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4 Ways NO Defines the Status Quo

December 14, 2011 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

The Status Quo, or The Way Things Are, is rampant. Status-quo mindset pervades people, perceptions and systems. The Status Quo craves stasis and stability.

One of the most pervasive ways in which the status quo is manifested in organizations is by the word NO!

NO is a very powerful word. It is controlling. It is the mantra of a traditional, siloed infrastructure. It is used to keep things in place. And you can’t move forward beyond NO until you know why that powerful word is holding you and your organization back.

By taking a 5,000 foot eagle’s eye view of our situation, we can understand why systems promote stasis by encouraging a NO mindset instead of YES.

1. It’s easier to say NO than YES

The status quo seeks stability and homogeneity. NO is an effortless response because YES – and the act of making that decision – are viewed as disruptive to the status quo. YES requires homework, analysis and consensus. Decision-makers in status-quo, siloed infrastructures can bet that you haven’t done your homework when you want them to make a decision. Are you making it easy for them to tell you NO?

2. NO is the easy answer when you haven’t provided CONTEXT

NO means you haven’t provided that decision-maker adequate context for your request. Of course you have rationalized why your request should be approved. But have you taken a look at the situation from the context of the decision-maker? Are you aware of all of the factors impacting his or her ability to make that decision? What is the history of this decision-maker’s decision-making? Are they a naysayer, historically? Are you only thinking from the context of YOU when you are making your request? Perhaps you should be thinking within the context of that decision-maker.

3. NO means you haven’t provided PERSPECTIVE

Who else is impacted by your request? Because that is what that decision-maker is thinking about. Your request for YES catalyzes a lot of other people asking for YES as well. Is your request perceived by that decision-maker as complimentary or disruptive within the workspace, professional discipline, and industry? Is your perspective of your request limited to YOU and your needs and goals rather than the goals of others? Are you creating a situation which causes conflict across departments or divisions and pits your decision-maker against another? Do they have a history of collaboration or competition? History makes people risk averse. Perhaps you should be thinking from the perspective of that decision-maker.

4. NO is the prudent response when there is no RELEVANCE

Just as you are interested in What’s In It For Me, so is that decision-maker. They may have taken a chance making a decision in the past that resulted in a messy situation reflecting poorly on their leadership. How is your request for their decision relevant to their priorities, objectives and goals as a decision-maker? Make sure you know the history and context involved when asking for YES. You just may be walking into a minefield. What you perceive as a simple request from the context and perspective of YOU, may be relevant and significant to you, and only you.

The language of a relevant request for a decision provides a compelling reason to say YES. Are you making that request relevant to that decision-maker? Are you asking for that decision using the language of that decision-maker? Are you making that decision easy to understand from by that decision-maker?

Otherwise there is an equally compelling reason to remain within the boundaries of the status-quo NO.

What does NO look and sound like in your organization?

This morning, I spoke to the Southeastern Michigan Chapter of IEEE – Women in Engineering. This blog post is an excerpt of that talk I gave and the ensuing round-table discussion, based on a full discussion in my book, Do YOU Mean Business? To learn more about the book, click here.

Filed Under: Angels, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Entrepreneurs and StartUps, Professional Development & Social Selling, Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: cross-functional mindset, professional development, status-quo mindset

Lessons Learned from Spinner Dolphins

October 17, 2011 By Babette Ten Haken 2 Comments

I was in Maui last week. Look, someone had to go and I had my hand up first. Anyway, long story and I just completed the manuscript for my book and off to the publishers. I had to regenerate grey cells. And when one blogs, you obtain your inspiration from, well, anything. Basically your surroundings, dinner conversations, even going up and down grocery store aisles. (We won’t discuss the type of inspiration one obtains when driving in heavy traffic).

I snorkel and swim. Good thing to like to do when in Maui, let alone anywhere. I had the opportunity of snorkeling with the Pacific Whale Foundation eco-tour for smaller groups (which I highly recommend). We went to Molokini Crater, which is one of the best places in Hawaii (let alone anywhere) to go and offers incredibly diverse underwater ecology.

On the way to La Perouse Bay, we encountered about 200 spinner dolphins. Which is unusual. First of all, these wonderful creatures are nocturnal. So seeing a large and energetic group during the day was unexpected. And yes, they spin. They leap out of the water and can rotate as many as 6-8 times before hitting the surface again. Quite a show put on by the adolescents and teenaged spinner dolphins, who were not content to remain with the rest of the group. Show-offs!

What was really unusual, as our on-board ecologists told us, was that about 5 distinct groups of the spinners had come together and were now traveling as one. These amazing creatures realized that occasional collaboration was a great evolutionary strategy. By forming larger groups, the spinner dolphins created a degree of protection from outside predators, like sharks and whales. There were more eyes and echo location to signal danger. Larger groups also offered the opportunity for hybridization of the gene pool. In other words, by breeding with individuals outside of their normal group, the dolphins potentially were introducing new genes into the group which might infer greater resistance and resilience to parasites, barnacles and remoras as well as the microscopic poachers found within these parasites and symbiots.

And there was something else going on. There was at least one other species of dolphin, the spotted dolphin, observed traveling with this large group of spinner dolphins. What was up with that? Inter-species collaboration for starters. Collaboration of a far greater kind, most certainly.

Which got me to thinking about how this rather large group of spinner dolphins had arrived at the concept of collaboration for survival, perhaps in response to changing ecological conditions. I doubt that they reached consensus or hashed it out at Monday morning meetings (you, know, a dolphin version of “OK, who wants to stick out their neck first? I’m into my job security.”).

I wonder who the first dolphin was who made the overture to the second group of spinners to come together. Frankly, I think a whole bunch of groups spontaneously arrived at the same conclusion. Just because it felt, biologically and ecologically, like the right thing to do.

I think it just happened because it had to happen. Talk about sink or swim.

So how many groups of individuals do you have swimming around your company who might benefit from coming together to collaborate for competitive advantage?

There is something to be said, after all, for the value of bringing together diverse perspectives for the benefit of hybridized product development which might allow your company to develop new markets and audiences. And you can’t obtain this perspective if everyone has a siloed mindset and a my-department vs. your-department competitive attitude. You know, that technical professionals vs. non-technical professionals thing. Then there is the competitive advantage created by collaboration with those companies and individuals whom you consider to be your competitors. Sort of like that spotted dolphin. Talk about broader competitive advantage.

Are you one of those individuals who would like to leap out of the water and spin around a few times to shake things up a bit? What is holding you back? Are there departments in your organization with whom you could collaborate, to positively influence competitive outcomes? Perhaps you can see them swimming just beyond the horizon of the walls of your cubicle. I bet they look just like you, not too intimidating. Are they looking back at you when you take a peek over that wall to get a glimpse of them jumping out of the waters in which they are swimming?

So what are you waiting for? Don’t even start to second-guess yourself about the drawbacks of collaborating. I don’t think the spinner dolphins gave it a another thought.

And they looked like they were not only surviving, but thriving.

Filed Under: Entrepreneurs and StartUps, Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: business development, collaboration, cross-functional mindset, hybridization, sales-engineering interface, technical/non-technical collaboration

Back by popular demand. Let’s play 20 questions! Should the VP of Business Development run your next Engineering meeting?

July 4, 2011 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

One of my most popular posts.

Would you voluntarily turn your Engineering meeting over to the VP of Business Development? Think about it: Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, meet Sales and Profitability Goals. The Engineering function is seeking project delivery on time, within budget and with high quality (and 0% defects and elimination of wasteful processes) once the work comes in house. The Sales function has their eye on anywhere from 10-25% growth in gross revenue over last year, as they look towards the upcoming fiscal year and increasing overall net profit. This year is, well, this year.

What type of questions – as a review of the State of Engineering for your company – might the VP of Business Development have for the Engineering Team if s/he were running the next Engineering meeting? What if the VP of Business Development walked in to the meeting, thanked you for your invitation, and said: “Let’s get the cards on the table. I’ve got some questions and I need your input. In review…..”

1. What type of projects are you working on? What types do you wish you were working on?

2. What is the priority of these projects based on forecasting?

3. What type of industrial segments are involved in these projects? Are these the segments we do our best work for?

4. What type of project segments are involved: rapid turnaround, long term projects, medium duration? Are we balanced?

5. How long do you think it should take the Sales Team to win jobs?

6. What is the timeline for Engineering’s completion of these projects, once they are won?

7. What other projects can be anticipated arising from these initial projects?

8. How are these additional or add-on projects being identified by Engineering?

9. What is the rate of new project or add-on project acquisition by Engineering once the Sales Team wins a project?

10. What are the gaps in skill set among Engineering that prevent the Engineering Team from being more successful identifying Opportunities based on the hard-won work by the Sales Team?

11. How much of project completion time can be billed back to the customer?

12. How much of project completion time is eaten by the company?

13. What is the nature of non-billable (wasted?) time and how much is it costing the company per year?

14. How much Engineering time is spent on achieving KPI’s during the course of each project?

15. What is the average amount of time Engineering spends on achieving KPIs, including Lean and Six Sigma / Quality activities?

16. How do these activities directly impact overall project outcome in terms of time to completion?

17. How do these activities impact profitability?

18. How well does the Sales Team factor in Engineering and Quality costs into the project proposals?

19. What are the gaps in the Sales Team’s skill set in terms of understanding the value of Quality/Six Sigma/Lean processes in the overall project outcome, and therefore the project proposal?

20. How can these gaps between the Sales and Engineering processes be bridged for the benefit of Business Development?

Could you answer these questions? Do you go into each Engineering meeting prepared to answer questions like these? Do these types of questions enter into your project planning, as an Engineer? Perhaps they should. Because Engineering shouldn’t be doing Engineering in a tactical, by-project vacuum. And Business Development usually takes a strategic perspective, rather than a tactical one – although sometimes it just looks like a lot of churning and burning and wild goose chases and dead ends.

What if your VP of Business Development is also an Engineer, or perhaps Director of Operations? How does this change your receptivity to their running your next Engineering meeting? Do you think being an Engineer or in Ops is going to change the nature of the profitability-oriented questions they are going to ask you? They’ve crossed over and now incorporate right and
left brain, yin-yang considerations into their thinking. They take a high level, multi-factorial overview of things. They see the problem from around the table,not from one side or the other.

Does your company have KPI’s? Does your Engineering Department have KPI’s? How are these aligned with your Corporation’s KPI’s? Does your Business Development function have KPI’s? How are these aligned with Engineering KPI’s?

With everyone chasing their silo-ed interpretation of KPI’s – and probably bonus money- how is this affecting decision making, interdepartmental collaboration, innovation, employee and customer retention and overall profitability?

A lot to think about. For your next Engineering meeting. Bring it to the table. And invite your VP of Business Development. Like me, they may have a lot more than 20 questions to ask you.

Filed Under: Angels, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Entrepreneurs and StartUps, Sales, Pitching & Business Development Tagged With: business development, cross-functional mindset, engineering, sales, sales engineers, technical/non-technical collaboration

Do you play well with the other children?

July 6, 2010 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

A colleague of mine who works in marketing was relating her frustration to me. The engineering department was unwilling to relinquish ownership of a project.She understood the company was engineering-intensive.Of course the engineering department had come up with the idea that her department was now going to commercialize and, for that matter, make more profitable.

Yet the engineering department was reluctant to lose control of their “baby” to those non-techie marketing and sales types.Even though the commercialization of this engineering marvel would lead to profits offsetting and exceeding R&D costs.

You know the scenario.In fact, you may contribute to just a scenario within your company. C’mon. Admit it.

Pride of ownership is a difficult thing. Because ego is also tied into the equation, although we don’t like to admit it. And we are afraid that if we let our “baby” go, it will turn into something we don’t recognize. And we will lose control. So instead we think of ways to prevent our having to relinquish control.

Which really makes waves among our co-workers. And, by the way, turns what should be a win-win hand-off into an “us vs. them” drama. And perpetuates the status-quo.

How well do you play with the children at your company? With all due respect, I am not calling any of you children. You are highly trained professionals, whether you are engineers or marketers.For the purpose of this discussion, please follow along with my analogy.

Because this analogy not only covers how you get along with the various disciplines within your company, but also how you get along with your clients and, for that matter, with your vendors. You know, the children from the other playgrounds.

Learning to defer to the expertise of others and let them do their “thing” is a real challenge. Especially when we have had our way for so long within a company OR things have been a certain way for so long. We can’t imagine how things will turn out if we are not an integral part of the equation. So we try to interject ourselves back into the thick of things, without respecting the new process.

Which means we become a roadblock for process quality and throughput.

Did you ever think that what you were doing was creating a roadblock? And I don’t need to tell you that all your second-guessing often mis-interpreted as micromanagement.

Project hand-off doesn’t mean you walk away and wash your hands of the project.And yet, that’s exactly what keeps engineers too hands-on for too-long. They are concerned that the marketing and sales efforts will lead to a failure that the engineering department will be accountable for. In fact, engineers are concerned that hand-off to another engineering department (you know, the kids from the other playground) will be unsuccessful in the long run.

Project hand-off means you take a new seat at the table and serve a different collaborative role. This is where you become “all ears” and listen to the language of marketing, sales, business development and perhaps even an engineering department half-way across the globe. This is where you ask great questions (not the second-guessing kind) that allow you to provide even greater value to the team.This is the point where you gain a 360 degree perspective and return that perspective to the engineering department for the next round of new product development.

Do you know what kinds of questions to ask after hand-off? Do you know enough about what goes on post hand-off to formulate these questions?

Of course, more often than not, the hand off between engineering and marketing/sales is so contentious that no one is in the mood for further collaboration. Stop it! That’s not the way you play with the other children. No one was hired to be a solo act at your company.

It all boils down to a matter of trust between colleagues. Even if they aren’t all engineers, aren’t all MBA’s or aren’t all the same age as you are. Depending on where we sit at the table, we see the same things differently.So why not respect a project hand-off as an opportunity to learn from your colleagues?

They just may know what they are doing. After all.

Think about it.

Does your sales or engineering team have a go-to guy or gal?

June 2, 2010 By Babette Ten Haken Leave a Comment

There’s always one in every crowd, or sales / engineering team. It’s the individual who is fearless. He/she asks questions across disciplines, does research between meetings, has dialogues with team members in other disciplines and seriously colors outside the lines. They can lead. They can follow.

Who’s that individual on your team? Because invariably they are the go-to guy or gal.And if your team doesn’t know who these folks are, well, it’s time for you all to go back to the drawing board.

There’s a difference between team players and your cross-functional designee, aka go-to guy or gal. It’s sort of like a switch-hitter or an NFL player who plays both defensive back and wide receiver. Where do these Yin-Yang types come from? Because they are major assets to your business development strategy.

You know, a lot of times, these individuals don’t realize how valuable they are. That’s just the way they do things, they way they think. I was one of “those types.” Years ago, a department head told me “We need to get this done and get it done right. So we are asking you to head up this special assignment.” Until then, I didn’t have an inkling that how I went about things was different than anyone else’s modus operandi. In fact, I always felt that I was the last person to “get it.” So everyone else must already know what I knew. They didn’t.

If you are one of these cross-functional types, consider cultivating your skill set. Some of the traits that you have include:

1.)Ability to facilitate discussions

2.)Ability to think on your feet in a non-structured environment

3.)Ability to seek resources to enhance project outcomes

4.)Ability to see the next project beyond the current project’s outcome

5.)Ability to understand other disciplines, and – if you don’t – to ask questions to help you understand the perspective of other disciplines

6.)Ability to laugh at yourself and bring a sense of humor to your team

7.)Ability to make others work beyond their reservations

8.)Ability to provide vision to the scope of the project

9.)Ability to communicate up and down the management food chain (aka, fearless)

10.)Ability to get along with management tiers without succumbing to becoming political

11.)Ability to remain a straight shooter throughout

12.)Ability to maintain objectivity while keeping your eye on the horizon

If you find yourself getting thrust into these types of roles over and over again, perhaps management sees something in you that you don’t realize. These opportunities look great on your resume as well. So even if you feel you are taking on a lot of “extras” without compensation, your skill set is growing as a result of these assignments. In a sense you are getting on the job training, perhaps resulting in your next career move.

I recommend reflecting on your career path up until now and identifying whether or not you have found yourself as the cross-functional designee more than once. Assess how you can develop your skill set to provide greater value to your current organization and be more marketable to a new organization. If you know of individuals within your organization who have filled such a role, and perhaps have transitioned from engineering to marketing, for example, talk to them. Determine how they went about this transition and how they identified their skill sets.

What are you waiting for?

Filed Under: Professional Development & Social Selling Tagged With: cross-functional mindset, engineering, professional development, sales, technical/non-technial collaboration