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Friday Filosophy v.12.10.2021

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Friday Filosophy v.12.10.2021

Friday Filosophy v.12.10.2021 focuses upon Peter Ferdinand Drucker; German: November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) was an Austrian-American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of the modern business corporation. He was also a leader in the development of management education, he invented the concept known as management by objectives and self-control, and he has been described as “the founder of modern management”.

Drucker’s books and articles, both scholarly and popular, explored how humans are organized across the business, government, and nonprofit sectors of society. He is one of the best-known and most widely influential thinkers and writers on the subject of management theory and practice. His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to economic world power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning. In 1959, Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker“, and later in his life considered knowledge-worker productivity to be the next frontier of management.

  • The best way to predict the future is to create it.
  • Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.
  • There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
  • The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.
  • We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.
  • The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.
  • The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.
  • Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.
  • Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.
  • Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.

The Time is Now

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Planning to Succeed or NOT?

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Planning to Succeed or NOT?

Planning to Succeed or NOT?

In his latest guest blog, Brad Stimmel shares with us the readiness of leaders for the next stage in “Planning to Succeed or NOT?”

Every good business leader that I have ever encountered make plans for the coming year.  And every plan has the first goal of creating success for that same period of time.  But are you sure you are making all the arrangements for your plan to succeed or are you just setting yourself up for unintentional failure?

The styles of annual planning process differ greatly depending on many factors of the company and its leadership.  In each company, the different styles of plans are usually financially driven.  And, of course, then it is broken down into its components by department and then by revenue, expenses, and profit.  This is pretty much the basic process done in many different manners by every company.  In some companies it is done from top management down and some companies it is created middle management up.  All of it will sum up to a potentially successful plan that is aimed at reaching the company goals for the coming year.

But there could be missing components that are equally as important. Ones that, if left undone, could increase the probability of failure to reach the company financial goals.

The concept is reduced to a twist on an old cliché quoted from an anonymous source:

“Ready, Fire, Aim”

It can be further qualified this way:

  • “Ready” means your standard financial plans that are well done and created with good planning and collaboration.
  • “Fire” means the approval, communication and launching this great plan for the coming year.

But… is everyone on your team “Aiming” in the right direction or even the same direction as others?  Usually not.

If each of your team members have not personally created a set of Measurable Objectives that will move their department and their personal efforts in the direction of the financial plans, then the probability of failure is much higher.

As Peter Drucker states:

“Objectives are not fate – they are direction.  They are not commands – they are commitments.  They do not determine the future – they are means to mobilize the resources and energies of the business to make the future.”

All managers and Sales representative should create a set of measurable objectives that create success for them and their departments.  The objectives should be specific milestones that are productively moving toward the overall company financial plan.  They should have specific dates to target and well-developed action plans to accomplish over time. They should name any collaboration required with other members, vendors, or departments. And finally, they should be agreed to by their supervisor but never dictated by him or her.

As Drucker says, “There is a great difference between doing things right and doing the right things!”

This objective plan should be cascaded to all managers and sales representative at all levels. The higher the agreement and the clearer the communication of these objectives up and down the organization, then success is almost inevitable.

The last important step after the objective planning is to complete a quarterly review on progress toward the objectives with each participant.  NO penalty and NO reward should be offered.  Just check for progress.  If the objectives are just filed away in a cabinet until the end of the year, then most likely not much will change until the end of the year. And then it is too late.

So here is the summary of the ESSENTIALS OF OBJECTIVES PLANNING.

  1. Individuals determine their objectives and share with their supervisors. They both agree upon and state very precisely the specific results that are to be accomplished by a specific future date either by the individuals or by the units they manage.
  2. These same individuals work enthusiastically to achieve the expected results because, in the process of developing their objectives, they have become sincerely committed to achieving them.
  3. Regularly, the results achieved by these individuals and the units they manage are measured and reviewed at least quarterly. (I suggest a dashboard be set up for each individual member if your enterprise management system software provides this option.)

This whole concept is carried along on a wave of increased communication.

“The clearer the idea you have of what it is you are trying to accomplish, the greater the chance of accomplishing it.”

For more information on our classes and assessments, please visit us at Learning Without Scars.

e-Learning

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e-Learning

Twenty years ago, in 1999, John Chambers, then CEO of CISCO Systems said, “Education over the internet is going to make email usage look like a rounding error.” The renowned Clairmont Professor and business guru thought that “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”

As those of you who read this blog know we are serious proponents of providing tools for employees whereby they can reach their potential. Learning to me is a lifelong pursuit. You really only start to learn once you leave the structured education system that we have in place. Too many people, however, act as if that is the end of their education.

We are extremely pleased to be in the final stages of certification by the IACET, the International Association of Continuous Education and Training. They have a very rigorous certification process that we have completed and are in the final review process. You will hear more on this in the near future when we get all of the documentation completed.

This is the final step in our platform for training in the Heavy Equipment, Light Industrial, Material Handling, Trailer, and Ground Water Industries with which we are associated. We will be the only certified company in these Industries in the world.

We ran a brief review of our offerings within the past month and it is quite substantial. We currently have around 90 people taking classes on line every day. We have enrolled over 600 people in the past two years. It is starting to take hold.

What we offer is an employee development structure for each job function in the Parts and Service world. We assist dealers and distributors and some manufacturers now in creating a learning path for specific jobs. A career path if you will. We are in the final stages of announcing our “badge” program.

The Physical Universities and Vocational Schools are the only ones who can provide a “parchment” that says University Degree. The internet-based learning world is “not allowed” to offer degrees. We offer and provide badges. In our programs the badges cover; Operations, leadership, Sales, and Finance. Each class earns a badge and after accumulating Badges taking classes there are four levels of achievement; Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. Each student can share their learning results from us with their prospective employers which provides, we believe, a much more complete picture of the knowledge of each individual who has followed our programs.

A study done in 1000 by WR Hambrecht + Co called “Exploring a New Frontier” provided the following list of factors driving e-Learning:

• Rapid obsolescence of knowledge and training
• Internet access if standard at home and at work
• The need for just in time training.
• Technological advances enable interactive and media rich content.
• Efficient means to train a global or national work force
• Increasing bandwidth allowing more streamed content
• Increases in skills gap and demographic changes
• Growing selection of e-learning products and services
• Demand for flexibility for lifelong learning
• New standards to facilitate compatibility, usability of e-learning product
• Wide variety of topics addressing business objectives
• HR, Management, Customer Service and Compliance Topics
• Simple access point and integrated data
• AICC and SCORM standards for inter-operability

I believe that e-Learning is now starting to hit its stride. All of the above points are even more pronounced today.

We are hitting our stride as well:

 We have created our platform – the learning management system
 We have developed the products – over 112 different programs
 We are in the final stage of accreditation – IACET
 We are finalizing the recognition programs with our badges

Now it is time to sell the program and get more people learning on a daily basis.

We highlighted a quote from Peter Drucker at the outset of this blog “knowledge has to be constantly improving or else it vanishes.”

Where are you in your learning?

 Are you reading books and taking classes constantly?
 Or is your knowledge becoming dated and no longer current?

I think we all can do much more in our lives and in our careers. In fact, with the rapid rate of change in the world around us I believe it is absolutely critical for us to continue to learn. What do you think?

The Time is NOW.

A Good Start #MondayBlogs

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What a great day it is today. Happy Monday to all of you.

There is a great new world out there. In the period following the economic disruptions of 2008, caused in part by government overreach and a lot of greed in the banking Industry, I followed behind the financial management company PIMCO with their “New Normal” program with our “New Reality.” This new reality was a rebirth of the operational aspects of the parts and service businesses within the Capital Goods Industries.

We have made some good progress on many fronts.

In the late 1990’s business guru Peter Drucker mused that adult education was going to become one of the larger needs for business. He further suggested that there would be extremely large growth in the education workforce. We see this with activities such as Khan Academy, with a stated objective of providing world class education to anyone anywhere, and all of their content is free. Then there are other efforts such as EdX, a free education site provided by MIT, and Harvard, Berkeley, and University of Texas, as well as others and CorpU, which aims to unlock the collective genius of an enterprise.

This is where we are making our modest entry with Learning Without Scars.

There is a huge opportunity.

Today, the jobs report gave further evidence of the effects of the recent government regulatory efforts to reduce the burden that has been eating away at businesses everywhere.

Unemployment in the US is 4.4%, which on the face is a good number. But the participation rate, the percentage of the working age population that is in fact working, sits at 62.8%. Stated another way means that 37.1% of the working age population is NOT working. (Note: the participation rate in 2007 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics was 66.4%) The REAL problem here is that there are currently in excess of 6,000,000 jobs that are open in America that have not been filled. According to a recent CNBC survey 46% of Company Presidents and CFO’s believe that “the workforce is not receiving the proper skills training businesses require.” Further, 63% reported having had difficulty in filling skilled positions in the past 12 months.

That is the backdrop against we have created Learning Without Scars, and our new training.  We’ve all experienced great disruption to our “normal,” and in this New Reality we have our greatest opportunity: to learn and provide opportunities for learning to our employees.  You’ve heard me say it time and again – your employees are your “heroes.”  They’ve invested themselves into your business, and they deserve to have your business invest in their knowledge and expertise.

We can create a healthier economic and professional reality together.  It all begins with education.

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-15

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One of the many misunderstandings that people have about management is that they equate it to leadership. You manage processes, but you lead people.  For Friday Filosophy #2016-15, some thoughts about leadership, from leaders.

 

Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.

Margaret Thatcher.

 

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets people to do the greatest things.

Ronald Reagan

 

To add value to others, one must first value others.

Before you can be of any value to anyone else you must be of value to yourself.

R.J. Slee

 

The task of the leader is to get their people from where they are to where they have not been.

Henry Kissinger

 

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

There are no office hours for leaders.

Cardinal J. Gibbons

 

When people talk, listen completely.

Ernest Hemingway

 

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

Peter Drucker

 

A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is don’t, his aim fulfilled, they will say we did it ourselves.

Lao Tzu

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-9

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Today – for Friday Filosophy #2016-9 – I would like to address productivity. First is the definition. Productivity is an economic measure of output per unit of input. Inputs typically cover labor (other things as well but labor for our purpose today) while output is typically measured in revenues.

Today we are living in “The Computer Age.” How has the computer changed productivity? Is it for the better or not? A recent TED talk I saw highlighted that our world is one where it is now “Brains not Brawn” – “Ideas not Things” – “Mind not Matter.” We are also seeing a decoupling of our economy in traditional ways. Productivity increases have not translated into either more jobs or better pay. So here is our Friday Filosophy for you to contemplate.  Please send me your thoughts or comments. Thanks.

 

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

Voltaire

 

There is no substitute for hard work.

Edison

 

The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.

Thomas Sowell

 

No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.

Warren Buffett

 

Nine men impregnating the same woman cannot deliver a baby in a month.

          Ron Slee

 

Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.

Peter Drucker

 

The way we measure productivity is flawed. People checking their BlackBerry over dinner is not the measure of productivity.

Timothy Feriss 

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2015-32

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Last week I ended with some quotes from Charles Handy.   This week, for Friday Filosophy #2015-32 we will be reading quotes from Peter Drucker.

If any of you would like to send me your favorite quotes we will make a compilation of them for a future post. Thanks for your help.

Doing the right thing is more important than doing the thing right.

If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.

There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all.

What gets measured gets improved.

Results are gained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems.

So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work.

People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.

Meetings are by definition a concession to a deficient organization. For one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time.

Long range planning does not deal with the future decisions, but with the future of present decisions.

Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things.

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2015-31

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In Friday Filosophy #2015-31 we are taking a look at leadership.

The world has changed rapidly over the past three decades and continues to change rapidly. If anything it is changing even more rapidly than it appears to be. However, there are some constants. From the Chairman at VW to the leader of the House of Representatives, we are seeing in front of us the challenges and difficulties in the position of leadership. Without making too much of these two examples you can see the challenges of CEOs in a number of different areas and Industries. Here are some quotes to consider from business and political leaders over the past half century.

I hope you enjoy them.

 

The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.

Ken Blanchard

 

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.

Jack Welsh

 

Are YOU growing yourself? Do you continue to learn? Do you read business books?

 

Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.

Tom Peters

 

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

Winston Churchill

 

Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.

John C. Maxwell

 

Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.

Margaret Thatcher

 

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

Lao Tzu

 

Isn’t that rather different than “You didn’t build that?”

 

I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.

Estee Lauder

 

We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.

Queen Victoria

 

My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to takes these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.

Steve Jobs

 

There are two kinds of stones, as everyone knows. One of which rolls.

Amelia Earhart

 

I was never the smartest guy in the room. From the first person I hired, I was never the smartest guy in the room. And that’s a big deal. And if you’re going to be a leader – if you’re the leader and the smartest guy in the world – in the room, you’ve got real problems.

Jack Welsh

 

It is delusional to consider yourself the answer to all things.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

John F Kennedy

 

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

Peter Drucker

 

A leader is a dealer in hope.

Napoleon Bonaparte

 

Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people never are. They have unique talents. Such people cannot be forced into roles they are not suited for, nor should they be. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to do.

Warren Bennis

 

Contrary to popular opinion, leadership is not a reserved position for a reserved group of people who were elected or appointed, ordained or enthroned. Leadership is self-made, self-retained, self-inculcated and then exposed through a faithful, sincere, and exemplary life.

Israelmore Avivor

 

Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.

Seth Godin

 

Let me close with some quotes from Charles Handy. Influential to the business world like Peter Drucker was in the US, but from his perch in Great Britain.

 

  1. The moment will arrive when you are comfortable with who you are, and what you are – bald or old or fat or poor, successful or struggling – when you don’t feel the need to apologize for anything or to deny anything. To be comfortable in your own skin is the beginning of strength.
  2. We cannot wait for great visions from great people, for they are in short supply. It is up to us to light our own small fires in the darkness.
  3. Change is only another word for growth, another synonym for learning.
  4. Instead of a national curriculum for education, what is really needed is an individual curriculum for every child.
  5. Creativity needs a bit of untidiness. Make everything too neat and there is no room for experiment.

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2015-14

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Today, Good Friday, I would like to provide you with quotations on knowledge, may all of you have a truly wonderful day and week. Please take a moment to reflect on knowledge with this Friday Filosophy #2015-14.

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.

Benjamin Franklin

Real knowledge is to know the extent of your ignorance.

Confucius

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

Socrates

Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.

Peter Drucker

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

Marilyn vos Savant

A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.

Plato

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

Immanual Kant

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it’s not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

Terry Pratchett

Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.

Peter Drucker

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

Plato

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Albert Einstein.

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

Bertrand Russell

Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society in every family.

Kofi Annan

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

Plato

The time is now.

Roles, Responsibilities, & Expectations – Parts & Service Management

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It is more than job descriptions and standards of performance

Management gurus and management theory changes like the wind. From Peter Townsend to Peter Drucker to Porras and Collins and Lencioni and many more. It is much more than a cottage Industry it is a full blown educational and consultative foundation. We have gone through multiple iterations of significant things we MUST do.

We must have job descriptions and then we have to have standards of performance for each job function. That was a starting point way back when. Then we got into vision and mission statements and other buzz words. Or how about Total Quality Movement and Continuous Quality Improvement. Now let’s not forget Six Sigma and all of us needing to become “black belts.” Oh and now we have “Lean Management.” In the midst of this we have the Balanced Scorecard and Activity Based Management. Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of benefits to each of these various “movements.” It is not just a series of passing fads. After all I grew up with Industrial Engineering. At the AED we have the Product Support series. The Handbook. The Opportunities Handbook and the Best Practices Handbook. It is a cookie cutter solution to all of our problems that we are looking for in all of these theories and from each of these guru’s. Would that it were that simple.

But let’s take a breath here and get back to some basics. There is a terrific new book out there from the Chairman of Koch Industries, called the largest private company in the world. In it one of the subjects broached is roles, responsibilities and expectations. I think that this is an extremely important book and it contains a series of good pieces of advice to contemplate.

The roles of the individuals in the parts department and the service department and the product support sales department. What are those roles? What do the employees think those roles are? How about their responsibilities? I believe this is important. Do each of the employees have a clear understanding of that which they are expected to be doing within the company? No, not their job descriptions what is their role? Or have they got to the place that they know what the process is and they repeat it as often as is necessary. This is the curse of our American business structure. We teach you how to do the job and then expect you to do it over and over again until you get really good at it. The Asians with Kaizen have a much better approach; Do the job better each and every day. Do the employees invest their intellectual capital in improving their jobs? Or do they find out how to do the job and then just keep on keeping on? This is a symptom I find in a lot of dealerships. People are doing what they are told to do and working in the business. They are not working ON the business. Do you understand the distinction there?

I believe that the employee who is doing the job knows how to do the job better than anyone else. Particularly better than the boss. So with the arrival of summer I thought it would be good to have each of us read this book on holiday. And then to ask how we can improve our daily lives by doing our jobs more effectively, more with the customer in mind, and more with making ourselves live fulfilling lives. Don’t forget In Search of Dignity by R.C. Sproul either. He reminds us that everyone wants to feel they have made a difference in their lives.

That brings us finally to expectations. What are the expectations that the employee has for their job? What are the expectations that the company has for each employee? This is much more than job descriptions and standards of performance. It becomes almost a “what do you want to be when you grow up” question. Those of you that are still reading might think this is too soft a subject but expectations are hard things. The struggle to attract and retain talented employees is all about expectations. Keeping employees happy keeps customers happy and makes money for the owners. This is not easy stuff.

So there is your vacation reading. The Science of Success by Charles Koch of Koch Industries in Wichita, Kansas. A great read and it is full of excellent points for your consideration and implementation.

Happy reading.

The Time is NOW…