Category Archives: Alan’s Monday Morning Memo

May 14, 2012—Issue #138

This week’s focus point: Organizations and people can lose sight of their original mission–their raison d’être–or deliberately change it. A theater with a repertory company moves from finding great plays for its audience to finding plays to employ the actors, and becomes an employment agency. A consultant dedicated to improving clients becomes more focused on simply making money and reduces the quality of the work. A theater complex sees itself as a meeting space, not simply a movie house, and offers comedy shows, auctions, and business meetings. IBM (founded as “International Business Machine”) saw itself in the information business, not the punch card business, and today makes most of its profit from consulting, not hardware. These shifts can be negative or positive, but they should be made consciously, not by default or short-term need. Ask your clients about this, and ask yourself.

Monday Morning Perspective: We are being destroyed by our knowledge, which has made us drunk with power. And shall not be saved without wisdom. — Will Durant

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© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved

May 7, 2012—Issue #137

This week’s focus point: When you hold firm opinions and defend your belief system, people who can’t debate well often resort to calling you names, typically “arrogant.” Don’t let it bother you. True arrogance is the belief that you have nothing left to learn, while true confidence is the belief that you can help others to learn as you continue learning yourself. (Smugness is arrogance without the talent.) Arrogant people often try to “sell” and “pitch.” Confident people share value, often providing their intellectual property for free in so doing. If you think you’re “selling,” you tend to believe someone wins and someone loses and you must overcome opposition. If you’re providing value, you tend to think that you’re trying to help others and would be remiss not to, since it’s a “win/win” proposition.

Monday Morning Perspective: When the house is finished, death comes. — Thomas Mann

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ISSN 2151-0091

© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved

April 30, 2012—Issue #136

This week’s focus point: Never assume that one instance of poor service represents the entire organization or its leadership. If you were the owner, wouldn’t you want to know about poor performance at the customer level? Inform leadership and allow them the opportunity to improve and make restitution. At a restaurant last evening I felt I owed it to the owner to inform her of a really poor and rude server. When a CEO told me he was tolerating an executive vice president’s brutish behavior with people because “that’s the way he is and he brings in business,” I informed the CEO that the employees assumed he approved of the behavior and actually prompted it because he did nothing about it. The CEO was speechless, and a week later the vice president was gone. Isolated behavior (a bad day) is one thing, but consistently poor behavior and the reaction to it is a true test of organization values. What kind of behavior do you exhibit and/or tolerate?

Monday Morning Perspective: History shows us clearly that humanity is moved forward not by people who stop every little while to try to gauge the ultimate success or failure of their ventures, but by those who think deeply about what is right and then put all their energy into doing it. — Murray Gell-Mann in “The Quark and the Jaguar”

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ISSN 2151-0091

© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved

April 23, 2012—Issue #135

This week’s focus point: There is no substitute for judgment and enthusiasm. You can’t teach them and it’s difficult to coach people to improve in these areas. Clients are often struggling to “force” more enthusiasm (“We need a motivational program”) or to “improve” judgment (“Let’s train them in decision making”). Yet this is more of a “buy” and not “make” decision. Most significant leadership jobs require both, and if these traits aren’t present they are unlikely to spontaneously arise. Ironically, the same is true for independent professional services providers. No one else will use good judgment for you, and if you’re not enthusiastic in your next meeting, the other person won’t be, either.

Monday Morning Perspective: We have reached the point where we cannot bear either our vices or their cure. — Livy

How to “Run A Room”: The Facilitation Workshop: Use power and influence to move small or large groups toward successful conclusions by applying your own intellectual capital. Limited registration: http://summitconsulting.com/seminars/facilitation-workshop-2012-05.php

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Contact information: info@summitconsulting.com
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ISSN 2151-0091

© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved

April 16, 2012—Issue #134

This week’s focus point: For most of the entire post-World War II period, there have been three points of economic alliance: Japan, Europe, and the U.S. That is now clearly changing for the first time in a half-century to an emerging six points, with the addition of China, Brazil, and India. And there is an important question as to whether Japan and Europe will remain economically strong enough to have equal stature in the group over the next few years. This realignment creates the need for new expansion strategies, new competitive tactics, additional cultural adaptations, and more complex financial considerations. For consultants, their clients, and their clients’s customers, this should be seen as a tremendous opportunity.

Monday Morning Perspective: No mariner ever enters a more uncharted sea than does the average human being born (today). Our ancestors thought they knew their way from birth through all eternity; we are puzzled about the day after tomorrow. — Walter Lippmann

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Contact information: info@summitconsulting.com
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ISSN 2151-0091

© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved

April 9, 2012—Issue #133

This week’s focus point: Consensus is something you can live with, not something you would die for. We need to accommodate legitimate, diverse points of view. Too often we move from the issue to the person. Once we question the legitimacy of the other person, we end honest debate and emotion precludes logic. We need to disagree without despising, debate without demeaning, understand without undermining. We’ll never gain influence if we demonize those who disagree with us.

Monday Morning Perspective: Each divorce is the death of a small civilization. — Pat Conroy

How to Implement Consulting Projects: Join me for the Implementation Workshop: http://www.summitconsulting.com/seminars/implementation-workshop-2012-05.php

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ISSN 2151-0091

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved

April 2, 2012—Issue #132

This week’s focus point: My large, electric train layouts never worked perfectly. There were derailments, power failures, missed stations, spilled freight, and even small fires. In other words, they exactly replicated reality. Your clients will never undergo change (nor will you) as prescribed in some sterile book or conceptual model. Advice is lofty, actions are gritty. Seek success, not perfection. Accept that virtually nothing will be exactly as intended, but it will be better than before. Make midcourse corrections. Don’t be afraid to get your clothes dirty. No one ever won a medal for coming back from the wars with the crispest, cleanest, brightest uniform. Heroes are muddied and bloodied.

Monday Morning Perspective: Be not too hasty to trust or admire the teachers of virtue. They discourse like angels but they live like men. — Samuel Johnson

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Contact information: info@summitconsulting.com
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ISSN 2151-0091

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved

March 26, 2012—Issue #131

This week’s focus point: Organizations which are in terrible shape have usually been victimized by a series of poor decisions by management. There is no reason to believe that they will suddenly see the error of their ways, hire you, and adhere closely to your advice. Instead, they will be protective, defensive, and miserly. But organizations in great shape have leaders who make intelligent choices, are willing to listen to new ideas, and have money to invest. Which would you think are higher potential for your business? Don’t be fooled by the decades-old advice to find or create “pain.” Instead, find strong people for whom you can create growth, innovation, and excitement. They are your top prospects.

Monday Morning Perspective: Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there. — Will Rogers

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Contact information: info@summitconsulting.com
http://www.contrarianconsulting.com
ISSN 2151-0091

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved

March 19, 2012—Issue #130

This week’s focus point: The busiest restaurants I go to appeal to all ages. The iPad is so popular because both kids and their grandparents can use it easily and to great advantage. You see every kind of demographic at baseball, football, and basketball games. Blockbuster films, from “The Godfather” to “Titanic,” have universal appeal. Broaden your own appeal, to all kinds of customers and clients. Don’t focus on ridiculous generational labels, be they “X,” “Y,” “Boomer,” or “Greatest Generation.” First and foremost, we are all people and can be attracted through practical value and obvious improvement. Just watch all those varied people at the ballpark eating the same hot dogs while they follow scores on an app on their iPhones.

Monday Morning Perspective: It is much easier to recognize error than to find truth; the former lies on the surface, this is quite manageable. The latter resides in depth, and this quest is not everyone’s business. — Goethe

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Privacy statement: Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

Contact information: info@summitconsulting.com
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ISSN 2151-0091

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved

March 12, 2012—Issue #129

This week’s focus point: Almost every good intention, taken to extremes, has an invidious dimension that undermines us. Many people want to help others so much that they wind up in an extreme position, denying themselves, sacrificing their own objectives, surrendering their days and even their dreams. I call this a “propensity to help”: PTH. If you find yourself, advertently or inadvertently, constantly subsuming your own goals in order to please others, consider these remedies: 1. Remember the airlines’ oxygen mask rule. You have to put your own on first if you are to help others. 2. If people refuse to help themselves, it’s unlikely you can really help them. Coaching should never become codependency. 3. Say “no” with conviction. Ask yourself what the “musts” are in your life (e.g., family time) and never sacrifice them for others’ minor requests.

Monday Morning Perspective: They say that the seeds of what we will do are in all of us, but it always seemed to me that in those who make jokes in life the seeds are covered with better soil and with a higher grade of manure. — Ernest Hemingway (in “A Moveable Feast”)

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Privacy statement: Our subscriber lists are never rented, sold, or loaned to any other parties for any reason.

Contact information: info@summitconsulting.com
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ISSN 2151-0091

© Alan Weiss 2011. All rights reserved