Tag Archives: business

March 25, 2013 · 9:49 am

Believing The Seeding

I hope you spent at least some of the weekend watching the NCAA Men’s or Women’s Basketball Tournament.  The country seems to have a national obsession with brackets and as it turns out there was a lot of pretty compelling basketball behind the pools.  By the way – I find it kind of amazing that as the sports leagues and organizations – MLB, NFL, and NCAA among others – got comfortable with the fan-generated activities such as fantasy and bracket pools the viewership and engagement of the public grew.  The organizing entities spent a lot of time telling broadcasters and others to ignore those activities (heaven forbid we actually encourage engagement!) because they were gambling or worse.  Good lesson on listening and not getting in the way of people who want to love your brand!

English: National Collegiate Athletic Associat...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In any event, one thing I took away from this weekend was the power of positioning and how it can affect performance.  What I mean by that is the “upsets” we saw as low seeded teams – presumably weaker squads – beat high seeds – top teams from big conferences.  Then again, Gonzaga was a number 1 seed but came from a weaker conference and barely won their first game before getting “upset” by a #9 seed.  A few of the other #1 seeds barely got by.  Which is the business lesson.

So often we believe the seedings.  We’re told our company isn’t good enough or we don’t have enough experience.  The people who hire people or firms on that basis are believing the seedings that they divine from resumes or capabilities presentations.  Too bad.  Given the way business works these days there have been a lot more upsets than there have been results in line with the seedings.  There is a lot more parity.

More importantly, not one of the teams that upset a top seed felt as if they had lost before the game started.  Just the opposite.  Every one of them knew there were in the tournament because they had won a lot more than they had lost.  They believed in themselves and played as a team and not as the function of some mystical RPI equation.  In their minds the seeding was going to be done by the final score.

Don’t believe the seeding.  Sure, you or your firm might be the underdog, but you’re in the  game for a reason.  You with me?

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March 22, 2013 · 10:17 am

An Unleavened Week Of Business

This week’s Foodie Friday Fun is our annual reflection on Passover.  The holiday starts Monday night although in many homes the cooking will begin over the weekend.  What – you eat your brisket on the day it’s made?  Despite debates over what exactly species of fish is a “gefilte” (it means “filled, by the way), there are no debates that this seems to be the favorite holiday of many Jews as well as of the non-Jews who join in the celebratory dinner.

English: Passover plate with symbolic foods: m...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The thing about Passover that raises a business thought today is that it’s a week of eating that’s out of the ordinary.  While the first question in the dinner service is “why is this night different,” it’s the week without leavened foods of any sort that’s the biggest change for many.  Some Jews won’t eat anything that swells up – beans, rice, etc. – as well as abstaining from bread and cakes made with leavening agents.  It’s a subtile reminder throughout the week that the escape from Egypt, the deliverance of the people, and the lessons learned from those events shouldn’t be forgotten.  Which is the business point as well.

What if every business designated a week during which something they did on a daily basis was changed?  Maybe they turned of internal email and made face to face conversations happen.  Maybe they let everyone work on projects that were important to the people involved rather than things important to the business.  Or just maybe they refused to let anyone use the word “can’t” or the phrases “bad idea” or “not do-able”.  I’m sure you can think of a few things that your organization could do differently for a time to cause everyone involved to focus on something other than the day-to-day routine.

The Jews spent 40 years wandering around in the desert after they left Egypt.  Many businesses spend a lot of time figuratively wandering around as well.  Maybe a week of change can provide a better focus and get you to your goals more effectively.  Worth a shot?

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March 20, 2013 · 11:55 am

Taking Sides

I’m in the middle of a few negotiations. Actually, I’m more of a mediator than a negotiator and I’ll explain that in a second.  What we’re negotiating isn’t important to the screed today but the manner in which the negotiations are taking place is. Frankly, I’ve rarely been as frustrated as I am at the moment and I’d like to explain why because it illustrates some things people sometimes do that are self-defeating.

The Inner Cloister

(Photo credit: kern.justin)

One thing I’ve always believed about business dealings is that there needs to be a certain amount of trust.  You have to believe that the other party is acting in good faith.  In my mind it’s like our system of justice:  innocent until proven guilty. In this case I’m working with two parties who completely mistrust one another.  In part that’s because they’re in a field that’s filled with people who misrepresent themselves.  In part it’s because neither of them is willing to reveal more than a little information at a time which fosters mistrust and doubt.  It’s a prescription for disaster.

Another thing that’s become obvious is that rather than the two parties positioning themselves on the same side of the table trying to solve mutual problems they’ve taken seats on opposite sides.  They’re missing out on the mutual creativity and solutions that can come when the parties work together.  Instead, they make demands of one another which arise from their own needs without any recognition of the other side’s reality.  It makes for a protracted discussion rather than a quick resolution.

I think it boils down to the people involved.  It’s way too easy to write it off to the industry or to the money.   Negotiating requires maturity and empathy – these folks seem to have neither.  As is the case in most business situations you can’t fix the business until you fix the people involved.  That’s a far more difficult process than any business deal.  As the intermediary, my role has been to keep the information flowing, the dialog alive and the emotion each party has been expressing to me from arriving on the other party’s doorstep to make things more complicated.  I’m successful at it some of the time but once in a while some of the above factors leak through my firewall.  It makes for interesting days.

There is only one side in a negotiation – the one on which things get done.  Of course there are divergent needs and priorities but unless and until everyone commits to a solution that is mutually-beneficial and encompasses the entirety of those things, not much gets done.  Do you agree?

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