Doug Kreitzberg

Death by Dashboard

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Two years ago, I had all the operations in my business put together dashboards — metrics on many aspects of our business (from sales calls to retention) — that could help us understand what was working and not working before we saw the results in our P&Ls. Since then, the dashboards have been extremely helpful in focusing our attention and adding more energy and resources where needed.

But dashboards, as helpful as they might be, are no substitute for thinking broadly. Dashboards (or metrics, or formulas or whatever set of tools you have which measures your business) are constructed based on your business model, your knowledge of the model and your ability to gather data with respects to that model as it exists today. Dashboards do not discriminate between good or bad models; they simply describe it.

And what they describe are the hundreds of critical tasks that managers and employees need to pay attention to every day. These are the “Critical but not Important” tasks Stephen Covey writes about. You can’t ignore them. They need to be done. However, these tasks may not be the ones needed to deal with something unforeseen or to exploit the next new opportunity.

Most financial dashboards did not describe the financial collapse of 2008 because they were not built to describe it — it was not in their models. Likewise, many health insurance brokers are scrambling to define themselves in the new world of Health Care Reform; a world in which the old dashboards did not anticipate.

Clay Shirky writes in his blogpost “The Collapse of Complex Business Models”, that businesses begin to fail when they become too complex to deal with changing realities. I actually think it’s simpler than that. Businesses (or individuals) begin to fail when they misread the processes and metrics used to describe the success of their model for the world itself. They fail when they focus too much inward. If complexity is an issue, it’s an issue if it impedes the ability to communicate with (and receive communication from) the world outside the model. It doesn’t matter if you’re AT&T or the florist on the corner. If you’re not paying attention to how people are buying and how their buying activities are beginning to change, your business will suffer.

Don’t get me wrong. Dashboards are important; they are good at telling you whether a process is on track or not. But they can’t be confused — and they often are — as an accurate forecast tool to predict how your business overall will fare in the future. A dashboard is no substitute for strategy. Dashboards are linear, specific, measurable. The world is nonlinear, chaotic, and challenging to determine ahead of time which cause will lead to which effect.

The key is to do what is critical, but raise your eyes to look over the dashboard and really look around you. Leave time to play around with what the world tells you is important. And “play” is the operative word, because if you want to predict something which cannot be predicted, you’ll have to make up a lot of stuff (and test them out in your make-believe world) as you go along.

The Last Cry of the Airport Loudspeaker

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I’ve been on a couple of conference calls this week both from airports and with individuals who are in airports.  Given this age of constant travel, I suppose that’s not too unusual.  What also is not unusual is the intrusive drone of the airport loudspeaker into those conference calls.

Outside of the times when a plane is boarding, is there really a reason for the airport loudspeaker? Does Darrell Wakeman really need a verbal reminder that his plane is boarding?  Do we need to be constantly reminded to watch our bags?  Or that the airport is smoke-free?  I somehow get through life going many places without having a loudspeaker tell me things like that.  Will I forget it all when I’m in a terminal?  Turn the thing off!

Conversely, isn’t communication technology well enough advanced to parse out the unmistakable sound of a loudspeaker?  Can I get an app for that?

Finally, think about all the times you are the airport loudspeaker.  How many times do you spout directives or adages that at best expose the obvious and at worst are tiresomely obnoxious?

When we speak, let’s be clear, concise and in an even mannered tone.  And let’s certainly have something worthwhile to say.

Pancake People

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There’s a lot of buzz around social media these days and, of course, the Internet has become the de-facto platform for communication and commerce.   We have the ability to connect and interact in ways never thought possible. Customers have become Fans and the Fans can determine quickly whether your product or service wins or losses.  Facebook and Twitter and texting have replaced e-mail and voice-mail (and does anyone ever remember the written letter, or the “while you were out” notes anymore?).  As a result, our stories, our ideas, our dreams and our passions can only exist if they fit into 140 characters.

There are some individuals who are challenging the direction we are heading.  Futurist Jaron Lanier writes that the concept of  reputation has been reduced to the quantity of connections and how one’s persona on the web is often a fiction compared to one’s persona in real life.  Journalist Nicholas Carr describes that, through the internet, we have become playwright Richard Foreman’s “pancake people”, “wide and thin as a pancake because thanks to the next link we are constantly jumping from one piece of information to another. We get wherever we want, but at the same time we lose depth because we no longer time to reflect, contemplate.”

These are not the voices of stone-age luddites decrying technological advances.  There is value to engage your customers or friends using the tools of Web 2.0.   But there is also danger in expecting that the quality of that engagement will be enough to sustain meaningful relationships over time.

To be fair, the internet is not the sole villain in this play. For years, businesses have tried many ways to reduce the depth of their interactions with their customers and prospects via direct mail, call centers and all forms of mass-media.  Indeed web 2.0 tools can increase the possibility of a two-way conversation.  The challenge is being able to both listen and have something of value to say during that dialogue.

The key is to provide the opportunity to engage and inform with a depth and to a degree that one can’t get elsewhere.  Individuals and businesses that can combine Web 2.0 with Contemplation 1.0 will be the ones with the strongest and most authentic relationships.

Give the Ability to Receive this Year

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This is the gift-giving season.  And, as we know, it is better to give than to receive.  If you’re like me, you’ve bought and exchanged gifts (and perhaps had some of those gifts exchanged at the store afterwards) and, maybe, even now Aunt Minnie is wearing one of the sweaters you bought her and nephew Andy is playing the new Wii game you gave.

It feels good to give.  And yet, for me, there’s that nagging sensation of “how long will it last”?  When does the sweater get placed neatly in Aunt Minnie’s dresser rarely to be seen again and when does the “new” Wii game get shuffled to the back of the deck of Wii games?

One thing I’m also trying to give during this season as well as strive to do more of next year is to give the ability to receive; give those I care about — whether my family, friends or business relationships — the time to connect with them, to really hear what they have to say, to engage with them at their level, to set aside the multi-tasking jumble that my brain usually becomes and receive their ideas, passions or idle thoughts.  Even if it’s nothing more than a few minutes a day, it’s at least something.

Because, just perhaps, in these days where we are frantically trying to “stay connected” via e-mail, twitter, facebook, and voice mail, the greatest gift we can give is to push all that aside, empty our minds, reach out to someone and let them become connected to us.

Surface Area

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I’m on a green tea kick and this weekend I was researching tea pots, specifically one called a Yixing tea pot.  The Yixing is a clay pot and, according to the description, because it is clay, it is porous, which means that the surface area is many times larger than a traditional teapot.  This provides, among other things, a faster heat time and the ability for the pot to retain water, or to be seasoned.
 
Of course, this got me thinking about business.  If a business is to be successful, it must be continually searching for ways to increase its surface area, to increase it’s touch points with its clients, its competitors, its vendors and its community. Businesses which focus too much within may have great processes and procedures and even a great “culture”, but are so dense that they let nothing in — whether innovation, dissention or new customers.  These type of businesses have a contracted surface area and are less adaptable to change or growth.
 
This is a danger I think every organization faces as it grows — that more time is spent on internal issues than external, and that the time spent on external issues is not adequately communicated to the rest of the organization to help overall growth.
 
The way I’ve tried to address this is by focusing on growth areas on a weekly basis; not so much as to follow up on what was to be accomplished, but to brainstorm ideas to promote growth and to communicate what’s working and not working as quickly as possible to the rest of the organization.
 
But if these discussions don’t reach out into the frontline, then you won’t take full advantage of the resources you have.  Managers need to be focused on: 1) engaging with customers and clients and frontline staff; 2) improving methods for the overall organization to engage with customers, clients and frontline staff; and 3) sharing, learning and communicating what works and doesn’t work with their peers.
 
Increasing the surface area of your organization doesn’t make you weaker.  As you know, clay has a tremendous capacity to withstand extreme heat.  It makes you stronger.
 

Hisses and Pops

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Two years ago, for reasons I won’t go into here, I bought a turntable.  It was quite accidental,  but now I find myself scouring e-bay and other sources for records.  My wife thinks I’m crazy (or it’s another reason for her to think I’m crazy) but I now am totally into vinyl.  Some say the musical quality is better, but what I really like about it is that playing records actually causes you to pay attention to the music.  You can only listen to one at a time, you have to be ready to flip the record when a side is complete, and you need to be in one place to listen to the music (you can’t throw the turntable in the car or your briefcase or on your back as you’re jogging).  Record handling requires attention which also creates, at least to me,  a sense of increased attention to the music being played.  The used records are especially cool — the rich musty smell of the cardboard cover and the hissing and pops bring you a sense of history and, as you listen to the music, you wonder about who else listened to this same album: were they happy or sad, dancing or contemplative, in love or in angst, sitting in a nice surburban home or partying in a rowhouse.

I know I live in an IPod (or should I now say ‘IPhone’) world. We have so many ways that make it easy to be connected anywhere at anytime.  But I also wonder if the ease of connection sacrifices the quality of that connection.  How often have we dashed off a rash e-mail only to wish seconds later that we could reach into the computer to take it back?  Or have we had a flare-up during a phone call when someone happened to push one of our buttons? Or how often do we decline to say something to someone, because we don’t have the time to really explain what we’re feeling or to really listen to what they’re saying because we have a hundred other things to get to that day?

Now, we can’t go back to the “turntable times” of business and type memos on typewriters or fumble through “While you were out” messages.  But we can focus more on the quality of our interactions.  It’s extremely hard, but it can be done.  If we treat each interaction we have like we’re listening to a record, really listening to what’s being said, really making sure that we are understood, we can be effective and successful.

Imagine that every meeting you’re in, every e-mail you’re reading, every phone call you make, is being done in the living room of your own home.  It is twilight and there’s a soft breeze coming in off the porch. You’ve just turned on a lamp and the light flows into the shadows.  The person (or persons) with whom you are speaking is like an old jazz album which you’ve just placed on the stereo.  Listen to what’s being said, listen to how you’re feeling as the conversation grows, listen to the hisses and pops of that other person’s history and experience and also the hisses and pops of your own history and experience. Pay attention to nothing else.

The average track is 2 minutes and 57 seconds and in that time, the best music can stir our souls, create love, cure heartbreak or change our lives.  Just think what you can do in business if you treat each interaction you have in the same way.