitely easier and more enjoyable.

So, let’s make organizational change easier and more enjoyable and more successful by making sure we are using the correct tool.

The light bulb that went off in my head is that you CANNOT manage change because change is largely a people function.  Stephen Covey has always taught that you manage things and you lead people, but you can’t lead things or manage people.

Yes, change is process oriented as well and that requires management.  But the fundamental determinant of success of a change effort will always lie with people as opposed to process and so the dominate force in the change effort must be leadership and NOT management.

To see how wrong we are on this look at the results of my Google searches this weekend below:

Results 1 - 10 of about 27,700,000 for Leading change. (0.19 seconds) 

Results 1 - 10 of about 75,000,000 for change management. (0.18 seconds) 

Results 1 - 10 of about 18,300,000 for change leadership. (0.42 seconds) 

75M hits for change management vs. only 18M for change leadership of 28M for leading change.

Now, let’s look at the results from a Wikipedia search below:

Change management (people)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Change Management is a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. The current definition of Change Management includes both organizational change management processes and individual change management models, which together are used to manage the people side of change. Search results

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You searched for change leadership [Index] There is no page titled “change leadership.” No page titled “Change leadership”!!!!!!!!

Friends, no wonder we experience the degree of angst and gnashing of teeth that we do. Please stop trying to manage change and start leading it instead.

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Today I would like to highlight another post by Tim Sanders (see link below). 

The bottom line of Tim’s post is that customization is the best way to fight commoditization. Essentially, he suggests that you need to customize the experience for your customer or face becoming marginalized into a generic product or service provider.

http://sanderssays.typepad.com/sanders_says/2008/06/get-into-the-on.html

If you allow your product/service to become a commodity, you will face several consequences. At a minimum, your margins will suffer. You simply cannot charge a premium price when you are selling plain vanilla ice cream that can be purchased anywhere.

In addition, your relationship with your customer will be one dimensional and shallow.  Over time, this fact will cause your market share to slowly deteriorate as customers will gladly switch to any competitor that will beat your price since they view your product/service as indistinguishable.

Below his post in comment #1, I wrote the following:

Tim,

Thanks for the post!

I have been preaching for years that every organization should strive to create a virtual monopoly. This is accomplished by focusing on a unique and compelling value proposition for your targeted customer.

This concept seems foreign to most at first, and they think I am exaggerating for effect or maybe even crazy.

I believe it is quite the opposite. First, creating a virtual monopoly for your targeted customer is doable and achievable. More importantly, it is mandatory if you want to do more than just survive in the marketplace.

The way you achieve a virtual monopoly is to differentiate your actual product and/or service offerings or the process by which you deliver them or both.  

I usually recommend beginning the differentiation brainstorming by studying the key frustrations of your targeted customer as it relates to their interactions with your industry. This mindset will lead you to customer-focused and marketplace-relevant differentiators that you can build into your business model.

Creating a virtual monopoly is mandatory because the only other alternative is to eventually become a victim of commoditization, which leads to a marginal existence at best and possible extinction at the extreme.

Keep those posts coming Tim, and I am looking forward to your new book and book tour coming to a city near me!

Howard

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My blog postings on March 3^rd & 5^th framed the concept that all organizations need to have a unique and compelling value proposition for their targeted customer.

This advice is governed by the following formula that customers use to define value:

The customer value equation:           Value = Benefits/Costs

What I forgot to highlight at the time is that the degree to which you embrace this value equation at a personal level will determine your professional success in any organizational setting.  

As a general rule, most of us desire to accumulate more personal net worth.  However, not everyone makes the connection that to have more net worth, you must be worth more.   

Worth more to whom?  The answer of course is that you must be worth more to your organization’s customers. 

To reach your full potential, you must be part of the creation and flawless execution of a unique and compelling value proposition for your organization’s targeted customer.  If you’re not part of the solution, you are by definition part of the problem.   

Lastly, this is not a static process.  If you want your income and net worth to increase, you have to focus on the continuous improvement of your value proposition to your organization and its customers.

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Values

You cannot create happiness for all of the stakeholders of the organization unless everyone understands the rules of the game and there is a crime and punishment system for rules violations. You simply will not achieve a civilized culture without laws and law enforcement.

So what is the purpose of value statements? It is twofold:

1. To define what you stand for
2. To define what you won’t stand for

These should be two different lists, and each list should have punishments that fit the crime for violators.

The rules contained in the “what you won’t stand for” group would be the table stakes of being part of the organization or value chain for the end customer. These are things like honesty, integrity, ethics, etc. 

If employees or downstream vendors violate these rules, the consequence must be immediate termination. The termination should be compassionate and directed at the rules violation and not at the person involved. 

Violations of the “what you want to stand for” rules again need to be handled on a facts and circumstances basis.  However, as a general rule, this should be more of a “four strikes and you’re out” type of scenario with plenty of training, coaching and mentoring during the process of remediation. 

The first strike is usually met with a verbal warning and a follow-up email to document same. The second strike would be met with a written rules violation memo that the employee signs in acknowledgement of same. The third strike would result in a probationary period. The fourth and final strike would result in termination.

Examples of these “what you want to stand for” values are: determination, persistence, competitive greatness, teamwork, etc.