hues values

I believe that values are an important ingredient in the lifelong success of any person or business. Goals and objectives help you keep score, but alignment with values helps you win the game.
Quite a few of my team-building workshops focus on identifying the values that a team holds. Until you know your values, it's hard to tell if you're working in the right place, or on the right project.

Here are the values that drive my thoughts and actions.

Passion Matters

• There’s nothing I'd rather do than this - whatever this is.
• There’s no one I'd rather be with than our team and your team.
• Fun is a core design component in every one of my offerings. If that sounds unprofessional to you, I'm not the right partner for you at this time.
• I use these offerings in my life and work. I believe they are the best available.
• When that feeling isn’t there, I'll change or recommend someone else.
• I don’t see myself as a vendor – I see myself as a partner. If you don’t want me as a partner, I don’t want to be your vendor.

Innovate or Die!

• I aim for ‘a-ha’ experiences. They rock my world, and I think they’ll rock your world as well.
• I don’t create ‘me too’ products. I love being unique. ‘Blue Sky Thinking’, ‘Provocation’, ‘Thinking Sideways’, and ‘Falling Forward’ are typical phrases you’ll hear here…(Hear Hear!!)
• Unless I can ‘better the best’, I'll send you straight to them.
• I take risks, with a view to fail fast and fail cheap. I admire rebels, nomads, wanderers, adventurers, explorers, and inventors. I believe it's riskier to not take a risk.
• I look for 'R.O.M. - Return on mistakes'. I celebrate failures.

Be Authentic

• You might love who I am. You might hate who I am. But you’ll have no problem knowing who I am.
• I strive to not be overly tricky, clever, or complicated – in my offerings or in my life. I won’t try to fool you.
• My life and my offerings are aligned. The offerings reflect what I have learned in life, and my life gains from these offerings.
• Facts change. Truth endures. I search for the truth that lies behind the facts.
• We’re global. Our lives are global. My offerings are global. Anything less would not be authentic for me.
• I lead in the classroom, but I live in the field. The frontline is where I spend most of my time, ensuring that I hear the voices that executives never seem to hear.

Openness as Confrontational Zen™

• If I don’t believe in an idea, I'll give you the chance to convince me.
• If you’re willing to give me the same opportunity, together we’ll learn exponentially.
• I believe it’s a sad day when you or I don’t learn something new.
• I believe in confronting issues, problems, challenges, ignorance, prejudice, bias, gaps, rules, laws, models, myths, assumptions, and beliefs - But (here’s the Zen part) with no destructive emotional attachment.
• If neither of us can convince the other, there are only two possibilities:
  1) I am not strong enough as a teacher to help you see my position.
  2) I am not strong enough as a learner to see your position.

I'm Skeptical, not Cynical

• I think that’s true of you, too.

What you Need, Nothing More

• Like a women’s skirt – solutions should be long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to be interesting.
• If the above offended you, see "Passion Matters, #3".

Live, Learn, and Design through Story

• Not fables, tales, or myths. I'm a skeptic, remember?
• Real stories. Real people. Real research brought to life through examples.
• I want to know your story. I want to read the next chapter of that story. If I can help you write it – well, that’s cool too.

Be Physical

• I pat backs. I give high fives. I play loud music. You might catch me playing guitar, juggling, drumming on the table, or throwing stuff around.
• I'm a geek, but I'm a kinesthetic geek. I love research and data, but ultimately, we must put it into action. I make things happen. It’s what keeps me innovative and open.

I'm Accountable

• I own everything I do.
• I sign everything I do.
• I take the blame and share the credit for the output.

Aesthetics are a Need, not a Desire

• When I hold true to the above 9 values, a natural beauty emerges.
• Not ‘beautiful vs. ugly’ – last year’s ugly is this year’s beauty, after all.
• I embrace ‘beautiful vs. inauthentic, inorganic, cumbersome, or clever'.
• I want to engage all your senses.
• That’s why I fight for the above 9 values.

Offerings, not Products

• I don’t like selling. I don’t like being sold to.
• The above 10 values represent my sales technique.
• I love to team up with passionate learners.
• Water flows downhill – when you’re ready for my offerings, I'll be here.
• The easiest sales technique in the world is fear – and I refuse to use it (if you find me doing it, call me on it… please).
• My growth is measured in relationships, experiences, and wisdom before dollars.

For the past few years, my values have been in alignment with my work and my company, but it hasn't been that way for all of my career. How about you?
Have you done a values exercise? What are your values?
Have you experienced a time when your values and the values of those around you were not compatible?

Should I Get An MBA?

This is a question I get in almost every management/leadership session I facilitate - "Should I get an MBA"?

The question is often meant as, "To get ahead in this company, should I get my MBA?".

My response to the question is another question - "Do you read management books on the weekend for fun?"

If they say, "Yes", and enthusiastically tell me about the last book they read, then I reply "Take that MBA! You're already doing the work, and you'll enjoy the process.
Get your company to fund a piece of paper that furthers your interests."

Of course, you should consider your opportunity costs.
Is there anything you could be doing with your time that would give a better return than an MBA?
Tom Peters once wrote that your time would be better spent doing business in Asia than studying in a classroom.
As a guy who discontinued his MBA studies at Santa Clara to take an assignment in Japan, I would have to agree.
But your optimal path is assuredly different from mine...

And if you don't read management books for fun?
"Then why," I ask, "do you want an MBA?"

It usually comes down to promotion concerns. MBA's have a better chance of promotion, they think.

Well, 20 years of experience in interviewing and hiring tells me that's not true - at least at this company.
Sure, if two candidates are dead even, I'd take the MBA candidate. Putting your blood, sweat, and tears into an MBA proves you want the management path - you're not just talking about it.
But, you know what? Candidates are never dead even (unless your job definition and interviewing process sucks).
When I choose between an MBA and someone who's been kicking ass, well, the ass-kicker wins every time...

In fact, if I met a manager who insisted that every manager must have an MBA, I wouldn't work for him or her. Evolution and growth come from diversity, and a room full of MBA's is the opposite of diversity.

One other question I ask is what I call the 'tennis-ball test'.
If I throw a tennis ball down the hall, how far will it bounce before it hits an MBA?

In our company, the correct answer is between 20-75 feet.
Having an MBA is not a differentiator here.
And if it's not a differentiator, it's not adding value.
And if it's not adding value, well, neither are you, probably.

I'd sooner hire someone with a Psychology, Architecture, or Anthropology degree to work in my group than an MBA.
Not because MBA degrees are bad (they're not), but because that turf is covered.

We're past the point where 'checkboxes' get you ahead. Happily.
Passion is the biggest differentiator now.
You'll get ahead when you outwork everyone else. And you'll outwork everyone else on things you're passionate about.

So, go get that MBA - if you're passionate about business.