The Problem with Perfection

If you're not familiar with the law of diminishing returns, it states that at a certain point adding more effort will not produce significantly more gains. The challenge is knowing when you've reached that point. For many managers this is an important question: How far do I keep going on a project before I declare that it's "good enough" — and that further effort will not significantly change the outcome?

Several years ago I worked with a project team charged with increasing sales to its large corporate customers. At the first meeting the team brainstormed ways to drive up sales, but before moving ahead decided to collect data about current sales and survey sales managers and customers. Since it wasn't clear which ideas might work, this seemed like a logical next step — until the data analysis work dragged on for months as the team tried to reach the perfect answer.

I've seen this pattern in many organizations where, instead of moving into action, managers insist on doing more analysis. In some cases this is part of a company-wide "paralysis by analysis" culture, while in others it is a personal tendency of the manager or team involved. Either way this oft-repeated pattern results not only in wasted effort, but significant delays in moving forward.

From my experience, there are two often-unconscious reasons for this unproductive quest for perfection. The first is the fear of failing. In many organizations, coming up with a recommendation that doesn't ultimately succeed can be career limiting. So to avoid this fate, managers put in extra effort to get the "right" answer, and back it up with as much data and justification as possible. Then, if it doesn't work, nobody can say that they didn't do their homework.

The second driver of unproductive perfection is the anxiety about taking action. Studying problems and coming up with recommendations is safe territory; while changing processes, procedures, incentives, systems, or anything else is much higher risk. Action forces managers and teams out of their comfort zones, driving them to sell ideas, deal with resistance, orchestrate work plans, and potentially disrupt work processes for colleagues and even customers. So one way to avoid dealing with these messy issues is to keep the study going as long as possible, thus delaying any action.

Because of these psychological dynamics, breaking free of unproductive perfection is not easy. But if you are a project sponsor, leader, or team member, and want to move into action more quickly, here's an approach you can try: Instead of viewing "action" as something that follows research, think about how action can occur parallel to research. In other words, rather than coming up with perfect recommendations and then flipping the switch months later, start by testing some of your initial ideas on a small scale immediately — while collecting more data. Then you can feed the lessons from these experiments into the research process, while continuing to implement and scale additional ideas.

For example, in the sales case described above, the team shifted its patterns by selecting three corporate customers where they could quickly test some of their ideas, in a low-risk way, in collaboration with the sales teams. With one customer, the sales leader experimented with selling products and services together, rather than having services as an after-sell. A second sales leader added a paid advisory service to his offering. The third worked on building relationships higher up in the C-suite. The lessons from these experiments were then incorporated into the team's recommendations, which were then tested with several more customers and so on. Within a year, most of the corporate sales teams were working differently and increasing their overall sales.

Clearly the ideas that first emerge through this iterative approach are not going to be perfect, but by sharpening them through field-testing rather than theoretical analysis they will eventually become good enough to deliver results. Working in this way also reduces the risk of recommending the "wrong" ideas and the anxiety about managing change, since small-scale tests provide rapid feedback and engage others in the organization right from the beginning.

Perfection certainly makes sense when designing an airplane or an office building. But if the search for perfection is leading you to diminishing returns and an avoidance of action, it might be worth taking a different path.

Does your organization have a problem with perfection?

http://blogs.hbr.org/ashkenas/2011/08/the-problem-with-perfection.html

Learned Helplessness in Organizations

Here’s a cautionary tale of cultural disempowerment: A number of years ago, one of my colleagues was asked to help reduce bureaucracy and speed up decision-making in GE’s former nuclear business — but was told that nothing could be done because every procedure was based on government regulations. “We’re talking about nuclear reactors here,” the managers said, “If we change the way we do things, something could blow up!”

Undaunted by their response, my colleague asked the managers to simply list all of their reports, approval procedures, reviews, audits, metrics, decision forums, standing meetings, and other management processes. He then had them identify which ones the government required, and which had been created internally. Much to the managers’ amazement, the vast majority of these management processes were self-generated — which meant that they could streamline much more than they had thought.

In the past year I’ve heard variations on this same theme across completely different industries: Pharmaceutical and financial services managers say that their hands are tied because of regulations or new legislation. Managers in a defense-related firm are constrained because of cuts to the Federal budget. Leaders in a professional services firm can’t take actions because of long-standing partner agreements. And the list goes on. Everyone can blame some kind of external circumstance for his or her inability to act.

Of course all of these explanations are at least partially true. However, around these kernels of truth, managers build concentric circles of excuses that absolve them of accountability for change or improvement. So instead of finding creative ways to deal with regulations or budget cuts, they accept the status quo and blame external conditions for the problems that exist.

This phenomenon — which one of my clients has dubbed “learned helplessness” — has the power to permeate the culture of an organization. Like a spreading infection, managers pass on learned helplessness from group to group and level to level. Eventually the standard response to any initiative is some variation of, “We’d love to do that, but we really can’t.”

From the outside, this kind of culture doesn’t make any sense. As my colleague pointed out to GE’s nuclear managers, many of the constraints are self-generated. But you’ll find most managers are unwilling to courageously challenge their beliefs about taking risks. To fight this resistance and start down this path, here are two steps that you can take:

First, shine a spotlight on the pattern. The first lever for changing a recurring cultural behavior is to make people aware of it. To do this, make an inventory of initiatives that people say they want, but haven’t carried out. Ask why these kinds of initiatives die on the vine. Put together a list of the ten most common excuses for not taking action. The more dialogue you can create around these issues, the more your colleagues will become aware of their largely unconscious behaviors.

Second, prove your organizational power to act. Find one initiative that can demonstrate, even on a small scale, that taking action will not result in catastrophic failure. In one company for example, managers in the field were asked to identify requests from the head office that they thought were silly or redundant. Field managers had always complained about these requests, but never pushed back. Once they were given permission to challenge these “requests” and actually won a few victories, they began to develop the confidence to tackle more ambitious changes.

All managers face real constraints. Effective managers differentiate between those that must be accepted and those that can be challenged.

How can your organization overcome learned helplessness?

http://blogs.hbr.org/ashkenas/2012/06/learned-helplessness-in-organi.html

Goal Setting Starts at the Top and Cascades Down to the Employees

Setting and cascading goals throughout the organization is vital to achieving company objectives. Before you can expect employees to set goals, however, you'll need to set company goals.

When defining goals, you’ll want to make sure they meet the SMART criteria:

Specific: A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal.

Measurable: Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set.

Attainable: It should be a stretch to reach the goal, but not so much so that it’s out of reach.

Realistic: What it takes to do to achieve the goal should be within the availability of resources, knowledge and time.

Timely: The goals should have a clearly defined time-frame including a target completion date.

Using the SMART criteria above, you should determine 3-5 goals that are tied to success measures of the company. Oftentimes they are financial, business development, process development or customer satisfaction measures. Once the Company Goals are determined, they should be communicated throughout the Company. Using a company-wide venue (all company meeting, webcast, e-mail, etc.) to share the goals will ensure that all employees hear the same consistent message. Once communicated, these goals become the framework that shape departmental and individual goals. Hence the goals are cascaded as Company Goals to Departmental Goals to Individual Goals. Setting goals at the department and employee level ensures that the day-to-day work is tied to the overall success of the company. Connecting the goals to the Performance Management Process, whereby you can assess an employee’s attainment vs. their goals on a quarterly, semi-annual, or annual basis will further enforce employee goals and get you further down the road towards attaining your company goals.

Check-in on the goals a few times throughout the year. It doesn’t have to be a formal process… just a quick conversation to review the goals to make sure they still make sense. As business and company conditions change, be sure to review the goals to make any adjustments accordingly.

http://www.inc.com/nancy-mobley/goal-setting-starts-at-the-top-and-cascades-down-to-the-employees.html

Resolving Your Inbox Nightmares

Help! My Outlook inbox is haunting me – even in my sleep! This is the cry for help I receive from all too many business owners who have lost the battle of the bulging inbox. Alas, the dreaded message appears in their sleep: “downloading 1 of 1238 email messages” flashes through their dreams throughout the restless nights.

Let’s take a look at some simple, first-step solutions to the bulging inbox predicament so you can return to a good night’s sleep.

Diagnosing the problem is the first step to resolving the issue. Start by assessing the situation with these questions and action steps.

How many newsletters, special offer lists and updates do I subscribe to? Of those, how many do I really read and act on on a regular basis? Take the plunge and devote some time to unsubscribing from the updates you don’t utilize regularly.

How many lists am I on? Do I participate and/or learn from them? Do I get my updates in individual emails or in digest form? (You can choose the digest form in your profile settings on Yahoo and Google lists.) Let go of the lists you don’t participate in. If you participate as an expert but don’t learn much, reassess the time spent here.

How many of these emails are really necessary? Can I unsubscribe, change protocol with my outsourcing team, delegate them or remove myself from lists and updates I no longer need?

Taking these steps often eliminates a good percentage of the overflow. Now let’s look at some organizational options.

Scheduling – Schedule about three blocks of time in each day to do nothing but act on and answer emails. Don’t answer the phone or allow any other interruptions. During the non-email time of the day, shut down Outlook. It’s a bit daunting at first but your email will get far more attention when you give it your undivided attention than it will if you pick and choose who to respond to all day long while multi-tasking.

Flagging – I had fallen into the bad habit of flagging emails for a later time – and I would never get back to most of them! Now when I flag an email I put a reminder on it as well and schedule it for one of my “email only” blocks of time. I no longer use flagging as a procrastination method.

Creating Rules and Folders – If you receive emails from a constant source, like clients or your website, create separate folders for each source. I have created a “rule” so that all of my client emails go into the “current client” folder. All of my website comments and inquiries go into another folder, etcetera. Creating rules like this will help you to prioritize your responses. Go to Outlook help if you don’t know how to do this.

Delegate – How many of these emails are items do YOU have to act on? If you receive orders and client requests in large numbers, perhaps it’s time to bring on part time help. This can be done on a virtual basis so it doesn’t always mean bringing someone into the office. If you are “cc’d” on a lot of emails consider asking the source to stop sending you copies of those items where you no longer need to be in the loop.

Schedule RSS Feed Time – If you subscribe to a lot of RSS feeds, create a rule to have them go into one folder and schedule time to follow your favorite feeds. Don’t allow these to be a big distraction for you. I let all my feed updates wait until Friday and I act on them then. What a time saver!

http://www.inc.com/marla-tabaka/resolving-your-inbox-nightmares.html

Increasing Productivity - 5 Tips for Looking at the Big Picture & Improving Your Overall Effectiveness

Have you ever concentrated on something so hard that the world seems to recede into the background? Like when you see a blemish on your chin and it begins to take on the dimensions of a quarter? Or when you are shuffling through a business proposal that you must deliver that day to an unsupportive group of peers?

Each, in their own right seem to gobble up every inch of computing brain space as you mull over advantages, consequences, causes, and reactions of others. Our level of anxiety over the mind numbing details might eventually increase to such an extent that other areas of our life run out of control. It gets to the point where nothing in business and in life is getting done. You are no longer productive!

When I allow myself to drift into single minded focus, my husband will look at me with an incredulous expression on his face and announce “You are just not seeing the big picture!”

You see, I was taught that the devil is in the details and consequently the big picture will take care of itself if I address every single little nuance – such as correcting a spelling error in a love letter sent to me by my fiancé’. I think that was the first clue to my husband Rick that our marriage would take on interesting elements.

When You Become So Focused On One Particular Thing – You Miss Other Opportunities in Business and in Life

A classic caution in driving is to avoid highway hypnosis where the driver’s eyes are so locked onto the road ahead that they don’t see what is developing around them. This is a ripe condition for accidents to happen. Well, we are doing the same thing when considering the changes we want to make in our personal life, careers or businesses.

When we do strategic planning, all of the elements related to our business need to be evaluated through a non judgmental process. Awareness of our surroundings can actually help us prioritize and focus on “what is” and “what needs to be” in our business decisions.

To achieve productive focus, try following the tips below before you make any short or long -term decisions.

5 Ways to Look at the Big Picture and Improve Overall Productivity While Reducing Stess and Anxiety…

1. Figure out what your present economic environment looks like? Has there been a downturn or growth in your area of expertise? What have other businesses like yours experienced and does that mirror what is happening to you? Once you have an accurate depiction of how your business arena is developing, you can begin to address areas to update, change or enhance.

2. Evaluate how your business is impacted by turnover? Is your time taken up in orienting new hires or actively working to maintain key employees in terms of running your business? Is your staff working at optimum levels and enjoying the work they do? If you are a single entrepreneur, are your physical and mental resources charged up and in good working condition? Often our personal energy overrides the physical or mental exhaustion we may feel and you may not even be aware your engine is slowing down. Take a personal inventory and do what you must in order to retain your vitality.

3. Take a solid look at your current financial situation. What amount of funds or business do you need to survive through an economic downturn and how much do you need in order to thrive? What resources do you have available to you to shore up your financial portfolio? Once these questions are answered, it will give you the foundation you need to establish business decisions.

4. Realistically evaluate your product or service offering and determine if the marketplace still wants it. Even though you feel the public needs what you have, a fickle public will purchase what it wants and may leave you behind. Consider taking active steps to interview other entrepreneurs and professionals as well as current and past clients for real-time information. Decisions made in a vacuum are never a good thing.

5. Assess what steps you need to take to catch up to the technology changes occurring in social networking, online meetings, and communication tools. Even though technology continues to evolve daily, you can utilize resources that meet your needs currently and through the next couple of years. Understand how your customers and clients relate to you and act accordingly.

Perspective is a wonderful thing. We may not like what we see (like an expanding waist line in the mirror.) But once we understand what is really happening, we can then take the necessary steps to fix it or build upon the successes that are already in place.

Focus on the big picture while enjoying the nuances of the individual elements that make up the image and environment. You will improve your overall productivity and at the same time reduce your stress and anxiety.

https://community.dynamics.com/blogs/articles/archive/2010/03/05/increasing-productivity-5-tips-for-looking-at-the-big-picture-38-improving-your-overall-effectiveness.aspx

Tips on Handling Customer Complaints

Act Fast
Handle a complaint as soon as it happens. If you let a customer hang up the phone without clearing up his or her complaint, he or she will feel ignored and will be more likely to complain about you to others. You don’t want unhappy customers talking with anyone other than you.

Listen Carefully
Resist the temptation to debate an unhappy customer. Just let them talk. Allowing a customer to voice his or her complaint will alleviate the tension and move you toward a better resolution. Some people just want a chance to vent.

Choose a Point Person
Ask an employee who was not involved in the initial conflict to step in and handle a sticky customer service matter. Ideally, a manager with the authority to resolve the dispute is the best person to tap.

Think Before You Speak
Be careful of the language you use, and watch your tone of voice. Say what you can do, not what you can’t do. For example, don't say "We can't honor this coupon before it's expired.” Instead, say, "Can we give you a coupon or credit for a future purchase"?

Be Flexible
It’s easy to bend the rules and let a customer return an item past your policy of 60 days. It’s hard to police every complaint about you that crops up on the Web. If you can make an exception for an unhappy customer, you may find that the short-term cost yields long-term dividends.

http://www.inc.com/ss/ask-inc-tips-handling-customer-complaints#0

Saving a record through code

If you need to force a record to be saved, normally in order that you can then use that record for something, such as being printed in a report, then you have three options available:

• Using a DoMenuItem method. These have now been effectively replaced in Access 97, and are not automatically replaced when a database is converted between versions.

• Using DoCmd.RunCmd acCmdSaveRecord

• Using the Dirty property of the form. This is the recommended method, as you can firstly only force a save if needed, and secondly, you are guaranteed of ensuring that the correct form has its data saved:

  Private Sub cmdSave_Click() If Me.Dirty=True Then Me.Dirty=False End Sub

http://www.applecore99.com/frm/frm025.asp

Spell checking a Control in a Form

If you have the full version of Office installed, and want to use the Spell Checker to check that data has been entered correctly rather than using AutoCorrect to force changes, you can use code similar to this in the AfterUpdate event for the Control:

Private Sub txtDescription_AfterUpdate() If Len(Me!txtDescription & "") > 0 Then With Me!txtDescription .SetFocus .SelStart = 0 .SelLength = Len(Me!txtDescription) End With DoCmd.SetWarnings False DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdSpelling DoCmd.SetWarnings True End If End Sub

I use DoCmd.SetWarnings so that the user doesn't get a message box popping up saying that the Spelling Check is complete.

http://www.applecore99.com/frm/frm045.asp

Do not print a Report if there is no data

If you want to stop the printing of a report that has no data, then there are two steps that you need to do. Firstly, you need to use the Report's NoData event to stop it being printed:

Private Sub Report_NoData(Cancel As Integer) Cancel = True End Sub

The problem with using the NoData event programmatically is that it raises an error in the calling code. Therefore, you will also need to add an error handle to the procedure that opens the Report specifically to trap this error:

Private Sub cmdPrint_Click() On Error GoTo E_Handle DoCmd.OpenReport "rptName" sExit: Exit Sub E_Handle: Select Case Err.Number Case 2501 Case Else MsgBox Err.Description, vbCritical + vbOKOnly, "Error: " & Err.Number End Select Resume sExit End Sub

http://www.applecore99.com/rpt/rpt010.asp