Here is a small series of stories that I’m currently telling to illustrate my points (coaching, training, conferences, etc.). I really love stories. It’s a format, a pattern, that the brain is fond of. An excellent means of preservation, projection, and change. I’m giving you the sources of these stories but I’m telling you my version (what my brain has retained), don’t expect to find exactly the same ones.

As I’m speaking to you, I receive my eldest son Mathieu’s report card. Mathieu has good academic results but the report indicates that if he were more involved he would have very good academic results. I look for Mathieu in the house:

  • Mathieu? Mathieu?
  • (from the other room) Yes dad?
  • Can you come so we can talk about your report card?
  • Wait, I can’t right now, I’m building the fourth tower of my castle (Minecraft…) and it doesn’t have exactly the same decorations as the others, I can’t leave it like this, you understand it’s missing the right proportion of iron, …
  • (sigh)(silence) …Yes, that’s exactly what I want to talk to you about.

In other words, Mathieu is very involved in his game, and his results are very good. What is the school missing to trigger this same commitment? What is the company missing to have this same type of involvement?

To learn more about this gamification: http://areyouagile.com/2013/10/deux-amis/

On serendipity

That is, our ability to find solutions to problems through unexpected or diverted means, an accidental discovery. The essence of many brainstorming sessions or games.

A large Canadian consortium is responsible for the power lines that run through the country’s forests. Problem: the weight of snow threatens to cause these said lines to collapse. How to solve this problem? They brainstorm, not hesitating to get wild, you never know what will come out of it, but okay. Let’s see.

  • Suddenly an incongruous idea emerges:
  • What if we relied on bears? Bears? yes by making them shake the poles?
  • (really this meeting is nonsense).
  • Ok and how do we get the bears on the poles?
  • By placing pots of honey on top of the poles, on the lines? Attracted, they’ll come shake the poles.
  • Ok, and how do we place the pots of honey on the poles? We can’t place thousands of pots of honey?
  • Hmmm, what if we poured honey on the lines by passing over with a helicopter?
  • …
  • Bingo: the organization solved its problem… by flying a helicopter over the lines, its blades make the snow fall.

(I got this story from Valérie Wattelle who got it from I don’t know where, I need to ask her).

On real options, the decide as late as possible of Lean

It’s the story of a new university, all beautiful, brand new. While all the plans are completed, all the buildings are built, the dean stops the work. What? but it’s impossible, the start of term is now! No matter, he replies, we’ll finish the paths separating the buildings next summer. Among the builders there’s consternation. But the school year passes. And when summer returns the dean points out the marks left on the ground by the students in their wanderings through the university and he says to the construction managers: there, that’s where we’ll finally make the paths connecting the different buildings. Needless to say that none of the paths traced by the students’ steps corresponded to the initially planned design.

(This story comes from The spirit of leadership by Harrison Owen, http://www.amazon.com/The-Spirit-Leadership-Liberating-Leader/dp/1576750566)

Illustrated recently on Twitter by this photo:

Involvement again

One last detour through my eldest son’s school. Parent/teacher meeting, I’m face to face with the main teacher, she complains about the overall quality of the class, its lack of seriousness and the level of its work. Then we move on to the recent field trip to archaeological digs (several days on site). She delights in the success of this event, and in the following minutes tells me that the class provided excellent work and a dossier. Surprised, I therefore question her about the gap between the daily work and that work. She remains silent for several seconds as if a trap had closed on her then tells me, a bit taken aback: but we can’t do new interesting things like that all the time. I remained silent thinking that it was indeed the education and life of our children we were talking about.

Here too I make an obvious connection with our organizations: if you do things that interest the people with whom you work, if you succeed in getting them involved, what results will be nothing like what you’d expect, right? so.

Cognitive management

Denis is newly appointed in this manufacturing company. He must improve processes. With his fresh eye he sees right away that there is an abnormally large number of various and varied gloves on the employees’ hands. He investigates. 264! 264 different pairs of gloves, or worse, the same ones purchased at different prices from different suppliers. This is ridiculous! He takes his best pen, an excel file, draws up the detailed report of his investigation and sends this to the board. They respond: thank you, very good, this information is very important, at the next budget we’ll change this.

… at the next budget, that is in 6 months… in Denis’s eyes it’s ridiculous. He invites the board members to come to his office. When they enter they discover 264 pairs of gloves on the desk, in the center of the room, on each pair a small label that states its price, and therefore several times the same pair at different prices. “this is no longer acceptable,” says one, “we must change this immediately” says another, “I’ll call the suppliers” says the third.

What was acceptable in the form of an excel spreadsheet is no longer so when you’re physically confronted with it.

(This story comes from Switch, by the Heath brothers, http://heathbrothers.com/books/switch/)