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Mar
30
Stories abound these days of leaders attempting to do more with less. From shrinking teams to dwindling budgets, we can either run from the challenge or to the challenge. Ernie Schenck is no stranger to adversity. He wrote The Houdini Solution and challenges us to think inside the box, not outside the box, when it comes to doing more with less. “The legendary magician did his best work shackled, handcuffed, and chained inside the smallest of boxes—and yet he managed to find his way out every time.”
For the past couple weeks, I’ve been retelling a story from Apollo 13 about doing more with less. There’s a scene in the movie when the crew on the ground in Houston has to build an air filter that will allow the crew stuck in space to increase their oxygen supply. With limited resources (only what was onboard the spaceship), the crew on the ground had to figure out how to fit a square peg in a round hole.
I’m inspired by moments like these because I feel like many leaders are in a similar spot these days. We’ve got to lead our teams from here to there with only what we have in front of us. It’s not time to complain about what we don’t have or dream about better scenarios. It’s time to get the team on the same page with the same urgency for the same mission. Anything less could be catastrophic.
Mar
26
The Right Size
Filed Under Brad Works | 4 Comments
Seth Godin wrote a great post yesterday about finding the right size for your team/organization. It’s something I think about a lot, for the variety of hats I wear.
Seth suggests that the reason many businesses are in trouble these days is because “they’re the wrong size.” “A newspaper that only had a few dozen employees would be doing great today. But they have hundreds or thousands of employees because that was an appropriate scale twenty years ago.”
At Foursquare, we just went through another “reduction in workforce.” Between last year’s layoffs and last week’s second round of layoffs, my team has been cut more than half (from 18 people to 8). Re-grouping and re-building—in light of a climate that is understandably low on morale—is absolutely necessary to staying the course. We’re in the middle of seeing our size as an asset, not a setback.
At Personality, we reorganized the entire business model a year ago and it is no longer dependent on full-time centrally located employees. We could have never built what we did without the former model, but we could never do what we’re doing now without the current model. Personality’s future is looking very bright.
At CFCC, the organization is powered by a network of people around the world that believe in the mission. It’s built by the people who benefit from it, and we’re getting ready to roll out some things that will make participation even more accessible to people who want to get involved. CFCC is being structured so that its size and momentum are always running parallel. Too many people without momentum is a packed train heading nowhere meaningful. Too much momentum without any people to carry it is an empty train headed off a cliff.
“It’s tempting to get bigger. But is bigger better? In many cases, it’s worse, particularly when you can leverage reliable systems that are cheaper and faster and more stable in the outside world. If you can make your product better by assembling it yourself, you should. But if that action makes it worse, why do it?”
I’d rather have a small team making a big difference than a big team making no difference.
Mar
24
The Big Sort
Filed Under Reading Room | Leave a Comment
It took me way too long to get through Bill Bishop’s book, but The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart was worth the read. It’s a very dry book loaded with research. That combination alone is enough to scare me away, but the title pulled me in and wouldn’t let go.
“Over the past thirty years, the Unites States has been sorting itself, sifting at the most microscopic levels of society…”
This is not good.
Three major themes frame the book: politics of the Big Sort, economics of the Big Sort, and religion of the Big Sort. “Freed from want and worry, people [are] reordering their lives around their values, their tastes, and their beliefs.”
You can read the author’s website for reviews and excerpts, including Bill Clinton’s endorsement for the book. For the purpose of this blog, I’ll simply reference my major highlights.
Politics
“In 1976, less than a quarter of Americans lived in places where the presidential election was a landslide. By 2004, nearly half of all voters lived in landslide counties.”
“Over the past fifty years, political scientists have proved that homogeneous communities become self-propelled engines of partisanship, squelching dissent and emboldening majorities.”
“In fact, exposure to a wide array of views increases tolerance. But Americans are increasingly unlikely to find themselves in mixed political company.”
The most bi-partisan period in the history of modern Congress was roughly from 1948 to the mid 1960s. “In Congress, members visited, talked across party boundaries. They hung out at the gym, socialized at receptions, and formed friendships that had nothing to do with party or ideology.”
“Congress has been most productive when both parties have been ideologically mixed and when the members have soothed political differences with social grace.”
“People were siding with a party and then voting a straight ticket, from city council to president. Political party affiliation had more to do with social identity than ideology. Choosing to be a Republican or a Democrat reflected a way of life.”
Economics
“The appeal of the Big Sort is powerful because consumers, believers, and citizens all benefit from living in homogeneous communities.”
“Today the division in the country isn’t about party allegiance. It’s about how we choose to live.”
“Our like-mindedness [has been] a comfort, a shortcut to intimacy.”
Religion
“In 1960, 60 percent of Evangelical Protestants identified themselves as Democrats.”
“American churches today are more culturally and politically segregated than our neighborhoods.”
Bishop’s Closing Quote
“Now more isolated than ever in our private lives, cocooned with our fellows, we approach public life with the sensibility of customers who are always right. ‘Tailor-made’ has worked so well for industry and social networking sites, for subdivisions and churches, we expect it from our government, too. But democracy doesn’t seem to work that way.”
Mar
17
Conundrums of Connectivity
Filed Under Life's Journey | 7 Comments
It’s difficult for me to remember what life was like without 24/7 access to the Internet. I was barely a teenager when dial-up came to our house (thank you CompuServe). Then it was AOL, then an ISDN line at the office, and then ultimately high-speed always-on access, wired and wireless. Without the Internet, I wouldn’t have been able to start the companies I’ve started, do the jobs I do, or know many of the people I know today.
In addition to the Web’s connectivity, I’ve also enjoyed some of the benefits from social media, including blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter and a brief rendezvous with Facebook. Lately, though, I’m beginning to question my quality and rhythm of life, including learning patterns, times of rest, relationships, and ultimately my identity. It’s no secret I’ve struggled with this stuff before.
According to a recent Time article, “the U.S.-based Center for Internet Addiction Recovery classifies [internet addiction] as compulsive behavior in which ‘the Internet becomes the organizing principle of addicts’ lives.’” Although that definition is a bit too dramatic, I resemble more than resent such an accusation. Not good.
The same article referenced China’s estimated 300 million Web users, the most in the world. “China is struggling with an epidemic of Internet obsession among its youth. Since the establishment in 2004 of the country’s first Internet-addiction-treatment facility, the China Youth Mental Health Center, more than 3,000 patients have been treated there.”
I fear that my constant connection and interaction with the Web is training my brain to believe that the world revolves around me. I know instinctively this is not true, but practically, this is often the way I behave. With just a few clicks I can tell employees what to do, tell stores what to ship me, and I can tell Google what to get me.
Life has got to be about more than just minimizing the distance between what I have and what I don’t have. The Web is attempting to convince me otherwise.
I don’t know what exactly this all means for how I live. It’s obviously difficult to function these days without the Internet so I don’t think I’m looking to quit. Seems a little backwards. But I am seeking a better way to live in light of the enormous amount of time I spend with my computer every day.
Mar
13
Looking Ahead: Capturing Past, Present
Filed Under Life's Journey | 2 Comments
I love history. If Jamaica and I subscribed to cable or satellite, I’m sure I’d watch the History Channel way too much. I love reading biographies of dead people. I have a man crush on David McCullough, and loved his book about John Adams. I enjoy sitting with people over 70 and listening to their stories. Their perspective. Their passion. Their forgotten dreams. Their regrets. Their grandkids.
I’ve kept a journal off and on ever since I was a kid. I wish I was more consistent. You’d think my love for history would motivate me enough to capture the present, but it doesn’t work that way. So Jamaica and I are trying a couple things to capture what’s happening in our lives on an ongoing basis.
Video Journal: We’ve identified a handful of questions we will answer every year in front of a video camera. We’ll do our recording individually, in front of a plain backdrop, with a tightly cropped shot. The idea is to capture answers to the same questions for what will hopefully be decades to come. In 20, 30, and 40 years I think it will be interesting to watch the progression of our answers, age, and everything else that comes with this time-lapse like approach.
Listography: Although Jamaica and I will continue with irregular journaling, we’re starting to compile lists of memories. We’re using Lisa Nola’s Listography to get us started. It’s a little book packed with blank pages, organized around categories like places you’ve lived, biggest fears and best friends. The idea is to create lists that span back to childhood. In the process, I’ve found myself adding commentary next to items which creates a nice narrative. In my opinion, keeping lists is much less intimidating than blank journal pages that scream for emotional commentary and unconfessed secrets.
Time will tell if we can stay disciplined enough to continue capturing our story. If and/or when we have children, we’ll want to include them in the chronicling festivities too. Although this whole thing feels a little self-centered, at the core is a desire to recall, to remember and to remind. There is something significant about looking back. A professor in college used the analogy of rowing. When you row, you’re seated looking the opposite direction of where you’re headed. Although you’re looking back, you’re moving forward. You’ve got to row into the future while rowing out of the past.
Mar
11
If you’ve followed some of my thoughts for any amount of time over the past couple years, you know that I have a keen interest in the identity and soul of organizations. I’m interested in what makes organizations tick, and how values and principles must be embedded into the very core of who an organization is for it to matter long-term.
BusinessWeek’s Emily Thornton wrote a great article late last year about Mervin G. Morris, founder of the now defunct Mervyn’s department store. It’s a tragic tale of the rise and fall of a family business that lost its soul.
Founded in 1949, Morris sold the company in 1978 to the Dayton Hudson Corporation (now Target). Meryvn’s would eventually be sold off to private equity firms that would strip it of any dignity it had left. Over the last couple years, the company closed all remaining stores and 18,000 people were out of work.
What’s happening at Mervyns is happening elsewhere at an alarming rate. While private equity firms control just a tiny fraction of U.S. corporations, their companies are disproportionately troubled. Of the 105 big U.S. companies that have filed for bankruptcy [in 2008], 66 have been owned by buyout shops or been spun off by them…
When the identity of an organization is delegated to bottom line number crunchers and profiteers, everyone suffers.
Mar
9
In the March 2009 issue of Fast Company, Nancy Lublin wrote an article titled “Jurassic Park Syndrome.” She argues—unsuccessfully in my opinion—why for-profits need not-for-profits. “Corporate America,” says Lublin, “has realized it can bask in the glow of causiness without actually partnering with a cause. That could mean the end of a gravy train for not-for-profits and the beginning of competition with big, well-funded companies. (Read: We’re all kinda annoyed and scared.)”
I’ve been in the cause marketing space for the past decade, although I didn’t know it was called that until seven years ago. It’s been a steady trend in the nonprofit and for-profit world. The collaboration and commingling of brands to better business and better the world. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, from his Poor Richard’s Almanack, it’s “doing well by doing good.”
But Nancy Lublin worries now that since for-profits have learned how to do well and do good, they might not need nonprofits anymore to help.
We’re witnessing a Jurassic Park moment in the social-good space: Not-for-profits are screwed, and it’s partly our own doing. For years, we—the martyrs, the saints, the do-gooders—have had the keys to that door to heaven. But then we shared them with corporate America, through a practice known as “cause marketing” since 1983, when American Express launched a campaign in partnership with the National Park Service for the Statue of Liberty restoration project.
Cause marketing is turning into cause murketing, and I think that’s just fine. I heard a presentation from one of the marketing directors at Whirlpool a few years ago. He said that the future of Whirlpool would not be to increase budgets for cause marketing, but to increase focus on marketing that works. If cause marketing works, that’s good marketing, so it will become a part of the overall marketing plan.
We don’t need distinctions between marketing and cause marketing. What we need are corporations that understand the value of doing good. This is one of the reasons why the number of nonprofits has grown in recent decades. Corporations turned evil and measured success only by monetary profits. Nonprofits came along and put the focus back on people, which for-profits are finally doing again as well.
So let’s put aside our distinctions and recognize that there is always room to do well and do good. Whether you’re a for-profit or a nonprofit, your success will ultimately be measured by your return to people (shareholders, employees, communities and future generations).
Mar
2
Meet Tom Freston
Filed Under Inspiration | Leave a Comment
Thanks to Fortune’s Patricia Sellers, it looks like I have another person to add to my list of people to watch. An early adman and one of the brains behind the launch of MTV, Tom Freston was at Viacom for 19 years before Summer Redstone fired him. It was time “to make a change,” said Redstone on Labor Day in 2006.
Thirteen days after he was fired, Freston flew to Singapore, then on to Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, and China with his wife, Kathy, her mother, Joan, and his brother, Bill. Ever since, Freston, now 63, has been roaming the planet, visiting 30 other countries, mainly in Africa and Asia. “You really realize that you’re not at the center of things,” he tells Fortune. “You’re less than a pinpoint on the map.”
Freston has since been tapped by Oprah Winfrey and Bono. Oprah wants Freston to run her new network and Bono needs help organizing ONE and Product RED.
But Freston isn’t in any hurry to commit. Instead, he’s helping Oprah and Bono in a consulting role, and pacing himself accordingly.
These days [Freston] is putting his money into an orphanage and medical clinic in Southeast Asia and reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, where he once lived. Last summer, if you had the right map, you could have found Freston running around Kabul with a cameraman, researching one of two film projects there. Says [DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg]: “In his heart and his gut, Tom is a mad adventurer.”
I’m inspired by people who know their strengths and leverage them to help others. Not because they’re asked or cajoled, but because they’re compelled and centered.