Either/Or and the Power of AND!

One thing that always surprises me is how often I hear either/or in both my professional and personal life.  I always find it strange that companies and people are so eager to look at things in such a “closed” way.  We can either be low price, high volume or high price, high margin.  Should I be a “jack of all trades” or a specialist?  I can either be a good employee or a good family person.  My favourite is the old cliché within the consulting world “Good, Fast, Cheap….Pick Two”.

Throughout my career, both within the organizations that I have worked for and within my clients’ organizations, I have seen these either/or compromises taking place all the time.  As a service becomes commoditized, people labour over the decision to keep providing a service or product that has shrinking margins.  At the same time, can they justify investments in developing a more specialized service that commands higher margins?  

By looking at things from an either/or perspective we seem to limit ourselves to the “beaten path”.  Why can’t we be more than one thing at a time?  Isn’t that the strength of “AND”.  Why can’t an organization profitably compete on low price, high volume work AND also have other specialized “boutique” capabilities or high-end products that command higher fees and margins? 

Within my own team, we have focused our energies on developing what I consider to be world-class processes and procedures that allow us to compete on ultra-competitive large scale public tenders for what many groups and organizations consider a loss leader service.  However, by combining our tools and processes with a strong training program we have been able to provide our clients with a high quality service, with short turn-around time and at a very competitive (for our clients) and profitable (for us) price.  At the same time, we use those same processes and tools, which are altered somewhat for the more specialized service, to allow us to be even more profitable on higher fee work.  As we continue to evolve the services that we offer on our team, our constant focus is on developing the processes and tools that will allows us to provide both commoditized AND specialized services at the same time.  Our growth prospects would be a lot different if we chose one path or the other.

The Opposable Mind by Roger Martin focuses on how great leaders can hold two opposing viewpoints in their minds, and develop a better third alternative.  I think that this is exactly the kind of thinking that we need to employ to get over the either/or way of thinking.  I would highly recommend that anyone in a leadership position read Martin’s book.  It provides tremendous examples of how AND thinking has helped shape some of the greatest companies in the world today. 

Next time you find yourself at a crossroads in your life or career, rather than simply picking the path to the left, or the path to the right, why not stop and think in there isn’t another path that can lead you to a better destination?  Let me know how you have found a better AND result for you or your team!

Thanks for reading.  Please connect with me on Linked-In (be sure the mention the blog) and follow me on Twitter (@billroth13).

Bill Roth
“The Success Junkie”

Life is Your Stage - What Kind of Performance are you Giving?

Long time no blog!!!  It has been far too long since my last post.  For those of you that have been stopping by looking for new posts, I am sorry that it has been over a month since I added anything.  Going forward I will do my best to add new content at least once a week.   

For those of you in northern climates, I am sure you have all been dealing with the same long, cold winter that we have in Ontario.  Thankfully, in the last few weeks the temperatures have risen, much of our snow has melted and we have seen more sunshine that we have in a number of weeks. 

During the “dog days” of winter, I found myself feeling the strain of a long, grey, snowy winter.  I hadn’t truly realized how much I had been impacted by the weather.   I found myself feeling rather “cranky” as the snow fell.  I was scheduled to lead a webinar with my entire team and in that moment, I would have rather done almost anything than “putting on a happy face” for our monthly team update.  As I worked to get “up” for the presentation, I was reminded on a conversation that I had earlier in my career…..

Back in the late 1990’s the office I worked in was going through a very tough period.  We had a significant drop in workload, a high level of turn over, lots of corporate pressure to improve, and the atmosphere around the office was quite poor.  Personally, it was very difficult for me to stay positive.  I often found myself taking part in “bitch sessions” in the lunch room or around the water cooler.  One of the senior members of the team pulled me aside and helped me see the impact that I was having on the team and myself. 

He told me that given that I “used to be” a very positive influence around the office, my current negativity was having a huge impact on other members of the team.  When my colleagues heard me complain, it made them complain more.  I had not realized the negative influence that I was having on the team, and how I was making a bad situation worse.

I was really taken aback by the conversation, and spent a lot time thinking about it over the weekend.  On Monday morning, I decided that I was going to be upbeat and try to focus on the positive in the office and see what happened.   I kept a smile on my face all day.  Whenever I heard someone stewing I changed the subject to something positive about the team, a recent project or something entirely unrelated to work.  I was amazed at how injecting a bit of positivity to a negative situation turned people’s attitudes. 

Remembering the critical lesson that I learned earlier in my career, I made the conscious decision to put aside the weariness I felt about the long winter, focusing on all the good things in my personal and professional life and my entire attitude improved.  I was laughing and joking throughout the webinar, people seemed to respond to the messages and we all went away to continue our hard work with a brighter attitude. 

Each and every one of us is being “watched” by those around us, at the office, at home and wherever we are.  We are always on stage.  We each have a decision to make.  Our attitude, tone and behavior can either create an upward spiral of positive energy or a downward spiral into negativity.  What type of performance are you going to give tomorrow?

Thanks for reading.  Please connect with me on Linked-In (be sure the mention the blog) and follow me on Twitter (@billroth13).

Bill Roth

“The Success Junkie”