Co-working spaces

After a year of travelling (that is the life of the consultant) I am back home with the dreaded notion of having to find a place to call "my office" - home is not an option as the capacity for distractions is so high that it makes it a bad option for me - you have to know yourself and how you function best.

After visiting some colleagues in Boston, I decided to try a co-working space in Miami in a place called Buro. After a few days the experience has been a very positive one. I can work with minimal distractions and it feels the same as an office (with the added benefit that the boss or client are not there). In this case the decor is very nice and the view from the floor is very Miami (lots of palm trees and sun).

I will keep you posted on my experience as it progresses.

Triggering a full reorganization

How often do you stir things up in your company? I was turn to this topic by a conversation I had about operational efficiency. I was thinking about how often you should look at what you are doing and look for ways to improve it. If you go by the Kaizen methodology, then you are doing this constantly... this works great for small changes but not for big ones. Full-on reorganizations can be triggered by traumatic events but the price you pay in organizational stress is great.
I recommend you are always on Kaizen mode; it is a great way to do business and life in general. But, how do you decide is the right time to do a full-on reorganization? The conditions I think could trigger a full reorganization are:

• Financial results are not there for 3 quarters or more. You are underperforming and it is not the result of a disaster, and the recovery trend is not there.
• You tried incremental enhancements and they are not having enough impact.
• Your key decision processes are convoluted or ineffective.
• Key players leave or arrive into your organization (for example, after a merger or acquisition).
• Your market conditions have changed dramatically (new and strong competitors; new business models)

These are a few of the conditions; your individual reasons may vary and add to this list. If you decide that a reorganization is in order, just be careful to fix the issues with a holistic approach.

What to do with self-sabotaging people – Part 1

I was just in a discussion with one of my Linkedin groups as to how to handle people who are self-sabotaging. First things first, how do you spot a self-sabotaging person? Here are a few of their characteristics:

 

1. Self-sabotaging people are aware of what needs to be done, but do something else.
2. They stop learning and listening - they believe they already know what they need to know.
3. They stop asking for counsel or use the wrong advisors [we should use only wise and trusted advisors].
4. They spend their energy in menial things and events; they don’t pick their fights – they sweat the small stuff and everything is a conflict to the death.
5. They’re forever looking at the past: what mistakes they made, what [they think] people did to them, how they were wronged.
6. They are always looking at the future [but do nothing to achieve it] – they wish upon every star but never lift a finger to make things happen.
7. They make excuses for their behavior and don’t take responsibility – my parents treated me bad, my [condition] excuses my [behavior].
8. They believe the labels they apply to themselves – I am [neurotic, unlucky, ugly, fat] so I can’t change [something]
9. They always believe things are too difficult and find the negative in everything.

They not only waste their time, but yours. They come into your office and take precious energy away from people and things that really need it, they leave you exhausted and little less alive than before, they don’t leave anything behind but stress and desperation. But, what should you do with them? In my next post, I will present a good list of solid advice as to how to handle this type of person.

Deciding on controversial features for products

I’ve just discovered that leaving your account logged on Facebook allows CNN.com to somehow connect to it and see who of your friends have linked to CNN stories. To say the least, I was a little surprised to see a friend’s name with a link to a CNN.COM article, since I wasn’t logged into CNN and they didn’t ask for permission to connect to my Facebook account. My first instinct was to see behind my shoulder to see if the illuminati were behind me.

I did a little experimenting, logging out of Facebook and reloading the CNN page got me blank box with the caption that friends’ links would be shown there. Logging to Facebook again reintroduced the news about my friend’s link. Somehow they were getting access to my friend lists.

From the Product Management perspective, how do you decide on this type of features? I can think of several people who will love it, and a many more that will hate it. Obviously you want your product to remain competitive and offer features that go the extra mile for your customers. At the same time, if it takes a PhD to customize your preferences that would be a turn off.

To address this type of features, the steps I would follow would be:

• Prototype the hell out of it.

• Use customer’s panels and demo it in front of large groups

• Announce it and highlight it when it is shown for the first time.

• Build a “quick kill” or “shut down” button into the feature.

• Prepare for fallout in case it goes the wrong way.

Obviously I am simplifying the situation but the approach may help your company avoid Facebook-like privacy problems.

Don't steal their thunder

I was in a conversation with an HR person today and the topic turned to good and bad coworkers.  The conversation brought me the following memory:

"I was part of a team of four that was working on a new strategy for the company. We worked for several days putting together a document that would help launch the strategy effort  and sent it to the VP in charge of the new strategy. The VP, who didn't really help with the document, changed a few words and sent a message to the CEO and others saying that HE worked on the document ALL NIGHT and asking them for feedback. We would have never learned of this, if not for the fact that the CEO sent a reply to the whole team saying that the document was brilliant and thanking HIM for the effort"

We were speechless. He had passed our work as his own! Nobody, but me, in the team confronted the VP and he ended up taking the glory (and later, a promotion). Our associated continued for several years, and I never forgot the incident. I was very cautious as to what material I sent him, and always made sure that people who needed to know were CC'd.
My takeaways are:

1. Always make sure to let the right people know the job you are making - there is nothing wrong with proper self promotion.
2. Give credit where credit is due. People will ALWAYS remember if you steal their thunder.
3. When in this situation, confront the person. Don't shy away from establishing your role in the effort. It is not humility to let somebody steal your credit.

Has this ever happened to you? How did you manage/resolve it?

Blog post for Author's Globe & customer's rights

The blog post for Author's Globe was published yesterday here . It was a tremendously informative conference by Dan Ariely. I had a lot of fun writing the post.

On a separate note, I have been having a difference of opinion with a service provider and wanted to share it with you. The situation is this, I have contracted a series of services from provider "A", and for the past 3 months one of the services has been unavailable, after a lot of going back and forth I found out that the service in question is subcontracted and the reason for the lack of availability has been that the service provider "A" hasn't been paying the subcontractor - according to service provider "A", they forgot to pay (for two months the story was very different and I did everything I could to help restore the service). Now, service provider "A" has paid his past dues and the service will be restored in the future (there is a built in one month delay to reactivation).

After learning all of this I substracted the amount for the services that I did not receive from my next payment and informed service provider "A" of the adjustment. The amount substracted is less than 5% of the total service bill. Service provider "A" is now in a tiffy as to the amount substracted - mind you that he didn't complain about getting paid for services he was not providing.

This situation got me thinking: What are your customer's rights? Does your company offer a customer's bill of rights? Explicity stating what your customer are entitled to (friendly customer service, 24 hour response to inquiries, automatic deductions from lack of service provided) will help create trust in the relationship . Think about how you are today defining your relationship with your clients; and how clear statements about how you are offering to treat your customer would go a long way to create a mutually beneficial association. In this case, service provider "A" has ensured that I know he is not interested in keeping me as a customer, and that I will be looking at every aspect of the service and payments with a magnifying glass. Ours will not be a relationship with trust in it, and may end up being cut short as a result.

Three quick notes

I will be guest blogger at the Author’s Globe blog – my blog entry will be published on Monday May 10th. The conference I will be blogging about is: Predictably Irrational: Hidden Forces Shaping your Decisions given by Dan Ariely from Duke/MIT and is on May 7th at 12 PM.

I will publish a longer post later but I just have to comment. The economy is still creating unusual situations: a friend of mine was told they didn’t have any projects for him anymore… after only three weeks on the job. How would you explain that at your next job interview? In your company, who is in charge of determining resource acquisition and demand? Also, I have learned of another IT executive leaving Miami for colder beaches (North Carolina). Need to find a way to stop the brain-drain affecting the area.

Last, but not least. I will be becoming a Venture Coach for the The Launch Pad at the University of Miami. The Launch Pad is a UM program for promoting and helping entrepreneurship in the area. (Hopefully) I will be coaching several of their startups. Helping new companies find their way is a great way to keep your edge. Will keep you posted.