Why can’t a cell phone be like a cow?

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I’m grateful for an interview the other day with Iqal Quadir, Director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT. When Iqbal was quite young, growing up with his siblings in a village in Bangladesh, he was asked by his mother to walk about 10km to another village to fetch medicine. He spent all morning walking to the village to discover the doctor was out attending to patients in other villages and retrieving supplies. So Iqbal spent the afternoon walking home with his pockets empty.

Years later after moving to the U.S. and receiving degrees from Wharton, he became a Wall Street banker. He recalls having another unproductive day in the early 1990s transporting data across Manhatten on floppy disks (remember floppies?). Mobile phones were still in their infancy – expensive, heavy, and with scarce connectivity. But understanding Moore’s Law (processing speed, transistor density, pixal concentration, memory capacity, etc…all doubling every two years), Iqbal knew that in the coming years mobile phones would become cheap, powerful and ubiquitous. If this was to be true, he reasoned, then why not begin the journey now to provide mobile phones to villagers in his home country of Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, a source of entrepreneurial capital might be a cow or goat to provide milk to sell or convert to cheese. If having a cow or a goat could be the seed of an entrepreneurial venture in a Bangladesh village, then why couldn’t a cell phone be one also? As Quadir put it, “Why can’t a cell phone be like a cow?”

Why couldn’t people in rural environments in Bangladesh use mobile telecommunications technology as an entrepreneurial technology, just as many use land, livestock, and other local resources to start small businesses? If land could yield crops to sell, or a goat to harvest milk and cheese to sell, Quadir rationalized that someone could take out a micro-loan to purchase a mobile phone that could be shared—rented—by members of the community. In this way, a mobile phone could be an asset to an entire village. As Quadir likes to say, “Connectivity is productivity.”

Quadir took this argument to Grameen Bank, a micro-credit lender that could realize the potential, as well as to Telenor telecommunications of Norway, which could help provide the infrastructure. As of this writing, Grameenphone has nearly 40 million subscribers and is still expanding.

This system of microlending has vastly increased the productivity and standard of living of the people of Bangladesh, spawned an untold number of entrepreneurial ventures employing cell phones, and of course brought some wealth to Grameen Bank and Telenor. But the impetus for such an innovative initiative started with Quadir’s recognition that connectivity equals productivity, and his strong sense of purpose and meaning in giving back to his native country.

When you Systematize, You Sterilize

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“To systematize is to sterilize.”
– Shlomo Maital

Lionel Messi plays soccer with the joy of a child. His inventiveness and wizardry can leave you (his opponents too) gaping in awe. In an interview for the New York Times with Jere Longman, Messi stated that he would quit the game as soon as it stopped being fun.

I have three kids and I’m convinced that they will far exceed me in their capability in pretty much anything that they’re working on currently. The capacity and abilities of my daughter, for example, in ballet and building fairy houses is well…already beyond anything I’m capable of, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows me. My boys, currently nine and eleven, are into skiing and soccer at the moment, and because of the understood 10,000 hour rule, popularized by Malcolm Gladwell, I’m quite certain that they will far surpass me as well.

Last night I coached an indoor soccer game with my son Will’s team, and although individually each player is quite talented, we were playing a team that was a little bigger and little older than us. And while it was a close match at halftime, in the second half the opposite team outscored us probably 5-1. Later that evening I attended a party and I was chatting with Artie, one of the fathers of a player on our team who had grown up playing a game called futsal. Futsal is a game in which you play with a small ball on a small court, and the ball doesn’t bounce so well. The game rewards creative, inventive play, and since it’s played on small court, like indoor soccer, most goals come from either breakaways or crisp passing to find opportunities. The game does not reward a single individual attempting end to end efforts.

Artie was suggesting that we should play the game more like basketball in which once we lose the ball our team should retreat immediately back to a defensive position and wait for the opposing team to attack. Once we regain possession of the ball we should try for breakaways down the wings – down the sides and out of traffic on this small field. He pointed out that almost all of the goals scored in the game came from breakaways, we should employ the same tactic.

I’ve only been coaching soccer and lacrosse for a few years now – mostly to my young boys – but Artie has clued me into a couple things that Daniel Coyle has known from studying the worlds best coaches and players around the world, in disciplines ranging from skiing, to soccer to violin playing. The best coaches he finds, talk less yet say more, and let the kids define the play to accelerate the learning.

If you’re a parent watching sports, you have observed it is quite common to see coaches and parents from the sidelines yelling directions or ideas. But as the kids will remind me, and I’ve already observed, they really don’t hear very much as people yell from the sidelines. They hear you in the small moments when you speak to them personally and directly. The second key idea is to set up structured drills, but then allow the exercise to evolve as the kids choose the way the drill is created in real time.

The first idea is intuitive. It makes sense that if you pull a child aside and speak to them personally and customize each tip and bit of advice to them individually and let them understand you know them, your small bit of advice will resonate more strongly.

And the second idea – the one in which you allow the kids, the players, let the drill emerge as they see it happening, allows them find play and individual expression and joy in creating each moment, because the play comes from their own personal expression of skill and ability.

These ideas are aptly applied to our work. Daniel Coyle has spent the last few years studying just such coaches and players on a world class level and found numerous examples of how the best players and coaches mine and build brilliance from seemly “average” players, workers, contributors in almost any discipline. Join us December 7 for a live, interactive event in which Dan Coyle discusses these findings and provides clear, actionable tips on how to crack the talent code.

Lessons from Challenger, Build Hope and Be Accountable

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“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
— Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Richard Feynman, renowned physicist, was asked in 1986 to help understand what happened in the Challenger disaster. He not only gave a famous testimony to Congress describing the O-ring failure that led to the catastrophe, he also led a more quiet inquiry conducting interviews of the NASA engineers and leaders. He devoted the latter half of his book What Do You Care What Other People Think? to his experience working on the Rogers Commission. One of his sober conclusions was that the engineers on the ground building the componentry had a much different perspective than than the leaders in the organization. He found that, while the engineers estimated a catastrophic failure upon launch of only 1 in 100, the management’s estimate was closer to 1 in 100,000 This disconnect is linked to what I wrote about in a previous post about the power-poisoning effect Stanford professor Bob Sutton found through his research.

Sometimes in our grandiose vision for change and mission we can lose sight of the details that matter so dearly in execution. Do this:

  • If you’re on the project, speak the truth.  Regularly.   Although unfortunately it is true leaders like only good news, by concealing ugly truths you are only sabotaging your own efforts.
  • If you’re leading the charge, ask and take time to understand the details. A disconnected leader isn’t leading – they are pontificating without honest accountability. Accountability is about understanding the goals, giving honest responsibility and getting out of the way of individual efforts without compromising results.

Build hope and vision, yet remain accountable, because ultimately, if you own the solution or project, see it through to success.

Invite a Penguin to Your Next Meeting

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Years ago, Matt May was consulting to a Detroit car company. After interviewing people in the organization, he discovered theirs was a culture that stifled ideas in a command-and-control hierarchical fashion. The leaders of the company rejected his suggestion, didn’t believe him, and insisted they had an open environment where all ideas were welcome to the table.

So when Matt was asked to conduct a half-day workshop session he created an exercise in which each team, composed of diverse employees from all strata of the organization, had to work in teams to solve a puzzle. The exercise was about selecting the right balance of fuel, food, people, and resources for a successful trip to the moon. In the exercise there is a correct configuration of resources to solve the problem.

Before the exercise started, Matt did this: he took aside the most junior member on each team and gave them the answer. And told them they were free to do anything they chose to make their voice heard and be convincing to make their team successfully win the game except tell the team that Matt gave them the answer key.

Not one team got it right. At the conclusion of the session Matt asked the secret member of each team, who held the answer key, to stand up. The leaders attending the meeting were both appalled and enlightened to discover that contrary to their belief, voices from all levels of the organization really weren’t appreciated and listened to thoughtfully. After all, for each group the answer was sitting right at the table, yet no team delivered the correct solution.

We spoke to Juan, a senior IT leader at a large financial services organization, who had a similar experience, but his voice was heard. Recently, he was puzzled to be invited to a meeting with two of his colleagues from different departments who were trying to solve a business dilemma. As Juan sat through the opening comments of the meeting, he kept wondering silently what in the world was he doing here? Juan was leading the IT group, and clearly what these players needed was a business decision structure that had nothing to do with his team. But despite his puzzlement at why he was invited, Juan stayed and listened intently and shared his best ideas and suggestions during the course of the meeting. Within just a couple days Juan was included in some followup notes and found his colleagues had agreed and implemented the ideas discussed at the meeting.

But he discovered later in water cooler and cafeteria conversations, that it was his presence and divergent opinions and perspectives that bridged the understanding gap between his colleagues who had been too close to the project to see and execute the solution needed.

Maybe next time invite someone from left field to the table. Something interesting and successful might happen.

Do You Create Superheroes?

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What creates a high performer? Is it how many degrees they have, how many IQ points they have? Or is it how they create, use and power up their network? Dan Goleman says just one cognitive ability distinguishes top performers from average; pattern recognition. And an important part of big picture pattern thinking is the ability to create and energize a network of people who provide the pieces of that pattern.

Rob Cross, from the University of Virginia, has been studying how people interact, and the networks we create in the workplace. And he’s convinced that the strength, reach, and energy in the networks we create are powerful predictors of professional success, and happiness too.

Try this. Don’t ask yourself, “Who do I talk to at work?” Instead ask yourself these four questions:

  • Who do I go to to get things done?
  • Who do I go to for information?
  • Who do I trust at work?
  • Who do I interact with who always leaves me feeling better and stronger, and more energized?

In many organizations, up to a third of one’s professional skills and capabilities remain unknown to others in the organization. Enter the importance and power of the “broker.” The Broker is an important capabilities connector in the Real Org Chart. The Broker creates the connectivity in information, expertise, decision-making, political dynamics, project awareness and more. It also turns out your SVPs are most likely to be the centers of information, trust, effectiveness and energy.

But one of the greatest predictors of your effectiveness, your happiness, and your success is your capacity to be an energizer, instead of a vampire. According to Rob Cross, statistically your ability to create energy in the workplace and with your colleagues is more than 10 times as powerful as other predictors, including function, title, department, expertise, knowledge… Think about that for a second, and then ask yourself, “When people leave an interaction with me, do they leave feeling more or less energized?”

Enthusiasm is the contagious excitement of seeing the possible, and effectively sharing that vision with others. When we get enthusiastic about something it can be infectious. Just remember the difference between enthusiasm and action. There’s nothing more de-energizing than walking away fired-up from a meeting, work diligently on the shared vision, then only to return and find the prophet hasn’t done anything.

Craft an enthusiastic vision that captures the values of people in the group, and paint real possibilities. Next lead by example and make your contribution to the vision. That’s leadership enthusiasm in action.

Want to Connect? Try the Power of Story

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You walk into a sandwich shop, order the yummy-sounding special and turn to the cooler to grab a drink. The usual representatives are there from major beverage providers. And then a cool photo and unique label catches your eye – something called Can of Whoopass by Jones Soda. This particular label is a photo of a horse taken by her owner in Manassas, VA, neat! You look again and each label and photo is different. And every photo label is contributed by a Jones Soda fan somewhere around the world. The labels are cool, unique, intriguing, and the soda isn’t bad either. You buy it. And the next time you come in to the sandwich shop too. It turns out Jones Soda is building the customer storyline into the product itself. You can go to their website, submit your own photo and contribute to the community experience. In his book, A Whole New Mind, Dan Pink highlights the story of Big Tattoo Red, a fine and affordable red wine made and sold by two brothers who are also donating 50 cents from each bottle sold to Hospice of Northern Virginia honor their mother who died of cancer. When presented with three equally drinkable and price-competitive wines, which one are you going to buy?

Enter the power of story. One of the greatest challenges you face as a manager, as a leader of other people, is making sure they remember the priorities that you have for them. Your goal is to get people around you to remember the core values and the way you would like them to behave, decide and perform on critical issues when you aren’t around them – which is most of the time. The problem you face, though, is the way the brain is wired. It is not wired to hold onto things. And the dilemma is that while you stand up and communicate your goals, your values, your vision for the organization, people are actually not retaining that easily. Now we know a lot from neuroscience about how the brain is wired to store information or memory. Despite the brains astonishing powers, it has a limited capacity for retention of message, depending on how it’s delivered.

Michael Hammer used to say, “The first fifty times you say it, they won’t hear you. The second fifty times you say it, they won’t understand you. And the third fifty times you say it, they won’t believe you.” Your challenge is to actually get your message, your goals, your key priorities to stick in their memory during those times when they are far from you in client meetings, strategy sessions, etc. One of the most powerful ways to communicate lasting messages is through the power of story. Stories can capture ideas succinctly and translate them to the listener through emotion. Consistent studies reveal that emotion drives behavior, which in turn creates belief. Not the other way around – it’s not that once you believe something, your behavior changes. The consistent behavior comes before belief. And one of the surest ways to ensure your message is both remembered, and acted on, is through the power of story.

Ask Carefully. You May Find Yourself There.

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We grow in the direction of the questions we ask. Our line of inquiry reinforces our interests, fuels our curiosity, and amplifies our identity and understanding in that direction. In a world today that is increasingly volatile, ambiguous and complex, the ideas and opinions that vie for our attention have compounded vastly beyond our abilities to digest intellectually, and thus the inquisitive choices we make become increasingly important in directing the shape of our ideas, our identities and our collaborative communities.

We need to follow the positive idea threads that matter to us, in context of our work, our play, and our lives. Appreciative Inquiry is the notion that we appreciate – add value to – the ideas and beliefs that we inquire of, and importantly that our questions are indeed creations. That is, each question we pose begets change, and what we anticipate in the world and in each interaction tomorrow, reflects our behavior and disposition today. Appreciative Inquiry respects Remedial and Diagnostic forms of organizational development, yet also presents a future path of positive change focusing on inspired innovation as opposed to focusing solely on correcting what isn’t working.

Diagnostic exercises such as “autopsies without blame” are surely useful at isolating and excising those practices and processes that failed, but arguably only add to the ever-increasing list of things we should not do. And remediating efforts, like finding the weakest link, can certainly work toward elevating those skills and behaviors that fall below the curve. But in this rapidly evolving economic landscape where next iterations, and emergent inspired-innovation represents real differentiating value, I believe that a more forward, positive and appreciative approach is needed. Basically I believe the world is moving too fast to spend most of our time fixing the old, we need to be creating the new.

We are seeing these developments in the emergence of positive institutions such as IDEO, the award-winning design firm. As IDEO engages their clients in their highly co-creative, rapid-prototyping process of design, they are simultaneously instructing and creating these capacities in the customers they work with. So even beyond the personal level of creating and affecting change by the questions we ask, we see whole organizations positively affect whole organizations simply by manner and behavior of interaction.

And so, craft your questions carefully, for they affect everyone they touch.

Relentlessly inspire. And be inspired.

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make_happyWant to build a great marriage? Create positive teams that go the duration? Be a better boss, not a bosshole? Turns out there is statistical evidence that creating great results and great relationships, is correlated to the ratio of positive/negative interactions we have with the people around us. Above 3:1 and below 11:1 is trending positive, and right about 6:1 is the sweet spot for professional environments. More than 12:1 in the ratio of positive to negative comments and the praise starts to get a little unbelievable.

For personal relationships you want about 5:1 positive to negative interactions. Maybe because trust is higher in personal relationships. Maybe because we need less constant affirmation from loved ones. Maybe we take more chances in our work, and want greater affirmation that we’re on the right track.

Marcial Francisco Losada conducted studies in which teams of assistants, behind one-way mirrors, observed group discussions and categorized comments made as either positive, negative, or neutral. Later, he drew upon independent metrics of performance, and was able to rank the team’s performance in context of the tenor of the conversations they had. The researchers also measured whether questions were intended to elicit new information or advocate their own point of view. Interestingly, low-performing teams asked very few inquisitive questions, and instead exercised a position of “waiting to talk” instead of actively listening.

Interestingly, on the high-performing teams one person’s inquisitive line of questioning would lead to another’s positivity. That is, if someone in the group made a curious inquiry, another member would react positively toward that line of questioning. Curiosity creates positive interactions.

The take-away is straightforward: build positive interactions into your daily life and good things happen.

To Bring Change Build Emotional Connection

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Justin Menkes told me this story about Andrea Jung in one of her early business development efforts at Avon.

Avon is originally the California Perfume Company established in 1886. Fast-forward to the 1990s where Avon was often considered an aging product and a tired brand. Andrea Jung had just entered the company and had diagnosed the problem – the product was considered cheap and associated with low quality and outdated styles. Andrea knew it was time to take the product up-market. But knowing the course of action, and getting everyone on the bus is another matter. Even with the strongest strategy and idea, if people aren’t emotionally connected, it’s not going get off the ground. Andrea knew she had to capture the hearts and minds of everyone in the company, so she called a big town hall meeting to introduce the new branding and product enhancements.

As her product team was introducing the new flashy colors, packaging, products and branding, Andrea looked out upon a sea of confused and angry Avon women. They didn’t understand the reason for all this seismic change. All they could think about was their reliable customers’ disappointment and the loss of their Christmas bonuses. In the minds of the Avon women, Andrea was proposing to take away their livelihood.

Andrea stopped the presentation and asked a simple question to the audience, “How many of you use Avon products? Raise your hand.” As the Avon ladies looked around the room and saw how few among them actually used their own products, they understood how much trouble the company was in. In one singular moment Andrea empathetically understood their point of view and was able to pose a question to allow them to realize the urgency of their situation and the need for change. The rest was easy because now Avon had thousands of ambassadors for the new brand and product.

The message is this: don’t think the strength of a strategy or change idea will carry the day. Ultimately you have to win the hearts and minds of the people.

Waiting to talk is not Listening

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Pick your management guru and each will say, listen.

  • Stephen Covey: “Pass the torch and listen.”
  • Susan Scott: “Waiting to talk is not listening.”
  • Keith Ferrazzi: “When you ask someone’s opinion, your next job is to listen and give a damn.”
  • Marshall Goldsmith: “Let go of ‘yes, but…’ – stop adding too much value and listen.”
  • Tim Sanders: “Recognize and welcome appreciation with a simple Thank you.”
  • Warren Bennis: “Ask a probing question and then listen.”
  • David Whyte: “The conversation IS the relationship.”

Mark Goulston‘s new book, Just Listen, seeks to help people build stronger and more creative relationships through the power of deep listening.  Once you’ve been patient and thoughtful to learn effective listening skills, he says there are a few things you can do to encourage open listening in those you are speaking with.  Often when presenting a new or provocative idea, your audience may metaphorically cross their arms in their mind.  Even if they don’t provide any physical clues as to their position or opinion, if you can get them to gesticulate and open up in their posture and body language, their opinion is likely to follow.  A simple mechanism is to ask, “Can you show me what you mean by that?  Can you draw it for me?”  By asking for an illustration, it will engage their visual and creative energy and they are more likely to open their mind to new ideas.  Also by asking a provocative question, you’ll sharpen their listening skills because they understand you expect them to be active participant in the conversation, and not simply waiting to talk.  The tip is: get your audience to open up their posture and their mind will follow.