Relaxing at the Dentist

It's been a tough week.  One of the "highlights" was my visit to the dentist.  So I decided to practice deep relaxation while the dentist's drill bore into tooth #30 (third from the wisdom tooth on the lower right) to fill a long crack that threatens the entire tooth.

Just for a change of pace, I've been trying a change in my daily meditation.  Instead of laying down and listening to instrumental music on Pandora or Accuradio, I've been listening to guided relaxation apps on my iPhone.  So as my dentist, Marvin, shot novacaine into my mouth, as my muscles ached from holding my jaws wide open for 45 minutes, as Marvin pressed with all his might to force the bonding agent into the crack, I asked myself, "Where do I feel tension?  Which muscles need to relax?"

It was almost tongue-in-cheek, but who knows where my tongue was with all that novacaine.  It was a challenge.  "Can I do this?  Can I notice whether my feet are tensed up?  My shoulders?  And--even more challenging--if they are, can I relax them under these conditions?"  This was more fun than focusing on the sound of the drill and my aching jaw muscles.

It seemed to work.  For whatever reason, my legs were relaxed.  Most of the tension was in my shoulders, arms, and hands.  And I was able to let go of the tension.  The whole thing helped me get through the event.  It distracted me from the pain.  Gave me something to do.  And a small sense of accomplishment.

Looking out for #1, #2, #3 . . .

I went to a corporate training event yesterday and was disappointed with one of the speakers.  She talked about a model in which, in any project or team, you make it your top priority to meet your own needs.  The theory is that if everyone approaches the project aware of their needs and intent on meeting those needs, we'll all come away winners.

I don't buy it.  This goes against everything I've been reading about negotiation, leadership, and motivating others in books such as "The Speed of Trust" by Steven Covey, "Getting to Yes" by William Ury, "Stomp the Elephant at the Workplace" by Steve Vannoy, and "Leading Change" by John Kotter.  It is important to look out for #1.  For each project, you have to think about what you need to get out of the project.  You need to analyze your interests and you pursue getting your needs met.  But you also need to look out for #2, #3, #4, etc.

For example, I've just joined a project that has been around for several years.  I have some personal/career interests to consider.  I need to quickly make some kind of contribution, and word needs to spread that I played a key role in getting the result.  But I'll fail if I don't consider the needs of everyone else on the project.  They also want to look good with their leadership.  Each person has different career pressures and goals.  Too often in the past I've thought that I only need to worry about two things:  (1) the impersonal "business need", and (2) how the project affects my interests.  I now know I need to expand my concerns.  I need to understand the needs of everyone else on the team.  As I probe their goals, their situation, their pressures, I can feel their growing trust.  I'm not just considering my personal goals, the goals of my engineering discipline, or the project goals.  I also care about what they are going through and that, when they work with me, we'll likely to find solutions that make everybody look good.

Glad they DON'T pay him

Is NFLMocks.com taking advantage of my son?  He's just 15 years old, but he's been writing for them since February.  They've told him that they can't pay him; that they don't pay any of their writers; that only the editors get paid.

We have no proof.  We just have their word, and we've never met them.

It's possible.  Lots of people write on the Internet for free, just to get exposure.  But Chris and I have wondered if we should make more of a fuss about this and push them to pay.

When Kenzie turned 13, his passion for NFL and NCAA football videogames morphed into a passion for football player stats which morphed into a passion for evaluating the talents of college football players.  He turned into an amateur college football scout.  Each year, he'd Tivo dozens of college games on whatever obscure Warner Cable channel was carrying the game and take copious notes on 160+ players he'd decided to scout that year.  He'd put together a "Big Board" ranking the players, create a Mock Draft and mail his predictions to ESPN prior to the actual draft, hoping to get a response.  Kenzie started a blog, "Player-rater.blogspot.com" that eventually drew 5,000 hits per month.  Then the chief editor at NFLMocks.com, who had read Kenzie's blog for over a year, invited him to start writing for them.

NFLMocks.com has advertisements.  They must get some income.  Should we push for pay?

Maybe not.  According to Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink, money can demotivate.  People who do things out of passion may lose creativity and pleasure when the same activity becomes a job.  Instead of doing the task because of how it makes them feel, they do it because they want to get paid and the activitiy becomes a drudgery.

The most relevant study that Pink cites involved students at the Chicago Art Institute.  While they were in school, some of these students had found ways to get paid for their artwork.  Others simply practiced their art  because they loved it.  The study followed up on these students for over a decade after they graduated.  Guess who turned out to be the most successful professional artists, both critically and financially?  You guessed it.  The artists who, as students, were never paid.

So maybe it's a good thing that Kenzie works his butt off for this website and they don't pay him one red cent.    Let him work for free now.  We'll argue about his pay a few years from now.  But we won't be arguing with the website.  We'll be arguing with ESPN.

Balancing Act

My job involves changing how people manage manufacturing lines.  This can be challenging technically.  But I find it much more challenging emotionally.  Even though the change involves equipment, I'm still asking people to change what they do, and any request to change behavior triggers emotions.

These are the kinds of things I hope my customers will think and feel:  "I never realized that the way we were doing this was so flawed.  I can see that changing our approach is going to really help.  Ben seems to sincerely want us to do better, and he's willing to work hard to help us get there.  If the line starts to run better, it's going to make me look good.  It will be good for my career".

However, if I'm not careful, they could easily think and feel these things instead:  "Who does Ben think he is? I've been working on this line for years, and he thinks he can come here and turn things around in just a few days?  And what's he telling people about me and my lines?  That we don't know what we're doing?  Maybe people will think I've overlooked obvious opportunities.  Maybe this will be bad for my career even if it DOES help my line run better.  Maybe Ben's trying to claim all the glory even though all my hard work laid the foundation for success.  I built it, he tweaked it, and he gets the credit for my results!"

So how do I ensure my customer's thoughts and feelings support change instead of making change impossible?  I'm still studying leadership books on this topic and trying to put their ideas into practice.  Here are a few things that have helped so far:

• Don't come in with a detailed plan.  Emphasize that I'm exploring ways I can contribute.
• If I point out a flaw, send the message, "This is a problem, but I've seen it on many other lines.  We've fixed it on those lines and we can fix it here."
• Work very hard to solicit their ideas, and then add those ideas to the plan.  Then it becomes "our" plan instead of "Ben's" plan.  In the book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, the author, Daniel Pink, talks about how people feel motivated at work when they feel autonomous--when they feel they are able to choose how to do their work.  If they input into the plan, then they are helping to choose how they will do their work.  They retain a feeling of control and choice.
• Avoid saying that they HAVE to do it my way.  Even if higher levels of leadership have asked me to roll out some system or method to all the lines, don't play that card.  Instead, find opportunities to ask for their approval.  "Would you be OK with running this test tonight?"  "Which of these things do you think we should do first?"  Giving them opportunities to decide "yes" or decide "no" further builds their sense of autonomy and control.
• Respond positively to any criticism. "You don't like the layout of the spreadsheet?  What would you prefer?"
• Build personal rapport with people at all levels:  technicians running equipment, line leaders, department managers, and the plant manager.  Get to know them personally.  And find out about their concerns at work so that I can help them see the link between their interests and the changes I'm proposing.
• Make progress early, even in something small, so they start to believe that working with me will be good for them and for their lines.
• Finally, only do and say things that will build trust.  Even if I get frustrated about something, don't vent to others about them.  If this gets back to them, trust will be destroyed.

All of this is very challenging for me.  I have NOT mastered this, and I see plenty of people around me who seem to be more naturally collaborative, who more automatically seek consensus versus jumping to an answer and trying to sell it.  But I'm excited about developing the mastery.  It's just another skill, like getting better at tennis or golf.  It feels good to know that I CAN learn this, I can see the way to get there, and I'm anticipating becoming a much better leader in the years ahead.

Doing old things in new ways

Many of the people I work with contribute to the company by helping to start something new:  a new product, a new production line, or new invention.  Others contribute by convincing people to adopt new ways of doing things.

I'm in the latter group.  I don't work on new products or projects.  Instead, I see how we run our equipment, how we train our people, and I think, "This is wrong!  No wonder we're not running better!"  I think of ways we should change our systems, our procedures, and the way we manage our equipment.

There are lots of people in this group.  I think most people who make a big impact in manufacturing do so because they see a better way to run the plant.  Their creativity lies in doing old things in new ways.  A manager of a group of production lines often outperforms his or her peers only when they find new ways of doing an old thing:  getting cases of product out the door.

Getting an organization to change its habits is very different than rolling out a new product or machine.  The book, Leading Change, whose cover appears at the top of this post, needs to become my Bible.  The book is based on a Harvard Business School study of companies that try to get their employees to drastically change how they do their work.  Most such change efforts fail.  Those that succeed, follow a process that begins with a conscious attack on complacency.  It continues with forming alliances, sharing a vision, communicating broadly, getting short term wins to build momentum, and setting up systems to maintain the change.  

If I was rolling out a funded project, such as a new product that starts shipping in November, I wouldn't need to do all this time consuming communication.  People can't say "no" to a funded project.  But they can say "no" to my recommended changes in how they do their jobs.  I want them to say "yes".