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Connecting the Dots Faster
When I started consulting, an experienced consultant told me, “The best Consultants are experts at becoming Experts.” I started my consulting career with that goal in mind. After a few years realized that “Good consults are people who can learn enough quickly to ask intelligent questions and then connect the dots faster.” This is a great skill for anyone, regardless of the industry or business.
It’s impossible to be an expert at everything. I believe having great depth in a few areas (true expertise) and breadth of knowledge in many areas (enhancing context and insight) is important. Both types of knowledge alone are valuable, but combined, they add a dimension that allows a person to be far more effective and potentially much more valuable because it leads to the ability to pick up on the dependencies and nuances that others miss.
Just think – How much more effective is a salesperson who understands technology and project management concepts when working to demonstrate fit and create a sense of urgency? Or, an Attorney who understands the complexity of service offerings and delivery – enhancing their ability to construct agreements that are highly protective yet not overly complex or onerous. Or a programmer who thinks beyond the requirements and looks for ways to improve or simplify the process. Extra knowledge helps with the big picture understanding, and that often leads to providing more value by “thinking outside the box.” Additional knowledge and skills almost always help us become more effective, regardless of what we may be doing.
Increased knowledge and a desire to do amazing things create opportunities to make a huge and immediate impact. Sometimes it is because you are asking the questions that others may be thinking but simply cannot articulate in a clear manner. It helps you see the gaps and holes that others miss. And most importantly, it helps you “connect the dots” before others do (often many months before something obvious to you becomes obvious to others). A large consultancy once used the phrase “seeing around corners” to make this concept tangible.
So, if you buy into the concept that knowledge is good, the next question is usually, “What is the best way to learn?” People learn in different ways, so there really is no one single best way to learn. Understanding how you learn best will help you learn faster.
I’m a fan of reading. A good book may reinforce ideas you already know, introduce you to a few concepts or ideas that seem like they could help (giving you something to test), and often present many ideas that you know or feel just won’t work. Just don’t become one of those people who changes their beliefs and approach with every book they read (or what I refer to as “The book of the month club manager.“)
I’m also a fan of hands-on learning. The experience of doing something the first time is important. Keeping detailed notes (what works, what doesn’t make sense, what you did to figure it out, workarounds, etc.) enhances the value of that experience. It’s amazing what you can learn when you “get your hands dirty.”
What about formal education? I’ve never been a fan of the person who wants to get a degree in order to get a promotion. There are certainly some professions where education is critical to success (often through legitimacy as much as anything else). My advice to people is to work towards a specific degree because it is important as a personal goal and because it could possibly help you get a different or better job in the future. I will never criticize anyone for learning, going to school, or getting another certification or degree.
I believe the best way to get ahead is to learn the position, innovate, optimize, and deliver incredible results. You won’t “knock it out of the park” every time, but those “base hits” will help you score and ultimately win.
This is not to say that formal education is bad; I don’t believe that at all. I was working on my MBA at the same time I was expanding my consulting business from the US to the UK. I had a concentration in International Business, so I could apply many things I was learning right away. This bit of serendipity both enhanced my learning experience and helped me make better decisions that had real implications for my business. The funny thing was that I was working on that degree to raise the bar for my children, so this was just a bonus for me.
There are also other great ways to learn – ways that only require an investment of your time. There are many good free online courses. If you are interested in learning something or need to know more about it, there is almost always a place to find free or low-cost training. These are great investments in yourself and your future, and may help you learn to connect those dots faster.
Below are links to a few good free learning websites. Do yourself a favor and check them out. And, if you know of others, leave a comment and recommend them to others. Enjoy!
OpenCulture (directory with content from multiple sources)
Open Education Database (directory with content from multiple sources
Diamonds or just Shiny Rocks?
During a very candid review years ago, my boss at the time (the CEO of the company) made a surprising comment to me. He said, “Good ideas can be like diamonds – drop them occasionally, and they have a lot of value. But sprinkle them everywhere you go, and they just become a bunch of shiny rocks.” This was not the type of feedback that I was expecting, but it turned out to be both insightful and very valuable.
For a long time, I have held the belief that there are four types of people at any company: 1) People who want to make things better; 2) People who are interested in improvement but only in a supporting role; 3) People who are mainly interested in themselves (they can do great things, but often at the expense of others); and 4) People that are just there and don’t care much about anything. This opinion is based on working and consulting at many companies over a few decades.
A recent Gallup Poll stated Worldwide only 13% of Employees are “engaged at work” (the rest are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged”). This is a sad reflection of employees and work environments if it is true. Since it is a worldwide survey, it may be highly skewed by region or industry and, therefore, not indicative of what is typical across the board. Those results were not completely aligned with my thinking but were interesting nonetheless.
So, back to the story…
Before working at this company, I had run my own business for nearly a decade and was a consultant for 15 years, working at large corporations and startups. I am used to taking the best practices learned from other companies and engagements and incorporating them into our business practices to improve and foster growth.
I take a systemic view of business and see the importance of optimizing all components of “the business machine” to work harmoniously. Improvements in one area ultimately positively impact other areas of the business. From my naive perspective, I was helping everyone by helping those who have easily solved problems.
I learned that while trying to be helpful, I was insensitive to the fact that my “friendly suggestions based on past success” stepped on other people’s toes, creating frustration for those I intended to help. Providing simple solutions to their problems reflected poorly on my peers.
Suggestions and examples that were intended to be helpful had the opposite effect. Even worse, it was probably just as frustrating to me to be ignored as it was to others to have me infringe on their aspect of the business. The resulting friction was very noticeable to my boss.
Those ideas (“diamonds”) may have been considered had I been an external consultant. But as part of the leadership team, I was coming across as someone just interested in themselves (leaving “shiny rocks” laying around for people to ignore or possibly trip over).
Perception is reality, and my attempts to help were hurting me. Luckily, I received this honest and helpful feedback early in this position and was able to turn those perceptions around.
What are the morals of this story?
First, people who are engaged have the greatest potential to make a difference. Part of being a business leader is making sure that you have the best possible team, and are creating an environment that challenges, motivates, and fosters growth and accountability.
Disengaged employees or people who are unwilling or unable to work with/collaborate with others may not be your best choices, regardless of their talent. They could actually be detrimental to the overall team dynamics.
Second, doing what you believe to be the right thing isn’t necessarily the best or right way to approach something. Being sensitive to the big picture and testing whether or not your input is being viewed as constructive was a big lesson learned for me. If you have good ideas but are ineffective, consider that your execution could be flawed. Self-awareness is very important.
Third, use your own examples as stories to help others understand potential solutions to problems non-threateningly. Let them connect to their own problems, helping them become more effective and allowing them to save face. It is not a competition. And, if someone else has good ideas, help support them through collaboration. In the end, it should be more about effectiveness, growth, and achievement of business goals than who gets the most credit.
While this seems like common sense now, my background and personal biases blinded me to that perspective.
My biggest lesson learned was about adaptation. There are many ways to be effective and make a difference. Focus on understanding the situation and its dynamics to employ the best techniques, which is ultimately critical to the team or organization’s success.
To Measure is to Know
Lord William Thomson Kelvin was a pretty smart guy who lived in the 1800s. He didn’t get everything right (e.g., he supposedly stated, “X-rays will prove to be a hoax.”), but his success ratio was far better than most, so he possessed useful insight. I’m a fan of his quote, “If you can not measure it, you can not improve it.”
Business Intelligence (BI) systems can be very powerful, but only when embraced as a catalyst for change. What you often find in practice is that the systems are not actively used or do not track the “right” metrics (i.e., those that highlight something important – ideally something leading – that you have the ability to adjust and impact the results), or provide the right information – only too late to make a difference.
The goal of any business is to develop a profitable business model and execute extremely well. So, you need to have something people want, deliver high-quality goods and/or services, and finally make sure you can do that profitably (it’s amazing how many businesses fail to understand this last part). Developing a systematic approach that allows for repeatable success is extremely important. Pricing at a competitive level with a healthy profit margin provides the means for sustainable growth.
Every business is systemic in nature. Outputs from one area (such as a steady flow of qualified leads from Marketing) become inputs to another (Sales). Closed deals feed project teams, development teams, support teams, etc. Great jobs by those teams will generate referrals, expansion, and other growth – and the cycle continues. This is an important concept because problems or deficiencies in one area can negatively affect others.
Next, the understanding of cause and effect is important. For example, if your website is not getting traffic, is it because of poor search engine optimization or bad messaging and/or presentation? If people visit your website but don’t stay long, do you know what they are doing? Some formatting is better for printing than reading on a screen (such as multi-column pages), so people tend to print and go. And external links that do not open in a new window can hurt the “stickiness” of a website. Cause and effect are not always as simple as they seem, but having data on as many areas as possible will help you identify which ones are important.
When I had my company, we gathered metrics on everything. We even had “efficiency factors” for every Consultant. That helped with estimating, pricing, and scheduling. We would break work down into repeatable components for estimating purposes. Over time we found that our estimates ranged between 4% under and 5% over the actual time required for nearly every work package within a project. This allowed us to profitably fix bid projects, which in turn created confidence for new customers. Our pricing was lean (we usually came in about the middle of the pack from a price perspective, but a critical difference was that we could guarantee delivery at that price). More importantly, it allowed us to maintain a healthy profit margin to hire the best people, treat them well, invest in our business, and create sustainable profitability.
There are many standard metrics for all aspects of a business. Getting started can be as simple as creating sample data based on estimates, “working the model” with that data, and seeing if this provides additional insight into business processes. Then ask, “When and where could I have made a change to positively impact the results?” Keep working until you have something that seems to work, then gather real data and validate (or fix) the model. You don’t need fancy dashboards (yet). When getting started, it is best to focus on the data, not the flash.
Within a few days, it is often possible to identify and validate the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are most relevant to your business. Then, start consistently gathering data, systematically analyzing it, and then work on presenting it in a way that is easy to understand and drill-into in a timely manner. To measure the right things really is to know.
Things that make you go hmmm
This week I read a story about Astronomers finding a new, free-floating planet (PSO J318.5-22). What I loved about this story is that the planet defies the definition of a planet, as it does not orbit a star. It’s something that shouldn’t exist, or at least something that exists outside the current astronomical framework.
It’s funny how you grow up being taught what is right and how things should work. While knowledge and understanding are good, they can also be limiting. When you just know something should not work, it becomes easy to accept that and move on. It can be a real innovation killer.
Occasionally, something new, different, and sometimes even inconsequential comes around and makes a big difference. Think about Apple’s iTunes. It was created merely as a means to sell iPods. Critics said it would never work. But, it created a paradigm shift in how people consumed and purchased music and video content. Now it is one of the fastest growing businesses within Apple.
Or, think about Twitter. An idea for a microblogging service to send text messages to a group of friends. Now news is reported via tweets, and social media of all types use hashtags to create communities and generate buzz. Something that should have been almost nothing has become powerful and important.
People who know me or have worked for me have often heard this saying: “Don’t give me the 10 reasons why something won’t work; Instead, find the one or two ways that it might work, and let’s go from there.” This statement sets a simple yet very important expectation.
Most people spend a lot of time and effort finding ways to prove that things will or should fail. I find that very frustrating. But, get the right people with the right mindset, and you can do some pretty amazing things. And, like Post It® notes, you might create something really cool that was completely unexpected. But you will never know if you don’t even get started.
So, actively look for examples of products or services that broke the rules. Try to understand the genesis of those ideas. And, the next time you think that something is impossible, remember PSO J318.5-22
Spurious Correlations – What they are and Why they Matter
In an earlier post, I mentioned that one of the big benefits of geospatial technology is its ability to show connections between complex and often disparate data sets. As you work with Big Data, you tend to see the value of these multi-layered and often multi-dimensional perspectives of a trend or event. While that can lead to incredible results, it can also lead to spurious data correlations.
First, let me state that I am not a Data Scientist or Statistician, and there are definitely people far more expert on this topic than myself. But, if you are like the majority of companies out there experimenting with geospatial and big data, it is likely that your company doesn’t have these experts on staff. So, a little awareness, understanding, and caution can go a long way in this scenario.
Before we dig into that more, let’s think about what your goal is:
- Do you want to be able to identify and understand a particular trend – reinforcing actions and/or behavior? –OR–
- Do you want to understand what triggers a specific event – initiating a specific behavior?
Both are important, but they are both different. My focus has been identifying trends so that you can leverage or exploit them for commercial gain. While that may sound a bit ominous, it is really what business is all about.
A popular saying goes, “Correlation does not imply causation.” A common example is that you may see many fire trucks for a large fire. There is a correlation, but it does not imply that fire trucks cause fires. Now, extending this analogy, let’s assume that the probability of a fire starting in a multi-tenant building in a major city is relatively high. Since it is a big city, it is likely that most of those apartments or condos have WiFi hotspots. A spurious correlation would be to imply that WiFi hotspots cause fires.
As you can see, there is definitely the potential to misunderstand the results of correlated data. A more logical analysis would lead you to see the relationships between the type of building (multi-tenant residential housing) and technology (WiFi) or income (middle-class or higher). Taking the next step to understand the findings, rather than accepting them at face value, is very important.
Once you have what looks to be an interesting correlation, there are many fun and interesting things you can do to validate, refine, or refute your hypothesis. It is likely that even without high-caliber data experts and specialists, you will be able to identify correlations and trends that can provide you and your company with a competitive advantage. Don’t let the potential complexity become an excuse for not getting started. As you can see, gaining insight and creating value with a little effort and simple analysis is possible.
Where Ideas, Experiences, and Lessons Learned Intersect 