Category Archives: Personal Development

Personal development posts

Making a Point or Making a Difference

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Telling someone they are wrong does not inspire them to do right. Instead, it usually creates an atmosphere of conflict. The problem has two faces. First, conflict tends to entrench people into their positions, even if they realize that they are probably wrong. Nothing constructive can come from a conflictive environment because people quit trying to find solutions and start trying to save face. Second, it is quit possible, and maybe even probable, that the person accused of being wrong may actually be right.

The point is that making a point is not the same as making a difference. If the truth be told, most of us would rather win the argument than make a difference. This is the sad truth within our government. We vote and behave as if the processes of our lives were a game where the point was to score points and win, even if no progress is being made.

You might ask how this applies to Lean Six Sigma process improvement teams. Let me explain. When working in a team environment, the team leader must always be focused on keeping a constructive dialog that is not based upon scoring points. The hardest part of process improvement is to “lead” change. To make a difference. When team members are committed to making a difference, they are not keeping score. When they are keeping score they are not making a difference.

I have had to remove individuals from process improvement teams because their “point making” attitude was distractive to the team’s mission to make a difference. This will obviously not make everyone happy, but that is OK. Being a change agent is not easy, nor is it for the faint of heart. When teaching Six Sigma Black Belts, I always instruct them to ” Leave them mad or leave them glad, but never leave them indifferent.”

Voice of the Heart

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Change the world? Yes.

Where to start? Your own heart. Change always has a beginning. Let it begin there.

What is the basis of the change? Truth. It is not political or opinion based. Truth does not require your belief to be true, but it does require your belief to be acted upon.

Hard to find? Yes, but worth the struggle.

Sorry. Feeling philosophical tonight.

Communicating, Diversity and Problem Solving

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In the 1970’s, if you had a problem to solve, you could invite others to your office, write letters or make phone calls to bring minds together to help you. From a practical standpoint, you could bring maybe 5 or 10 of the best minds in your geographical area into one place, for a limited space in time, to synergize together.

Today, thanks to the internet, you can easily bring a million minds together to solve the same problem. These million minds do not have to travel to participate, so they are not on a time table. This is why the pace of change, world wide, is so fast. In fact, the pace of change is so fast, if you were to jump 10 years into the future, you would have the skills and knowledge of a child compared to others who have evolved to that time.

This poses a problem to our society. If the internet can bring millions of minds together, real time, then societies with large numbers of internet literate people will have an advantage coping with the fast pace of change. Additionally, societies that spend their energies looking for a way to work together will leverage these million minds to do great things and solve the un-solvable problems.

We in the United States do not have an advantage in numbers. I have read that there are more honor students in India than there are total students in the United States. The economic ramifications of our disadvantage in numbers of educated and internet literate people should be obvious.

Additionally, in the United States we spend our time looking for ways to differentiate ourselves from each other and from the rest of the world. Our focus is on divisive issues. Instead of celebrating our differences and leveraging our diversity, we try to destroy or eliminate anything that is different. This will be our undoing, if we cannot change.

Another Sales Strategy

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To close a sale, the prospect must see themselves buying from you. In order for this to happen, you must do two things.

First, enter the conversation that is already happening in the shopper’s mind. For a shopper buying out of necessity it is probably a conversation about cost, wanting the problem to go away, and avoiding a mistake.  For a non-necessity shopper the conversation is probably more about being is a hurry to possess the product or service. It is really like a fix to a junky.

Second, create a mental picture, in the shopper’s mind, that defines success as a result of buying from you. To do this you must first understand what success looks like from the shopper’s perspective. For the necessity buyer the picture may not involve what they are shopping for, but include instead the result of the purchase. If the shopper’s car is broke down and they are having problems getting to and from work, the picture might be how, after buying the repair part from you, the shopper is driving their own automobile to work without worrying about a breakdown. The product or service is probably not an important part of the picture.

For the non-necessity shopper, the picture may be that of the shopper using the product or service in the way they have presented the need. For example, if the shopper discloses that they want to be able to get their email anywhere, anytime; you will want to present scenarios where the shopper can visualize themselves using this new smart phone in various locations, while at the same time receiving an important email. The product or service is an important part of the picture.

In any case, the shopper and their motivation is the driving force behind any purchase they might make. You and the product you sell is not the driving force, but instead the road or map the shopper must follow to successfully meet their need or desire.

Necessity and Non-Necessity Shoppers

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From a very simplistic perspective, shoppers buy in one of two modes. I am calling these “Non-Necessity Purchases” and “Necessity Purchases”.

Non-necessity purchases are made to fulfill a need that is emotion based and acts like a “fix”, creating a high with the shopper. This buying mode is addictive because the high is focused on the front end of the “want-decide to buy-purchase-live with” (WBPL) cycle. After the purchase, the high wears off quickly leaving the buyer hungry for more. This shopper has a lower instance of customer service issues because their focus is on the beginning of the cycle where the high is instant and short lived.  They really want a new one because the fix is based on the “thrill of the kill” associated with the purchase, not with long term ownership.

The non-necessity shopper has convinced themselves that they need or want something to enhance their lives. These shoppers probably know something about what they want and have already scoped out where they can find it. This is a highly qualified prospect only if your product or service is capable for giving them their fix or emotional high.

There are three points to the sales process for the non-necessity shopper.  These are:

  • Sales person must understand the desire(s) of the shopper.  What need is the shopper trying to fill?
  • Frame the presentation of the product or service within the definition of the shopper’s desires.
  • Make it easy and quick to buy from you. Close the deal while the shopper is on their emotional high.

In an earlier article of mine, I defined the Shopper’s Journey.  This journey has 6 steps. Awareness, learning, liking, preferring, conviction, buying. Tying this together with pull selling you have:

  • Awareness: The shopper knows you are able to fulfill their desire.
  • Learning: The shopper learns about you and how you can supply the object of their desire. This includes the speed at which you can fulfill them.
  • Liking: The shopper likes what they learn about you and your products or services.
  • Preferring: The shopper’s experience causes them to prefer the product or service you offer.
  • Conviction: The shopper convinces themselves that your product or service is their best option.
  • Buying: The shopper purchases your product or service.

Necessity purchases are made to solve a problem. This buying mode is not addictive because the high is focused on the aftermath of the purchase. The shopper is happy to not have the problem anymore.  This shopper is more likely to have a customer service issue because their focus is on the end of the WBPL cycle, which is long term living with the purchase.  The shopper is concerned about the ability of the purchase to solve their problem over time.

The necessity shopper is trying to solve a problem.  Since they believe they are in a necessity buying mode, you can be certain they will be making  a purchase from someone.  Why not you?  This is a highly qualified prospect.

There are four points to the sales process for the necessity shopper.  These are:

  • Helping them understand their options and risks.
  • Help them to find the best solution for their needs.
  • Taking joint action with the shopper to actually solve their problem.
  • Make it easy to buy from you.

Helping the prospect understand their options and risks is an educational process. The prospect is explaining their situation to the sales person and the sales person is defining options that the shopper can be offered.  This dialog between the shopper and the salesperson is not a lecture, but rather a discussion between the individuals or groups.  The idea is to understand what solution characteristics are important to the shopper and how you can meet those demands. This is at its heart a consultative sales approach.

Part of the explanation of options is the discussion of benefits and risks associated with each option.  In the end, you want the shopper to make their own decision about what is right for their situation. Of course, you also want the shopper to purchase the product or service from you and your company.  When the shopper makes their own choice to do business with you, it is called “pull” selling.  The shopper is solving their problem, with your help (pull), as opposed to you solving their problem with their help (push).  The shopper, as a result, has some responsibility in the success, or lack thereof, of the solution.

Tying this together with the Shopper’s Journey, you have:

Awareness: The shopper knows you are able to help them.

Learning: The shopper learns about you and your specific options for helping them.

Liking: The shopper likes what they learn about you and your products or services.

Preferring: The shopper’s experience causes them to prefer the product or service you offer.

Conviction: The shopper convinces themselves that your product or service is their best option.

Buying: The shopper purchases your product or service.

In conclusion, it is important to know whether the shopper’s motivation to buy is necessity, or non-necessity, based.  From there the salesperson and enter into the conversation already taking place in the shopper’s mind. Then the salesperson can move the shopper through their journey to buying a product or service.

Organizations and the Laws of Physics

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I am writing this article to create an imbalance in the world of those who read my posts. I am not in any way attempting to consider all of the options, or to be fair.  I just want to Step on your t pets a little. If it makes you uncomfortable, that is a good thing.  It is what this article is meant to do.

Newton’s Second Law of motion, in paraphrase, states that to change the state of motion of an object, a force must act on it to create an imbalance in forces. The object will then move to establish a new state of equilibrium.

The second law of thermodynamics, in paraphrase, states that systems always move toward a state of equilibrium. This movement will persist until the system reaches absolute zero (system death) or equilibrium is reached.

These concepts taken from physics also apply to human endeavors at the individual and organizational levels. In the human experience we call equilibrium the “status quo”.  I personally find that the status quo is a place for those who need rest or are not motivated to move forward. I am not against rest, but if you are resting and your competition isn’t, you’re losing ground. In other words, the status quo for me is good only when the status quo is to avoid the status quo.  Chew on that one for a while.

The status quo mentality usually forms in organizations and individuals who are internally focused. Being internally focused will isolate you from your external operating environment. You do not feel, or you fail to recognize, external forces that create imbalances in your external operating environment. The result is that you become out of alignment with the world around you. You fail to benefit from changes in the environment or maybe you even fall victim to them. The ostrich may have protected his head, but his rear end is more than a little exposed.

I know that some will say that organizations and individuals must isolate themselves from destructive forces in their operating environment in order to protect their assets.  I will answer that I disagree. Individuals or organizations that do not try to manage within the environment they operate in are simply exchanging one master (the larger outside world) for another (isolation). We do not have to be mastered by either. We control our choices and we become stronger and more robust as we exercise our ability to choose.

Let me give you examples. Governments and businesses isolate themselves from the governed and customers with bureaucratic layers of management. Religions do this by operating on a paradigm of exclusion (us, them) instead of a paradigm of inclusion. The result is that some governments, businesses and religions become more and more isolated, lose connection with their sense of purpose and eventually fail.

So what do you do? First understand that nothing stays the same in our world.  We age, tastes change and the people around us change. There is an interesting story line in the movie “The Time Machine”. The time traveler sits in his time machine and watches the world change around him.  He is isolated from the effects of the change and when he arrives in the future he is out of place and out of sync with the world around him.  The world experienced the changes first hand and has adapted, he did not experience the changes and finds himself in danger without a full understanding of how to cope. In the movie the good guys win, but in real life it probably would not have turned out that way.

We don’t have to agree with, or placidly accept, the changes around us. We can push back, adjust our strategy, etc. What we cannot do is ignore what is happening. The wise person evaluates these changes against reality and avoids letting others interpret their meanings for them. In sports we call this “keeping on your toes” or “keeping you eye on the ball.” In life it is simply a matter of paying attention to what is happening around us and keeping the main thing, the main thing.

In short we must embrace change. The world is moving onward with a great deal of inertia and it doesn’t care if you get left behind. The days of large stable bureaucratically ran organizations are coming to an end.  These are the days of smaller, fast and flexible, organizations that can move quickly to take care of customers, no matter how the environment changes. What customers, and people in general, want are solution providers, not protestors or clingers on to the old paradigm.

One way to manage this is to balance long term projects, goals and rewards with short term projects, goals and rewards. The long term perspective tends to add stability to an organization’s progress over time.  The short term perspective creates more employee engagement and a degree of instability, which is also good. Short term projects, goals and rewards operate in the current reality and force us to see what is actually happening right now. Long term projects, goals and rewards keep us focused on our mission and vision, which may be based in another reality. Short and long term efforts tend to modify each other in a healthy way when managed properly.

The balance point is always shifting.  Don’t let it become a tripping point.

Personal Motivation

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Personal motivation has 4 components:

  • Belief in purpose
  • Belief in process
  • Belief in self
  • Definition of success

Belief in purpose is about having a reason to want to achieve a goal or objective. What is the burning “Yes” in your life that makes you want to be successful?  For some it is our families, for others it may be a desired life style or a cause we are passionate about. In any case, you have to know what it is.  I am not talking about head knowledge in this case.  It is heart knowledge you need.

Belief in process moves you from the purpose of your efforts to an understanding, and adherence to, a methodology for achieving your goals. This means knowing what sacrifices it will take to achieve your goals and what map you will follow.

A good friend of mine gave me this advice a long time age. He said “find the person who is the most successful at doing the things you want to do and learn from them”. Let go of your preconceived notions, open your mind and learn.  At the same time don’t lose sight of what you value. In other words, don’t use a map to success that compromises your values. For example, you can get rich taking advantage of others, but you will lose the richness of self.

Belief in self is about seeing yourself being successful. Visualization is a key ingredient. Successful people see themselves in a positive light and visualize what success looks like. A successful hitter in baseball goes to the plate expecting to get a hit and seeing the event in their mind’s eye. Visualizing failure is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

People who do not believe that they deserve to be successful, or doubt their abilities, are doomed to a lower level of success. “I can’t do it, so why try.” The first person to convince is you. If you don’t believe, neither will anyone else. Conversely, if you do believe, others will follow.

A definition of success allows you to measure your performance. It involves answering two questions.

  • What does success for me look like?
  • How do I measure my performance?

This success component is important because we sometimes set our definition of success too high or too low. It is best to set up a series of smaller step goals that take you toward a larger goal. This way you can celebrate your success along the way.  It is the difference between running 5 miles every day for a week or just showing up on Saturday and trying to run 35 miles all at one time.

Your definition of success will tie directly into your belief in purpose. If not, you will be lost in the jungle of life, making the wrong choices and expending precious time and energy being successful at things that do not take you where you want to go. For example, if your 5 year plan is to become financial independent, going into debt for the “status” car may not be your best decision.

This is a personal journey.  You must make your own choices as you move through life. Getting your life into focus using the ideas above will allow you to move with purpose. Not getting things into focus will cause you to be like drift wood, tossed about by the forces of life, going nowhere on purpose and everywhere by accident.

Fractured Thinking

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Have you ever been behind someone in traffic who was driving exceptionally slow or erratically? Then when you passed them you see them speaking or texting on a cell phone? You have just witnessed fractured thinking. It doesn’t take much imagination to see what kind of safety problems this creates.

Fractured thinking occurs when you are forced to jump around from one cognitive activity to another, or splitting your thinking between multiple subjects. It is usually the result of interruptions, or outright hijacking, of your intellectual activity.

The interruptions and split focus effects us in places outside of our cars also. Imagine that you are working on a project and you get interrupted by a phone call, text message, or a personal visit. You don’t just restart right where you left off when the interruption occurred. Some back tracking is usually necessary.  Sometime you even forget to get back to the original task. The next thing you know, you make a mistake and get to deal with all of the negative results.

It used to be good advice to not answer the phone every time it rings. Don’t let the phone dictate your work flow. Let the voice mail pick up or simply work in a different area.  One without your phone. Working in a different area will not work anymore because we carry our phones with us. “Hands Free” functionality will free up your hands, but you are still subject to the interruption and fractured thinking.

Here is the trick. Realize that you are addicted to your cell phone. You do not have to answer the phone every time it rings or alerts you about an incoming text message. You still have the power to control incoming information and to channel it into a less destructive time.  Really…You do.

Here is how.  Select ring tones that can be assigned to specific callers or groups of callers. That way when the phone rings, you can make a decision about answering now or waiting on a message based on what ring tone you hear. Text messaging is even easier. Simply turn off the notification and check your phone for text messages at a better time. How many people text you in an emergency? Not many, especially if you tell them that text messaging is a low priority communication medium for you.

Don’t use emergencies as an excuse to continue your addiction. I have arranged with my family to make an immediate second call to me in an emergency.  That second call within a few seconds tells me that I need to answer. A little planning on the front end saves me a lot of aggravation during my daily routine.

The take away is that you do have control over your cell phone. It is only a myth that you have to answer it’s every beck and call. The less fractured thinking you have, the better your performance will be and the more successful you will be.  Not to mention having less stress.