When You Offer To Help, Make Sure You Follow Through

(WARNING:  Slight Rant Ahead)

I attend lots of seminars and meetings.  Last month, it happened again.  The speaker said he would be happy to share his slides with anyone who sends him an email.  I sent an email that day to the address he gave me on his business card, thanking him for the seminar and asking if he could share his slides.  And sure enough...nothing.  No response, no slides, no nothing.

If this had happened on only one occasion or maybe even multiple times with a single individual, I would excuse it for sake of "he was busy, he lost the email, he forgot".  However, this has happened to me literally dozens and dozens of times...easily more than 100 times.  This last time caused me to say enough is enough and I need to write (vent...ok, rant) about it.

Let's first rule out a confounding factor...time.  Did I get the speakers enough time.  I feel definitely yes.  In the latest case mentioned above, one month is plenty of time.  Looking back at the whole history I have with these events, there are some requests that have over 20 years outstanding...I think that's enough time.

Let's now rule out a second confounding factor...me.  Are my requests rude, intrusive, abrasive, or asking for too much?

While I can't show you all of my email requests, I can assure you that I am always polite, express my gratitude for their talk and insights, and kindly request the item they said they would share.  I never ask for more than they offered.  This is important because many people can see an offer to share something as an open door for any request.  I, and you should too, avoid making this mistake and do not overstep my bounds.

So my advise to all...when you offer to share anything, whether it is your slides, advice, time, knowledge, connection to a friend, and someone takes you up on it...follow through.

As the great old project management adage goes, "Say what you're going to do, and go do what you said".

So why do I think people don't follow through?  Surely there are a variety of reasons.  Some people really do forget.  Some don't get the email because of spam filters or other innocent reasons.  But I bet there are some that do it for not so innocent reasons.

Not so innocent reason #1:  People want to look good.
I think people like to appear more open and giving than they really are.  It's so easy to offer things when you're at the center of the audience's attention.  The seat of power.  The position of authority and expertise.  It feels good to yourself and makes you look good to others when you offer to share things.

Not so innocent reason #2 (the flip side of #1:  People don't want to look bad in front of the audience.

This happens a lot.  Someone in the audience asks the speaker directly if the slides will be available and rather than say no, even when the reason to say no is very valid such as for confidentiality reasons, the speaker falls upon the easy "send me an e-mail and I'll send them to you".  They look good in public and know they can later hide behind the "I never got your email" shield later on in private.

So that's my lesson (rant) for today.  Do what you say you're going to do.

I wouldn't go so far as to say "Don't lie" because I don't think most of these people consciously lied.  I'd like to think that on the spot they were geniune in their offer, but later on had second thoughts out of laziness, reconsideration, or other.

What are your thoughts?  Let me know if this has happened to you.

In fact, let's make a game out of it.  The next 5 times someone gives a seminar and offers something if you email them, send them an email request even if you don't want it.  Just see how many times out of the 5 that the person really does deliver.  Let me know what % you get and I'll do the same.

Recommend "Getting Things Done" as a good read for all managers

I just finished the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen and recommend it for any manager who is constantly inundated with requests, needs, unfinished business, and "to do lists" at home and work.

This book provides a personal productivity system for organizing and completing all the ongoing activities in your life. Even if you don't apply the entire system that David Allen presents, there are enough good tips and tools to make it worth reading.

One of David's best suggestions is getting "open loops" out of your head and onto a written record. These are the things that you know you need to do but haven't completed, and all to often, haven't started. These often mentally nag at you and can easily lead to stress and feelings of being overwhelmed as they pile up. Having them out of your head provides immediate piece of mind because you can now see the list in its entirety and begin the task of prioritization and planning

As anyone familiar with Lean and Agile management, there is a lot of power in having visual tools that can be used for quick reference on the status of ongoing activities

A second very good recommendation is David's focus on "what's the next action". It almost a mantra from the book. For everything you need to do, you should decide "what is the next action". This must be a very specific next step to take. Once this next action is identified, you then decide whether to do it, delegate it, or defer it. Whether it's a home improvement task or an important business meeting, the best way to get things done is to be very clear on what the specific next step is in completing the activity. Don't leave the activity open ended. Rather make sure you know who is doing what and by when to keep the ball moving forward. Implementing these two key tips of 1) organizing what you need to do, and 2) deciding what the next action is to get it done is a simple, but often unused, tip to increasing your personal performance. 

David does a very good job in explaining his system which provides value whether you implement the entire productivity program or just a couple helpful tips. If you prefer audiobooks, the version read by David Allen himself is a very good listen.

Another good podcast for Managers: "What Great Bosses Know"

For those who read my blog or know me well, you know I love podcasts, especially great educational podcasts that are free-of-charge. Between podcasts and audiobooks, my commute has become very enjoyable and I don't mind getting stuck in traffic while listening to a great presentation or book.

I came across another great management how-to podcast. It's called "What Great Bosses Know" and can be freely downloaded from iTunes or listened to directly at the link http://poynter.podomatic.com/. Like my favorite podcast "ManagerTools", "What Great Bosses Know" gives advice that you can immediately implement. Unlike many so called informational seminars or training sessions that speak in generalities, this podcast gives concrete advice and tells you what to do to improve at work. You can listen to it during your morning commute and literally implement the advice when you get to work.

Each podcast is only 3 to 4 minutes long so it's great for short periods of listening time.

As always, let me know if you come across a podcast that you recommend. I'm always on the lookout for great advice. The key is to never stop learning.

"Building a Business" is a very good series of podcast seminars for entrepreneurs

I recommend the podcast series "Building a Business" for anyone interested in entrepreneurship and starting their own business. This is true regardless of what industry you're in and is definitely appropriate for someone interested in starting a biotech/med device company. This podcast series is freely available from iTunesU and is a set of recordings of entrepreneurship lectures from Oxford University.

The series provides 9 very nice overviews on key topic areas, including:
Writing a business plan
Intellectual property
Negotiation skills
Venture Capital deals

Each seminar has a different presenter, so they do vary in quality and clarity. Overall, they are all a good listen and very informative. I particularly enjoyed the podcasts entitled "Taking the First Steps", "Intellectual Property", "Negotiation Skills", and "Entrepreneurship and the Ideal Business Plan".

The Goal is an important read for understanding the Theory of Constraints...just wish it was a powerpoint presentation rather than a romance novel.

Personally, I don't like the narrative style of management books and did not like The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt. I don't know if Dr. Goldratt had dreams of writing romance fiction novels, but I felt there is WAY too much fluff and needless side story that isn't critical to moving the story along. I admire and appreciate the production management concepts introduced such as identifying throughput bottlenecks, increasing flow, reducing work-in-progress/inventory, and realizing how localized optima can actually decrease overall efficiency of the entire system.

Since this book introduced the topic of Theory of Constraints (TOC) to the management field, it's a must read for anyone interested in TOC and how to implement it in manufacturing production. The book does a very good job of teaching that simple cost reduction and capital expenditure metrics can be very misleading or worse, downright unproductive. I just wish the book focused more on the theory and practice of TOC and less on marital stress and the main character's relationship with his mother and in-laws

In short: Do I recommend The Goal?

Yes, if you are a student of TOC or want to learn more about manufacturing production management theory. Just be prepared to read about boy-scout hikes, marital problems, mother-son relationships, and what pizza toppings the characters are eating.

Recommend On Time/On Budget as a good introduction to the basics of managing projects

I just finished reading On Time/On Budget: A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Any Project by Sunny Baker and Kim Baker. This is a very good introduction for anyone new to project management. The book is not specific for any particular industry, but at the subtitle states, it is a primer to the general topic. Because this book has been around since 1992, you can likely pick it up pretty cheap. I got my copy for 3 dollars at a local used book store.

A nice trait of the book is its clarity and easy reading. The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), sometimes referred to as the Project Management "bible", can be daunting for a newcomer to the field because of all the jargon, processes, and "how to manage everything" approach to project management. By contrast, On Time On Budget does a very good job of stripping away the jargon and complexity, and gives you an easy to read, easy to understand introduction to the basics of managing a business project. If your company doesn't have a lot of Project Management tools or templates for you to use, there are some nice templates at the back of the book that can help you plan, manage, and close out your projects.

Written in 1992, the last chapter on project management software is understandably a bit out of date. The rest of the book is pretty timeless, because no matter how much project management technology improves, the success of every past, present, and future project depends on people being able to manage project scope, schedule, and budget.

What advice would Sun Tzu give an audience of business leaders today?

I just finished the audiobook of Sun Tzu's classic "The Art of War". Sun Tzu clearly understood battle tactics, but I must say that the hundreds of times that I've heard this book referred to as a business strategy must read is total hype.

If you believe the hype that this book will reveal the secrets of a winning business plan, marketing strategy, salesforce motivational piece, and operational competitiveness...don't pay more than 4 bucks for it. It's a fine 1 hour listen. You can decide for yourself how best to adapt Sun Tzu's advice on where to camp relative to the sun, terrain, and weather conditions for your next corporate SWOT analysis.

There are clear key universal strategy mantras here (know your enemy, use randomness to fool your enemy and be less predictable, use your enemy's aggressiveness against them, etc).

For anyone interested in connection between military strategy and lessons that can be applied to life and business, I highly recommend the following:

• Strategy by Lawrence Freedman is an outstanding history of military strategy
• Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker is and will always be a timeless classic for business strategy including Drucker's example of the Civil War strategy of "Firstest with the Mostest" as an analogy to the first mover advantage in business