Some of the Best Ideas

Behavior, Mindset, and Leadership

Bill Berry — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 15:00:00 +0000

This year, members of Tacoma Power’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT) were asked to contribute blog posts with the theme, “My Behavior Style and how it benefits me as a leader,” and “My Behavior Style and areas I am growing into.”

The core Outward Mindset idea is Mindset —> Behavior —> Results.

The blogging assignment got me to reflect on where – and how – the behavior styles we learned about in leadership training fit into that equation?

Here’s my story.

Myers Briggs Type Indicator

Once upon a time, many years ago, I completed my first Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment. I was thrilled when I learned I was an ENFP, and loved the descriptions I read, including:

ENFP – Impassioned Catalyst

Outgoing, friendly, and accepting. Exuberant lovers of life, people, and material comforts. Enjoy working with others to make things happen. Bring common sense and a realist approach to their work, and make work fun. Flexible and spontaneous, adapt readily to new people and environments. Learn best by trying a new skill with other people.

And this:

Where ENFPs do not shine is in systems of strict regimentation and hierarchy, such as military service. ENFPs thrive on the ability to question the status quo and explore the alternatives, and if this is a quality that is not just unappreciated but actually frowned upon, this will not only make them unhappy, but it may even threaten their emotional stability.

All of that resonated with me. I’ve now completed the MBTI ten or fifteen times over the years, always with the same results. I love being an ENFP (even if my penchant for new ideas drives my colleagues crazy) and would freak out if an assessment showed something different. Yes, I’m an ENFP for life!

Birkman Assessments

When I joined our organization in 2012, one of my first tasks was to meet our team-building coach and take the Birkman Assessment. I found it a kind of MBTI-on-steroids. Much more detailed and hard to interpret without professional assistance. It was an accurate reflection of my behavioral style and came with some things to think about and improve.

We continued to use Birkman on the Senior Leadership Team for a while, and I used it with the team I lead. In 2017, we used Birkman for an upcoming team retreat, and I decided to retake the test. Here’s a comparison of my 2012 and 2017 Birkman’s:

Do you notice anything different? The diamond (⬦) symbols indicate my usual behavior shifted to be much more people-oriented and towards a more indirect communication style. There are other changes as well. Maybe it’s just how I answered the questions differently five-years apart?

LEAD/DiSC Behavior Styles

In our leadership training, we learned all about behavioral styles, our own and others. We learned how to lean into our styles and work with people different than ourselves. These behavioral styles are based on DiSC Styles, another self-assessment I’ve experienced over the years. Again, my results have been similar to my MBTI as described above and were consistent over time. I took the DiSC assessment in 2018 and 2019 and summarized the results in the image below.

This time a surprising change occurred. The black dot summarizing my behavioral style shifted from the Dominance quadrant (and close to influence) squarely in the Support or Steadiness quadrant. I was surprised by the magnitude of the change and the fact it occurred in such a short time.

Some Takeaways

We Can Change Our Style: When describing my ENFP MBTI type, I mentioned that I’d freak out if it changed. These behavioral styles all represent who I am, and I like being me. However, the Birkman and DiSC results demonstrate that behavioral style isn’t immutable.
Our behavioral styles can change. The “E” in ENFP says I’m extraverted, but I’ve become more introverted over time. And my colleague Julie has shown me that I do some things in an extraverted way (think out loud, for example), and others in a much more introverted way (like test ideas against my philosophy or principles).
What explains how my Birkman and DiSC styles changed? In Arbinger’s Developing and Implementing an Outward Mindset (DIOM) workshop, we learn that our behaviors, collective and individual, produce our business and personal results. We also understand that Mindset drives behavior and that organizations that focus on changing mindset first are much more likely to achieve improved organizational results than those focusing only on behavior.

I think the change in these results (especially DiSC) may mean my work on Outward Mindset (through facilitating workshops for my team and others and trying to implement the tools we learn in DIOM) has helped me shift my mindset and my behaviors. While I’m frequently in the box, I’ve learned to apply tools and ideas that help me be more self-aware and get out of the box I’m in.
Behavior Styles as Justification. In DIOM, we learn that when we betray our sense to help someone, we instantly develop a list of excuses that justify our not doing what we know is right. The justifications may be reasons why the other person doesn’t deserve our help or ways they’ve mistreated us in the past. And the justifications frequently elevate our sense of ourselves, as in we’re too busy, etc.

I can use my behavior styles as justification. I can use my status as an ENFP to focus on me, on making my ideas happen, in a way that runs roughshod over others. And my behavior styles can hamper my self-awareness that anything like this is even happening.

It’s Complicated

Behavioral styles represent the unique characteristics we bring along in our roles as a leader, manager, supervisor, and individual contributor. We can be more successful in all of those roles if we can shift our mindsets to be more outward and change our behaviors to be more helpful.

Resources

Books. Two Arbinger books, Leadership and Self-Deception and The Anatomy of Peace explain what mindset is, why it’s so important, and how mindset can hurt – or help – our efforts at work and at home. They’re both written as fables, one in a business setting, the other more personal. And if made-up stories are not your thing, read The Outward Mindset, also by Arbinger. I can’t recommend them highly enough.
Workshops. The City of Tacoma continues to offer Developing and Implementing an Outward Mindset and Outward Leadership workshops to City employees. A virtual DIOM workshop (four half-day sessions) kicks off this week and will happen monthly. A virtual Outward Leadership workshop (two half-day sessions about a month apart) open to DIOM graduates begins on March 1. With supervisor approval, you can sign up through your training representative.
Outward Mindset Sustainment Check-ins. We held two eight-week rounds of video sustainment last year. In each 45 minute session, where we checked in with each other, processed an Outward Mindset-related video together, and helped with challenges we might be facing. Feedback was excellent and led us to convene a weekly check-in. They’ll be Mondays at 8 am beginning on February 1 and open to all across the City who’d like to participate. We hope these will help all of us #TurnTacomaMoreOutward.
Practice. Practice. Practice. For those of you who haven’t seen it, here’s a video about a guy who learned a demanding new skill by practicing in small bites until it kicked in. The mindset and leadership behaviors take a while to learn, and we sometimes give up trying before we see the benefit. This video is an example of what can happen if we keep going and give ourselves time to learn and grow.

What do you think?

Be a Dot

Bill Berry — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 21:24:35 +0000

What’s Your Calling?

A few years ago, I was having lunch with a colleague. She was talking about trying to find her calling. At one point, I asked her what she thought my calling was. “I don’t know” came first, followed by, “Help people. I think your calling is to help people.”

I hadn’t thought about that kind of question in quite a while, but her answer seemed right. I’ve learned sometimes we need help figuring things out, including what we think about things.

During a different lunch conversation (I really miss having lunch with people!!), my companion asked a powerful question I hadn’t contemplated before: “How did you get to be you?” Okay, that’s both powerful and deep! Powerful because I couldn’t possibly have had an answer ready, and because it showed so much curiosity on her part.

It was profound because it required me to go there, to go beyond surface-level “blah blah blah.” I love going deep and having meaningful, even challenging conversations.

“How did you get to be you?” I fumbled around for a way to even begin to answer, and eventually, some coherent thoughts appeared. I mostly talked about events in my life and the fact that, had they not occurred, I wouldn’t be here. I’m sure I’d be somewhere, just not here.

For example…

When I was a junior in high school, Mr. Pollack, the math department chair, walked up to me, draped his arm across my shoulders, and asked, “Bill, what math class are you taking next year?” Since I was finishing four years of math in three years, I told him I was done. “No, you’re not done,” he said and put me in AP Math. It was there I started learning calculus and began my love affair with computers and programming. Who knows where I’d be without his friendly intervention?

I’ve had so many moments that, had they not occurred or if I hadn’t been open to suggestion, I’d be doing something totally different. Maybe even a totally different person.

Connect the Dots

I recently came across a quote from Steve Jobs that explains a lot:

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.

You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

The inflection points in my life are the dots Steve Jobs described. I can now see exactly how I got here. I certainly couldn’t see it then. Many of those dots were like Mr. Pollack, someone who noticed something about me that I couldn’t see, and gave me advice, a nudge, or quietly took action on my behalf.

A few years after college, I worked on the Assembly Speaker’s staff in Albany, NY, and looking for my next job. I had promised my boss I would either leave before the legislative session started or stay through the end in July or August. I was interviewing out-of-state, and the timing wasn’t looking great.

In early December, I got a call from Walt Kicinski asking me if I’d be interested in working in the Governor’s office. He described the job, and I told him I was definitely interested. I also told him about my timing situation. I interviewed and was hired. I started the new role three weeks later on the first business day in January.

I hadn’t known Walt, so how did he reach out to me? I had taken an econometrics class at Albany State’s Graduate School of Public Affairs. Eric Markell had previously worked for Walt and got to know me through the course. He told Walt about me, becoming Inflection Point #27 (who keeps count of these things, anyway?). A dot. The econometrics class helped prepare me for my current role. A fantastic job in the Governor’s Office wouldn’t have happened without being noticed by Eric, who talked to Walt, etc.

Lesson: Be A Dot

So what’s the lesson here? I wouldn’t be here without many dots, and I don’t know how many dots are in my future. I have an opportunity to be like Mr. Pollack, Eric Markell, Walt Kicinski, and all the dots that helped me make this journey. I can be a dot, a person who helps others along their journey. I think that’s what my colleague meant when she said my calling is to help people.

What’s your calling? Let me know if I can help!

How I Became a Bread Freak

Bill Berry — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 04:14:08 +0000

I expanded Easter by not just checking these rolls, but also by making them, yet again, from scratch. Alas, the potholder was a years' ago gift from my sister-in-law Toni who we lost recently.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, when I was about five years old, I was visiting my great-grandmother in Savannah, GA. One day she asked me what I'd like to have for dinner that evening and I answered the way I'd answer, even today. "Fried chicken," I exclaimed.

That afternoon, she went into the back yard, into the chicken coop, and executed a chicken. I wasn't there to watch that, or the plucking and cleaning.

What I do remember was learning of the event and not eating a single bite of chicken. I don't know if great-grandma was mad or anything; I was only five and, growing up in the city, I thought chicken came from the store.

I also remember eating her big fluffy biscuits. They were available, freshly baked, for every single meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I already loved them. But I think that night, eating biscuits and avoiding the meal I ask for every time, I became a bread freak.

Growing up, I would always eat some of Sister Robinson's rolls. She lived right up the street, but I inhaled her rolls after the Sunday service at our church. Man, they were so good. And, they went really well with the fried chicken that was always available. Not to mention sweet potato or apple pie. And I was reed-thin!

Years later, I would visit Bari in Mount Vernon, NY. Her grandmother was world-class when it came to cooking. Remind me to wax rhapsodic about her sweet potato pies!

Every Sunday morning, a brown paper bag would arrive from another family member, Big Mama, who lived a few blocks away. That bag was full of freshly baked rolls, and I ate every one I could get my hands on. That would be maybe two rolls because, you see, they slathered butter on all the rolls before heating them up, reserving two unbuttered rolls for me. And I, being a bread freak, did not need no butter on my rolls! Not the only reason they considered me foolish, but c'est la vie!

I was still reed-thin, by the way.

Adulthood…

For a couple of years in the early 80s, Paul Prudhomme closed his Louisiana Kitchen for one month and opened it as a pop-up restaurant in New York City. We had a few meals there, and the food was spectacular. With each dinner, a small assortment of bread arrived on our table. I fell in love with the yeast rolls. Of course I did!

Paul's cookbook contained a recipe for "Mama's Yeast Rolls." Bari used that recipe for years, adapting it for our Cuisinart Food Processor. I can't remember when, exactly, but I became the maker of the rolls, mostly for special occasions (such as whenever anyone, maybe only me, wants some rolls). I made them most recently to accompany the ham leftover from Easter dinner.

I can't tell you how they compare Sister Robinson's rolls or Big Mama's rolls, or even those served in Paul Prudhomme's restaurants. I do know I love them. Here's the recipe I use today.

Note: A few things to mention:

These rolls are so easy to make.
I'm now hungry and want some rolls.
That's evidence that I'm still a bread freak. Alas, no longer reed-thin! 🙃
No rolls for me!

Good Cooking, Good Eating, Good Loving — Chef Paul Prudhomme (circa 1984)

Recipe for Bill E. Bob's Yeast Rolls

Bill Berry — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 03:32:23 +0000

This recipe has evolved over the last 35 years. My wife Bari substituted vegetable oil for the lard in Paul Prudhomme's original recipe and adapted it for the food processor. I decided to use honey rather than sugar and started weighing things out, so it kind of became mine.

Enjoy!

P.S. Preparing this recipe inspired me to write, "How I Became a Bread Freak." Enjoy that too!

Makes 2 dozen rolls

Ingredients

3 cups (360g) bread flour and 4 cups (480g) all-purpose flour [Note: Can use 7 cups (840g) all-purpose flour]
3 packages (21g) Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Yeast
2 teaspoons (12g) salt
7 tablespoons sugar (Better: 145g Honey!!!)
2-1/4 cups hot water (120-130º F)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Melted butter as needed
1 gallon-sized plastic Ziploc (or equivalent) bag

Recipe

Pour about 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil into Ziploc bag, or enough oil to coat the bag completely with oil. (You can use shortening for this instead. Dough will rise in this bag so you want it thoroughly oiled.)
In the work bowl of your food processor, put in the first three ingredients, then process with metal blade until blended (Note: I keep yeast and salt separated by layering: flour, yeast, more flour, then salt, then blend it all together)
Add honey to the top of the flour by creating a trench to keep honey away from side of the bowl and the top of the blade handle (Note: If using sugar, just blend with the first four ingredients)
While food processor is running, pour in water and oil simultaneously.
Process until thoroughly kneaded (Note: Kneading time varies by food processor. Mine takes about 1 minute)
Using oiled hands (so dough won't stick), remove dough from food processor and place into Ziploc bag. Remove air by pressing air out and close bag. Place bag in a large bowl, cover with a cloth (dish towl is perfect) and set in a warm draft-free place to rise for 30-45 minutes. Dough should be doubled in size.
While dough rises, thoroughly grease a 13 X 9 inch baking pan so rolls don't stick.
Unzip bag and punch dough one time. Pull off enough dough to make 1-1/2 inch balls. Roll dough into smooth balls with oiled hands. Place in a greased 13 X 9 inch baking pan with rolls touching each other and sides of the pan. Cover and let rise in a warm draft-free place until doubled in size, about 30 minutes. (😎Pro Tip: Weigh the dough balls for consistency. I shoot for about 64g each)
Bake at 325ºF for about 25 minutes or until lightly browned, rotating after 15 minutes to promote even browning. (Note: Ovens vary widely, so check for browning. Baking time can be reduced and even browning increased by using convection setting.)

Remove rolls from oven and brush tops with melted butter.
Return to oven and bake until done, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove rolls from oven and turn out onto a rack. Immediately turn right side up.
Enjoy!

Other Notes

Recipe can be halved, yielding about 12 rolls in a 9-inch circular baking pan.
Whole wheat flour can be used by blending with all-purpose and bread flours. Try 240g, 360g, and 240g respectively.
Salt can be reduced to 1 teaspoon. It's a matter of taste.
I using Pam or Baker's Joy baking spray with flour to grease the baking pan. Don't forget to hold your breath to avoid inhaling the spray!
Baking bread is like chemistry, so I weigh all the dry ingredients and the honey to have a good outcome each time. More consistency, less variability.

HOW Does Music Make Us Feel?

Bill Berry — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 19:23:29 +0000

Provided to YouTube by The Orchard Enterprises Joshua (Live) · SFJAZZ Collective Music of Miles Davis & Original Compositions Live: SFJazz Center 2016 ℗ 2017...

In October 2016, I spent four days in San Francisco going to every SFJAZZ Collective performance featuring the music of Miles Davis. The song I most wanted them to play was "Joshua," and they didn't disappoint. The intro threw me off, but somehow the changes let me know what was coming.

I love this song and have played it a zillion times. I remember first trying to learn it by just listening to the original recording and counting along in my Real Book as the measures sped by. The changes in time signature between 4/4 and 3/4 make it both challenging and exhilarating.

Anyway, as I listen I'm feeling emotional right now, and not sure why, exactly. Maybe because of so much loss in the world right now.

I'm reminded of a question I used to ask, "How does music make you feel?" Not how do you feel listening to this music, but exactly HOW does it do that? How does it make us feel the way we do when we hear it?

I now know that's a trick question. The music doesn't make us feel … anything. It's our brain's interpretation of what we're hearing, our brain connecting what we hear to our history, our emotions, our past, our culture. That's how music makes us feel.

So those emotions I was just feeling, that was my brain working. Maybe along with my heart. Head and heart. And perhaps that's why I can feel some kinda way when hearing the same song, the same part of a song, over and over again.

I love the feeling of connection with people, with the past, with what's coming.

Anyway, that's Joshua y'all. Deep. Changes and changing. Uptempo. Energizing!

Later!

That Time I Decided to Just Listen…

Bill Berry — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 03:41:48 +0000

(Unsplash photo by Hans-Peter Gauster)

Once upon a time, I was fixing to get ready to walk into a leadership team-building workshop. While improving the team had sorta been my idea, past retreats hadn’t gone too well. They all seemed to focus on why I wasn’t like everybody else and I decided I wasn’t doing that again.

Before leaving home that morning, I wrote in my journal. The basic idea is to clear my head, empty my thoughts onto paper, and contemplate what I want to do that day. I always start with the date, followed by the name of a song that’s reverberating in my head. This day I chose a Eddie Harris song called “Listen Here!”

In keeping with the theme, I wrote myself the following instructions:

Listen
Ask questions
Be curious
Ask humble questions
Listen
Summarize
Synthesize
Pass
Say “I don’t know.”
“Let me think about that.”
Speak the kind truth? Nah!!
Observe
Shut up!
Listen!

How’d That Work?

I thought the day was going well until my boss approached me during our lunch break.

“Bill, are you okay?”
“Sure. Why do you ask?
“Well, you haven’t said anything all morning, and that’s not like you!”
“Oh, I’m fine. I’ve just been listening. Taking it all in.”

You see, I’d forgotten to actually participate in the conversation. While I didn’t want to provide my colleagues ammunition they could use to attack me, I also didn’t want that to be noticeable. So I chimed-in more the rest of the day.

Message From Above?

During the afternoon session, a buzz from my watch notified me that a new Harvard Business Review “Ideacast” had been downloaded to my iPhone. The title? “Become a Better Listener!” Surely this was a message from on-high that, despite my faux pas, I was on the right track.

In the next day or two, I listened to the podcast. It featured an interview with Mark Goulston about his book, Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone. I read the book.

Goulston’s book was published by the American Management Association, and they offered a class based on Just Listen. I took the class.

The podcast, book, and training were all excellent. Goulston's work featured a deep-dive into brain science to help explain how and why we respond to stimuli the way we do. The book and class also provided practical tips for handling different situations we face and to improve our ability to listen.

A Journey Begins

I ended up taking four AMA seminars over the next year:

Just Listen!
The Voice of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire, Influence and Achieve Results
Leading with Emotional Intelligence
Transformational Leadership: How to Inspire Extraordinary Performance

I learned a lot in each class. I was clearly searching for something, and, I'm pretty sure I found it!

Lessons Learned?

What questions do you have?

When Are You Going to Fix This?

Bill Berry — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 13:00:00 +0000

Whenever we'd cross paths in San Francisco, Jim Jefferson would always ask me the same question: "When are you going to fix this?" By "this" he was referring to everything in a pretty dysfunctional organization, so I always laughed. I thought of it as just a joke. A rhetorical question shared between two people who knew how hard fixing all this would be. Hard as in, "impossible!"

While Jim is no longer with us, his question now haunts me. Suppose he wasn't being rhetorical? Suppose Jim saw me as someone who really could fix it? At least put a big dent in it? Could that be true? Have I been underperforming all these years? Not trying enough (or hard enough)? Biting off less than I can chew? And, if so, why exactly?

In a conversation a few weeks ago, a new colleague put a very different question to me: "What's holding you back?" she asked. "What's stopping you?"

Damn! That's a great question! A little more approachable than Jim's, perhaps. Not rhetorical. And without a hint of blame, just pure curiosity.

After our conversation, as I tried to come up with an answer, I thought of these words from the late Gil Scott-Heron's Don't Give Up:

I was obviously too blind and probably too weak
To see who was responsible for my losing streak
The best way to explain it is to say simply because
I was looking around outside, and the truth is,
I was the one.

It's clear now. I've been holding me back. I've been the one keeping me from doing what I know I should do! How? By focusing on me, worrying about what people will think. By not doing what I can do (and making up plenty of excuses along the way).

So, that's my story. Welcome to my world! Now the serious work begins. I've got to work on fixing this!

What's stopping you? What's holding you back?

Whatever you do, don't give up!

There's a lesson there…

Do you see how a well-placed question can get us thinking more deeply about things we've been ignoring? If you are ever asked such a question, don't try to answer too quickly. Let the question marinate. Take time to think about it, and maybe dig a little deeper. And if you're the one asking the question, don't worry about their answer. Let the other person wrestle with it in their own time.

Charlie Haden's Solo on 'Take the Coltrane'

Bill Berry — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 16:23:08 +0000

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group Take The Coltrane (Instrumental) · Kenny Barron · Charlie Haden · Roy Haynes Wanton Spirit With Charlie Haden And Roy Haynes ℗ 1994 Decca Records France Released on: 1994-01-01 Composer Lyricist: Duke Ellington Auto-generated by YouTube.

I love Charlie Haden’s solo and walking bass line on this song. I really need to study it because I have absolutely no idea what he’s playing. I think that’s what made him unique, what made him Charlie Haden. He was playing his own thing in his own way, not following anyone else.

He once said you should play every note as if it’s your last. Sadly, we’re all going to play that last note, even Charlie. But can you imagine the weight that would get put on every note if we thought of it that way? Every. Single. Note. They’d all have to be perfect, just right.

Yeah, I need to study Charlie. And practice. With intention and clarity.

Thank you Charlie!

More here: Charlie Haden: 'Risk Your Life for Every Note'

Toni Morrison: “We do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”

Bill Berry — Tue, 07 May 2019 21:32:19 +0000

I just reread Toni Morrison’s Nobel Lecture in Literature, 1993. It is so elegantly stated, deeply meaningful, and prophetic. Read the passages I quote below and think about the path we’ve taken to our current time.

"She is convinced that when language dies, out of carelessness, disuse, indifference and absence of esteem, or killed by fiat, not only she herself, but all users and makers are accountable for its demise. In her country children have bitten their tongues off and use bullets instead to iterate the voice of speechlessness, of disabled and disabling language, of language adults have abandoned altogether as a device for grappling with meaning, providing guidance, or expressing love. But she knows tongue-suicide is not only the choice of children. It is common among the infantile heads of state and power merchants whose evacuated language leaves them with no access to what is left of their human instincts for they speak only to those who obey, or in order to force obedience.

"The systematic looting of language can be recognized by the tendency of its users to forgo its nuanced, complex, mid-wifery properties for menace and subjugation. Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge. Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media; whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity driven language of science; whether it is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek – it must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist language, theistic language – all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas."

Better yet, read the entire lecture, perhaps right along with YouTube audio of Morrison’s actual lecture.

How do I want to be when I go back?

Bill Berry — Thu, 02 May 2019 19:28:44 +0000

When you're on vacation, do you ever find yourself thinking, "how do I want to be when I go back to work?" It's a great question to ask from time-to-time. Six years ago, that question led to a couple of small, seemingly imperceptible, tweaks that helped make a huge difference.

I'm on vacation right now in the same place - déjà vu all over again? – but the question hasn't really presented itself so far. Maybe because I'm still just vacating?

What's my biggest challenge at work right now? It's one we all face: time or the lack of it. We don't know how much time we really have (probably less than we assume), and it's the one thing we can't create more of.

Anyway, I'm sitting on my little Lanai by the Sea, thinking random thoughts about jazz, poetry, art, beauty, doing nothing, and how all that connects to my roles as a manager and leader.

Wish me luck when the question finally demands an answer. Should be any day now!

The Silent Killers of Strategy Implementation and Learning

Bill Berry — Sun, 07 Apr 2019 02:07:47 +0000

"The Silent Killers of Strategy Implementation and Learning" is one of my all-time favorites. The barriers to strategy execution and learning it describes always resonate, and every organization probably has more than one or two.

In the past, I've thought about how principles from Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team might apply. In my latest reading, I was using a different lens. This time I was thinking about how my own mindset – the things I was doing (or not doing) – had gotten in the way of past change efforts.

More importantly, this reading has me really focused on Organizational Fitness Profiling, the process the authors recommend to unearth the root causes of strategy execution blockers, and to develop a workable plan.

"For a decade, we have conducted research focused on understanding the root causes of the difficulties that Becton Dickinson and others encounter when responding to shifts in competitive strategy. Using an inquiry and action-learning method we call 'Organizational Fitness Profiling (OFP),' we enlist a team of senior managers to serve as our co-investigators. The process provides a window for understanding deeply rooted barriers that are common to an array of companies."

…

"[OFP] is both an intervention method and a research approach. It unfolds over a series of meetings intended to promote an open and fact-based dialogue within the senior management team of an organizational unit, as well as between the top team and lower organizational levels. The process involves five steps."

Create a statement about direction

Collect data on barriers and strengths

Develop an integrated plan for change

Refine the plan

Implement the plan

I love the idea of having a team lower-level managers investigate barriers and provide senior leaders with the unvarnished truth!

There's much more detail and context in the article, of course. While it's behind a paywall, if you're leading an organization that maybe could use a little change, I can't recommend "Silent Killers" more highly.

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The Seven Sins of Deadly Meetings

Bill Berry — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 21:08:03 +0000

Andy Grove has been a hero/role model since I first learned that he personally taught a class for all incoming employees about how to participate in and lead meetings at Intel. He did this as CEO for years!

Indeed, every new employee, from the most junior production worker to the highest ranking executive, is required to take the company’s home-grown course on effective meetings. For years the course was taught by CEO Andy Grove himself, who believed that good meetings were such an important part of Intel’s culture that it was worth his time to train the troops.

We need to become more efficient, more effective, more strategic, more collaborative, more results-focused, more data-driven, more connected. More communicative. More helpful.

That's going to require a lot of people to be in a lot of meetings on top of what they're already doing, so I think we should fix meetings first.

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Managers Can’t Be Great Coaches All by Themselves

Bill Berry — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 02:02:18 +0000

There Are 4 Types of Managers. One Is More Effective Than the Others

For managers and subordinates, the research should redirect attention from the frequency of developmental conversations to the quality of interactions and the route taken to help employees gain skills. Says Roca: “The big takeaway is that when it comes to coaching employees, being a Connector is how you win.”

So what's a "Connector?"

Connector Managers give targeted feedback in their areas of expertise; otherwise, they connect employees with others on the team or elsewhere in the organization who are better suited to the task. They spend more time than the other three types assessing the skills, needs, and interests of their employees, and they recognize that many skills are best taught by people other than themselves.

All of that’s consistent with the management skills training I’ve been exposed to this year. Frequent, deeper 1on1s with Direct Reports FTW! We can – and do – have regular tactical or task-oriented 1on1s, and that’s good. But are we coaching, offering criticism and guidance, and discussing development? Are we mentoring and connecting?

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Leadership Feels Squishy

Bill Berry — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 04:08:39 +0000

I think of "management" and "leadership" as two different things that rarely exist simultaneously in the same person. Tom Peters thinks the two words mean the same thing. Part of the reason I disagree with him is that I don't think you need a management title or that kind of "power" to be a leader.

OTOH, I agree with Tom that talking about whether the two words mean the same thing is a totally, completely, 100 percent waste of time. There's no way to get universal agreement on the subject. That ship has sailed!

Peters does say that, "hard is soft, soft is hard", and on that we agree.

Leadership may look like the pyramid on the left. It feels all squishy-like because, you know, people are complicated! Dealing with that squishiness, getting results through people, that is what leadership is all about!

What do you think?

Three Great Team Planning Questions

Bill Berry — Sat, 15 Dec 2018 16:34:44 +0000

Since we're ending the year and beginning a new one, my team and I are taking stock and thinking about the future. We also need to tell our story yet again: who we are, what we do, who does what, where we're going, etc.

I have my ideas, of course, and would like to hear from everyone on our team as well. So, I'm having 1on1s with everyone! I've already learned some new things, and will make sure I take their concerns into account.

I decided to ask these three questions:

What is our team's purpose?
What is the reputation we aspire to?
What do we need to do differently to achieve that reputation and fulfill our purpose?

So far, so good! I've had four magical chats this morning, and I'm looking forward to more conversations!

#highlyrecommended #ideasfor2019

If I’m Seeing People as People, Do I Always Have to Help Them?

Bill Berry — Sun, 19 Aug 2018 19:46:23 +0000

Great question!

Reason 2: What’s the Real Need?

Sometimes, what people want is different from what they need. For example, the employee who is not meeting standards might want a raise, but what they need is, potentially, stronger accountability, training, encouragement, or even termination.

If we are operating with an outward mindset, we will not have a desire to do something “nice” that is not, in fact, helpful. Instead, truly caring about the person as a person, we will tell them the hard truths they need to hear. Then we will do what we can to help them improve.

Furthermore, we will respond to others’ needs in a manner which accepts the overall organizational mission and considers the others impacted by our decisions and work.

If we're seeing people as people, we will have the sense to help them. Sometimes we'll have the sense to do something nice for them. Other times we'll have the sense to provide critical feedback. Honor that sense. #thatisall

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Rate Increases

Bill Berry — Sun, 15 Jul 2018 18:10:40 +0000

(Photo by Luis Tosta - Unsplash)

Our water company has filed for a 14+ percent rate increase. My first instinct might be, "That's outrageous! How can they raise rates that much?!"

#Ohwait! Setting – and raising – rates are part of what I do for a living.

Let's look at the details: The last rate increase went into effect 3-1/2 years ago. Costs have risen since then and will continue to go up. They also say they've made capital investments totaling $10.7 million and need to recover those costs from customers.

Water is free. Having it delivered to our taps isn't.

There's a Utilities Commission to ensure the basis for the increase is reasonable. And the public gets to weigh-in too.

Hopefully, they also have programs to help low-income families with their bills. Smaller, more regular, increases would be reasonable, too.

Outrageous? As Emily Litella would say, "#Nevermind." :-)

Arrival

Bill Berry — Sun, 27 May 2018 23:06:34 +0000

I recently came across this great quote from Martha Graham:

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time. This expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it.

“It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.

“No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

Well, that certainly got me thinking.

I am usually happy. I don’t know that I’ve always been. At the same time, I’m almost always focused on making something different happen. Something new.

I’m habitually and unconsciously dissatisfied with what is and want to make it new, different, better.

Maybe I like jazz because it's like that too. Nothing is ever the same as it was. Every performance is unique. Searching. That’s kind of the whole point!

It’s not my business to determine whether my contribution is good or bad, ugly or beautiful. I just have to get my ideas out there.

And do that again. And again. And again…

Being unsettled is a semi-permanent condition. But not apprehensive. I’m not anxious, fearful or dreadful. Certainly not at this moment.

In the moment. That’s another thing about jazz. Being right … there.

I always say that playing music, playing my bass, is like a mini-vacation. When I’m playing, I’m in that moment. Because I’m not good enough to play and think about anything else.

I have to listen. Keep time. Stop rushing — always!! Listen. Contribute. Listen.

Just listen.

It’s a beautiful thing.

OTOH, I hate listening to recordings of myself playing. I only hear the wrong notes. When I listen to a presentation I’ve done, all I hear is “… um.” Still, it’s not my business to determine how good it is…

I’m creative. My canvas is ideas. Or maybe ideas are my paint, my notes? Problems? Perhaps that’s the canvas…

I don’t own the ideas. I give them away (for pay) at work. Or for free. Doesn’t matter. I’ve got more.

I’ll produce more. Upon demand. I have to do it. I’m a world-class idea improvising machine. An idea artist.

Years ago I took the Strengthfinders test and learned “Ideation” was one of my top five. Ideation!

I finally get it! Thanks, Martha!

“And,” mutters to himself, “the ideas ramble on.”

Amen.

Exactly 500 words on blah blah blah…

Bill Berry — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 05:17:29 +0000

They say the first draft is shit, so just put a whole lot of whatevers out there, because you're going to rewrite it anyway.

Not that I believe what "they" say, right?

I make mistakes. Sometimes they're doozies! Which contradicts the idea there are no mistakes. I mean, if you learn something, was it a mistake?

Blah. Blah. Blah.

So here's the deal. I post a lot of links to articles I read. Sometimes I even write an article myself. I do love to write, you know. Most of the time, if I post something, it's because what I read or saw resonated with me in some way.

So what I learned recently was (besides the fact I start way, waay too many sentences with the word, "so.")

So what I learned recently was some people (on my team? colleagues?) feel I'm hypocritical. They seem to think I post ideas that I don't do myself. I don't live up to what I post.

Seriously, people? I mean, "REALLY?"

When this criticism first danced across my brainwaves, I was like…

So I have this rule. Never, under any frakkin' circumstances, never, ever be defensive. About anything! It just makes things worse. Including making other people defensive too.

So I hear the criticism, and I'm like, ARE YOU SERIOUS??? Apparently, yes, serious!

Here's the thing. If I post something, it's because it resonated with me. It made me think. Usually, it made me think about me. What I don't do. What I need to do more of. How I need to learn how to do exactly THAT! Ya dig?

Man, I can hardly fathom the idea that I can't share a thought unless I'm a perfect representative of that idea? That's like, don't you ever, in your whole life, ever. post. anything!

The good news? You know there's gotta be some good news, right?

The good news is the feedback came with the warning, "I think you should keep posting, keep sharing." Yeah, right, don't let this little bit of whatever seep into your tiny pea-brain. Keep posting. Just know that some people think you are a total, complete, 100 percent, YEAH, PHONY!!! That is all.

Which right about now, 393 words into this rough draft, has me feeling like, "maybe I should rewrite before letting an editor look at this?" Because, they're going to think this is shit and, by all the evidence presented herein, I'm shit and can't write. Which is not what I want them – not to mention YOU – to think.

Still, I have this goal of writing 500 words a day, and I'm already up to 465. And, just so you know, the number 465 is considered a word. And now I'm all the way up to, well not exactly, but almost up to just about, let's see, yes, 493 words. [It was 500 words, but, you know, editing!]

The end!

It Took Apple Executive Angela Ahrendts One Sentence to Drop the Best Career Advice You'll Hear Today

Bill Berry — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 23:33:57 +0000

#justdothis!

Authentic people share their true thoughts and feelings with others. They know not everyone will agree with them, and they realize this is OK. They also realize that they aren't perfect, but they're willing to show those imperfections because they know everyone else has them, too. By showing their flaws, while accepting others for who they are, authentic individuals create trust.

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