Improve My Business

I’ve heard two different stories lately - both of which had me disappointed in the “Top Gun” in the story.

Story 1:  Two departments decide to meet informally to discuss how to deliver a message to their constituents.  Dept #1 invites Dept #2 to “stop by” and have a donut, then discuss the issue.  Dept #2’s new manager, Top Gun, also stops by - and notes who showed up and who didn’t.  TG then confronts an employee who didn’t choose to ’stop by’ in the hallway publicly, literally getting in his face to demand why he didn’t show up for the meeting, and ending with “If I invite you to a meeting, you had BETTER show up next time”.  Employee didn’t even know which meeting TG was referring to, since the invitation was phrased as a ‘drop in’ rather than a mandatory formal meeting…

Story 2:  Top Gun is expecting paperwork from a contractor, and doesn’t get it.  Instead of calling up the contractor and asking where the paperwork is, TG calls the contractor’s head honcho, saying “I’m NOT happy!” and making a huge fuss over the missing paperwork (which had been sent, but not received - email trail shows it had been sent).  Head honcho then reams out contractor, who now has to go work with TG.

In both stories, if the TG had ASKED what is going on, instead of throwing their weight around, the situation would have been SO much better:

#1: “Hey, I noticed  you weren’t at the get together - it was really informative - why did you decide not to attend?”

#2:  “Hey contractor, I haven’t gotten my paperwork - did you send it?  I haven’t received it - could you please resend?”

In both cases, resentment against TG would be non-existent… as opposed to now, when the ‘wronged’ party feels that TG’s reaction was WAY out of proportion, and therefore un-needed, un-wanted, and un-warranted.

Moral of the story?  Ask rather than assume that people are flaunting your authority.  ASK!  Really!  It’ll save a lot of headaches for all concerned…

Technorati Tags: management bully

As business owners or workers, we often are caught up on the “movement” of it all – the movement of ideas, services, products, whatever – from where we are to where it needs to be. As a result, it’s often difficult to find the quiet – to find that place that will allow us to slow down, relax, and reflect on what we are doing.

The quiet that allows us to listen to the soft, almost unintelligible voice inside us – the one that quietly whispers words of wisdom and our most secret thoughts. Things like

“Is this what I really should be doing?”

“Should I be doing this more? Less? Differently?”

“Do I really need to sign up for another webinar, or should I be working on what I’ve already gleaned from the 3 I’ve attended?”

“What makes me happy? Does this?  Could this if I change something?”

and a whole host of personal stuff, which I won’t get into here…

Finding the quiet is often difficult unless you know where to look. One client I had was busy from 7 am to 7 pm every day – and was stressed out as a result. As her consultant, I worked with her to help her streamline and organize her business, including delegation of authority and shared responsibility; but as someone who genuinely respected and cared for her, I also worked on the way she approached work – especially as it negatively affected her level of stress. What did we do?

• Took 30 mins minimum for lunch – every day. This may sound like a simple thing, but she had gotten into the habit of eating at her desk – while she caught up on voicemail, emails, etc. - and so had no break from her day.  By “forcing” her to look up from what she was doing, she quieted her mind enough to take it out of gear - and sometimes found that she got things cleared up easier as a result.

• Took a walk whenever we could. When we had to discuss a matter, and the weather cooperated, we’d take a 10 min walk outside while we had our talk.  We’re not talking 3 mile hikes - just a quick turn around the building perimeter.  This was in an industrial park next to the railroad – not the most scenic of areas – but we both grew to appreciate the flowering weeds that refused to die even though they were regularly run over; the patterns in the gravel after a hard rain; and the bite of the wind or the heat of the sun as we walked and talked. This momentary focus on nature always left us both refreshed, and the brisk walk got our blood flowing again. [I had often envied smokers who got to go outside every 2 hours for a smoke break; and saw no reason why non-smokers should be deprived of seeing outside weather... so had implemented something similar in two previous companies also, which had worked well.]

• Wrote down a task list. Previous posts have talked about the need to write an ‘accomplishment’ list; but for this case, we simply emptied her head of the stuff that was swimming around there, in order to make room for cognitive thinking. Accordingly, we set up a task list that worked for her, and once she finished something, she would cross it off (and get that feeling of accomplishment that we all get when something gets off our task list.)

• Keep a pad/pen next to the bed. One of her problems was that, once she was lying in bed and relaxing, things that she’d forgotten to do would pop into her head. In order to ensure that she didn’t fret about it all night, she started to keep a pad and pen next to her bed so she could jot it down – and then let it go.

While this list is not rocket science, it worked. She started to enjoy her lunch time as a ‘work free’ zone, running errands or (gasp!) taking an hour to meet a friend when she wasn’t in the cafeteria, reconnecting with employees; and as she continued to take her walks, she invited others in the company to walk with her, so everyone started to benefit from the small break; best of all, she started sleeping more soundly once we figured out how to empty her brain from all her worries.

What techniques have worked for you? I’d love to compile a great list!  Please post your ideas here!

our friends at Inc.com have listed five ways to improve quality - and also have linked an article that goes into more detail for each tip.  Give it a read, and see what you think!

Technorati Tags: Inc magazine, tips for quality

It’s interesting to see where business is going right now.  I’ve got a few irons in the fire, all put there through a different method, and all equally interesting:

1)  working with a national government  on improving healthcare using Lean techniques;

2) working with a state government to manage the hundreds of tasks that are a result of a detailed report (how to help them actually DO something with all these comments);

3)  teaching a (different) state agency how to map their processes in order to see where they have duplication and waste; become project manager for the elimination of these wastes;

4)  working with a services company at remote locations to implement a quality system;

5)  providing auditing services to clients.

In some of these engagements, I am dependent - dependent on being selected as the vendor; dependent on monies being released; dependent on governmental schedules.  I’m definitely swimming with the sharks - hoping my bid is deemed best fit; wondering if I should subcontract to a larger firm to get my foot in the door; etc.

In other engagements, I am master of my destiny (but not in the “Seinfeld” way) - I control my schedule, am the sole selected vendor for the assignment, and may have worked with the client previously and therefore our expectations are pretty clear and defined.  I’m the only fish in my puddle, or at least a big fish in a little pond.

Each, I’m finding, has their good points:  for larger contracts, it’s more job security (if they come through).  For jobs that I am subcontracting for (the national one), while I’m a valuable player on the team, I’m not the prime lead.  My friend Michael is.  He’s the one that gives me status (instead of the other way around); so he’s the one that has to determine the status; I’m simply the recipient of this news.  In smaller contracts, (#4 explicitly), we had a brief phone call on Monday, set up a longer one on Wednesday, and started working on contracts and initial visit dates on Thursday.  Less than 5 business days start to finish - and immediate gratification (”we’re doing something”).  However, it will be a smaller engagement, so if I focused solely on jobs of this size, I’d be doing the ABC dance - Always Be Connecting, looking for the next sale, etc.  If I worked on only larger engagements, I’d need to have the pipeline filled to allow for the 1-6 month delays between award of contract and start of work.

Conclusion?  I’m the same size fish - I just need to swim in both areas.

Technorati Tags: government contract, healthcare, Lean, quality audit

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that we’ve had tons of changes lately at McDonald Consulting Group.  Our staff has moved on to more ‘fun’ things (crushing grapes in the Pacific Northwest; starting a family and winning the grand prize - an adorable little baby girl; starting college in a state far, far away), leaving me here to build a different team.  I’m back to using contract help to meet my client demands, and that takes a bit more time than working with employees.  Contract help isn’t here every day, and therefore doesn’t know my ’shorthand’ - when I say “I’m going to go to Buffalo NY”, Barret would know to set up flights, hotel, airfare, etc.  My virtual assistant (VA) may intuit that also, but may not know which hotel chain, airline, or car rental company I prefer (all things being equal).

The same goes for contract consultants - I have to spend more time explaining who this client is, what we can do for them, what we should expect from them, and how to interact with them.  It’s in my best interest, from a customer service perspective, to do so; but dang! It’s time consuming!

During this time intensive phase, I’ve had to let some things slide.  One of them?  This blog.  So although we were really good about having posts written in advance that would launch when they were supposed to, we used up our ‘cushion’ and ran out of materials.  And when I did have some free time, it was usually late in the evening, and I selfishly/wisely decided to spend it with my family (which is why I still HAVE a family)…

OK, so now, for the first time in months, my head is slightly above water - no meetings today, proposals are off my desk and in the hands of future prospective clients, and I can see my desktop again.  [Yes, verified that it is a brown desk...]

As soon as I post this, I think I’ll lay out some future blogs - may even follow some of Chris Brogan’s blogging tips (and if you’re in business and NOT reading Chris every day, you’re missing out…)

So, what should you do when you find yourself in a similar situation?  Despite your best efforts, and best intentions, you’re behind on a project.  It may not be mission critical; but still may be something you feel badly about allowing to languish…

When you find yourself derailed, the best thing to do is to get back on track.  Don’t moan about all the lost time; don’t complain about the fact that it will take some discipline to get back on a schedule; and don’t delay out of embarrassment or a feeling of overwhelm.  Just start doing it.  Now.  Like I am.