This morning I stopped in to visit with the author of the recently published book, Quick Student Engagement Ideas for Busy Teachers.  Because of my background and interest in the study of pedagogics, the author, Russ Johnson, contacted me a couple times along the way simply to bounce ideas around and share interesting insights he encountered as he conducted extensive research to compile the great ideas found in his new book. 

In every aspect of life, change requires effort.  Part of the beauty of this book is that the ideas shared in it are packaged for simple application, so the effort required to begin to use these ideas is minimal.  Yet, there is a depth of application behind these introductions which allows and encourages long-term effort toward growth and change in teaching styles.  In case you haven't noticed, nearly all successful consumer-targeted gismos and gadgets are designed this way today - so why not a book too!  For example, my smartphone was easy to use when I got it three or four years ago, but I'm still learning new functionality even today.  The same is true for dashboards in vehicles, many appliances, software and apps, etc. 

Still, willingness is a key first ingredient for change, no matter the ease of adoption.  This, I share this warning for those who choose to get the book.  In the words of Michael Cross, Assistant Professor at Northern Essex, "Don't bother reading this book if you aren't willing to challenge your method of teaching.  But, if you want to engage your students and have a lot of fun in the process, then this is the book for you."

Happy teaching!  And, by-the-way, if you are a teacher, trainer or learner, please share a thought or two you've found helpful for livening up the learning process.

Luck and providence aside, nothing has a more pivotal impact on a businesses success than good strategic decisions.  What are good decisions made of?  Nothing can more effectively optimize the strategic decision making ability of a small business owner than knowing the market and their company's position in it. 

But, the devil is in the details - knowing the market means knowing suppliers, vendors, every aspect of your product or of the end product of which yours is a part, and on and on.  Also obviously important is an intimate knowledge of competitors and of the multifaceted (and in many cases, continuously evolving) customer issues, such as who they are, where they're located, their purchase motivation, timing and process, their perceptions and priorities with regard to the product and its utility, and so forth. Sometimes I refer to all of this as "watching the horizon."  What's out there? What is your environment like? How is it changing?

Unfortunately, it isn't as simple as just looking through binoculars to see the horizon. Also unfortunate is that fact that many small business owners don't take the time to actually do this.  Instead they seem to see the landscape only as it passes under their feet as a hundred-mile-an-hour blur as their business careens in whatever unorchestrated direction they happen to be going with their head down working IN the business instead of working ON their business.

Contrast this with the story of YKK.  If you are wearing clothing right now - and if one of the articles you are dawning has a zipper, check it and see if it doesn't have these letters stamped on the zipper pull.  Go ahead - do it right now!  Odds are very good you'll find YKK on your zipper because YKK manufactures most of the zippers in the world - more than 7,000,000,000 - yes, billion with a B, (between 60-90% of all zippers depending on whose numbers you believe).

How is it possible that in an industry as old as fasteners, one company can have that kind of market share for zippers?  Simply because Tadao Yoshida, founder of YKK, watched the horizon and acted accordingly.  He knew exactly what would position a zipper manufacturer in first place and what it would take to maintain that market share.

Although I realize my summary here will be a drastic oversimplification, here's what it boils down to.  One bad zipper, ruins an entire garment!  Let's assume a zipper costs 35 cents for YKK to produce.  Now, shift gears to YKK's customer - a clothing manufacturer making a $90 dress - which they spend about $30 - $40 manufacturing.  There's little chance they'll go with the 5 cent cheaper zipper without regard to quality.  It makes no sense even if that article of clothing is only one fourth the cost and price of the dress in our example. 

For 90% of apparel manufacturers in the world, quality and dependability reign supreme when it comes to the zipper because the zipper renders the overall product 100% useless when it fails, yet costs only a fraction of a percent of the price of the overall materials going into the product.

Mr. Yoshida understood the market and his desired position in that market - then he acted daily to ensure his company maintained a posture that leveraged this knowledge in order to obtain and keep the desired position in the market.  Here's a list of other examples of how YKK has done this:

• Yoshida innovatively designed better and better zipper making machines (proprietary and well-protected from competitor knowledge).
• Over time he brought nearly every aspect of the process for making zippers in house: According to a Los Angeles Times article on the company, “YKK smelts its own brass, concocts its own polyester, spins and twists its own thread, weaves and color-dyes cloth for its zipper tapes, forges and molds its scooped zipper teeth, extrudes the monofilament for coil zippers, hammers and paints the sliders, ... [and a bunch of other stuff - concluding with] ... fabricates the cardboard boxes in which zippers are packaged.”
• Not only does YKK make their zipper making machines, they make the machines that make the components referenced above. 

This type of vertical integration helps ensure complete control of their highest market-position-critical priority - consistent high quality (as well as other important aspects like cost and speed). 

I'm currently working with a rapidly growing company who is feeling their way into an amazingly similar situation to that of YKK.  As a strategic research team leader for the National Center for Economic Gardening, I'm pleased to see the strategic research team helping this company with valuable information to really understand the market and their place in it.  But, even for companies for whom their product situation or business models are vastly different from YKK's, the lesson is the same:

1. Know your market (ALWAYS - that means keeping your eye on the horizon).
   
2. Determine the position you seek in that market.
3. Identify the top key factors that would uniquely qualify your company to obtain and maintain that position.
4. Then, act on it - relentlessly.
   

So, how do you (or will you) keep eye on the horizon?  Please share your thoughts!

I recently facilitated a Project Management Essentials training for FranklinCovey.  I was impressed by how engaged the clients were in the part of the program that dealt with "people issues."  For most of us, when we hear the words "project management" we see a picture of items on a Gantt chart - tasks, dates, deadlines, etc.  But, the reality is, that this part of project management -- the process part -- is really only half of the equation for success. 

The Project Management Essentials program, which was developed in close cooperation with the Project Management Institute, rests on the foundational idea that PEOPLE + PROCESSES = SUCCESS.  Often we neglect the preliminary work of understanding the stakeholders and effectively communicating as we wrap our process components (think gantt chart) around the project at hand. 

So, what do effective project managers do on the "people" side of things?  Four simple guidelines (FranklinCovey refers to them as Foundational Behaviors):

• Demonstrate Respect
• Listen First
• Clarify Expectations
• Practice Accountability

Yes, they sound like common sense, but as we dissected actual projects we found out just how often these foundational behaviors are conspicuously absent.  What has been your experience with these foundational behaviors?  Have you worked on projects where the manager made particularly good use of them?

I recently finished teaching another course in leadership and management from FranklinCovey.  As always, teaching the fifth of Dr. Covey's famed seven habits was very interesting.  Habit five simply states, "Seek first to understand, then to be understood."

When I teach this section, I sometimes ask, "how many of you have ever taken some sort of a class on speaking?"  Typically, many people raise their hands, they've taken a speech class, debate class, etc. or had some sort of training in giving a presentation or speaking.  Then, I ask how many have ever taken a class in listening.  Very few people raise there hand. 

As it turns out, it seems to be human nature to spend a great deal or our energy trying to get others to understand us - often at the expense of listening to really understand another.  Dr. Covey often said, "One of the deepest needs of the human soul is to be understood."  Little wonder then, that we generally aren't as good at listening to understand as we are at listening to respond.  Nor is it any wonder that we typically do habit five in the wrong order - insisting on working from our point of view first, and perhaps secondarily seeking the other's perspective.

So, I found this article from the Harvard Business Review, What To Do When You've Made Someone Angry, to be very instructive.  This brief, easy-reading article provides some simple examples to which all can relate.  So, to you I extend a challenge - read the article, then apply it. In other words, give it a try.  (Just for clarification - I mean try it if you ever have occasion to find that you've upset someone else... don't go out and tick someone off, just to try this.) When you do so, you will be experiencing the essence of habit five because you'll be - first and foremost - acknowledging things from the other person's perspective. 

I have found this practical application in empathizing exceptionally effective.  Share your experiences - I'd love to hear about them.

If you are a one-person shop and your business feels like it's out of control, you are not alone.  Here are a few "watch out" items for you, depending on what type of person you are.  They are based on the idea that certain temperaments in people lead those people, be adept at and thus focus on certain activities - sometimes at the exclusion of other types of activities.

• If you love accounting - WATCH OUT for marketing.  Outsource it or make a conscientious effort to focus on and improve your efforts at marketing.
• If you are good at marketing - WATCH OUT that your books aren't a mess. 
• If you tend to take action quickly - WATCH OUT for big-picture thinking.  In other words, make time to understand the overall strategy and possible long-term implications of your current business activities.
• If you are good at strategy - WATCH OUT for the details.  Come up with a good way to make yourself follow-though on the day-to-day operations.

No, it isn't rocket science.  Bigger corporations handle this by hiring those with temperament and training well suited for each type of activity to handle each respective type of activity.  Micro-enterprises may deal with this by outsourcing.  But, if you are wearing all the hats (yet only have one type of temperament) then these WATCH OUT''s may help.

There is an additional WATCH OUT, regarding this concept of one's temperament.  Chris Gibbons, commonly known as the father of Economic Gardening concept, sums it up this way, "If you hire people like yourself, your company strengths will get stronger, and your company weaknesses will get weaker."

Managing means directing. Leading frees up those you oversee to perform to their highest ability (and frees you up to stop “managing” them). In the long run, leading employees is less stressful and more effective than “managing” them.

The Leading EDGE refers so a model for great leadership. EDGE is an acronym for each of the four basic components of the model. The beauty of this model lies in the fact that it is so simple and easy to incorporate with a bit of forethought. Here it is:

E – Explain
D – Demonstrate
G – Guide
E – Empower

After explaining what needs to be done, demonstrate how it is to be done. Then, let them do it as you guide. This process teaches and instills confidence. Then, provide resources and authority to the individual to go forward applying what they have learned, this is empowerment. Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, Empower. Simple. Effective. Try it today.  (Or, if you’ve got a boss who needs this advice, forward this to them!)

As a counselor for the Utah Small Business Development Center network, I work with many family businesses.  So, when the following “top ten list” it caught my attention.  Lucy Meyring, who operates the Meyring Livestock Co., a fifth generation ranch in Colorado’s North Park, says that there are 10 main things that family members do to break up the family business.

Here they are:

1. Assume all genetic relationships equal good working relationships.
2. Believe the business can financially support any and all family members who want to join.
3. Assume everyone involved is willing to make changes.
4. Presume that a conversation is a contract.
5. Believe that mind reading is an acceptable form of communication.
6. Fail to build communication skills and business/family meeting tools when times are good.
7. Ignore the in-laws, off-site family and employees.
8. Forget to use common courtesy.
9. Have no discussion about, and no legal management transfer plan or buy-sell agreement.
10. Fail to celebrate.

Now, how about the things functional family businesses (as opposed to dysfunctional family businesses) do to succeed!  We can see from the list above what to do if we want to fail… please share your comments below about keys to family business success!

This fall, Snow College's VP for Academic Affairs asked me to serve as a member of the college's Mission Fulfillment Team.  This group is charged with helping the college see how well they are doing toward achieving their mission and advising on ideas for improvement.

It caused me to reflect on the simple, yet crucial, concepts taught in the book, The 4 Disciplines of Execution.  These four items apply to an organization and are a bit less granular than the keys to individual performance as mentioned in my blog posting of a few months ago titled, Let Them Manage Themselves. It may seem overly simple, but for an organization, there are really just four basic “to do’s” for good execution in a business or team. 

1. Everyone in the organization must know the goal. 
   
2. They must know what to do to achieve the goal. 
   
3. You’ve got to keep score.  In other words, constantly make sure everyone knows how they and the organization are doing.  This information should be timely. 
   
4. All must be held accountable, consistently.

Here are a few additional tips for making each of these four keys work well:

One key to the first item is involving everyone in the goal-setting process.  Engagement creates buy-in.

A key to the second item is simplicity.  Keep it simple.  Also, strategically, you should realized that “what to do to achieve the goal” may change depending upon trends and changes that affect your organization and its situation.  So, be sure you have a means of watching for leading indicators that may help you spot changes on the horizon so you can adjust as needed.

The key to the third item is relevancy, followed by timeliness and accuracy.

The key to accountability is ensuring everyone is very clear on expectations – which should have been established together.  Then, be consistent in holding everyone involved accountable equitably.

If you have insights that would provide additional help in applying these four basic principles please share them by commenting below.  I would love to hear them, and I'm sure other blog readers would too.  Here's to great execution!

This week I had lunch with David and Krystal Hall of Cellular Health Innovations.  David is the internationally-successful entrepreneur behind the Cellerciser® which is the product he introduced several years ago to revolutionize the mini-trampoline industry.  Before lunch, David presented for an auditorium of entrepreneurs-in-the-making.  They heard his words of wisdom on what it means to be successful, but what they may not have realized is that they, simply by observing David's presentation, were receiving a primer in salesmanship from a master in the art.

For several years I worked at a Ford and Mercury automobile dealership - beginning as their an assistant sales manager and concluding as their director of marketing.  I learned the skills of selling.  One day, while sitting in a room full of "car salesman" receiving training on how to "sell better" something clicked and I suddenly realized the difference between conning and selling.  A good salesperson believes in what they are selling so genuinely that when they communicate it effectively, you contract their belief and, if the price is right, you make the purchase.  A con artist on the other hand, says anything to convince you to buy - whether they believe in the product or not.

In a list of "keys" to being a master salesperson, the very first is to truly believe in your product.  David reminded me of that.  Other skills then follow, mastery of which David demonstrated by his presentation:  Know your product inside and out, know your audiences' interests and needs, lay a foundation of trust, set up the problem, explain the solution, demonstrate the solution effectively, engage the potential buyer, etc.

But, what of this "success" about which he set out to speak?  Here are two thoughts he shared that sum it up:

• Success isn't so much what you achieve, its who you become in the process.
• Persistence overcomes resistance!

I would love to have you share a comment.  Have you observed someone's persistence pay off and been inspired by it?  Share with us!

In an attempt directed at securing the college-age market Coca-Cola partnered with a group of engineering students and a couple of YouTube stars to produce this online video.  It’s a nice case study on viral marketing by design.  While some viral pieces just happen by accident, there really is a science (and an art) to making it happen (as opposed to just hoping).

Here are a few tips to make viral happen for you:

• Consider the market you wish to hit, then gear everything around it (topic, contacts, medium, etc.)
• Irresistible!  If others find the urge to share it irresistible, you've got it made!  Without this, you don't have viral.
  
• Crowdsource - tap into the creativity of the masses
• Jumpstart it all with high-octane social media contacts.  Coke used Justine Ezarik (iJustine) and Josh Chomik (TheComputerNerd01).
• The message must get through - your brand, slogan, etc. "Share a coke" does that.

The students built an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine , including Coke’s polar bears, Pac-Man, a double rainbow, etc.  After two days of construction, they invite other students (who were, at the time, in the middle of final exams) to the big unveiling.  Even though they had a bit of corporate help, it’s still a fun project - and the whole thing kept the "student project" feel.  I understand there were 12 engineering students from Harvey Mudd and CalTech.  This is important, because its not just another commercial, it's a cool project students will share - voila, its viral!

After watching the video, please leave a comment to share some of your favorite viral pieces.