#12. MANAGING THROUGH “TROUGHS OF DESPAIR”

Trough Models

When we embrace change (v fearful resistance) at a - personal, company, or national – level, there are common stages for getting to our vision - if we don’t quit.

These stages are:

1. The excitement of the big new idea
2. The continued excitement about getting ready for the journey
3. The despair of discovering that the slog to imagined greatness is overwhelming
4. The creative, flexible, persevering grind; and
5. The eventual achievement of a greater capability.

These stages have different names within different models. Some are:

1. The Dunnig-Kruger Effect is typically applied to personal transformations.
2. Technology-driven-change stages are found within Gartner Group’s “hype cycle” which includes their “trough of disillusionment”.
3. And, national initiatives like “build-it-back better” or tariffs-for-zero-trade-deficits are called by Machiavelli - “a new order of things” - which he advises against.

Why We Get Excited and Overly Optimistic About “New”?

We get excited about anything “new” that we think will leave us better off. We evolved to get pleasurable, dopamine hits when, as Hunter-Gatherers (HG), we were in pursuit of survival needs: food, tribal status, and procreation. (Today, capitalists have sadly exploited our dopamine reward centers to addictive levels).

The dopamine hits from “new” continue as we learn about and gear up for pursuing our big idea. As we begin execution, we think we are a lot smarter than we are; we can’t yet know what we don’t know. In the Dunnig-Kruger model this is called “peak of Mt. Stupid”. In the Gartner model, it is the “peak of inflated expectations”.

Alas: the tedium of unforeseen - details, human adaptation rates and external obstacles – quickly sets in and overwhelms us. Into the trough of despair we go!


Guidelines for Persevering

1. Do anticipate the Trough for any endeavor. Have the intellectual and execution humility to visit with other trailblazers who will share their trough-despair stories and solutions.
2. Whether you are pursuing a hard-skill (like golf) or soft ones (star CEO) do consider - seeking support from others, practicing self-care as needed, and being grateful for having the opportunity. Too many planet citizens are trying just to survive v “self-actualizing”.
3. For corporate changes, test cheaply in one area and fail forward toward your vision. Design each experimental step to ideally generate more learning value than resource costs.
4. Take comfort that competitors will have the same challenges and most will fizzle. Your eventual success will create a “moat”: a competitive advantage not easily copied.
5. While persisting onward, there will be human doubts and relapses. Pause, breathe, take a day off. Then, revisit your vision; adjust your plan (sometimes bigger pivots are necessary); renew your curiosity, faith and patient ambition.

Achieving excellence isn’t for snowflakes. Go to merrifield.com for more on mastering “new”.

#11. “NEURO-MANAGEMENT”:
FOR LIFE-EMPLOYMENT AND HAPPINESS?

Put Brain-Research To Work?

Brain research discoveries have exploded since the early ‘90’s. But, how can we connect discoveries within many silos and then apply them to rewiring our sapient brains to: 

1. Continually reskill for a lifetime of gainful-employment within a tech-driven, fast-changing, knowledge economy?
2. And, manage the increasing stresses of our modern world with equanimity and wisdom?  

A catchall answer/term is “neuro-management”.  What? 

By example, the science of neuroplasticity is understood enough to be applicable. Neuroplasticity enables the creation of new, neural pathways that power better and new - habits, skills, emotional regulation, and employment-value. How might we mindfully maximize this plasticity? 

Dealing With Evolutionary-Mismatch Stress  

Over the past 30+ years, surveys have revealed negative trends for: obesity, loneliness, depression, low self-esteem, goldfish attention-spans, chronic stress, under-employment, failure-to-launch, etc. These “problems” are “symptoms” of how our capitalistic, consumer economy has exploited the innate tendencies of our Hunter-Gather brains.     

Sapient brains have not changed in the past 20K years when they had sufficiently evolved to survive and populate the planet as Hunter Gatherers. Our brains are not naturally equipped to cope with many modern temptations and challenges. 

Consider obesity. Not a problem for our HG ancestors. They did cross-fit exercise to scrounge a daily, healthy, subsistence diet. Today: Big Food, Big Sugar and Fast Food distribute tasty-designed, unhealthy temptations to be -"within an arm's reach of desire” (Coke slogan). In every country that McDonalds has opened restaurants the kids have gotten fat. 

Under-Employment, Failure to Launch, Best Career Options? 

20K years ago, everyone’s career was learning a handful of team-oriented, survival skills as early as they could: from 5 on. No worries about: years of expensive, boring schooling; or launching into impressive careers. Everyone’s “purpose” was daily, collective survival.  

Today: technology (Hello A.I.!) and robotics will take many jobs and/or obsolete old skills and demand new ones. How many kids have learned how to master new skills on their own for a lifetime?  Everyone will have to be able to learn, unlearn and relearn to keep with the shifting skill needs caused by technology. 

(For more about - eleven of the biggest mismatches; their present challenges; and some solutions - see: www.merrifield.com/Articles/711061/ARE_EVOLUTIONARY_MISMATCHES.aspx )

Neuro-Management Education and Coaching?  

The sciences for - emotions, happiness, mindfulness, mastery, etc. – have discovered many “solutions”. But, few people have accessed and put them to work on their own. 

When will schools and/or employers offer both education about and developmental coaching for neuro-management to continuously re-skill?  I’m working on these questions at www.merrifield.com. I’d welcome your help with them.  

#10. How Many “Excellent” Employees
(and Kids) Do You Have?

Questions About “Excellent”  

1. What percent of excellent employees do you have within any job niche? 
2. What percent within each niche think that they are in the top 50%?  
3. Is the “illusory superiority effect” (a cognitive bias) – where everyone is above average – in play? (Example: 93% of US drivers think they are top-50 for both skill and safety.) 
4. How does anyone define - “excellent” – with a given job niche? 
5. Your plans to better enlighten and motivate everyone to get on the path of mastery to improve towards being “excellent”? 
6. What are employees, who are parents, doing to teach their kids how to master the process of mastery? Why? 
7. Given tech-driven-change: won’t both employees and kids have to master – learning, unlearning and relearning – skills (on their own?) for a career of good employment? 

Defining “Excellent”

Pick a job (or a skill for a kid) and apply martial arts belt rankings to skill levels: “white belt” (novice) to Black Belt Nth degree (wise master/teacher). 

White-belt NOVICES know nothing, but observe, mimic and stumble forward. 

ADVANCED BEGINNERS can do some basics in a conscious, mechanical way.

COMPETENTS can do routine activities in an automatic, habitual way - well enough to get by (and not get fired).

HIGH COMPETENTS can apply earned skills flexibly in most situations. They can be good role models for beginners, but not necessarily effective coaches. 

EXPERTS can do it all as well as create new levels of effectiveness. Some are snobs and not good coaches.  

WISE EXPERTS are additionally great at coaching both slow and quick-learning beginners. 

It generally takes years to move from novice to expert at any skill worth mastering. So, how can we learn to love the path(s) for getting better to insure both gainful employment and being able to help others to do the same.   


Advice On Becoming Excellent

Self-help gurus promote: I’m successful; here’s my recipe and slogans; so, “just do it”. But, most can’t achieve their dreams without a good plan and some help. 

Two authors wrote good books on “Mastery”. George Leonard in “Mastery” (1991) details how to get on and stay on the path toward excellence in any “hard-skill” (touch typing, musical instrument, martial art, etc.). And, he suggests the same principles will work for “soft-skills”: like empathetic listening or synergistic negotiating. 

Robert Greene’s “Mastery” (2010) focuses on how to become an outstanding professional through apprenticeships with best mentors. 
But, neither address how to release the negative thoughts that keep many from persisting towards their dreams. What are the educational and coaching solutions for helping more kids and employees:

1. To reduce their negative, braking emotions while boosting their positive want-to, can-do motivations? 
2. To design improvement plans with enough built in support to grow towards their dreams? 

I’m working on these questions at www.merrifield.com. Will you join and help me? 

#9. Balance “Flow” Process-Inputs With Ambitious Goals 

Goals are like North Stars that help you to design plans and to “stretch” to achieve them. 

But, once the goals are set, you spend 99% of your time working on controllable inputs that only increase the odds for approaching your goals. But, un-controllable surprises will happen that can influence final outcomes. Even if you adapt in mid-course by “trying harder” or differently on inputs, goals are - to some degree - wishful thinking affected by fortune.   

How then to make input-work as effective as possible? First, make outcome goals optimally stressful. Sandbagging goals allows us to stay on autopilot, which is boring, not-creative, and with sub-optimal results. If goals are too audacious, then stress eats into input effectiveness. The amount learning-zone, stretch goals will keep you and/or your team: engaged, creative, collaborative, and in “psychological flow”?

Psychological Flow is a mental state in which you are so optimally engaged with process activity that you lose sense of time. You don’t have distractive thoughts. And, your brain releases neurochemicals (esp. dopamine) that create a euphoric experience, which can make you want to keep going. 

(A sports expression for flow is “to be in the zone”. Wikipedia “flow (psychology)” for more.). 

Flow research suggests these things (and more):

1. The challenge level should not be either too easy/boring or too stressful: one target range conclusion was about 98 to 104% of your maximum capability.
2. McKinsey (consultants) renamed Team-Flow in the workplace to “Meaning Quotient”. Their study concluded that with the right conditions worker-flow can go from an average of 10% to 50%. 
3. Once you understand how to trigger and target flow, you can make it happen for even the most mundane routines. 
4. Striving in flow (v grinding forward on sheer willpower) is the best way to move along any mastery path. 

Conclusions:
“Trust the process” (a Stoic philosophy meme)

“It all comes down to intelligently and relentlessly seeking solutions that will increase your chance of prevailing. When you do that, the score will take care of itself.”  
        Bill Walsh (San Francisco 49’ers Football Head Coach)

#8. Get Wiser Faster By Starting With “Trigger Management”

Wise ones of all types are highly valued and in short supply. “Wisdom” has now been “scientifically defined”. But, where to start? Try “trigger management”. Triggers are bothersome people or situations that cause us to reflexively behave in an uncentered, negative-emotional way. 

Here are two, wise, trigger management quotes:

1. “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.” (Author Unknown. Often falsely attributed to Victor Frankl)    
2. Don’t have a $10 fit over a 5-cent irritation. (mine) (And, to pivot positively, Google: “burnt toast theory”).    

How To Reduce the Power of Triggers 

Because our uncool responses are automatic, we usually must begin with a post-incident investigation:

1. Why did I just react - to what kind of a trigger- with what extra, disturbing emotional content? 
2. What is it about either my genetic pre-disposition (brain chemistry) or my dented upbringing that would cause me to get over-emotional? A buddha would have: been calm; observed that- “it is what it is”; and be open to wisest, behavioral choices going forward.    
3. Example: your boss barks at you like your Dad used to, so your sub-conscious reacts with emotional - fight, flight, or freeze - behavior. Not good! 
4. But, what happens if we do an imaginary replay both of the recent-boss and past-Dad scenes and see ourselves: staying calm; feeling sorry for the critic who may be passing on a wound that they got from one of their authority figures; and forgive both them and us. No one’s perfect. So, in our imagination, we: stay calm, apologize if necessary and get on with an ideal (in retrospect) response. 
5. As we – name, accept, forgive and reimagine – both present and past trigger events, the power of the triggers decline and “the space” between future triggers and reflexes expands. (Rewiring of habitual, neural-pathways is behind this progress.)  
6. Next, we can anticipate triggers that will happen in forthcoming scenarios and rehearse good reflexes in advance. 
7. Then, we start to be able to pause when these triggers happen in real time. We take a relaxing breath and consciously behave in a calm way. 
8. Daily trigger work will gradually make us: less stressed; easier to work with; and evermore “self-reflective”. 
9. Self-reflection, in turn, is a broader skill-set required for improving all wisdom sub-skills.   

Substitute “equanimity or wisdom” for “excellence” in this closing quote:  
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit," (Will Durant) 

#7. Mentors - Grow Your Charges Into Autodidacts

Are you a – parent, teacher, coach, employer, and/or wise mentor? If so, what are you doing to encourage your followers to develop their autodidactic skills?  

What is an “Autodidact”? 

Autodidactic means self-taught, or relates to someone who learns without formal education. They are self-motivated, life-long learners. Some are also polymaths: people who are expert practitioners in several areas. The opposite is someone who: is sleep-walking through life on autopilot; and feels entitled to make higher, guaranteed wages doing the same routines.

Because technology is now obsoleting occupational skills faster than most folks and/or their employers can re-skill, everyone must boost their self-learning game. Schools, unfortunately, do not teach:

• How to Learn On Your Own For Life
• And, How to Master the Process of Mastery To Achieve New, Valued, Employable Skills.

Everyone - from kids to Seniors - claim to be “learning something new every day”, which is true in this age of - Google, Youtube and Social Media memes. But, knowing new trivia within your comfort-zone, skill-set is not re-skilling to fill new-to-the-world business needs. Why, for example, is Microsoft planning on training 2M kids in India to become AI engineers and not middle-age, US programmers?  

Characteristics of True Autodidacts? 

They are so Curious to be motivated to go beyond showing up and reacting. They come to you with deep-dive, exploratory solutions and questions that others could care less about. Humans get pleasant, dopamine hits when they are on the active hunt for new discoveries. But, how many folks now get their dopamine hits by passively consuming digital entertainment which is algorithmically tuned to be addictive and make their Data-Lords rich? 

Autodidacts are self-motivated enough to choose what they want to study and master with great persistence and creative self-direction and discipline. 

Done right, being autodidactic leads to an all-around great life. Isn’t that what we want for our proteges?   

If Yes! How do you grow your own autodidactic capabilities to be a better coach at turning your followers into greater self-learners and mastery-path experts. 

For more: Google - “how to become an autodidact?” And, check in frequently to merrifield.com for blogs like this one and longer-form essays. Site themes include: getting wiser faster; and learning how to learn, unlearn and relearn for gainful, lifetime employment and wellbeing.

#6. Solving the Failure-to-Launch, Late-Bloomer Opportunity

Young adults “failing to launch” are increasing in numbers. How many kids are: 23+ ; still living with parents; burdened with college/grad-school loans; and/or getting by with gig service jobs?  

Some root causes for these symptom stats?

1. The educational conveyor-belt (from K-to-grad school that feeds talent into our knowledge-economy job-market) starts by being pegged to biological age. All seven-year-olds are not equally able to do first grade work. Most are by plus or minus two years. Late bloomers will quickly fall off the conveyor without extra (family) resource support and ideally a few repeat and/or gap years along the way.   
2. The US media extols “Early Bloomer” success stories. And, privileged families spend crazy amounts of extra resources to get their kids into top-brand colleges’ diversity-quota-niches. Want a “student-athlete” spot? Pick a sport for your kid as early as 4 and have them do it 11 months a year with hours of “deliberate practice” under private coaches. 70% of kids quit sports by 13, because it isn’t fun, and the ringers take all the school-team spots.  
3. Doing high-school, extra-curriculars for exploratory fun is gone. Either early-age specialists win the spots, or you can’t waste time on something that won’t burnish your college resume.  
4.  After brand colleges, there are often brand, grad-school credentials needed to land best (most lucrative), knowledge-economy jobs.  
5. Why sell your soul for the highest-paying jobs? They exist in hub cities with zoned-out suburbs that cause: unaffordable housing, hellish commutes, and overall, high-costs of living. 

Living at home with gig jobs is an ultimate by-product of these causes. 

Solutions: 

1. Educational institutions could reimagine the conveyor belt. But, don’t bet on it.  
2. Late Bloomers could: learn how to learn on their own. Then, when they know what career path they might like and are ready to begin a mastery path to it, they could.  
3. More employers may get savvy at hiring late-bloomers who have high-value potential that isn’t on formulaic, airbrushed resumes. 
4. And, go online for more ideas:  
   1. Start with “late bloomer” at Wikipedia. 
   2. Employers google: “how to hire late bloomers?” 
   3. Late bloomers, get AI answers and leads with: “As a late bloomer, how do I get my dream job?” 
   4. At merrifield.com, I’m creating content on: “how to master the process of mastery”.  This will hopefully support all young adults who are facing accelerating skill-obsolescence due to disruptive technologies. 

Kids must boost their mastery skills to continuously - learn, unlearn and relearn – for a life of gainful employment and wellbeing. Let’s help them!  

#1. Themes For My Act2 Site Blogs v These for My Act3 Site

 
On my Act2 site at: merrifieldact2.com – there are 253 blogs which have the following themes:

1. Finance. What are the dysfunctional financial-management assumptions and blind spots that plague many companies? 
2. Cost-to-serve (CTS) modeling to reveal the true profitability of both customers and products. Those who are only incented on margin dollars (ignoring CTS) will fight CTS insights. Their counter, data-free opinion: every (incented) customer and margin dollar is good and does not distract from better pursuit of most profitable customers. (See #6)
3. Customer and product profitability Ranking Reports and the ensuing plays are covered in webinars 3-7 at merrifieldact.com/ecommerce-2023. By creatively focusing on the top/best and bottom/worst 5+ customers on these reports, huge profit improvements are possible.
4. Field research to better discern next-level, service metrics for most net-profitable customers and customer niches: “nichonomics”. Distributors who do this kill those who don’t. For how-to’s on nichonomics, go to my youtube channel to watch (most narrowly) clips 14-30. Slide 14: CASE: What's our #1 Niche? 
5. High-Performance, Service Cultures to attract, engage, and focus talent needed to turn insights (from themes 1-4 above) into better service-value and profits.
6. How to partner best and “gazelle” customers that will then grow your sales and profits faster than your industry. (Best summary at merrifieldact2.com/ecommerce-2023 in webinars 9 and 10.)   
7. Envisioning Omnichannel Cloud Commerce. Themes 1-6 provide the profits, agility, and confidence to change to win at digital commerce.   

Themes for this Act3 site will be:

1. Mastering the process of mastery.

1. At the company level, are all employees black-belt+ at their present posts. Are they cross-trained (if appropriate) to be excellent at other posts? Cross-training insures perfect service execution when: others are absent; or, order surges need to be processed perfectly and shipped on time.
2. At the personal level, the mastery process is first and best learned in teenage years through kinesthetic, hard-skills (sports, instruments, etc.) And, then for life, you can apply the mastery process to occupational and pro-social, soft skills. Are you, for example, a black-belt+: boss, friend, spouse, parent, mentors?  
3. To be an acclaimed professional, there is also the broader concept of being an Apprentice to best Mentors.  

 

2. How to get wiser faster.

1. Wisdom has been lauded and pursued by philosophers and spiritual traditions since recorded time. Scientific studies have moved into this definition-and-achievement challenge over the past 40 years.
2. Wisdom is vital for personal peace and happiness and for coaching any and all types of mentees.

I hope that this site’s content and contributions from others will help visitors grow their skills for a better life!

 

#2: “BLACK BELT” MASTERY FOR FRONT-LINE SERVICE JOBS

The Achievement: Crummy Service-Value to Guaranteed Best

I bought a small, 3-location distributor that was unprofitable. No one had gotten a raise in two years. Warehouse wages were 15% below the average for that job niche in each city. Best (lucky) hires didn’t stay; coasters remained; and levels for - experience, work-ethic, morale, and commitment -were all low. And, service mistakes were about 70 for every 1000 line-times processed.

How do you get to: highest, everyday fill-rates with zero errors and 100% on-time order shipment?  

Solutions?

1. I announced that I wanted to improve warehouse – skills, quality and productivity – high enough to support 150% of the average job-comp for each city. A 76% increase!
2. I introduced a learn-n-earn program so that all warehouse folks could become “black-belt certified” at over a dozen different tasks within the warehouse.
3. I educated all employees on the “mastery process” for skills and implemented a monthly, personal-mastery program.
4. We hyper-focused on best customers within one best, core segment of customers for which we tuned fill-rates to be the best in our markets.

Results:  

1. Errors dropped to 1-2 per 1000 picks, and we offered customers a zero-error, money-backed guarantee.
2. We began to grow 3-4X faster (and more profitably, with fatter rebates) than our overall channel.
3. Gross-profit-dollars/head grew faster than wages. Our premium wages as a percent of margin dollars declined.
4. We had people who had “learned how to learn” and become promotable from within. Jobs turned into careers with “best-service” pride.  

The How-To details for my “solutions” are at these different on-line locations:

1. My “everyone wins pay policy/strategy” is at this link: Exhibit 10 
2. A series of 3 “CultureGrams” on the need to: “learn how to learn” and Mastery are at this URL: merrifieldact2.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/17-Culturegram-Learning-to-Learn.pdf

(Note: each CultureGram has both homework questions for employees to turn in before meetings for “discussion questions”. If folks don’t go through the concepts 5-7 times they will not fully grasp and retain the concepts.)

3. If you prefer more (audio) detail, go to my youtube channel at this link:

 Bruce Merrifield - YouTube. Choose “Module 5” and watch most narrowly video clips 29-38.

4. And, see my tool that expects every employee to invest in themselves to be a more skilled person at this link: MONTHLY GOAL PLANNING STATEMENTS

Having “good” people who deliver “good” service is a commodity. How is your firm achieving measurably-best, service-value for one, targeted, customer segment at a time?

 

#3. What is Wisdom? Your Wisdom IQ?

“Wisdom” is a complex, fuzzy capability that both spiritual traditions and philosophers have been trying to define, promote, and achieve since recorded time. In the past 40 years, secular science has joined the - definition and development - challenge.

One short answer is: we know wisdom when WE see and/or receive it. Wisdom is a two-way experience. We may see and mimic wise role-models. And, we are grateful to receive wise advice. But, what skills did our advisor have? Did they: earn our trust; read our mind; and time their personalized questions and suggestions in an intriguing way? Did they confirm the Tao Te Ching quote: “When the student is ready the teacher will appear”.

Although wisdom advice is all over the internet, what percent of society seeks, heeds and works to achieve it? The full equation is: Know-how AND Can-do. Wisdom is an integration of a number of sub-skills which take a lot of intentional work to master.

Wisdom sub-skills?  A global Delphi survey concluded that across all cultures - “wisdom” is a byproduct of the following, integrated, skills:^[1] 

1. Self-Reflection for growth- choices, insights, and progress.
2. Emotional regulation to: defuse negative emotions; grow and deploy positive ones; and, stay calm for positive, problem-solving amidst chaos.
3. Pro-social skills: self-compassion allows us to have compassion and altruism for others; plus much more.
4. Accepting uncertainty and still have the situational judgment to make a necessary, decisive decision.
5. General knowledge of life and social decision-making via experiences.

Subsequent survey work has added: ^[2]

6. Openness to new experiences
7. Humor
8. Spirituality

Further conclusions:

1. Learning from (especially adverse) experiences takes time, so wisdom correlates with age.
2. Wiser people are healthier, happier, longer-living and not lonely. Wisdom is an anti-dote to loneliness.  

What about “spiritual wisdom” advice? Another study scanned spiritual texts for wisdom advice and found a near-perfect overlap with the scientific survey results above. The exceptions: spiritual texts stress – “love your God” and don’t pursue material wealth for its own sake. ^[3] 

So, “wisdom” has not changed over recorded time, and it is a universal, biological potential within humans.

Measuring Wisdom? We can’t specifically but can roughly. Consider going to SD-WISE to take its survey. Try to be honest and consider taking it several times over a few weeks.

Can we Improve our Wisdom? Yes, if we want to. No one is born wise, but then not all adults within any segment (or siblings within a family) grow to be equally wise. Not everyone is a life-long, self-learner. Most of us need supportive resources to be as good as we might imagine.

How can we help more people to become wiser, faster?  Help me to answer this question. Email your thoughts to this site.  

 

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#5. Dare to: Learn, Unlearn, and Relearn

Technology is now obsoleting job-skills faster than most folks can re-skill. If kids entering the workforce want to be gainfully employed for a lifetime, they will need to learn how to – learn, unlearn, and relearn. The other side of the problem is that many companies have new skill-needs that don’t exist on the open job market. But, to re-skill existing employees meets resistance. Are new types of employee-mindsets and coaches required?

Mastering the Process of (Re) Mastery

Schools K-12 do not unfortunately teach kids how to learn on their own effectively for life. But, every sport – at the highest level – has deep knowledge for how to develop raw-talent into to world-class performers, but only IF:

1. The athlete understands the need to make new neural-pathways for improved, habitual skills.
2. The athlete embraces and loves the grind of the process.  
3. And, coaches support the athlete in deliberately, practicing perfectly.  

Sports Case Examples

After Tiger Woods won his first Masters tournament, he proceeded to change his stroke to get even better. (And, two more subsequent changes!) Most pro golfers can compare their videotaped swings to Tiger’s improved ones for change insights. But, most don’t want to get bad before they might get a level better. Don’t mess with mediocre tour success!

In Major League Baseball (MLB), high-speed video technology made it possible for pitchers to retool their mechanics in the off-season. But, few braved to do so.

Then, the Houston Astro’s were the first team to invest big in both video and new coaches^[1]. (Veteran coaches parroting received wisdom were retired.) And thereafter, the Astros wouldn’t sign new prospects without an upfront agreement for how the prospects would change their mechanics for the better.  

What qualities did the new pitching coaches have?

• Big-league playing credibility
• Next-level, mechanical-motion analysis
• Psychological motivators for re-mastery
• Belief in the upside growth of targeted players
• Tech-learning savvy. The camera technology included middleware to convert raw video data into digestible information relayed to their smartphone. Coaches could then stand next to a player and provide immediate feedback after each pitch (or hit for batters).

Learn and Apply the Mastery Process to Hard, then Soft Skills

George Leonard wrote about the process (and graphs) of mastering a “hard” skill (like an instrument, chess or a sport) to Black-Belt+ status in Mastery (1992). He then recommended applying mastery-process concepts to soft skills. Be a black-belt+: parent, spouse, boss, empathetic listener, and/or sage.  

We improve our spontaneous skills/habits by making new or improved neural pathways through deliberate practice. Our habits then make us. Excellence is a habit. Dare to learn, unlearn, and relearn for life.  

 

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#4.  What’s Your Company’s “Knowledge Management” Capability?

Many companies (especially distribution chains) have invested in InfoTech “solutions” for years. But, IF you surveyed your front-line, service employees with these questions, how knowledgeable would their answers be?

1. What is our #1 most-net-profitable-segment of customers?
2. Who are this location’s five, most, net-profitable customers in our #1 segment?
3. And, the 5, most, innovative, fastest-growing, target accounts in our #1 segment?
4. What are examples of the “heroic recoveries and extras” that we have done for these ten, key customers?
5. What service metrics do we continuously improve to know that we are delivering the best, total, service-value to our #1 segment?
6. What is the annualized, gross-profit-dollars/employee for this location? Why does that metric matter? How does it finance premium wages and reinvested, growth profits?
7. How does our customer-centric strategy win for all four, main, stakeholder groups?
8. Name those 4 stakeholder groups and explain the synergistic interdependence?  
9. Why should you and all care about any of these questions?

Even if everyone had the answers, knowing stuff is NOT making brilliant, consistent performance happen. Knowing wise-solutions is not wise-execution!

The “Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom” (DIKW) Noise

 Google-image “DIKW Pyramid”: a trite gimmick for the “Knowledge-Management” industry. This simplistic, DIKW noise may have all started by a 1935, poetic line by T. S. Eliot.

“DIKW” is catchy. And, it may spark deeper thinking about the upside for each of your company’s profit-centers.

But, what does DIKW leave out?  

1. Customer profitability analytics from Waypoint Analytics will help you to: answer questions 1 and 2 above; and zero in on question 3.
2. But, preferably a CEO must visit 5+ best (target) customers to redefine the service offerings and metrics for each target, customer segment.
3. You must then have the “execution wisdom” to - educate, engage, x-train and upskill - the team to continuously improve the metrics and do the heroics.
4. Next: rethink and redesign the underlying systems that lock in and scale perfect-service metrics.  
5. Once your metrics guarantee that your customers are getting: the lowest,  “total-procurement-cost”; and, the highest, uptime-productivity (by always having the goods they need at hand). What then?
6. Can you coach your reps to: sell your total-value; and leverage that into win-win, inter-company, automated, replenishment systems?    

Closing Questions

1. Does everyone have the answers to the survey questions?
2. If so, how many of your managers have the “Change-Management Wisdom” to execute?
3. How are you helping your managers to get wiser faster?