What would your farewell speech be?

For most a farewell speech is simply academic, not for Dr. Randy Pausch. What kind of mindshift would it take if we were to consider our legacy?

A better planet, kids who make a positive contribution to the world, improving the industry you work and serve or some grander vision?

A friend and colleague sent this video to me this evening. Was today a marker in history for my legacy? I wrestled with my daughter to finish her algebra homework, I picked up my oldest son at youth group where we played a game of ping-pong. He won by one point in an incredible finish. My youngest son made meatballs and I told him how incredible they were (and they were). I worked the day on presentations for some upcoming trade conferences and felt like I had a few breakthroughs to clarify the concepts we want to share as mindshift. I complemented my daughter's new larger (not huge) ear ring just before bedtime. At bedtime we read together and prayed and said; "I love you." I ended the day preparing for tomorrow and achieving an empty email in-box for the 47th day in a row (an inside story). What kind of legacy will emerge from this kind of meandering?

I heard a wonderful speaker compare farming to life. He said that you will harvest exactly what you plant. You will harvest long after you plant and you will harvest a significantly larger quantity than you plant.

I guess I'll have to wait and see what kind of harvest will emerge. I'm inspired listening to Dr. Pausch and the advice he has to pass along. He is not only an accomplished professional but sounds like a great dad and husband. But even more meaningful is how he has framed his final word to all of us.

Happy mindshifting!

The Traffic Jam minshift

Lucas Graves writes in the February 2008 issue of Wired Magazine that if you are an average commuter you'll spend 40 hours in traffic in 2008. Happy New Year!

So what does this have to do with a mindshift? Let's consider the common cause of this kind of gridlock and waste.

"...most jams aren't the result of an accident or a breakdown; they have no clear cause at all."

What - no cause for slow downs and traffic jams, nothing to point to and fix! No wonder they are so maddening. But wait - Mr. Graves has found a source that explains the traffic jam conundrum and just possibly offers some insight on larger issues like the waste, delays and conflict in the commercial construction world.

"One Japanese scientist found that in moderate traffic, a single erratic vehicle can trigger feedback effects that push the entire system into a new equilibrium: a standstill."

This is not just someone who slams on their breaks. It is not the slow driver chugging steadily down the road. This is a SINGLE ERRATIC driver. The implication is that traffic behaves like a system. When every driver is moving steadily and predictably traffic flows without interruption.

The Construction Institute reports that up to 57% of commercial construction is tied up in waste.

Here is a quote from their site: “Legacy Systems” reflect structural fragmentation. Owners, designers, material suppliers, equipment rentals, and contractors operate in “silos. Decisions are made in one’s best interest - not project gain."

When decisions are made in "one's best interest" (the single erratic driver) - then the result is congestion and waste in the entire system. It gums up everything. We have all experienced this domino effect on projects.

Predictable smooth flow is the goal of a well working system. Lean Construction and Integrated Project Delivery are two tools that mindshift is experimenting with that work to that end.

Mr. Graves raises some interesting Untended Negative Consequences with our mindset to traffic congestion. Because we do not have a "whole system" mindset - we react to the congestion and immediately turn to building more roads as a solution. New roads lead to new development which leads to more people driving and we're back to where we started from - even worse.

I love his quote: "highways create suburbs, not the other way around."

We do similar things in our projects. When the system jams and the schedule and cost escalate we turn to predictable solutions; we find a party to blame and promise not to use then next time. We throw more people onto the project to make up for lost time OR we remove quality to reduce cost. We never look at the system dynamics. We get to do this all over again on the next project but this time the problem shifts to some other area and fools us once again - we think we've found the culprit - when all along it is the flow of the system.

If flow and predictability represent a key Virtue for systems to function smoothly - then Integration has to be the key strategy and recognizing the larger system the key mindshift.

Transactional vs. Relational

A friend sent an audio link I thought you would also enjoy. The speaker shares the new challenge Starbucks is encountering. The competition is peeling off 20% of their base, people who are willing to buy good coffee for a lower price without the atmosphere.

Has Starbuck's reached saturation among those who prefer relationship over the transaction?

What should their next move be?

Have some of your leading products or services reached their peak now competing with adequate alternatives, even if yours is still superior?

Here is the short audio clip from "The Monday Morning Memo" that will send you thinking. Even if this blog isn't in the normal mindshift mode - that too is a mindshift. Click here to listen: The Glass Ceiling.

A friend and I were talking about Starbuck's creation of "the third place," that place between work and home you like to hang out at. What does it mean for them to now have drive through's? Or, sticking a Starbuck's in at the local grocery store.

Is that like creating a 2.5 space? Is that the place between work and home you kind of go to but would never hang out at and still pay $3 for a cup of coffee?

Whoa - what does this mean? If someone as omniscient as Starbuck's can get caught up in the "its about our great product" delusion - what does that mean for the rest of us mere mortals?

Repeat after me. "My 2008 resolution; I have to be more than my product."

IBM: "The Global Human Capital Study 2008" #1

Unlocking the DNA of the Adaptable Workforce

Only 14% of those responding to the IBM 2008 Global Human Capital Study "believe their workforces are very capable of adapting to change."

(The photo is from Gen Y consultant Peter Sheahan)

The key skills IBM projects for future organizations are:

1. Predicting future skill requirements.
2. Effectively identify and locating experts.
3. Collaboration across their organizations (organizational, time and culture boundaries).

Many organizations have initiatives toward these ends, however, they are limited to segments of the organization. They must become a company wide competency.

The root challenge falls back on leadership and old models of leadership. Current leaders are too often insulated and only look within familiar circles for talent. Leaders are often too busy and unaccessible to potential leaders as mentors. That inaccessibility hides their potential as role models.

This condition makes relevant two famous quotes:

Einstein: "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

Gandhi - "We must become the change we wish to see."

Leaders must look outside their organizations to allow new paradigms to influence them and their company. The harder but essential truth is that leaders must also become the change they wish to see. This provides new light on "commitment from the top" as a key to organizational change.

75% of respondents cite their inability to develop future leaders is a critical issue. The consequence of this reality is more work and pressure at the top of the organization. This pressure creates its own vicious cycle of becoming more insulated and trapped into the same habits that feed the current model.

Organizations that have broken this cycle have developed a "systematic approach to identifying future leaders from around the globe, providing individuals with a wide range of opportunities... and matching potential leaders with mentors..."

"Leadership development is a process that needs to reach far down into the organization, tap high-potential individuals early... and provide them with the core skills they need..."

This again becomes a whole organization competency - not just the domain of part of the organization: HR, R&D, the executive team etc.

Where does your organization fit as an adaptable culture?

Are leaders pressed to the max and unable to look for rising leaders and mentor new talent?

Does your organization readily look outside its traditional talent pools to bring fresh insight and skills or travel down the same well worn paths?

If you see yourself as a potential leader how can you help your organization see that potential contribution and then map a course of developing and mentoring your talent?

a mindshift to Bit Literacy for 2008

You and I were trained in a print and broadcast world. Those are our native languages. We live in a digital world and many of us feel like we're drowning to bits. Before I read Bit Literacy I had months of emails stored in my in-box, multiple folders and dreaded sifting through the pile of bits to find what I was looking for. It was like looking for a bit in a haystack.

A November issue of the Wall Street Journal gave this wonderful assessment.

Last year, the average corporate email user received 126 messages a day, up 55% from 2003, according to the Radicati Group, a Palo Alto market research firm. By 2009, workers are expecting to spend 41% of their time just managing emails.

Ask yourself the follow questions:

• How many emails do you have in your in-box?
• Can you find any email (or file), anytime in the snap of a finger?
• Do you end up reading the same emails over again when you are hunting for the one you want?
• How many weeks or months of emails do you keep in your in-box?

Do you use your in-box as a:

• Todo list?
• Filing system?
• Calendar (keeping dates of future events just in case)?
• Bookmarks (emails that reference web addresses, passwords etc.)?
• Address book (messages containing contact info for future follow up)?
  

Would you like to have an empty in-box at the end of the day, locate any file immediately or a simple means to manage Todos?

Here is my testimonial: "After reading Chapter 4 I was able to make the mindshift. I now have an empty in-box at the end of every day (pwnd n00b) and now have a system to find any document I need in the snap of a finger." If I look at myself in just the right light I think I've even shed a few bits.

Bit Literacy is not the deepest and most thought provoking book you'll ever read - but it has been the most useful book of 2007.

These two chapters were worth the price of the book:

Chapter 4 - Managing Incoming E-mail
Chapter 5 - Managing Todos

Here's to an empty In-Box through 2008!

mindshift Toward Collaboration in Design

James Cramer offers insight into the changing world of architecture and design on his site "DesignIntelligence." James helps to make the mirage of collaboration more tangible - almost within arms reach. Our mindshift toward collaboration is still self-conscious but many of us believe it reflects the future of sustainable enterprise. Here is an excerpt from his his article "Re-Designing Collaboration."

We are experiencing a time of transition, from solo artist to highly talented collaborative teams, re-designing processes and project management success. Today design leaders and their organizations are challenging the artist’s function and making collaboration a top priority. This is often not an easy decision or direction.

The decision-making process in some professional practices is accomplished in silos or through semi-private separate functions without much thought to the new benefits realized from collaborative processes. The cultural DNA of the professional practice often has to be re-formulated, and the tremendous gravitation forces of tradition can be difficult to overcome.

The entire article is worth reading. Click here to read the full article.