Ed Koch: "How am I Doing" - more than words

Former Mayor of New York, Ed Koch, passed away this week.  Much has been written about his commitment to the people of New York, his love of the City, and his capacity to engage those he disagreed with in a manner tailor made for national news coverage.

For those who might not remember this advocate for the city that never sleeps, he was often noted for one of his most endearing quotes for fellow New Yorkers he would encounter throughout his travels.  He would simply ask "How am I doing?".  And being in New York City, he almost always received responses much longer than Fine, just great, or thank you for asking.  New Yorkers never shied away from letting the Mayor know what was on their mind and what needed to be fixed. Most importantly, he listened to their responses and for the most part, responded to them honestly and when he could, got their concerns into the hands of City administrators responsible for that area.

We have the capacity, if we choose to use this face to face technique of polling for our own organizations. We can certainly survey and poll our customers, clients, constituents, and followers about the value of our services.  But how many of us directly ask consumers how they think we are doing?  It's a simple enough task.

Social media provides us the the capacity to learn (sometimes dramatically) what the public thinks about how we are doing. Ask a well known hamburger chain if their customers let them know how they were doing recently.  On line communities allow for the public to let us know what they think, even if we don't have an application called suggestion box.  Our challenge is to stay aware of what people are saying and asking about our organizations, and respond in an enhancing manner.

Give great thought to ways you can ask your customers how they think you are doing.  Incentivize by responding with answers to their problems. Express an interest in what is bothering them. And take the time to follow up so that they see actions behind the words that "we appreciate your feedback".  Do more than appreciate - engage in the articulated concern as if it were your personal problem.  If you don't engage with your customers in that way, the problem will inevitably become... your personal problem.

The Care and Feeding of Volunteers: A Reminder for School Administrators

About the time my daughter was graduating from high school a number of years ago, I too was graduating from the Los Angeles Unified School District. That year marked my 20th and last year of being a parent volunteer and leader.

I started to volunteer and lead when my son started in Kindergarten some 20 years prior. During the course of many years of motivations, involvements, participations, interventions, stakeholderisms, and interactions, I learned a great deal about what it takes to be a parent leader in a public school.

I certainly can't say that I learned everything I know from the Kindergarten Parent (KP) experience, but so much was based on the energy that existed there. If you could bottle the energy of KP's , you could run a thousand schools without worrying about who will pay for it.

So much of what I learned came from the way I was welcomed in and made to feel that my presence, involvement, and participation was not simply accepted, but thoroughly needed and appreciated. Some of the pearls I gathered while in my formative years as a parent leader included:

• The Power of Thank You is Magical
• Asking for opinions, and acting on those opinions creates connections
• Asking for help says that you value the person you are asking
• Never presume you've sought and received enough input from volunteers
• Parents want to be treated like partners, maybe even consumers, but not like large students

Like anywhere else in the world of managing things, some administrators get it (GI's), others think they do, and others fail dramatically. The GI's have a long line of parents wanting to help manage the educational adventure. GI's view parent involvement as something more than another evaluation column.

If you are going to be happy where your children go to school, or where you choose to volunteer, look for the GI's. If there aren't any at the top, perhaps it's time to look elsewhere.

Is your Organization The Place where Good Ideas Go to Die?

We've all been in this situation: Board meeting, Boss Meeting, group gathering...talking about what we should do next, how should we fix the situation, finding something that will make us feel fresh, new, and .... being as positive as the Carousel of Progress soundtrack of

"There's a great big beautiful tomorrow"!

But, alas, you remember that the last good idea that saw the light of day from this situation was perhaps the one that made you a part of the organization you're trying to fix.

The question to ask as an organizational manager, leader, or facilitator is:

Is this a place where good ideas go to die?If you have to ask that question more than once, put up headstones for anything that sounds new or innovative... and wave goodbye to people who have those ideas.

How do you avoid becoming the graveyard for innovation.... Make sure that your organization is an environment that promotes discussion, difference, silliness, and the creative process itself. People should feel comfortable to try out ideas without the fear of public embarrassment, or just outright rejection.

But, you're thinking, there's that guy who comes up with these really crazy ideas and we have a tight agenda and we don't have time for this tonight! (I know that guy because much of the time ... it's me)

What you're really saying is, "I don't know how to manage the discussion, capture all the ideas, find a time to process them, and still get out in time to get home to see the beginning of "Lost".

The next time you're about to thank someone for their contribution and follow that by saying "but", stop right in your tracks and figure out how you could use that idea. Who could help make it happen; how can you connect this idea with other things you're trying to do; can you discuss the idea after the time allotted; can you create a time to fully develop this idea?

Think of yourself as trying to catch every idea as it leaps towards it's inevitable demise! If you can save it, you can move your organization ahead. You can also let other idea creators know that this is a place that is safe for them.

If you don't save the ideas, you'll be just another place where good ideas go to die.

Why Shouldn't What you do for a Living make you Happy?

Yesterday afternoon after promising myself and my wife that I really would get out to the backyard to remove the cobwebs over our patio, I found myself running a hot bath and finishing a book that had 15 pages left. As I eased myself down, I thought about the amount of water that I was displacing and tried to calculate the percent of water that I didn't have to run because of the enormity of my body. I also thought about the percentage of the 600 page book I had already read and how long that had taken.

This of course led to my ongoing fascination with using percentages as mental and visual markers to help us better understand the significance of situations.

Take as an example your age.

If I believe that based upon my sex, body type, lifestyle, family history, and other variables, that I will live to be 90, then every 9 years represents 10% of my life. Being 59, I therefore have lived 66% of my life ((59/9) x .10). More significantly, I have 34% of my life left and a smaller percent of my work life left. WOW. That's a pretty eye opening percentage.

About 25 years ago (27.78% of my life ago) I found myself feeling unfulfilled, dissatisfied with what I was doing at work, and in general, out of sorts with the world. I started looking about for causes of this malaise and in the process starting thinking about those things in my life that had previously brought me joy. At first I looked at things in my recent past that brought a smile. The births of my children, my wife, my accomplishments, time spent with friends. These were all in OK shape but then again, when you're feeling not quite right, everything is just OK.

I decided to dig deeper and go back as far as I could remember, posing the question: "As you look back, what comes up as something that made you happy?" One of my first "happy making" memories was making Batman for Governor buttons. In actuality, did I love "making" the buttons? NO. I made them with something called a Mattel VacuForm. I used to burn myself, cut my fingers, and I hated how long each one took to make.

But I loved selling them. I loved the excitement of kids running around the playground wanting them and buying them for $.25 each. I even enjoyed getting in trouble with the Principal who told me I couldn't sell them anymore because of all of the commotion. (He did end up buying the remainder of my inventory at retail and used them as incentives for "good" students).

I also had very happy memories of public speaking, acting, and performing in different bands. I even had a great memory of being asked to leave the elementary school orchestra (I played drums) because I chose to blow my nose at a somewhat inopportune moment with great volume.

When I looked at the list, I realized that there were a fair number of things that weren't part of my life at that time. I wasn't acting, I wasn't doing anything entrepreneurial, I wasn't doing very much public speaking, and I hadn't been performing musically, or even playing any music. As I kept looking at the things I wasn't doing, I realized that I could be doing a number of them at work.

My job at UCLA afforded me the flexibility of presenting workshops as often as I liked. And if the topic was of value to the community, I could write my own script and perform it. And if an idea took hold of my interest, I could develop it, find the resources for it, and turn it into something of value. I learned of the value of Intrepreneurship (operating like an entrepreneur inside of an organization instead of on your own). I also learned that by integrating some of the things that used to make me happy into my current life, I would find greater joy in what I was currently doing.

What percentage of your life is filled with things that make you happy? Wouldn't it make sense that if you knew what contributed to your happiness, and you were able to integrate that into your work life, you would like what you were doing for living.... or perhaps you might even think that it contributed to your life?

The next time you're feeling a bit out of sorts with the world and have enough energy left to look for the reasons why, look backwards instead of fantasizing about the future, and find those things that used to put a smile on your face. You may discover that they are simply missing from your current life and you need to find a way to get them back. To quote a great Beatles title, "Got to get you into my life" would be a pretty good directive for those things that used to make you happy.

What Value are you providing?

People join movements, organizations, or participate in activities for a wide variety of reasons. One of their primary reasons is the value they receive from their involvement. Personal value can only be calculated by the participant but we can take some pretty educated guesses at how we figure that one out.

I participate or join because:

1. I like the people involved

2. I like what they do

3. I believe in what they do

4. People will think I'm cool if I am part of it

5. It makes me feel good to be part of it

6. It makes financial sense

7. I will make connections that I couldn't make otherwise

8. I can't put my finger on it but I feel much better being a part than not

You get the idea that there are numerous value calculations that we each make prior to committing any time, money, or both.

As an organizational leader, do you think about what value you bring to your members? When was the last time you made a list of benefits for those who are involved? Think about the organizations that put the list of values right in front.

The American Auto Association (AAA) has more member benefits than anyone could possibly use in a lifetime, yet the primary reason we pay for the card is towing and maybe the occasional check to see if the hotel you are staying at offers a AAA discount. If you avail yourself of all of their other discounts and freebies, congratulations and you have discovered that there is much more value than the cost of membership.

This is not a promotion for the auto club. It is a promotion for the thought of considering what value you bring people you know, members and participants in organizations or movements, and moving you toward a serious discussion about benefits that you provide.

If you can't identify the benefits you provide, don't expect those you want to convince or lead to identify the benefits themselves.

The Importance of Mediocrity and Why we deserve what we are willing to accept

A few years ago, I found myself chatting with a soon to retire administrator at my daughter's school. I was expressing my frustration over scheduling conflicts for an important parent meeting we were hosting. As we walked to find an unoccupied classroom, the administrator attempted to console me by saying "you have to remember, it's just a public school".

One of Google's definitions for "just" is: "merely: and nothing more; "I was merely asking"; "it is simply a matter of time"; "just a scratch"; "he was only a child"; "hopes that last but a ...".

Using the first of the examples, that administrator was attempting to make me feel better by telling me that this was merely a public school and nothing more. Thus, in essence, stating that my expectations needed to be lowered because I had forgotten that public schools have to be accepted for what they are, and nothing more.

Asking me to accept a bad situation because it cant' be changed begs the question of accepting givens. If I accept what someone else tells me is a given, I choose not to vest myself in fixing the problem. If I accept someone else's report that "everything is fine", I am simply saying "I trust your judgment and/or I don't have the time or ability to check things out myself".

Let me pause for a moment and state unequivocally that this is not a treatise on the merits of micro management or promoting a strong lack of trust in others abilities or their intentions. I don't have time to do all of the tasks assigned to others, nor do I believe that this is ever healthy for organizations. That being said, I am much more interested in the concept of acceptance of bad situations, or as I like to put it, "the immutable nature of mediocrity".

Accepting Public Schools as being "just public schools", pays homage to their inability to change. If I don't challenge the position of a retiring administrator who has come to accept the immutable nature of Public Schools, I deserve all that comes with the sorry state of public education. And accept that my children will be provided with a mediocre education.

The next time someone uses the word JUST as a modifier, or asks you to accept the situation as a given and just, well.... immutable, you have a choice: Accept, or challenge and change.  

(Originally published February 27, 2008 at Kennheller@blogspot.com)

A one month commitment to myself

It's now safe to talk about New Year's resolutions because it's February. December and January drive us to making wild promises to ourselves and others. Whether it's working out, eating well, polishing our resume, finally planning for something that you've talked about for years, or just a promise to do SOMETHING.

I decided to make a resolution to commit to writing one blog post per day.  I didn't think I had the stamina to come up with 30 daily posts.  But I might be able to pull off 28 days.

So I waited until February to start a new habit that I only have to do 28 times.

I'll not post drivel and will do my best to post things that I think have value to others.

By the way, Doing Good is a term that describes the work that Non Profit and Social Benefit Organizations do.  It also applies to individuals who try to be helpful to others.

Doing Better at Doing Good is an expression I've used for years to describe the work of helping non profits get better at their core function: Helping others and Just Doing Good.

I hope you'll find the things I post and the links I include to be helpful for you and help you do better at doing good.