Monthly Archives: November 2015

TNF #009: Effective team building – keep it simple

Welcome Professionals…

…as top management consultants, most of us work in teams. So team building is of the essence for good cooperation under high pressure.

The common phrase “work hard – play hard” leads us to plan fantastic and outstanding events. Events that are as thrilling and unique as our work. And certainly, special events like a helicopter ride in the Swiss Alpes, safari trecking in Mozambique, or bungee jumping from the television tower definitely stay in the long-term memory. They make it to the allstar list of stories why it is worthwhile to work day and night with an awesome team.

But are they really suited to enhance effective team building? They rather serve as a special retreat. Most of the time they happen after a significant project success, so when team building is actually not needed any more.

When it comes to team building I found that the most simple events work best. Events that enhance communication among team members on different topics than work. Even better if these events are suitable to build them as a routine into day-to-day life on a project.

As a young project manager, I did some experiments with team building events. I was surprised which events were ranked by my teams as most effective. Let me share two examples.

Supper tradition: In a very remote place without any restaurants near by, we used to go to the next supermarket and purchase bread, cheese, vegetables etc. to have a joint team supper. We had it at least twice a week for about 30 minutes.
Running case team meeting: Once a week we would go for a run together before going to work. Everybody would share his most important thoughts on the project while running. No slides, of course. It was a great training for crisp short sentences as well.

That leads me to my conclusion. Effective team building events are simple, comprise of a joint activity, enhance communication beyond work and are idealy repeating events.

Have a great time building your teams!

Malte

Thursday Night Flight is brought to you by Malte Müller Professionals. Sharing best practices for top management consultants on topics like communication, client handling, problem solving, appearance, and fitness. Check out www.mm-professionals.com for more material and free resources!

TNF #008: Key metrics to the value creation process

Welcome Professionals…

…thank you for your encouraging feedback on issue TNF #006. This seemed to hit an important topic and raised some reactions. My key recommendation is to be fully dedicated to the value creation process rather than getting too focused on perfect end results.

I would like to make this idea more tangible today.

“What gets measured gets done” is a phrase that every top management consultant knows by heart. But what are the appropriate KPIs, if we want to concentrate on the value creation process appropriately?

I believe that in many cases, our clients and also ourselves pick the wrong metrics when it comes to value creation. We choose results-related KPIs that have us focus on end results with strained anticipation instead of dedicating our full energy to the value creation process.

Let me give you an example. Oftentimes, the overall business targets are transferred directly into KPIs for day-to-day operation. A consulting company has an overall revenue and billability target so it is broken down to individual revenue targets by consultant and then into a monthly run-rate, a weekly billability rate and so on. So far so good.

The problem begins, when the individual consultant takes a narrow focus on his/her weekly billable hours and revenue goals. The revenue KPI is to a certain extend a derivative of the value creation work. But it is not directly linked and certainly not directly proportional. When we stare at results-related KPIs that are not fully under our own control, it takes away our attention to what really matters in value creation.

If we want to concentrate on the value creation process, we need to define metrics that are linked to this process. KPIs that we as individuals or as a team have fully under control. We want to measure and control the action that will – most likely – have a positive impact on our final business targets like revenue and profit. Examples for these KPIs could be

Quality of work
Number of new target clients contacted
Research productivity
Client satisfaction
etc.

As a consequence, I allow myself to be judged only on KPIs that I have fully under my control and that are linked to my personal value creation process. Only from time to time, I check back if it also fits with my revenue goals. What I discover then most of the time is that I need more patience. And that a lot more hard work is required. 🙂

Let me know what you think,

Malte

Thursday Night Flight is brought to you by Malte Müller Professionals. Sharing best practices for top management consultants on topics like communication, client handling, problem solving, appearance, and fitness. Check out www.mm-professionals.com for more material and free resources!

TNF #007: Always be ready to laugh about yourself

Welcome Professionals…

…it is fun Thursday again in our Thursday Night Flight series!

A good sense of humour helps a great deal to get along with hard work. We all know that.

I was talking to a friend last week who told me that his boss went on a seminar to a “humour training institute”. That sounded really odd. His boss wanted to learn how to tell jokes the right way. But, whenever he tried, the situation got awkward and people turned away from him. Even after a two-day training session, he did not see any improvement.

So he figured it was due to the fact that he had a different cultural background and people were just not able to understand his special sense of humour. I do not agree. He failed because he made jokes on his direct reports in front of other people.

The best and most elegant way is always to make fun of yourself. Be always ready to laugh about yourself. I think this cuts across all cultural differences and is the most appropriate way for humour in business.

This is why I will tell you my favorite joke about consultants:

A consultant, a priest, and a doctor are trying to enjoying a round of golf. Ahead of them is a group playing so slowly and inexpertly that in frustration the consultant asks the greenkeeper for an explanation. “That’s a group of blind firefighters,” they are told. “They lost their sight saving our clubhouse last year, so we let them play for free.”

The priest says, “I will say a prayer for them tonight.”

The doctor says, “Let me ask my ophthalmologist colleagues if anything can be done for them.”

And the consultant says, “Why can’t they play at night?”

And now another one for all German-speaking consultants: Have a look at this recent content by Harry G. – I think it is hilarious.

Have a fun week

Malte

Thursday Night Flight is brought to you by Malte Müller Professionals. Sharing best practices for top management consultants on topics like communication, client handling, problem solving, appearance, and fitness. Check out www.mm-professionals.com for more material and free resources!

TNF #006: How to enjoy the value creation process

2 Replies

Welcome Professionals…

…as a top management consultant, we all want to create perfect results for our clients. But striving for perfectionism can actually constrain our value creation process.

For a long time in consulting business, I concentrated on achieving perfect results. At my former employer, we were especially great at pointing the attention to areas that were not perfect, yet. Each time when my project leader or partner or eventually the client found some flaws in my work, I used to beat myself up for that. I interpreted every necessary additional iteration loop as a defeat. I was striving for perfectionism.

Years later I was able to discover the drivers behind this behaviour and change my point of view. I recognized that it makes me very unhappy over time to strive for the perfect end product. The end product will never be perfect and if it was, I would already be busy with the next big thing. By having this tendency, it would be impossible for me to stop working and feel satisfied about it.

Today my motivation is different. I commit to delivering the best value I can in a given amount of time. I set time slots for me to work on a specific project and then do the best I can. I embrace opportunities for iteration, because it helps me improve my work. As an additional positive effect, it takes my client on a journey through my value creation process. Communicating intermediate steps and results makes my client value the work much more.

Everyday I try hard to concentrate on the value creation process! I am not attempting to create a perfect end product, but to give my best. Hopefully, that comes close in the end.

Thursday Night Flight is brought to you by Malte Müller Professionals. Sharing best practices for top management consultants on topics like communication, client handling, problem solving, appearance, and fitness. Check out www.mm-professionals.com for more material and free resources!