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This Little Piggy: Autonomy and Innovative Problem Solving
Posted by: | CommentsWhat’s 100 pounds, barely fits in a freezer locker, and tastes delicious when cooked? Expand your mind beyond Silence of the Lambs. Try the large swine I had the opportunity of roasting this weekend for a Stanford University event. For a professional, this is an undertaking, certainly, but not one that involves more thought than manpower. Our exercise answered the age old question: how many university students does it take to roast a pig when not one of them has done it before and they are equipped with only the most rudimentary of tools?
Each step was a process. Did we have a spit? No. Someone went to the shop in the middle of the night and welded one (I’m told this is typical of Stanford students). How will we rig the spit? Clamps attached to sideways picnic tables. The pig is too heavy to be spun on the spit…the pole is just turning inside the pig and now the back of the beast is completely charred without cooking the rest of its insides. Get the grate off the grill that’s sitting next to the pit, rest it on top of two wooden planters and another picnic table, and make sure to flip the thing every two hours. Oh, and to make sure the skin stays moist? Spray it with Sprite every ten minutes or so.
MacGyver would’ve either laughed or applauded. As the fire was dying down one girl rigged up a fan to the bottom of the grill pit to ventilate, and the rest of us went at the coals with lighter fluid and the used paper towels with which we had wiped the pig seasoning off our hands. We then made a makeshift oven with huge sheets of aluminum foil held down by broken brick pieces around the pit. No object was too small to contribute.
The final result? Delicious. The entire pig team, myself included, felt ridiculously accomplished. A professional may have gotten it done faster and more effectively given their experience and technology, but we accomplished the same results with a high level of innovation.
Autonomy breeds innovation and lateral problem solving skills. Throughout the roast, our instinct was to defer to someone who knew better, but no one had actually undertaken the task before. When faced with a task that is completely unfamiliar to us, the first thing we want to do is turn to someone who has experience with the task to tell us how to navigate. But when a task has to get done and the novelty is not unique to us, it’s our job to reach outside conventional methods of problem solving to get the task done. All because no one is standing over our shoulders telling us how to do things.
Learning often comes from doing. Being thrown into the thick of things is par for the consultant’s course. The key is to determine what you want the eventual outcome to be–what success looks like for your client–and from there begin to formulate strategies to get there. As easy as it would be to ask for a superior to give you a well-trodden path to get there, it is ten times more rewarding to try and discover your own way through. Remember, though, you don’t have to go it alone; your team acts as a valuable resource, even when the rest of them are just as new to the process as you are.
It takes four people to flip a 100 pound pig. It takes 50 dinner guests to even make a dent in the meal. But all it takes is one collective open mind to an unfamiliar task to get an unprecedented job well done.
To our readers: how did you tackle an unfamiliar task?
The Road Less Traveled: Into the Unknown
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s almost time for a transition. A quick calculation has alerted me to the fact that I will be graduating in a little over a month’s time, and many of my friends at other schools have already done so. This means that every event that my peers and I share is prefaced by the words “the last time we will ever” and hearing Pachelbel Canon causes my eyes to water in a bizarre imitation of Pavlov’s dog.
Mostly what makes the whole experience upsetting is the element of uncertainty. Even though many of us have already secured employment for the next period of time, we have no experience with a full time occupation, as our full time occupation (as my parents constantly remind me) has been student-dom for the past 19 years of our lives. We’ve had partial experience with “real life,” as we call it–that is, paying bills, doing our laundry, and cooking for ourselves–but most of us have had our parents to fall back on should our cash flow not keep up with our demands. Our safety net will no longer be quite at the ready.
Rich McLaughlin, president of the McLaughlin Community sent Monar a monthly thought yesterday that read:
“Most managers are trying to design variance out of the system, and it cannot handle a process which starts off not knowing where it will eventually get. Poor design briefs are not normally the ones with too many constraints, but the ones that take all opportunity for discovery and surprise away. The design thinker has a stance that seeks the unknown, embraces the possibility of surprise, and is comfortable with wading into complexity not knowing what is on the other side.” –Roger Martin, The Design of Business
It’s easy to focus on “what is” within your organization, because “what is” is a sure thing. It’s what you’ve always done; it’s what you know works. It’s what you’re good at. But what if you’re risking the possibility of losing added value because you won’t risk moving away from what has always been? It’s true that there is a chance that innovation won’t yield success, but as Wayne Gretzky (via Michael Scott) said, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
There are so many unexplored avenues for improving your organization. Think to yourself, “am I adding value to my company, or am I just helping it run?” In case this entry wasn’t already chock full of clichés, “if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”
I am clearly the first to say that the world of the unknown is something that marks the end of what you believe your knowledge to be able to handle. But it also marks opportunity, and more importantly, the opportunity to learn and grow. Whether it be your organization or yourself, embracing a path whose end isn’t automatically clear at the outset has benefits that are often overlooked for fear of even taking the first step.
To our readers: what is your attitude toward the unknown? How do you get over the fear of the possibility of surprise?
Just Missed It: Avoiding the 90-10 Trap
Posted by: | CommentsDid you know that flats can make great running shoes? I found out this morning. With coffee mug in hand, I strolled out of my house before the intercampus shuttle appeared two minutes earlier than it was scheduled to do so. My fight-or-flight response kicked in: flee to the shuttle, or fight the man and skip work altogether? Against my desire (and mitigating my morning shower) I bolted to the corner. Like many a movie moment I watched the shuttle pull away just seconds before I would’ve been able to stop it. What a way to begin my morning.
Disgruntled, “glistening,” and tired, I trudged to the el. Less convenient, and $2.25 more than I would’ve had to spend otherwise. I was praying for karmic retribution. I figured that what I had just been put through warranted a new watch. The only thing that could have made that moment worse, in my mind, was if it had sprayed me with a mud puddle as it pulled away preemptively. This is going to be a bad day, I automatically thought to myself.
If only my parents had cared more about my athletics and less about my academics, I would have made that shuttle. That being said, were that the case, I probably wouldn’t be chasing down the Northwestern University intercampus shuttle to begin with. Conundrum.
It’s easy to let our bad experiences affect the possibility of having positive ones. After all, it takes 4 positive comments to soften every one piece of criticism. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff author Richard Carlson believes that we have a tendency to fall into what he refers to as the 90-10 trap; if 90% of our day goes well, and 10% does not, we are most likely to focus on the latter ten percent when recapping our days. Despite the majority of things going well, all it takes is one event out of ten to go poorly, and all of a sudden our days are shot.
As soon as I missed the bus, I started thinking about all the other things that had gone wrong that morning. There were grounds in my coffee because the filter had collapsed oddly in the coffee maker, my room was in a shambles after having thrown all my clothes around…how quickly do we fall into that trap? How easy is it to let one bad experience color the rest of your experiences? It’s as though we decide to Photoshop our days, setting the picture to black and white and then having the program only pick up red hues. There’s more to the photo than that.
Try isolating your bad incidents. You’re allowed to be upset for as long as you need to be…about that particular incident. Vent, take a lap, whatever you must do to express and relieve your anger, and then shut the door on the event. If you let your anger overflow into the other events in your day, you are bound to be upset. On the other hand, trying to get over your anger more quickly than you might be ready to will cause a thin layer of residual anger to color your day. Don’t force yourself to feel better. Just make sure you’re upset about the right thing.
In the meantime, try and leave to catch public transit solidly early, and maybe you can mitigate being upset at all. Also your coffee won’t get cold, and your shower will last the day. Isn’t that all you can ask for?
To our readers: how do you handle when your morning starts out less than desirably? How do you handle incidents that put you in a bad mood?
The Hunt: Taking Control and Seeking Guidance
Posted by: | CommentsThe Tannenbaum Family Easter Egg Hunt usually goes something like this: my 12-year-old sister wakes me up at some ungodly hour, I fall back asleep, she’s forced to come wake me up ten minutes later, we all trudge/skip downstairs to the family room to begin the scavenger hunt. The “Easter Bunny” (my mother) has laid out clues for us to find our Easter eggs, scattered around the first floor; the first clue is on our Easter baskets, and subsequent clues are attached to the Easter gifts we have to find. Naturally, being the oldest of three, my wisdom should outpace that of my two younger siblings, leading me to victory long before the two of them.
Note that I used the word “should,” here, and not “did.” That was purposeful. I was stagnated after the first clue.
“THESE CLUES ARE TOO HARD,” I told my mom. “I AM TOO TIRED FOR THIS. I CAN BARELY READ THIS CLUE BECAUSE OF MY EXHAUSTION. THIS CLUE ISN’T EVEN RELEVANT ANYMORE YOU’RE PUTTING SONG LYRICS TO SONGS I AM NOT FAMILIAR WITH WHAT GIVES??”
My dad took this time to step in and offer help. “Well, these are the lyrics to ‘California Dreaming,’” he explained.
“HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT??” I grumbled. “BESIDES, WE HAVE NOTHING RELATED TO CALIFORNIA IN OUR HOUSE THAT WOULD HIDE AN EASTER GIFT. THIS IS DUMB. I WANT EASIER CLUES.”
Patient as he is, my dad continued to try and help me. “‘Where all the leaves are brown.’ Did you try where mom keeps the fall decorations?”
“MOM SAID THAT WASN’T RIGHT,” I retorted. In the meantime, my sister had just finished her hunt and my brother was making headway. Surely it couldn’t be my fault that this was so difficult. My mom had clearly made my clues much harder than everyone else’s, right? And like I needed my dad’s help. I was above receiving help from my father. Wasn’t I?
When we find work challenges to be, well, challenging, our first inclination is to blame someone else. This can’t be my fault this is turning out the way it is, we tell ourselves before finding a scapegoat. My boss doesn’t understand how much pressure I am already under. This is far too much work for any one person to try and finish. This is too complicated a project. This doesn’t fall under my job description. Anything we can find to excuse ourselves from our shortcomings, we do.
Additionally, asking for help is often seen as a shortcoming in and of itself. Trying to get others’ assistance is sadly considered a weakness; it shows that you cannot do the work yourself, and are deferring control to another, more adept individual. This stigma makes it difficult to reach out when we may need it most.
So what do we need to do? If control is an issue, then looking to ourselves for the root of the issue instead of blaming others is actually an effective way of regaining that control. Once we realize we do have a hand in the problem, it becomes much easier to begin to come up with solutions that we have the agency to enact. Blaming others not only puts the root of the problem in others but also seemingly places the solutions there as well.
In regaining control of the problem, we can reach out and ask for help. Think of it as others providing you guidance for a framework that you yourself constructed rather than others giving you the answer. If your fear is in relinquishing ownership, then do as much as you can to come up with a solution on your own, celebrate in your successful problem-solving tactics, and then turn to others when the piece of the solution lies outside your expertise. You don’t know it all, but you don’t have to. Humans are social creatures for a reason.
Admitting that you might have some agency over the problem at hand is the first step. Finding a way that you can solve it is the second. And the third involves reaching out for help when there are still gaps in your solution that you cannot fill yourself.
For me, it meant chocolate and sundresses. Win-win-win.
To our readers: how do you overcome the stigma of asking for help?
Playing With the Boys, Not Against Them
Posted by: | CommentsAs Jessica mentioned in a post that passed, Monar facilitated an event at Kellogg Executive Women’s Network a few weeks ago that illuminated the way that women view the workplace shift that is beginning to affect them. Many of the things that they mentioned as being especially advantageous to the advancement of their career include networking and mentoring, and one of the largest obstacles they point to is what they refer to as the “old boys’ club.” One woman told a story about how she was shut out from a business deal because the deal took place in the men’s room. You know it’s a bad state of affairs when women wish they could negotiate next to a row of urinals.
But this idea of an “old boys’ club” may be slowly thwarted. A New York Times article recently illuminated an all-female organization titled the Belizean Grove, what they are referring to as a low-profile “old women’s network.” While the club is mostly comprised of C-suite members, the Grove emphasizes the importance of “heart, soul, and spirit” past that of a high ranking title. Davia Temin, a CEO of Temin & Company, says “many of us had to shoehorn our way into a completely male world, so there’s one level of network that provides solace and comfort.”
Having a network of committed women professionals is inspiring, especially given the necessity for this network in terms of mentoring high-potential females. That being said, my perspective is a delicate one. The author touches on this point briefly at the end of the article:
“WHILE some businesswomen celebrate women-only networks as their own “golf game,” others bristle at the idea that gender should inform business alliances. Many senior women say supportive male bosses and mentors have been instrumental in their rise. And because men still hold the keys to power — 97 percent of Fortune 500 C.E.O. positions and 84 percent of corporate board memberships, to be exact — some businesswomen are wary of networking in isolation.”
With all this focus on women professionals forging a path for themselves, are men getting lost in the mix? If it’s true that they hold many of the executive level positions that women would like to vie for, isn’t the smarter option to be working with the males rather than trying to forge a gender-separate path? I don’t argue that in the past (and even in present day), women have had to fight very hard to put themselves at a similar level as their male counterparts. Nor do I argue that this hasn’t been a necessary and rewarding process. But with all this talk of women’s networks versus old boys’ clubs, with finding women mentors to take over male jobs, I feel a bit as though I’m back at a junior high dance, both sexes standing opposite one other in the gym.
Can’t men mentor women to push themselves ahead, and can’t women do the same? What I worry is that with women focusing on their gender taking over male positions, there is a focus on tipping the scales in their favor, if only to show up the man trouncing the corporate world for decades. It’s a delicate balance between trying to reach a balance of competent employees and fighting an “anything you can do, I can do better” battle. As a woman who hopes to enter the corporate world, I know that my position on this is quite contentious especially with regards to women professionals who have worked tirelessly to disestablish a glass ceiling, but I believe a cooperative effort is much stronger than “networking in isolation,” as the Times article mentioned.
Instead of pitting male competencies against female competencies, women should attempt to develop themselves in such a way that makes them the individual with the strongest competitive advantage within their organization. This, in sum, seems to be what women from the KEWN event have reported as being one of their greatest obstacles, with points ranging from “learning to negotiate and ask what they want” to “learning to be assertive without being afraid of being seen as aggressive.” Women can be instrumental to one another in helping each other up the proverbial corporate ladder, especially when they find they have to develop similar competencies. To that end a women’s network is laudable; given that highly driven women can become very competitive toward one another, it’s incredibly refreshing to watch females lend each other a hand rather than push them out of the way. The most successful women can recognize the need to connect with other females while still cooperating and respecting the men within their corporation.
As long as women can tread lightly atop the line dividing pure female success and female success to counteract similar male accomplishments, then the development of a women’s network is a hugely valuable resource.
To our readers: do you agree or disagree?
