What I Learned from One Too Many Dream Sequences

Do you like art that's on the edge? Does it interest you when a work of art tries our patience by breaking what were once-comfortable boundaries?

For some people, boundary busting is the very essence of art. For others, it's cause to change the channel, cancel the subscription, pull the grant.

On the continuum of innovation that stats from extremely conservative and extends to the end of wacky bizarre, the art that I appreciate the most (and sometimes create) leans way toward the wacky. My nickname in college was Wildman for a reason.

For many theater productions I worked with a long term partner who was great at reigning me in when I got too far along that continuum. She was always instantly candid when the wacky drifted off the chart. She kept our audience in mind and painted some boundaries on my creative landscape.

One year, when I was helping to develop a Christmas play for our church, without that valuable partner (who was busy with other stuff) my boundaries expanded to the level of the absurd. I was a crazy goat in a field full of sleeping sheep. And, what should appear in the Christmas play but a twenty-minute dream sequence. It was edgy enough to be an experimental project with loud music, overdubbed vocals, dark lighting, twilight zone narration, and tutus. Yep, the actors, who were not trained dancers, wore tutus.

You probably wouldn't care for a twenty-minute dream sequence with all that, and neither did the audience members who were expecting cute little skits featuring their children and grandchildren.

Instead of roaring and appreciative applause, the end of the sequence was met with silence. The sound of befuddlement. It was also the sound of me NOT being asked to direct the next year's production.

So, what did I learn?

Every visionary needs a realist

I'm not saying to limit your vision. It's great to dream big and we need people to be creative. We also need to keep one foot (or at least a toe) on the ground while our heads are in the clouds. What if the brilliant idea doesn't fly? What if our customers don't like our edgy campaign? What if our product loses money?

Ask your customers what they want

I'm the first to say that you've got to be ahead of the data and innovate. Customers don't always know what they want or more importantly will buy in the future. But you do still have to meet their current needs and expectations as you prepare for that creative future. Make customers happy now to earn the right to teach them something different ahead. I once worked for a very wise boss at Whole Foods, Brian Doyle, who told me that "customers come into the store for their favorite thing. If they can't find it, and if it isn't what they expected they leave without their favorite thing and might not come back. Give them their favorite thing!"

Do a pilot before you roll out!

Even Broadway shows run previews and pilots first. Training programs are never perfect the first time I deliver them. New products need to bump against their weaknesses before their weakness can bump them out of the picture. We need time to work out the bugs and we shouldn't hesitate to do that for some patient and honest people who care enough to provide feedback. I don't need to use ALL of the feedback, but I'm better off if I listen.

There it is. Boundaries aren't all bad. Partnerships are built on diverse skills. Perspective sometimes needs calibrating. I'm still as edgy as ever, but I've learned a few things about getting help along the way.

Points to Ponder

What's the most revolutionary change you've ever made to a product, service, or performance? What would you do differently next time?

Whose opinion do you trust the most? Are you asking for regular feedback from that person? Have you made it a point to thank them recently for the valuable role that they play in your work?

-- Doug Smith

Comments

Leadership and Process Improvement

As a leader, how much attention do you give to improving processes? Do you watch your team install a process and then simply let it flow on and on -- or do you drive a constant focus to improve that process? Too often I've seen leaders spend their efforts trying to fix people , when the center of their problems is usually broken processes and procedures . Any process can be improved until it's no longer necessary. And then you can shut it down. It's work is done. So keep improving those processes. If you're still doing it, you can still improve it. -- Douglas Brent Smith http://frontrangeleadership.com

One Kind of Choice

It is not always the answer, but surprisingly often it is: It's easier to hire a motivated worker than it is to motivate an unmotivated one. That's not the end of the story. It could be great hiring advice though. Whatever the technical skills are for people you are interviewing to hire, be sure to ask some questions about motivation that can't be answered with a yes or no. Questions like: When were you the most motivated in your life? What kinds of work motivate you? What's your approach to a work day when for one reason or another you don't feel very motivated? If you had been here for one week, what would we see that shows us how motivated you are? Start there, and follow-up with more questions. Give each candidate time to convince you whether or not they will bring motivation to your organization. You can teach people almost anything, but it's always easier if they are already motivated. -- doug smith

Strong Self-Esteem

How do the people on your team feel about themselves? How about you? How do you feel about yourself? Self-esteem matters. The way we see ourselves influences the work that we do. If you want healthy, vibrant, vital work from your team, why not make sure that the way that they think about themselves is strong? There are few things stronger than healthy self-esteem. To strengthen self-esteem among your team members: Appreciate good performance by providing specific compliments Spend time talking one-on-one with team members just to let them talk about what interests them Smile The list is longer than that of course, but start with those three things and you'll like the results. And that is good for YOUR self-esteem, isn't it? -- doug smith

What to Blame

It's better to blame the product than it is to blame the customer because you cannot fix the customer. -- doug smith

Don't Jump!

I do it. You've probably done it, too. It gets us into trouble misinterpreting and reaching false conclusions. Slow down. Ease up from that jump. Stop that jump to conclusions and you'll avoid many big falls. -- doug smith

Side Hustle Blues?

As a leader, do you ever sing the side-hustle blues? That's when your team seems distracted because they're tired from working multiple jobs. When I worked in food service it was all around me: team members who were already wrestling with variable schedules and also juggling multiple jobs. Maybe because they enjoyed their other gigs -- like the musicians, actors, artists, and writers on the team. Or maybe because otherwise they couldn't make ends meet so there were the side-hustles in driving, delivering, retailing, and add-on food service shifts. People are wonderful and their potential is unlimited but their physical selves are not unlimited. Which can bring on the side hustle blues when people are tough to schedule, hard to motivate, and just plain tired. You'll never eliminate the gigs that team members enjoy, nor should you. Those are not the ones really sapping the energy as much as those that they are in only for the money. Employees won't need an only-for-t...

Win The Game

It would be nice to win the game. But, do you ever feel like you're in a game that keeps shifting the rules and making it easy to make progress but impossible to win? You've probably noticed lots of game elements creeping into service. Points, incentives, expiring coupons followed by new expiring coupons, leader-boards...on an on a relentless attack on service comes from playing a game designed -- you guessed it -- to maximize profit. If the customer is happy, fine, but the point is to make money. Not to put too fine a point on it but that's a lousy point. What if there could be something better? What if customer service excellence became playing a game where the customer always wins and that makes you happy? You don't have to. "give away the store" to achieve a winning game for all of the players. Just stop stacking the rules against customers and watch how much more they will want to do business with you. -- doug smith

Focused Truth

Focused leaders have zero time for inauthentic messages. They tell the truth unconditionally and insist on the truth consistently. Be a leader who can handle the truth. Be a leader who tells the truth. -- doug smith

Keep Reading

How many books do you read each year? I'm not keeping score And as a full disclosure you should probably know that part of what I do is sell books and learning resources. Even if I didn't, though, I am a big believer in continuing to learn. Read. Experiment. Explore. Talk about it. Try things. Watch videos. Listen to audios. Keep learning. The world is changing so fast, how will you keep up? How do you get the training the need when you're not being offered the training you need? Keep reading. You don't have to read every book cover to cover to find great value in it. I used to think that if I started reading a book that I'd have to finish it. That got me slugging thru some poor material. Now I know that you can glean a lot from a book by scanning it, skimming it, reading what you need and leaving the rest for another time. I do still read books cover to cover (some more than once!) AND I read a lot of books for what is relevant to me right now. Howe...

Breathe

What do you do when you are really stressed? Having lived in Colorado for eight years, I became quite tuned into how a lack of oxygen can effect your performance. The higher you go, the more rare the air. And sometimes, that makes it very hard to breathe. High performance leaders live in rarified air. They go places others are afraid of. They lead people on new challenges. They get stressed. Breathe. Learn your limits. Learn your capacity. Learn what you need to keep going strong. When we pay attention, breathing teaches. Breathe. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action: Pause, Take one minute right now to breathe, slowly, and carefully paying attention to your breath. Give it at least a few deep full and complete breathes. On the exhale, make sure that ALL of the old air is expelled. Breathe in with your full attention.

High Performance Leadership

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