I just had an interesting experience where I learned a valuable lesson.   It was about managing too much.

If you think about it, that sentence has at least too meanings.  One is that you have too much going on in your life and you are trying hard to manage it all.  You simply have too much to manage.

But a second way to look at that sentence is that you are managing something in your life too much.  And possibly holding yourself back in the process.

I am an owner in a company that provides a service to large petrochemical plants.  You know, the guys that make plastic pellets that are used to make everything in our lives from soda bottles to carpet to the keys on your computer keyboard.  Basically we solve problems with the plastic materials they are producing.  We are unique (PolyCleanUSA.com) because we do this work on sight and save our clients that headaches and hassles of sending the material offsite to be worked on.  We basically bring our equipment, people and expertise to them.

Over the last couple of days I was at a particular clients site helping to solve a problem.  Basically we were working on a way to reduce the amount of waste in a process that came from material movement.  Anytime you are moving something from one area to another, you are rarely adding value.  Anytime you are doing something that is not adding value, you are creating waste.  We were working together to eliminate this waste.

Doing so required that we had some things fabricated to make the system worked.  The folks that were doing the fabricating were on site and part of the staff at the plant.  I had sent some drawings of what I wanted built ahead of my visit and we were going to the shop to see how much progress had been made. 

My host at the plant told me something that turned into a real learning experience for me.  He said, you know, I tell these guys (the fabricators) how I want something done...I just tell them what I need to accomplish and let them come up with the solution.  It always works out best that way he said.

He then went on to explain that at one time in his career, he gave very detailed instructions and the fabricators did exactly as he said.  He admitted the solutions he came up with were less than elegant.  Then in another instance he didn't have time to create a set of detailed instructions and just gave the fabricators the goal... the objective he was trying to reach and let them figure it out for themselves.  The solution they came up with, was brilliant.  Ever since then, he just gives them the objective, not the how to.

This led me to think about my own management style.  I am a very "here is how to do it" systems kind of guy.  And I think I am holding myself and my people back as a result.  I am managing too much.  How about you?

So my resolution going forward is to simply let my folks know the objective and let them figure out the details.  Sure mistakes will be made.  But I bet my folks will rise to the challenge and will take ownership in their solutions and more pride in their contribution.  Just like the fabricators and the petro-chem plant did. 

Are you managing too much? If so, then back off a little.  I think you and I will be pleasantly surprised.

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"A rusty nail placed near a faithful compass, will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy."
Sir Walter Scott

We spend a lot of time in our lives thinking about things to add to it.  More things to be, do and have.   Goals to achieve, things to acquire, skills to learn etc.

But I think it is equally important to get rid of stuff in our lives.  Things (in the broadest way this word can be used) that get in the way, burden or hinder us on our journey.

In each of our lives there exist rusty nails that cause our compass to swing off course.  Rusty nails that have long since served their purpose or worse, have been tolerated, and need to be discarded.  As you plan for the New Year and dutifully make your resolutions, find a way to discard those rusty nails that divert you from your true path.  Free up some space in your life...then there will be room for something wonderful to show up.

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It’s that time of year when most folks wind down the current year and begin to think about the New Year.  As we begin yet another trip around the sun, I think it is healthy to think about what we want to accomplish in the coming year.  And goals are a way of organizing our thoughts about what we want.

But this year I am doing it a little differently than I have in the past.  You see, I think the answer to having a successful year does not lie in the list of things we want to be, do or have.  It comes from the story of our life we write moment to moment.  Our life really isn’t a list, is it?  It is an unfolding story and as such our goals and objectives should be written the same way, as a story.

So, here is what I did.  I wrote a story about my life in 2010.  I pretended that I was reflecting on the year that had just passed (as I will do a year from now) and wrote about everything that had happened in my life that had significance.  The cool thing about this is that it required me to be infinitely more creative and expressive about my future than I would ever be with a list.  And more importantly, the process was filled with much more emotion than it would have been had I merely written a list.  And this is the key to the successful attainment of the things we want to be, do and have in our life…to wrap them up in some positive emotion.

Because, in the end, it is not really the thing we want to be, do or have that we are striving for, is it?  Nope.  It is the feeling or emotion we think we are going to have as a result of being, doing or having something.

So don’t write a list of goals to check-off…write and live a story worthy of the miracle of you.  You deserve nothing less. 

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I received an email from a client company I work with from time to time as an "ideation consultant".  I think that means I come up with ideas based on needs and wishes of their clients.  And since I love coming up with ideas, I would gladly do it for free but they insist on paying me anyhow. 

So they asked me a question about what they could do to eliminate failure in their innovation process.  And if doing so would be of greater value to their clients.  I suggested that they we asking the wrong questions.

I do not believe that failure can be eliminated.  Nor do I think it is a worthy goal to try and eliminate failure...either in our innovation process or in our lives.  Failure needs to be embraced.  It is an important component in the innovation process.  At least if you are trying to do anything important.

Here are the questions you need to be finding the answers to:

1- How can we accelerate the rate of failure in the marketplace?  Ie - how can we fail more and fail faster

2- How can we compress the time from coming up with an idea to having it in the marketplace to zero time?

3- How can we make the cost of failure so low (free) that it no longer becomes an obstacle to innovation?

There is no way to avoid failure.  The only way to win this game is to learn to love failure as much or more as you love success.  To embrace failure and partner with it.  Then, and only then, will failure teach you what you need to know to find the success you crave.

Fail fast, fail often, and learn.

Comments?

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When I was growing up my parents were typically encouraging.  Son, they would tell me, “You can grow up to be anything you want to be”.

On the surface this is harmless enough and my parents were sincere in their desire for me to have be able to do whatever I wanted.  And truth be told, no one knows what potential a young child has.  Like a blank canvas, the masterpiece of ones life begins at the moment of conception.  But at the tender age of six or seven, the canvas remains largely blank.

But the truth is, we really cannot grow up to be anything we want.  Some of us, no matter how hard we try, will never be a star basketball player.  Our DNA may have blessed us with shorter genes than Michael Jordon.  At 6’4” tall and in the 240 pound range, I wouldn’t make a very good horse jockey.  It’s just not in my DNA.  Nor is math.  I recognized in the 5^th grade that I would not be good at math.  Nor sports…I am pretty uncoordinated and lacked the innate talent many of my teammates had in the various sports I tried.

And while the physical aspects of our bodies are fixed by DNA, the path of experiences and the environment we grow up in shapes us just as dramatically.   The sooner a person recognizes this, the better.  Unfortunately, our system of educating young people delays this realization for far too long?  How?  Because as youngsters we are encouraged by our parents, teachers and other mentors to “work on our weaknesses”.  The end result of this philosophy?  If we are diligent, and work hard on the weaknesses, in the end, we have some really strong weaknesses.  Along with frustration and poor self esteem as we are constantly comparing ourselves to others.

Think of all of your life skills, talents and abilities as a bulls-eye.  A bulls-eye is a set of circles that gets smaller and smaller as you move toward the center.  The center is generally the target.    

Using this analogy, the largest circle, the outer circle, represents those things in your life that you really suck at.  And not only do you perform these tasks poorly, you loathe doing them.  They deplete your energy and you dread doing them.  On a bell curve, your performance of these tasks would put you in the lower percentile.  Below average.

Note the size of the circle of stuff you are really horrible at and hate doing.  It is vast and huge.  For me, repetitive tasks fall into this big circle.  As does doing paper work and accounting (I can read a balance sheet and an income statement just fine, I just loathe putting one together).  The amount of stuff I do poorly and despise doing is very large indeed. I bet just reading this several of your own popped into your mind.

The next smaller circle is stuff you are above average in doing.  Meaning you can do it better than most.  But these tasks don’t give you any energy and you can take it or leave it.

The next smaller  circle, the one slightly larger than the bulls-eye, is your circle of excellence.  This is the set of things you do in your life that you are excellent at.  Perhaps you do these things better than 90% of the rest of the world.  You enjoy doing these things and you derive some energy from doing them.  Folks that get paid doing things in this area of their skills are generally happy and recognized for their talents.

But I want you to consider the bull’s-eye.  This tiny dot in the center represents the one or two things in your life that you are capable of doing that are extraordinary.  One or two things you do better than just about anyone else on the planet. In fact, because of who you are, you do this more remarkably than anyone else.  Think of this as you God given talent.  And once you find this focal point of your life, and pursue it with all your heart, you will actually find yourself getting increasing amounts of energy doing more and more of it.  And, without a doubt, you will live a life of joy and passion that is sadly not found by most inhabitants on this earth.

So how do you find your bulls-eye?  Simple. Stop working on your weaknesses.  Eliminate, outsource or delegate, without apology or guilt, all the stuff in your like you hate doing or do poorly.  Eliminate all that stuff in your life that sucks your energy well dry.  Because only by making room in your life for the talent of your bulls-eye to shine through will you find it. And just because you lack talent and desire to do something doesn’t mean it is not someone else’s bulls-eye.  By your unwillingness to let some stuff go, you greedily rob someone else of living their passion.

A couple of cautions – You may not recognize your true bulls-eye talent because it is so a part of you that you cannot stand away from it enough to recognize it.  That is where people that really know you and are not threatened by your realization of your bulls-eye talent can help you to discover it.

Another caution is that it is really easy to get trapped at the excellence level.  I say trapped because this is a cozy place to be.  You are doing stuff you enjoy and are getting rewarded for it in terms of accolades and money.  But I would encourage you to continue the journey a little further to the center of your existence and find your bulls-eye.  And then share that brightness with the world.

So your parents lied to you.  You can’t be anything you want to be. But the world doesn’t want you to be just anything; the world wants and needs you to be your bulls-eye.

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A habit I started several years ago and which I highly recommend is writing in a journal on a daily basis.  I find that it helps with innovation and creativity in a couple of ways.

One, it forces you to notice things about your life at a deeper level.  Observation of the nuances of what is going on around you can lead to new ideas, new connections and breakthrough thinking.  By writing your life story down, you make different connections in your brain than you would by just thinking about them,  There is something magical about writing something down...it is the first step of moving it from the ethereal to the physical.

Two, the journal becomes the place to easily store ideas that need more time to be processed in your sub-conscious.  Notice I said THE place.  A great benefit of having a journal is that you can store your thoughts and ideas for future reflection and action.  These ideas are never lost and can be played with in the journal over a period of time before actually bringing them out into the world. 

So how do you journal?  First, make is a daily practice.  I like to journal in the early morning hours.  I am most active at that time of day.  But the key to effective journaling is to make it a daily practice.  That is how you will find the greatest value.

You can either write in a bound book (which I used to do) or use software.  A simple text editor or a word processor generally works fine.  But I use a software program called "The Journal"   which I have used for the past year and highly recommend.  I like it because it is easy to search, has a nice time stamp feature, and is password protected.  And at only $49 it won't break the bank.

Regardless of which method you use (handwriting or software), start journaling today.  You will be amazed at the impact this simple action will have on your personal and professional creativity.

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I love a blank sheet of paper sitting on my desk in front of me.  It has so much possibility.  But as soon as I start to draw, I have begun to limit the potential of the paper.

Is this a bad thing?

No, in fact I believe the constraints are an important part of creating something remarkable.  If you are working on a project or even on your life, you would be wise to occasionally put rigid constraints in place.  I think you will find, counter intuitively, that your creativity will actually expand.

Two stories from the world of business that illustrate how constraints based innovation leads to breakthrough products.

Sony Walkman - born from a block of wood.

In its day, the Sony Walkman was a cool, must have electronic gadget.  Basically it was a very compact tape player that was portable and could be clipped to your shorts when you were skating.  (see the pic, it wasn't that small by todays standards but it was quite revolutionary at the time).

The story of how the Walkman came to be is a fascinating study in constraints based innovation.  The founder of Sony was visiting California and observed all the people skating along the beach (pre-rollerblade days) and noticed how they were clutching some rather bulky radios and tapes players.  He imagined that a smaller tape player would be more convenient for the skaters so he carved a block of wood the size and shape of the player he had in mind.

When he returned to Japan, he handed this block of wood to his engineers and asked them to make a tape player that size.  In essence, he handed them a constraint, which in this case was a block of wood much smaller than any tape player on the market.  And, within the confines of this space, the Sony Walkman was born and became a huge consumer hit.

Apple - buttons?, no thank you -

Steve Jobs hates buttons.  Buttons on his shirt, buttons on devices, buttons period.  His belief is that buttons are aesthetically displeasing.  So his constraint on design is to eliminate as many buttons as possible.  The Apple mouse is legendary in that it only has one button and the newest Apple mouse has none.  The Ipod is such a success because the engineers at Apple had to figure out how to make the player work with as few buttons (the goal being zero) as possible.  This is an artificial constraint, imposed by Steve Jobs, that has lent itself to the success of the Ipod and other Apple products.

In your current project or in your life today, what constraints can you add that will lead to a higher order of thinking?  An easy one is time limits.  Just limit the time you have to do something and while it may stress you out, it can lead to some breakthrough thinking.  Or if you are building or designing something, think about how you could eliminate 50% of the fasteners in the device.   Or driving to work, what route could get you there with the fewest left turns? 

We think we want freedom from constraints.  But constraints can lead to breakthrough ideas and products.  Go ahead, limit yourself today!

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If you have an interest in where innovation is going and what makes something elegant, then please read the book "The Pursuit of Elegance" by Matthew May. 

The book is one of the best business books I have read in a long, long time. 

The premise of the book is that the best things in life have something missing.  They are elegant in their simplicity.  From product design to business management, elegance comes as much from what is not there to what is there. 

The author gives many examples from different industries.  From the Apple Iphone to ideas in architecture.  He points out that a real hindrance to elegance in design is our immediate desire to add to something when faced with a problem.  We want to add features or policies.  But sometimes (if not all times), stopping (as in stop doing something) and subtraction leads to a better, more elegant solution.

I highly recommend this book.  To visit Matt's website and blog, click here: http://tiny.cc/mJuIp

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I thought it would be fun to share a product with you I am getting ready to launch.  As you know, in addition to my other businesses, I like to develop products.  Even though this one is not yet on the market, I wanted to share the idea and some behind the scenes "going ons" with my friends.  I have also attached a pic of a prototype. 

The product is called WashDoggy and it is a portable on demand hot water heater.  Basically, you connect it to a garden hose and when you turn on the sprayer, the water heats up (adjustable temperature from warm to ouch) instantaneously and never runs out.  It runs off of propane (using a standard 20# tank like you use on a gas grill) and two D cell batteries that run the little computer that makes it all work.

The reason I invented this thing is because we have a four legged child named Maggie.  Maggie is a Golden Retriever (well, she retrieves when she feels like it) that absolutely loves to chase cats and play in pluff mud.  When she engages in the latter, she needs to be washed.  I am not much into cold showers and neither is Maggie. So the WashDoggy makes this much more tolerable for me and for her.  The hot water is comfortable for both of us and it helps to get her cleaner.  The shampoo lathers better and is easier to wash out too.  I figure that there are probably a few other folks out there that could use this thing so I decided to make it into a salable product.  We'll see.

I will start selling the WashDoggy in a few weeks on a website called, um, WashDoggy.com (not functional yet...just a logo).  To start, I am building these at our James Island shop.  The cart is made from aluminum pipe (it won't rust!) and is TIG (tungsten inert gas) welded.  I chose TIG over MIG (metal inert gas) because the welds are stronger and look much better.  TIG is slower though.  I also looked at using steel tubing (much cheaper) and having it powder coated.  But the aluminum won because it doesn't rust which is important for a cart that gets wet and it eliminates an extra step in manufacturing (powder coating and oven baking) which is one less bottleneck to have to manage around. 

The website is being developed by my web designers in India. One cool feature is that it will let pets upload their pictures and testimonials.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Social Media is going to the dogs. A video that will be on the site to demo the product is being shot in Los Angeles by a cool company called Cable Commercials. The unit will retail for $199.

There are probably some other uses for this thing too.  Folks have mentioned rinsing off their children after a swim in the pool, lake or ocean.  Camping was another idea.  Folks that have horses would probably get some use out if it.  I think it would be cool to have a sink attachment for it for use at an oyster roast.  If you have any other ideas for it, please let me know. 

And of course, I love to partner or help folks with fun and interesting ideas...so if you have one that you want to explore, please contact me.

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At one of my companies, PolyClean, we have a daily meeting at 7:37 each morning.  It is a conference call because all of our folks are working around the country.  This meeting happens everyday (including Saturdays and Sundays).

The agenda for the meeting is very straightforward and consists of three items.  What's up?  The Numbers.  Are You Stuck?  We get through with the meeting in less than 15 minutes.  As a result of the meeting, everyone is on the same page and any issues are dealt with quickly.

What's Up?  - This is where our folks report on any issues that have happened in the last 24 hours (we run 24/7/365) and what their plans are for the next 24. 

Numbers - These are reported production numbers that are important to our business.  The only numbers we report here are the numbers we use to get paid by.  In this case, it is pounds run.

Are You Stuck? -  This is where our folks can report any frustrations they are having a tough time solving on their own.  Could be a nagging maintenance issue, or it could be an issue with the client starving us of material because of an issue at their plant.  All issues are dealt with as quickly as possible.

We do this meeting on a conference call system that is really cheap.  We record each meeting and have our office folks transcribe it and email the report out later in the morning.  Any actionable items are highlighted and taken care of that day if possible.

Every business has a rhythm.  Our business rhythm allows us to have a meeting once per day.  Perhaps your business will need more meetings or less.  But make them scheduled for the same time all the time, make them mandatory, and keep them short and sweet with a 3 item agenda or less.  We look forward to our daily meeting because it is informative and quick.

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