Don't be a Mokito guy

Being an ardent fan of the Star Trek franchise, I always dreamt of teleportation, but never imagined it could be a possibility in my lifetime, however, there are predictions that it may be a reality in 2030. We see the world around us changing, and changing at a speed we have never seen before. We need to be able to change faster, or at least keep up with the pace of change around us. Very recently I had the opportunity of engaging many senior leaders in a dialogue around the same theme- how do we move faster and stay focused on our end customers? Some very simple, but powerful ideas came out of the discussion:

? Don’t be a mokito guy- The other day someone told me that Mokito in New Guinea stands for truth that everyone knows but nobody speaks. It’s unbelievable that we have terms like “career derailers” for speaking our mind. We live in an era of more and more transparency. We have an opportunity to accept the truth, learn from mistakes and move further and faster. We also have the responsibility to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable to share their thoughts and ideas freely. Opinions should not be only heard, but sought out. As someone once said, employees in the field are the SWAK- someone with actual knowledge…they will drive success!

? Don’t review; enable success- We have been groomed in a way that we have come to believe that our role as a leader entails conducting reviews. We believe that it helps us in getting to know the details and guide the new bees. If we look at some of the most successful organizations in the recent past, they came into existence with an idea from a 20 something . Every idea counts, every person counts. Let’s take risks and unleash potential, remove roadblocks, coach and counsel more than advice and ask. Help enable success, help enable ideas to fruition. 

? It is often that people approach with problems or issues vs carrying a solution. We all deal with challenges in our areas of work, but that makes it exciting. The difference lies in spending more time to understand the problem. Not every problem needs a solution. Not every time the real problem is the way it is stated. One needs to go deep, peel the onion before providing a solution. The best example which comes to my mind is how Feynman demonstrated the failure of space shuttle challenger by dropping a piece of the O-ring material, squeezed with a C-clamp into a glass of ice water (to simulate the actual conditions of the Challenger shuttle). He spent more time talking to people who built the shuttle than running experiments in the labs to understand what went wrong…. “When there is no obvious solution, go back to basics, walk step by step, you will get there”

? Process….should it control or should it enable results? All of us are proud of people we work with. Each one of us got hired and got promoted for our skills, our ideas and our ability to make a difference and not just follow a process. Let’s question every process which is not an enabler and which hinders speed and success for the customer. In 2017, if each one of us can commit to change one thing (process, procedure or a tool) to enhance our speed, it will multiply our overall impact many times….lets go for it!