Middle Management is the Enemy of Innovation!

I went to a user-contribution talk today and got to hear from employees at Best Buy and the co-founder of Electronic Arts, Bing Gordan.

Here are my take-aways:

"Middle Management is the enemy of Innovation"

Middle Managers have spent years trying to break into the ranks, so when they get there, and are told to "give it away" for others to create in a user-contribution system - they naturally feel defensive and protective. "That's my job"

"User-Contribution Systems are the Murder of Management"

Traditional management are used to playing the role of being in the limelight, sharing their ideas, or controlling the ideas that are shared.

But now they are faced with ideas that come from everywhere, especially in the field, where they are often better, viewed as more authentic, and have the power to build the community around the idea.

Hope is not all lost - What can Managers do differently?
Curiosity - use this skill now as a main focus.
You should have a Nintendo Player as a member of the board - else you are missing the future in your decisions
Performance Ratings should be Innovation & Talent focused - many years senior leaders are measured by the quality of the people that they attract and grow. Add an additional factor of innovation - do they encourage and seek out new ideas and help them be successful?
Expect Problems, Fear, and Mistrust - as a manager you can really help these factors killing the idea. Best Buy Nation broke the mistrust of "another corporate tool" by taking the employees out bowling, then posting the photos and experience online on BBN.

"Throw the person with the $1M idea out of the room!"

We have a $1m idea and got to a council and seek approval. We spend a year to plan, get resources, build it, test it, and get it launched.

Withe user-contribution systems, being small and light with rapid iteration is better.

So tell that person with the $1M idea to get out the room....and come back with 100 x $1,000 ideas!

User-Contribution Success Factors

n=1 It only works when you build relationships, and you build then 1 on 1. Sending a "what do you think" to all the users without any relationships is not good - like walking into a cocktail party and expecting everyone to come to you to talk!

Beg forgiveness vs. Ask for Permission You can get mired down into the details when you think about all the risks and controls and it soon becomes a barrier. So launch a light basic version and iterate.

$100 goes a long way The Best Buy team got a web site and hosting for $100 and built a site on their own in a few weeks. IT told them it would take $50k just to talk with them and scope it out over 6 months with a further $M investment....2 years later they are still on the light version with 20,000 users!

Truth is the last word Don't try and manipulate what people say or how they say it. Truth will come out and have the last word.

60% Internet is User-Generated Content This was predicted in 1995 in Wired magazine as the "future of the Internet" and 13 years later we see it come true.

Examples Mentioned BlueShirtNation, Kiva, Best Buy Remix Network, EA "The Sims" game, Sims 3000, Sims Skin maker

BIG Change is Hard...Bite Size Decisions Is Easy

In the past 24 hours I have had to be part of 2 significant changes, with both playing an emotional factor on me.

(1) Move to San Diego?
Mr Bearded Lady got a great job offer, but it's in San Diego. Do we take it or not? What do we do about the house? My job? Our lives?
So instead of all these big scary "what ifs" that we have been thinking in our head - we had dinner and broke it down into bite-size decisions.
Example: Our Home. Is it "the" house for life? Do we keep as investment? Do we sell? Could we sell?
Decisions: Not our dream home, start to detach from "home" and make decisions, actions to investigate possible sale with criteria on selling price. If over X then sell, if under X then rent for 6 months and revisit.
...cont...

Breaking it down and making the bite-size decisions got rid of the big scary "what ifs" and lifted a weight off of both shoulders.

(2) Organizational Decisions
Leading some big hairy scary change in a large organization. We know what we have now is ok, but inadequate for the future. So we gotta change...and to something VERY different.
That is super scary....but mostly because we need to stop looking at it from the BIG change and break it into the decisions.
- Outsource or not? Geography of people? How fast do we want to get there? ...

Today was the moment of truth that we are going to take our top leaders through this - "s**t or get off the pot" as one stated - and then make it less scary by breaking into bite-size chunks.
It feels different to the personal decision as so many more people involved and impacted by the decisions...today I just feel very sad and a little sick to the stomach.

To MBA or Not MBA?

that is the questions, right?
thinking about doing an MBA to align me into the long term goals for my career....
executive recruiters state that for C-level roles there is a boas to have an MBA.
so i'm thinking full-time at a top 10 school.

now i have 7 weeks to apply, write all those winning essays, get glowing recommendations, visit the schools, and pass that darn GMAT!

get ready for the ride!

Friday Feeling

Gosh, I sure am exhausted today as had 2 big emotional events - and neither the happy kind.

#1 Revelations with my personal coach
#2 Surviving the 4 hour aimless meeting

#1 Revelations with my personal coach
Been working on those factors that lie "under the hood" that cause me to act the way I do in some situations. Every had a major emotional responses to an individual - knowing its not rational how you feel - but not being able to act differently.
Its usually because there is an underlying reason....

So today I worked to find the underlying reason of my response to my boss - a female that is a command and control type manager that does not listen to feedback. I've been feeling REALLY bad feelings - anger, apathy, stress - that has built up over time from the fact that no feedback is listened to with my suggestions. And I no longer feel rational...I avoid her and work, I play games to get through meetings, and am so unproductive at work.

There are many things that make her a bad manager let alone a leader - but the response I'm having is not rational in proportion....and I explored the underlying reasons and found a pattern
I have with women authority figures....they typically try to be a mother figure. And because I lost my mother at age 2, there is a void that will not be filled, with a violent reaction to anything that trys to fill it. I left feeling completely RAW.

#2 Surviving the 4 hour aimless meeting
I wrote about this earlier this week, so again nothing new. Just a longer meeting at 4 hours with no agenda set. I asked at the start of the meeting and was told "we'll get there" and then it went on and on. I asked the same question again 4 more times with the same answer.
Sounds crazy, right? Like I should just walk out and not attend?
But its a meeting led by my boss - so not really having any control here...
I was not the only one lost, but there was someone that was on board with the boss so she continued on with that aimless thought that it was all ok.
And guess what, 3.5 hours later (some miracles exist for this), we walked out with nothing...surprise!

I decided to send an email with tips to make future meetings successful about agendas, goals, timekeeping, and action items. Nothing personal, just tips for an effective meeting.
And that sure got a response - a 1 page long email at 8pm on a friday night about the meeting...blah blah...expectations...blah blah...responsibility...!

I still give it a 50/50 shot that we'll get an agenda for the next meeting...

Crazy Travel

Everyone has one of those "nightmare travel" stories. I got mine last week and thought I'd share...

I was scheduled to go to a conference on the East Coast (from west coat). I turned up at the airport a few hours before my flight to check in and was told "you've missed your flight...by a whole day!" Turns out when I booked it, I selected the wrong day on the calendar...yes, a very stupid mistake on my part and all because I was trying to save $25. A bad lesson to learn!

The airline would not refund, exchange, or help in anyway.

Bought a new flight, which was then delayed 2 hours!

Got to the airport car rental on East Coast and got in car. After 20 minutes the GPS unit went on the fritz - it's dark and I did not want to go solo. Drove back and returned car.

Car Rental place ordered a taxi, which was a dodgy unit that tried to overcharge me 3x amount.

Alone, tired, at night, in strange location....got it down to 2x price.

Then the darn taxi breaks down in the middle of nowhere. The tow truck gives me another taxi number...I roll my bag off the freeway in the wait for a taxi - get a couple of cars proposition me.

I'm staying on the phone to hubbie praying for the taxi to arrive super pronto!

It then arrives with 2 guys in the front that smell like weed and they then overcharge me too.

At this point, it's been over 3 hours and I'm going to start going a little crazy with "what else can go wrong syndrome!"

They get lost and take 45 minutes to go 5 miles to the hotel.

I roll in just after midnight and beg for some food from room service to be told "it just shut!"

They night porter took pity and found me a goodie bag from a couple that got married there 3 weeks before - so thanks Josh and Helen for the cookies!

They say that Bad Luck comes in 3's ...I think I got it all in 1 day!

It's been a LONG Time...I'm Venting!

hmm. It's been a long time since I wrote and I definitely feel it.

What inspired me to write today....nothing more inspirational then "I need to vent"

Some people have a friend, some play tennis, I like this blog as a way to record what I thought - so when I get past it I recognize that things get better (or worse, or just change!!)

What's the vent for?

I just came out of a mindless meeting...with more of them booked for the rest of the week.

I have the wonderful pleasure of a 4 hour meeting on Friday for pretty much the same topic as today's 2 hour meeting following last weeks 2 hour meeting.

What does this suggest? It's a huge important topic? That we can't agree? That our input is hugely valuable and needs to be gathered?

Perhaps all of the above...but in general it feels to me like I'm just there to agree with the leader and say "great job" and make them feel more secure in their decisions. Because any comment or change I suggest is met with "hmmm" or "ahhh" but no change.

It just gets kind of frustrating after a few of the same meetings....