Be an Anthropologist

The other day I was asked by our new District Director about my Personal mission Statement; I am not sure if it is personal because it is not all about me, here we go: “Under the infinite mercy of our Lord, I am showered with undeserved Grace while trying to figure this life out; It is my mission to make a daily positive contributions to humanity.” However, I am often caught up in this “me” world and forgot about the selfless part of my mission.

Why am I telling you this? Let see, as human, everything that we do is at the mercy of someone or something else. Right! You heard me, everything. Unfortunately or perhaps, fortunately, we do not exist in a vacuum. Today, I said to myself: “Why does good thing happen to bad people?” Yep, that’s me. What have I done right?  Truth be told, someone else have done something right and not me. Therefore, I think, we must all be an Anthropologist – we have to figure out what makes human human. Why do I think the way I think? Why do I think that I am undeserving of good things? Frightening thought but, as leaders, we have to venture into this realm of what makes me me and what makes you you.

Back to business, “Know What You Don’t Know” by Michael Roberto talks about the notion of being more than just a problem solver and stresses the importance of being a problem finder. Roberto points out that “most large scale failures have an incubation period and are not the result of a single root cause, but a chain of errors.” However, as we improved with our numbers and performances, it gets tougher to see small errors incubating beneath us. This is why we have to rely on communication with everyone in order to keep small problems from growing into big ones. Inevitably, this means dealing with the challenge of filtering and finding ways to connect straight to the source.

Roberto shared two basic techniques for developing yourself as a problem finder: 

Circumvent Gatekeepers

It’s important that we remember that we all are gatekeepers and are trying to do our best to boil down information into simple sound bites and talking points for the sake of time an simplicity. But that often means blowing over small, peculating issues and leave them tucked away. As Gatekeeper, we decide what need to be dealt with and what need to be tucked away. 

To combat this, Roberto recommends that every so often we carve out time to review the raw data of our Team—this is why we have the daily Tracker for our Priority Metrics and you are encourage to analyze them daily by looking at them with your Problem Finder's eyes. The idea is to break away from the standard routine of reports that have become staled and predictable. Take a look at data you don’t normally review, or read some of the reports that are available in sharepoint, business object, or Field Reporting. Hence, as you are looking at the metrics that has been assigned to you, look at it with problem finder's and QDM's eyes; thus, what other information that I can find to help me understand this metric? Whether you at goal or not, you should always look at what are the potential problem that could prevent you from improving. Thus look at these metrics with “how can I improve?” eyes.  

I will also change up metrics assignment to maximize the diversities of problem finders. Often, some team members will be less constrained in what they are willing to tell or share from their problem finders—As we are moving into a New Year with a New District, my challenge to all of you: “Be an Anthropologist” and understand why makes a person that person. I also encourage you to be a Gate Keeper that does not discriminate on the finding by analyzing the process with a holistic approach. 

By now, all of you know how much I love football, watching it anyway; nevertheless, I spoke about this before when I was watching the Florida State University vs. Clemson last fall. The name of the quarterback for FSU is Winston; he threw a pass to his running-back which is 5 yards in front of him and then ran up to block for the running-back-- that is “rolling up your sleeves” leadership. Do not limit yourself to the parameter of your task. If you are on the field, every play from start to finish is yours, regardless of position. You can’t throw the ball and sit back—you throw the ball and run up and block.    

Encourage Useful Failures

The most successful Teams started out by failing, but they were willing to take a shot, and then another, and another… until they made it. Sometimes you have to do a little experimentation before you figure out the right answer. There is quote that is framed up in my office by Jacob Riis "... Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two ..." This should be the approach for Team Abilene. Should someone ask how do get things done in Abilene, quote them Jacob Riis. I spoke about this before “failing your way to success.” And I've use Riis and Thomas Edison example before, we cannot stop on the number 100 failures, it maybe the 101 attempt the get us the victory. Thomas Edison was fired twice and failed at his first 1,000 attempts to create a working light bulb. Oprah Winfrey was fired from an early job as a Baltimore TV reporter because she was deemed unfit for TV news. Go figure! 

When it comes to failure, Roberto advises not to wait for a failure to create a learning opportunity, but instead create opportunities to fail. In other words, create experiments and pilots to test ideas in an environment that is safe. This will encourages everyone to acknowledge and address failure in a positive way they can learn from, and will lead to a more open culture where employees will be more willing to share little errors before they erupt into major problems.