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12 10 Effective Ways Leaders Can Influence Others Through Nonverbal Communications - Joe Navarro

Are You a Victim of Phantom Vibration Syndrome? Martin Lindstrom

7 Ways to Outsmart Your Brain’s Wiring…and Become More Innovative - Stephen Shapiro

Culture Works: How Getting the Culture Right Enables Transformation and Big Results - Chester Elton

Why Innovation is a Big Deal. Peter Aceto

The Perfect Time to Get Creative is Now David Usher

Match Your Innovation Process to the Results You Want Vijay Govindarajan and Mark Sebell

Actionable Summary: The Power of Habit Jill Donahue

What It Really Takes to Succeed Jack and Suzy Welch

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26 32 48

The A-List

What Type of Value Are You Selling?

What’s More Important, The Sale Or Your Reputation?

Employee Engagement John Cardella

Your Kids Will Have a Worse Quality of Life Than You, Unless… - Terry Stuart

Live Lives

From Atoms to Bits to Atoms

What I Learned In Office Hours

Harnessing the Power of Habit: Q&A

The Role of Technology in Employee Engagement

Richard Robbins

Simon Sinek

Ron Tite Mitch Joel Cynthia A. Montgomery Charles Duhigg

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Mark Aboud

WINTER 2013 |

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editor Letter from the

The foundations of our lives are built through habits. Habits can be found everywhere. Naturally, they extend into the realm of business excellence. One of our speakers, Charles Duhigg, wrote a bestselling book about the important role habits play not only in each of our lives, but how they contribute to organizational success, and societal progress. We can quickly and simply leverage the power of habit to improve the way we execute. For example, those of us in sales can embrace the power of rituals to prime and revitalize themselves to persist further with cold calls, or adjust our own reactions to emotionally-testing situations to be more positive or proactive. These seemingly-minute tweaks can add up to huge changes. It’s also because of these habits that we can collaborate with our team mates and partners: we can predict their reactions to certain cues and plan accordingly. Even qualities can be developed through the power of habit. Courage is the ability to act in spite of fear. Essentially, it is a habit: instead of reacting to a fightor-flight response by running, courageous people choose to act consistently. They are comfortable with discomfort; pushing beyond their regular boundaries has become a routine. The strongest habits are the ones that win. If there’s a quality you want to develop, don’t wait to start building it: start today. What can you do by the end of the day to get the ball rolling on this new habit you’ve resolved to take on? The matter of fact is we are governed by our habits. Use this fact to your advantage: start weeding out some of the habits you wish you didn’t have. Break each one down to its cores: its cues, its routine, and its rewards. For example, do you get panicky at the thought of venturing to a conference alone? What happens when you feel anxious – do you check your phone and read e-mails while you stand by the wall? When you feel the jolt of nervousness, instead of retreating can you use this spark to advance and talk to the person nearest you? It’s nice to hover around the same place and try to find balance. It can be scary to push. However, I need to share a thought that we at The Art Of live by: it’s essential that you constantly move beyond where you are right now; you may fail spectacularly, which is far from the worst thing in the world. Or, you may succeed beyond your wildest dreams. Helping you succeed,

EDITOR Scott Kavanagh PUBLISHER Christopher Novais CREATIVE DIRECTOR Art Silveira CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Chester Elton, Cynthia Montgomery, David Usher, Jack Welch, Jill Donahue, Joe Navarro, John Cardella, Mark Aboud, Martin Lindstrom, Mitch Joel, Peter Aceto, Richard Robbins, Ron Tite, Simon Sinek, Sophie Woodrooffe, Stephen Shapiro, Terry Stuart, Vijay Govindarajan HOW TO REACH US The Art of Productions Inc. 46 Sherbourne Street , 3rd Floor Toronto, Ontario Canada M5A 2P7 ADVERTISING Ron Bester - Director, Business Development 416-479-9701 ext. 322 ron@theartof.com SUBSCRIPTIONS Visit www.theartof.com/magazine Email magazine@theartof.com Call 866-992-7863 (In U.S.A and Canada) Write to The Art of…, Subscription Services 46 Sherbourne Street, 3rd Floor, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 2P7 Our subscribers list is occasionally made available to carefully selected firms whose products or services may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive information from these firms, please let us know at privacy@theartof.com or send your request along with your mailing label to The Art of Productions Inc, 46 Sherbourne Street, 3rd Floor, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 2P7 PRINT PARTNER Dollco, The Lowe-Martin Group Printed in Canada. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement Number 42343517 ©2012 The Art Magazine is published quarterly by The Art of Productions Inc. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. No part of this publication may be used without written permission from the publisher. Subscription rate is $30.00 annually.

Scott Kavanagh, Editor scott@theartof.com

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EFFECTIVE ways LEADERS can INFLUENCE others through NONVERBAL COMMUNICATIONS BY

Joe Navarro

For eleven years now, since retiring from the FBI, I have been working with business executives from all over the world. My principal objective has been to share with them how nonverbal communications can be used to enhance interpersonal

communications

and

change perceptions. Along the way, I have also learned a lot from my exchanges with these executives, and their teams about the nonverbals of effective leadership. Here are ten characteristics that I found to be influential not just to peers, but perhaps more importantly, to those they lead:

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Visibility – Exceptional leaders are seen, not

just heard. Too many leaders today fail because they are too busy to be seen. They never leave their office to check in with their people. Some sadly even hide so that they don’t have to deal with others. Impressive and effective leaders at all levels recognize that it is the people of the organization that makes that organization successful. Being with them and among them inspires them. After all, many employees are faithfully there because of their loyalty to that executive or that leader. Being seen doesn’t need to have an agenda - a friendly hello is sometimes all that is needed. As one very successful CEO told me, “I don’t know why or how, but it really does energize the work force when I visit with them.”

Manners – When someone has bad manners

it overwhelms what we think of them. Manners are a form of nonverbal communication and when we are in the presence of a gracious host or a leader with good manners, it is attractive and rewarding. Good manners communicate a lot and when they are not present, their absence becomes the topic of conversation, not the other redeeming qualities or skills of the person. It takes little effort to exercise good manners; we are all appreciative of them, and in an instant we can impress and even inspire others when we utilize them.

Gaze - Eye contact that is

direct, engaging, and steady is highly endearing. Effective leaders engage others by making steady eye contact that is welcoming and which shows interest. One thing you hear about former president Bill Clinton from just about anybody that has met him is that he makes “great eye contact” and “makes you feel as though you are the only person there.” The most influential leaders engage the person they are talking to using their eyes to show interest and care, and they focus singularly on each person.

Space - Leaders command the space around them visually and physically. They engage everyone in a

room with their eyes and they physically interact, where possible, with all four corners of the room. In the second presidential debate of 2012, President Obama masterfully walked the stage from right to left, forward and back, commanding the theater of interaction. Influential leaders use their eyes and their physical presence to connect with the room. That means no hiding behind lecterns, using all of the stage, confidently moving around and using their eyes to personally communicate with everyone present.

Voice – Influential leaders have learned that a deeper resonating voice makes a big difference and the

research backs that up. We don’t like voices that are high and are more enticed by deeper voices. This is why broadcasters such as Tom Brokaw sound the way they do. It’s so important that in the past, actresses such as Lauren Bacall & other contract actors practiced screaming so they’d lose their natural voice for a lower sounding one. The best example of this was a young lady known early in her career as Maggie Roberts. Her voice was so high and shrill that one of her political opponents disparagingly said that he feared for migrating birds any time she spoke. Miss Roberts was smart enough to work on her voice, lowering it enough to make her more vocally appealing. She accomplished that and more becoming the longest serving Prime Minister in the UK, and of course, now we know her by her married name of Margaret H. Thatcher, nee Roberts.

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Gestures - The gestures of influential leaders are

broad, smooth, frequent, and dramatic. We want to see the hands of the leader as they articulate, emphasize and illustrate. We don’t want to see the hands behind the back or hidden behind a podium. Great leaders inspire with gestures as they communicate, using these nonverbals to potentiate their messages. Gestures are an effective tool that facilitate effective communications and which can be endearing when used effectively.

Touch – Even in this day and age influential leaders

employ touch. Not to harass or patronize and certainly not in a sexual way, but within the social norms of society that say, “I care.” The thoughtful and proper touch on the arm or the shoulder says you are important to me. Many leaders of industry can attest to the mentor or leader who, along the way, gave a comforting touch on the shoulder or the arm that communicated far more than mere words. Proper touch, be it through a handshake, an abrazo, or hand on the shoulder, communicates empathy and care on a level no words can

Smile –Benjamin Franklin, our first ambassador and

self-help guru, taught us the importance of a smile. Influential leaders don’t hesitate to smile and know the disarming power of a smile. They smile to be social, to compliment, to greet, to diffuse tension, and to acknowledge others. But their smile is one of pleasuare and confidence, not the smile of those that seek something, are anxious, or who fear. Smiling is not ancillary or anecdotal to an influential leaders repertoire - it is a basic requirement whose value cannot be overstated.

Speed

– Effective leaders act and move quickly because nothing communicates that you care more than acting swiftly. Those who delay taking action, who are slow, who take their time making tough decisions, or who procrastinate, are sending negative messages. Influential leaders move to action quickly because others are waiting their decision and nothing motivates or creates confidence more than a person acting expeditiously on our behalf.

Communicate – Great leaders communicate effectively both verbally and nonverbally. They use communications

to connect, to share, to focus, and to demonstrate they care. Failure to communicate is, after all, a failure. During times of uncertainty or crises, communication must be frequent and timely to keep everyone informed as well as to assuage. Words, as we all know, have consequences, and yet not all words have the same weight. There is no better example of this than President Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. His speech intended to unite a divided nation lasted just two minutes and 30 seconds, and yet that speech remains, to this day, breathtakingly memorable - brief, but powerful. The speaker that came before him had been specifically invited there because he was the greatest orator of his day. Edward Everett spoke for over two hours before Lincoln took the stage, and yet, nobody remembers one word of what he said.

Conclusion:

Influential leaders stand out because of the things that they do and say everyday. There are the specific habits of successful leaders and there are also the nonverbals of influential leaders that shouldn’t be ignored. Influence doesn’t cost money, but it does take effort. As Dr. John C. Maxwell put it, “Leadership is influence.” I could not have said it better.

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Joe Navarro is a 25-year career FBI Special Agent (Ret.) who

specialized in human behavior and nonverbal communications. He is the author of eleven books, including the international best sellers, What Every Body is Saying, and Louder Than Words, which The Wall Street Journal lauded as one of the top six business books to read for 2010. To contact him: www.jnforensics.com or follow on Twitter:@navarrotells Copyright © 2012

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VibAraVictim Are You Of t i o n n o i t a r b i V Phantom Syndrome? Vibrartiaotnioin n o t a r b Vi BY Martin

Lindstrom

That’s right--when you reach for your cell phone, though you are unprovoked by a beep or a hum, you are a slave of biology, and of our modern-day dependency on gadgets. You might laugh, but do you find yourself reaching for a vibrating phone in your pocket, only to discover that it’s not there? I’ve come across this so often that I’ve come to call it Phantom Vibration Syndrome. Think about it: How many times have you checked your phone today for messages, despite no sign or signal that there’s one waiting in the inbox? What’s going on in your brain that leads you to think that a message came through without you noticing it? Or, worse still, what makes you think that that the messages will somehow flow in faster if you check your phone more frequently? Some years ago I conducted a major research study on smoking. I wanted to find out if the simple act of observing a person smoking would be enough to encourage other smokers to smoke. To cut a long story short, the answer was a resounding “Yes.” Using fMRI we learned that something called Mirror Neurons are activated the moment a smoker sees another smoker lighting up. Mirror Neurons give credence to the old saying “Monkey See, Monkey Do.” It’s

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a built-in mechanism connected to the empathy emotion, and it partly explains the popularity of sports and pornography. Both activities take us beyond observation, because in our brains we’re actually participating. In the study on smoking, we learned that the Mirror Neurons would kick-start a chain reaction in the smoker’s brain, which would induce craving sensations. In other words, whenever smokers observe another smoking, there’s no opt-out because the tobacco user’s brain is hardwired to be seduced into lighting a cigarette. So, for example, when Leonardo DiCaprio lights up a cigarette on screen (he frequently smokes in his movies), it sadly has an enormous affect on those watching the film. You may ask, what on earth this all has to do with you and your phone? It’s probably the exact same brain reaction whenever we switch on our cell phone. Cast your mind back to the last time you spent casually chatting around a table with a group of friends. Think about what happens when one or another checks their messages. In a matter of moments, a few others in the group will feel around for their phones and check their screens too. If you were to ask them what prompted them to check at that particular moment, they’d have no idea. And, without any solid scientific evidence to back my claim, I’d venture to say it was caused by the activation of the Mirror Neurons. Monkey saw, and monkey did. Apart from habit, Phantom Vibration Syndrome is also about not being fully present. As much as we all believe we’re skilled multi-taskers, for the record, we’re not. Quite simply, we’re no longer fully present. By this I mean emotionally as opposed to physically. We think we are, we think we’re participating in the conversation, but in reality, we’re not. Recently, I met with a group of

interesting people. As the night progressed I noticed something missing: No one was checking his or her phone. They were listening and talking uninterrupted. There were no electronic beeps, and all eyes stayed focused on the task. And as our conversation stalled as we pondered a question, no one rushed to Google the answer on his or her smartphone. Instead we discussed, debated, and even argued, eventually finding our way to a resolution. It was a fascinating, and dare I say fun process that would have been totally bypassed if we had an iPhone or an iPad, or a BlackBerry at hand. This group of people is not unique. As I interview hundreds of kids all over the world, it has become clear that a growing number are rethinking the role of electronic connectivity in their lives. They see their parents’ dependency close up, and reject this 21st-century addiction to gadgets. They don’t want to take their BlackBerrys to bed, nor do they want to take a back seat to whatever electronic impulse interrupts their dinner. Who can blame a generation of Chinese kids

who see a special shelf for their cell phone beside the toilet? No kidding! So, the moment you realize that you’ve fallen victim to the Phantom Vibration Syndrome, you should be aware that it’s more than a pulsing sensation in the pocket. The risk is that you might find yourself checking your messages in response to someone doing the same, no longer fully present in the real world. Then again, you might ask yourself who cares if everyone else lives in the same virtual world alongside you?

Martin Lindstrom, Recipient of TIME Magazine’s “World’s 100 Most Influential People” in 2009. Author, Speaker, Advisor, and master Brand Builder, Martin Lindstrom has carved out an entirely unique niche as a global expert in the related fields of consumerism, marketing, brands, and of late, neuro-scientific research.

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Ways to Outsmart Your Brain’s Wiring… and Become More Innovative BY Stephen

Shapiro

You are alive today. You were alive yesterday. You were alive the day before that. This is good news from a survival perspective. Unfortunately it is bad news from an innovation perspective. Your brain is wired to keep you alive. Your brain makes the assumption that because you were alive yesterday, what you did previously is safe. Therefore repeating the past is good for survival. As a result, doing things differently, even if it seems like an improvement, is risky. Perpetuating past behaviors, from the brain’s reptilian perspective, is the safest way.

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This is why innovation is difficult for most individuals and organizations. Innovation is about change. It is about doing something different than you did previously. It is about trying something that you have not done before, and therefore may feel dangerous to your survival. How does this survival brain prevent innovation – and what can you do about it? Here are seven ways to outsmart your brain.

Challenge #1 The Brain Wants Pains Solved First: The brain is wired to minimize loss. We want to keep what we already have. Equally, we are not interested in something new, until we address our pains. The brain seeks preservation over pleasure. We want our pains solved before we are interested in gains. Solution: If you wish to be effective with others, recognize that people want their pains solved more than anything else. Therefore be the aspirin for their pains. Innovation is not just about creating something new and different. It should solve a problem that people have. Infomercials are effective at demonstrating this. Every one of their commercials shows why past solutions have not worked and how their product solves a common consumer pain.

Challenge #2 Expertise is the Enemy of Innovation: We build neural pathways to known solutions. What we know best (or in some cases have heard most recently) becomes our default answer. Unfortunately, once we find an answer to a problem, we stop looking for other possible solutions. As a result, the tried and true wins out and we get more of the same. Solution: 1) Keep looking. Although this sounds simple, don’t stop with the obvious answers. Keep pushing until you are out of ideas and then still push forward. 2) Look to others who have solved a similar problem in a different arena. Ask “Who else has solved a problem like this?” A whitening toothpaste was developed by studying how laundry detergent whitens clothes. A medical device manufacturer learned how angioplasty balloons expand and contract by studying car airbag deployment.

Challenge #3 The Brain Wants Solutions, Not Problems: In the world of business, we hear the expression, “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.” From a survival perspective this makes sense. When faced with the possibility of being eaten by a lion, we don’t want to study our navel. Action is critical. However in the world of innovation, the “problem” is actually more important. Solution: Ask better questions. Einstein reputedly said, “If I had an hour to save the world, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute finding solutions.” Asking the right question the right way is critical. This focuses everyone on what is important and helps provide useful constraints that accelerate the innovation process. Instead of asking for broad ideas such as how to increase revenues, first identify the specific growth opportunities, untapped markets, emerging trends, and current roadblocks. Then find solutions to those more focused challenges.

Challenge #4 The Brain Craves Commonality: Contrary to conventional wisdom, opposites do not attract. It is safer to be in a tribe of people who think the same way. Things get done quickly. It feels effortless. But the downside is that it thwarts innovation. Solution: Work with people who are not like you. Find people with different backgrounds, personality styles, and interests. Appreciate their contribution to you and your professional efforts. For example, I am someone who is disorganized and despises plans or planning. As a result, the first person I bring on to my team is a detail-oriented project manager who can ensure that I get everything done.

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Challenge #5 The Brain Sees What It Believes: The brain uses a pattern matching technique called “confirmation bias.” In a nutshell, it rejects anything that is inconsistent with your belief structure. This is why two people can listen to the same political candidate and hear completely different things. From an innovation perspective, this may have us get attached to certain ideas, despite evidence proving that they are probably duds. Solution: Avoid getting wed to your ideas by getting someone to play devil’s advocate. Any time you think to yourself, “Wow, this is a great idea,” get someone to poke holes in your logic. Don’t go to the same people for input. Seek out people who you suspect would reject the idea. Learn from them. Refine your solution based on numerous perspectives, not just your own biases.

Challenge #6 Your Brain Only Sees a Fraction of Reality: What you focus on expands, to the exclusion of everything else. The brain’s reticular activating system is designed to filter out 99.99% of the stimuli out there. This prevents the brain from being overwhelmed by information. Unfortunately, as a result, you miss out on opportunities because you cannot even see they are there. When you have a hammer, the entire world is a nail. When you are a technology expert, the solution to every problem involves software/hardware. Opportunities are limited to your frame of reference. Solution: Sometimes you need to purposefully retrain the brain. To expand your view, try new things. Attend conferences unrelated to your work. Read magazines from different industries. This is why I don’t read books on innovation, but instead read about neuroscience, psychology, and sports performance. This helps me see more of the world. And this allows you to find opportunities in places you might not otherwise look.

Challenge #7 The Brain Thinks Too Much: The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is the judgmental part of the brain. It is analytical and calculating. This is great for decision-making that requires logic. But it can kill innovation. When athletes choke, they are over thinking and constrict the neural pathways that allow access to their deeper capabilities. Solution: Quiet that part of the brain through meditation, yoga, showering, or any other relaxing activity. This allows you to gain access to the creative parts of your brain. Aristotle found his greatest breakthroughs while napping. When stressed and in traditional work-mode, it is harder to access your natural, creative abilities. One company found that they could speed up the development of new product ideas through meditation first thing in the morning.

The brain is incredibly powerful. And it does its job exceptionally well: perpetuate the species. It does this by ensuring the survival of the individual and the gene pool. Although this is of course valuable (if you were dead, you could not innovate) it does limit our ability to try new things. Perpetuating the past is the surest way to survive. But for organizations, doing what you did in the past is the fastest path to extinction. By knowing how your brain is wired, you can choose to both survive and thrive.

Stephen Shapiro is the author of “Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition” (selected as the best innovation and creativity book of 2011), “Personality Poker,” and “Goal-Free Living.” You can read over 600 articles on innovation, creativity and success at SteveShapiro.com

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CULTURE

WORKS How getting the culture right enables transformation and big results BY Chester

Elton

A few years ago we were asked to conduct a workshop at Crothall Healthcare. With thirty thousand employees, this is one of the largest and fastest-growing companies you’ve probably never heard of. They clean hospitals and transport patients. It’s not exactly sexy stuff, but every five years Crothall doubles in size. At less than twenty years old, they have annual revenues in excess of a billion dollars. We were halfway through our presentation to the senior leadership team, when the chief executive officer, Bobby Kutteh, made a mad dash for the door. CEOs are, after all, in demand. But less than thirty seconds elapsed before he returned, reached up to the stage, and handed us bottles of water. We’ve been doing this for a long time. Let us count for you the number of times this has happened before . . . zero. We appreciated the gesture and it made us think well of Kutteh, but the moment was bigger than that. The act was utterly symbolic of the kind of overall corporate culture that this CEO has created. This very successful hospital cleaning company is a humble, sincere, service-oriented environment—and that culture is reaping big returns. Kutteh has learned that if his culture works, then everything else works better. But the fact is there is still nowhere near enough emphasis on culture. And yet as counterintuitive as it may sound to some, the

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If it’s so excruciatingly hard to describe your culture, then you don’t have a great one. Culture isn’t invisible, indefinable. thing that can transform your company and help you achieve real results is rarely what you sell or how you package or promote it. You all look pretty similar to us consumers. Unless you’ve just invented the iPod of your industry, it’s likely that your competitors offer, more or less, the same things you do at about the same prices. The secret of moving a business forward is in getting your working population to differentiate you. It’s culture that enables transformation, plain and simple. Stephen Sadove, chairman and CEO of department store giant Saks Incorporated, said it’s culture that drives “whatever you are trying to accomplish within a company—innovation, execution, whatever it’s going to be. And that then drives results.” And yet if you’ve worked in enough jobs, you’ll know that cultures can vary dramatically. There are workplaces of outright dysfunction, of contention, of coasting, and even of backstabbing. We could go on, of course, describing the varieties. But the point is this, in the most profitable, productive, enduring cultures, people lock into a vision with conviction. They maintain excitement not out of fear but out of passion. They are cultures where people believe. And who has the biggest impact on a team or organizational culture? You. The manager. This is backed up by research by Towers Watson, which allowed us in our most recent book All In to publish the results of a major new study that showed the way the most profitable companies work—on the inside. From its global database collected during 2009 and 2010, Towers Watson identified 25 companies with 303,000 employees that enjoyed high-performance business results—organizations that outperformed their competitors in financial measures by as much as two and three times. The core finding was that in the highest-performing cultures, leaders not only create high levels of engagement— manifest in strong employee attachment to the company and a willingness to give extra effort—but they also create

environments that support productivity and performance, in which employees feel enabled. And finally, they help employees feel a greater sense of well-being and drive at work; in other words people feel energized. This triumvirate of engaged, enabled, and energized—was found in every highly profitable culture studied. It’s a unique combination that can boost any company, division, or small team to new heights.

I do what? When we share that finding, a lot of heads are nodding. Most managers understand the importance of such a positive culture. The problem is, few have any notion of how to create such an environment in their team—or even how to put into words what they are looking for. As we asked managers about their specific team cultures, we were often told that they have a strong one, but that it’s hard to define. Sorry for being blunt, but that’s rubbish. If it’s so excruciatingly hard to describe your culture, then you don’t have a great one. Culture isn’t invisible, indefinable. When you walk into a great culture, it smacks you in the face with its concreteness. We’ve all experienced this firsthand. There is a tangible feeling about spending time in an Apple store where employees are truly enabled to meet your needs, or phoning Zappos and sharing a laugh with an energized customer service agent, or having a cup of coffee at a really hip Starbucks. It is an atmosphere that engulfs you immediately and lingers with you after you leave. It takes a concerted effort to transform a culture to achieve these kinds of results. The process requires you take time away from your clients, from your deliverables. It forces you to become a coach and no longer a player. But the results are exponential as you learn to harness the full power of all the people in your care. We found just such a success story in Fort Lauderdale, where Doria Camaraza is the senior vice president and general manager

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THE REAL

SOCIAL MEDIA

of the American Express World Service Center. This is a three-thousand-person call center, and the work is not easy. Customers who call are often upset. Perhaps they want to dispute charges or don’t qualify for a credit increase. Yet despite the often-demanding atmosphere, Camaraza and her fellow senior managers have transformed the culture and found a way to get just about all of these people to believe in what they are trying to accomplish. In fact, we might argue that she and her team are the best bunch of leaders of believers you’ve never heard of. Here’s some proof: Around the United States, employee turnover in call centers averages about 50 percent annually. That means if you answer phones for a living, about half your coworkers will leave before another year passes. Not here. Turnover in Fort Lauderdale is in the single digits annually, which is less than one-fifth the national average. But there’s more: Productivity measures are tops in the call center industry. Six years ago, when Camaraza took over, the call center was good. Today it’s great—helping American Express earn an unprecedented five consecutive years of J. D. Power & Associates awards for highest customer satisfaction among credit card companies. Very impressive. Camaraza has come to understand that being a manager doesn’t mean knowing products and services, it means knowing your people. “I don’t have much business being in this role. I don’t have the right technical background. But the role of a manager isn’t about being technically proficient. It’s about people.” This American Express call center is a case study in transforming a culture, with managers who are benefiting from the three Es in action. They have achieved world-class levels of efficiency, profitability, and customer satisfaction because their employees are:

Engaged

Enabled

Energized

Each person understands how their work benefits the larger organization and has a clear understanding of how they are responsible and accountable for real results. And they can see the value of their contributions to the company’s larger mission.

The covmpany supports employees with the right tools and training, and leaders spend 75 percent of their time coaching and walking the floor to ensure that workers can navigate the demands of their jobs.

Leaders at this facility maintain feelings of well-being and high levels of energy through daily productivity contests, helping employees balance work and home life, and recognizing individual contributions in creative non-monetary ways.

Camaraza and her leadership team have faced difficulties— including the worst financial meltdown in our lifetime—and yet they engender the highest levels of loyalty and commitment we have seen in a call center. These leaders show us that transformation can and does occur when the right leaders make the culture work.

Chester Elton, is the New York Times bestselling Author of All In: How the best managers create a culture of belief and drive big results. Learn more at TheCultureWorks.com.

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| 21

Why

INNOVATION BIG is a

Deal Here’s what I know for sure.

Change is constant. Businesses grow, or shrink. And we all evolve. So you have two choices: You can sit and watch the transformation happen, or you can be an active participant. Alan Kay said it well, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

Peter Aceto

I’ve always been fascinated by innovation. Consider Google, Netflix, Apple or taxi company Hailo and how each has revolutionized their respective industries. Do you ever wonder why Blockbuster didn’t invent Netflix? I do. I doubt that it’s because of a lack of ideas. But I’m certain that a number of businesses don’t fully comprehend that success today does not mean success tomorrow. Innovative businesses are those nimble and courageous enough to drop old strategies and adopt new ones. There’s no question that innovation can be a real challenge, but without it you will be left behind. If you’re not coming up with the next big thing (or many small things), your competitors are, and faster than you can blink. So how do you find the next big thing? You listen. You observe. You try. You fail. You adjust. You try again.

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“To have a great idea, have a lot of them.” Thomas Edison was right. Ideas are everywhere, and you don’t have to look any further than your immediate stakeholders – your employees and your customers. Out of 10 ideas, whether gigantic or small, one may be key in either enhancing an existing product, transforming your business or potentially an industry. Our employees at ING DIRECT share their ideas in an internal forum we call Orange Spark. It’s open for suggestions about products and processes, and employees vote on which ideas they think are of value. Orange Spark has been instrumental in idea generation and fine-tuning new products and services and how we do things. Since simplifying banking for Canadians is our purpose at ING DIRECT, we take our customers’ feedback seriously – which is why we are the first company in Canada to offer customers the ability to deposit cheques using their iPhone from home! Our customers have shared the obstacles they experience in depositing cheques with us. So with the help of technology, Canadians will now be able to safely take a picture of their cheques using the Cheque-In feature on their iPhone app to make a deposit remotely. Innovation is a big deal. Lately, it is even the currency for business success, particularly in the transformative world we live in today. If you’re not igniting the innovation spark in your organization, what’s the alternative? Do nothing? I think you know what happens to those businesses. If there’s a magic formula that will produce breakthrough solutions, every employee in your organization should want to find it. But quite often, businesses get in their own way. Here are a few suggestions and tips for what you can do to cultivate a culture of innovation in your organization.

Remove the hierarchy obstacle. In other words, foster autonomy.The best ideas come from those closest to customers, and traditionally executives are furthest away. Let others hold the keys to decision-making and allow for cross-functional roles to ensure a well-rounded view of industry and customer needs.

Let mistakes happen. Be comfortable with the mistakes, because failure is an important lesson. It helps modify and adjust ideas and reassess objectives. But don’t fail too often because you risk losing your confidence. Simplify the strategy as much as possible. Involve more people early. Make incremental changes.

Allow time for adoption. Comfort around change is not expected. You may experience backlash, particularly if the innovation involves behaviour change, but human beings do adapt. In the words of Steve Jobs “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

Balance speed and thoughtfulness. Getting something done is good. Getting it done right is better. You shouldn’t need 18 months to execute a new strategy, but you do want to be mindful of making hasty decisions. Don’t let speed cost you a great idea. Fight for quality.

Peter

Aceto, is the President and CEO of ING DIRECT Canada. Peter publishes a bi-monthly blog called Direct Talk with Peter Aceto blog.ingdirect. ca He writes about Leadership, Management, Corporate Culture, Innovation and Customer Service. Follow Peter on Twitter @ CEO_INGDIRECT

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| 23

The Perfect Time to Get CREATIVE is

NOW BY David

Usher

Waiting for Perfect We all have an image in our mindâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye of the perfect time and space to do our creative work. An amazing studio overlooking the ocean with the brilliant light of a sunset washing colour through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Eight uninterrupted hours where we can really focus and let our brains wander around a problem. Being surrounded by like-minded people who inspire and drive us. A supportive community. The perfect cofounder -- experienced, inspiring and connected. It all sounds so good. And then a screaming four-year-old runs through the picture and it all comes crashing back down to earth. The reality of the creative life is that there is never enough time and space, and conditions are never perfect. The job, the kids, bills, relationships all have a way of getting in the way. Our lives are always full of a never-ending list of things to do that fill our time and separate us from the work we know we should be doing.

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Tweet, tweet? The mind is a funny thing. It convinces us that we want more than anything in the world just to dive into our creative process and get down to work. At the same time, it allows us to stray and fall victim to every distraction. And in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s modern world of pings and tweets, DMs and texts, the temptations are everywhere. We are living in a distraction economy with everyone vying for the same attention for their 140 characters. The world would surely stop if an @yournamehere did not get an instant reply. Now more than ever, to do work and to be creative in this environment we need to be vigiliant. We have to find and fight for the time and mental space amid the chaos.

A Method in the Madness In this new environment, it is crucial to articulate and define a methodology. How can we find the time to have a workable creative process? For me, the discovery part of my creative process comes first thing in the morning. My key insights -- those light bulb moments -- happen just after I wake up and before the rest of life starts. They come before my thinking gets clouded by how I am going to renovate the bathroom or whether Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve paid the electricity bill. The rest of the day is more about the nuts and bolts of the work, defining and refining ideas. For most of my life, I have gotten up at 6 a.m. to get a clear hour alone to work and think. Having kids, of course, has changed that and now my start time has moved to a slightly painful 5 a.m. just so I can get in 45 minutes. Whatever your process, whatever methodology works for you, it is so important to define it. And then, to figure out how you can make that definition of a productive creative process fit into your actual life. With a bit of work the two things can fit together. Conditions will never be perfect. So just start.

David Usher is a British-born Canadian singersongwriter. Formerly the frontman for the alternative rock band Moist, he embarked on a solo career beginning in 1997 and has released seven solo albums to date. You can explore some of Davidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creative projects at: www.cloudid.com

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| 25

Match Your

INNOVATION

PROCESSto

the RESULTS You

WANT BY Vijay

Govindarajan & Mark Sebell

We are often asked whether the best way to structure for innovation is top-down or bottom-up. The answer is both, but it depends. Bottom-up approaches work well for incremental (keeps you in the game) innovations. Breakthrough (changes the game) innovations, contrary to popular belief, need a topdown approach. So let’s talk about incremental. It tends to be short-term, uses familiar (traditional) metrics and development systems like Stage Gate. The risksrewards are relatively low. Incremental innovations can be managed at the operating levels where the people know the customers/consumers best and decisions can be made in a more consensus-driven way with input and agreement between all stakeholder functions. Management involvement tends to happen only when the ideas are “ready” to be pushed up and sometimes even that isn’t necessary. Almost every company has a Stage Gate process because they work well for incremental innovation.

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| WINTER 2013

“If the idea isn’t absurd there is no hope for it.”

- Albert Einstein

Incremental innovation is often disparaged because it isn’t cool, sexy, or brag-able, which is a mistake because incremental keeps what the company sells relevant and competitive. Incremental is also breakthrough’s best friend, because if done well it throws off the money for pursuing higher risk/higher-reward breakthroughs. Now comes the heresy: Everything that makes incremental models work is what causes them to unintentionally kill potential breakthroughs. Why? Because consensus and familiar metrics are death to breakthrough. Breakthrough metrics and decisionmaking must be applied in totally opposite ways. When forced to present familiar metrics for truly out-of-the-box “beginning” ideas, work teams develop what our friend Jay Paap calls “Imaginary Numbers.” We have a biotech client whose executive leadership team, starting with the CEO, demanded net present value estimates for fledgling, “beginning” ideas...and they wondered why they weren’t launching any game-changing innovations. Proposition: If an idea is truly breakthrough then there is nothing to measure it against (a true test of breakthrough), with no true benchmarks and no familiar metrics until much further along in the development process. Metrics in pursuit of breakthrough need to evolve from the educated gut of criteria in the “Fuzzy Front End” to familiar metrics by the time of implementation. And breakthrough models must work in parallel with the incremental model. As for decision-making there is one simple rule in pursuit of breakthroughs: “The higher the goal the higher the role.” Why? Because in order to play in breakthrough, an organization’s executive leadership (starting with the CEO) must be willing to play, make some of the critical strategic decisions, and provide people, money, time and air cover when the organization

begins to resist change. They can’t wait until everything is “ready.” They must interact with their work teams frequently throughout all of innovation’s phases, from the beginning. They must also be willing to see value in absurdity. One of the biggest myths in innovation is, “I’ll know the big idea when I see it.” WRONG! As Albert Einstein once said, “If the idea isn’t absurd there is no hope for it.” A model that doesn’t stimulate, value, and advocate for ideas that begin in absurdity will probably never change the game in its industries. In most companies the radical, scary, absurd “beginning” ideas experience what we call “The Bazooka Syndrome,” where they don’t just get shot down — they are blown clear out of the water, usually by a well-intentioned management team that hasn’t been engaged properly in the work flow (and not because they’re close-minded, which is what everyone wants to think). In pursuit of breakthrough, management is not the enemy as it is so often portrayed. Nor are the troops incompetent dunderheads. It’s the process model that is broken.

Vijay Govindarajan is the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He is coauthor of Reverse Innovation (HBR Press, April 2012). Mark Sebell is the founder and CEO of Creative Realities, a Boston-based innovation management collaborative, and author of Ban the Humorous Bazooka(Dearborn Press, 2001). *This article originally appeared in the Harvard Business Review

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| 27

Crystal clear sound. Anywhere you go.

BCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s News Leader

Download the CKNW App from iTunes or cknw.com today.

Jill DONAHUE

The Power of Habit

“

Habits can be changed, if we understand how they work.” The Power of Habit, prologue XVII

When you woke this morning, what was the first thing you did? What habits helped or hindered you? Now think about what habits help or hinder your organization and your community. Charles Duhigg investigates how habits form, how to build new habits and how to change old ones in his engaging book The Power of Habit. To address all areas of your life, he divides the book into 3 sections starting closest to home with ‘you’. He moves to the broader world of organizations and finally to societies. Habits are not easy to understand but by drawing on hundreds of academic studies, interviews with over three hundred scientists and executives and research conducted at dozens of companies, Duhigg empowers us by illustrating why habits exist and how you can change them.

Golden Egg: Small habits make or break you

“

What Bowman could give Phelps, however – what would set him apart from other competitors- were habits that would make him the strongest mental swimmer in the pool.” The Power of Habit, page 111

Don’t think you have it in you to change your bad habits? You will likely be thrilled to know that there is tremendous research that shows it is the small habits that fuel transformative changes. Each small habit creates a small advantage which sets in motion another small habit and advantage etc. The small habits create patterns that convince people that bigger achievements are within reach. Duhigg shares the story of how it was small habits that led to Michael Phelp’s Olympic gold medal victory. Michael’s small habits allowed him to wake up the morning of the meet and not really think at all. He stayed relaxed and simply followed his habits, one at a time, to victory.

GEM #1:

Identify the cost of craving and the rest will follow

“

This is how new habits are created: by putting together a cue, a routine and a reward, and then cultivating a craving that drives the loop.” The Power of Habit, page 49

The key element is the craving. Marketers at Proctor & Gamble studied videos of people making their beds. Why? They were trying desperately to figure out how to sell Febreeze; a product which seemed to have such tremendous benefits but was on track to be the biggest flop in company history. Suddenly, one of the researchers detected a subtle yet important pattern. People are rewarded by the smell of a clean room. They made some adjustments to their marketing and Febreeze went on to earn a billion dollars a year.

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| 29

For a complete listing of Partners, please visit our website www.excellence.ca.

Program Delivery Partner Experienced People, Trusted Results

DURHAM REGION

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Interested in becoming a Founding Partner? Limited spaces are available. To join or for more information, please contact Allan at 416.251.7600 ext. 230 or allan@excellence.ca.

www.excellence.ca

The Power of Habit (cont)

Why do you brush your teeth every day? Before Claude Hopkins created tooth brushing habits, no one brushed their teeth. In fact, so many recruits for WWI had rotting teeth, officials said poor dental hygiene was a national security risk! How did Hopkins change this? He created a craving. You know that tingling feeling your mouth gets right after you brush your teeth? When you wake in the morning, you can’t wait to get that feeling. Funny thing, that tingling feeling is not necessary to have clean teeth! But we associate it as the reward for clean teeth and thus are inspired to clean our teeth! His toothpaste, Pepsodent, changed oral hygiene.

GEM #2:

Habits can be learned and unlearned in four steps

“

Habits – even once they are rooted in our minds – aren’t destiny. We can choose our habits, once we know how.” The Power of Habit, page 270

While Duhigg admits that change might not be fast and it certainly isn’t easy, he believes that with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped. Habits can not be eradicated but they can be replaced. His Golden Rule of Habit is to keep the same cue and same reward but replace the routine. He offers 4 steps to do that: 1) Identify the routine. Is it for example going to Starbucks each afternoon for a tea and cookie? 2) Experiment with different rewards. Rewards satisfy cravings. But the tricky part is that we are often not conscious of the cravings that drive our behaviours. Interesting! So is the reward of the cookie and tea really the sugar burst or is it the energy of the location, the change of pace? How do you figure it out? Adjust the reward. For example, instead of the cookie and tea at Starbucks, try socializing for ten minutes, or go to Starbucks but eat an apple on the way and then just have the tea, or go for a brisk walk for ten minutes. That way you can figure out if you are really craving the cookie and tea at Starbucks or are just looking for an energy boost. Which new activity will satisfy the craving? 3) Isolate the cue. What are you thinking the moment you decide to go to Starbucks? If you keep track of this over a few days, you will identify what is triggering the urge. 4) Have a plan. Decide exactly what you will do when the craving hits then follow your plan. Habits create our destiny. Too often, people don’t live the way they want – or eat or sleep or exercise or parent or work – the way they know they should, because of habits. With The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg empowers us to know we can change those habits. And once we know habits can be changed, we have the freedom of choice again. You have the ability and the responsibility to reshape your life and world. The only options remaining are to get to work, follow his advice, break down your habits and start new ones! Rebuild your life one habit at a time!

Jill Donahue is a regular contributor at ActionableBooks.com, a free online source of Business Book Summaries and Author interviews. Apply great concepts from leading business books in less time than you think; visit ActionableBooks.com today.

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| 31

What it Really Takes to Succeed BY Jack

& Suzy Welch

The modern marketplace demands that people possess a wide range of skills. But what core qualities are truly essential to career advancement, regardless of industry or job? The answer could fill a book and it has, thousands of times, if not more. Myriad experts claim that career advancement is a function of everything from extreme self-confidence to extreme humility (or both at once). Still others make the case that big-time professional success derives from more sinister behaviors, such as callous ambition or unfettered narcissism. And then there is the whole “positive thinking” bandwagon, which claims that getting ahead is primarily a function of believing you can. In sum, there’s so much contradictory advice out there about the core components of success that it’s enough to reduce you to a weary sigh of: “Whatever.” Which is just fine. Because I’d suggest that you can’t really manipulate yourself into success with personality tweaks or even major overhauls. In fact, I’d say just the opposite. The most powerful thing you can do is, well, be real. As in not phony. As in grappling, sweating, laughing, and caring. As in authentic.

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| WINTER 2013

Now, I’m not saying that authenticity is the only quality you need for professional advancement. Everyone knows that to succeed in today’s competitive global marketplace, you also have to be smart, curious, and highly collaborative. You have to be able to work with diverse teams and ignite them as a manager to excel together. You need heaps of positive energy, the guts to make tough yes-or-no decisions, and the endurance to execute—get the job done. And, indeed, you do have to possess self-confidence and humility at the same time. That combination is called maturity. I would also add two other qualities to the must-have list. One is heavy-duty resilience, a requirement because anyone who is really in the game messes up at some point. You’re not playing hard enough if you don’t! But when your turn comes, don’t make the all-too-human mistake of thinking getting ahead is about minimizing what happened. The most successful people in any new job always own their failures, learn from them, regroup, and then start again with renewed speed, vigor, and conviction. The other quality I’d mention is really special but quite rare: the ability to see around corners, to anticipate the radically unexpected. Now, practically no one starts their career with a sixth sense for market changes. It takes years, and even decades, to get a feel for what competitors are thinking and what product or service customers will eventually want - once they know it exists. The sooner you develop this acumen, and the more you hone it, the farther you will go. But not if you’re not real, too. Think of authenticity as your foundation, your center, and don’t let any organization try to wring it out of you, subtly or otherwise. That happens. Companies have a way of tamping people down, particularly early on. Not that it happens with any kind of conscious planning, of course. But too many organizations manage to surreptitiously nudge people toward a generic type who keeps it all pretty well tucked in. Meanwhile, if you put your whole self out there, bosses can complain that you act too emotional or get too close to teammates or become too worked up in meetings. Your performance reviews will note: Tom has some potential, but he just doesn’t fit in.” Or “Sally has some rough edges, but with coaching, her intensity might even out.”

Jack & Suzy Welch

Yes, yes, we know the upper echelon of the corporate world has its share of slick super achievers who appear simultaneously all-knowing and unknowable. They’re cool, poised, almost digitally enhanced in their affect. But such bloodless executives, even the most technically skilled ones, rarely reach the highest heights. They’re just too remote to move people. They can manage, but they can’t motivate.

In time though, if you have everything else you need in terms of talent and skill, your humanity will come to be your most appealing virtue to an organization. Your team and your bosses will know who you are in your soul, what kind of people you attract, and what kind of performance you want from everyone. Your realness will make you accessible; you will connect and you will inspire. You will lead. So, getting back to the original question of this missive: Yes, the modern marketplace does demand that people possess a wide range of skills to achieve success. Most of them you have to acquire, develop, and refine. But one of them - the most important one - is already inside you ready to be let out. Don’t get in its way.

Jack Welch

is the former CEO and Chairman of General Electric and the founder of the Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University. The Jack Welch Management Institute provides students and organizations with the proven methodologies, immediately actionable practices, and respected credentials needed to win in the most demanding global business environments. By teaching the performance and people-driven management canon of Jack Welch and other renowned business leaders, JWMI prepares Executive MBA and Executive Certificate program graduates to transform their companies and careers.

WINTER 2013 |

| 33

ayout 1 30/03/12 1:27 PM Page 1

How to join Vancouver’s business leaders. Airport lands bigger share 6

Asian market drives sales 23

BUSINESS VANCOUVER ECONOMY | PROFITING FROM CORPORATE INTELLIGENCE

Get the essential news, advice, BUSINESSBRIEF TECHNOLOGY Acquisition intentions in Technology sector The new Business in Vancouver offers readers more of what they want: local business news and coverage of key areas like finance and the economy; technology; policy and politics; important statistics and ranked business lists. A fresh redesigned newspaper and website organizes BIV’s unique blend of content; the stories of the people and the businesses who make our community vital.

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RESOURCES Data mining uncovers new opportunities The new Business in Vancouver offers readers more of what they want: local business news and coverage of key areas like finance and the economy; technology; policy and politics; important statistics and ranked business lists.

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he new Business in Vancouver offers readers more of what they want: local business news and coverage of key areas like finance and the economy; technology; policy and politics; important statistics and ranked business lists. A fresh redesigned newspaper and website organizes BIVí s unique blend of content; the stories of the people and the businesses who make our community vital. Find business leads,competitive intelligence,relevant data and analysis of issues that impact business and business people in Metro Vancouver. Get advice and lessons learned from local experts on business challenges. The all new biv.com is

Business leaders continue to profit from competitive intelligence and BC investment properties reach record highs

MARGARET CHOW MARKETING DIRECTOR LOREM IPSUM

more than the print edition on line ñ now more accessible for all visitors with access to local news; people; columnists; data and lists and events.Follow the story deeper with tags that will create topic pages related to the area of interest. Business leaders and influencers will stay informed with at least 6 daily news updates in the BIV Today daily email newsletter and online at biv.com. The new Business in Vancouver offers readers more of what they want: local business news and coverage of key areas like finance and the economy; technology; policy and politics; important statistics and ranked business lists. A fresh redesigned newspaper and website organizes BIVí s unique blend of content; the stories of the people and the businesses who make our

community vital. Find business leads,competitive intelligence,relevant data and analysis of issues that impact business and business people in Metro Vancouver. Get advice and lessons learned from local experts on business challenges. The all new biv.com is more than the print edition on line ñ now more accessible for all visitors with access to local news; people; columnists; data and lists and events.Follow the story deeper with tags that will create topic pages related to the area of interest. Business leaders and influencers will stay informed with at least 6 daily news updates in the BIV Today daily email newsletter and online at biv.com. The new Business in Vancouver offers readers more of what they want: local business news agree

NUMBERS BC investment property deals hit $1.5 billion The new Business in Vancouver offers readers more of what they want:

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5% BUSINESS IN VANCOUVER

MARKETS Data mining turns up new business opportunities The new Business in Vancouver offers readers more of what they want: local business news and coverage of key areas like finance and the economy.

IN As a reader and a business person, you want it all. And as far as weí re concerned, thatí s exactly what you should have. By providing essential content that ranges from hard facts to intriguing opinions, weí re committed to doing our part to help you engage, interact, and succeed ñ when it comes to business in Vancouver.

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The Impact Equation:

by Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson

by Cal Newport

by Chris Brogan & Julien Smith

Future Perfect:

The Leadership Challenge:

The Charisma Myth:

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by Olivia Fox Cabane

Small Message Big Impact:

The Art of Doing Good:

Deliver the Unexpected:

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by Charles Bronfman & Jeffrey Solomon

by Richard Robbins

Taking Control of the Customer Conversation

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by Steven Johnson

The Elevator Speech Effect

Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

How to Make Extraordinar y Things Happen in Organizations

Where Passion Meets Action

How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Are You Making Things Happen or Just Making Noise?

How Anyone Can Master the Ar t and Science of Personal Magnetism

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WINTER 2013 |

| 35

What Type of

VALUE Are You $ elling? BY Richard

Robbins

These are interesting times in the business of sales. Global economic forces and the impact of our new â&#x20AC;&#x153;point and clickâ&#x20AC;? era have changed the rules forever. However, as great sales professionals, our role remains unchanged: to provide extraordinary value to the consumers of our products or services.

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This is not news. We’ve been told for years to “provide great value.” It’s drilled into the bones of every salesperson worth their commission. The problem, of course, is that no one tells us exactly what this means.

The Value Equation In it’s simplest form, the value equation is pretty straightforward. It’s what you get, divided by what you pay.

Value = What The Customer Gets

What The Customer Pays

Four pounds of tomatoes for two dollars, means a value of two dollars per pound. Simple math, yes. But as the playing field changes for salespeople, providing great value is becoming more complicated than just slashing tomato prices. There are three distinct types of value. There’s a good chance you and your company are offering the first two, but for sales professionals who wish to succeed in a new sales era, shifting to the third type is becoming increasingly critical.

TYPE 1:

Price

This is the value we’re all familiar with. It’s the 50% off price tag. The two-for-one sale. The baker’s dozen. These are all ways to change the math of the value equation—to change the price per pound of tomatoes. For many sales professionals, the first level of value boils down to the same thing: cutting prices, and as a result, commissions. By focusing on price, however, you increasingly force consumers to see what you offer as a commodity. Companies competing on type 1 value are fighting a battle for the lowest price, and for the majority, that battle is a race to the bottom. This strategy not only damages profitability, but worse still, it erodes customer loyalty – the key ingredient to any great business today.

TYPE 2: Traditional

Service

The natural next step—and where many sales professionals typically focus in order to avoid competing on price—is on providing great service. The challenge is when you back what you sell with great service, you’re gambling that your customers view these services as valuable, and risk shifting the value equation even further. Traditionally, great service has meant meeting deadlines, handling paperwork, information flow, communication, shipping and so on. The problem is that not only have many of these services have been replaced by technologies that do a far better job, great service has become the industry norm. Great service has become expected, thus reducing its value in today’s era.

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TYPE 3: The

Unexpected

For sales professionals who truly want to succeed, the only place to operate is in offering the third type of value: the unexpected. Unexpected Value has three specific characteristics: • It’s new, or new to the customer • It’s surprising or unexpected • It becomes a new defacto personal standard - the customer can no longer “go back” Companies like Apple provide type 3 value in their products. Zappos and Nordstrom do it with their exceptional or unexpected service. Type 3 value is all about changing the top number of the value equation and improving on “What the Customer Gets,” which increases the customer’s perceived value. The result is extraordinary customer loyalty, and the luxury of opting out of the race to the lowest price. Type 3 value is about creating a surprise for every customer, and watching with great pride and excitement as it is unwrapped. It not only brings great joy to you and your customers, but financial rewards too. Perhaps the best part, though, is that anyone can do it. Unexpected value often costs little more than the desire to bring joy to those you serve. Delivering it doesn’t require you to change the market. It only requires that you change your heart and mind. Richard Robbins is co-founder and CEO of Richard Robbins International Inc. and one of North America’s foremost business coaches. He has spoken live to over 250,000 people worldwide. His new book for real estate professionals and entrepreneurs, Deliver the Unexpected, will be available in bookstores everywhere Nov 25, 2012. For more information about Richard Robbins International – visit www.richardrobbins.com anytime.

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Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s More

Important, The

SALE or Your

Reputation

BY Simon

Sinek

One definition of a prostitute is someone who sacrifices their good name in order to make a buck. But what do you do when someone else is driven by the sale but it is your reputation that suffers as a result?

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This is the risk run by any company that relies on a third party to sell their product. Franchisees, car dealers, distributors and affiliates are independent businesses that trade off of someone else’s reputation. If a regional airline, for example, offers bad service it is not their company or their brand that is damaged, it is Delta, American or other brand name that appears on the side of the plane. is the case with car dealers also. And I recently had an experience at Fiat of Manhattan that was nothing short of mind-blowingly bad.

was excited and pumping me up to take possession of my new Fiat 500 - they made sure to tell me that I “made them work hard” and they weren’t making any money on me - a clear indication of their priorities.

I walked in, very excited to get a little Fiat 500. I told them that I was prepared to make this the easiest deal of their day. I even told them that I already looked up the price on the Fiat website and was willing to pay it. No haggling required. Four hours later - that’s right, FOUR hours later of being put through the ringer, guess where we ended up - right at the beginning, at the original price I offered to pay.

So why didn’t I just buy the car somewhere else you ask? The dealership has a deal with parking garages in Manhattan, offering really cheap parking. If other dealers in the area offered something similar (I checked, they didn’t), I would have bought the car somewhere else. But given the price of parking in NYC, this was a big deal. Such a big deal, in fact, that even getting a bad deal on the car still works out cheaper than paying full price for a garage.

In the process the branch manager insulted me, took me for a moron and would try to raise the price hoping I wouldn’t notice. Lies, deception, fast talk and every other tactic usually reserved for a stereotypical used car dealer were employed. I’ll save you all the gory details including the tale in which I was told, “I just talked to my boss and he said I can offer you the price you want,” which sounds good except she never left her seat the whole time we were talking. The result: I felt frustrated, angry and dejected. My excitement was gone. Even when I went to pick up the car - my excitement restored, they made me wait an hour and a half despite the fact I called in advance and they told me what time to come in. Instead of asking me if I

It was clear that this dealership is motivated by one thing and one thing only: the sale. Worse, it’s not their name that hangs on the door. Whoever owns that dealership suffers nothing except maybe I wouldn’t recommend the dealership to anyone. The name that suffers is Fiat.

The dealership is cleaning up. Manhattan residents who want a Fiat 500 have little choice but to buy the car from this one dealer even if they know they can get a better deal or get treated better somewhere else. The dealer even bragged about their sales numbers, claiming to be the top Fiat seller in the North East. Which is very good for them. Sadly, it is the Fiat brand and the customer that are suffering...not the dealer. To be fair, I tweeted that this dealership was ruining the Fiat brand and someone from Fiat USA has already tried to contact me to find out what happened. I have not talked to them yet, but I will try to.

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It is what happens next that really tests the theory of what is more important, the sale or the reputation. Fiatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initial forray into the American market with the 500 after a 30 year hiatus was disappointing and they are working to make up lost ground. The question is, given that indeed this one dealership may be moving more cars than any other in the region, is that more important to Fiat than the damage that this dealership may be doing to their brand and their reputation? Time will tell. Whenever we use a third party to represent us, we must hold them to our standards, not theirs. They must earn the right and work hard to maintain the right to use our well earned reputations and good products to make their money. In return, they must promise and adhere to, protect and advance our good names. However, if the parent company fails to hold their dealers and affiliates accountable, regardless of the sales numbers, then they will end up looking like the pimp in this game. And that leaves the rest of us feeling cheap, dirty and used and likely never return to that street corner ever again.

Simon Sinek is the author of the bestselling book, Start With Why. He is known for popularizing a concept of The Golden Circle. He joined the RAND Corporation in 2010 as an adjunct staff member, where he advises on matters of military innovation and planning.

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Employee Engagement Turning a High Level Concept into Reality for Business Results BY John

Cardella

Most CEOs and HR EVPs agree that employee engagement is a crucial element of business success. At Ceridian Canada, we pride ourselves on the strength of our culture and commitment to fulfilling the same human resource best practices. Our practices and policies are a result of two-way communication and constant re-evaluation based on employee feedback and performance. We strive to implement programs that not only meet the needs of our workforce, but also help us connect with our employees in a meaningful way. Our end goal is to create brand ambassadors who reenforce that Ceridian is not only a great company, but also a great place to work. Here are a few best practice principals that I believe provide a good starting point to engagement success.

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Articulate your vision and values Organizations need to clearly communicate their vision and values to all employees in a way that helps drive their behaviours and actions. Engagement is about encouraging employees to live the organization’s values on a daily basis. Culture is shaped by corporate values. Employee behaviours drive corporate action and ultimately results. At Ceridian, our values represent not only who we are as an organization, but also as individuals.

Lead by example Business leaders need to make a cognizant effort to “walk the talk” and lead by example, encouraging all employees to do the same. Don’t just tell people to get involved, get in the game. Active participation, whether as a mentor, executive sponsor or team participant will set the stage for culture within an organization.

Communicate One of the ways leaders can help drive engagement is through open, transparent two-way communication and responsiveness. Leadership teams need to make sure all employees have an opportunity to ask questions about any topic, at any time. Regular, executive and town hall meetings where open discussion is encouraged is an opportunity to directly connect with staff at all levels, ask questions, listen to concerns and learn how your organization can adjust or create new policies and best practices that address employee feedback. In the age of Twitter and Facebook many organizations, including Ceridian, encourage social media usage for business purposes among employees. These types of mediums allow employees to follow their company, blog with the leadership team and contribute to relevant discussions with customers, prospects, industry analysts, media and partners.

Measure, adjust, apply Measuring engagement provides opportunities for valuable feedback and strategy development. In order to measure the employee engagement rate, survey employees on their opinions pertaining to workplace opportunity, teamwork, learning, development, career path opportunities and leadership effectiveness. Better yet, go one step further. Conduct employee focus groups to gain further insight into the results, comments and recommendations, and drill down in areas of concern. The real value of measuring engagement rates is that you can learn how to become a top employer just by asking your own employees what they value.

Once you listen to employees, put actions in place that leverage the opportunities that you have uncovered. Action plans from survey and focus groups results should be incorporated into departmental and organizational goals for the year. For example, at Ceridian our employees told us they would prefer to wear jeans throughout the week, not just on Fridays as our dress code dictated. Many of our employees do not deal with clients in a face-to-face environment, and felt that this change in dress would enable them to be more comfortable and productive. We heard the message and recently approved a change in dress code to allow employees the option to wear denim throughout the week. To keep policies and practices current, relevant and meaningful to employees, you need to listen, act and communicate change.

Recognize and reward Recognition is a huge part of engagement. According to Ceridian’s Pulse of Talent survey, revealing the changing attitudes and perceptions of Canadian workers, 44% of respondents said they were either not satisfied (22%) or indifferent (22%) with the level of recognition they currently receive at work. Praise plays a significant part in motivating employees to achieve. Personalized recognition - whether given privately or publicly assures employees that good work is appreciated and reinforces the type of performance needed to drive results. Reward and recognition initiatives should integrate with the culture and values of the organization and ensure that employees are recognized for their contributions to the organization at a variety of levels. Employers should not only think about recognizing employees for delivering on a project, but also for making a difference to customers, colleagues or to the business process.

Encourage professional and personal growth Providing employees with opportunities to evolve their skill set is a vital element of employee engagement. Investing in your people is always good business. Create opportunities for internal learning and development, but also encourage external training to further the careers of employees. To engage and evolve your top most performers consider offering them the opportunity to work on a cross-functional team, tackling some key business issues within your organization. This type of initiative effectively accelerates employee career development. Employees gain leadership experience and exposure to other parts of the business and organizations. Employers gain potential “new managers” with a solid understanding of the business, coupled with a fresh outlook on problem solving.

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Be socially responsible For many organizations, including Ceridian, Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives are a key element of business culture. Not only should organizations be socially responsible, they should also encourage employees to act in socially responsible ways and recognize and support them when they do. Most individuals believe in “giving where they’re living.” Providing employees with opportunities to give their time and make a difference can go a long way in establishing mutual good will – not just between employee and employer but between employee, employer and the community at large. On top of the usual corporate donations, consider offering employees a paid volunteer day each calendar year so they can roll up their sleeves and get involved with a local charity of their choice in their community.

Bottom line An organizations best asset is its people, and that is where leaders should be investing. High retention, increased longevity, higher productivity even lower absentee rates have been tied to engagement. When leaders make an effort to understand the needs of employees, everyone wins.

John Cardella, Executive Vice-President and Chief People Officer at Ceridian Canada. Ceridian is a global provider of human capital management solutions that helps customers optimize their workforce, reduce costs and save time by finding, paying, developing and engaging their talent. With over 40 years of experience, proven expertise and recognized service excellence, Ceridian Canada is a trusted partner to more than 43,000 Canadian customers. For more information visit www.ceridian.ca.

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Your KIDS will have a worse QUALITY of LIFE than you,

UNLESS… BY Terry

Stuart

Left unchecked, Canada’s productivity performance could put both our global competitiveness and our Canadian standard of living at risk. But we can avoid this disconcerting future by taking action now to close our productivity gap. The key? Innovation. Our productivity gap is real and broad-based. Our annualized productivity growth has been stuck in the bottom quartile of the OECD for the past decade. As of 2011, output per worker in Canada was only 78% of U.S. workers. Deloitte’s 2012 report on productivity shows that regardless of size, sector, business type or location, Canada’s productivity performance lags that of the U.S. in virtually every case — with the notable exception of retail.

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There are many reasons for this. Canadian executives are highly risk averse. Canada’s strength in basic research is offset by our dismal performance in producing new patents, which suggests we are failing to commercialize our research. Private-sector R&D spending was 1% of GDP in 2008 — the lowest ratio of business R&D per dollar of government support among the OECD nations. Canada has continued to underinvest in machinery and equipment (M&E) and information and communication technology (ICT), despite very favourable conditions for M&E and ICT investment here in recent years.

The time to act on innovation is now Innovation is key to closing the productivity gap. In our work on productivity, Deloitte called on Canadian business, governments and academia to work together to define a national vision for innovation. We outlined eight key actions to drive a transformational shift in the Canadian economy. These included ensuring our education system fosters an innovative, entrepreneurial spirit in the next generation; encouraging businesses, governments and universities to “cluster” in order to innovate more rapidly; and urging businesses to compete on the international stage. In our 2012 report, we have built on these recommendations and suggested several ways business, government and academia can move forward. These actions will take time, but we are confident that they will make Canada more innovative, entrepreneurial and productive. But as a Canadian business executive, there’s no reason to wait. You can take personal action now to foster innovation within your own organization. Here are several recommendations, based on our research and my experience working on innovation with leading Canadian and international companies.

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1. Build national and international businesses Firms that have successfully launched operations across — and outside — Canada tend to enjoy higher growth, more innovation and better prospects than businesses that stay local. The increased competitive intensity they’ve experienced is a key driver of their success.

2. Connect with Canadian incubators and accelerators Canadian universities create a lot of new start-ups with great ideas. But all too often, they fail to commercialize those ideas. Connect with your local incubators, like Communitech, MARS, Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone and Wavefront to find out about new companies doing work relevant to you. Buy Canadian — work with new innovative Canadian companies to help them bring their ideas to the market in your organization.

3. Support entrepreneurship and innovation in Canada’s educational system Business can make a key contribution to fostering the innovative spirit in our educational system. Find ways to get involved with local primary, secondary and postsecondary schools and help the next generation of Canadian employees and business leaders find new ways to do things, create new businesses and take intelligent risks. The Canadian Coalition for ICT (CCICT) is focused on helping to drive change in this area.

4. Don’t accept the status quo Canadian businesses can’t afford to be complacent. The status quo is what worked yesterday — not what will work tomorrow. Continually evaluate your existing processes and practices, technology, skills and other aspects of your business and look for opportunities to improve them — large or small. What are the best companies in the world doing? Could you compete with them? Remember: taking no action because you want to avoid risk will only expose your company to more serious (and less visible) risks over the long term.

5. Take a fresh approach to product and service development — explore “Design Thinking” Too often, companies focus their innovation on what’s technologically feasible and financially viable. Design thinking, in contrast, begins by asking an all-important but commonly neglected question: what do people desire — what do they want and need? This approach can fundamentally change the way new products and services are designed. It also helps organizations test products in the market through experimentation, which in turn helps them avoid the challenges of “build it and they will come.”

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6. Build out your innovation ecosystem You can’t do it alone. Relationships are essential in the modern business environment. Together, your company’s relationships form an innovation ecosystem — a mutually supportive network that can achieve more together than separately. Develop and nurture your ecosystem. Partner and collaborate with other organizations, leveraging each other’s experience, skills, information and best practices.

7. Focus your innovation efforts Don’t innovate to secure a tax credit — innovate to secure your business’ future. Focus your company’s resources on ideas that can create real business value. Pursue those ideas that can improve productivity or open up a new revenue stream or market. Invest in new M&E and ICT that can enable huge improvements through process innovation. Experiment, iterate, fail, learn and try again.

Innovation matters to Deloitte. Over the years we’ve invested a great deal in developing a culture of innovation that has generated real value for our firm. Today we help clients build their own innovation programs to help them compete in an ever more demanding marketplace. To learn more, and to read our research into how productivity impacts the future of Canada, please visit www.productivity.deloitte.ca. Terry Stuart (testuart@deloitte.ca) is Chief Innovation Officer for Deloitte Canada. He is based in Toronto.

LIVE LIVES BY Ron Tite

We’re all a little bit geeky these days. Every time we turn around, there seems to be a new digital platform that will build community, connect us with our customers, enhance our brands, and generally solve any business problem we encounter with the assurance that the promised land of profitability is just a simple click away. Trust me, as the founder of a content marketing agency, I actively promote relevant platforms to our clients and try to help smart marketers separate the wheat from the catvideos for their content needs. I not only get it, I encourage it. Can we actually connect through digital means? Of course we can. Consumers proudly follow us, like us, share us, pin us, and link to us. It’s easy. It’s entertaining. It’s helpful. And, if you do it right, you’ll grow brand affinity and loyalty. So go ahead and invest in digital. Focus on digital. But don’t forget about the power of the good old live event.

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Some of the best content opportunities exist in faceto-face interactions. Here’s why: They’re genuine. Produced videos and blog posts are great but there’s a certain polish that happens when you edit and perfect what you say and how you say it. Consumers want to do business with brands that are honest and genuine. Putting your company in front of them certainly shows the real you. And if they shouldn’t be buying the real you, what exactly should they be buying?

They’re conversation.

Ron Tite, The Art of Marketing Chicago 2012

You’ve read it.You’ve heard it. You’ve seen it. “To be successful in social media, you can’t talk about yourself.” Great. Thanks for that and the annoying party metaphor that usually accompanies it. In response, insightful executives have been heard asking, “Well, what the hell do we talk about then?” To elevate the conversation beyond product benefits, promotional offers and your list of ingredients, you need something else to talk about. An event can be that topic of conversation. Whether it’s a group of speakers (like the unbelievable ones featured here), a stunt, a festival, or a show, live events drive conversation about something people care about. And your brand can tag along for the ride. There’s no greater example than Red Bull. They supported the live event of the century, Red Bull Stratos, and sat back and watched as millions actively (and indirectly) consumed their brand. While Felix Baumgartner fell from the sky, I think it was Red Bull who actually took the greater leap. I’m thrilled it paid off for them.

They’re emotional. As host of The Art of events, I don’t think I’ve ever made anyone cry on this stage (OK.. there was that one time but onions and Robin Sharma were involved). People have certainly laughed along the way, though. Emotion shows our personality and when brands help deliver authentic emotion, we feel a little closer to who they are. The world of advertising has certainly caught on to this. Instead of casting double-scale talent to deliver scripted and rehearsed material, some of the world’s best brands are creating live events that feature natural and genuine emotional reactions and then simply showing those as their commercials. Coke’s 007 stunt. Volkswagen’s Fun Theory. T-Mobile flash mobs. They all have had innocent bystanders experience a live event before repurposing their reactions as bona fide commercials. Not great for my actor friends but pretty powerful to someone watching at home.

They’re content that produces content. While the actual live event may be the focus of an initiative, they provide opportunities for additional content that further extends the messaging. Interviews, hashtags, makingof videos, followups, summary reports, testimonials, and even - dare I say – custom magazines, can all be additional pieces of content that spin out of an event that will or has taken place. Additional content on a specific subject not only fills out your editorial calendar, it allows your customers to dig deeper into something they may want to geek out on. While overall participation may decrease, the depth of it does the exact opposite. “Like the stunt? Here’s a ‘making of’ video. Like that? Here’s an interview with the client.” The deeper they get, the closer they get. Please invest your dollars in digital. We’ll all be better off for it. But don’t forget to save a a small part of your budget so you can come face-to-face with your customers. If you disagree, don’t worry. Just come up to the stage, look me in the eye, and tell me about it.

Ron Tite, Trained at the legendary Second City, Ron Tite has been an actor, comedian, speaker, host, and award-winning advertising writer and Executive Creative Director. Currently, he is President of The Tite Group, a content marketing agency based in Toronto.

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From

Atoms to Bits to Atoms BY Mitch

Joel

Something amazing happened in early October of this year. A spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida and made its way to the International Space Station carrying close to one thousand pounds of supplies. The SpaceX Dragon made history, because it was launched by a private corporation (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) as a commercial venture and not a part of the government’s NASA program. Many are calling this the re-invention of the space program, and with initiatives like Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic (offering customers a suborbital space flight) we are beginning to enter a new dawn in space travel and entrepreneurship. Putting aside the incredible resources and decades of research and development, red tape and more that needs to happen for commercial space travel, it’s equally incredible to think about what it takes to build and engineer a commercial spacecraft. You can’t exactly buy the parts at Home Depot. Welcome to the era of Makers.

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Whether you are trying to fabricate a space craft fuselage or you have designed a new toy that you’re selling on Etsy (the popular e-commerce website that enables individuals to sell their handcrafted goods to the world), the ability to fabricate complex physical items and sell them - because of our connected society and technological advancements - has never been easier. According to Chris Anderson (editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and bestselling business book author of The Long Tail and Free), these nascent days of basement developers (also known as Makers) is fueling the next industrial revolution of our times, and it’s going to create a profound shift in our global economy. Anderson’s latest book, Makers - The New Industrial Revolution (Crown Business, October 2012) tells the amazing story of how 3-D printing coupled with open source design and the entrepreneurial spirit is beginning to take hold. Imagine being able to read a book about the potential of the Internet back in 1995. Makers offers that kind of prophetic prose. Manufacturing from your desktop may sound as crazy as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates did when he said close to forty years ago that a computer would be on every desk. With smartphones, iPads and laptops, we have computers coming out of every nook and cranny of our lives. What makes it so hard to believe that the power of manufacturing won’t be turned on its head the way Anderson and the Makers Movement are claiming? Ask yourself this question... If you could design anything on your computer and then hit a “make” instead of “print” button, what would you create? It’s almost silly to consider this Makers Movement a subculture at this point. From electronics, robotics, and 3-D printing, the emergence of this DIY (Do It Yourself) culture is quickly moving from bits (software and platforms) to atoms (physical stuff). The 2012 edition of the Maker Fair held in San Mateo, California this past May hosted over 120,000 attendees. The event, created by Make Magazine (published by O’Reilly Media), now hosts Mini Maker Fairs all over the world. It is the combination of social media technology and a dropping cost to manufacture 3-D printers that is creating this groundswell of interest. Makers often share their designs and collaborate on projects at a global level. DIY is quickly evolving to DIWO (Do It With Others). The movement is reminiscent of the informal

get-togethers of technology and electronic hobbyists that was the Homebrew Computer Club (from 1975 - 1986). Yes, the very same place that helped inspire Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to create Apple. It’s manufacturing. It’s not mass manufacturing... yet. For about $2,200 you can order Makerbot’s Replicator 2. The desktop 3D printer is ideal for creating professional quality models and it can handle smaller projects, but we’re still not at the point where individuals will be rolling out a newly manufactured car off their basement floor and into a showroom... at this point. To put that price tag into perspective, Apple’s first laser printer for the home (the LaserWriter, which was launched in 1985) had a retail price of $6,995 and pounded out a rocking eight pages per minute. Indeed, Maker technology is nascent technology, but there is an increasing demand from consumers to have personalized products. As personalization continues to grow, the ability to manufacture cheap, fast and close to consumers will enable these networked designers and machines of the new industrial revolution to create not only a mass quantity, but a customized quantity. The business possibilities and opportunities are endless. As many businesses grapple with Internet and mobile technology, the Maker movement may well change the entire landscape as we begin a new dawn in manufacturing... right from your desktop.

Mitch Joel is President of Twist Image and the author of the best-selling business book, Six Pixels of Separation. His next book, CTRL ALT DEL Reboot Your Business (and Yourself) in a Connected World, will be published in Spring 2013.

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An excerpt from the pages of,

The Strategist:

Be the Leader Your Business Needs BY Cynthia A. Montgomery

WHAT I LEARNED IN OFFICE HOURS You’re About to get a revisionist view of strategy. it’s not that what you’ve learned is incorrect. it’s that it’s incomplete. strategy is a fundamental course at nearly every business school in the world. I have been privileged to teach variations of it for more than thirty years— first at the University of Michigan, then at the Kellogg school at Northwestern, and for the last twenty- plus years at the harvard Business school. For most of that time I worked with MBa students, until the center of my teaching shifted to executive education. it was this experience, particularly a five- year stint in harvard’s entrepreneur, Owner, President program (EOP), that inspired this book.1 Working intimately with leaders from nearly every industry and nation as they confronted their own real- world strategic issues changed not only how I teach strategy, but, more fundamentally, how I think about it. The experience led me to challenge some of strategy’s basic precepts, and ultimately to question both the culture and mind- set that have grown up around it. even more important, teaching in eOP forced me to confront how strategy is really made in most businesses, and by whom. All of this convinced me that it is time for a change. time to approach strategy in a different way and time to transform the process from a mechanical, analytical activity to something deeper, more meaningful, and far more rewarding for a leader.

THE ROAD TO HERE Fifty years ago strategy was taught as part of the general management curriculum in most business schools. in the academy as well as in practice, it was identified as the most important duty of the president—the person with overarching responsibility for setting a company’s course and seeing the journey through. This vital role encompassed both formulation and implementation: thinking and doing combined. Although strategy had considerable depth then, it didn’t have much rigor. heuristically, managers used the ubiquitous SWOT model (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to

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assess their businesses and identify attractive competitive positions. how best to do that, though, was far from clear. Other than making lists of various factors to consider, managers had few tools to help them make these judgments. In the 1980s and ’90s, my colleague Michael e. Porter broke important new ground in the field. His watershed came in firming up the Opportunities and Threats side of the analysis by bringing much- needed economic theory and empirical evidence to strategy’s underpinnings, providing a far more sophisticated way to assess a firm’s competitive environment. This led to a revolution in both the practice and teaching of strategy. In particular, managers came to understand the profound impact industry forces could have on the success of their businesses and how they could use that information to position their firms propitiously. Advances over the next few decades not only refined the tools but spawned a whole new industry. Strategy in many ways became the bailiwick of specialists— legions of MBAs and strategy consultants, armed with frameworks, techniques, and data— eager to help managers analyze their industries or position their firms for strategic advantage. In truth, they had a lot to offer. My own academic training and research in this period reflected this intellectual environment, and what I did in the classroom for many years thereafter was a living embodiment of this “new” field of strategy. In time, though, a host of unintended consequences developed from what in its own right was a very good thing. Most notably, strategy became more about formulation than implementation, and more about getting the analysis right at the outset than living with a strategy over time. equally problematic, the leader’s unique role as arbiter and steward of strategy had been eclipsed. While countless books have been written about strategy in the last thirty years, virtually nothing has been written about the strategist and what this vital role requires of the person who shoulders it. It wasn’t until years into this shift that I fully realized what had happened. it was classic shakespeare: as a field, we had hoisted ourselves on our own petard. We had demoted strategy from the top of the organization to a specialist function. Chasing a new ideal, we had lost sight of the value of what we had— the richness of judgment, the continuity of purpose, the will to commit an organization to a particular path. With all good intentions, we had backed strategy into a narrow corner and reduced it to a left- brain exercise. in doing so, we lost much of its vitality and much of its connection to the day- to- day life of a company, and we lost sight of what it takes to lead the effort. Teaching in the EOP program drove these insights home for me. WhenI first started working with the group, I used a curriculum that was much like one I would use in any executive program.

Through a series of class discussions and presentations, we discussed the enduring principles of strategy, the frameworks that capture them, and a series of case studies that brought the concepts and tensions alive. We still do that— and it’s a valuable part of what we do. But in between class sessions, the EOP students— all accomplished executives and entrepreneurs— started to ask if they could meet me in my office to talk about various situations they were facing in their companies. These conversations often took place at unusual hours, and sometimes lasted far into the evening. Most started out predictably enough: We talked about the conditions in their industries, the strengths and weaknesses of their own companies, and their efforts to build or extend a competitive advantage. Some discussions ended there, and a thoughtful application of whatever we’d been doing in class seemed to meet the need. Often, though, these conversations took a different turn. Alongside all the conventional questions were ones about what to do when the limits of analysis had been reached and the way forward was still not clear; questions about when to move away from an existing competitive advantage and when to try to stay the course; questions about reinventing a business or identifying a new purpose, a new reason to matter. even though many of the companies at issue were remarkably successful (one had grown from a start- up to $2 billion in revenue in just nine years), almost none had the kind of long- run sustainable competitive advantage that strategy books tout as the holy grail. Working with these managers, typically over three years, and hearing the stories within the stories, I came to see that we cannot afford to think of strategy as something fixed, a problem that is solved and settled. strategy— the system of value creation that underlies a company’s competitive position and uniqueness— has to be embraced as something open, not something closed. it is a system that evolves, moves, and changes. In these late- night one- on- one conversations, I also saw something else: I saw the strategist, the human being, the leader. I saw how responsible these executives feel for getting things right. I saw how invested they are in these choices, and how much is at stake. I saw the energy and commitment they bring to this endeavor. I saw their confidential concerns, too: “am I doing this job well? am I providing the leadership my company needs?” And, more than anything, I saw in these conversations the tremendous potential these leaders hold in their hands, and the profound opportunity they have to make a difference in the life of a company. In those moments together, we both came to understand that if their businesses were going to pull away from the pack, to create a difference that mattered, it had to start with them.

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A NEW UNDERSTANDING In all our lives there are times of learning that transform us, that distance us from the familiar, and make us see it in new ways. For me, the eOP experience was one of those times. it not only changed some of my most central views about strategy; it gave me a new perspective on the strategist, and on the power and promise of that role. In these pages I will share with you what I have learned. in doing so, I hope that you will gain a new understanding about what strategy is, why it matters, and what you must do to lead the effort. I also hope that you will come to see that beyond the analytics and insights of highly skilled advisors and the exhortations of “how- to” guides, there is a need for judgment, for continuity, for responsibility that rests squarely with you— as a leader. Because this role rests with you, The Strategist is a personal call to action. it reinstates an essential component of the strategy-

making process that has been ignored for decades: You. The leader. The person who must live the questions that matter most. That’s why my ultimate goal here is not to “teach strategy,” but to equip and inspire you to be a strategist, a leader whose time at the helm could have a profound effect on the fortunes of your organization.

From Cynthia A. Montgomery’s book: The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs, New York, HarperBusiness, 2012. For more information visit www.cynthiamontgomery.com or follow me on Twitter @LeadStrategy.

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25/10/12 11:57 AM

COLOUR VERSION

B&W VERS

Sophie WOODROOFFE

Harnessing the Power of Habit:

with Charles Duhigg Sophie Woodrooffe, Sparksheet Editorial Intern at Spafax In his bestselling book “The Power of Habit,” New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg explains how understanding our habits – and how to change them – is the key to success in business and everyday life. We spoke to the author.

So if somebody comes in and says, “look, I’m going to make sure that nobody gets hurt today,” that’s something that people can buy into.

In the book you talk about how forming habits can help us save energy and brainpower. Does that mean habits make us more efficient? Absolutely. It’s a way for our brain to seek out an opportunity to achieve the same behaviour with less energy expenditure and less thought assigned to it. That’s why habits exist.

If, on the other hand, Paul O’Neill had said, “look, you’re going to show up every day and the keystone habit is making as much money as humanly possible, but your wages will stay exactly the same,” obviously no one is going to buy into that.

Efficiency is very important when it comes to neurological activity because the more efficient the brain is at certain activities, the more mental space you have to, for instance, dream up new things or think about something else.

But can’t habits – even good ones – sometimes lead to a lack of flexibility and adaptability within organizations? Efficiency and adaptability are always in conflict with each other. When something becomes more efficient, by its very nature it tends to be much less flexible. As habits develop, particularly in corporations, people stop paying conscious thought to the activity they’re performing. They lose some of that flexibility, which is why predictable accidents happen. You suggest that it’s important for organizations to form “keystone habits,” which can percolate into everything they do. For instance, as CEO of Alcoa, Paul O’Neill focused on worker safety. But how do you get employees to buy in? The trick is to find the keystone habit that employees can intuitively see some sort of correspondence with. For Paul O’Neill at Alcoa it was safety. There was a huge amount of concern around people showing up for work and getting injured. Nobody feels comfortable going to work and believing they are going to get hurt.

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At Alcoa, the line workers couldn’t participate in the benefits of greater efficiency – there’s no inherent reward in that for them – so they focused on the things that actually impacted their lives, which in this particular case was safety.

You write that the golden rule of habit change is belief and you explain how Starbucks creates a belief system by teaching its employees virtues like self-discipline. Do we really want to put our faith in brands? Allowing companies to create habits and take advantage of their training doesn’t mean you’re handing over your ability to think. A lot of people need these highly structured environments that give them an opportunity to learn, and it’s very beneficial for them to go work for companies like Starbucks. That said, ultimately what Starbucks is teaching is the ability to marshal your own willpower, critical thinking and the ability to set goals and plans. Hopefully people walk away from that experience with a better understanding of how success occurs, which means they have the tools to take greater responsibility for their own lives.

with Charles

Duhigg (cont)

5. One of the most fascinating and frightening chapters of your book details how retail brands like Target track our habits with such precision that they can tell whether someone is pregnant before she’s even told her family. How do brands take advantage of all the data out there without crossing into creepy territory?There’s a trade-off happening within society. Most of the advances that create convenience in a buying experience also create data. The reason why that convenience is created – despite being expensive for companies – is so that they can get the data. People need to make a choice about what type of trade-off they’re comfortable with. People are totally comfortable with this trade-off in the online realm. Nobody ever really feels like Amazon is creepy for suggesting books to customers. It’s when it gets offline that people seem to have some issues about it. But I think that conception of privacy is changing, and as people become more comfortable and familiar with the precise formula of this trade-off, people will be able to make more informed choices. That’s what stops it from being creepy. It’s just: Where do you fall on that line?

6. The book’s thesis involves what you call “the habit loop,” which consists of a cue, a routine and a reward. You also suggest that marketers need to create a “craving” for their product in order to tap into that loop. You use toothpaste as an example. Is this true for content as well? For a lot of people, coming to an online magazine is not a habit. They’re coming because they’re making a conscious decision to do so. But there is some online behaviour that is habitual: people clicking through their favourite websites, for example. They go to the same sites over and over again because they are looking for some sort of distraction and they become habituated to seeking distraction in this one particular form. It happens all the time.

7. And clearly lots of websites out there do a good job of exploiting that craving! Definitely. For example, sites like Huffington Post and I Can Haz Cheezburger?, or Gawker for that matter. A lot of them present content in these very quick paragraphs, which you can click through very easily. The reason for that is because the sites want it to become habit forming to click to the next page – you get this burst of entertainment and then move immediately to something new.

Sophie Woodrooffe is the Editorial Assistant at Sparksheet. She recently graduated from the University of Alberta with an MA in Philosophy and keeps busy curating the web, indulging in social media, and copy editing for local and international clients. Follow her on Twitter @dswdrff, www.sparksheet.com .

Charles Duhigg is the author of The Power of Habit, a bestselling book about the science of habit formation in our lives, companies and societies. In it, Charles sheds light on scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed, bringing to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation. Charles is a native of New Mexico. He studied history at Yale and received an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has appeared on This American Life, N.P .R., The Newshour with Jim Lehrer and Frontline. Before becoming a journalist, Charles worked in private equity and – for one terrifying day – was a bike messenger in San Francisco.

Charles DUHIGG

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THE ROLE OF

TECHNOLOGY IN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

BY Mark

Aboud

The digital economy has forever changed the nature of business. Successful companies must now be adept at differentiating their products and corporate reputation with a technology backbone, but one area that is underutilized is the role of technology in employee engagement. Many companies still have a tendency to look at themselves in isolation, in their own silo. Sometimes those silos even exist within a company. Great companies demonstrate an ability to break molds and find innovation by taking ideas from other industries, and using technology to improve employee engagement with customers, thus accelerating observations into innovations that improve their company.

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What they do and how they do it will been as passionate about improving True business success is built behind 1000000101100000100110000010011100010000100001000100001110101010000010001001001010000000111100000 directly affect customers’ attitudes of their company’s products? engaged employees supported by 1000001001100000100111000100001000010001000011101010100000100010010010100000001111000000101100000 your company. Your employees are best the right technology. Innovative 1000001001110001000010000100010000111010101000001000100100101000000011110000001011000001001100000 placed to ask “What if…” and translate At SAP, employee engagement was and companies understand that the 110001000010000100010000111010101000001000100100101000000011110000001011000001001100000100111000100 that into “Wow.” remains fundamental to developing transactional nature of business today 00001000100001110101010000010001001001010000000111100000010110000010011000001001110001000010000100 SAP’s in-memory database – SAP HANA. demands exceptional staff adept 00011101010100000100010010010100000001111000000101100000100110000010011100010000100001000100001110 Who we hire and how we deploy them Our development teams created and at understanding and addressing can be as important as the products or continue to improve and expand SAP customer concerns, with processes in 1000001000100100101000000011110000001011000001001100000100111000100001000010001000011101010100000 services we sell. Engaged employees HANA using the principles of design place to ensure the next great idea is 01001001010000000111100000010110000010011000001001110001000010000100010000111010101000001000100100 notice things, and are best placed to thinking. All logic and components of detected and implemented. 0000001111000000101100000100110000010011100010000100001000100001110101010000010001001001010000000 report those issues up the operations the technology have been originated 0000001011000001001100000100111000100001000010001000011101010100000100010010010100000001111000000 chain, as long as managers allow their – and only been originated – from 00000100110000010011100010000100001000100001110101010000010001001001010000000111100000010110000010 reporting systems to break down customers’ needs and desires, and 00000100111000100001000010001000011101010100000100010010010100000001111000000101100000100110000010 internal silos. Technology helps engaged these needs and desires continue to Mark Aboud, managing director employees input crucial information shape the evolution of the technology. 00010000100001000100001110101010000010001001001010000000111100000010110000010011000001001110001000 of SAP Canada, is responsible for throughout the company. This innovative nature of SAP HANA 0001000100001110101010000010001001001010000000111100000010110000010011000001001110001000010000100 all of SAP’s business operations fundamentally changes the landscape in Canada and for driving further 00011101010100000100010010010100000001111000000101100000100110000010011100010000100001000100001110 The Ritz-Carlton, which prides itself on moving forward. 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We broad experience in the business quick and effective response to are just learning where such a new 0000100110000010011100010000100001000100001110101010000010001001001010000000111100000010110000010 software industry, and has led winning sales and executive teams customer concerns is supplemented by a philosophy with regard to engaging 00001001110001000010000100010000111010101000001000100100101000000011110000001011000001001100000100 in the IT sector. His successful technological backbone of information employees in creating productions can 0010000100001000100001110101010000010001001001010000000111100000010110000010011000001001110001000 25-year career includes executive sharing. Ritz-Carlton employees help take SAP. and sales management roles with 00010001000011101010100000100010010010100000001111000000101100000100110000010011100010000100001000 each other understand the unique companies such as Siebel Systems, 001110101010000010001001001010000000111100000010110000010011000001001110001000010000100010000111010 demands of each customer, even at Increasingly, the differentiation between Xerox Corporation, and Digital 00001000100100101000000011110000001011000001001100000100111000100001000010001000011101010100000100 multiple physical locations. products and services, inventory and Equipment Corporation. bandwidth continues to blur business 010010100000001111000000101100000100110000010011100010000100001000100001110101010000010001001001010 0000111100000010110000010011000001001110001000010000100010000111010101000001000100100101000000011110 000101100000100110000010011100010000100001000100001110101010000010001001001010000000111100000010110 00100110000010011100010000100001011000001001110001000010000101100000100111000100001000010110000010 WINTER 2013 | | 63

Companies aren’t families they’re battlefields in a civil war. Yet despite this capacity for internecine warfare, most companies roll along relatively peacefully, year after year, because they have routines – habits – that create truces that allow everyone to set aside their rivalries long enough to get a day’s work done.”

A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.”

Robert B.

CIALDINI

Charles

New York Times Investigative Reporter & Bestselling Author, The Power of Habit

New York Times Bestselling author of Influence: Science & Practice and Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“

The problem is that most people spend their lives looking but not truly seeing, or, as Sherlock Holmes, the meticulous English detective, declared to his partner, Dr. Watson, “You see, but you do not observe.”

DUHIGG

Satisfied customers are the best way to market your business, because they are the ones that become your word-of-mouth army they are your customer evangelists.”

Scott

STRATTEN

Bestselling author of UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging and The Book of Business Awesome: How Engaging Your Customers & Employees Can Make Your Business Thrive

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| WINTER 2013

Joe NAVARRO

Former FBI special agent, Bestselling Author of What Every Body is Saying & One of the World’s Foremost Authorities on Reading Non-Verbal Communications

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