Category Archives: Thursday Night Flight

TNF #137: Kill your badges

Welcome Professionals…

…I was quite surprised about the positive effect when I turned off the badges on my iPhone. I am talking about these annoying red dots, indicating how many unread messages are waiting.

Long before I had de-activated the new-mail-icon in Outlook and the preview window flying in with every new message. As top management consultants, we must keep focus to get our work done. We must not be distracted from some eradic email.

Until a few weeks ago, I never really spent much thought on the badge notification. But, when I read a productivity blog that strongly recommended getting rid of these dots, I implemented this. What a relief! In hindsight, I must confess that I felt a strong urgency to look at the messages whenever I saw the dots. I am committed to the zero inbox principle and I want to l like to have a clean desk. The red light seems to scream at me: “stop, don’t leave, there is still some work to do – read me!”.

The fix was simple. Just a few clicks in the settings and the badges were gone. The effect was stronger than I expected. I am not only more focused and less distracted. I am feeling more at ease. You just have to try it yourself!

Keep focused,

Malte

TNF #136: Illusiory superiority

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Welcome Professionals…

…what a title! I had to look up the term in the dictionary to find the official word for the phenomenom I perceived. From my point of view, illusionary superiority is quite common among top management consultants. Let me explain by a very simple example.

Our household has a new washing machine since half a year. When the machine was delivered, I took a glance at the manual. It read that that the most efficient program was already pre-selected and available at only one push of a button. When I discovered that the most efficient program took 3.5 hours to run, I decided to go with a simple warm washing program that took only 1 hour to complete. The laundry is getting clean and it must be even more efficient, I figured.

Well, that was a cognitive bias as it turned out. I had thought I would be smart in choosing another program. In fact I had jumped to a conclusion. Less time equals more efficiency, I thought. That is apparently wrong. I did not invest the attention to research the reasons why a longer program could be more efficient, e.g. by using heat pumps to reuse energy.

It was a classic case of illusiory superiority. Being aware of it saves me from the next misjudgment.

Stay curious,

Malte

TNF #135: Is it worth it?

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Welcome Professionals…

…have you ever had the feeling that your contribution is not worth the agreed professional fee? That your client could have done it without your help and effort?

Sometimes, I felt like the solution to the problem was already laying on the conference table when I first entered the room. Sometimes I thought the staff had already figured out the solution to the problems of the management. Sometimes we ended up with the most simple solution after all these complicated discussions!

I remember a strategy project where the client raised fundamental questions at the beginning. Should we sell the business? Should we grow organically? Should we acquire for unorganic growth? Should we cash out over time? After considering all potential options, we told the client to stick to plans and to remain everything unchanged. The project felt to me like an imposture!

The client was happy, though. After a thoughtful external assessment of all options, the client felt extremely grateful to be supported in the original plans.

Even if we sometimes struggle to see the value added, even if we sometimes believe the client could have done everything by itself, we may overlook the real value. We might be too proud to accept that the solution was already there when we joined. We might feel the obligation to come up with something brand new and creative.

As a matter of fact, the client was obviously struggling to finish it off alone. For some reason the client was seeking for external support. Giving affirmation and creating a momentum for the final decision making holds a value in itself! We must not underestimate this.

As top management consultants, solving problems for our clients is our profession. Even when it takes only the last tiny step.

You are worth it!

Malte

TNF #134: Opportunity list

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Welcome Professionals…

…I am using a CRM tool for all client development activities. The tool offers the functionality to set reminders on when to follow up on a certain topic and when to call my client prospects again. I like this functionality a lot. Checklists work for me really well.

When I opened my CRM tool with all the reminders this morning it had 185 due items. As strong as I feel pleasure to cross out an item on my to-do-list, just as strong it gives me the creeps when I see 185 open tasks! I immediately went through feelings of pressure, stress, and even helplessness.

Then I made up my mind. Why did I set up all these items? In the end these are not reminders for work that has to be done as tasks of a paid project. These are activities that I am planning to do in order to generate more business. The goal is actually not to get rid of the items, but to keep a continuous flow of business development activies which will lead to more opportunities.

From now on I will call my open CRM items the “opportunity list”. It is not a “to-do-list” in the narrow sense. It is a “want-to-do-list” to achieve more business and therefore an “opportunity list”. This context shift helped to get started right away. After 2 hours, I was down to 164 items. I am glad that I still have some opportunities left for tomorrow and next week!

Malte

TNF #133: Job enrichment

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Welcome Professionals…

…Just recently I took a junior analyst of our firm to the client. She is one of the part time project team members who barely ever sees a client. Her work is limited to desk research and phone calls.

I thought it was worth a try though one of my business partners said earlier that the additional appointment would probably be perceived as an extra burden. The junior analysts would not really appreciate client visits – at least not if they had to put in extra hours for that.

The client expected me for a more detailed project briefing and also wanted to demonstrate the production facilities. He asked if I would come alone or bring someone with me. That was a favorable occasion. I took the junior analyst with me. The client was delighted. I think it served well to show the special interest from our side. The most astonishing effect was on my associate’s side.

I was hoping for an extra motivation, but we got far more out of it. As we left the client building, she said: “I get a lot more respect for this project! Now that I met the client team members, I certainly don’t want to let them down. Also I understand them much better.”

Already on our way back to the office, my associate came up with some bright ideas. The day after, she had implemented some of them instantly.

After all, it was really a rich experience, with benefits for my team member, for our professional service firm, and for our client.

Hope you can use the inspiration,

Malte

TNF #132: Email addiction

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Welcome Professionals…

…I guess you are drowning in emails. As a top management consultant you most likely deal with a lot of stakeholders, there is a vast amount of information to be processed and extensive communication to be done. Yes, we all know, that checking emails is unproductive, but did you actually know that it is addictive?

Psychologists refer to the phenomenon as the “random awards system”. It was first discussed by American psychologist B. F. Skinner in the 1930ies when he did some experiments with rats. The rats received a reward every now and then for a certain behaviour like pressing a lever in a box. When the reward followed a fixed scheme, it was not nearly as fascinating for the rats as a random award. The random mode turned out to be addictive.

I am far from comparing top management consultants with rats. But it is obvious to see some parallels here. When we synchronize our emails, we usually receive some spam, commercials, cc-fyi, and some additional work. Only sometimes we receive something nice like an invitation to a party, a funny joke from a friend or a compliment from one of our clients. These goodies are random, they do not follow a certain scheme. Thus, checking emails is a highly addictive action, this is why the typical smart phone user checks his emails 150 time a day on average.

Now think about it. Now that you know about the addiction, would you dare to keep the email temptation right next to you while you have some work to do? If I had a tendency of drinking too much, would I keep a sixpack of beer in the fridge at the office? Certainly not!

Deep work and checking email don’t go together!

Stay clean,

Malte

TNF #131: Taking responsibility

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Welcome Professionals…

…Of course we take responsibility and we act responsibly as top management consultants. No question about that. The question is rather how far this responsibility should reach. Where does it stop?

My view is: it never stops. Once we have entered a client relationship, we take full responsibility by making the goals of our client our own. We strive to add value wherever we can, this will most likely reach far beyond our initial assignment. This is the mindset of the trusted advisor.

Let me give you a practical example. I finished a client assignment, the client was very satisfied, we had a final feedback session, job done. A few month later I heard from an ex-employee of the client organization that the solution we had put in place was not implemented and executed the way we had planned it. I did not hear any complaints from my former contract partners, so I could have walked my way without looking back.

The principle of responsibility demands that as soon as I receive knowledge that the goals of my client are in jeopardy, I must take action. So I called the client apologizing for the failure and asking for some further background information. It turned out that although it was neither my fault nor in my area of influence that things had gone astray, I could well be part of a new solution. This has been another moment of truth in our client relationship.

Taking responsibility for the goals of the client is a core principle of the trusted advisor!

Malte

TNF #130: Matching clients

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Welcome Professionals…

…recently I was talking to a highly successful sales manager. I was a bit surprised as this person obviously did not have the high level of empathy that I would normally expect with sales professionals. Furthermore, he did not have a very engaging personality, he was rather distant in a way. If he had ever read Dale Carnegie’s “How to win friends and influence people” – the standard book in sales since nearly a century – he had chosen to ignore this piece of advice. Yet, this person was highly succesful in sales. What was his trick?

He told me that his most important success factor was choosing the right target clients. He made a big effort in analyzing the requirements of potential prospects and only made the approach when there was a very good fit between client requirements and the offering of his company. As simple as it sounds, that was it. Of course, he had to put in quite a lot of work in analyzing and understanding the client’s needs. But when he was sure there was a complete match, there was nothing that could have stopped him. Most of the time his effort would pay off in winning a new client.

Imagine, you would only address those prospects that are seriously a good match to your service offering, to your personality, to your own values and to your communication style? Imagine how much fun it would be to work with these clients? And I bet you could spend your client acquisition time much more effectively.

Wishing you big wins that match!

Malte

TNF #129: Snippets of attention

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Welcome Professionals…

…my mother used to do this all the time. She even does it today. Whenever she reads something in the newspaper that could be relevant for me, she cuts it out. During my studies at university, when I was returning home only once a month, I would find a thick stack of newspaper articles waiting for me. To be honest, I did not read everything, but it conveyed one message very clearly: My mother was thinking of me and she cared about my interests.

Back in the days, the habit of my mother seemed a bit awkward, but very nice. It never occurred to me that anybody else could also have a mother collecting newspaper snippets for her of him. The funny thing is, that we now live in a world of snippets. With the rise of social media it seems like everybody is cutting out pieces of random information and spreads it around for others to like that stuff.

Now, think about this crazy idea. Next time you see something interesting that you would like to cut, paste, and spread – pause and think for whom this could be specifically relevant. Send it to this person privately with a note. When you do this occasionally for your important client relationships, they will love you for these snippets of attention. Because they will know: You were thinking of them and you care about their interests!

I will be grateful to receive a snippet from you!

Malte

TNF #128: Rules of engagement

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Welcome Professionals…

…conducting a kick-off meeting at the beginning of a project is a given for most top management consulting teams. We are all familiar with the concept. Usually there is an internal team kick-off and one official kick-off together with the client.

Some kick-offs though, seem to lack the most essential fundamentals. While the team members are busy planning modules, work streams and milestones, defining KPIs, managing budgets and capacities and finally getting to know each other formally and informally, they sometimes loose sight of some basics.

I am talking about the project objectives and rules of engagement. For every project there has to be a clearly set goal. It helps to formulate it in form of a precise mission statement that everybody will buy into. It is a no-brainer, but there are actually teams who forget to align on the objective in the heat of the work.

The other very important fundamental is a set of rules of engagement. Project teams work apart from formal structures, hierarchies and processes. Usually they are put together on a one-off basis and work in this specific team constellation for the first time.

It is key to set up a few rules of engagement in the beginning to make the team work effective. They should cover the following topics:

Roles and responsilbities for each team member, i.e., project lead
Problem solving, decision making, and conflict resolution
Interface to key stakeholders (clients, decision makers)
Basic rules of courtesy/operating rules

As top management consultants we operate in a high stakes environment. If we skip this fundamental kick-off content, we will put the whole project at the risk of failure.

Now, I am kicking off the long weekend ahead!

Malte