December 2007 PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO SEE OUR LATEST 'INSIGHT OF THE MONTH' 2007 ANNUAL GRAB BAG OF LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS So, here below, in our final issue of this year, is a collection of ideas, trends, tools, and stimuli that we believe are powerful inheritances of 2007 and dynamic future-creating catalysts. GREAT IDEA Tom Peters in his often incandescent (in terms of insight) blog mentioned a tip he picked up from a strategy consultant. The consultant, in sessions with clients, after lunch would challenge them to reduce by 1% (no more, no less) their annual budget. In doing this with countless clients, he found virtually all of them could pull it off roughly in an hour. Since many of them had annual budgets in the tens of millions, this simple act of initiative and creativity, might net them several hundreds of thousands of dollars benefit as an ROI to a simple focused hour...once their wits, and appetites had been whetted and sharpened of course. The takeaways were numerous. First, they paid the consultant's fees, often many times over, and learned a pivotal lesson. Little breakthroughs are always available. And enough 'little' breakthroughs make a big difference. Try this with your own team. In fact, use a similar challenge in multiple contexts. So, find a way to increase customer loyalty by 5% measurably; find a way to reduce employee turnover by 3%; find a way to reduce waste immediately by 1%. Pick a small enough target, give a short and sharp and focused period, such that simple things alighted upon and committed to, can produce a perceptible benefit. At such levels though, aren't we just tinkering? Yes. Aren't we here often dealing with just symptoms? Yes, and so what? People don't trade in theories or semantics, they register impact. Create such impact, in a fast, measurable, vivid and verifiable way, and you'll release confidence, energy and belief that more profound and more far-reaching breakthroughs are also possible. ANTHEM TO IMAGINATION: HOME TOWN JOYS I am an avid, life-long and unrepentant New Yorker. And so when New Year's eve rolls around, there are all the 'obvious' ways to have fun in this town. For example, fight the teeming crowds to watch the famous ball drop in Times Square. Fight the gate-keepers to get in to the latest 'in' club or 'hot' dining venue for a loud, richter-scale destabilizing, open bar and multi-course extravaganza. Or else...if jaded by the obvious, and not wishing to evade or offer defensive or offensive elbows to people intruding on your fast dwindling 'personal space' all evening, you could consider the following ideas. We have a small island, just off the main island of Manhattan, called Roosevelt Island. A $2 tram gives you a round-trip. Take your own picnic, take some blankets, and on the historic walk on the other side, see the cityscape of Manhattan and many of the fireworks as you create your own party. Or else, take a $10 walking tour of Chinatown, visit atmospheric shops and Buddhist temples, have a full-course dinner for another $10, and bask in the atmosphere. Or else, go to a Yoga Center. One of them has 3 hours of silent meditation from 9 to 12 on New Year's Eve then broken by aromatic Chai, gongs and chanting. Want more activity? Take a bike ride in Central Park to augur in the New Year. Take the free Staten Island Ferry, on the other side walk over to a local tavern and have juicy burgers and beer on tap. Then, circa Midnight, watch the night sky lit up with dazzling celebration. Alternatively, as many people come IN to Manhattan, check out vacation rentals in the Catskills and elsewhere, and rent a cabin for several days, take close friends and family, and cozy up by a roaring fire. What's the point as we're not all in Manhattan? The point is that one of the most hip, sophisticated, global cities has the 'obvious' entertainments, and for those with imagination, has many 'alternative' treasures and options and delights to allow you to adjust intensity, intimacy and tempo. Wherever you'll be on New Year's, see if you can break some patterns. Don't 'look' for a party so much as 'create' one. Look for ways that you can combine experiences, interactions, contexts and stimuli to provide you with both a celebration and perhaps a type of 'launch' into the coming year. Prolific and beguiling writer of Provencal delights, Peter Mayle, indicates that he and his wife avoid the party, stay home with the most expensive bottle of wine they can manage, stay awake to toast each other with a glass of champagne, and then the next day, while everyone else is hung over and wrestling with already faltering resolutions, Mr. and Mrs. Mayle head out for a very long, leisurely and sybaritic lunch with which to 'welcome' the New Year. One of my clients, mentions that he and his friends in Romania, in sub-zero cold head out into the elements and celebrate over vodka shots! Some in warmer climes may ride the waves, or toast the heavens from a beach. Whatever you do, make the fun, create the specialness, and you'll also have experienced one of the least appreciated secrets to leadership success: to choose the experience we wish ourselves, our team and our customers to have -- and then to have the imagination, energy and drive to help make it real. HIGHLY INTERESTING CORPORATE AND BUSINESS TRENDS: Storytelling comes of age! The corporate world has discovered the power and sweep of stories. Communication and speech coach par excellence, Patricia Fripp has for years been coaxing executives to do their dreams and visions better justice than just to ploddingly march through Power point presentations. She elicits their life experience, and helps them to craft stories that convey their convictions and which touch common human sentiments. Well, now we have finally made our peace with the fact that humans are creatures brimming with emotions, passions and longing. And we are creatures of tales and mythologies, parables and poetry. Note the global success of the intellectually anodyne but emotionally stirring CHICKEN SOUP stories. And from a slightly more weighty source, a headline article in this month's Harvard Business Review deals with, what else, the disciplines of story-telling. Film-maker Peter Guber explains that powerful stories are true to the teller (so they are yours, are authentic, you have some connection to them, or deep conviction about them at the least), the audience (they 'connect' and are relate to the listeners in a way that speaks in terms of the interests and hopes), the moment (stories have to suit in length, tempo, style and exposition, the mood and the occasion) and the mission (the story has to make or reinforce a key point given what we are hoping to achieve, convey to or ignite in our audience). Not only must leaders learn to elicit and communicate stories from within themselves, they also have to be attentive to the stories of others. A marvelous book is out called LISTENING IS AN ACT OF LOVE, a collection of everyday stories heard and deeply listened to that brings a variety of people's lives and experiences to vibrant life. Finally, as Howard Gardner has observed, companies are finally the stories they tell, and perhaps the stories told about them. Leadership is about being both aware of this and being influential in terms of the stories that are most true about us and the stories we most wish to live into. We are eager to learn how to influence better, how to pitch better. Unlike before, corporate interest here falls into two critical camps. The first is what we'll call 'strategic influence', and this relates to getting people on our side -- aligned with us and acting with us -- who we can't oblige to cooperate through hierarchical power. They may be peers, people outside our ambit, or even hierarchically superior to us themselves. Hence we have to influence by understanding their own hot buttons, their own values and priorities, and linking what we are proposing to things that matter to them. Or else, we have to proactively build relationships with them so that we have established credibility and they will trust the value of our ideas and initiatives. The other aspect is the quality of the pitch itself. In other words, how to structure our requests and ideas, for maximum persuasiveness? This involves being aware of the behavior we are trying to invite from others, i.e. what specifically do we want them to do? Additionally it means creating dialogues not 'hard sell' slick scripts, and both focusing powerfully on the benefits and honestly and courageously discussing the challenges. But in discussing the challenges we don't whitewash them...we make the excitement of the achievement, the importance of the benefits so palpable, that the other party joins with us in creatively finding a way beyond the obstacles, or else agrees it's worth living with them given the larger end in mind. Leaders would do well to understand both how to influence others with integrity as well as being keenly aware of the multitude of ways we ourselves are subject to influence -- from peers, from advertising, from specious arguments boisterously presented, from cloyingly sweet flattery, from expressed disapproval from those close to us, and often from the siren song of our own laziness that allows us to be persuaded of the 'low road' (nothing will ever change) rather than taking on the challenge of change. This, like storytelling, is a trend and an area of focus that will only grow in importance in the coming years. Targeted idea generation. Along with the greater interest in braver and more honest interaction, richer and more evocative story-telling, people have come to realize that innovation requires more than generic brainstorming. There are numerous reasons brainstorming under-delivers. First, the injunction 'no criticism, no editing', is rarely followed. Hence, what we get are timid ideas, or else to show our iconoclasm, utterly extreme alternatives which we then have to be 'creative' in linking back at all to real life. This latter is not useless, the act of doing this, forces us to spend some potentially helpful time outside the proverbial box. However, much more can be done within numerous boxes. For example, if we ask provocative questions, questions that challenge assumptions, sacred cows and more, then indeed brainstorming and idea generation in general will be far more germane and far more productive. Kevin Coyne, Patricia Gorman Clifford and Renee Dye suggest some superlative examples to help companies re-invent and re-imagine products (just as an example): 'Who uses our product or service in ways we never expected?', 'How could we still meet the needs of a significant subset of our customers if we stripped 25% of the hard or soft costs out of our product?', 'Do any of our customers need vastly more or less sales and service attention than most?', 'What is the biggest hassle of purchasing and using our product?', How would our product change if it was tailored to every customer?', Which technologies embedded in our product have changed the most since the product was last redesigned?'. The point is the better the questions, the better the answers. Additionally, we need to target and focus our brainstorming by selecting the right teams (smaller subgroups work better to eradicate 'group think') made up of a variety of people who will have perspectives on the issues we're grappling with, and by insisting that ideas will be sifted and some immediate, verifiable, relevant and impactful actions will be selected and acted upon virtually right away. That will create the intensity, the interest, the buzz, the alertness and the engagement we are after. Relationships matter -- they ARE the 'hard' stuff. Research done into Six Sigma teams (teams working on statistical quality improvement, trying to design defects out of processes) shows three simple, powerful, overlapping and ultimately human reasons for success or failure. Such teams fail most often when people cannot speak up and say what they want, to each other or their leaders. Secondly, when they see that poor behavior, lack of collaboration, inadequate accountability and commitment come with no impact or penalties (i.e. poor team citizenship is ignored if not tolerated). Finally, whey they don't feel they can communicate their work and ideas to senior management and that there is a real commitment to act on what is generated. Then there is a feeling of futility, fakeness and alienation. Clearly while this bit of research had to do with Six Sigma teams, you could apply this to virtually any team, grouping or human interaction. When we have to watch what we say, when there are scant consequences for team undermining behavior, and little or no ability to influence results, why would we be excited? Hence, relationships, that essential difference between teams and groups or committees, has finally found center stage. It is unlikely to leave anytime soon. Virtually all strategy, IT, marketing, sales, supply chain, R&D, or other initiatives are finally delivered through not only people, but teams of people. Some of these are remote or virtual teams. But however they are composed or wherever they may be placed, the relationships and communication between them will either allow the initiative to focus on its real aims, or be trapped in a quagmire of warring agendas, petty gripes, emotional immaturity and artificial communication. Between equally capable organizations with top talent, those who have individuals and teams who work more powerfully (not necessarily harmoniously at all times), authentically and supportively (working for each other's success as well as the success of the project) -- in other words those who have better and truer conversations -- will ultimately win. Leaders wishing to improve ROI in any area of their organization should work on the relationships most critical to that area of their operation. It has been said that nothing can be built that is larger than the relationships on which it is based. To enlarge the results, enlarge the relationships. THE FAMILY SECRET 'Tis the season for family togetherness. Many times we pass through this season feeling acutely that something is missing for us personally. Against the backdrop of images of family togetherness, sappy movies showing families awash in merriment and the Christmas spirit, we sometimes wonder after a bloated celebration lunch, chronic TV watching and the almost pro forma gift giving, what is missing and why we feel vaguely empty. Without being specifically prescriptive for the Christmas season, here is an insight that can help all of us. In his historic work, THE ART OF LOVING, Eric Fromm drew two very powerful distinctions about love and relating. The first is that most of us feel that any inadequacy in love comes down to our not having found the right 'love object'. If we could just find the right object, we would love naturally and completely. So if somehow we're not fully fulfilled, the problem could not possibly (we say in a frenzy of rationalization) be a problem with our capacity to love, but rather in those who are recipients of our love. If we could challenge this comforting illusion, we might realize that the first way to ensure we have an exceptional holiday (or other season) is to extend ourselves to listen better, to affirm more, to be more grateful about those in our lives, to be fully present to them, to converse with consciousness and attention, and to seek to nurture them and help them take a stand for what matters to them. We have to stretch ourselves a bit to give and experience love fully. The second fallacy that Fromm outlines is our feeling the problem cannot be that we need to be more lovable. No, indeed, the problem is again the quality of love we're receiving. What it is to be 'lovable' is far more complex a conversation than we can undertake in this newsletter. However, there are one or two fundamental tips. One is simply to be open to receiving the attention and energy that is offered, in the way that others choose to offer it. Second to bring enthusiasm and energy and positivity to the coming together...to not 'await' these as gifts, but to proffer them. Third, seek to clear whatever 'negative static' may be around and see if you can respond in a way that invites everyone to take the high road. In other words, you don't have to necessarily settle all past differences -- however, don't keep perpetuating them. If we await 'resolution', we continue to invent fresh grievances. Just start as you would like to interact, and invite people to join you. If they refuse, you have a conversation. But even then, as long as you're not defending the past, but seeking to pave the future, you'll at least progress that relationship in the right direction. And enroll other family members to bolster and affirm those choices. Let's make this a time not of empty festivity, but festive community. Namely more than froth, but mutual regard, listening, affirmation, bringing with you a sense of humor and not a militant defensiveness or a sense of perpetual 'ego alert' (is anyone disrespecting me? what did they mean by...?). Be grateful for any and all genuine relationships -- that's how you build more. Let 'happy holidays' be an intention not just a hope! THE SEASON OF GIVING Former President Bill Clinton wrote a wonderful book called 'Giving', detailing the efforts of all kinds of people around the world who are taking initiative to make a difference. These are philanthropists, social activists, teachers, grassroots leaders, businesspeople and more. We'll close this newsletter by drawing a particularly apropos insight from this compendium. Namely, we can all give, and the subtitle of the book implies we can all change the world. Well we can all help to change OUR worlds...and THE world is a collection of these more private worlds. We can decide to rout things like indifference, racism, sexism, tribalism, responsibility-avoidance, and more by our own actions, our own leadership, our own generosity. A few people end up doing so much, since so many of us do so little. We all have a circle of influence as Stephen Covey expressed so clearly -- let's influence all we can on behalf of a world we wish to live in, let's give because we are stakeholders in the societies we help create. And when we can, let's also choose to participate as members of an educated electorate and hold our leaders accountable. And let's hold ourselves accountable as leaders in our businesses, families and communities too. Too much to hope for? There is frankly nothing else in the final analysis worth hoping for. LET'S TOGETHER DEDICATE TO CO-CREATING A PROSPEROUS, PURPOSEFUL AND PASSIONATELY LIFE-AFFIRMING 2008 THROUGH US AND FOR US! Happy New Year everyone! Omar Khan, Senior Partner, Sensei International Phone: 1 (212) 295 2191, Fax: 1 (212) 295 2121 e-mail: omar@sensei-international.com Omar Khan is a globally acknowledged leadership development innovator and success coach. He is a sought after change catalyst and a pioneer in transformational learning. He is the author of the acclaimed book SYNERGY as well as the newly released and much awaited, TIMELESS LEADERSHIP. S To be removed from this list please visit http://www.sensei-international.com/newsletter.html.

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