In my previous articles, I illustrated that to conduct “good” Marketing Research, you must Ask the “Right” Questions, of the “Right” People. In this final installment in the series, I explore Asking at the “Right” Time.
Timing research correctly should be obvious. Determine when you need the information to make a decision, how long the research will take, and count back on the calendar to determine when you need to start. But, as with asking the “Right” questions of the “Right” people, it is not always that simple. There are five questions to consider relative to timing when planning research:
Is there enough time to conduct the research? Sometimes you just don’t have the time you need to conduct the research that is necessary. Early in my career, a product manager asked me to provide a proposal to research a new product innovation that was under development. It was the end of March. I was excited by the chance to build a comprehensive research program to assess the feasibility of a product, not only new to the company but a true innovation in the industry. I wrote a proposal that included secondary research, qualitative research, and a number of step-wise quantitative studies, all culminating in an estimate of demand for the new product. The whole program would take 12-15 months, which I felt was pretty efficient considering the scope. But the product manager rejected my plan, not because of the expense, but because of the timing. You see, the product under development was already scheduled to be launched on November 2 of that same year. The launch was on a published schedule at a major industry conference and the company CEO was already slated to make the announcement. So, there was no time to execute any research to support the development and launch of the product.
Are you blessed with too much time? I once rushed a research project into the field at the end of the year to make sure that we used up the money that was in our budget. It was a prudent thing to do from a budgetary standpoint, but it wasn’t effective for the business. I presented the results of the research in January of the following year, only to find that the insights were no longer relevant because the entire marketing program upon which the research was predicated was to be radically changed in the next month.
Do you need to have measurements before and after an event or campaign? If you are conducting a Pre-Post study, you must be sure that the Pre phase of the research is completed before the event that you want to measure in the Post phase begins. If you are measuring the effectiveness of an advertising campaign, the Pre phase must be completed before the ad campaign is launched. Sometimes, it’s impossible to conduct a Pre phase. For example, last April, I was asked if we could compare attitudes of people about healthcare before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, without a 1985 DeLorean equipped with a Flux Capacitor, it was impossible to conduct a Pre COVID-19 survey.
Can your timing be interrupted by external forces? I was managing a packaging test for a brand of fruit juices utilizing personal interviews in three cities. We had a tight timeline to finish the research to provide input to the manufacturer to coincide with the completion of the packaging production facility. Everything was right on schedule until the interviewing facility outside of Los Angeles had to evacuate due to out-of-control wildfires. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but external forces beyond our control delayed our project by a full week.
Is this a good time to be conducting any research? There may not be a “Right” time to conduct a research project and perhaps the best decision is to delay or not do any research. For example, you shouldn’t be testing a new technology before you have a working prototype. I once tried to test a new smartphone concept in focus groups when we only had a wooden model to show respondents. They could not understand the concept at all. Delaying the research until we could better demonstrate the product led to more useful insights.
Timing is a critical component of any research program. By asking these five questions as part of your research planning, you can avoid making errors and wasting resources.
For more on this and other Marketing Research topics, follow me on LinkedIn or reach out to me at carl_fusco@yahoo.com if I can help you in any way.
Carl Fusco
Carl Fusco is an accomplished Marketing Research Consultant who helps businesses more effectively solve problems by applying research techniques and data-based insights.
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It’s happened to nearly every business. A difficult employee creates problems for the workplace. At Flex HR, our HR professionals are witnessing more and more problematic behavioral types that are leading to major workplace issues. Some blame the rise of the #MeToo movement for these fluctuating attitudes of their staff. Organizations have definitely shifted their focus to inclusivity; however, this could absolutely be indicative of employee conflicts, harassment, and other workplace violent acts in the future.
Behavior that creates, or has the potential to create risk to the business or health and safety concerns of employees is simply inappropriate and unacceptable at any business and should be clearly outlined in the Company’s Handbook. These intolerable behaviors tend to spread like wildfire and lead to a plethora of issues such as decreases in performance, productivity, communication, employee commitment, and even a toxic work environment. Thus, causing an increase in turnover costs and even legal expenses. The various behavior concerns that business owners and managers need to be aware of, create written policies for and take preventive measures on are outlined below.
Conflicts
In the workplace conflict is inevitable. When you have a group of people that all have different personalities, work motivation, process, goals, and beliefs, a clashing of opinions is going to happen. Some typical conflicts tend to be gossip, communication problems, interpersonal, leadership-driven, task-based, unclear job expectations, or resistance to change.
Unresolved conflict issues continue to snowball into more serious problems. Developing effective conflict resolution solutions are an important component for building, trust, good company culture morale, and overall, employee retention. Conflicts can often lead to positive changes when resolved properly.
Harassment
Flex HR defines harassment as unwelcome or unreasonable behavior that demeans, intimidates, or humiliates people either as individuals or as a group.
Bullying
Workplace bullying is a form of harassment that is targeted, health-harming behavior toward one or more employees that is spiteful, offensive, hurtful, mocking, or intimidating. According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, more than 76 million workers in the United States are affected by bullying. There are 4 main types of bullying:
Verbal – slandering, ridiculing, or maligning a person or his or her family with persistent name-calling that is hurtful and humiliating.
Physical – pushing, shoving, kicking, poking, tripping, assault or threat of physical assault, damage to a person’s work area or property.
Gesture – nonverbal gestures that can convey threatening messages.
Exclusion – socially or physically excluding or disregarding a person in work-related activities.
Sexual Harassment – unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature. There are actually different types of sexual harassment:
Quid Pro Quo, or something for something that typically those with supervisory authority hold over an employee.
Hostile Work Environment where there is intimidation or abuse that is unreasonable, usually repetitive (verbal or non-verbal), and can even be physical.
Sexual Favoritism, a form of hostile work environment by which favored treatment for submission and even unwelcomed sexual favors occurs.
A Third-Party is any person who observes someone being harassed or observes sexual conduct and is adversely affected may claim this sexual harassment.
Every manager, supervisor, or employee has an opportunity, or an obligation to report harassment. Any type of harassment must be reported immediately to management, who then reports the act to their HR professional. Jim Cichanski, Founder & CHRO for Flex HR says “the largest problem built into company cultures is the fear of employees going to HR or management to report a complaint. Many times, situations have gone untouched for 2 or 3 years before an employee lodges a concern”. We encourage companies to establish an Ethics Hotline where employees can state their concerns anonymously.
Discrimination
Now more than ever, discrimination in the workplace has become one of the most talked-about HR-related issues. Laws are in place to protect the workforce of a company, but sadly not all organizations are free of hurtful behavior. Any discrimination issues, such as race, age, gender, disability, religion, and citizenship, should be reported and stopped immediately to minimize the damaging effects to the workplace.
Clearly written policies on not allowing discrimination should be included in the handbook that each employee receives upon getting hired and then signs an acknowledgment of receipt.
Violence
1 out of 7 people don’t feel safe at work, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has recently reported. Sadly, isn’t too surprising given the increasing number of violent work incidents over the past couple of years. It’s critical for companies to make their employees feel safe on the job. This starts with the responsibilities of HR to identify their staff starting with the proper candidate screenings, including background checks, and getting to know workers on a more personal level to see the warning signs.
Establishing a zero-tolerance policy is the first step in outlining a workplace violence protection program. The Safe Carry Protection Act of 2014 — more popularly called the “Guns Everywhere Bill” — clarified the rights of employers to ban guns on their property. Under the law, employers can prohibit the possession of firearms in company buildings and company-owned parking lots “as long as the employer is the property owner or has legal control of the property.” If owners want protection inside their facilities it’s highly recommended that a written policy authorizing an employee to carry a weapon be added upon the advanced written approval of the CEO or Owner.
Whether these rules are composed as a part of the company handbook or as its own separate policy, creating a prevention plan, identifying and defining workplace violence, recognizing warning signs, establishing an emergency response plan, and implementing a response team must be documented. For more information check out our previous article Preventing and Dealing With Violence In the Workplace.
HR’s Precautionary Role
Guidance and training managers are an integral role that HR professionals play to minimize the effects of difficult, and or disruptive employee behavior in the workplace. These challenging situations must be identified and acknowledged right away so that HR and upper management can strategize to formulate the best possible solution. Managers and supervisors must take all complaints of alleged behavioral concerns seriously no matter how minor or who is involved. Repeatedly, managers are very reluctant to ascertain the issues at hand and are unprepared to address the individuals involved. Organizations often decide to outsource these HR trepidations to a firm like Flex HR, which will provide superior HR representation to minimize the risk factors and carry out the proper protocol actions.
Communication and education must start from the top down, where management provides hands-on training and safety instruction to ensure all employees know the proper protocol given a harmful or dangerous emergency situation.
Preventative Measures:
Behavioral policies – ensure your HR expert has clearly outlined and written all these behavior concerns down and identified policies and procedures in the Employee Handbook.
Consistent training – ongoing, preventative training sessions will lay the foundation for company behavioral policies and expectations to be followed on a regular basis.
Check-in /Listen – to your staff and be aware of any unusual behavior that could lead to red flags of caution with an individual.
Encourage team & culture-building – activities between co-workers provide an opportunity to interact and recognize the various personalities and work styles of others.
Employee Appreciation – make employees feel important by recognizing their good behavior and hardworking efforts.
Keep a “paper trail” – document any, and all disciplinary actions and conversations so that there is evidence in an event of a legal investigation.
Employee hotline – establish a hotline for your staff to safely, and even anonymously, get the help they need.
Did you know that Flex HR can host a webinar, seminar, or Bootcamp on employee behavior issues? Send us an email at Info@FlexHR.com and mention you saw this article for more information. Flex HR provides Ethics Hotline Outsourcing. This makes employees comfortable that they are not talking to a workmate inside the office and perhaps feeling very uncomfortable doing so, but they can report a situation anonymously to seek the help they need.
About FlexHR
Jim Cichanski – CEO FlexHR
Flex HR is an Administrative Services Organization (ASO) that provides leadership to deliver customized, scalable, and cost-effective HR outsourcing solutions. Flex HR offers a highly collaborative approach to consulting and outsourcing by aligning core human resources competencies needed to achieve the value expected from your company’s most important assets: your people.
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“Only a life lived in the service to others is worth living.” Albert Einstein
Stephen Dawson, DSL
I met Melissa in the summer of 1983 at a teenager retreat. We spent a lot of time together with the other teenagers and alone with each other during the retreat. We became quite fond of one another. We lived several hundred miles from one another. We ended our time together, wanting more of a relationship. Melissa wrote me a letter a month later she had decided there is no future for our relationship. She planned to spend some of her college years in both the United States and France. She did not see a way we could grow our relationship with distance.
I cried for an hour after I read the letter. I knew she was 100% correct. She had much more intelligence than me, much more class than me, and her family was much more wealthy than mine. There were no viable means to grow our relationship. I ran into her several months later, unexpectedly. Our conversation was awkward. We wanted to continue our relationship, but the spark was gone. I have not talked with her or seen her since that day.
Melissa served both me and us with her leadership demonstrated in her letter. She considered the facts, made a choice, and communicated herself well. Her efforts form the basis for a successful leadership strategy.
Consider the attributes of this story. Then, consider how your people, the followers of your leadership, are wondering how to grow a relationship with you. Who makes the first move? Who makes the next move? How will these moves be made? Oh, and there is accomplishing the work they are being paid to do.
I shared in-depth recently about love. I also shared leading by serving is a formal leadership style. I shared over the past several weeks how leaders I identified have demonstrated love to their followers, along with those outside of their organization. If things went well for you this past week, then you are wondering now how to deliver love to your followers. If things did not go well for you last week, then you are wondering now if loving your followers is worth the hassle. Let’s talk about the second item first, and then we will cover the first item.
HASSLE AVOIDANCE OPTIONS
I see there are three options when it comes to relating to people. The first option is to love them. The second option is to hate them. The final option is to care less about them. This final option may be considered to be a form of hate, but I identify it as a form of ambivalence. It is not a form of apathy.
If I know my leader hates me, then there is no point in my trying to follow them. I may be forced to follow them, but I will not perform at my best potential to deliver my work. It seems to me this combination is an inescapable attribute of humanity.
If I know my leader is unsure of either their love or hatred for me, then I am thinking the day will come when they chose to either love or hate me. I will wonder which option they will choose with more and more thought devoted to this wondering until the day comes when they make their choice. I will not focus entirely on my work, as I will have part of my attention direct elsewhere. It seems to me this combination is an inescapable attribute of humanity.
If I know neither hatred nor ambivalence empowers my followers to work fully to accomplish their work, then it makes sense to be the only viable option is to love them. I know of no credible evidence where I should conserve love. Conserve, in the form of holding back at some point. I may be too tired to give love, but this condition is a call to rest instead of a call not to give love. If I want the best return for my investment of time, money, and perhaps even a bit of social status, then it makes sense to me to maximize my investment of love into my followers so they will have the best potential to deliver to me the work I ask them, and perhaps am even paying them, to accomplish.
LOVE DELIVERY OPTIONS
A relationship involves two or more people. If I have thousands of people in my organization, then it is impossible to spend individual time with each other. I must work with my direct reports to accomplish loving all followers of my leadership. I must instruct, model, and require my direct reports to love their direct reports, all the way to the lowest level of the organization. This step is what I call a mandate.
Next, I must know my direct reports are doing what I mandate of them. I must go to those at different levels in my organization and ask them individually to tell me their understanding of the mandate to understand what I required in my mandate is being accomplished. Talking in person is better. Talking by video is better than only audio. However, audio talking is better than not talking. It is more effective to go to the middle of the organization first, then the bottom when having these talks. This approach gives me accurate first-hand findings quite quickly. This step is what I call a measurement.
Next, I take any corrective action necessary to match what I mandated with what I measured to eliminate any variance. This action occurs speedily over a day or so. This step is what I call a demand.
If any of my direct reports disagree with my leadership, then it is best either I change my leadership, or they cease reporting to me. I am willing to discuss how I accomplish my work. I am not willing to discuss what I mandate. A mandate is derived by what I know must happen to preserve the organization, to grow it, and perhaps even turn it over to another leader at some future date. I know a mandate by the intersection of my worldview, my ethics, and my morals.
So, how about the followers? There must be enough of an intersection between leader and follower in their worldview, ethics, and morality for them to be able to accomplish the work in their hand. The best practices of both diversity and inclusion tell me I have a better chance of success with as much input as I can receive. Yes, there is a condition known as analysis paralysis. This condition is when a person cannot act on their work because they are taking in too many considerations. We covered this condition when we discussed being scared. The inputs never stop. So, it is best to have as diverse a follower set as I can have in my organization to ensure I have the most inputs possible. Furthermore, I had better love each of them if I expect each of them to be included in my organization by their choosing to do the work I have put into their hand.
BONDSERVANT
It is my considered position my loving anyone is a choice I must make daily. I must choose to make myself indebted to love. I do not force anyone to love me. It is impossible to achieve this action, so there is no reason to try and do it.
The idea here is to have a continuous conversation that matters. Matters, in the form of contributing productively to the desired outcome. It is spending the time talking about what organization members are supposed to be talking about: their work. Then, the purposeful conversations occur at all levels of the organization.
CAPTURING
Now, it is time to write out your action plan to know with certainty how you are going to lead your followers by means of love. Review the material we covered in our discussion on the topic of love. Then, write out a table with the following structure:
Column One, HOW. Write a sentence of how you will deliver love to your followers.
Column Two, STORGE. This column is populated with entries of YES or NO based on HOW you deliver love.
Column Three, PHILIA. This column is populated with entries of YES or NO based on HOW you deliver love.
Column Four, EROS. This column is populated with entries of YES or NO based on HOW you deliver love.
Column Five, AGAPE. This column is populated with entries of YES or NO based on HOW you deliver love.
This table now contains your Love Action Items list.
You should be able to write out twenty sentences of HOW you will deliver love without expending much effort. I encourage you to keep each sentence as short as possible while maintaining your clarity. Write out the HOW entries first, then come back and identify which love definition each HOW item matches. The result is each row in your table telling a specific action, matched with one or more specific love definitions, for anyone impacted by your leadership to understand your leadership style better. If you need some help with the HOW part, then read some of the work accomplished by Gary Chapman. Chapman realized there are five common love communication mechanisms.
My strategic partner David Daniels shared with me his thoughts on forming the Love Action Items list. “I have always welcomed different points of view, as long as they came from a positioning of the organization’s values and mission. However, once a decision was made, I fully expected my team to embrace and support the direction. I have watched so many situations where leadership gave the appearance of support to the leader and then went out and trashed the direction or lent unenthusiastic support of it.” I agree with David’s viewpoint. It is best to write your Love Action Items list from the position your people changes may involve changing some of your people who report to you directly, whether or not they serve as leaders.
Your analysis of your table containing your Love Action Items list will help you plan to deliver love to your followers. The best news is your followers will know how you are planning to act, know instantly how your actions match your plan and are empowered to contribute to your table by adding rows as you approve. The key here is your HOW items need to be received by your followers, and your followers HOW items need to be received by you.
Now, some good news. The four types of love expressed through five different options work out to be 465 different combination options. Clearly, there is no shortage of options available to anyone desiring to love anyone. Do some reading on permutations and combinatorics to learn more about combinations. Remember, the leader-follower relationship must work in harmony and not be forced to be effective. We will discuss the work you accomplished with your Love Action Items list next week.
So, I ask you: where do you want to go? I hope your answer is to develop the plans necessary to accomplish the strategy you know you need to achieve to arrive at your desired destination. If this is the case, then let’s get to work. If not, then I wish you the best of everything.
I hope we will see each other here next week. Email me if you need to talk before then.
Dr. Stephen H. Dawson, DSL
Executive Strategy Consultant
Dr. Stephen H Dawson
Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. He has more than thirty years of service and consulting experience in delivering successful international business development and program management outcomes in the US and SE Asia. His weekly column, “Where Do You Want To Go?,” appears on Thursdays.
Dr. Dawson has served in the technology, banking, and hospitality industries. He is a noted strategic planning visionary. His pursuit of music has been matched with his efforts to lead by service to followers. He holds the clear understanding a leader without followers is a person taking a long walk alone.
Stephen has lived his life in the eastern United States, visiting most of the United States and several countries. He is a graduate of the Regent University School of Business & Leadership.
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New Century Dynamics Executive Search places a Strategic Marketing Consultant to support a rapidly growing direct-to-consumer subscription meal delivery company.
Jim Weber, President of New Century Dynamics Executive Search, and Managing Partner of ITB Partners, reports that he has helped a client find a Strategic Marketing Consultant to assist them in charting their future.
Working with the senior leadership team, this Consultant will drive the development and plan the execution of a comprehensive growth strategy to achieve the company’s objectives. This Consultant will evaluate the organization’s branding, digital & traditional marketing, partnerships, event planning, public relations, community outreach programs, and customer experience group.
Think back in your life to a moment when you felt so inspired that you were ready to run through a brick wall to get what you desired. What was it that inspired you? Was it a speech you heard? Was it a YouTube video? While speeches and videos can be motivating, my guess is that’s not what revved you up to the point of running through a brick wall.
For me, it has been those moments when I have received feedback from someone who was great at delivering it. I have been fortunate to know more than one of those people in my life and I am grateful not only for the feedback they freely gave, I am grateful for the way they gave that feedback because it inspired me to do better and be better. I am also grateful for the example they set which I have attempted to emulate.
Let me take a step back and talk a bit about what feedback is and is not. Simply put, feedback is information received in response to some action on our part. From the moment we are born, we begin giving and receiving feedback. When a baby cries in response to being born, that’s feedback. It tells everyone within earshot that the baby is breathing and alive. As we grow, we get a lot of feedback from our parents, siblings, and surroundings. That feedback teaches us valuable lessons and inspires us to do things that are productive. When we touch something hot, the pain we feel is feedback teaching us to not repeat that action. When we take our first steps, the hugs, kisses, and cheers inspire us to take more steps. As we grow older, feedback comes in more sophisticated forms. We begin discerning the relative value of it and accept or reject it based on our value judgment. It becomes not just about the feedback itself but the way in which it is delivered. If the information (feedback) is correct yet delivered in a way that offends our feelings, it is often rejected. We call that criticism.
That leads me on a slight tangent. If you are currently using or have ever used the term “constructive criticism”, please stop. There is nothing constructive about criticism because it is seldom or ever meant in a constructive way. It is called “constructive” criticism because it makes the person giving it feel better about knocking the other person with no real intention of helping them. Criticizing someone may cause someone to change to spite the criticizer but that in my opinion is not inspiring.
Now, while giving great feedback is critically important, it is not the same as being great at giving feedback. How you deliver feedback is possibly more important than the feedback itself. After all, the feedback we give is a representation of how we perceived the other person’s words or actions. While it is 100% accurate from our perspective, it may or may not be 100% factual in an objective sense. So here are some elements of giving great feedback.
Start with the good stuff. Be specific – Start by relating what the person is doing well or reviewing a recent positive result from their behavior. It must be something behavioral. It cannot be that they are a nice person or that they mean well. Everyone has things they do well. Pick at least two, tell them specifically what they are, how these actions benefit others, and be clear that you are encouraging him/her to keep doing those things.
Describe an opportunity for improvement – Rather than telling people what they are doing wrong, share opportunities for them to improve. It may sound like semantics but it is an important distinction. No one likes hearing what they are doing wrong. On the other hand, everyone has opportunities for improvement. Combining this with telling them what they do well first causes them to be more receptive to hearing their opportunities. Make it about their behavior. Keep personalities out of it. Also, keep it short. One opportunity at a time. More than that is overwhelming. The adage of one thing at a time applies.
Share feedback immediately – As Ken Blanchard always says don’t save it up for a holiday. Immediate feedback is more impactful because it is fresh in the person’s memory. Waiting makes them have to remember what happened and dilutes their focus on the opportunity.
Make time to discuss the how – Sharing opportunities to improve is less than 50% of inspiring improvement. Discussing how they can improve is where the inspiration takes root. Ask the person if they agree with the opportunity and then ask how they think they can realize the improvement. Human beings by nature are more committed to their own ideas. If all you offer is your own thoughts it will seem like you are telling them what to do and how to do it. Remember, feedback is not about you; it is about them. You want to show you are all about helping them. But a caution, be sincere about helping. They will see through insincerity in a heartbeat.
When you provide feedback in this way you will not only inspire improvement; you will inspire gratitude. Speaking from experience, I have had countless people not just thank me for the feedback they have asked me for more. When I have followed these four steps, I have always left people inspired to improve. I know that because when I see them next, they have greeted me with excitement, shared with me proof of their improvement, and asked for more feedback. As a mentor and coach, there is no better feeling. It shows me I am adding value to their life and after all, what’s better than that?
About Dave Roemer
David Roemer
Dave Roemer, Franchise Consultant with 30+ years in the industry will provide an overview of the franchise industry. Roemer will discuss a brief history of franchising along with the state of the industry today. He will give an honest assessment of the industry including the effort to increase regulation and why those efforts are growing. Finally, he will share why he believes franchising remains the best way for people to own a business and how interested parties can get help achieving their goal of business ownership
Today, Dave is an independent Franchise Consultant who helps people interested in purchasing a franchise determine which brands are the right fit and then helps them through the due diligence and discovery process. His services are free to the client as his fees are paid for by the various franchise brands with which he works.
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I was 16 years old, living in Knoxville, TN, when the 1982 Worlds Fair occurred. The theme of the fair was energy. Energy, in all senses of the term. Thermodynamics was only a part of the fair’s concept. The idea was to gather as many nations as possible to demonstrate their concepts of how they plan to use all types of energy in the future. The fair was a success by almost all measurements. The fair showed me several options for how I could become more than who I was at the time. It helped to transform me to become a better person.
Knoxville committed to host the fair based on the agreement to develop Knoxville to host guest headcounts greater than anything Knoxville had ever experienced. All city infrastructure had to be upgraded, the roadways had to be redesigned and upgraded, the fair site established, and all other associated planning accomplished and executed in less than a decade. The milestone transformed the city and surrounding area from rural to metropolitan. The people of the region changed mindsets from local to global. There were not enough restaurants or hotels available during the fair to serve the millions of attendees.
A centerpiece of the fair was to be a tower called the Sunsphere. The initial concept for the tower was for it to be taller than the Eiffel Tower. The initial planning revealed there was neither enough time nor money to accomplish the tower at such a height. The ultimate outcome also required lowering the tower height during construction due to cumulative fair site work delays.
We talked about the topic of love last week. If love has any assurance to it, then it is people want to be loved. I remember during the summer of 1982 how much I wanted to be loved, as a part of transiting from boy to man. I wanted to be a meaningful part of the world, to help the world be a better place for everyone. You have heard from me you need to love your followers to succeed in any leadership role. I affirm this statement to you now. You will not, repeat…will not…succeed in your strategic planning efforts without the energy supplied by love.
We are going to cover now a concept for how you would do well to use energy to address the people problems you have with your strategic planning work not being accomplished as you prefer. We will leverage past discussions, learn more about the 1982 fair I attended, and combine things where you can form a plan to evaluate the candidates you have as you consider offering them a role in your organization where they will help complete your strategic planning work.
FOCUSED ENERGY
You have a tangible goal: derive a well-planned strategy. Knoxville had a tangible goal: be ready to go on May 1, 1982. I had a tangible goal: have a fantastic time as a teenager in 1982 while learning how I can be a part of the world that has come to my front door. Fear of failure is often a great motivator for change. We talked about fear during our past discussions. You, Knoxville, and I (the three of us) experienced time running out of our schedules to accomplish our respective goals. It became clear to me in 1981 that I needed help understanding the largeness of what I would experience at the fair. I purchased an unlimited access pass to the fair, and I attended the fair many times. Thankfully, there was a map available to help my young mind navigate the complex fair landscape. I was able to calm my excitement and be more effective during my visits to the pavilions, demonstration events, concerts, and other fair site activities. The key here for the three of us is the need to leverage the energy supplied by those trying to deliver love to us without us becoming overwhelmed in the size of the experience, the wonderfulness of the love, or immersing in a piece of the picture that will slow our forward progress.
ENOUGH MONEY
You have a budget to accomplish your strategic planning work. You are spending too much on your work because you are not getting the results you either need or want to accomplish the scope of your work. Knoxville had money and workers to develop the city and the fair site, but the complexity of the work often caused the planning of work packages to be less than optimal, pushing expenditures higher than budgeted. No worker can work effectively without specific tasking from specific planning. I was running out of time as a kid for free housing and food. I needed to find a means to get more work graduating high school in 1984 than my existing part-time job at a fast-food restaurant. I wanted to spend much more time at the fair than I had available to me, as I needed to work at my job. The key here for the three of us is having enough money goes with having a clear plan in hand. They both help contribute to having enough time to do what we need to do, to get where we need to go.
EFFECTIVE PLACEMENT
You need to place some new faces in some of the roles in your organization to help complete your strategic planning work. OK, maybe it is only one face, but I think it is more than a single face. Either changing roles for existing organization members or removing them from your organization is a huge impact for work that is behind schedule and over budget, as blame often flows easily during work delays. You are, effectively, going into organization design mode with the people changes you must accomplish.
Knoxville had to take their city that was not designed well by layout and derive a new roadway system, upgrade all utilities significantly, and help the lodging and hospitality industries be ready to serve what turned out to be millions of guests. This effort involved reworking the intersection of Interstates 75 and 40, which met in downtown Knoxville. The prior interchange was a horrible roadway design that would never function effectively with the addition of millions expected to attend the fair.
I was becoming more upset the more I attended the fair. I was humbled by the wonderful pavilion hostesses. They were lovely, professional, and quite intelligent. They each were between 24 to 28 years old, each selected by their countries after a rigorous selection progress established by each country. They melted my teenage heart. I was sad that they would leave and I would not see them again. I realized it was best I ask them as many questions as I could to understand not only their concepts of how they plan to use energy in the future are structured, but also about their country’s culture. Yes, to answer the question in your mind, I asked a few of them out on a date. They all turned me down. I trust it was due only to the age difference.
David Daniels shared with me his view on inclusion during the team selection step. “The concept of inclusion works best when you have identified your biases and understand how they might manifest themselves with your decisions as a leader. Your diverse team needs to be comprised of employees who share your values and buy into the mission of your organization. Your leaders need to ensure that every employee understands where they and their department fit into the big picture. Then, and only then, will you achieve the levels of engagement by the team that, in turn, optimizes this critical resource set who is unleashed to exceed expectations.” Effective team formation is not a bolt-on action. It is an inner-mixing action fed to a combustion chamber of the work the team is to accomplish. The day may come when battery-powered airplanes and cargo ships cross oceans. Until then, it is the combustion engine that moves both people and merchandise between continents. We must deliver our output each day, for yesterday is gone, and tomorrow is where we deliver our work outcomes. The concept of the combustion engine is relevant to the workplace of both today and the foreseeable future.
The key here for the three of us is knowing where we fit into the big picture. We each have a scope, a budget, and a schedule. We are each time-bound to accomplish our work. We cannot spend decades doing work that does not require decades. Now, don’t get me wrong. I agree time must be spent as appropriate. It is the appropriateness part that each leader must consider. I remember Dr. Beverly Crusher helped me learn this lesson. She helped me learn to measure with caution each time I must make this appropriateness decision. See if her worlds help you understand the appropriate aspect of how we spend our efforts.
WIDESPREAD COMMUNICATION
Your investors have charged you with the responsibility to accomplished the planning of the strategy they require you to achieve. Knoxville made a deal by their free choice with the Bureau International des Expositions to host the fair. I had life calling me to grow into adulthood, along with food and housing running out in a few years. The messages were each well-formed and delivered with clarity. Now, it is time for you to take the energy of those circumstances calling you and use it to your benefit.
You must form a message to an intended audience stating you have a work opportunity you want to be filled with a new face from a person either inside or outside of your organization for each role you need to be filled. This action is not merely a job posting from the personnel department, hoping a suitable candidate is supplied to you. The role opportunity is to accomplish specific work in an environment operated by…love. It will operate by love because you are leading the organization. You are convinced you must demonstrate love to your followers, you must serve them through this yet-to-be-defined leadership style called servant leadership, and you are certain the planning of your organization’s strategy must be accomplished with excellence. This combination is what Knoxville did, it is what I do now, and what I know you must do to realize success as a leader trying to accomplish your organization’s strategic planning. Perhaps you can reassign all of your people assigned to the work to new roles in the work. I doubt this option will work, but it is possible.
Knoxville took on more than they could accomplish with the 1982 fair. They needed help many times from many external organizations to both plan and do the preparation work. It was not clear things would be ready for opening day. I remember the Sunsphere was not finished until two days before opening day. Your strategic planning work not being accomplished as you prefer means you are about to be in the same mess as Knoxville was in the late 1970s. I remember the leaders of Knoxville becoming quite humble to ask for the help they needed. You may need to be more humble than you are now to identify those who you need to be a part of your organization to complete your strategic planning work. I see gaining more humility as a good thing. It is a good aspect of love, as love shares the loving experience and does not dominate those they love.
OUTCOMES
The Sunsphere still stands today. It is a good memory for those who were in Knoxville before the fair and afterward to see what happened, recall how it happened, and know things changed for the better.
I grew up, though having to walk many bumpy roads to get there. I see my summer of 1982 as a valuable contributor to not perishing along the way to get to our conversation now. I have thought of that summer often over the years.
You are looking to grow as a leader by gaining more effectiveness in your organization by adding some new folks to help with some of your organization’s work. I encourage you to take note of the experiences Knoxville and I went through. Finding the people you are hoping will join your organization needs not only help from those outside of your organization, but you also need healthy joy to get them to join your organization. It is not a matter of joining to do the work of an already accomplished plan. It is the condition where an organization cannot work because they do not have a plan that candidates must consider. Who wants to join an organization that has no work plan? Today, people revel in fame from things like social networking, politics, and many communal forms. A dysfunctional organization does not have fame, but perhaps they have shame. Use the energy of positive change potential you have in your hand now to your benefit. It will take more humility on your part to get the energy focused, placed, and communicated.
Now is not the time to assign blame for how things became as they are for your people. Now is the time for taking inventory of where you stand, counting the costs to get to where you want to go, and deciding if you want to pay the price to get there. If so, then it is now time to talk with those you consider offering to join your organization. Talk to them, but do not offer them a position. You are researching as of this point. If you are not ready to take the step to go and speak with those candidates, then we need to come up with another plan for you.
Remember, strategic planning work is perpetual. It never ends. The tangible of a plan to accomplish a strategy is not a piece of paper generated by executive leadership at an annual meeting. It is the collection of plans from the entire organization unified into a single plan. Concisely, one cannot lead if one cannot plan strategy. Execution of a strategy is much easier than deriving a strategy. Ease, in the form of knowing the right things to do. We talked about right and evil during past discussions. I know we need to talk about these terms more than what we have so far. Today, understand that healthy love, love supplied to people that helps builds them to become more humble, helps lead us to what is right, and helps keep us away from evil. I keep coming back to this thing called humble for a reason. It is because pride is a horrible means to lead anyone to do anything. Being proud is not a form of pride, but we can cover these terms another day. If I need to define the term humble, then please tell me.
Summarizing, you want people to be a part of your organization. Those people must want to be a part of your organization. You want them to want you. They want you to want to give them a job. This combination is more than a catchy lyric in a successful rock tune. It is a viable means to find the people you need to help you with your strategic planning work. Yes, I just said want must intersect with need in your staffing choices. You will find this collective wanting is what you need because you are convinced you must demonstrate love to your followers, you must serve them through this yet-to-be-defined leadership style called servant leadership, and you are certain the planning of your organization’s strategy must be accomplished with excellence.
So, I ask you: where do you want to go? I hope your answer is to develop the plans necessary to accomplish the strategy you know you need to achieve to arrive at your desired destination. If this is the case, then let’s get to work. If not, then I wish you the best of everything.
I hope we will see each other here next week. Email me if you need to talk before then.
Dr. Stephen H. Dawson, DSL
Executive Strategy Consultant
Dr. Stephen H Dawson
Stephen Dawson is an executive consultant of technology and business strategy, serving significant international organizations by providing leadership consulting, strategic planning, and executive communications. He has more than thirty years of service and consulting experience in delivering successful international business development and program management outcomes in the US and SE Asia. His weekly column, “Where Do You Want To Go?,” appears on Thursdays.
Dr. Dawson has served in the technology, banking, and hospitality industries. He is a noted strategic planning visionary. His pursuit of music has been matched with his efforts to lead by service to followers. He holds the clear understanding a leader without followers is a person taking a long walk alone.
Stephen has lived his life in the eastern United States, visiting most of the United States and several countries. He is a graduate of the Regent University School of Business & Leadership. Contact him at service@shdawson.com.
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Is there enough time to conduct the research? Sometimes you just don’t have the time you need to conduct the research that is necessary. Early in my career, a product manager asked me to provide a proposal to research a new product innovation that was under development. It was the end of March. I was excited by the chance to build a comprehensive research program to assess the feasibility of a product, not only new to the company but a true innovation in the industry. I wrote a proposal that included secondary research, qualitative research, and a number of step-wise quantitative studies, all culminating in an estimate of demand for the new product. The whole program would take 12-15 months, which I felt was pretty efficient considering the scope. But the product manager rejected my plan, not because of the expense, but because of the timing. You see, the product under development was already scheduled to be launched on November 2 of that same year. The launch was on a published schedule at a major industry conference and the company CEO was already slated to make the announcement. So, there was no time to execute any research to support the development and launch of the product.
Are you blessed with too much time? I once rushed a research project into the field at the end of the year to make sure that we used up the money that was in our budget. It was a prudent thing to do from a budgetary standpoint, but it wasn’t effective for the business. I presented the results of the research in January of the following year, only to find that the insights were no longer relevant because the entire marketing program upon which the research was predicated was to be radically changed in the next month.
Do you need to have measurements before and after an event or campaign? If you are conducting a Pre-Post study, you must be sure that the Pre phase of the research is completed before the event that you want to measure in the Post phase begins. If you are measuring the effectiveness of an advertising campaign, the Pre phase must be completed before the ad campaign is launched. Sometimes, it’s impossible to conduct a Pre phase. For example, last April, I was asked if we could compare attitudes of people about healthcare before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, without a 1985 DeLorean equipped with a Flux Capacitor, it was impossible to conduct a Pre COVID-19 survey.
Can your timing be interrupted by external forces? I was managing a packaging test for a brand of fruit juices utilizing personal interviews in three cities. We had a tight timeline to finish the research to provide input to the manufacturer to coincide with the completion of the packaging production facility. Everything was right on schedule until the interviewing facility outside of Los Angeles had to evacuate due to out-of-control wildfires. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but external forces beyond our control delayed our project by a full week.
Is this a good time to be conducting any research? There may not be a “Right” time to conduct a research project and perhaps the best decision is to delay or not do any research. For example, you shouldn’t be testing a new technology before you have a working prototype. I once tried to test a new smartphone concept in focus groups when we only had a wooden model to show respondents. They could not understand the concept at all. Delaying the research until we could better demonstrate the product led to more useful insights.
