The “O” in the PEOPLE acronym stands for “Ownership.” Simply put ownership means that you own something and are responsible for it, and have control over it. In other words, responsibility and accountability. This is a piece of the puzzle that sometimes gets overlooked by management. People are given responsibility and are held accountable, but don’t have control of the process or parts of the process.

If you are given a car and unequivocally  told to get in the car and drive a certain distance, and the car runs out of gasoline prior to arrival, are you responsible? Perhaps. Can you be held accountable? Maybe. If you had no gas gage or means of purchasing fuel, did you have control of the situation? No. A simplified example to be sure, but it makes a point. (I hope.)

Unless you can have personal control over a situation, it is impossible to be held totally responsible for a given outcome. If you can’t control the process, then you can’t predict your responsiveness, either. Before someone can truly take ownership of a process they need to know who they need to respond to, what they are responsible for and levels of accountability.

These can be tough things to define, but until you really examine them, you can’t begin to solve barriers that may be holding you back.Ownership, properly defined, can help take your processes, employees and thus your business to the next level.

Performance is a common word, but one that people sometimes don’t really think about as they use it. A performance is something that you attend for entertainment, or perhaps you look for a car with high performance, and those uses have something to do with the way we use the word at the PEOPLE Academy, Inc.

A performance is the way someone does some action. Generally in a professional sense it means how someone does the actions involved in completing their defined job functions and that little extra that isn’t defined in the traditional sense. That means that both parties have to have a clear notion of what is expected to be achieved.

The phrase “what does good look like” is one way of defining what needs to be achieved. What does a good performance look like? What needs to be accomplished to have “good” results? What have those results looked like in the past? What do they look like now, and what do they look like moving forward?

This may seem pretty basic, but this is a shortfall that many companies have. Business owners and managers have one concept or idea about what good looks like and they know the driving force behind the reasons, but perhaps supervisors and team members don’t. They may have an idea about what is expected in their basic job function, but they may not have a handle on the “why” and the why is a huge part of motivation for the things we do.

Defining “what good looks like” is step one in the process. Having the tools to make it happen is the rest of the story.

Efficacy is the ability to bring about a change. That change can be something in your personal life or in your professional life. Efficacy is also the first E in the acronym of the PEOPLE model.

It is something that employers really need to look at when they assign tasks to folks. Often a team leader, a supervisor or any employee gets asked to perform certain tasks and they are doomed to failure right from the start because they can’t perform it. This inability to perform a task is because of a lack of “X”

“X” may be the authority to order a tool, be that tool a software package or even something as simple as a screwdriver. Have you ever heard “for the loss of a nail a battle was lost”? There were a lot of steps in between that nail and the potential victory, but what it boiled down to was the efficacy of a blacksmith to order the nail to shoe the horse, etc, etc.

If that smith would have been given the authority to order the nail, things may have gone an entirely different direction. do you have someone in your organization who should have authority over some aspect of a task they’ve been assigned? Or maybe that person is you and you need to have a discussion with someone higher up about your efficacy.

This is just a thumbnail view of one of the six aspects of the PEOPLE model, and hopefully just seeing this small portion gives you something to think about.

This has been the strangest year for weather. We’ve had t-shirt weather in December and now suddenly it is the frigid tundra and we’ve had our first snowfall of the year. It worked out that it happened the night I had a show to attend in Philly, so that was a pleasant ride. Swirling wind with large lazy snowflakes riding on it. My only consolation was that someone else was driving for once.

But there I was in the third row seat of a van, not really able to see where I was going, with the windows fogged up from the conversation and hot breath of six excited people.

My head is like that ride sometimes. I know I am headed in the right direction but I am not quite in control. That can be alright, and/or it can be really scary. That’s when it’s good to have people to reach out to. But what if you are the one that people are reaching out to, and you don’t know what to say or a direction to take? You can’t tell people what to do, you can only help to guide them through their thought process.

That’s easy enough if you have the right tools. I have found that going through the PEOPLE model framework helps to define that journey. To learn more, go here and sign up for the e-mail series on client exploration. This short series (7 e-mails) contains a lot of information on growing your business and talks about tools you can use.

I have been surfing a total of one time in my life. Wait, maybe you could call it surfing or you could call it practicing drowning with a large piece of fiberglass tied to my ankle and sticky goop stuck to my sparse chest hair. (if you aren’t familiar with board wax, don’t worry about the goop)

The odd part of my partial drowning was that I enjoyed it. I spent hours trying to stand on a board in the midst of waves and never succeeded beyond kneeling, but I ‘got it’ from a psychological standpoint. I could feel the ‘one-ness’ with the ocean and I could see that given time (and possibly a couple lessons) I could grow addicted to it.

But what would it gain me? Possibly some Zen-like moments. Definitely a feeling of mastery over something. Quite likely some core exercise for my body and stuff. Alone time, which I like sometimes. I’m not sure what else.

What would it cost? Well, easily a great deal of time and some money. Waves are free, but driving back and forth to them and buying a board, etc. Time I don’t really have abundance of. I have lots of temptations, but all things – new things – have me deciding what I am replacing. If I spend four hours a week on X, Y has to go. What can I eliminate?

You might wonder what this is really about. I’ve heard a lot about the ‘newest thing’ from Google, Google wave, and I’m not sure whether I should ride this one or not. I am weighing the pros and cons and asking everyone I know who uses it; what is the cost/benefit of this.

Life is like that. Best bet, if you want to get the most out of anything, get a tutor/coach/mentor/instructor to teach you. Learn the basics, at least, from an expert, and then go from there.

Now, back to surfing the waves on the ocean, maybe I made a mistake trying to learn on my own. Maybe I made a mistake thinking I don’t need any help (definite) and maybe the waves hitting the Texas shore aren’t the best introduction to the sport.

One thing that I wrote on every job task analysis that I did was “keep your mind and eyes on task at hand”

Such a common point and so valid. It wasn’t my phrasing, but something borrowed from JTA training I received, and it applies to all situations.

I said this to my son while teaching him how to drive. I just said, “you need to pay attention to details.” And he replied that the world population would rise if we did that. I did a double take and said “What?”

He explained that if everyone was more careful we wouldn’t have as many car accidents, plane accidents, etc. And those survivors would still be contributing to the gene pool. You know I wouldn’t have even thought about that.

So there is another example of mid and eyes on task and the result of not doing that. A smaller example is me spilling my coffee this morning. This was the result of compound situations. I promised my youngest daughter that I would phone West Chester University for her. To remind myself I added the paper with their phone number to the mess on my desk. Unfortunately it partially covered my coaster, and the coffee cup landed off kilter there and spilled.

Three benefits. Most of my desk is now cleared of the excess paper. It soaked up some of the spill and is now in the trash. My desk is also clear of dust and stains from the past couple months as it got wiped up. It inspired this writing. (that can go in the plus or minus column, depending if you get anything out of it)

Two downsides: Any notes I had scribbled on those papers are gone. I have more laundry as the coffee “waterfalled” onto my pants.

So what’s the bottom line here?
1. Be more organized
2. Follow my own advise (eyes and mind on task)
3. Listen to my kids (wisdom from the mouths of babes)

We had a meeting to talk about the focus of our company, which is a major thing. Companies that lose the focus on their target markets are companies that do not stay in business long. So, who is your target market? (not a rhetorical question)

Are you in the group classified as ‘helping professionals’ and what does that even mean? Helping professionals is a new term that includes coaches, mentors, peer support specialists, teachers, social workers, ministers and managers. What do all of those have in common? Guidance. The problem that many of these folks face is that some of them really haven’t had any education along that line, or the education was too general.

Given enough time, your experience will eventually teach you how to handle various situations, but most of us just don’t have the time, and can’t afford to make mistakes. The purpose of this particular entry is to get feedback and discussion on what tools and resources you use on a regular basis. Do you have a particular software program or an HR handbook that assists you in the tough times?

One ‘problem’ with that is that most people in these positions don’t have one resource they can rely on and then try to ‘wing it’ and that doesn’t always give the best results.

I’d really like to get some feedback on this to track where I can go with future blog entries. Thanks

I was thinking a lot about the saying ‘standing on the shoulders of giants.’ This may seem like a really strange thing to be thinking about, and to that I would respond, yeah, I think about odd stuff sometimes.

Standing on the shoulders of giants basically means that all the efforts that are put into research, new products, motorcycle stunts, whatever, are built upon things that have been done in the past. No one would be doing a double back flip in the Olympic floor event if someone wouldn’t have done a single back flip to start out.

So we all build on the things that are. Cars get faster, stronger, more fuel efficient. It’s all about what direction you want to take things. A scientist may look at the human genome project and decide that manipulating genes could make athletes stronger, while another scientist sees that same line of reasoning helping people with ALS.

If you look at the ‘giants’ in the self-help business, they will be quick to reference their influences, whether they are Mother Theresa or Napoleon Hill, and if you look at their work, you can see where they took the original material and changed it to give it their own flavor and personal slant. That slant may or may not be an improvement. It really depends on your perspective.

What it comes down to is you can take other people’s ideas and experiences and use them to shorten your path to success. If you fall in with the right bunch you can leverage their experience and ideas with a mastermind group and really accelerate the process exponentially. That is one line of reasoning with this and it had proved to be very successful over time.

Henry Ford didn’t come up with the automobile or mass production, but he was the one who united those concepts and the rest, as they say, is history.

Not to belabor the point, but it’s kinda like the pyramids. As a large solid foundation is laid, you can build on that to reach for the sky.

The shoulders of giants can be illustrated in the basis of written language. The start of that was probably symbols to represent numbers; one scratch is one, ten scratches, ten – sort of like the old timey movies where a prisoner is counting the days until his release. Ancient languages emerged which evolved into what we have today.

But what happens when ‘facts’ are established and built on over centuries, when the facts are misconceptions? Eventually the whole structure falls to pieces. When Galileo announced that the sun was the center of the solar system, he ended up spending his life in prison for being a heretic. He was not a favored child of the Inquisition, to say the least. Time exonerated Galileo, as it will someday clear Darwin.
It’s the smallest bits of evidence that built a case. Observations. But observations obviously can be wrong, so as R.E.M. says “standing on the shoulders of giants leaves me cold.”
When so much happens from that practice, why deny the obvious benefits? Because you can end up in a rut.

Modern scientists, engineers and theorists all can fall into this trap very easily. It is the safe route to take and going outside the norm can be cause for imprisonment (like Galileo) or ostracism, like UFOlogists. (I’m not saying that UFO’s or Bigfoot is real, just that even having an interest in them leads to other work being taken less seriously.)

So there we are, possibly in a rut. Are there people who are exploring alternative sciences? Yes. But generally they aren’t going to get the funding that people who are more main stream are going to get. Interestingly enough most of the breakthroughs in modern history have come from smaller labs, independent researchers and even basement hobbyists.

So what is my conclusion here? It’s a mixed bag. In most instances standing on the shoulders of giants is going to make you bigger, badder, more efficient and give you better results quicker. The flip side of that coin is that you aren’t going to have divergent investigation that may be paradigm breaking. Bottom line, if you’re going to stand on those shoulders, make sure they are the right shoulders.

(Um, scratch box equals starting from scratch thinking outside a black box.)

I’ve written about this before, and there are some days that the lesson really comes home to roost, so to speak. You can’t know too much. You just can’t. So young people who graduate from high school or college and figure that they are done with the books, either revise their thoughts or most likely end up in a dead end position wondering why their life is the way that it is.

Working on my knowledge base, this week I am reading Creating Magic, which is an insiders view of the management of Walt Disney World. The book was written by Lee Cockerell, who was the executive VP f operations at WDW. Interesting stuff. Without going into detail here, he gives ten common sense leadership strategies. (to get the details, read the book)

1. Make sure everyone matters..and that everyone knows it

2. Know your team

3. Let your team know you

4. Greet people sincerely

5. Reach out to everyone on your team

6. Make yourself available

7. Listen to understand

8. Communicate clearly, directly and honestly

9. Stand up for the excluded

10. Forget about the chain of command

Interesting stuff. The details are what really bring all of that to life and where all that comes from is Mr. Cockerell’s experience. By writing the book he is sharing things that he has learned over a lifetime of experience and, perhaps, I will gain some fraction of that knowledge by reading the book. That leverages my experience, which is awesome, in my opinion, because then I can use that, and my own experience, to leverage the experiences of those I work and interact with. That’s what it’s really all about.

Knowing where to go for the experience and the knowledge can sometimes be the most difficult part of a journey, and that’s why coaches add such value to life. Their experiences and guidance can make a huge impact on your life progress, whether that be in business or in your personal life. One thing that struck me while listening to the interviews on the Get Inspired! Project was that so many of these very successful people still have coaches to help guide them.

Even more interesting to me was the fact that they looked for very specific coaches that matched up with their needs at the time; again looking for the experience that would complement their own.

Food for thought. I know I’m thinking…

Interesting day last Thursday as we reworked the premise of the PEOPLE Academy, Inc. Started through revelation or an aha moment from Toni that turned into a two way brainstorm and then a four way brainstorm to move us into a position of service, rather than product.

At first I was slightly alarmed that we were abandoning what we had been working on, and then I realized it was more a perspective than a reality shift (in a way.) We had always been about people and helping and that’s why the Get Inspired! Project was such an ‘overnight’ success while we sort of struggled a bit with message on the PEOPLE Academy, Inc. Not that they weren’t both really about the same thing, but that how we were internally digesting them was different. Does that make sense? In my head it does and if you have questions, feel free to ask. It would help me (and us) with focus, so don’t hesitate on that.

But the purpose or focus of this blog entry is The Completion Backward Principle, which is both a Tubes album and a way of making dreams come true. Which one would you like to hear about. OK, I’ll talk about the Tubes. Fee Waybill is an amazing singer and the music and lyrics of the Tubes are misunderstood and inspiring. What? More on the dream thing? Oh, alright.

We did some ‘imagineering’ (yes, stolen from Disney, although I would guess it will eventually be as generic as jello) and threw all of our ‘hows’ out the window. We talked about dreams for where we wanted the business to go and where we wanted our lives to go and all that sort of happy stuff, and we got some really cool ideas up on the boards. Then we discussed reality and what we could do to make the dreams come true. Some things were just tiny tiny steps. Thinking of the ‘reality’ also made us realize that some of the dreams weren’t ‘out there’ as far as we thought and that we were already making some significant steps toward the dream goals. Some of the steps were as simple as writing an e-mail and maybe the response would be a huge step.

So where is the Completion Backward Principle? We are starting at the finish line and knowing we are going to get there. Feel it and hold it in your heart. You are running across the line arms in the air. Everything is present tense. Hold that tightly in your mind. It is a done deal. Fait accompli. Fin.

Now retrace how you got there. (I’m a runner, so this is a running analogy, bear with me) Your last day of training you might run ten miles. The week before you ran 5 miles three times. The week before you ran 4 miles twice and 3 miles once. Maybe the week before you did.. well, you get it. Ten weeks before you bought new running shoes. Eleven weeks before you stayed in instead of eating out at lunch so you could put money aside for the shoes. Retracing your steps back to today. Now execute the plan. You know the conclusion, so you just have to go through the steps with passion and you know it will happen. The conclusion is foregone. Bingo.

Now apply this to your dreams. Do you want a new job? What is that job? What training or education do you need to get it?

I read a story where a woman was complaining that she always wanted to be a doctor. She went to a work counselor. (One who believed in dreams) and told the counselor of the dreams. The counselor said “go for it.” And the woman said, “well, by the time I’m done with medical school I’ll be 46.” The counselor said “how old will you be if you don’t?”

That’s the point. Dreams don’t have an expiration date. Passion doesn’t know that it’s Monday. Build it, and they will come. Build your life and believe in yourself. Start with the outcome and then figure out the how. Don’t let the “how” shoot you down.

recommended reading today: Creating Magic: Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney