What’s an easy decision? Do they exist? Perhaps, deciding whether you want chocolate or vanilla ice cream… You have two choices, which do you prefer? Seems pretty simple and straightforward. Now, what if you’ve set a goal to eat less sugar… The scale tips toward vanilla… but, you’ve also set a goal to save money and the chocolate is on sale… Now, there’s even more to consider.
Although choosing an ice cream flavor may seem trivial, is exemplifies a very important point: The more moving pieces involved in a decision, the more difficult it is to make. And while more information enables better decisions, more variables make the decision-making process more complex.
The same applies to goal setting and measurement. We all recognize their importance, but achieving accuracy is more complicated. Setting goals and measuring used to be fairly simple as they usually related to maximizing and measuring dollars in a particular period. But, as is often the case, times change and now traditional guidelines are almost obsolete and need revision.
For example, in our growing and more complex economy, millions of workers have been leaving their jobs and pursuing other options. Work at home, lifestyle expectations, stress, and work environment are all supplementing wages as key factors in employment and turnover decisions. Additionally, climate change, current events with Russia, inflation, COVID, the stock market, politics, and diversity are all experiencing rapid changes and simultaneously impacting our economy and lifestyles.
Consequently, these societal changes also affect goal setting and measuring.
So how do we improve goal setting and measurement to make them work for us?
Consider the details surround a goal: Long-term versus short-term, quantitative versus qualitative, risk, and objective versus subjective. We also need to think about the process and complexity of setting goals. For example, do you want realistic and achievable or stretch goals? If goals are too simple, they can ignore important aspects of a situation. On the other hand, if there are too many aspects to consider, there can be a lack of focus.
Focus on key elements: Measurement has become quite complex. Ask yourself how important are the results, speed, innovation, and quality when measuring performance? For example, I believe automation has improved the speed and efficiency of many customer service processes. However, customer service and satisfaction are frequently sacrificed. How many times have we been completely frustrated with ineffective electronic customer series efforts? There is a trade off here that needs to be taken into consideration.
Make communication a priority: In most efforts and organizations there are multiple goals and demands. With so much to manage, critical issues can arise in the areas of prioritization, comparison, and measurement. Communicating goals and their measurement throughout an organization is frequently a secondary priority. Why have them if you don’t manage them?
Examine alternatives and change: Do we understand and really believe our goals? For example, nearly everyone acknowledges that the college admissions and decision processes are a mess. Measurements gathered from a broken process don’t tell us anything useful. Reevaluate a system that isn’t working and set new goals that will yield worthwhile measurements.
Get specific: We all understand the importance of goals, purpose, and direction in cultivating commitment, success, teamwork and coordination. Yet, somehow the execution often goes awry. One common reason for goals not being set correctly is that it can be a difficult process. One of the advantages of professional sports is that the goal of winning is simple and clear. It’s not always quite that simple in other businesses, but the more specific you can get, the easier it will be to execute.
Consider various angles: Short-term versus long-term goals is the best example of how goals may conflict. Much of the financial crises in 2008 resulted from short-term greed conflicting with long-term rationality. Remember to look at things from various perspectives and how time may affect progress.
Don’t forget about bias: Bias is, perhaps, the biggest culprit in unreliable results. For example, customer service surveys are notoriously designed to create positive publicity rather than fair evaluations. The purpose of measurement should never be to confirm your positive bias.
Goals and measurement need to be a tool for business improvement rather than an end in itself. Goals are not easy to develop or measure, but the process is critical to organizational success.
Set goals to motivate you and your team to grow and use measurement to genuinely gauge where you’re at and where you need improvement. Ask yourself (and answer honestly), “What am I measuring? How am I measuring? And what is the purpose of my measurement?”
Whether it’s sales, profits, service, customer satisfaction etc., reliability and measurement over time are vastly underrated!
Make goal setting a priority and communicate your goals to those involved. Be certain to understand the different needs of different situations. Use clear and simple measurement tools, and be sure to utilize the process for improvement, rather than a tool for criticism. And remember, we set goals to make progress and even if we don’t achieve what we set out to accomplish, we still end up further along than where we started. So, stay focused on your goals, make them word for you, measure your progress, and keep moving forward.
Dr. Bert Shlensky, President of www.startupconnection.net, offers experience, skills, and a team devoted to developing and executing winning strategies. We guide your plans for business success and unlock your profits.Our strategy includes clear steps, and over 150 free articles and templates to facilitate your efforts and guide your process. We’re here to help you get on track and stay there as you move forward.
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Positive expectations lead to positive results. This is because confidence and energy increase when we believe in ourselves. Conversely, a negative outlook contributes to a lower chance of succeeding. Basically, with positivity, we are capable of whatever we believe we are capable of.
It makes sense, therefore, to create more opportunities to include positivity. This can manifest in many forms: attitude, environment, expectations, etc.
In recent years, it has become more difficult to maintain positive expectations as stress and uncertainty have skyrocketed as a result of the pandemic. Not surprisingly, there has been an increase in depression, suicide, drinking, and crime.
On one hand, we put up with and even enable negativity and bad behavior. For example, in recent weeks, a coached punched another coach, an actor hit another actor, and we allowed senators to act disgracefully while utterly disrespecting a Supreme Court nominee. While all of these occurrences should be intolerable, most of the reactions were minimal or people used it as material for humor. Bad behavior should not be tolerated the way it is.
Fortunately, to offset this, there have also been some recent examples that highlight how positive efforts can improve situations. One of the most incredible reactions to the challenges with Russia is the response of Poland and Ukraine. They have literally helped millions of refuges find food, shelter, clothing, and new lives in less than a month. Their efforts are proving we can be kind, caring, and positive in an environment that is sometimes completely chaotic.
So, how do we forge ahead with a positive outlook that encourages and fosters good behavior and successful results?
Be supportive. Watching parents and little kids is one of the best examples of executing positive expectations. Kids learning to talk, walk, or ride a bike are full of excitement and confidence. At the same time, parents are supportive, encouraging, and watching with glee. If we could support one another, both in and out of work, with this same enthusiasm, how much more successful could we all be?
Consider your perspective. A great (and often unused) tool for developing more positive solutions is to recognize parameters. The recent volatility in the stock market has been well documented. What is not clear is how to analyze and interpret it. For example, two publications reported results with different interpretations and perceptions. One reported that the S&P 500 increased 3.6% in March. The other reported that the S&P 500 declined 4.9 % in the quarter. Both are true, but the interpretation is different.
Weigh all the options. For example, going back to the office creates numerous positive opportunities while working from home has numerous cost, privacy, and lifestyle benefits. In particular, new technologies have made communication, sharing files, and interaction even better. However, being in the office encourages better culture and communication benefits. We must better understand situations, needs, and performance to develop the best solutions. Many decisions are based on tradition and opinions, but maximizing the alternatives can have great benefits. Which option produces the most positive results?
Get out of your comfort zone. Take risks, shake things up, and avoid getting stuck in a rut. This is how we continue to challenge ourselves and foster growth. Risk needs to managed rather than feared. Understanding the risk, the rewards, and the importance of each can help you improve outcomes. Don’t allow fear, uncertainty, or tradition to lower your potential and prevent you from trying something new. The positive: no matter the results, you have gained valuable tools that will help you to continue improving.
Take advantage of opportunities. We’ve had a lot of disruption lately and that can often feel like a challenge rather than an opportunity. But, in my own experience with corporate turnarounds, it’s much easier to motivate, innovate, and develop collaboration in troubled or changing organizations than within those whose culture is based on the closed-minded rule of “we’ve always done it this way.” It’s amazing how many individuals and organizations have incorporated new efforts like E-commerce, work-from-home, Zoom, etc. in order to adapt to the times and, consequently, have actually improved their results.
All of this isn’t to say that every situation should be met with a naive sense of positivity. There are, of course, situations that are very nuanced and require more than a “just look on the bright side” response. Negative emotions should be addressed and we should always try to respond to distress with empathy rather than false reassurances.
In the end, however, looking for the positive rather than focusing on the negative usually gets us further in the long run. I think we can all agree that we’re happier when there are good things happening. So, let’s not only look for the positive, but help put more positivity out there through our work, thoughts, words, and actions.
Please visit our website www.startupconection.net to book a Free Session in which we can help you develop an action plan that will evaluate potential and risk. We always discuss process, expected outcomes, and cost before you make any commitment.
Dr. Bert Shlensky, president of Startup Connection, prides himself on his ability to define what is unique about each and every business. He works closely with individuals to develop a personalized approach that targets specific areas of concern and offers solutions based on his 40+ years of experience. His expert team will address your particular needs while working to save you time and money.
If you think are you aren’t susceptible to denial, you’re in denial. It’s a difficult thing to manage, compared to simple lying, because much of denial can be unconscious and, as a result, more difficult to recognize and change. But, change we must, because denial prevents us from seeing and addressing critical issues that could greatly affect outcomes, both personally and professionally.
I find that, except for the news, we favor positive circumstances and sometimes deny challenges. We “see what we want to see” by checking the stock market or the score of the game only when we’re ahead. We look for positive weather forecasts and focus on the great things about our kids. This type of tunnel vision can make it hard to see the whole picture. It can also affect decision-making in cases where positive bias greatly alters assessments.
Psychologically, denial is a mechanism that results from the inability to cope with reality. However, there is an immutable fact about denial: it does not work as a long-term problem-solving mechanism. Reality always wins. And when it does, the next step in the process is blame, which shifts responsibility onto someone or something else. Blame eases the pain when reality bites. But, we need to take ownership of our actions and recognize that if we work to avoid bias and denial, we can often avoid having to face a harsh reality down the road.
Bias is one of the greatest deterrents of accurate scientific analysis. I also believe social bias can be more impactful than statistical. These include our preconceived perceptions and assumptions. I am always amazed that many programmed employee selection tools outperform interviews, especially in jobs requiring specific skills. Similarly, the perceptions of many presentations are established in the first minute or so.
Cultural and environmental factors also affect bias. Dress, demographics, weather, location, and culture all affect perceptions in the decision-making process. These can also be used to your advantage when talking to colleagues by increasing bonding with similar people. Whenever I meet someone who is also from the Southside of Chicago like I am, agreement on differences becomes much easier.
Denial is more prone to happen when there is more complexity and variables involved in a situation. Our brains try to counter this by attempting to create simplicity. Once we understand that this is what is happening, we can use to our advantage. For example, we all know simplicity can help decision making by prioritizing, focusing, and pursuing clear goals. On the other hand, we need to consider multiple factors like rewards, probability, environment, resources etc. in making our decisions. Here are some examples where the two strategies can be complementary:
The 80-20 rule (which states 80% of results are from 20% of effort) calls for focus to be more important than ever. Eliminating unproductive efforts is the most important aspect of the 80-20 rule.
More data, variables, and analysis are generally good, but it must be useful, valid, and correct. For example, if you are measuring an outcome, pinpoint the important factors rather than trying to measure everything. In particular, you should be careful to avoid random relationships and misinterpreting cause and effect. For instance, pre-pandemic data may be less relevant than before.
Most efforts have multiple goals like sales, growth, profit, quality, good will, satisfaction, etc. What is the priority and importance of these goals and how are you measuring them? Personally, I am always battling writing long blogs that are intellectually interesting versus short practical blogs with specific recommendations.
There are tradeoffs among innovation, experience, excellence, risk, and quality. Quite simply, the more innovation you pursue, the more trial and error. In contrast, you want experience and quality if you are doing things like open-heart surgery.
Denial reduction can also be affected by our attitudes and mood. Don’t underestimate the benefits of just taking a break or getting enough sleep in developing a more realistic approach. One of the side effects of working from home may be an endless workday and a lack of distractions, which provides no time to relax and reenergize.
Balancing simple and complex tasks can be improved by focusing on your strengths and paying less attention to your weaknesses. For example, I have a client who has the best product in the industry, but charges a little more money. She has achieved success by moderating some prices, but mostly developing messages that explain her quality difference.
Don’t underestimate intuition, which is quite different from denial. While we continually get more data to make better decisions, we should not forget our gut feelings. Someone does win the lottery and some of the best outcomes come from low probability efforts. For example, the pandemic has caused great uncertainty about 2022 and there are lots of opportunities to take a little more risk.
The use of virtual rather than rigid models can help deal with complex issues. They are easier to understand, diagnose errors, and manage multiple situations. In general, we are moving towards more flexibility in decision-making.
Openness can also facilitate avoiding denial. Organizations need to be open to measurement and feedback. Observing, understanding, and sharing financials, operations reports, and sales reports are the first step. Simple research tools that social media can provide can be used regularly. A management style such as the “walk around” and asking simply, “how are you doing, is there anything you need?” can be priceless. Look for alternatives and ‘what if’ discussions.
We all experience denial, but it is our responsibility to admit when we’re allowing our own biases to influence us or giving in to our brain’s desire to simplify complex issues. Therefore, we must constantly work to develop safeguards that will help recognize, test, and avoid denial. Because when we can see the full picture clearly, we are able to react and respond in the most effective way.
Success is affected by a variety of factors. Sure, people get lucky and win the lottery while other people spend years focusing on excellence and perfecting their talents without ever catching a break… But, when it comes down to it, most of us usually need a mixture of excellence and luck to succeed.
Not surprisingly, circumstances also affect success. Last year, the pandemic left millions of workers unemployed whereas, this year, many employers can’t find workers. Was the loss of jobs simply “bad luck?” Is the inability to find workers due to a lack of excellence? It’s difficult to say when circumstances are not black and white if it was due to excellence or luck.
In contrast, many efforts like sports and skilled trades require a certain level of excellence to succeed. The application process for elite colleges provides a good example of this. Hundreds of thousands of students with excellent grades, test scores, and experiences apply to the top universities. Many of these universities admit only 3-5% of the applicants. Thus, like many efforts, there is a level of excellence required to participate, but luck can play a part in the final selection process.
So, how do we change our efforts to develop better chances of success?
When it comes to luck, there are lots of ways to improve your chances:
TRY. As Wayne Gretzky said, “Only one thing is ever guaranteed, that is that you will definitely not achieve the goal if you don’t take the shot.” So, buying more lottery tickets or applying to more schools can improve your chances!
Understand your environment. This can include the economy, culture, demographics, etc. You clearly have better chances of succeeding in today’s environment than during the pandemic. Women and minorities are also gaining more employment opportunities than in the past.
Look at more alternatives. The discussion should not be retail versus E-commerce, but how to maximize both. Outsourcing and expert resources should be regular considerations. Automation and the development of inexpensive accounting, inventory, and financial tools can create significant improvements.
Prioritize. This is a critical tool to improve what we perceive as luck. Using the 80-20 rule, eliminating ineffective programs, and focusing on winning results can all benefit effectiveness. For example, I am always amazed at the time and emotion we spend caring about sports teams that have no chance of winning.
In general, there is more potential in improving excellence and effectiveness rather than focusing on luck. Some ways to boost excellence:
Find what you do best. Walt Disney once said, “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.” This is one of the best mantras for excellence. Do I (and does our team) have a sense of pride and passion for our efforts?
Spend more time reviewing the processes of change versus excellence. The debate of pursuing improved excellence versus change is affected by a number of issues. We need to understand how problems affected by goals versus tactics can require different solutions. Here are some examples where organizations simply need to understand their new environment and execute better:
Demographics: The world is simply getting older and more ethnically diverse. For example, minority births represent more than 50% of current U.S. births.
Digital transformation: Businesses need to change rather than just execute. Opportunities like the cloud, Google, CRM systems, digital phones, apps, etc. are simply changing the processes, costs, and marketing of business. Amazon and other online retailers are revolutionizing the need for traditional brick and mortar stores. Similarly, sharing sites like Uber and Airbnb are revolutionizing their industries.
Adapt and fully implement change. Businesses are subject to more radical change and need to build mechanisms into their processes. While we will face more uncertainty and instability, we need to focus on changing and simplifying processes to reduce the risks. Strategies like pivoting and develop/test/measure/adapt need to be built into our organizations.
Focus on your customers. Are you satisfying their product, service, and value needs? For example, many companies have improved results by setting a goal of exceeding rather than just meeting customer needs.
Develop a stronger pricing strategy. There are numerous tools to improve results without deteriorating your brand. Packaging efforts like bundling and unbundling, quantities, timing, quality, the Internet, and service are all elements that should be part of pricing strategies. For example, Costco and Four Seasons Hotels follow quite different, but successful value strategies.
Set goals and measure results. Focus on judgement measures as well as quantitative. We must have greater awareness of what, how, and why we are measuring. In particular, it is sometimes easier to measure activity (visits, clicks, customers) than results (sales, conversions, and profits).
Pay attention to how bias and prejudice affect decisions. Last year, everyone criticized the NBA for not hiring black coaches. This year, most of the hiring changes were black. The best part was that race did not seem to be a part of the process.
Excellence and luck are both important for success. They need to be understood and managed rather than viewed as excuses. Understanding the risk, the rewards, and the role experience and skill play in our decisions can improve outcomes. Don’t allow fear, uncertainty, or tradition to lower your potential and prevent you from trying something new.
Everyone’s situation is different—you may start with a little luck and need to focus on excellence or you may be at the top of your game, but just can’t catch a break. Wherever you find yourself, take a step back and look at what you’re working with—what do you need more of? Excellence or Luck? And what will you do to obtain it?
Contact us for a FREE evaluation and get an alternative perspective on your business. We’d love to help you identify ways to adapt to current trends. No one has time for BS—so we’ll cut straight to the point and answer any questions you have. Reach us at:
Dr. Bert Shlensky, President of StartupConnection.net, has an MBA and PhD from the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. He served as the President of WestPoint Pepperell’s apparel fabrics business and President & CEO of Sure Fit Products. More than 2,000 clients have benefitted from his business acumen over the course of his long career. He now focuses on working with select startups and small businesses. For more information, please visit our website: https://www.startupconnection.net/
All of our decisions, both personal and business related, are influenced by issues of support versus tough love. When it comes to small business, I prefer an approach that ensures adequate understanding and support in order to help someone develop the confidence and skills required to make sound decisions. This approach can also facilitate tough love strategies (when needed) that require analysis, reality, and challenge. Choosing the timing and nature of the combination can be made effective.
Training, mentoring, teamwork, and confidence are critical for effective decision-making. Nevertheless, tough love in the form of technical information, probability, and risk are necessary to validate the decision process. In other words, you must develop methods of support to realistically assess the tough love components of decision-making.
Here are some suggestions to achieve that balance:
Start with understanding the culture and participants. For example, I tend to be left brain and more technical. Others are more right brain and supportive. You need both. Yet, many people are too proud and reject help. It’s easy to be so convinced of what you’re saying that you end up ignoring how your listeners will receive your words. For example, if you take into account who your audience is, you can cater how you present your information in order to be more effective. This is especially important when dealing with technical information and strong opinions.
Age, status, education, and reputation of the listener and communicator can all dramatically affect perceptions. We frequently underestimate the importance of the perceptions of analytical information in communicating arguments among different groups. For example, our treatment of minority groups like Asians and Native Americans is frequently not considered. If you don’t understand where your audience is coming from, you’re probably not going to be able to help them or communicate effectively with them.
Improve Decision Making. We like simple and easy solutions. People with great intentions can sometimes lack understanding. Simple, clear, and actionable efforts can resolve this. A simple suggestion: annual analysis is much simpler to understand and analyze unless you need the monthly changes.
Communication also needs a “WIN-WIN” mindset instead of a competitive environment. We know positive feedback is received more favorably and, yet, how often do we see (or even participate in) criticism, blame, and one-upping when we find ourselves in pressure situations? Can you find ways to compromise and look for solutions that benefit all instead of just one? For example, following the 80-20 rule and focusing on the best opportunities is one of the most productive efforts to be supportive and address tough love issues.
Tom Peters’ book, Management by Walking Around, is the best management tool for mitigating the support versus tough love dilemma. It encourages a relaxed atmosphere where one can understand the context of an issue or the background of an individual. A corollary of that tool is maintaining informality, which is important in the pandemic environment. Informal meetings with customers and colleagues as well as informal lunches or social events can be highly beneficial. One of the simplest and best tools to develop support is to simply say please, thank you, and ask, “How are you?”
Environmental issues can be the most ignored factor in creating a culture. Hierarchical structures, formal office settings, and even dress code can affect problem solving. We need to understand and adjust to new rules of communication and collaboration. The pandemic has forced us to adapt in a plethora of ways: work from home, social gatherings, video meetings, etc. And there will continue to be change as the “new normal” becomes more defined. It’s important to keep working to understand the environment and how it affects you and your employees, coworkers, and customers. Furthermore, what type of environment can you create to support your small business?
Organizations and individuals with more open communication are more effective. Practices like “need to know” are simply obsolete. The more people know, the more effective they can be in their work. When everyone is on the same page, more gets done efficiently.
We cannot ignore facts, analysis, and challenges when making decisions. It’s critical to remember that they’re most effective when used to support, improve, and understand decisions rather than simply challenge them. Tools like exploring alternatives, listening to experts, writing things down, and informal communication can frequently improve the process. We also need to consider the accuracy and validity of the information, the risk involved in various decisions, and personal preferences. Like so much in life, it’s about finding the right balance and it won’t be the same for everyone. So, take some time to consider: Where can I afford to be more supportive and where do I need to administer some tough love?
Dr. Bert Shlensky, President of StartupConnection.net, has an MBA and PhD from the Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. He served as the President of WestPoint Pepperell’s apparel fabrics business & President and CEO of Sure Fit Products. More than 2,000 clients have benefitted from his business acumen over the course of his long career. He now focuses on working with select startups and small businesses. Please visit our website: StartupConnection.net for more information.
When you want to stand out, reach out to Bert for the tools that will build your “sticky” brand. My focus is on understanding and analyzing your dilemmas and challenges, so your company becomes profitable faster.
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