Deliver Results

At the end of the day, what do we think the best employers really want from their employees?

What is it that we grade ourselves on when self-reflecting?

Effort?

Intelligence?

Humour?

Degrees?

Vocabulary?

Slapshot? (can't help it, love hockey)

Although all of those elements are important (especially slapshots), at the end of the day, it is RESULTS. Employers want results. We want results.

"You can have results or excuses, not both!"

Getting results is a skill and talent unto its own. Intelligence and education can assist with getting results, but it is much more than that.

For those of us that have had a newborn, we are familiar with how a tiny human can get results. These wee people have us running around, making food, walking, running, driving, swinging, singing, dancing, and much more.

Are these infants educated? Not so much. Are the intelligent? Hopefully, but it's a pretty new batch of intelligence.

... and yet, these little buggers (I have three myself) get all kinds of results ... I'm talking results all day, all night, all of the time!

What are Results?

Good question. If you went up to ten different people on the street, you would probably get a variety of answers. According to the American Heritage Dictionary:

result

r?-z?lt′

1. To happen as a consequence.
2. To end in a particular way.

Let's look at "to happen as a consequence." first. If we go back to the mini-humans from above, we can think of things that happen as a consequence:

• getting fed
• receiving cuddles
• being entertained

Okay, those sound like good results. What are they a consequence of? Let's see:

• crying
• screaming
• wailing

Seems easy enough to get results. All we have to do is cry, scream and wail. How many of you reading this right now immediately thought of a few scenarios when any of those three options seemed like a great choice!? I know I did.

So we can see that a result is an outcome or something that ends in a particular way. The outcome is a consequence, or something that happens because of something else.

The examples above all look pretty good. Eating and cuddling while being entertained, sign me up!

However, we all know that the results could have been a spanking (I was born a while ago), naughty chair (I swear this is worse), or being sent to bed. Although those are results, they might not be the results we want.

Remember, results can be good, bad or just "meh". It's up to us to decide.

"Results are a reflection of our understanding of the problem to solve and how rigorously we pursue the solution."

Rigor is important. If there is one thing that a newborn has full grasp on, it's rigor. A set of those tiny lungs will outlast a parent, any day of the week.

We know when we have applied true rigor, it will be clear that we have done all that we can to ensure the best good result.

Understanding the Problem

It sounds easy enough doesn't it. At first glance, most of us probably think we understand the problem we are facing. Or do we?

Can we teach a 4-hour lecture about the problem we believe we understand?

Do we feel comfortable with the idea of presenting our understanding of the problem and our idea for a solution (the result) to the CEO and/or a group of executive peers?

Would our peers read our strategy, solution proposal, and other documentation and agree with us? Would they be excited enough to join us and defend our solution?

There are many ways to solve a problem, and our work environment might have some frameworks in place to assist us with this. However, the most important step is to truly understand the problem.

We should never assume we understand the problem too soon. If we were not the first to identify the problem because it was impacting us, we need to dive deep. We need to reach out to individuals who really do understand the problem.

Perhaps the problem requires specialization and expertise that we simply do not possess. Always reach out to the experts around us, more than likely they want to help us. We do not want to try and guess at what a specialist might think. It is not a sign of weakness to reach out for help in these situations. In fact, it's a show of strength and confidence that we know our limits and want to involve those around us who can help. Many great relationships are forged through these kinds of experiences.

"If I had an hour to solve a problem, I would spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes about solutions" - Albert Einstein

Remember, understanding the problem is the hard part. We will invest most of our time truly understanding the problem. It is important that we wait for full understanding before trying to solve.

Delivering Results

Now it is time for us to deliver some earth shattering results! We have been rigorous in understanding the problem. We have all the experts we need on our side to backup our solutions. We can easily present a 4-hour seminar on the problem and the solution. If the CEO asked us to present to the executive, we would have all of the answers and feel confident in our presentation and solution.

We will know we actually delivered results almost immediately. Feedback on our work will be extremely positive. We might get a message indicating what we have done is important or essential. Our work might be announced in a company newsletter or team meeting. Good job.

It doesn't hurt for us to bring a good amount of patience along the journey as well.

So, remember ...

#1 Understand the Problem

Often when thinking about getting results, we are too focused on the actual result. However, we can never really get to the best result without understanding the problem first.

"A problem well stated is a problem half solved." - Charles F. Kettering

Do not be tempted by experience or ego to conclude that we have a good understanding of the problem before we actually do. It's a trap, and it never works out well in the end.

We will know that we are getting close to truly understanding when the people we are interacting with either start to praise our efforts and volunteer time, or they begin to become frustrated with our exacting questioning and un-stoppable interest in uncovering the actual problem.

#2 A Rigorous Solution

A rigorous solution is more than crafting a solution. It will involve redefining and further understanding the problem. Rigor is important when attempting to solve our own problems, and it is much more important when trying to solve the problems for others.

At Vendasta, we listen to our customers and do our best to be rigorous about solving their real-life problems.

"Customers don't care about your solution, they care about their problems." - Dave McClure

Recently at Vendasta, I was able to participate in a rigorous solution around something called general availability (GA). In a nutshell, it is a very detailed framework to ensure that any software that is released to our customers goes through a methodical process that increases the odds of it being of the highest quality.

The two chief architects of this process, have decades of combined experience, and are senior members among the technical teams at Vendasta. The amount of time and effort that the two of them have spent (and are spending) to rigorously understand the problem to solve is admirable.

The GA process impacts the working lives of hundreds of employees, so it must be thoughtfully crafted. Although GA is solving one specific big problem for our customers, it also touches on many smaller problems. If you aren't careful to fully understand the problem in cases like these, you could very well create more problems.

The Joy of Delivering Results

When it comes to work, I'm not sure there are many things as satisfying as delivering results that are worthy of peer praise. It can be a lot of work, but the reward is worth it. When you deliver these kinds of results, you can feel confident that you will be helping many people.

When we face our first big problem to solve, it can be overwhelming. If we are lucky enough, we work in an environment like Vendasta where you are never too far from an experienced expert willing to help you understand the problem.

In my decades of technology experience, I have rarely been in the company of such willing and able people as I am with at Vendasta. Any time I have reached out for some insight, a second opinion, a review, or any type of peer feedback, I have received it with enthusiasm.

Even if you are not embedded in an ecosystem like Vendasta, the world is small these days. You have access to peers across the globe, reach out and make those connections. Pro tip: people do actually want to connect with those having similar interests!

If you are trying to deliver results and are facing a difficult problem and have hit a barrier, feel free to reach out to me directly (@chris), I might know someone who can help.

Also, ff you are looking for a career working with fantastic people who are delivery results daily, check out the Vendasta careers page.

Now, get out there and start delivering some results!