The Difference Between What and How

For anything that you do in business (or life for that matter), there is a 'what' and a 'how'. Most people believe that 'what' they do is more important than 'how' they do it. These are people who are often myopically focused on the endpoint, ignoring the collateral damage. I would contend that 'how' you do things is equal to, if not more important than, 'what' you do.

For an example, look no further than the recent Lebron James free agency saga. He has taken tremendous criticism for the whole episode. However, he brought it on himself because of 'how' he did things, not because of 'what' he did.

What did he do?  After 7 years with one team, and an entire career in one state, he decided that he wanted a change of scenery. Further, he elected to take less money to go to a different team (who is the last athlete to do that?). Lastly, he decided that he wanted to play with some of his friends, increasing each of their chances of success. In my view, there is nothing wrong with 'what' he did.

How did he do it? He made the whole episode into a spectacle about him. He strung alot of teams on, when it is now clear he had no intention of going there. He gave no indications to his team of 7 years on his real desires or what he wanted. He left them in the dark, as if he never knew them.  By focusing on himself, he alienated everyone that he could have brought along with him in the process.

In this case, as in many others I see, the negativity around the 'how' overshadowed the 'what'. Now, he will live with the repercussions.

The business world is no different. People have long memories. The 'what' is important to everyone, but I think the 'how' is on equal ground in the minds of many.

Annual Message

I have gotten in the habit of writing an 'Annual Message' to my team. Working in a large, distributed organization puts an emphasis on communication. Specifically, the need to ensure that everyone is rowing in the same general direction.

I try to use the 'Annual Message' as a chance to step back and take a bigger picture view of where we have been and where we are going. While everyone fights a battle every day, being able to communicate a longer term perspective helps frame why we are doing what we are doing. It gives us context (I hope).

I typically start thinking about what I want to write a couple months in advance and maybe jot down a few notes. But then, for whatever reason, I normally sit down and type it out in one session (typically less than an hour). I then have to make a couple tweaks/revisions, but generally speaking it does not change. I don't know if this is the 'right' way to do it, but that's what I do.

I don't even know if this is valuable to anyone, but I do think it helps me to organize my thoughts.

Without further due, here is this years and the 2008 and 2009 versions. Apologies, but I decided to put these behind the firewall, given some of the content. That being said, if you are interested in reading it and don't have access, just send me a note and I will share it if I know you.

Annual Message 2010

Annual Message 2009

Annual Message 2008

5 slides

There are few skills as valuable as the ability to take a complex topic and boil it down to a digestible storyline that anyone can understand. Time and again I see people that make a complex topic even more complex, due to volumes of data and information, but little insight. To be sure, this is a learned skill. But it starts with acknowledging that simple. Whether you are selling to a client, a peer, or your boss, there is no communication skill that is as valuable as being able to simplify and provide insight.

The best test for this is to take any idea/presentation that you are working on and force it to fit onto five slides. This will force you to focus on the key messages that you want to get across, the data that you need to support your messages, and the insights that you can provide. If you can do this in 5 slides, you probably don't even need all of the other supporting slides that you already created. This is also a great test of how well you understand a topic. I recently saw this quote: "If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough". That rings true to me.

In Jack Welch's book, Winning, he has an entire chapter on the idea that any company of any size, should be able to explain their strategy in 5 slides. More recently, I found this commentary on the web, which makes a similar point.

Hans Hofmann, an influential German painter, once said, “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”

A Different Kind of Company

What if you built a company on two principles?

1) we will never lose a client.
2) we will only have 100 clients.

That is exactly what UST Global has done and it impressed me. Given that they are only allowed to have 100 clients and are not allowed to lose any, they must choose carefully. Even more importantly, their only definition of success is client satisfaction. These are two principles that really set the tone and dictate the culture of the organization.

They live these principles by having a large plaque that lists each of their clients (currently less than 50) prominently displayed in their office. No one forgets the principles and therefore, no one puts anything ahead of client satisfaction.

Read more about their founder and his philosophies here.

Sold Out

We are sold out at our IOD event in Rome this week. Given the challenge of volcanoes and the general business climate, I am pleasantly amazed by the turnout. The education this year is fantastic, ranging from sales enablement of our partners (whiteboarding) to deep technical sessions. We obviously could not do these events without the enthusiasm of our partners and clients. I hope everyone has a great week.