Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com August 28, 2017 • Hartford Business Journal 21 BIZ BOOKS How to break silos for better collaboration "C ollaboration Begins with You — Be a Silo Buster" by Ken Blanchard, Jane Ripley and Eunice Parisi-Carew (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, $23.95). While virtually everyone in business acknowledges the "hive mind" power of collaboration, there are those who pay it lip service while building silos and micro- managing. Before reading the book, find out if you walk the collaborative talk by taking the self-assess- ment (pp. 137-142). Also, ask peers and your staff to take it from the "how you work with them" perspective. Your results and the shared per- spectives create your mind- set for "aha learning" from the authors" "UNITE" model: "U — Utilize Differences" — You always learn more from those whose views differ from yours. Encouraging discussion and debate shows people that their input has value. Even if their path wasn't chosen, they'll have a grasp about the "why" another was. "N — Nurture safety and trust" — By sharing key points about successes and missteps, you create learning oppor- tunities. These allow staff to connect dots to others on the team to show that "we" achieves organizational and personal goals. The process improves timeliness of communication, too, and builds a culture of trust and respect. "I — Involve others in crafting a clear purpose, values and goals" — It's all about buy-in. When people are involved from the get-go, they understand what and why, as well as the agreed upon approach. They hold each other accountable for the execution of how. "T — Talk openly" — Ask, don't tell. Seek feedback by asking questions. Use it to create a "yes, and … " con- versation. Also, encourage network- ing as a way to establish relationships, which broaden each teammate's understanding how others think, act and react. "E — Empower yourself and others" — Collaboration begets learning, which begets continuous improvement, which begets improved performance. It's all about building your brand as a team player and go-to person. Key takeaway: "None of us is as smart as all of us." Silo dwellers never maximize their productivity (and that of those around them) because they never see the bigger picture. Without a real assessment of the perspectives of others, their analysis of a situation will be incomplete. • • • "The Storyteller's Secret — From TED Speakers to Business Legends, Why Some Ideas Catch on and Others Don't" by Car- mine Gallo (St. Martin's Griffin, $15.99). Simple, brief and clear make Gallo's "orga- nize-and-tell in 3s" point. When people think and listen, they inherently look for patterns to cue understanding, and "three" quickly establishes an easy-to-follow, memorable pattern. There are three components to effective presentations: the headline, the narrative and a call to action. "The headline is one sentence that's going to grab your listener's attention and put the narrative into con- text." When Steve Jobs intro- duced the iPod, he told the audience all they needed to know about what was com- ing — "1,000 songs in your pocket." Richard Branson offers this advice on headlines: Use a Twitter-like format (i.e. 140-character limit). Relative to the narrative, Gallo viewed numerous TED Talks to see what really moved the audience. The speakers consis- tently used stories that connected to the headline throughout their presentations rather than statistical evidence and jargon. Why? People often see their own experienc- es in the stories of others. Even when they can't, they see "stories as flight simulators for real-world scenarios." In either case, sto- ries deepen their understanding of the why, what and how of the message. Incorporating personal stories shows your authen- ticity. By inserting your experiences into the narra- tive, listeners see someone who believes in the message. Where there's belief, there's trust and understanding. n Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer. Jim Pawlak STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Post-truth era business development strategies By Chris Coyle I n my last column ("Business development in the 'post-truth era,' ") I discussed post- truth era characteristics and implications for business development. This article focus- es on strategies to handle the post-truth era's (PTE) symptoms that can make business development more challenging than ever. Our focus is increasing the effectiveness of business development in the context of longer- term, enterprise-scale deals, which are highly susceptible to the symptoms of the PTE. Let's consider some strategies to navigate the PTE: redefine, recalibrate, reorient and reinvent. I added "redefine" because the scale of back- ground noise (aka fake facts) needs to be addressed first before any useful communi- cation can occur. Swimming upstream In his book, "Wea- ponized Lies, How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era," best- selling author Daniel Levitin points out that we have created more human-made informa- tion in the past five years than in all of human history. The problem is, along with facts, an increasing flood of information is engulfing them and it runs the gamut from misleading to totally wacky. Add always-on media and the effect of social networks to democratize the access and delivery of information and an illu- sion of credibility is created. In the context of business, many orga- nizations or departments are deluged with studies, reports and presentations that can obscure objective consideration, and unfor- tunately for the businesses themselves, deci- sion making is anything but objective. In "Thinking, Fast and Slow," one of the most impactful books on bias, world renowned psychologist Daniel Kahneman brilliantly describes a wide range of behavioral effects that are compounded in the PTE, and notably produce overconfidence in corporate decision making and planning. As research continues to point out, effects like "confirmation bias" (selecting facts that confirm vs. conflict), "sunk cost effect" and the "endowment effect" (overvaluation of what we already have), "status quo bias" (an emotional preference for maintaining the status quo), and "loss aversion" (the tendency to attribute much more weight to potential losses than potential gains when assessing risk) all make it difficult to present new concepts in a corporate setting. Worse, based on research from experts spanning Mckinsey to Chip and Dan Heath (check out their book "Decisive"), most busi- ness decision making is often flawed and tends to support the current position and past decisions, with little to no consideration given to the contrarian view. One of the profound phenomena of the PTE in the business arena is the increased support avail- able at our fingertips for justifying our choices. Instead of swimming upstream, one of the best strategies is to stop advancing your message, shift gears and focus on what things might look like through the eyes of your prospect. Change perspective to redefine Since the most important perspective is your prospect's, even if it is biased and shaped by the effects of the PTE, often gen- tly guiding a change of perspective may open their mind to consider new ideas. How they define their current state and how they view their future state can offer rich insight and open the door for a more produc- tive dialogue. As experienced business devel- opment pros know, while it is great to find pros- pects actually looking for new solutions, by the time you do, they have often formed a concept of what they want, and based on Murphy's law, it will be one involving your competitor. The best scenario is often one where you are able collaboratively to discuss what factors or events would cause them to consider a new approach. What if X happens? What then, and what are the implications if your envisioned future does not occur? Consider using the "pre- mortem"; imagining a program failing and ask- ing how that might happen. This change of per- spective can create an environment that may actually highlight PTE influences and biases. By gently shifting the interchange from debating about whose facts carry the most weight, to discussing alternative perspec- tives of the future, the key first step toward redefining the dialogue is often achieved. n Chris Coyle is managing director of business development services for CBC GROUP. Chris Coyle ▶ ▶ Silo dwellers never maximize their productivity (and that of those around them) because they never see the bigger picture. ▶ ▶ We have created more human-made information in the past five years than in all of human history.

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