Newsletter #3
Stretch goals: the smart way to achieve radical performance improvement!
Rugby training for managers
The secrets of champions: Lewis Hamilton
Running productive meetings (Part II)
Upcoming seminars
Announcing dates for upcoming seminars in Geneva, Nyon and Paris …>>
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Stretch goals: the smart way to achieve radical performance improvement!
“We need men who can dream of things that never were”
John F. Kennedy
Many if not most managers are under constant pressure to do more with less. But once you have done the easy stuff and even made good progress on the hard stuff, where is the extra improvement coming from? It is easy to get stuck in a spiral of working harder and harder for diminishing returns.
The solution? Set yourself a stretch goal, something truly outrageous that you have no idea how to achieve. Instead of 5-10% improvement, aim for 100% or even 200% improvement.
Setting a goal at this level forces you to think differently. Instead of using your left brain to plan and execute incremental improvements, you must use the power of your right brain to imagine completely new, innovative ways to approach your challenge.
Stretch goals are not SMART!
By definition, stretch goals are not “SMART” in the usual sense of the acronym (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-based). Especially, a true stretch goal appears to be neither realistic nor achievable, at least at the outset!
The whole point of stretch goals is to inspire and force innovation. They have to provoke the “Wow! How on earth are we going to do that?” reaction. It must be immediately obvious that doing more of the same, only faster and better, will not be enough: one will have to do things differently.
Achieving stretch goals means doing things differently.
Since the goal is innovation, you have to use processes that are likely to foster radical new ideas as opposed to incremental improvement.
At the organisational level, this means engaging the employees in the search for new ideas. Huge gains have been made in companies that have institutionalised this: the most famous example being GE's "Workout" process.
This is the style of leadership Lao Tzu was thinking of when he said “When the best leader's work is done the people say, "We did it ourselves.””
Less control, more achievement…
Setting stretch goals in a command-and-control culture often leads to demotivation, rejection and either ridicule or revolt. It is one of the great paradoxes of management: if you want people truly to overachieve, you have to reduce your control over them!
Beware: stretch goals are not a substitute for budgeting and must not be used to punish people that fail to reach them. Reward people normally for reaching their budget targets – and, of course, provide appropriate consequences should they fail at this level – but reward them exceptionally for reaching their stretch targets. They deserve it!
Companies that use stretch goals
All entrepreneurs set themselves stretch goals – creating a profitable business from scratch is already a stretch, let alone creating a world-beater like Apple, Google, Microsoft or Virgin.
What is less well known is that not only young, entrepreneurial companies use stretch goals. Jack Welch was a firm believer in using stretch goals during his time as CEO of GE. In his words, it was about
“Using dreams to set business targets, with no real idea of how to get there”.
For example, in 1991 Welch set a 4-year stretch goal to increase operating margins from 10% to 15%, and inventory turns from 5 to 10 times. These were huge targets for a $50 billion company. GE didn’t quite reach them in the desired timeframe (in 1995 they achieved an operating margin of “only” 14.4% and inventory turns of 7), but they did achieve them a little later. Welch was convinced that the stretch goals were essential to creating the cultural mindset that took GE to $130 billion in sales within 10 years.
Rugby training for managers!
The World Cup finished on October 20th with the victory of South Africa over the reigning world champions, England.
Rugby is the ultimate team game. With 15 men in front of you determined to send you backwards with brute force you truly need your team mates. The team values of commitment, support, trust, respect, selflessness and obedience to the rules are absolute second nature to the top teams.
How can you, as a manager, develop these same values in your team at work?
Here’s how, based on the experience of Clive Woodward, who coached the England team to unprecedented success during the years leading up to winning the World Cup in 2003.
Woodward was a sales manager with Xerox and then a successful small business owner before coaching the England team, and attributes much of his success to the introduction of management best practices. Here are three of them:
Lesson No. 1: To change, THINK BIG.
The question Woodward asked was not “What do we have to change in order to win?” This question is an invitation to think small, to think incremental, to start by listing all the problems.
The question he asked was: “What will we have in place when we are winning consistently against the best teams in the world?”
Now that is a better question! An invitation to dream, it immediately opens up boundless possibilities and allows a vision of the perfect world to emerge. Asking this question engaged the team to agree on what they needed and wanted most. Thus inspired, they were able to overcome the numerous obstacles to making it happen.
Lesson No. 2: To change, THINK DIFFERENTLY.
Given the state of the England team at the time, winning the World Cup was a true stretch goal: almost unthinkable. There was no way to achieve this by doing more of the same!
His first speech to the players set the tone:
“Nothing you have ever done before can prepare you for what lies ahead. From this day forth, it is vital we all start to think differently… From now on, our sole aim will not be to copy [the All Blacks] but to practise a style of play that can beat them convincingly every time.”
To create the best possible environment for winning, Woodward went on to make thousands and thousands of changes. Many of them have since been copied by the other international teams – the true measure of their value.
Lesson No. 3: To change, THINK TOGETHER.
Many coaches have a highly autocratic style: “my way or the highway”. Trying to create consensus is seen as time-consuming, wishy-washy and ineffective. Woodward saw it differently. It was essential that the players learn to think for themselves, accept real responsibility and take the leadership role in their area of expertise.
A key step was the first team effectiveness workshop, facilitated by an outside consultant. During this meeting they agreed an initial draft of ground rules, roles, tasks and outcomes and came to a much deeper understanding of how each person affected the others. Over many months and many more sessions this work evolved into the England Black Book, a 96-page document fully approved by the players.
Woodward said later: “I think our Black Book is fundamental… I’d never coach any sport without one – in fact I wouldn’t even run a business without one”
We at MindStore can’t claim any involvement with the England rugby team. However we do claim expertise in Team Effectiveness, and we use many similar techniques to those described by Woodward. Give us a call if you think we might be able to help you!
If you’d like to read more about Woodward’s management of the England rugby team, you can buy the book here: Winning! By Clive Woodward (Hodder & Stoughton, 2004).
The secrets of champions: Lewis Hamilton
Have you, like me been inspired by the story of Lewis Hamilton of the McLaren team? At just 22 this young man has taken the world of Formula One by storm. Motor racing is not my sport of choice but I know I’m watching a champion in the making and that is what is fascinating.
Hamilton’s story is nothing less than inspirational. Named after the US Olympic gold medal winning athlete Carl Lewis,
Hamilton began his racing career aged six when his father bought him his first go-kart as a Christmas present. He took up karate shortly after when his driving attracted the attention of local bullies, and by the time he was twelve, he had gained his first black belt in the sport.
When he was ten he approached McLaren team owner Ron Dennis and told him he would drive for McLaren one day. Four years later he was signed to the McLaren Driver Development Support Programme.
When asked what first motivated him to get into Formula One, he answers:
“If you want to be the best at whatever career you choose in life, then you have to compete at the very top. Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motor sport. From the time I started my racing career in Cadet Karts in 1994 right the way through to Formula Renault, Formula 3, and GP2, I have dedicated my life to achieving my goal of becoming a Formula 1 World Champion.
I am motivated by a desire to be the best at whatever I decide to put my mind too. Once I have decided to take up a challenge, my inner self will not let me give up unless I have achieved my goal. The key element in all of this is that I am not here to take part, I am here to win, and I will do whatever mentally and physically it takes to achieve that in due course.”
Like the greats of the past he has a strong desire, belief and determination – the key formula for success.
Learning how to build such determination is just one of the benefits you will discover on our MindStore for Business programme. It's packed with the latest techniques which will boost your performance in business and life and really stretch you to dare to go out and perform at your very best.
(Contributed by Jack Black)
Running productive meetings (Part II)
In our Spring newsletter we discussed how to plan and prepare a meeting. Here in Part II of this article we discuss techniques to use during the meeting itself.
Getting started
The first step – after thanking people for being present and making sure that everybody knows each other – is to remind them of the meeting purpose, desired outcomes and agenda. This will ensure that all know exactly why they are there, what is to be achieved and how it will be done.
Your role
As meeting owner it is your responsibility to ensure that the meeting remains on track and that all participants have the opportunity to express their views. This means listening very carefully to the flow of conversation and intervening as necessary to cut short discussions that are becoming circular. Monitor in particular those that speak little or not at all and invite them to participate: you may be surprised by their ability to summarise the discussion and help the group move forward.
Staying on track
One of the most powerful techniques for keeping a meeting on track is to record the main points in such a way that they are permanently visible to the participants. An easy way to do this is to cover the wall with flip-chart paper. Either you yourself or another person can then write down the key points that each person makes as the meeting proceeds.
Keeping the main points visible in this way allows people to “let go” of their own point and focus on what others are saying, knowing that their point forms part of the permanent meeting record and that they can come back to it at the appropriate moment.
The visible record provides a constant point of focus for the participants. It makes it easy to summarise what has been said and to create links between ideas expressed by different people at different times. It is also easy to prioritize different items and to take a vote, if appropriate.
Post-it brainstorms
An alternative to writing everything directly on the flip-chart paper is to ask the participants to write their ideas on individual Post-it notes. This is an excellent approach with people that are uncomfortable expressing their ideas in front of the group, or with people that need time to think.
Once the Post-its are stuck to the wall, the different ideas can be moved around and grouped with related ideas. This helps greatly in identifying links and creating a rich overall picture. Another advantage of the Post-it approach is that the ideas are dissociated from the persons that first thought of them, thus allowing the ideas to be freed of any political considerations and evaluated on their merits,.
Difficult Participants
Participants that have very strong views that they are determined to impose can be hard to manage, and you may have to be firm to ensure that other voices are heard and that the subject is properly evaluated from all angles.
We will discuss facilitation techniques for dealing with difficult participants in Part 3; for the moment we will just say that many unwanted behaviours can be mitigated by pointing to a pre-agreed set of ground rules.
Please contact us if you have a particularly challenging meeting coming up and would like some advice or facilitation.
Upcoming seminars
We are please to announce the dates for the following seminars in France and in Switzerland:
Paris, November 22-23
Two-day seminar MindStore for Business
Led by Marvin Faure (in French)
Registration and more details here.
Geneva, March 6-7, 2008
Two-day seminar MindStore for Business
Led by Marvin Faure
Registration and more details here.
Paris, June 12-13, 2008
Two-day seminar MindStore for Business
Led by Marvin Faure (in French)
Registration and more details here.
All these courses are open for registration, within the limits of available places. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any special requests.
For courses in the UK please visit www.mindstore.com and for courses in Germany please visit www.mindstore.de
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