Category Archives: Technology

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Preserving Core Competencies: At GE, Everything Old is New Again

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A few weeks ago, this blog looked at Kodak’s counterintuitive entry at the Consumer Electronics Show, featuring its return to the Super8 movie camera. Film, really? Yes. Kodak represents a perfect case for retaining your core competencies because you just never know when film will make a comeback.

Today, an article in strategy+business makes a similar point as it traces GE’s headquarters move to tech hub Boston from its former home at 30Rock in Manhattan. GE had planted its headquarters in Manhattan due to its acquisition of NBC Universal and the growth of its financial division, GE Capital.

The strategy+business article  makes the point that GE’s pivot to Boston is responding to two things:

  1. a change in focus and
  2. a change in the workforce.

The new technology workforce it wants to attract are centered in hubs like Boston, and the young engineers and researchers want to live an Uber-friendly urban lifestyle. The article summarizes this point in its last two sentences where it describes a GE advertisement:

Owen, a young, skinny, apartment-dwelling software professional, tell[s] his surprised friends and family that he is going to work for GE; instead of working on apps, he’ll be working on trains and planes and engines. You can be sure that Owen would much rather take the T to work in an open-plan office at the Boston Seaport than fight traffic to get to an isolated campus off the Merritt Parkway.

But the more salient point for our purpose here is that GE’s change in focus is a return to its core competency as a pioneer in engineering and research. The writer, s+b executive editor Daniel Gross, discusses touring plants in Schenectady featuring 3D printing, in South Carolina building turbine engines and in North Carolina building jet engines.

GE’s new focus is just a return to its primary purpose, harkening back to a time when it built the large turbines that drove hydroelectric plants and helped put the first man in orbit building rockets at Cape Canaveral. I just wrote a book for a former GE executive Elmer D. Gates who sadly passed away in December, only three weeks after his book signing. In his book, U-Turn Leadership  , he describes his 30-year career leading GE divisions as a manager with an engineering background and being part of those efforts that built modern industry.

GE’s move to a tech hub to attract talent from the research universities in Boston is really a return to its core competency. GE is coming home to engineering from its foray into the entertainment and financial industries. The article in strategy+business is just another reminder to retain your core competencies. Especially if you want to blaze trails into the future by continuing to engineer solutions that catapult human beings into space.

An organization is not, like an animal, an end in itself, and successful by the mere act of perpetuating the species. An organization is an organ of society and fulfills itself by the contribution it makes to the outside environment.– Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive

 

What is your company’s most valuable contribution to society and how might you perpetuate it?

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Can You Buy Your Company’s Core Competencies?

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I can make this my shortest blog. The answer to this question is:

Sort of. But not really.

However, you don’t pay me the big bucks to give you five small words and no long-winded explanation to accompany it. So, here’s your money’s worth :)

You Can Buy Talent

You can buy people who know how to perform the functions within your organization. Colleges and technical schools turn out people every day who have up-to-date knowledge. Other companies have people you can hire away from them. They can write code for you in the most popular programming languages. They know the tax laws.

Here’s the problem. You can hire people who can write code, but they don’t know the history of your particular needs and why your code was written as it was. They won’t know why you included certain fields and chose to delete others. They won’t understand the rationale behind your drop-down menus.

Tax attorneys and accountants know the latest tax laws. However, they may not understand your industry, your business structure and how your particular situation affects the way you report and file.

When you are capturing internal knowledge, you are capturing the details of what makes your company tick, and the design and quality that makes your products valuable in the marketplace. You can only get that kind of information from the subject matter experts who have expertise in your organization. Your SMEs know who to call, and which button to push to make your unique machine operate. If you don’t ask your internal experts now, you won’t know about it until the machine breaks down and they aren’t around to tell you. Or when the IRS comes calling.

You Can Buy Training

You might decide that if you lose your internal experts, you can always buy training. That is partially correct. You can always buy training, but you may not be able to buy the training you need. If you hire a generalist training company, you will get general training. An outside firm can teach you skills like project management. Or they can come in and write customized training for your needs. If you hire a company to come in and write customized training programs, they still need to talk to your internal experts and the problem becomes a self-perpetuating loop.

You Can’t Buy What Makes You Unique

Your internal trainers are all about you. Your internal trainers know your business. The key is to make sure they are able to do what you need them to do. They need budget and they need bandwidth to help you capture and preserve the knowledge and skills that make your customers keep coming back.

Internal trainers become experts-by-association. For that reason alone, internal training isn’t a nice-to-have and first-to-go when you are cutting back. Your internal trainers, and by extension all the mentors and experts you have internally who train new hires and people moving up, are the lifeblood of your organization.

The C-suite needs to be working with the training department to make sure that the current business is well-understood and well-mapped, and that future products and markets are in their line of sight. Training is about equipping your most valuable asset, your people, to maximize the profitability of your company, and that calls for ongoing alignment between the strategists and those required to execute the plan.

You may be able to buy smart people and good training on an as-needed basis, but you can’t buy your internal culture and company-specific knowledge off-the-shelf.

Does your C-Suite align with the training department?

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Your Organization’s Kodak Moment: Preserving Your Legacy

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The Consumer Electronic Show, CES to you tech junkies, featured acres of new tech toys at its annual convention last week. One car company, Faraday Future, even displayed a concept car that would make the Batmobile jealous. Amid all these Back-to-the-Future goodies, Kodak had the audacity to feature its Super 8 movie camera as its next great product release.

Here’s an excerpt from an article from eWeek, 10 Innovative Tech Products Grabbing Attention at CES 2016.

Kodak Wants to Turn Back the Clock With Its Super 8 Camera

Kodak wants to prove that old film camera really isn’t dead. The photographic products maker shocked CES with the announcement that it’s reviving its Super 8 camera, first released in the mid-1960s, for the digital age. Early reports suggest Kodak will launch the camera later this year in limited quantities. The Super 8 shoots video on 8-millimeter photographic film. Owners then have two options: ship out the film to Kodak so it can be developed for viewing on a film projector or have it converted to digital format. Either way, it’s nice to see Kodak’s determination to keep film alive.

Kodak is being at least counterintuitive here, if not downright stubborn. Kodak’s name was synonymous with film and cameras for most of the 20th Century and, by darn it, plans to carry that legacy into the 21st. This move is an object lesson in finding your internal subject matter experts, and making sure you don’t lose your core competencies. You never know when film will make a big comeback, and you will have lost your first mover advantage, even if that first move is 70 years old.

Kodak as the Poster Child for Innovation #Fail

In business management and tech circles, it is often said that Kodak lost its edge in photography due to its failure to recognize two things

  1. The pace and direction of technological change, in this case the potential for digital photography and the speed at which the new technology was advancing, and
  2. The business it was really in, which was capturing memories, not camera, film and chemicals.

When you are looking around your organization and thinking about what knowledge needs to be preserved, think big and think outside the proverbial box. Don’t assume that you can read the tea leaves regarding either the pace of change, the direction the change will take, or the ongoing need for your goods and services despite changes in your market.

One More Case in Point, and a Plug for a Relative’s Product

Film might not only be the medium that has more staying power than the futurists give it credit. Think about vinyl records. For those of you under 40, that was the way people bought music and listened to it at home before CDs and downloads.

Vinyl records are being pressed and sold again. It’s a cottage industry, mostly, but one that is gaining a new audience. Musicians and bands are turning to “pressing vinyl” again as a cool retro move. This has even spawned a business for turntables again. Take my cousin Lance, for example. His band NO BS! Brass just released its latest funky cool jazz record on vinyl. Here’s the link and shameless plug.

Whatever business you are in, you might think that the world is changing so quickly that you will soon be looking at your customers in the rear view mirror. Not necessarily. Look at technologies that you think are passe, but in the bigger picture will always have a place with small, niche markets, rebuilders, and collectors.

Preserve your core competencies. You never know when the gramophone will make its comeback.

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How To Run A Successful Coaching Business from Home: Life Beyond The Cubicle

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This is reposted from Evercoach and ran on November 18, 2015. Check it out here with the cool layout and more graphics. Thank you to Ajit Nawalkha and the team at Evercoach.

 

Did corporate mergers and acquisitions leave you out in the world to fend for yourself? That’s great!

You’ve already got the personal discipline and structure to succeed on your own.

Coaches and consultants fresh from inside a large organization have a lot to offer new clients. You have a depth of experience and knowledge that only your years in the hallowed halls of a corporate enterprise can provide.

This could be the start of something big.

At first, you might find the cubicle-less-ness of your world gives you a feeling of freedom that is more illusory than real. If a large company isn’t imposing a schedule on you, you need to do it for yourself to realize your full potential.

As a self-employed businesswoman, I have been able to garden when the weather is lovely on Tuesday at 10 a.m., take walks at 2:30 in the afternoon just to stretch and enjoy the sunshine, attend school functions in the middle of the day to see my son perform in a toga, go to a yoga class two mornings a week and even disappear for long weekends. So, I’m here to tell you that yes, it’s possible to work from Maui and enjoy the view of the beach as long as you remember you are running a business to pay for it.

Here are 10 tips for running a coaching business from home that separate the pros from the posers:

Set aside dedicated office space

Make this space every bit as free from personal artifacts as your corporate cubicle. Pics of the spouse and kids are okay, but put the toy box in another room.

The sooner you can get out of the corner of your bedroom and into a professional room of your own, the better. You can write off your home office space as long as you aren’t using a desk and computer that you share with your kids in the family room; talk to your accountant.

Update your equipment and software

You are your own tech department now.

Make sure you are running the programs and have the applications that your customers and clients are using. You don’t want to be frivolous with your spending during your startup, but this is a very good place to be investing your limited funds in your home business.

Consider upgrades as an ongoing business expense. Again, this is the cost of doing business so keep receipts for your accountant.

Make a daily schedule and stick to it 

Block out a big, uninterrupted chunk of time each day to do your most demanding and important work.

Then limit emails to a specific time slot and don’t get sucked into all-day IM sessions with your besties.

Get dressed for work

Nothing elaborate here. You can leave grandma’s diamond earrings in their box, but go to the trouble to put on a clean shirt and jeans in the spirit of dress-down Friday.

It affects your attitude and reminds you that you aren’t on vacation.

Your office should be a no-jammie zone to keep your head in the game. (Although I’ll admit I’ve reported to work sick or exhausted in my jammies a few times!)

Close the office door at the end of the day

Take time to enjoy uninterrupted family dinnertime or personal time.

Physically closing a door defines a mental boundary, too. So shut the door and mentally punch out when your work is through.

Network locally

There’s nothing like human contact to keep you grounded.

Regularly get out of your home office and stay connected to other professionals. If you work by yourself, make sure you network so you can look into some else’s eyeballs occasionally and to stay current with trends and best practices.

Take a class. Join a local professional organization. Regularly schedule networking time with colleagues.

Connect online

Attend professional webinars to stay current in your field.

Join LinkedIn groups or professional forums related to coaching. Connect and learn from other professionals by participating in masterminds.

The opportunity to learn from other coaches and trainers at the top of their game has never been easier. Take full advantage of it.

Hire caregivers

Hire a babysitter if you are responsible for young kids during the workday. This reminds you that you are at work and earning a living, especially when paying for child care. Extend this to caring for very ill family members.

As a client, there is nothing more annoying than realizing that the attention, care and time that you are paying for is divided between you and a three year old who wants more Cheerios.

Be flexible

You may have to work 24/7 in the global economy. Restricting your day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in your time zone is probably unrealistic if you need to respond to a client five time zones away.

In the global economy “it’s 5 o’clock somewhere”.

This rule isn’t in conflict with Rule #5, but an expansion of it. Rules and boundaries are good for keeping yourself on a schedule, but adjusting to your clients’ needs is even better.

I’ve trained online classes with a German company from my home office in the Eastern U.S. and it required some flexibility on my part. I’ve also facilitated classes in a nursing home at midnight because the third shift deserves stress management skills as much- or more!- as day shift. It doesn’t happen every day, but my business calls on me to meet the needs of a global 24/7 workforce.

Pay for professional services

Make a few wise investments in your business by paying for accounting and legal services.

Accountants and lawyers understand tax rules and good contract language for agreements. In many cases, you will only use their services a few times or once a year, but it is money well spent.

A good accountant who specializes in small business can tell you about important tax write-offs and help you make good decisions about whether to buy or lease equipment, the best allocation of retirement savings and other advice that will save you far more than you spend. A lawyer can help you write good contract language for getting paid and for defining your relationships with your clients.

Starting your own successful coaching business takes discipline and time to transition from a conventional job. However, with a little planning you will find that it is worth the effort to put some rules and structure around your new enterprise.

When you establish a few boundaries, your personal life will benefit from the freedom you have on your time off, and your clients will benefit from your undivided attention during your working hours.

 

 

 

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Why Subject Matter Expertise is So Important Today

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When I started thinking about the effect of subject matter experts on the training process about two years ago, I wrote a book because I couldn’t find one. The book was based on my own experiences capturing expertise for training programs – and other materials such as white papers, articles and books – for two decades. As soon as I shared my thoughts, people from the training world, the marketing world and experts themselves started to step forward to share their thoughts and questions.

These blogs have mostly been responses to the questions and discussions that are happening as a result of that initial public inquiry. In fact, it appears that the subject of subject matter experts is coming into its own for, I think, several reasons:

  1. A lot of expertise is leaving the workplace as the last waves of the post-World War II industrial boomers retire, so there is an urgent incentive to capture what they know.
  2. The technology exists for subject matter expertise to be captured by the SMEs themselves, putting a new slant on what to capture and how to capture it for knowledge transfer within organizations.
  3. We have a lot more expertise running around the world. The exponential growth of knowledge means you can never know all there is to know about a single subject, and so expertise is becoming more laser focused on very fine niches.

Knowledge on Subject Matter Expertise was Sparse

I recently ran into a colleague who wrote his PhD thesis partially on how to develop expertise among novices on a very critical issue in pharmaceutical product handling. In writing the paper, he researched the nature of expertise and how it is acquired, and he shared some of that with me. What I found most striking is the relative dearth of research into this subject until now.

Some research taught us a few things about expertise. Two of the most striking and important findings for knowledge transfer that are relevant for industry came out of studies in the 1980s and 90s. One study concluded that it takes about 10 years of exposure to a job to become an expert. Another is that an expert is considers about 50,000 “chunks” of information simultaneously when they are thinking about a problem.

Why Subject Matter Expertise is So Important Today

Those findings are important because:

The value of apprenticeships and mentorships in preserving critical organizational knowledge is imperative to transfer important tasks, skills and knowledge in an unbroken line from people who know more than they can ever express, and

Training on your critical processes and procedures can’t start soon enough or be intense enough to be able to get novices up the learning curve as quickly as you’ll need them.

Knowledge capture, apprenticeships, internships and mentorships on your core critical processes and procedures are the lifeblood of your organization. Even, and especially if, you expect that technology and cultural change will cause radical shifts in your business, you need to be capturing critical organizational knowledge before it walks out the door.

Training is like the saying about the best time to plant a tree. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time is today.

 

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Now Available: Finding Your SMEs Workshops

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The Value, Scarcity and Difficulty of Working with Subject Matter Experts

Last week, I had the pleasure of presenting Working with SMEs to a group of subject matter experts at the inaugural AGXPE conference attended by compliance and regulatory folks from the biopharmaceutical industry. Nothing is more fun or educational than playing with colleagues and sharing info.

Kudos to John Lewis of Merck, Ken Petelinkar of BMS and Tammy Cullen of Lilly for pulling off a great event. Next year’s show is already being planned. Check them out and join the group at http://agxpe.wildapricot.org/ At present, membership is free.

I attended the conference as a vendor but abandoned my post for most of the conference so I could hear what other people have to say about some of my favorite topics – quality, leadership and training needs analysis.

Despite all that, I learned a lot in my own session because I gave out evaluations in which I confirmed some things and gathered some valuable intelligence. I confirmed that SMEs have inestimable value to their organizations (obvious), SMEs can be scarce when you need them and they can be notoriously difficult to work with for any number of reasons, most often because they are in high demand and stretched thin.

Now, about the results of my intelligence gathering. I violated several rules of presenting by trying to stuff 10 pounds of feed in a five pound sack and did a bait-and-switch because the last third of my session was market research.

However, here’s what that little foray into no-no land netted:

  1. Some companies are talking to some SMEs and getting the info they need for organizational continuity. Some aren’t.
  2. Whether they are or they are not talking to the right SMEs and assembling their knowledge management plan, every respondent believed their company would benefit from a formal process to identify their internal SMEs.

That bit of confirmation means I am formally launching a Finding Your SMEs Workshop. The workshop is already developed and I am scheduling one local test case in suburban Philadelphia in the next few months. However, I would prefer to have at least 3 or 4 test cases. The pilots will help refine the Finding Your SMEs process and be presented as case studies in a book in development. The workshop and process can be adapted for any size enterprise and business size is one of the variables in the design.

Looking for More Test Pilots

For the foreseeable future, which means until I gather enough info to feel confident I’ve isolated most of the outlier issues, I am offering pilot half-day workshops for up to 20 people for a very low cost – basically enough to cover my expenses and keep the lights on while I do my research. I can reasonably do two workshops a month to spend enough time with each company. It would be great to have at least 3 or 4 company case studies before I publish the next book.

If you are interested in being one of the test sites, please write to me at workingwithsmes@gmail.com or respond to this email if you are reading this as part of my mailing list. If you aren’t on the mailing list, please sign up on the blog homepage.

Thank you for reading. Comments below are welcome!

 

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Talking Leadership Training to Entrepreneurs

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This blog post came out of a conversation today with business coach Hal Alpiar of BusinessWorks.US.  We were discussing the differences between coaching corporate leaders and startup entrepreneurs. I will be joining Hal in BusinessWorks.US to offer co-coaching that brings together our different backgrounds to help clients envision and realize startup success through many facets of business.

 

Many small businesses and startups today are run by former corporate managers. These entrepreneurs bring with them skills and attitudes from big business. This migration is occurring because the business world itself is scaling down from massive lumbering organizations and scaling up to small agile enterprises. Opportunities are in the world of small, nimble businesses.
 

In the entrepreneurial world of startups, all parts of the business process are accelerated and much easier to execute than they were even 10 years ago. The Internet of Everything makes starting and running a business streamlined. Even big, gawky manufacturing, production and logistics have a cleaner line directly to the customer.

Most business processes translate well into the new agile and transparent business environment. However, agile and transparent are not the same thing as quick and easy. A small, agile successful business still requires the same strong business principles and leadership skills of the long path. The people skills and rational decision making behind steering a business don’t lend themselves to short cuts.

Entrepreneurs especially may be susceptible to looking for the streamlined path to leadership and corporate governance. They are focused on their baby. They love the product or service they are developing. They seek sales, not markets. When you are the midst of working in overdrive, obsessed with your creation and trying to make your first few sales, is the most difficult time to step back and look at the longer road.

From Corporate Management to Small Business Leadership

That focus on product development and sales is exactly what baby needs to be nurtured into a viable business.  To organize and sustain that business, though, means strengthening entrepreneurial leadership skills. A little support and hand-holding especially through the first year can help make a smooth transition from corporate management to small business leadership.

Here are some of the issues an entrepreneur faces:

  • When to hire someone and what to look for
  • How to manage a small, possibly virtual, workforce
  • Understanding the difference between cash flow and revenue, and how a shortage of one of those will sink you
  • Why staying close to your customers will help you define your markets
  • Sales, marketing, public relations and corporate communications – what’s necessary and what’s optional when you’re starting out
  • How to maintain a semblance of a personal and/or family life while obsessing over your baby

What are some other issues you can think of that make entrepreneurial leadership training and coaching different than corporate executive coaching?

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Learner Engagement Whenever, Wherever

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Some of the advantages of elearning, on-demand learning, asynchronous learning – whatever you call the ability to access learning at your convenience – are offset by some of the drawbacks such as the potential for learner disengagement during the virtual classroom experience.

Blending Online and Human Interaction for Max Impact

To make sure your learners get the most out of your elearning offerings, take a blended approach and give them credit for participating in virtual environments. Let them know you see them and make it worth their while to take advantage of online learning opportunities. Give recognition and encouragement liberally. Nobody wants to learn in a vacuum.

When computer-based learning first came on the scene, it was a popular bandwagon. After all, a pre-packaged elearning program is a great way to deliver consistent content to all learners on their own time at a relatively low cost per learner. Some online learning proponents predicted  the death of live classes. The rumors of its death were premature.

On-demand or asynchronous learning has earned its place in the training world and it’s irreplaceable. But the live class lives on. The nature of work and the workplace makes means people are accessing learning all the time and so asynchronous learning is needed.  In fact, elearning just makes good sense.  Like other learning modalities, acquisition of knowledge via elearning programs is still best aided by the human factors of getting feedback, asking questions, and having personal support.

Support At All Points Along the Learning Continuum

In light of the importance of the personal interactions, the best uses of elearning takes advantage of its portability, and good program design puts supports around elearners so they have the human connection as well. Here are three ways to use your elearning platforms to maximize their impact:

  1. Pre-learning – As in the flipped classroom. Send information in the form of an audio or video webcast, or a more structured learning program, but deliver this new pre-packaged online information to the student before your live class to enrich the interpersonal learning.
  2. The core experience – Deliver information rich learning in the form of well-crafted elearning modules that are designed around learning objectives, test appropriately at intervals to reinforce learning, and use interactive case studies that demonstrate integration of concepts. Support the online learning program with some flexible human interaction through occasional emails to check in with learners, an online moderated forum discussion platform or a live Q&A with instructors.
  3. Learning support – After a live class, you can support ongoing retention and growth by using a smartphone or tablet-based mobile learning platform to push information to students after the event. Use flexible mlearning platforms to ask your learners questions and gather their input. Push reminders in the forms of small chunks of information. Send a link to a video, audio or pdf with additional information to continue their growth. The goal is to use online individually-controlled and -accessed mini learning events to support your live classroom material.

Ongoing, lifelong, adult learning requires learners to take responsibility for their own growth. You can, however, support their efforts by making information easy to access and by making sure there is a human somewhere along the learning continuum to provide additional information and support.

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Tips for Choosing the Best Subject Matter Expert

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This post is one in a series that answers questions from viewers of the January 28 KnowledgeVision Google Hangout where we talked about the challenges of working with SMEs.

Question from Andrea:

What are tips for figuring out in advance what type of SME you will be working with i.e. before you sit down to interview them – so that we are better prepared (incl. equipment) to employ the right tactics?

 

I partially cover this in the book  but you bring in the idea about preparing to have the right equipment as well, which is a good aspect to think about.

When you are designing a training program with the stakeholders, they usually have an idea of the type of person or, even more commonly, the exact person they would like you to work with. It is a good idea to get that in writing when you are doing a project charter, project scope document or putting together your project plan. That way you and your stakeholders know in advance the resources they are committing to the training.

If the customer asks your for suggestions, I would ask them for the person most familiar with the process, knowledge, information, skill AND who has the time to spend with you. Sometimes the person who is the most knowledgeable is also the person who is in most demand and so it really isn’t helpful if you can’t get their time!

It is good to define or name your SME in your project charter for any number of reasons, one of which is that if the SME cannot fulfill their obligation you have a description of the kind of person you need and can refer back to it.

Also, yes, you really bring up a good point about knowing the person so you can be prepared with the right equipment and tactics. I recommend to almost always capture your interview with an audio recording. If you have a particularly iconic SME who you might want to capture for posterity, try to get the video.

Use whatever tools are most comfortable for you when you are note taking.  Personally, I am comfortable taking handwritten notes, but some people are more comfortable typing. I have read that handwriting actually imprints the information on your brain in a way that typing does not, which is one reason I will often have learners physically write out parts of some exercises.

In any event, in my opinion, note taking and equipment are a matter of personal preference.