Clarification

If you are still confused, the following is an analogy for a progress meeting. Progress meeting are similar to a coach’s meeting with his/her athlete during practice. In my younger years I competed in riding competitions. These events are timed and each round gets more difficult so getting through the course quickly and with the fewest mistakes is critical. This was serious business... My coach and I would meet prior to the event to create a plan based on the type of obstacles and the horse I was riding. After each round we would meet again to assess my status, the horse’s status and the course. We would revise our plan based on the current situation to improve our time and win the event.

I was committed to winning by executing the plan that the coach and I had designed. The coach was committed to winning despite not riding the horse. He was watching and had a different perspective. He also had a lot of knowledge and experience. I never did figure out what the horse was up to. In this sense, these meetings were like a progress meeting; the employee is committed to making progress and executing on their goals. The manager has aligned with the goals and accountabilities of the employee and certainly has a perspective of what is getting accomplished.

These meetings with my coach, which the horse attended sometimes, were an opportunity to share perspectives and assess with real data where we were given our goal of winning. This is just like the conversation that takes place between managers and employees during progress meetings using the Keyne Method. Right after our meeting I got back on the horse and we went back into the arena and started jumping. That is the essence of a progress meeting between manager and employee. I do recommend that you do not actually go jump in the work place after a progress meeting – you may feel like it however - I recommend against it.   

Learn more about Progress Meetings and the Keyne Method >>

Planning: The 4th Cornerstone of Performance Oriented Cultures

Strategic planning creates the platform for a healthy company.

Strategic planning is a critical part of growing a successful business. A high performance work culture needs a system that makes sure that employee goals are aligned and everyone is focused on the right stuff.

The fact is that many small- to mid-sized companies do not have a structured process from which to conduct strategic planning. This is like many adults who do not exercise, despite knowing it’s good for them. Perfect health isn’t guaranteed by regular exercise, but the likelihood of attaining good health is dramatically increased. Strategic breakthrough business guessing/planning works for businesses in much the same way as exercise works for the individual.

The process should take place over two to three months and take three to four days. It is predicated on white papers and dialogue. Listening and understanding are critical. Better research ensures better debate and thinking. “What is a white paper?” you ask hysterically.

A white paper is a three- to five-page paper that addresses the critical issue. The paper should deal directly with the issues. It is, with research and analysis, the “answer” submitted by the smaller group to the entire planning team.

Once you have created the plan, you need to make sure it is acted upon. Monthly meetings of one to three hours and spending time on objectives and action plans will ensure focus. Then, once a quarter, the planning team should meet offsite, preferably with a coaching resource like yours truly. (Bonus points if the coach is bald-headed. It makes the coach smarter and buffer—really.) At the session, the group will look at what happened in the quarter and then focus on what needs to happen in the next quarter. This will keep everyone aligned on what needs to take place to push the company forward.

For more information about CMI's Business Planning Process click here.

The Top 5 Reasons to Read Front Line Heroes

(5) It is fun, entertaining and informative. This book’s chapters include, “Posters, Plaques, and Horse Manure,” “Go Live with Whales” and “Why Stoopid Games?” which describe how values, teamwork, communication and your own potential can make your company successful.

(4) It is universal. The stories described in Front Line Heroes are based on real companies and real people from business groups of large corporations, non-profit organizations and family businesses, to name a few.

(3) It is practical. The book offers concrete advice and ways in which to use it. Most business books talk about what other companies did to succeed and not about how to do it. Front Line Heroes is all about the “How.”

(2) It really works. Front Line Heroes is based on 30 years of real life experience. Since 1984, Bruce has helped companies develop and grow with strategic business planning and team building programs.

(1) It is personally signed. Autographed copies are available for purchase on the CMI website.

Front Line Heroes

Front Line Heroes: How to Battle the Business Tsunami by Developing Performance Oriented Cultures by Bruce Hodes is going to be available so soon! Read the back cover below.

It is possible to develop and grow powerful organizations in challenging times—it just takes courage, determination, and actionable techniques that work. In Front Line Heroes, Bruce Hodes offers executives and business leaders advice culled from 30 years of coaching privately held companies ranging from $5 million to $100 million in size. With humor, real-world examples, and step-by-step guides, the book explains:

• How to make mission, values, and BHAGS relevant to daily organizational life

• 7 essential rules for effective strategic planning

• How to transform groups into high-performance teams

• 4 organizational enigmas and the missing link that solves them

• How to eliminate mediocrity from employee performance—for good



If you are ready to stop playing victim to the times, Front Line Heroes will arm you with the tools you need to achieve sustainable business growth.


For more information visit our website here.
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Enigma #4

How do you make the core values of the organization relevant to day-to-day employee behavior? The core values often sound great. They are lofty and inspirational. The leadership team typically feels exhilarated at their creation. However, then comes a failure of performance. The values somehow do not make the difference they were designed to make.

As improbable as this sound for most employees within organizations, core values are seldom relevant. They are not accessible or usable. (Read more about this phenomenon in “Posters, Plaques, Horse Manure, and Resignation.”) Regarding coaching for useful behavior, there is no real solid footing except the manager’s point of view, and this can be a problem. Managers and employees need a place they can stand that will guide their behavior and attitude in working with others. Managers and team leaders need a view and convictions from which they can coach attitude and behaviors. When properly positioned, the organizational core values can do this. They can provide a template from which employee behavior can be measured and viewed. But, alas the issue is how do we get to that point? Therein lays Enigma #4.

To learn more about aligning core values, click here.

There Are No Mistakes

A principal that I live by is that everything that happens in organization happens by design. The same applies in stupid games. It is like this: Don’t plan and pay the price. Don’t listen and pay the price. Argue and fight and pay the price. Collaborate and problem solve, move the ball. Solve the problem and be successful. The Axiom of ‘garbage in, garbage out’ is abundantly clear in the land of stupid games. If you put quality into the preparation and planning of the stupid game you will get quality results out.

One last thought: as a Chinese engineer in Beijing exclaimed in a emotional manner, “These are not Stupid Games! These are good games!”

Yes indeed.

For more information about CMI's team building events click here.

Can You Hear Me?

Listening is what will make the difference. Once a group is listening, anyone can lead. Once ‘listening’ is present, understanding and problem solving occur naturally. People can focus and work together. Prior to this there is reaction and yelling. Listening, the power of listening is one of the lessons I have seen groups get from utilizing stupid games.

Another lesson that groups learn from stupid games is the value of practice. For many groups it is a revelation to discover that to improve a group’s performance will take conversations, learning and practice. When people realize that practice is necessary while playing a stupid game, the drama suddenly ends and people relax. They get that it is ok to make mistakes and learn from them. That is what happens when you ‘practice.’ We learn that we can be safe with each other.

Learning about failure is still another lesson that can be learned in stupid-game land. There is failure and then there is failure. Whenever humans learn and develop, there is failure. There are failures from not doing something that needs to be done as well as from doing the wrong thing. The problem is that there are real consequences for failures during real business.

I have seen corporate groups play the same game over and over again and yet still get value from them. The standards can change, the parameters can change, what people learn can change, and it still is all training and development.

In business, when a group alienates a customer there are consequences. With a stupid game when the group alienates the customer (who is really the bozo facilitator pretending to be a customer) there is learning and development. This goes back to the games as a practice field that is safe and in which members of the group can learn and develop. There are no long-term consequences on the practice field.

For more information about CMI's team building events click here.

Why Do Any of This?

Groups, if they are going to perform together, need to practice together. That is obvious. The Army and Marines get it and call it ‘boot camp.’ Theater and dance groups get it and they call it ‘rehearsal.’ Sports teams get it and they call it ‘practice.’ Business groups don’t get it and for the most part don’t do anything. Typically business groups have low group performance. Do we see a pattern here?

So that is where the stupid games come in. They start to look like they are not so stupid. They let groups take a look at their own behavior in order to discover how they can improve their performance. The notion is simple: a group solves problems the way it does because the people are the same. A group’s ‘group dynamics’ are the group’s dynamics. This is true whether it is in the stupid game or back at the ‘ranch.’

The major difference is if the group back at the ranch does not perform well there are consequences internally and with customers. If the group does not perform well at the stupid game, it is a big-time opportunity to learn. There are no consequences in the stupid game except learning, having fun and laughing at yourself.

So what do groups learn? Here are the some of the lessons I have seen groups of people learn over and over again. Again, there is a game called The Tent Pole. Using just their index fingers, the group is to lower the tent pole down to the ground. At no time are you to lose contact with the pole. The fingers are all under the tent pole trying to maintain contact. The pole goes up instead of down. People scream and yell at each other. Blame is heaped on some poor scoundrel. It’s all great fun.

One of the things that people typically say as an excuse for their lack of performance is that no one was appointed the leader and that is why chaos occurred. That is often the obvious and agreed upon excuse. But is that true? In reality, people are deaf to what is really missing which is listening. No one is listening when this exercise starts.

For more information about CMI's team building events click here.

The Coach's Handbook VII - Facing the Future

Managing and coaching are different systems of human interaction. Both are necessary for
successful organizational life. In managing, one tends to make decisions based on established
directions, emphasizing knowledge and reason supported by intuition and acting in the present
based on the past.

In coaching, one needs to make decisions based on an envisioned future. A coach emphasizes
intuition supported by reason, belief and commitment in others, and acting toward the future
based on the present.

Coaching as a predominant style is a new development because of the changes and pressures
which are overwhelming business. It will be a prominent management style in the future.

Managers and team leaders who are going to be successful need to invest themselves in this
system and become extraordinarily proficient at it.

Read more of my writing at: http://www.cmibusinessplanning.com/news.html

The Coach's Handbook Part VI - Extraordinary Coaching

Extraordinary coaching is brought about by fusing the uniquely human characteristics mentioned
above. An extraordinary coach will be one who truly measures his/her performance by the
performance of the employees (the players). This approach will yield superior results.

The following are questions to ask yourself to see if you are an extraordinary coach.

1. Would people around you say that your team gets extraordinary results (enables the production of results beyond business as usual)?
2. Is there evidence that you are someone who develops great players? By a “great player,” we mean people who are able to make things happen far beyond what one might expect given history and past predictions of your organization?
3. Do you consistently demonstrate the ability to bring the capabilities and possibilities of coworkers to a more advance or effective state? The coach does this with whomever he or she interfaces with, either directly or indirectly, in the organization. The coach develops people in a 360 degree circle—above, below and laterally within the organization.
4. Do your commitments and sphere of influence go beyond traditional business channels and relationships? The coach does not get entrapped by his or her position in the organization. This person uses influence and coaching to move the ball wherever he or she moves within the organization.
5. Are you a person who presents yourself for coaching? Are you coachable?
6. Do you take on projects that require self-development?

Your answers should give you a sense of whether or not you are coaching. Be tough on yourself
and differentiate between your coaching activities and management activities. All too often, we
find executives claiming to coach, but really managing.

Next week - my final post in this series: Facing the Future

Read more of my writing at: http://www.cmibusinessplanning.com/news.html

Get the latest Gardening Tips……from the bald one

An article called "Using Books For More Than Compost" by Bruce Hodes, CEO of CMI, has been published by Vistage, the largest provider of CEO Groups in the world. Click here to read the article. Let us know what you think.

The Coach's Handbook Part V - Beliefs of a Developmental Coach

Here is a chart that contrasts coaching beliefs with managerial assumptions. This will give you
greater a sense of the difference between a control-oriented management system and a
commitment-oriented coaching system.

Next week - Coaching is an Art, not a Science

The Coach's Handbook Part IV - Rethinking Managerial Practices

Who determines the fate of our organizations and corporations? If one believes in the notion of
rugged individualism and a “can do” spirit (these and other individualistic values are deeply
appreciated in our culture), one would say that CEO’s, presidents, and managers are responsible
for whatever happens. However, as the world in which we live becomes more complex, a new
perspective is needed.

The buy-in of groups of people, not individuals, will be essential to moving ahead in business.
From this vantage point, one can see that the followers determine the fate of leaders. There is
example after example in which the fate and/or success of the enterprise is related to what the
people who are on the field decide to do.

In our culture, we have a tendency to be fixated on the leader/manager as if he or she will be the
sole ingredient in the outcome. The truth is that the success or failure of our businesses is already
in the hands of the people who work there. We just don’t acknowledge it.

The rethinking which we are suggesting is that top managers shift attention off themselves and see
their jobs as one of developing the players. Employees also have to rethink their roles. It is very
easy to see oneself as just a cog in the wheel—just following orders. It is different to consider
yourself as a major determinant of where the business is going to go.

When an employee sees oneself as a crucial player, a partnership with management can be
established in which they view each other as resources playing a common game with a common
goal. With this point of view, partnership, innovation and velocity can occur on the field.

Looking at the sports model, a good coach is one whose players (employees) are clearly more
skilled at playing their positions than the coach (manager) is. The coach is hired by the players and
used by them to enhance their ability to do a good job, because they have invested themselves in
the game and in doing well. A useful coach stands for excellence and attracts people who want to
be excellent.

Translate this to business life and the focus shifts to the employees and their ability be effective in
their jobs throughout the company. The managers are there to empower and enroll employees in
being effective. This is radically different from telling people what to do.

In the coach/player inverted pyramid model, there is an element of “game.” People participate
because they want to play and they enjoy it. When people are at work because they want to be,
and are doing what they want to be doing, coaching becomes useful. Victims and victimizers are
not truly coachable or able to coach powerfully.

Next week: The beliefs of a developmental coach

The Coach's Handbook Part III - The Coaching Model vs. the Managing Model

Coaching revolves around the concept (metaphor) of a game. In sports one plays because he or
she wants to. Both players and coaches are vital to the outcome of the game. Coaches are a
resource to the players. Serious teams, of course, need a coach, even serious athletes at the top of
their game will employ a coach. Why? It is because the perspective, knowledge, and skill of the
coach is not only appreciated but required to excel.

In sports there is always a notion that you have to develop yourself in order to be competitive. The
coach is instrumental and vital to that development. This is in strong contrast to business where
managers are seldom seen as resources to the employees.

In fact, many employees see their bosses as impediments to maximizing individual potential.
Furthermore, managers may take all the credit for their employees’ successes and thereby become
the center point of the organization.

In sports (and acting) the coach never goes on the actual playing field. The purpose of the coach is
to continually enhance the effectiveness of the players who are on the field. Coaches stand on the
sidelines. This is a very different role than that of a traditional manager. Translate that difference
into business and suddenly the traditional hierarchical triangle becomes transformed into a slice
of “performance pizza” with coaches represented as the cheese and tomato sauce. Delicious!

One of the reasons a coach is useful during a game is that he or she is not actually embroiled in the
action. The coach has a different perspective from those on the field and the spectators in the
viewing stands. Coaches are not there to be entertained, like the spectators. The coach is there to
speak to the players so that the ball gets moved most effectively in the right direction. This sideline
perspective often proves to be the winning edge.

In business, managers could be used for their perspective and coaching. Instead, they often go
onto the field and become embroiled in the game rather than coaching the action. This is similar
to being a team captain versus being a coach.

Let’s look at this from a different slant. Instead of examining “the coach,” let’s look at the act of
coaching. “Development” and “coaching” are synonymous and not by any means the exclusive
property of coaches. On great teams, be is sports, debate, families or dramas, all team members
are coaching each other, too.

In order for a manager to become a coach, he or she has to give the employee the responsibility
and accountability for the outcome of the game. In order for the employees to become players,
they need to see themselves as the determinants in the outcome and their managers as resources.
Clearly, the players must “own” the outcomes; to see themselves as responsible for achieving the
desired outcomes.

Next week - Rethinking Managerial Practices

The Coach's Handbook - An Introduction and Overview

Managing and coaching are different systems of human interaction.  Both are necessary for successful organizational life.  Follow my blog over the next couple of weeks as I distinguish the differences and discuss the benefits of effective coaching.

What is Coaching?

The definition of coach, according to the Random House College Dictionary, is: “1] A person who trains an athlete or a team of athletes. 2] A private tutor who prepares a student for an examination. 3] A person who instructs an actor or singer. 4] To give instruction or advice to in the capacity of a coach. 5] From the Hungarian word referring to tutoring and instruction.”

What is Managing?

The definition of managing, according to the Random House College Dictionary, is: “1] To bring about; succeed in accomplishing. 2] To have charge of or responsibility for.  3] To dominate or influence (a person) by tact or artifice 4] To handle, direct, govern, or control in action or use.”

The definition of manager is: “1] A person who manages. 2] A person charged with the control or direction of an institution, business, or the like.”

As the definitions suggest, managing is about getting things done (task oriented), and this is very important and critical in the business environment.  It is also the traditional mode of working with each other in business organizations. Coaching (learning oriented) is not better than managing, it is different.

The definition of develop, according to the Random House College Dictionary, is: “1] To bring out the capabilities or possibilities of. 2] To cause to grow or expand.  The definition of development is:

1] The act or process of developing; progress. Coaching is working in a developmental way with people.

Next week I'll discuss the different approaches to coaching and managing

BOOKS AS COMPOST

As I used to be an organic farmer, I appreciate how compost works. Take it fresh from the horse and let it lie and develop in what is referred to as a compost pile. After a year, put that compost stuff on the seeds and baby plants. Behold how it allows the veggies and fruits to mightily grow and develop. You then get to eat the succulent tomatoes and cucumbers – yum.


Books in organizations get good things to happen. Over the years of coaching and annoying companies, it has become clear to this baldy that books have the power to change. Reading specific and special books in organizations is conducive to creating and causing organizational development. When a management group reads the same book, it is like they now have a common language and have had a common experience.

What does that get you? For one thing, it gets executives of the company on the same page when talking about a topic. There is, after everyone reading the same book, a common vocabulary. Group reading allows for an understanding and the acceptance of new ideas. Even when the Leadership team does not agree on the ideas of the book or how those notions should be implemented, the executive team now has parameters from which to debate and explore the issues.

I have seen business teams put together really terrific customer service programs after reading Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard. Heck, after reading that book I have seen teams for the very first time have the notion that having raving fans customers could be a very good thing. Before the reading, they did not have that distinction or interest in having raving fan customer service.

Case in point: One company, after reading this book, put into practice using a survey that asked their customers are you satisfied with our service – Yes or no and why. Another question was, “Are you our raving fans?” Yes or no and why. This type of survey gave them lots of feedback. It also focused the employees on making their customers raving fans. That step alone for this company was a big step forward and a triumph over the past.

I have seen teams better communicate after reading The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven covey. After reading Blue Ocean Strategy, some executives actually have a transcendent moment and see God. They then alter how they think about and create their new services and products.

Here is an example of the power of a book. About two years ago, I am working with a company that runs homes and services for the disabled. They are a for-profit company and they are fairly large -$100M. They are an ESOP owned company. For those of you who are not familiar with the term , it means Employee Stock Ownership Plan. It is a way for employees to actually own stock in the company. I am not going to get technical here or engage in a conversation about the benefits or lack thereof ESOPs. Suffice it to say that this company did market itself as employee owned both in its marketing material and in how they answered the phone.

What disturbed the leadership of this company is that none of the employees could relate to or see how being employee owned benefited them. As I explored this with the leadership group, it became abundantly clear that no one in the leadership group could relate to or saw any benefit to the ESOP. Whenever the CFO went into the nuances and benefits of the ESOP, everyone promptly went to sleep or rolled their eyes or rolled their eyes as they went to sleep.

I have coached and conducted strategic planning in some very successful ESOPs. I have seen the value of ESOPs as a tool to motivate and focus employees. With ESOPs, when they are working well, the value is that the employees truly see themselves as owners and work as business people to build the value of the company. These employees relate to customers as owners would and take great interest in ensuring that the customers are raving fans and repeat buyers.

After assessing the situation and mulling things through in my genius, I invited this leadership group to read the book Open Book Management by John Case. Honestly, I did not invite them I made them – well it was assigned and heck they just had to do it. This book is about the various ways that companies have utilized to have everyone in the company embrace being business people and, own the financials of the company.

After reading the book, members of the leadership got excited because they saw a pathway to engaging employees in owning and being more effective in growing their business. These executive saw how they could make the ESOP relevant. They saw the light and were eager to drink the Kool-Aid.

The most revered and known proponent of Open Book Management is a business leader named Jack Stack. He wrote his own book called The Great Game of Business. This book is about how he and his employees turned around their company, Springfield Manufacturing which by the way is also an ESOP. A couple of the leadership groups attended conferences given by Jack Stack and his consulting company. These are called the gathering of the games and feature many successful ESOPs.

Open Book Management in this company has now become a movement and a cause célèbre. The CFO began to do research on what the value of the ESOP would be to the leadership group. A division of the company began to organize games with incentives with their frontline group. They are off and running in exploring how the ESOP can be a powerful organizing focus for the company. All this came from reading a stupid book that costs $20.00 or so. A book. Not bad return for that investment.

Books with large print and preferably pictures are the most appealing to business people. Stories and parables are appreciated. Synopsis at the end of the chapter with cliff notes also appreciated. If the book is good and at the same time scholarly, you can make the case to read it. At times, this can be a tough sell. The ultimate test for the consuming executive is whether or not the material presented is applicable and useful. The more user friendly the material is the better.

Books as compost allow businesses to do without bloodsucking consultants. In and of themselves, I have seen books transform companies and business culture. I have seen many examples of this. The leadership group reads the book, talks about it and applies it. Simple and who needs the bloodsucker any way.

Some of our clients started book clubs. No way, you say and way, I say and this is all before Oprah --- astounding. What I have seen is the CEO picks the book and over lunch convenes a session. Typically, this happens monthly. The group will cover a chapter or two. Some CEOs prepared for the session and others just winged it. They always seem to work. I saw this bring knowledge into the company. It also gave the CEO an avenue to get to know and become related to employees.

Books are also a great way for new employees to get indoctrinated into the company. Over the years, I have seen more than once the new employee has a stack of books that they needed to digest in 30-40 days. This was part of their orientation. In one client they had to take tests on the book and in another they had to sit and talk with the CEO about the book.

I have also witnessed scenarios where certain books were central to a culture and there was no requirement to read them. It is like there is a language being spoken and while you may think you speak and understand it you really are missing some of the major nuances. There have been situations in which new executives did not have to read the book and were subsequently lost. When they did read the book much of the culture then made a lot more sense and their ability to communicate improved.

As an active consultant in business, I have developed a deep appreciation of books as organizational compost. It has surprised me the powerful impact that reading certain books can have on a business culture. As you approach this topic of reading, some business people will howl just like your dog does when you step on their toes. They will claim that they do not have the time to read, let alone make any changes. Do not buy it. Like organic vegetables they are good for you. Just make them read.

So what is the message here? Get your organizations to read and dialogue about the books. Even if they whine, groan, complain, kvetch and drool, have them read and be stimulated. They will be better for it.