Disharmony in Top Teams

Enormous animosity and rampant, mutual dislike exist in management teams charged with cooperating together for the good of an organization. No one can choose their own family and you don’t always get the opportunity to choose your colleagues, but when you accept a job within a team you have a responsibility to put personal animosity to one side for the good of the organization.

In some organizations, personal vendettas are allowed to bubble to the surface non-stop and the amount of both personal effort and organizational resource that is wasted as a result can be frightening.

The issue with many of these managers is of course that the memory they are wasting is not their own: it belongs to shareholders or comes as a grant from some government pot or other. If it were their own money they might not behave in quite the same way, even in owner-run organizations where pretty bizarre and wasteful behavior can be found.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Spoken Words

Spoken words are like smoke in the wind. They disappear quickly from the mind and memory. You must make people see your spoken words as well as hear them. Word pictures stay in the minds of your listeners. They may forget the words themselves, but they’ll remember visual imagery and identify with you and your objectives. The sentence, ‘Spoken words are like smoke in the wind’ is a perfect example. It creates a picture in your mind. Telling stories almost always include word pictures.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Manage Details

When you have an idea you want to remember, stop what you’re doing and write it down. Don’t write it on a business card or the back of an old envelop, but in your time and priority management binder, which will become a trusted memory bank. In your alphabetical phone index, keep separate sheets for each of the people you frequently deal with (such as clients, buyers, colleagues, accountants, doctors) over the course of a year. Every time you have an idea that should be mentioned the next time you encounter the person, write it down on that person’s page. Then instead of worrying that you’ll forget, you can simply refer to the sheet next time you talk to the person face to face or on the phone.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Meeting Management: The Thank You Note

The common thank you note is applicable to large and small meetings. It may be handwritten and should be as informal as your organization style will allow.

If you send thank you notes, your message will stand out in memory. You must be sincere and never, repeat, never, attempt to curry favor by using a thank you note.

Thank you notes may be sent by the group leader or any participant. If you are a participant and wish to send one, only do so if you were honestly impressed by any event. Some examples:

1. Excellent Presentation: A high-ranking executive of your organization makes a presentation on some aspect of a problem you face. If the presentation was exceptional, send a note, thanking the executive for time spent helping your team.
2. Clarifying Remarks: A specialist visits long enough to clear up a few technical points. If this was a real contribution to your knowledge, send a note.
3. Outstanding Work: Someone on the team does an exceptional job. Send a note if it is deserved.

These are only a few examples. More will occur to you as you consider this technique.

The thank you note must be written. A telephone call, while nice and possibly appreciated, will not have the same impact.

The thank you note is a reminder to the thanked individual that your group exists. It will make it easier to get him or her to come back for another meeting, and on return, be in a cooperative mood.

With thank you notes, be sincere; falseness shows. Use it as an expression of earnest thanks and appreciation for a job well done

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

The Drive for Speed

The ‘time culture’ can impose unrealistic deadlines upon those who are charged with the responsibility for delivering improvements. When a supply chain is improved, the single company may be no more able to achieve a tangible impact upon the external environment than it can deliver all the value that is sought by a final customer. When others are involved, there is likely to be bargaining and negotiation.

Environmental initiatives should not result in the pressure for speed or ‘response’ driving out the long-term thinking that is required. Assuming ‘results’ are required, these might best be achieved as a result of flexibility within the framework of a longer term relationship.

Today’s craze can be tomorrow’s memory. Too many managers assume that trends will continue longer than subsequently turns out to be the case. With many environmental and social policies taking many years to have a significant impact, companies face a dilemma similar to that encountered by those seeking to change attitudes and behavior. By the time the outcomes initially sought have been achieved, the requirement may have changed. Will there be a backlash when people count the costs? Will they become bored?

Attempts to deal with ‘isms’ can open a Pandora’s box of dashed hopes and unfulfilled expectations, especially when initiatives are not thought through. Enough noise may be raised to alarm some, while not enough is done to appease or deliver to others. Companies should beware of cosmetic programs.

Winners assemble a comprehensive, complementary and coordinated set of initiatives, embracing all the parties involved, that are likely to have a significant impact upon an environmental or social issue. They achieve significant changes of attitude or behavior, because all the various change elements that are necessary have been put in place.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Growing up

Organizations are not conscious in the same way people are: they do not have their own memory and the future can be separated from the past more quickly and totally.

The way organizations learn, store and share knowledge becomes key, and any effective organization must encourage learning. It must always be able to learn and store the lessons of the past, but with people coming and going faster and faster, this is not always easy.

At the same time as learning fast and remembering important lessons, they must also be able to unlearn and break bad habits, which can be a more difficult task than effective learning.

Every new organizational generation must be given a fresh chance to prove itself. As chairmen and CEOs come and go, so the organizational slate can be wiped clean in the same way that the sins of the father should not be passed on to the son. Organizations need to choose wisely about what to hang on to and what to jettison.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Price Breaks the Rules

In retail business there are three cardinal rules: 1) Do anything you can to lure in customers; 2) build on the bedrock of “location; 3) keep your doors open as long as possible. The express lane at the Price Club is 2,000 items or less.

Not only are the Price Club’s huge discount warehouses in atypical, out of the way locations, but people actually pay to get in the door, and you need an elephant’s memory to figure out there hours. When value is high, people are willing to spend a small fortune and travel to faraway places.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Talking about Signs

Think of signs in two ways: those that appeal to people outside of your place of business and those that appeal to people who are within the place where you do business. The first category consists of billboards, small signs on bulliten boards, window signs, store signs, banners, signs on trees, and poster-type signs. Category two is made up of interior signs, commonly called point-of-purchase, or point of sale signs.

 Whichever you use, or if you use both, be certain that your signs tie in as directly as possible with your advertising. Your ads may have made an unconscious impression on your potential customers, and your signs may awaken the memory of that advertising and result in a sale. Many people will patronize your business because of your ads. Your signs must be consistent with your advertising message and identity or those people will be confused. If the signs are in keeping with your overall creative strategy, consumers’ momentum to buy will be increased.

 Most exterior signs are there to remind, to create a tiny impulse, to implant thoughts a wee bit deeper, to sharpen an identity, to state a very brief message. As a rule, exterior signs should be no more than six words long. Naturally, some successful signs have more than six words, but not many. Probably the most successful of all have just one to three words.

 My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight

Business Marketing Management

Many large firms that produce goods such as steel, production equipment, or computer-memory chips cater exclusively to business market consumers and never directly interact with their ultimate consumers. Other firms participate in both the consumer goods and the business markets. The introduction of laser printers and personal computers brought Hewlett-Packard, historically a business-to-business marketer, into the consumer market. Conversely, lagging consumer markets prompted Sony Corporation to expand to the business market by introducing office automation products. Both companies had to reorient their marketing strategies dramatically because of the significant differences between the buying behavior exhibited in the consumer versus the business markets.

 Products like cellular phones, office furniture, personal computers, and software are purchased in both the consumer and the business markets. What distinguishes business marketing from consumer goods marketing is the intended use of the product as we all intended consumer. Sometimes the products are identical, but a fundamentally different marketing approach is needed to reach the organizational buyer.

 My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight

Preparing Minutes

There are two primary rules for minute preparation:

1. Write Minutes as Soon as Possible: Time edges into memory faster than most people realize. Events which just took place are more clearly in mind than those occurring 24 hours ago. Write minutes as soon as possible after a session. Do not delay minute preparation. Notes are grand, and the better your notes, the better the minutes you will write. But notes are no substitute for accurate recall plus notes. This is why, in the absence of a manager being assigned to record the minutes, the group leader should either take full responsibility for the task or, immediately, at the beginning of the meeting, assign it to someone. Recall is important. That’s why the minutes should always be done as soon after the session as possible. Not as soon as convenient. As soon as possible. The minutes should never be written by anyone other than a person in attendance who took notes. Those notes, no matter how copious, passed to someone who was not in attendance, will not produce quality minutes.
2. State Important Facts Briefly but Thoroughly: When writing the minutes, be brief but be as thorough as possible. In minutes, the requirement is names and dates and figures. Many minutes recount each motion and even the major directions and positions in the discussions. Too few tell who forged those directions and who took and/or held those positions. To be valuable, minutes must be thorough.

 My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please contact www.asifjmir.com, Line of Sight