The Big Difference Between Training and Coaching

Leave a reply

Tyler finally had a question. “So, have we been wasting out time training our people?”

“Training is not a waste of time, it is how you train that determines its effectiveness.” Tyler squirmed. His company spent thousands of dollars on management training the prior year.

“Tyler, let’s take a fun example. Ever play video games?” Tyler nodded and flashed a huge grin. “How did you learn to play that game? Did it come with an instruction manual? Did you go to the bookstore and buy the Insider’s Guide to the game?”

“No way, I just sat down and started playing it.”

“And what is your competence level?”

“Well, I am at a level 40, now, but over the weekend, I think I can get my character to level 50. That’s as high as I can go with the character in this clan.”

“So, you are telling me that you became an expert. Did you become an expert because their instruction manual was so well written? Did the quality of the Insider’s Guide (that you never bought at the bookstore) have a significant impact on your learning this new behavior?”

“No, I just played the game. My character got killed a few times, but I learned how to navigate around the danger zones. I learned how to engage other characters in battle. I learned out to accumulate powers. Every time I did something right, I got points. Every time I did something stupid, I lost points. My points accumulated, my character got stronger, I leveled up. All around the screen are status panels that give me constant real time feedback on where I am in the game and how I am doing.”

“And you did all this without reading the instructions or attending a training class?” I asked. Tyler nodded yes again. “Tyler, you learned to play the game at an expert level because the game was designed to positively reinforce desired behavior. This positive reinforcement was meticulous and frequent. There were established goals and measurement systems to track progress and status.

“Next week, we will get back together and talk more about training.”

Before or After?

Leave a reply

Tyler’s curiosity had moved to intrigue.

“What gets reinforced gets repeated,” I said. We had been talking about positive reinforcement and its impact on behavior. “That’s why measurement and feedback loops are so important.

“Here is the insight,” I continued. “Most managers focus their time before the behavior. Most managers provide training and give lectures on the way things should be done and then wonder why they don’t get the desired behavior. Most managers think their biggest influence on behavior occurs before the behavior.

Let’s meet, let’s plan, let’s discuss, let’s show.

“All of this occurs before the behavior and has minimal impact.

“The payoff, the big influence is after the desired behavior occurs. That’s when to pay the most attention. What gets reinforced gets repeated.”

Hmmm. Just an Attaboy

Leave a reply

Tyler was curious. “Let’s say I buy this positive reinforcement thing. Exactly how do I do that? I mean, do I just walk around all day giving attaboys?”

“Is an attaboy meaningful?” I replied.

“Well, not really. It’s not a real attention grabber.” Tyler flashed a hint of a smirk.

“Positive reinforcement doesn’t have to be earth shattering to be effective. But it does have to be meaningful to the individual to have the behavior repeated.”

“So, give me an example.”

“Have you ever watched a teenager completely absorbed in a video game, relentlessly pushing buttons.” Tyler’s brow furrowed but he was still listening. “Now, you would think that, for a bright young gamer, repetitively pushing buttons for three or four hours at a stretch would become hopelessly boring, even if it’s playing games to earn money. Yet, every time a button is pushed, something on the screen glows or a bell dings, or a spaceship blows up. In a video game, so much positive reinforcement occurs, the gamer can become addicted.” Tyler’s curiosity moved to intrigue.

“What gets reinforced, gets repeated.”

Is it a Personality Conflict?

Leave a reply

“You would think at their age, they would know better,” Phil complained.

“What makes you think that?” I asked.

“The sales manager calls a meeting with the marketing manager, and the marketing manager refuses to attend. I ask why? And, all I get is how the sales manager is pushy, always with opinions about the way sales runs and it’s not even his department.”

“So, what is the sales manager to do?” I prompted.

“It’s annual budget time, and I told the two of them to get together,” Phil continued. “I need sales and marketing to coordinate. What I get is a big, fat personality conflict.”

“What would you say, if I told you, I didn’t think you had a personality conflict,” I replied. “But, rather an accountability and authority issue?”

“What do you mean?” Phil looked skeptical.

“Do each of them have an accountability to publish an annual budget coordinated with the other?”

“Yes,” Phil nodded.

“Is coordination something you would like, or is it a requirement?”

“It’s something I would like, but I don’t want to be pushy. They should be able to figure it out,” Phil defended.

“And, if they don’t coordinate, then they miss the accountability?”

“Well, yes,” Phil looked puzzled.

“I don’t think you have a personality conflict, I think you have an accountability and authority issue.”

Take Your Company to the Next Level – Statutory Platform

1 Reply

It is not unusual for a company to make political contributions or hire a lobbyist to engage in political influence. In the US, it is illegal to pay a public official for political favors, but, perfectly legal to pay a registered lobbyist to exact political pressure on a public official. A company may decide NOT to play at this level, but the platform exists.

  • S-VI – Statutory platform, where statutes and regulations specifically dictate competitive advantage.
  • S-V – Industry platform, where our enterprise competes using industry standard practices.
  • S-IV – Market platform, where our multiple systems integrate with market systems.
  • S-III – Single serial system platform, where we see the introduction of warranties as a competitive edge.
  • S-II – Process implementation platform (of someone else’s system, like a franchisee).
  • S-I – Product or service platform, where it’s all about the product.

It is one thing to follow an industry standard, an industry guideline. It is quite another to follow a standard dictated by statute.

The Wright Amendment (introduced by Rep Jim Wright in 1979) was a United States federal law that governed traffic at Dallas Love Field, an airport in Dallas, Texas, to protect Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) from competition. The amendment prohibited carriers from operating full-size airliners between Love Field and destinations beyond Texas and its four neighboring states. Further amendments in 1997 and 2005 added new states and relaxed aircraft rules for long-range service. The law was partially repealed in 2006 and then fully repealed in 2014. -Wikipedia

Which airline had a hub at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)? And, which airline was headquartered at Dallas Love Field (DAL)? If you guessed American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, you would be correct. Southwest Airlines, as a strategy, enjoyed the exclusivity of Dallas Love Field, but they were prohibited, by statute, from specific operations, landings and take-offs from 1979 to 2014. My math says 35 years, they were effectively blocked.

Most modern cars run well on unleaded gasoline, not so well on ethanol. Marine operators are allowed to sell a non-ethanol variant of gasoline because if ethanol fuel sits too long in an engine, it “rots the hell out of the seals.” Why are we now required to purchase unleaded gasoline with an ethanol additive? Who are the players? It is one thing to follow an industry standard, quite another to follow a standard dictated by statute. Archer-Daniels Midland is defending an anti-trust suit for market manipulation.

Statutes like this do not spring up in a two week time period. Timespan at S-VI ranges from 10-20 years. This is not a short term play. A company may not adopt this strategic platform, but may suffer the consequences from their competitors. If you are not sure what platform you are playing on, look at your competitors.

Take Your Company to the Next Level – Industry Platform

2 Replies

As the organization becomes larger, it grows more complex and requires a higher level of organizational capability to compete.

  • S-V – Industry platform, where our enterprise competes using industry standard practices.
  • S-IV – Market platform, where our multiple systems integrate with market systems.
  • S-III – Single serial system platform, where we see the introduction of warranties as a competitive edge.
  • S-II – Process implementation platform (of someone else’s system, like a franchisee).
  • S-I – Product or service platform, where it’s all about the product.

At S-V, Industry platform, the organization is now competing with other companies who ALL have become market responsive. How to win? Move to the Industry platform.

I always encourage my clients to join trade associations where we witness the first informal barriers to entry. Once a part of a trade association, I encourage them to become a member of the association board or an officer. Is it such a stretch to imagine that, to be a part of the association, its members should adhere to certain guidelines? The association board might well propose those guidelines, similar to specific standards created by my clients. Competitors may be market responsive, but to be a player, they must adopt and maintain performance standards equal to those of my client. Here is where we see the insistence on ISO standards or other continuous improvement platforms.

Companies at this level, because of their size, often find it difficult to adapt, hence, the barrier to entry. Tied to timespan, for a company to effectively compete at this level often requires more than five years of planning and foresight. Companies struggle to let go of processes and systems that served them well, to adopt a new level of standards that initially add to overhead with revenue opportunities that take years to build.

But if the spec says, ISO, an entire swath of companies may not compete.

Take Your Company to the Next Level – Market Platform

Leave a reply

Strategic platforms help us understand our business model and where we compete for customers, what our customers expect from us and how we go to market.

  • S-V – Industry platform, where our enterprise competes using industry standard practices.
  • S-IV – Market platform, where our multiple systems integrate with market systems.
  • S-III – Single serial system platform, where we see the introduction of warranties as a competitive edge.
  • S-II – Process implementation platform (of someone else’s system, like a franchisee).
  • S-I – Product or service platform, where it’s all about the product.

As the organization grows from product to process to system, it ultimately ends up with multiple systems. The hallmark of an S-IV company is its ability to integrate those systems and subsystems. Internally, that integration inspects how work travels from one function to the next with a close eye on the capacity of each system and how that capacity impacts the capacity of its neighboring systems.

Until the organization emerges as S-IV, there is one system in its strategy often overlooked. That system is NOT internal, it is external. It operates like any other system, but it sits outside the company and it’s called your Market.

When the organization matures into S-IV, it finally has the capability to look outside. Prior to that, all energy is directed inside, on the product, process and internal systems. At S-IV, the company blossoms to look outside. That outside look is market responsive.

A market responsive strategy looks at the internal product or service offering through the lens of the customer, through the lens of the market. Adjustments are made in the product, not because of technical expertise, but because the market demands it. Car manufacturers took out ashtrays and installed cupholders. Why? Because the market demanded it. The market is mindful of gas mileage, but, at the end of the day, it demands cupholders.

Take Your Company to the Next Level – System Platform

Leave a reply

Business platforms help us understand the condition of our business model, its requirements, characteristics, competitive edge.

  • S-V – Industry platform, where our enterprise competes using industry standard practices.
  • S-IV – Market platform, where our multiple systems integrate with market systems.
  • S-III – Single serial system platform, where we see the introduction of warranties as a competitive edge.
  • S-II – Process implementation platform (of someone else’s system, like a franchisee).
  • S-I – Product or service platform, where it’s all about the product.

Bob’s Burger was all about the product. Assuming Bob’s Burger is the best burger around, how do you beat Bob? You get more trucks, geographic expansion. And, geographic expansion (more trucks) comes with its own set of problems. The quality of the burger begins to suffer. Raw ingredients scream for a supply chain where there is none, several trucks run out of lettuce. One truck runs its griddle too hot, the burger tastes like shoe leather. Customers expecting Bob’s Truckburger to be as good as the original Bob’s Burger are disappointed. Worse, Bob is in no-man’s (no-person’s) land. Expansion costs money. The unit cost for more trucks and more people are driving up overhead. A little bit of success can create a whole lot of overhead. Bob is everywhere with his new trucks, and, he is struggling. Bob has plenty of revenue coming in, and, profitability is elusive.

How do you beat Bob’s Truckburgers? Move to the next level, the system level. Bob had trucks, but no system. Bob could have purchased a system from McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy’s. If Bob had, he would never run out of lettuce, because the supply chain would be a system with ordering min/max’s. The griddle in each truck would always be the same temperature, calibrated on a monthly basis. Every burger would always taste the same. This is scaling. Scaling requires a system. Scaling without a system is a disaster.

Outside the burger world, you will notice a business model with a system frequently offers a warranty, a promise. A warranty promise without a system is a disaster. A warranty promise with a system yields predictable results. And, for the first time, profitability emerges. If you want to improve your profit, improve your system.

Take Your Company to the Next Level – Process Platform

Leave a reply

The roles and levels of work that you need in your company depend on your business model sitting on your business platform.

  • S-V – Industry platform, where our enterprise competes using industry standard practices.
  • S-IV – Market platform, where our multiple systems integrate with market systems.
  • S-III – Single serial system platform, where we see the introduction of warranties as a competitive edge.
  • S-II – Process implementation platform (of someone else’s system, like a franchisee).
  • S-I – Product or service platform, where it’s all about the product.

Yesterday, we looked at a product or service platform. When it’s all about the product, how many roles and how many people do you need? For Bob’s Burgers, all you need is Bob. Can you make money on this platform? Yes. Just not very much. The product or service platform will always struggle with revenue.

In fact, as a competitor, how can you beat Bob? Assuming Bob has the best burger going, how do you beat Bob? You get more trucks than Bob. Actually, Bob read my column before today, he is already going there. In this video, Bob moves from a product platform to a process platform. It is no longer about the burger, now, it’s all about the number of trucks. More trucks, more revenue. But, the video also shows more trucks, more overheard. Where the product platform struggles with revenue, the process platform struggles with profitability.
Bob’s Trucks

Everyone always says, “I want to take my company to the next level.”

Most have no clue. Business platforms help you understand your business model, where it succeeds, its problems and what the next level looks like. (Yes, I have a 3-hour in-person program on business platforms.)

Next, the system platform.

Product Platform

Leave a reply

From the Ask Tom mailbag –

Question:
You always talk about the five levels of management –

  • S-V – Business Unit President
  • S-IV – Integrator role
  • S-III – Single system manager
  • S-II – Coordinator, supervisor
  • S-I – Technician, production role

But my company is not that big. Do I have to have all these roles?

Response:
It depends. Depends on the size and complexity of your company. The five levels of management correspond to five different business platforms, any of which are perfectly acceptable as a business model. You can make money at any of these.

  • S-V – Industry platform, where our enterprise competes using industry standard practices.
  • S-IV – Market platform, where our multiple systems integrate with market systems.
  • S-III – Single serial system platform, where we see the introduction of warranties as a competitive edge.
  • S-II – Process implementation platform (of someone else’s system, like a franchisee).
  • S-I – Product or service, where it’s all about the product.

And any of these platforms are valid. Today, let’s start with S-I, product or service platform, where it’s all about the product. How many roles do you need?
Bob’s Burgers