As I reflected on the meetings this morning I realized that what I “saw” was very different than my perceptions of Washington and not at all like the perceptions the media gives us.

Here’s a run down of my  meetings yesterday…

Meeting #1: Passion for Making Things Happen: In my first meeting the person quickly grasped the opportunity and immediately turned the conversation into “how can you help my customers.”   By customers I mean the people that his organization is designed to serve.   With those ideas defined – he then reached beyond his department and gave us 4 names and phone numbers of people we could connect to who could help make it happen.  These were people in the government and in non-profits outside of the government.

Meeting #2 Bias for Action: After reviewing results from our pilot program – this senior leader made instant connections on how a part of her organization could help the cause of innovation.  Then, rather then set up another meeting she went and got the leader of the group and had him sit and listen.  The meeting closed with very specific and direct action steps.

Meeting #3 Really, Really Smart: Meeting three was an in depth discussion of how innovation can drive real jobs and real wealth in the country.  It was not a meeting for the “faint of heart” – it reminded me of a P&G Budget Meeting Inquisition.  The people in the meeting were not interested in B.S..  Over one hour and forty five minutes they dove really deep into what our plans were – what we knew as fact – and what was opinion.  They gave ideas – advice and criticism where appropriate.  It was an amazingly wonderful and intelligent conversation.

Meeting #4 Change Agents: Meeting four was invigorating. I was at a government department that is undergoing incredible change from the old world to the new (note this change started in the past administration – and is being continued in this administration – so this is not a political thing).   I was with career staff – not political appointees.  I was really impressed by their openness and commitment to figuring out how to make the right changes in the right ways.

Added together it was a wicked cool day.   Now I’m sure that within a mega bureaucracy  there exists a “bell curve” of great and horrible.  And probably because I was talking innovation I was talking to those to the right of the curve.

1. Suzuki has a new Car that “could lift the automaker out of obscurity in the USA”

• Lesson:  The power of innovation to transform sales success

2. Linux Raps harder at company doors

• Lesson:  Open source is a competitor to all industries.  It’s both a tool and a threat.

3. Wall Street feels wrath of man on the street

• Lesson:  The interconnected world makes it easier for customers to find out what you have or don’t have.   Therefore – be REAL – be GENUINE and don’t cheat!

4. Nokia says I Phone infringes on patents

• Lesson: Patents are no longer optional.  Every business person needs to think about them – patent and IP strategy can no longer be “outsourced” to the legal department.   I spent the summer learning about this “stuff” so to teach it in my classes at U Maine this fall.  I was AMAZED at how ignorant I was.

5. McCormick & Schmicks – ad – meals from $19,95

In today’s economy – it’s about VALUE for the money – those that overcharge for “image and design” are dead.  It’s time to do what Apple does – FUNCTION First – design second.

There are more – but I have to get off to a day filled with meetings here in Washington DC.

Cheers

It was supposed to be the “more refreshing cola – because of no sticky caramel aftertaste”  somehow from concept to execution it didn’t quite make it.

Active learning is where the students discover, see, feel and experience the principle – instead of having it simply told to them.   As an example – to bring to life the power of diversity – we have the students take the worst idea they’ve created – then do a sort of speed dating – where another student gives them ideas – in a rush for 90 seconds.  The process is done three times.  The result is students see and feel for themselves the power of asking and listening to others.

The areas I need ideas in include:

Fail Fast Fail Cheap – or as Deming called it  - Plan, Do, Study, Act VERSUS Plan, Plan, Plan, Plan.   How can I help them see that if they “just do it” and fail – again and again – they’ll be more successful than if they try and get the answer before they start.

Simultaneous Engineering – The idea is the need to simultaneously optimize the Product, Marketing Promise and Profit Formula.  VERSUS – the linear approach where I get one part then the next, then hit a wall and end up in a recycle loop.

Borrow don’t Build or Buy – the value of leveraging other people’s resources VERSUS doing it all yourself.   The start up entrepreneur knows this.  They do it because of necessity.  However as the company becomes successful the “ego” grows such that they don’t do it anymore.  In the corporate world this is called Open Innovation.  This is a particular challenge in the USA – where the macho – do it yourself – go your own way is culturally rewarded.

Any thoughts – post at www.DougHall.com or at my Facebook Page.

Thanks

Doug

The world of kids sports has become over competitive, over parentized, and over organized.  It’s time to get sports back into the family.  That’s right…kids and parents playing together.  A number of years ago my good friend Dave Raichle created a program in Cincinnati called Great Sports!  The program is designed to bring moms, dads, sisters and brothers together to participate in a semi-organized day of sports fun.

The Great Sports! program is set up for Sunday afternoons from 1:00-4:00, and centers around a variety of different sports.  Whether the activity basketball or kickball, the goal is to divide into two groups and spend two hours just playing together.  But there is one catch.  In order to play, the kids have to come with at least one able bodied parent willing to run around and join in the frenzy.  As Dave says, parental “dump and run” is not allowed.

Programs like these are important for a number of reasons.  First and foremost, sports are a great vehicle to drive parents’ interaction with their kids.  Running down a field laughing and jostling each other can help dads and kids feel close to each other in a way no conversation ever could.

Second, sports provide us an opportunity to both teach our children and to share in their joy as they improve their skills.  There’s nothing better than seeing the gleam in your kids’ eyes when they make their first catch or hit their first homerun.  And nothing makes a dad more proud than bragging, “I taught them to do that.”

And third, sports is a universal language that cuts across all age levels and abilities.  You don’t have to be a Michael Jordan to have fun playing ball.  Your kids really don’t care whether or not you can fade away and dunk; just getting out there and trying makes you a winner in their eyes.  And with your encouragement and praise, you have the power to make them feel like MVPs as well.

To get you in the game, here are some of Dave’s exciting sport activities.

•  Super-Cool Street Hockey Find an empty parking lot and make a quick rink with landscaping timbers or two-by-fours.  Buy a puck, play in Rollerblades or your sneakers, and make an afternoon of it.

•  Chicago Softball For a new twist on softball, use a 16 inch ball and no gloves.  A great extra large ball is called the “Official Clincher” and made by deBeer.  You can find one by talking to your local sporting goods store, or looking on the web at SportSite.com.

•  Kids Volleyball Played like regular volleyball, except that you catch and pass the ball to a teammate, then throw it over the net.  If it hits the ground, that’s a point.  This version’s a lot easier for young ones to play, and it promotes teamwork.

•  Ultimate Football Part of the NFL’s official Flag football program, Ultimate football is a wonderful, fast-paced kids football game for young kids.  It allows everyone to play and equally touch the ball, so it’s great for both boys and girls.  Call Lynn Dinanno at (212) 450-2562 for more information.

With as many as 70 parents and kids at a time showing up to play, Dave Raichle’s Great Sports! program has been a huge success .  It’s an amazing program–and examplifies how valuable sports can be.  Dads need this uninterrupted play time.  It’s a chance to meet and hang out with each other.  It’s an opportunity to encourage and support the efforts of other parents.  And, most importantly, it’s a way to show the your kids how special they really are!  So dads, there are no excuses for you to sit on the sidelines.  Find a park and organize your own Great Sports!

program–I guarantee you’ll have a ball..

Doug,

Read your North Pole Tenderfoot Book this weekend.  Loved it.

It made me think of the first year at the Air Force Academy.  Basic summer was 9 weeks of surpassing what we thought our limits were each and every day.  The program was designed to challenge us past whatever we would face later in our careers and life, save being POW’s.  That program came later . . .

The entire first academic year was at once dreadful and inspiring.  We could not quit for anything less than a serious medical problem basic summer, but could after Labor Day when we were accepted into the Wing as cadets, though whose rank was measured in negative units.  The next nine months were nearly as physically challenging as the summer, but with the added pressure of 7 – 3 hr classes, intra murals or intercollegiate athletics, military training, etc, etc.  Then, at the end of May when we thought we had it knocked, we had Hell week to show us a new threshold of inner strength.  Then we KNEW we had arrived.  Not so fast, the summer kicked off with Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape training.  This was during the heart of the Vietnam war in 1968, and while the details are still classified, the week of training was realistic–to the point of putting about 40 of my classmates into the hospital for more than a day.

In the next 41 years I’ve never come close to running into anything as challenging as that first year.  I doubt that I ever will.

Your experience trekking to the pole was your set point for inner strength.  You’ve joined a unique and altogether too small of fraternity of those who have pushed or been pushed to their own edge of existence, found the wherewithal to push that edge out in front of themselves into new territory, and live to ponder it.

The trick is to remember that the majority of those around us have not even come close to knowing such an edge exists, let alone stood on its brink.  I was lucky to work with a majority of men, later women, who had all been there and back.  Expectations for such a group can really never be too high.

Think of how the world would be if everyone had trekked to the pole, the top of the Himalayas, or some other experience that took them to, and beyond, their edge. . . .

Salute.

bjb

One thing that caught my attention was Deming’s refusal to work with P&G when they asked him to help them.   He only worked with companies where the top management was genuinely committed to systemic improvement of quality.

The P&G manager who lead quality at the time reported in the video that it took him 6 months to convince Dr. Deming that P&G was very committed.

The scene reminded me of the time I visited with the folks at Eagles Flight At the time I was thinking of entering the training business  (our business was then as it still is today – primarily invention consulting focused not training focused) and had created a program based on one of my books.  The program was fun and entertaining and most enjoyed it – however the owner when giving feedback said “it will be a great program when you get really committed to it.”

OUCH.   His comments hurt big time.  They hurt because he was right.  I was not fully committed to the program – it was a nice to do.

Over time his comment has been incredibly valuable to me.  When looking at a new business opportunity I’ve challenged myself to answer “Am I fully committed?”   When I’m committed it means that I keep testing and learning, designing and redesigning like it’s my only business – like my life depends on the program’s success.

It’s taken quite a few years – but eventually I got fully committed to training with our Eureka! 101 program.   And starting next week – I’m getting fully committed to the development of the Innovation Engineering courses at the University of Maine I’ll be on campus teaching two undergraduate and one graduate course.

Emerson said “nothing great ever happens without enthusiasm” it’s the same with innovations and new businesses.   If you’re not fully committed, totally committed then don’t waste your time on it.   The image that comes to mind is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid — jumping off the cliff together in the movie while being chased by the marshals.

There is only one thing that is more amazing than the number of whys we get asked.  It is the fact that we always seem to have an answer.  (Even if we have to make it up.)  The only other option is to fall into the easy trap of proclaiming, “because”–and we’ve all done that.  Saying “because” certainly does not deal with the inquiry; but, it does send a clear message to the kids that we have heard enough “whys” for a few minutes.  The question is:  Is that the message we really want to send?

When kids ask us why, it is not because they want to make us crazy, it is because they want to know something.  Educators call this learning; parents call it being curious.  Being curious and learning go hand in hand.  It is our role as parents to foster curiosity at home.

Once we think we have mastered the why question from our kids, we need to get them to the next level.  That is having them ask “why not.”  As stated earlier “why” promotes curiosity and “why not” promotes creativity.  The point here is that we want not only inquisitive kids, but also kids who can take the next step and provide meaningful solutions to complex problems.

Our whole society was founded on the fact that great individuals asked why and why not. If Jefferson hadn’t asked “Why not buy Louisiana?,” we wouldn’t have had the Wild West.  If the Wright Brothers did not question “Why not fly like birds?,” we would not have frequent flier miles.  If Columbus did not ask “Why not sail around the world?,” we would all be cramped in Europe today.

Here are some ideas to get the curious and creative juices of your kids flowing:

• Big Top Research shows that kids who have attended events like the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, who have watched Walt Disney style videos at home, and/or who have Lego style building blocks at home have a significantly greater sense of Curiosity and Creativity than those who have not.  Give your kids these kinds of classic experiences.

• Cool Crafts Kids go bananas at the chance to build, paint, shape, and mold.  Gather some cardboard, popcicle sticks, glitter, pipe cleaners, markers, glue and beady eyes from a fabric or craft store and see what ideas develop.

• Animal Hunt Take your kids for a walk in the park and look for signs of animals–tracks, sounds, scratches on the trees where a deer may have rubbed its’ antlers.  Look in the sky and under rocks and logs.  Show your children how to use field guides, Scout handbooks, internet sites, or encyclopedias to track down their findings in print.

• Out and About Town Your best source of leads for cool stuff around town is in your hands – this newspaper!  On any given Saturday or Sunday, this paper lists concerts, festivals, art shows or small town festivals celebrating some sort of local pride–from sauerkraut to honey bees.  Load the kids in the car and go check it out!

You’ll never know the potential of your children if they are discouraged from asking why.  As you open their creative spirits, don’t be surprised if you, too, start questioning.  Why not?

To break through the barrier, you need to be OVERT about the customer benefit you offer. The classic mistake that managers make is to communicate the FEATURES of their offering instead of the BENEFITS.

They make the ASSUMPTION that customers will be able to translate your feature to their benefit.

Features are the facts, the components, the technologies of your offering. Benefits are what the features will do for the customer. Benefits are what the customer will receive, experience, and enjoy as a result of the features.

When you communicate an Overt Benefit instead of features, you increase your odds of success by 290 percent.

Research shows that the more work required of your customers to translate your “features” into “benefits,” the less likely they are to notice, consider, and purchase what you have to offer.

Benefits answer the customer question  ”Why should I care?”

]]> http://www.doughall.com/2009/07/18/3x-odds-of-success-by-being-overt-about-benifit/feed/ 0 http://www.doughall.com/2009/07/18/dads-just-say-yes-to-spending-time-with-your-kids/ http://www.doughall.com/2009/07/18/dads-just-say-yes-to-spending-time-with-your-kids/#comments Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:12:50 +0000 Doug Hall http://www.doughall.com/?p=167 You can’t watch an hour of television without seeing an ad for a new automobile or a commercial about drug abuse in America.  Rock stars, television personalities, and politicians all have the same message…stop using drugs.  Millions and millions of dollars have been spent on this campaign to have kids “just say no.”  Ask yourself, has it worked?  Just say no!

Young children are being inundated with commercials and inspirational speakers talking about the downfall of drug abuse.  Kids are not stupid.   They know they shouldn’t use drugs. They only need to hear that message a couple of times.

The reason drug use is still so high is that the powers that be are missing the point.  Using drugs is not the problem; it is only the symptom.  The real problem is that kids are bored out of their minds, they see no hope, and–most important–they feel like they just don’t belong.  Kids are still turning to drugs because they believe there is nothing else.

Well, here’s a news bulletin: we dads are the “something else” they need!  It is our responsibility to get our kids excited about things.  It is our job to help them realize they have endless potential and the future is theirs.  And, it is our mission to make darn sure they feel valued in their own family.  It’s called establishing a sense of belonging.

Belonging is the best way to protect your child from the corrosive effects of peer pressure. Human beings are, by nature, social animals.  And when you don’t fit in, you’re likely to try anything that might ease the pain of not belonging.

The research data is clear.  Children who have a significantly higher sense of belonging share these factors:

• They come from families that sit down for dinner together more often

•  They spend more time with their dads on regular weekdays

• They spend more time with their mom on regular Saturdays and Sundays

• They watch less TV during the school week

As a concerned parent, you naturally want to instill in your child the deep-down understanding that, no matter what, he or she can count on that sense of belonging.  So, how do you begin?  Here are some ideas:

• Share a Book Kids with a strong sense of belonging come from families where their parents read to them.  The act of sharing a book with a child has a way of generating a sense of connection and belonging that no TV show or video game can provide.

• Remembering Get out your old photo albums.  Show your child your bad haircuts, your goofy grins, those silly glasses you used to wear.  Share the successes and the failures of your childhood.  The more human you are, the more your children will be able to connect with you.  And, by sharing, you will forge connections that will resonate throughout your child’s life.

• Mail Time If you don’t live with your child, there are ways for you to make connections, too.  Send your child postcards.  Kids love getting mail.  The message can be short and sweet.  They’ll be thrilled you took the time to write something especially for them.  This doesn’t end as they get older.   My children are in college now.  I send them picture post cards when I travel from where ever I am.  My notes are not very serious – just a quick note that makes a connection.

It doesn’t take money or fancy training to give your child the advantages that go along with a sense of belonging.  Let’s stop worrying about getting our kids to “just say no” to drugs and begin as dads to “just say yes” when it comes to spending time with our children!