Business and the Pancake Principles

When your typical process no longer works, how do you fix it?

The Best Mix!

On my last two attempts, my tested, trusted pancake recipe failed me. I learned to make them nearly 30 years ago at the apron of my grandmother who taught me to cook by “feeling.” We didn’t measure much. I still cook the same way today, trusting some invisible measuring cup in my wrist to tell me that it’s just the right amount of salt, cinnamon or garlic. Many business owners use that same internal clock.

While operating a business or managing a project, we often begin with a scripted sheet to outline the specific steps required to complete it. Continuity and consistency keep business on track. We amend it slightly to adjust to new technologies or additional staff, but the core of it remains. It’s been proven and it’s comfortable. It’s what we know to do. And we always trust our gut. Then along comes the project that doesn’t quite work with the set strategy we’ve used for years or very long months.  Something is off and we can’t identify it.

So how do we fix the pancake problem?  At first I was just going to throw out the batter and try again, and again, until I got the familiar taste and texture.  But as my old uncle would say, “If you keep doing what you always did, you gonna get what got.” Developing new procedures or updating old ones requires a certain amount of reflection and refocus.  I decided on this approach to the batter that I hope will also work with my business.

The Pancake Principles

1. Call the Cooks – Someone else out there grapples with the same issues that you have. Someone you trust, who also shares your same focus on exceptional results has tackled the same topic. Ask them for feedback and tips.
2. Try New Ingredients; Know Your Old Ones Well – Even if you haven’t changed your approach, it doesn’t mean that your subcontractors, vendors or other professionals have changed theirs. If something has shifted, stay in touch with the market to know where to find the best new talent.
3. Don’t Throw Out Everything – Perhaps there’s just one small glitch in your method. Keep what works and identify the trouble spot as quickly as possible.
4. Test Before Serving – Test any new processes or procedures with internal projects before using them with clients or customers. [I learned that lesson the hard way!]

Here’s to tasty brunch and the best product possible! Do you have anything to add? Please share!

15% of Freedom vs. Clocking Fear

The 3M Approach Continued…

15% of Innovation

Since 1948, 3M^© asks its employees to spend 15% of their paid time to work on products of their own choosing.  That 15% rule sparked the development of some of 3M’s most recognizable products – the most notable being the Post-It.

What?! In this day and age, a company allows employees to take time and dream up new ideas, strategies and products without direct orders and supervision? You mean to tell me that a company actually believes that it has hired smart, forward-thinking individuals who are committed to company growth? Amazing! But not all companies think that way.

Recently, while working on a long project, I mentioned that I’d put in considerable thought work on a blog series, to which the CEO replied, “Well nothing has been done.” I was shocked. I believed that the CEO understood the importance of building a case and thinking it through before investing too much time. But instead, the exec was clocking pennies.  I’d moved to what one of my former co-workers called the fast food approach. “May I take your order please,” the creative director would say and grab a plain tablet when he felt that his ideas where being dismissed not because they were bad, but because the client was focused only on time.  Why be creative at that point? Just direct.

In many working environments, every single second of a 40-hour week must be devoted to specific projects. Workers worry about the extra 15 minutes they spend actually thinking because that time isn’t trackable. But companies like Google, whose own 20% rule spawned Gmail and Google Earth, understand that there is nothing as rewarding to company as an engaged professional with room to think.

Everyone has to watch their budget. Time costs, for certain. But I’d much rather invest in a talented thinker than a frightened worker who shuts down innovation before it begins. A lot of success might be tracked back to that 15% of freedom.

Sources:

“How 3M Gave Everyone Days Off and Created an Innovation Dynamo” by Kaomi Goetz

 

 

The Post-It Approach

by Mia M. Jackson

Art Fry, Creator of Post-It Notes

Art Fry wanted to keep his place in his hymnal while singing in his church choir. Wrestling with a bookmark that kept moving, he recalled a presentation he’d seen for the adhesive product developed by 3M© colleague Dr. Spencer Silver seven (7) years earlier in 1968. Aha! Add the hymnal to the random yellow paper that was available as they tried out the new idea and you have the “Post-It.™” It would take a few more years and misfires before they settled on the right name and strategy. But his simple need then changed how the world leaves messages for coworkers, kids and friends.

We’ve all had that Fry-like  “Aha!” moment where we realize something that we’ve seen, read or heard recently can solve a problem for us. The issue may not be world peace or bullying, but it still resonates with others looking for similar resolution.  For seven long years, Dr. Spencer had something that he believed to be useful, practical. He presented it to audiences, before the days of PowerPoint, who may or may not have seen its effectiveness. Finally, however, someone else took the idea to a new page in the story.

Something about Dr. Silver’s new glue stuck with Mr. Fry long enough for him to connect the dots. Maybe it was “Your glue helps me sing Nearer My God to Thee,” (my grandmother’s favorite hymn.) Had the two not been determined and certain that the product was viable, we wouldn’t have had that infamous scene in Sex in the City when Berger breaks up with Carrie on the post-it note on the mirror. Or we wouldn’t be able to ask a colleague to see you ASAP!!! with a note to the monitor. Yes, there’s something to be said for sticking to it.

So for the entrepreneurs, designers, dreamers and product warriors, let’s try the Post-It Approach today:

1. If you have a product or service that you believe in, be tenacious.
2. Get your presentation in order and speak to everyone in the audience, not just the money folks. You don’t know who has the answer.
3. Be open to someone who sees your product or service differently – and possibly better – than you do.
4. Repackage it, rename it, resell it – until it sticks!

 

Tomorrow… from the 3M perspective.