Raleigh Rocks!
April 12, 2009
Okay, Raleigh may not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of cities that “rock,” but it’s hard to beat a nice 60-degree day in March when other parts of the country are experiencing temperatures in the 30s.
And that’s what we had last week when I ran my first half marathon, along with my wife Lorie and two good friends. Running 13.1 miles is a challenge under the best of circumstances. Many of you who are long-time readers of this newsletter will appreciate the challenge even more, since you know about the 5-1/2 hours of knee surgery I had nearly four years ago.
After days of forecasts indicating rain on the morning of the race, we actually had near-perfect weather: high 50s to low 60s, overcast, and surprisingly low humidity. I started out with my iPod loaded with the right tunes, and managed to resist the temptation to run fast at the onset, recognizing that this would be the longest distance I had ever run. And because my busy work schedule and lousy winter weather had prevented me from training exactly as I would have liked, my longest run so far had been just 8.5 miles.
The experience was great – if a bit fatiguing – and I finished in 2:23:24, with an average of 10:56 minute miles. I know I won’t be going to the Olympics with that time, but my goals had been to finish, and to come in under 11-minute miles, so I was very pleased. (For reference, the winner of the race clocked in at 1:08:36 – that’s a 5:15 mile…for 13.1 miles!)
And as with any major effort, there are lessons to be learned. Here are three:
- Start Small and Build on Your Successes – You don’t wake up one morning, say to yourself, “Hey, I think I’ll run a half marathon!” and do it the next day. You start out running a mile. Then two. Then three. Before you know it, you’re doing five miles as a normal training run and seven and eight miles become the “long runs.”
It’s the same thing with a new project, a new assignment, or even a new job. You have to break it down, take one step at a time, and learn from the experience.
- If You Can Run 8, You Can Run 13 – When I commented to a friend that my longest run going into the race had been just 8-1/2 miles, she said not to worry, “If you can run 8, you can run 13.” Her reasoning was that the core level of fitness needed for an right-mile run was substantially the same as what was needed to run 13, and that the adrenaline of the actual race would provide any additional incentive that might be needed.
People put off all kinds of worthwhile ventures because they’re not quite ready, or because it’s not “the right time.” Here’s a news flash: it’s never the right time! There’s always a reason to postpone working on your goals. Having the hard, looming deadline of race day on the calendar means your only choices are to “suck it up” or “bail out!” What are your deadlines and how do you deal with them?
- Get Support for Anything Worthwhile – When training or working on your goals, it’s always a good idea to have a training buddy, or even a group of people you work with – if for no other reason than to be around other people who share a common goal. And during the race, after a few miles, you suddenly see the same faces running in the same general vicinity. Oh you may pass them on a hill, and they may pass you ten minutes later, but you generally notice who’s around you, and there’s an unspoken bond of support that makes the last few miles, in particular, a bit more manageable.
Similarly, it’s important to have a support network in place for anything that’s significant in your life. Surrounding yourself with like-minded and like-thinking people is essential if you’re going to be successful.
I didn’t come in first in this race; in fact, I was nowhere even remotely close to first. But I decided to try something I’d never done before; created goals for myself; made a plan; and accomplished what I set out to. Oh, I was sore for the next few days, but that was a relatively small price to pay.
You don’t have to run a half-marathon; you already have any number of huge challenges in your life already. It’s how you deal with these challenges that determines the degree of your victory.
“Try Sports”
April 12, 2009
If you’re planning on climbing Mt. Everest, you’d make absolutely certain that you have the right training, conditioning, and equipment – to do otherwise would be foolish…and dangerous.
Oh, don’t worry, Mt. Everest is not in my immediate or future plans – I don’t have the time or the inclination to attempt anything like that. But a half marathon is exactly the kind of physical and mental challenge I enjoy (more on that in this week’s Tales from the Road article below…) and the selection of equipment is important here as well.
The list of required items is fairly short: running shoes.
Sure, you can get special running socks, heart-rate monitors, and wicking shirts; but really, the only essential item you may not already own is a good pair of running shoes.
Normally, when you walk into a sporting-goods store, the clerk will ask what size shoe you wear, maybe inquire briefly about the type of running you do and your average weekly mileage, and then disappear into the back to see what shoes are available in your size. She’ll then leave you with several brands to try on, before moving to the next customer.
While this may be efficient, it doesn’t always result in the best possible selection – and running with the wrong shoe can lead to several different injuries that can essentially sideline you for weeks, or possibly months. But it does allow for slightly lower prices – I mean, it is a commodity item, right?
There is another approach, and a company called TrySports has it nailed down perfectly. Their four stores in North and South Carolina focus on people who run triathlons, or participate in any of the three component events: swimming, biking, and running. Let’s ignore the brilliant niche marketing that went into even identifying the need for this type of business, and focus on something even more specific: their process for fitting running shoes.
In stark contrast to the example I gave above, TrySports has a unique five-step process they go through to help you select the right shoe based on the size and shape of your foot, the way you train, and your running style. They even have a name for this fitting process: “5 Steps to the Perfect Fit” – an important thing to do to distinguish yourself from the competition.
One of the steps is a “Video Gait Analysis” where a digital video camera, aligned perfectly to videotape your stride as you run on the treadmill, lets the staff analyze exactly how your foot is striking the ground – particularly helpful if the customer tends to pronate or supinate (striking with the outside or inside of the foot).
And if, despite all of these steps, the shoes don’t work out, they’ll exchange them for a different model – even if you’ve run with them on the pavement, because that’s the only real way to know if they’re right for you.
So you see, they’re not selling running shoes, they’re selling the experience of making sure you have the perfect shoes that will help you enjoy your running, and do it without injury. And, by the way, if the shoes cost a bit more than at the discount stores, no one seems to care – the store was quite busy when I went there a few weeks ago to buy a pair for myself.
Do you have a unique process for what you do? Can it help you distinguish yourself from the competition? Can it put you in a position where you can charge a premium price for your products or services? Find a way to do this, and you’ll leave everyone else in the dust.
Anyone for Iced Tea?
April 9, 2009
Looking at how you make ice tea can help you see that sometimes the more challenging a problem seems the more simple it is to solve.
Sometimes the more challenging a problem seems the more simple it actually is to solve.
I witnessed a perfect example of this on a recent flight home from California.
As I boarded the plane, the flight attendant was passing through the cabin asking passengers what they wanted to drink before take off. “I’ll have a Diet Pepsi,” said one person. “A double vodka for me, please,” said another passenger…and it wasn’t even lunch time yet.
When the flight attendant reached the person behind me, she asked for an iced tea. I couldn’t help but overhear the interesting exchange that followed:
Flight Attendant: I’m sorry, we don’t have any iced tea.
Passenger: Do you have hot tea?
Flight Attendant: Yes…
Passenger: Do you have ice?
Flight Attendant: Yes…
Passenger: Do you have sugar and lemon?
Flight Attendant: Ah, yes…
Passenger: Then forget the iced tea; just give me a cup of hot tea and add some ice, sugar, and lemon, please.
At that point, everyone who had heard the conversation, including the flight attendant, began to laugh. Everyone’s concept of iced tea was of a drink already prepared and packaged in a can or bottle. Only the passenger, who had obviously had this conversation many times before, had the concept of iced tea as a mixture of ingredients which were all readily available on the plane.
How many times, when faced with difficult or challenging situations, do we focus on the reasons we can’t do something instead of identifying ways in which we can?
The next time the task you’re facing seems impossible, follow the example of the passenger on the plane and look for a solution. Then your customers will be able to have their “tea” exactly the way they want it!
How to Turn Mistakes Into Opportunities
April 7, 2009
Learn how serious mistakes, when taken as opportunities to learn, can literally transform us into new people.
Anyone who has ever been in one of my programs knows that I use magic to help reinforce the key ideas of the session. To be successful at magic or at anything you do, for that matter, it is important to expand your knowledge through practical experience and continued learning.
At a magic workshop that I attended last summer in Santa Barbara to broaden my own knowledge and practice of magic, I had the opportunity to study with some of the most accomplished magicians in the US. But the most insightful idea that I took away from that event came from an unexpected source.
His name was Itai. He’s a magician who had traveled quite some distance from Israel to attend the workshop. During one exercise in the middle of the conference, each of us was asked to share with the group a principle or thought that has helped us when we perform our magic.
Itai’s was this: “Sometimes people make mistakes, but sometimes mistakes make people.”
He presents this concept in the programs he delivers to help prevent teen pregnancy. He uses the literal interpretation that a mistake can actually “make” a person, meaning a baby. But there is, of course, a more subtle meaning to this expression: that serious mistakes, when taken as opportunities to learn, can literally transform us into new people.
How many times, after making a mistake of some sort, do we try to hide it, cover it up, or rationalize it as if it were really not a big deal? When I was a software engineer, the expression we used jokingly was, “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!” The Japanese have an expression that translates loosely as, “Defects are like gifts from God because they show us opportunities for improvement that we didn’t even know existed before.”
It’s normal in the course of our jobs and in our lives that we make mistakes. Instead of viewing these mistakes as failures, disappointments, or setbacks, why not take Itai’s advice and look at them as opportunities to learn, to improve, and to grow.
Everyone makes mistakes…the magic is to turn these mistakes into opportunities.
The Perfect Song
April 6, 2009
We had the opportunity a few weeks ago to see one of the outstanding singer-songwriters of our time. Unfortunately, you’ve probably never heard of her: Jana Stanfield.
Her recordings are intricate, relevant, and upbeat. And in concert, you get to hear the full range of her voice, which isn’t done justice by a CD and a set of speakers. Plus, she’s incredibly funny, which makes the whole experience even more enjoyable. In the concert we attended, she was one of four artists who took turns presenting songs to the audience, each feeding off of what the other had just done – kind of a musical version of “Whose Line is It Anyway.”
At one point, after Jana had just finished singing “If I Had Only Known” – a song recorded and made famous by Reba McEntire, the audience just sat there dumbstruck for about five seconds before starting to applaud wildly and giving her a spontaneous standing ovation.
Then it was Daniel Nahmod’s turn to select a song to play. He had been fantastic during the concert, but after that song, he had a “deer in the headlights” look on his face, and said to the audience, “Wow, how do you follow something like that?”
He then turned to Jana and said, “That is a perfect song in so many different ways, I can’t even begin to explain it.” He gave a couple of “technical” examples of what he was talking about in terms of songwriting, musicianship, and delivery, and asked Jana a few questions about what inspired her to write the song.
He was right, by the way, the song was incredible, and Jana’s voice is even better now than when we were blown away listening to her for the first time at a National Speakers Association meeting in San Francisco, back in 1995.
Do you have a “perfect song?” Is there something you do at work, with your family, or with a hobby that brings everything into perfect focus for you? You may not be up on stage performing it for all to see, but make a serious effort to find your “perfect song” in whatever you do, and you’ll see the impact it has on everyone around you.
The Quality Department Won’t Approve It
April 6, 2009
Moving into a bigger office is a lot like moving into a bigger house: there are more rooms to furnish. That means you have to buy stuff, and that means dealing with damaged shipments. And that’s exactly what we’ve been experiencing this week.
We ordered a hutch that will go on top of a credenza we already have, a conference-room table, a desk set, and a storage cabinet, all of which arrived within a seven-day period. That was the good part. But when we started opening the boxes, the fun quickly came to an end.
I should point out that this wasn’t bulky, heavy, solid wood furniture, but rather the kind that comes in a box. You lay out all the pieces, screws, dowels, and cams, and then spend an afternoon putting it all together. I don’t mind the time – it’s actually quite relaxing and even a bit therapeutic – but I do mind it when there’s a problem with the parts.
You see, all but one of the items had some damage on the component pieces. Some had gouges and scratches; some had damage around the corners; and some parts were simply broken. Oh well, it’s basically particle board with a wood laminate, and some of it is going to get damaged. So we called the customer-service numbers for two of the companies and got two very different responses.
The first representative was extremely courteous, efficient, and helpful; explaining that she would send out a replacement, and instruct us on what to do with the old piece; but that, of course, we wouldn’t be responsible for even one dime to correct the situation. She also apologized for the inconvenience, and even looked up and e-mailed us a copy of the assembly instructions we had somehow misplaced.
The second company’s representative took a slightly different approach. In this case, there were five major pieces – essentially the entire frame of the cabinet – that had damage because, apparently, some particles had gotten in between the pieces during their internal packing process and had scratched and gouged them in transit.
Oh, she was courteous enough at the start of the call, but as soon as Lorie told them how many pieces needed to be replaced, and which ones they were, she quickly changed her tune. “Oh, we can’t ship out that many pieces; you’ll have to contact the company you ordered this from and deal with them. We explained that the package had arrived well cushioned and with absolutely no signs of visible damage. The problem, we explained, was caused by the packing process in their factory.
What I was afraid of was a “he said, she said” affair, where the company we ordered from would say it was the manufacturer’s fault, and the manufacturer would say it was the company’s fault, leaving us in the middle, quite likely picking up the cost for shipping back a 100-pound package.
When we asked why they couldn’t ship out the pieces directly themselves, she explained, “I just don’t think the Quality department will let us send out that many replacement parts for a single unit.”
Hmmm, would that be the same Quality department that allowed the defective parts to be shipped in the first place? It would seem to me that the Quality department should hand pick the replacement parts, jump in a truck, and drive directly to my office to deliver them personally and apologize for having failed us initially.
Ultimately, we did get them to authorize the parts, primarily because Lorie was extremely persistent, calm, and rational in explaining why it was their responsibility to do so.
But we won’t likely buy any furniture from this manufacturer ever again, and that’s the important lesson for you here. Mistakes do happen – it’s extremely difficult to cover every single contingency, but it’s how you handle this problem that makes the difference in how the customer remembers the experience. Do everything you can to make sure you get it right the first time. But when you don’t, take full advantage of the opportunity to address the problem quickly and definitively, and you’ll have a customer for life.
Creating A “Cardinal” Vision!
April 2, 2009
See how a cardinal banging his head against a window can help you understand the primary vision of your organization.
Often I hear leaders in organizations say, “Trying to initiate change is like banging your head against the wall.” If you’ve felt that same way in your attempts to implement change, you may well end up feeling as frustrated as the cardinal I saw in Atlanta…
I had an appointment with a potential client in Atlanta. She was held up in a meeting so I waited in the lobby while catching up on some phone calls. Unfortunately, every time I attempted to make a call, I heard a “tap-tap-tap” sound on the window. I looked around to see where it was coming from, but each time I saw nothing.
Once again, I heard the sound. First it came from one end of the window. Then the other. Then from the middle. It wasn’t loud, but it was annoying and was driving me a little crazy. Finally, I asked the receptionist if she heard anything. “That noise?” she asked, “Oh sure, that’s just a cardinal. Look down and you’ll see him.”
Sure enough, I looked at the base of the window, and there was a beautiful red cardinal pecking away at the window. “What is he doing?” I asked the receptionist. “We’ve tried to figure that out ourselves, and the best explanation we can come up with is that he sees his own reflection in the window and thinks it’s another bird.”
Although we were never really sure, we surmised that the cardinal kept banging his beak against the window to get to the other bird he thought he saw in the window.
As I was sitting there, I couldn’t help thinking how much this was like most organizations. In an attempt to find a direction for the company, something that looks real and tangible, people will grasp onto whatever looks like a reasonable signpost and peck away at that vision.
Whatever the cardinal was attempting to accomplish, pecking at the vision in the window surely didn’t accomplish the desired results. Similarly, a lack of direction in an organization will ensure that your people’s efforts will be scattered in various directions without achieving the results you had hoped for.
Make sure that the objectives of your organization are clearly defined so that everyone is focused on your “cardinal” or primary vision. You’ll achieve the results you desire and you’ll ensure that your people don’t end up “banging their heads against the wall.”
