Teeming With Teams

July 9, 2009 – 10:55 pm

Organizations abound with teams. And no other area of organizational life, or shall we say recurring corporate chagrin, gets nearly as much attention in the literature as teams: functioning, malfunctioning, well formed, deformed, performance-enhancing or productivity-depleting.

A critical insight honored more in the breach than in the observance is that a collection of people is not by itself a “team”. A committee is not a team. An amalgam of individuals reporting to the same leader is not a team. It’s a team if they have to deliver something together, something impossible to deliver without some collaboration, cooperation and interaction. And if that performance merits it, then, and only then, should a team be formed, built, developed and sustained.

Sometimes groups act destructively and the solution to the problem is touted as “team building”. It’s not. What they need is perhaps communication coaching, perhaps they need to be held accountable for acts inimical to the goals of others. Perhaps they have to learn to challenge constructively. Perhaps a culture of one-upsmanship has to be dethroned. A team however does not necessarily have to be built.

When a team IS needed, we have to clarify what they are to do, and what they are accountable for.  Members then need to understand the degree of cooperation, consultation and co-creation required. I hasten to add, the political realities of most companies, and the intrinsic nature of innovation no less, argue for a measure of consultation and co-creation (in the sense of gathering early feedback re solutions we are prototyping or testing) regardless of whether a full-fledged team is needed.  But while this is wise anyway, relative to teams it has to be mandated. A team has, by definition, collective responsibility.

If indeed a team is needed, then teams have to be adept at two things. First, helping individuals deliver their contribution to the team. In other words, the team can’t succeed if the individuals that make up the team, don’t. And the quicker everyone is made to understand this palpably and incontestably, the better. Secondly, they have to learn how to interact effectively together to solve problems, or to execute decisions, or whatever the work is they have been assembled to deliver. A team can be helpful but inept. Or a team can be effective but siphon off unnecessary energy, time, goodwill and more.

Teams therefore need to provide real-time feedback to members and to the team as a whole. This can only be delivered with a true helping orientation and a true performance commitment. When these are there, we will inquire first and conclude second, invite first and challenge second, explore first and prescribe second. Teams can’t leave performance up in the air, it has to be non-negotiable. Teams have to challenge each  member for their best, individually and collectively. But teams have to do this in the spirit of encouragement and possibility, not cross-examination and undermining. Teams by definition are committed to the success of each member as well as the team at large.

Make sure therefore that we deploy teams only when we need to. And then, let’s make sure teams deliver both mutual helpfulness and grow in effectiveness to perform key tasks of strategic value to the organization. Anyone who impedes that has to be tackled. Teams that fail in this, can’t be allowed to malinger. They must be re-engineered, reformed, or dismantled and replaced. Teams that show these twin propensities, deserve all the coaching and development and support — not to mention the kudos — we can offer.

Teams in short have to provide a multiplier to individual talent. This is hard, onerous work. The only impetus powerful enough to drive this forward is real strategic work that needs doing, which commands the best of our best, and can’t be done without people operating AND cooperating with excellence…delivering consistently in concert.

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By Omar Khan | Posted in Ruminations | Comment now

Normal is as Normal Does

July 4, 2009 – 9:33 am

It’s July 4th in the United States, and we here celebrate the audacious experiment in self-government that was launched through the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident…,” it’s hard not get chills and goose-bumps,even  centuries later. We must remember though that the Declaration launched a war and the Founding Fathers would have been hung as traitors had they failed. Hence the Declaration concludes with a statement that “…we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” This wasn’t rhetoric, it wasn’t chest beating, this was existential, it was the giving of a life to advance a cause.

In the 19th century the Civil War came, and Abraham Lincoln spoke about the nation having a “new birth of freedom”, as it struggled with the implications of its founding principles and grappled with the pragmatic compulsions of competing interests to assess indeed whether “…any nation so conceived could long endure.”  I grew up with this and it seems “self-evident” to me that these are rousing sentiments and moments in history.

Last week we were serving a client in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It had been twenty years since I had been back. My wife had to wear an Abaya (it’s not a veil, it’s something that goes over your clothes, and covers your hair, but not your face).  It made sense in the desert heat, and as every other woman had one on, she didn’t feel singled out. Our clients were a Shariya (Islamic law) compliant bank. They were well informed, well educated, curious, eager to hear what was happening in the world, interested in books and ideas — it was very encouraging. Moreover, they pointed out Saudi Arabia has the largest number of new business schools and educational institutes opening of any place in the region, and in percentage terms, they said the world. That these are true educational institutes not madrassas or propaganda mills is fantastic. The local papers told stories of courageous women campaigning for women’s rights arguing that the relative subjugating of women is tribal and parental, and has no real basis in early Islam. They have a way to go, but it’s wonderful to read that this is a matter being debated and hopefully advanced.

The Abaya is normal in Saudi Arabia, our fireworks are to us with hot dogs and beer and hopefully shorts and t-shirts (despite the torrential rains we’ve had in the Northeast this year). We all think our heroes are the right ones, our mores the most moral and sane, our “normal” the right barometer for civilization-at-large.

I am not a relativist. I prefer shorts, and I like a place where women can fully exercise their rights and express and hopefully fulfill their personhood. But I also realize condescension is fatal to understanding. And without understanding we can’t communicate, we can’t help build bridges from other cultures to some of our insights. Equally we cannot then learn what they may have to teach us.

Preferring my “normal” doesn’t mean ignorance of what others cherish and value is what I should aim for. Perhaps I can expand my sense of the normal, perhaps I can grow and extend my vision. Perhaps we can choose to be more together, rather than less, apart.

When cultures make this choice, and countries, and communities, and perhaps even families and other affiliations, like companies, the world moves forward. Let’s dedicate this 4th of July, or any other observance globally of freedom and possibility, to this perennial movement.

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By Omar Khan | Posted in Life Moments | Comment now

Hospitality, thy name is John, and Anthony…and Helene

June 29, 2009 – 8:05 am

The Four Seasons Hotel in London (formerly The Inn on the Park) was my London home since the late 70’s (first courtesy of my Dad’s fondness for it, and then my own).

Last year it closed for renovation and we found ourselves facing “homelessness” (of sorts) in London for the next few years. John Stauss, the GM and Area VP, is a gentleman’s gentleman. He took it upon himself to help us find a new home. He virtually insisted it be the Connaught, and he was so right.

In the midst of an impossibly hectic schedule in the final days of the old hotel’s life, he personally escorted us to the Connaught to meet Anthony Lee (GM extraordinaire and himself one of hospitality’s true gems), and to have a walk through. The hotelier gossip mill was buzzing the next day. It was a disarming act of generosity. Anthony Lee said to me that given that gesture all he could possibly do is look after us until we were ready to go “home” once more.

I have to say the Connaught is a wonderful abode, and it gave us great pleasure to bring John Stauss (who is presiding over the work at the Four Seasons, but inevitably missing the joys and rigors of daily hotel management) over for a meal at what I think is currently London’s most exciting and impressive fine dining experience, Helene Darroze at the Connaught.

The Darroze family are vintage Armagnac maestros. Helene is a two star Michelin Chef from Paris, and her restaurant at the Connaught has already nabbed one Michelin star. While the spate of Ramsey eateries continue elsewhere, the Connaught now has it’s own signature restaurant, and happily for all of us nostalgics, the legendary Connaught Grill is due for a come-back as well.

At any rate, below is the menu from our recent evening. Mr. Stauss agreed it was a superb, memorable meal. For us it was nice to have a dear friend over, for once our guest, rather than we being his. He and Anthony joked like the old chums they are. Anthony jested when he heard John was coming that the dogs had been starved and were being kept at the ready. John Stauss now has a distinguished looking beard, but we wondered if that had been picked up as a bit of “camouflage” at the Mayfair Spy Shop en route.

At any rate, the evening was resplendent…good cheer, wonderful company, profound cuisine and impressive wines.

MENU

Gillardeau oyster tartare, caviar from Aquitaine jelly, creamy veloute with white beans from Bearn with 2006 Gruner Veltliner “Rosenberg”, Anton Bauer

Duck foie gras from Les Landes cooked “au torchon” with rhubarb chutney with Guariguette strawberries, beetroot jus with 2005 Jurancon “Marie Kattalin” Domaine de Souch

Roasted Scottish scallop with a fresh coriander crust, baby carrots flavored with citrus and tandoori, spring onions reduction with 2005 Viognier, JM Gerin

Pave of sea bass cooked “a la nacre”, white asparagus from Les Landes just poached, cockle jus with seaweed butter and cranberries with 2005 Puligny Montrachet, Nicolas Potel

Breast of pigeon from Racan spit roasted and “flambe au capucin”, green pea mousseline lightly flavored with peppermint, intense jus with Mexican molle with 2007 Syrah, Herve Souhaut and 2005 Cahors Le Prestige, Chateau du Cedre

Selection of cheeses with the Cahors Les Prestige

Wild rhubarb jelly, meringue and foam, Sarawak pepper ice cream, almond crumble

100% chocolat, Venezuelan Carupano dark chocolate cream, bitter chocolate sorbet, hot chocolate sauce with 2007 Passito di Pantelleria Ben Rye Donnafugata

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By Omar Khan | Posted in Palate Titillations | Comment now

Alan’s 6-pound Father’s Day lobster

June 23, 2009 – 7:20 pm

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By Alan Weiss | Posted in Alan is in the House | Comment now

Make Sure Something’s Missing!

June 23, 2009 – 2:06 am

Dee Hock, founder of the “charodic” (the fusion of chaos and order as Mr. Hock so insightfully observed) Visa corporation, observed that the trick is not how to get new ideas in but rather how to get the old ideas out.

We’ll find this predominates everywhere. Look at Iran and the new ideas are bursting to express themselves, but the old ideas tenaciously cling on. Look at the problems between Israel and the Palestinians and you’ll see again the challenge is not a paucity of new ideas, it’s the dogmatic fixation on old definitions, paradigms, boundaries and conceptions that have to be tackled.

Carl Jung once pointed out that any real problem can’t be solved, it can only be outgrown. Then you don’t consider it a sacrifice, you just draw new rules of engagement. Then President de Klerk of South Africa said when apartheid was effectively defeated at the polls, “Today the South African people transcended themselves.”

A recent book, IN PURSUIT OF ELEGANCE, argues that what we leave out is as important, if not more so, than what we leave in. The author refers to the darkening of the screen in the pivotal last few minutes of the SOPRANO’s final episode: vexing, infuriating, titillating and irresistible. Toyota has long been studied for its principles of lean production and team and individual empowerment on the line — but it is as instructive to study all the things Toyota doesn’t do, that more ponderous and less effective competitors are addicted to.

Consultants beware! How many consulting firms tout endless product offerings: strategy, change management, organizational redesign, leadership development, employee relations, world peace and the kitchen sink. If the Elegance book is right, then we need instead a different sweet spot: simplicity — albeit concepts that are both simple and powerful. We should look for and infuse what we do with that power, not substitute for it by proliferating seemingly encyclopedic offerings.

Lao Tzu is evoked (he often is, being so inscrutable, his highly elegant, simple and compelling elegy to the Tao is timeless and adaptable to numerous interpretations) in pointing out that the hole at the center of the wheel matters more than any individual spoke. The space between the walls makes the home, the gaps between the notes make the music. It’s not just what is present, it’s what is absent. It’s the breathing room we have to create for ourselves, our services and our offerings that so often matters most. And if we can shed the peripherals (careful: one person’s peripherals are another person’s poetry), we can spotlight what’s essential. We can find and offer our passion and our genius, not an attic laden with ubiquitous  jargon and piles of second-hand consulting gewgaws.

A consultant without that essential simplicity can hardly be a credible advisor or coach in helping a business leader seeking something like that for themselves. It took us a long time at Sensei to realize that we excelled at locating the link between strategic business results and human performance — that engaging leaders and teams to deliver such results in global contexts was our particular strength. All the other things could be jettisoned.

So review your business, your marketing, your life. Absolutely make sure they express what matters most to you. But also make sure enough is missing. Make sure you de-clutter your business, your marketing and your life. Decide what you will not do and redirect that energy into creating the future.

And if certain old ideas continue to battle for dominance, stop fighting. Work on growing up  instead, and therefore “out”.

How? Ah, therein lies the the rub. But a great way to begin is to start living the new ideas (even if the old ones are still clinging on), live with the contradiction for awhile if you must, and then let the superior, the saner value win. It’ll be that much easier if there’s more space…in your day, priorities and life. When too much is afoot we hit our default switch. When we have some breathing room, we more readily set off in fresh directions — those more likely to get us where we wish to go.

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By Omar Khan | Posted in The World of Consulting, Uncommon Sense | Comment now

Onomastics Isn’t Enough!

June 17, 2009 – 11:13 am

Companies sometimes line up to change their names as if the shift of a name will lead to a shift of identity, reality and possibility, all rolled into one.

Onomasts are not psycho-sexual (or other) deviants…but rather those who study names and naming. They claim this study is a “science”.  That usually means it is awash in technical sounding minutiae — the trappings of any pseudo-science and the affliction of much applied science. However not even the most rabid onomast will claim that changing the name has much to do with changing the game.

Currently writing from the UK I read of the UK insurance giant changing their name from Norwich Union to Aviva. Viva Aviva! Meaningless, Latin-sounding new name changes are all the rage here as Tony Thorne has pointed out (Diageo, Altria, Solana). I remember the furor some years ago when PwC decided to call their consulting arm “Monday”. One person heard it as “mundane”. Another said it came about when they asked their marketing people if they had come up with a name, and they answered “perhaps Monday”. Unlikely to be true, but amusing.

When asked about the change from “Blackwater” to “Xe” (pronounced “Zee”), a spokesman for the now infamous security contractor said,  “There is no meaning to the new name. It was just a choice of a name, we thought of it internally.” Wonderful! We internally came up with something that has no meaning! And we thought we should be represented by a random, meaningless set of letters. It would have been interesting to hear less about the self-confessed mindlessness of the change of name and more about how they were aiming to transform themselves otherwise.

We change appearances, we change logos, we change names (The British Museum did so after some consideration, changing the “t” in “The” to uppercase!), we change everything it seems except that which matters. In other words we change the cosmetics, the incidentals rather than the essentials. If someone is silly enough to be hoodwinked by some change in the gloss on our lettering, that may be their bad luck. But it’s an insulting use of valuable resources…which in corporate settings can also include collective credulity.

Of course names have emotive content. And they either amplify or inhibit our ability to communicate who we are and what we do. We have to test drive names at times. But what we call ourselves matters less than what we deliver and offer, and how. Unless there is a change at that epicenter, spray painting a new sign won’t help.

When Andersen switched to Accenture, it took $100 million to communicate that change. When Cingular was dropped by AT&T, $2 billion was needed to communicate that fact! If that’s the best use of several hundred million dollars much less a few billion, that’s a  terrifying indictment of the value equation being engaged in by leaders.  Maybe a recession can be a sanity-restoring experience after all!

Change is an inside job, and it requires changes in more than the marquee. Change is needed in your leaders, your priorities, your reward systems, your team structures, your strategic and tactical priorities, your customer engagement…and indeed your market communication. But let that last accompany these other initiatives…not substitute for them.

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By Omar Khan | Posted in Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction, Uncommon Sense | Comment now

Starry Eyed in Collias

June 14, 2009 – 11:52 am

Once a year we do a Gastro-ramble through the Languedoc Roussillon region of France. The ramble part consists of walking between and from some very picturesque cities and villages in what was once Roman France. We wind our way through gorges, forests, the garrigue the Romans adored so, and to the towering monument of that time, the incomparable aqueduct that carried water from Nimes to Uzes, The Pont du Gard. More on that in a subsequent post.

The “gastro” part involves the fact that some of the lovely hotels we stay in are Relais & Chateaux. But one in Collias, is a charming inn, run by the Aparis family, and which now leaves us truly “starry-eyed” as they’ve this March gained an exceptional second Michelin Star. They are the only restaurant in the Gard region of France to have this coveted honor.

The Hostellerie le Castellas has had intriguing beginnings. Mr. and Mrs. Aparis once ran a snack shop at the Pont du Gard. When it was taken over by all the trappings of modern tourism (the postcard shop, the compulsory cafeteria serving vile swill tightly wrapped like a lab culture, etc), they relocated to Collias. Mr. Aparis was fond of the picturesque village of Collias, on the banks of the river Gardon. The Gorge of Gardon makes for stunning walks and he was a devotee of the locale.

A labor of love began — to create a true abode of hospitality, a place awash with elegance, and dedicated to gastronomy. This is France, and food is a secular religion. Their daughter Aurelie then was 11.

Fast forward about 15 years, and a new Chef arrives, Jerome Nutile. And after years of irrigating their dream with attention and devoted care, the hotel and restaurant came into the full bloom of gastronomic recognition. One Michelin Star was awarded. I remember that year Madame doing a jig of true delight. Their daughter Aurelie, had returned to help run this little gem, and has added her own vitality and considerable charm to an already superb enterprise. The second Michelin star has now come in, and they are awash with culinary pilgrims. So it should be. This place more than deserves a visit, and during that visit, focused attention.

Papa is now the Mayor of Collias (just as well as I had to let him know of a tree blocking one of the main walks from Collias to La Baume along the Gorge du Gardon after a particularly tempestuous rainfall), Aurelie’s husband who runs a landscaping company, ensures the garden blooms. The Sommelier, who has been with them for 14 years, is a chirpy, beet-cheeked life enthusiast who calls to mind the words of Rabelais:

“For my book: all you’ll find is laughter:
That’s all the glory my heart is after,
Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you.
I’d rather write about laughing than crying,
For laughter makes men human, and courageous.”

Certainly the cuisine, the wines, the garden, the imagination of the owners, the loveliness of the Languedoc, all conspire to make us feel more gratefully human there, glowing with the robust sharing of rare and piquant pleasures.

Below is a recent dinner that remains a true highlight.

And here’s a lesson to be learned too: If  they shut down your livelihood, make a choice. Wail and weep. Or dream anew. Plant yourself and your dreams and re-imagine what’s possible. The Aparis family did. And over that lovely hotel, the stars shine bright. They are polished with dedication.

MENU

Amuse

Contrast de Foie Gras en Trois Versions

Foie Gras contrast in three versions: in an ice dust of Sarawak peppercorns, confit “au naturel” in a Maury jelly, hot and crispy in a croustillant with Ayala Brut Majeur Champagne

Minute de Roget

Red Mullet “a la minute” in a paella-style risotto of courgette flowers seasoned with Iberico ham slivers with garlic and sparkling Saffron with white Chateauneuf du Pape Beau Castel 2007

Emulsion retour des Illes sorbet Champagne

Cote et Filet Agneau de lait

Rib and Fillet of Milk-fed Lamb and shoulder compote, mashed chick peas, split seeds with lemon confit, spiced jus with Bandol Domaine Du Gros Nore 2001

Chariot des Fromages

with the Bandol

Cubism Choco-Praline

Choco-Praline Cube in the style of Black Forest with Muscat “Frontignan” 2006

Frivolites

with Laubade Armagnac 1970


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By Omar Khan | Posted in Palate Titillations | Comment now

What’s Reality Got to Do With It?

June 7, 2009 – 3:19 am

My Partner and colleague-in-arms, Malcolm Follos attended a Conference recently where he heard musician and community activist Dave Stewart point out that we often hear of turning dreams into reality, but what he had to do at a challenging juncture of his life was to turn reality into dreams.

Fascinating to consider as leaders. On the one hand leaders have to take “visions” and “ideals” and grand aspirations and build a bridge from those lofty heights into the valleys of everyday execution. Far more leaders can summon dizzying rhetoric than can claim inspiring, focused, execution — much less execution with a relevant and living dashboard and an aligning of the rewards and performance culture or their organization, accordingly.

Those that do this with some combination of manic focus yet keep that balanced with openness to ongoing input from the world-at-large, engagement of people and yet leaving no doubts about what everyone is accountable for, with relentless imagination yet a fact-based commitment to facing what is “real” today, become business winners and take on the hue of legend. It’s conceptually straightforward, but personally exacting. It’s energy-intensive and requires us to shelve our personal ego and take on a corporate ego to a large extent. We take a stand for a possibility we will enroll others to help us manifest and call forth.

But as the line from Dave Stewart reminds us, leaders also have to take today’s realities, often tough and demanding realities, often energy-sapping and confidence-depleting realities — realities of downturns and recessions, war and peace, customer defections, breakdown of teams, intransigent external or internal bureaucracies to contend with — and transform them into a path forward. And often we have to, in the midst of the turmoil, create our equivalent rallying commitment to say taking down the Berlin Wall or transcending apartheid.

Only then can we summon and galvanize the individual energies and collective passion needed to turn today’s base metal into tomorrow’s performance gold. Leaders earlier we said had to be bridge builders — bridging from an end in mind to today’s actions. We are now saying, they also have to be alchemists: taking  what we encounter today and converting our obstacles into source material for our progress.

There are less grand applications of this as well. In our personal lives, we have to have larger goals that drive us. And we have to translate those larger goals into habitual daily and weekly behaviors that can deliver them. We have to behave our way to our vision as I so often relate in sessions. How else will we possibly get there?

Equally in our personal life we often see wreckage — dysfunctional habits or relationships, messes, areas we aren’t proud of. Here we have to take the wreckage and be architects. We have to dream forward from our most challenging realities. As Robert Browning said so unforgettably, Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a Heaven for?”

These are wonderful twin capacities, bridging from our visions to today’s actions, and transforming today’s realities into the future-focused application whereby we galvanize dreams. As leaders and as individuals, we need to get good at both. Arguably, together, they are a large part of what success is all about…and what life as a whole could be, or perhaps even should be, all about as well.

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By Omar Khan | Posted in Uncommon Sense | Comment now

A Tale of Two Cigars

June 2, 2009 – 11:03 am

The other night a group of friends assembled at The Grand Havana Club, a private membership club, that provides a bespoke atmosphere for the increasingly rarefied pleasure of enjoying good cigars. Happily, the GHC is also blessed with a superb Chef in Alberto Gomez and an urbane, astute and highly capable manager in Randall Denman. Randall joined us for the evening, and good cheer, bon mots, wonderful food and wine accompanied two memorable cigars.

It was a fairly august gathering we were fortunate enough to cobble together. Three were fellow Chaine des Rotisseurs Board Members. John Shalam, Audiovox innovator and business pioneer is a gentleman’s gentleman. In fact the affinity his name has with “Shalom” meaning “peace” (”Salaam” in the Arabic ) I’ve always thought isn’t accidental — he is a civilizing presence. Phillip Davis is the very picture of Southern gentility and grace: banker and real estate investor and much  more, he embodies a certain wry take on the human condition, though always administered with elegance. The third Chaine Board member present was Jim Wallick, CEO of Mercer Tool, a highly successful global gadfly, fellow quixotic rogue (in the best possible way), and a wonderful life enthusiast. Completing the group, other than my wife and I, were Jack and Lori Broesamle. Lori is the Annie Oakley of cigar smoking, a capable manager in her own right, and along with Jack, a great demonstration of both business acumen and success, as well as a captivating personal openness to a wide range of  both ideas and adventures. We have deeply enjoyed their company and warmth on many occasions.

We opened with Soft Shell Crab, Lump Crab Cocktail with a Yellow Tomato Coulis. The Crab flavor was expressively conveyed by the preparation, rather than being the soggy anonymous mush that so many versions of this dish so often. are. This was married very successfully with a Kistler “Les Noisetiers” Sonoma Coast 2007. Noisetiers refers to hazelnuts and the terroir is certainly very distinctive. This wine comes from grapes from several of the Kistler vineyards. It was a golden wine, with some hints of ripe lemon and nut oil…it delivered a vibrant zing. We smoked with this a Nestor Miranda “Special Selection” Lancero.  This is a Honduran cigar with a Nicaraguan wrapper. It is rolled so that most of the flavor is in the wrapper (which is where cigars need to shine anyway). At the beginning and end of the smoke it was quite woody, with hints of fruit in between. Lovely, gentle, elegant.

Our next dish was Rabbit Saddle, with Ginger Baby Carrots, Pan Jus and Micro Greens. The absence of the classic “mustard” with the rabbit gave us a more delicate, subtle but yet still succulent dish — more tender than gamy. This was caressed by a Viognier de Rosine, Michel Ogier, Vin de Pays, 2006.  These grapes come from just west of the famous Condrieu vineyards, the spiritual homestead of Viognier. The 2006 was lovely. Good acidity, a peachy richness, lovely aroma.

The main course was Venison Striploin, Yukon Gold Potato Gratin, Port & Cherry Glaze.  It was succulent, tender, gamy in just the right measure. It had none of the dehydration that inept versions of Venison are guilty of…and the glaze wasn’t overpoweringly sweet…just a lovely contrast. The accompanying wine was a knock-out. Gigondas, “Prestige D’Hautes Garrigues”, Domaine Santa Duc, Rhone 2003.  A gorgeous super-concentrated Gigondas with exotic berries, amazingly aromatic for its age, spicy, with a big finish. With this we smoked our second cigar of the dinner, Camacho “Triple Maduro” Torpedo. Wow! “Maduro” means “ripe” in Spanish, and this is considered the only “true” Maduro because the wrapper, binder and filler are all Maduro. It was a powerful, rich, sumptuous cigar, that took a while to get going and then let loose — really expressing its complexity and power.

Dessert was a lovely way to cap the meal — Caramel Apple Tart, Vanilla Bean Gelato, White Chocolate Ganache. The richness of the gelato worked wonderfully with the warm flaky pastry and the sweet yet slightly tart apple flavor of this rich dessert. We capped our wine experience no less memorably with Dolc de L’Obac, “Late Harvest Granacha”, Priorat 2000. This Spanish masterpiece blends Grenache, Cabernet and Syrah, is naturally sweet and non-fortified (!) and comes from a unique one hectare property with a distinctive micro-climate that helps the grapes to ripen faster to produce this exceptional wine — subtle sweetness and lushness at the same time.

We went home basking in the after glow of wonderful company and an evening of abundant palate titillation indeed — the progression from the Lancero to the Camacho was a wonderrful metaphor for an evening that similarly developed, evolved and unfolded — a patchwork of many pleasures.  Something to reprise!

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By Omar Khan | Posted in Palate Titillations | Comment now

The Waste of Training

May 31, 2009 – 10:36 pm

We can see that organizations, made up as they are of people who find change no more appetizing than most of us do, will go to great lengths to look for panaceas and band-aids, rather than grapple with real issues of human change and growth.

When what faces bosses seems cerebral, analytical, diagnostic, detached from the leaders they personally are, they are quite happy to go for consulting solutions. They will look for firms with pedigrees, fixate on theoretical models that are conceptually compelling and leave the sordid matter of “implementation” for later.

When what faces them has to do with people, how they act and interact, their skills and what they are capable of delivering, the most common approach is either to exhort them at Conferences, or subject them to “workshops”. These workshops are often selected by HR on “methodology” grounds, and they look for consultants who are congenial to them — who wouldn’t have the temerity to suggest the Emperor has no clothes — so to speak.

Then running these workshops provides a seemingly “heroic” demonstration of remedial action, even though the precise business aims these workshops are meant to address are rarely spelled out — nor is there much accountability from senior leaders to coach application when their direct reports return to them. Part of the reason for this is, that in order to coach application credibly, leaders would have to model the way — at least to some extent.

When we decouple adaptive problems from senior leadership behavior, then we look to training as a sort of vaccination. And this way, under the guise of “development”, large amounts of money are expended without much by way of tracking. If we measure anything it may be the popularity with the audience of the deliverer and perhaps workshop effectiveness as an isolated event. The workshop is evaluated as a performance and whether it was found stimulating at that time and place.

Training instead needs to evolve into a form of true consulting. That is to say it should only be undertaken to advance strategic business objectives, which of course can include developing leaders at all levels. But then evaluation has to be built into the design.

Then we have to spell out the type of leaders needed by the organization taking that example, how they will be evaluated, how we will know if we have them, the relevance of such leadership to business success as well as individual progress… all this has to be settled in advance. Whoever is nominating the person has to work with them at the outset to create buy-in, establish relevance, and ensure there is some shared expectation of what will occur as a result of the training. An action-plan then should be generated in the immediate aftermath and diligently tracked. And only then, based on the results achieved, the training or other input should be assessed, re-calibrated, enhanced, or ditched. How enjoyable it was, the quality of delivery performance, are relative peripherals and should not take center-stage.

The above seems highly time and energy intensive. It is! And so it should be part of a continuum of efforts to engage and develop our leaders and teams as they seek to add strategic business value to organizational assets.

David Maister rightly suggests that first the systems of  a company have to be in place to underwrite whatever the training is preparing people for, the organization has to duly motivate people to take full advantage of the training by establishing its strategic importance, knowledge has to be provided of what it is participants are to do as a result, and then and only then can the development of skills have any chance of not only taking place, but also taking hold.

Moreover, for it to be called “training” in any common sense usage of the word, the session has to be high on practice, application, coaching, feedback and feedforward (future-based performance goals) and a chance to be assessed and improve from an initial base-line. This may require not an “event” but a real “process”.

If we truly wish to be cost-effective during a difficult period, we should remove generic training budgets. We should separate training as Paul Kearns has suggested into those things people have to learn for their role or position, and things they should learn to truly fulfill the potential of their role or position or as part of their citizenship requirements in that organization.

Anything else, the “nice to do” items, can be postponed, or carefully provided as incentives or at least as frosting on the overall development effort. And then those things people in the organization DO need to know and those things they should know, particularly non-technical abilities required of leaders as they move into successive roles (how to manage people, understanding the difference between strategy and tactics, getting teams to work effectively, process improvement, guiding innovation, delivering projects, selling ideas or actual products or services, coaching and mentoring others who report to them, etc) should be linked to some line of sight business improvement. And then all interventions should be designed accordingly, require significant line manager or boss-engagement, and whenever possible be undertaken with the very people the person will have to deliver this with (rather than a random assemblage of people who have never, and may never, see each other in action in this regard).

Shockingly different? Possibly.  But if so, it’s only because it’s shockingly sane, sensible, practical, amenable to ROI, and only when these conditions are met, really valuable.

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By Omar Khan | Posted in The World of Consulting, Uncommon Sense | Comment now