The Business Sensei

Comrade, we meant pies

After reading the recent articles in the NY Times about the Russian spy ring and listening to news reports on it, I’m left wondering just what the point was. It sounds mostly like an episode of Get Smart, complete with over the top recognition phrases and really bad brush passes (in one example, the spy holds out his backpack so that the passing Russian government official can place a bag into it).

Perhaps these 11 people misunderstood their instructions. Instead of being spies, maybe they were supposed to make pies.

The biggest question I’ve having with this story is just what the expected goals were. Why did someone decide on a long-term, expensive, potentially embarrassing operation? It seems odd that so much effort would be expended trying to obtain information that can be readily obtained through the news, Facebook, and Google.

No, I don’t think there’s some deeper, hidden plan here (were I writing an espionage serious game, I would, of course, have a different view… 🙂 ). Rather, I believe this is an amazing example of astoundingly poor planning. This is a project that seems to have been given the same level of critical thought and review as a plan that involves evacuating walruses from the Gulf of Mexico and not thinking about hurricanes.

In this case, I wonder if the Russians figured that they needed information about American life and at least knew they didn’t know much about it. Their assumptions, though, about how to get that information only serve to illustrate just how much they didn’t know about what they were investigating. It’s a wonderful example of how cultural beliefs and assumptions can get in the way of actually accomplishing your goals.

Sometimes the toughest part of learning something is figuring out just how much you don’t know. If the Russians had realized just how trivial this information was, they wouldn’t have needed to go to such lengths to get it. How often do businesses make the same mistakes? Sometimes the information isn’t that hard to get or the product isn’t that hard to build, but our assumptions based on a lack of knowledge cause us to make the whole thing much more difficult.

That can be extremely expensive. It can also lead to the Keystone Kspies.

Pardon me, I think my shoe is ringing.

Decider’s Remorse

Recently, I was attending a board meeting for a certain organization. They were contemplating some significant changes to several long-standing policies, which naturally generated quite a bit of discussion. The various options were carefully laid out and analyzed. There was a great deal of discussion over how well the different changes would address the identified problems. The president very carefully checked to make sure each member had had their say, that each member felt heard, and that each member was comfortable making a decision and accepting whichever decision was reached.

The vote happened, and a decision was made. No problem!

The problem came up at the next board meeting, when the president said, “I’m not comfortable with our decision. I think we should revisit it.”

Read the rest at Corp! Magazine

Deja vu All Over Again

“This is like déjà vu all over again.”

–          Yogi Berra

In the classic British science fiction series Doctor Who, there is a scene in which the Doctor is trapped in a time loop: the same events keep taking place over and over with no end in sight. Naturally, this being fiction, the Doctor quickly recognizes what’s going on and figures out a way to break out of the loop. In real life, it’s not quite so easy. Granted, actual time loops tend to be pretty rare; not so the feeling of being stuck in one.

Read the rest in the CEO Refresher

Light’s Better Here

There’s an old joke about a man searching in the gutter under a streetlight. A passerby asks him what he’s doing.

“Looking for my car keys,” replies the man.

“Where did you drop them?” asks the passerby.

“Over there,” says the man, pointing into the inky darkness down the street.

“Then why aren’t you looking there?” responds the passerby in amazement.

“The light’s better here.”

Although ludicrous, like many jokes its humor comes, as it were, from the light it sheds on an important aspect of human behavior. Given the choice between poking around blindly in the dark or looking in the light, most people will choose the latter.

I can already hear the cries of, “But wait a second! That’s nonsense. Why would anyone in their right mind deliberately look where they know the keys are not?”

Why indeed? The fact is, we already have our answer: “the light’s better.” The real question is what does that actually mean?

Read the rest in the Messenger.

How You Hire Just As Key As Who You Hire

Where you start is what you get. I regularly hear managers say:

• “An unexpected problem arose and the team didn’t step up.”
• “I can’t figure out how to motivate them.”
• “No one goes above and beyond.”
• “They are just so passive!”

Alternately:

• “They won’t stop arguing!”
• “People complain about being interrupted all the time.”

Businesses like to describe their culture in positive terms, as “can do” or “fun-loving, but hard working,” or “highly motivated, team-driven atmosphere,” and so forth. Unfortunately, as the comments above illustrate, this is often wishful thinking. Culture is a complex construct and actions taken early in the company’s history can have far reaching effects. And while everyone knows that who a company hires can make a big difference, what is less obvious is that how a company hires can be even more critical.

Read the rest at the Indus Business Journal