Can You Be Trusted?

 "No virtue is more universally accepted as a test of good character than trustworthiness."

--Harry Emerson Fosdick

2021 is a milestone, having now spent 50 years in business. Nine years working for closely-held companies; 41 years in private consulting with corporations and nonprofits. There was a concurrent 21-year collaboration with The Gallup Organization as well.

Summer employment during college expands the mix to include practical experience gained at General Motors in Flint, Michigan. Thanks to Howard Johnson and Richard Wirsing, my principal assignment at GM in the 1960s was that of an office clerk.  

I served plant superintendents when full-time clerks went on vacation. Typing letters. Screening phone calls. Scheduling meetings with union representatives. Make sure company-provided white dress shirts get sent to the laundry each week. And most importantly, keeping a superintendent's confidence.

Our time at GM was priceless.

Backdrop

According to the website thebalance.com, there were six U.S. recessions since the early 1970s:  1973-75; 1980-82; 1990-91; 2001; 2008-09 (Great Recession); and 2020 (the worst since the Great Depression).

Covid-19 and a global pandemic (March 2020 to the present) caused the U.S. economy to contract a record 31.4% in the second quarter of 2020, with a loss of nearly 21 million jobs in April last year. A strong recovery is underway, but it's uneven among businesses, households, and communities.

It's always a shock to the system (ego) when, in a crisis, variables we think we control and manage are found to control and manage us. Think about how much we don't know. 

Last year's initial exposure to a global pandemic, subsequent lockdowns, with cries for help (from businesses and nonprofits) should have humbled everyone. But humility is rare and fleeting.     

Observations

A lot has happened in five decades. Thus our observations and formal studies of leaders and leadership (they're not the same things) allow us to draw some conclusions.  

What have we learned?

... Like vehicles from the auto industry, influential leaders (executives, managers, supervisors) come in all makes and models. Likewise, consistent performers offer an assortment of styles complemented by healthy dispositions. 

Dynamic personalities make good cover stories, but introverts make great leaders. "They are calm, good listeners, don't like to micromanage, and tend to resist self-defeating impulses," according to a Great Place to Work analysis.

... Not far from any successful leader is an executive or administrative assistant who helped that person function well under tight deadlines. Assistants make an executive's promptness and preparedness possible by serving with diverse skills. The ones we met knew how to hold trust.  

... Employees gravitate not to politicians but to leaders who know who they are and what they believe. Who let everyone know what they will and will not do. Those values and clarity give voice to moral authority and create boundaries for acceptable behavior. 

... A chief executive role is demanding. From 2003 to 2013, about a quarter of CEO departures from Fortune 500 companies was involuntary, according to the Conference Board.   

... What contributes to any leaders' problems? Poor hiring decisions; postponing decisions; avoiding conflict; lack of truthfulness; and the economy. 

Mercurial temperaments are not necessarily controlling but tend to make people unreliable.

... Someone to observe is Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO since 2014. His company priorities of creating clarity, energy, and success, regardless of the circumstances, are secondary to family commitments. Known for empathy and a relational style, the India-born Nadella is leading Microsoft to a new level of success. Approximately 90% of Microsoft's value has been generated under Satya Nadella's leadership. 

Satya Nadella, Microsoft Chairman and CEO
(C) Microsoft

... "Where are all the women CEOs," was a February 2020 headline in The Wall Street Journal. The article asked why, when women earn most college degrees and make up roughly half the workforce, few occupy the chief executive job. Women today lead 167 of the U.S.'s top 3,000 companies. That's more than double the share a decade ago but still under 6%.  

What explains this imbalance?

... Wanting to improve their performance, leaders sometimes chased fads, imitating celebrity CEOs like Steve Jobs of Apple and Jack Welch of G.E.  More recently, Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX fame.

However, any time a leader moves from their natural state, they risk losing their genuine identity. Comparing oneself to others produces what results? It's a practice that makes it harder to discover our inner self--the only one that can be improved.  

"Be like me" was an enticing message for those climbing the corporate ladder. Unfortunately, most pied pipers offered formulas that proved difficult to replicate as organizational culture and competencies are seldom transferable. Buying ideas and clothing have this in common--both should have a proper fit.

... Publishers took advantage of the next big thing by selling millions of books now available on eBay or sitting on shelves in the basements of public libraries. The exceptions may be "Good to Great," by Jim Collins (four million copies), and "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team," by Patrick Lencioni (three million copies).  

(C) Canberra Weekly

... Several management concepts spread quickly over the past 50 years, including "teams."  A few theories have proven themselves, such as execution, a learning organization, and having the correct corporate values. Conversely, 360-degree feedback, business process reengineering, and management by objectives are long past their prime.  

Nevertheless, organizations face a troubling inversion--the more the concept of leadership is promoted, the less there is of it. A CareerBuilder survey of 3,625 workers in the government and private sectors found that only 34% of respondents have the goal of moving into a management position. 

Conclusions

What does a half-century career bring to mind about leadership? The absence of wisdom.

Having experience in finance, marketing, or operations is a given. But, in addition, people skills and an ability to communicate are musts. Add to that an understanding of deploying technology to compete in a digital economy. 

However, our interest in this post is examining the attributes that support or the deficiencies which detract from those leadership skills. 

Here are five:  

• The importance of character and trust. No matter an enterprise's nature, size, or structure, nothing substitutes for having trusted leaders, those with strong moral character. It's difficult for anyone who betrays trust to remain in a position of authority and responsibility. The goal is consistency, not perfection, as human beings make mistakes. 
• Being self-aware, with an awareness of your surroundings. How many leaders have you worked for who are not mindful of their character? Some have self-awareness but are oblivious to the conditions around them. Holistic leadership requires internal and external awareness, especially when the environment changes, and everyone knows it but you. 
• Leadership development is self-development. Programs improve the quality of leaders when everyone knows they are responsible for their own development. Getting the right experiences, and learning from them, is like attending an Ivy League school. 
• Most leaders don't want feedback. It's rare for an individual to seek your opinion and like it. When an idea is on the table, it's close to being approved. It may be worth asking those who have to execute change what they think. 
• Leadership at the top is overrated. While leadership across the organization is underrated. Associates don't work for a company; they work for supervisors. Those on the front lines with excellent communication skills help create a positive attitude with customers and employees. Employees who have a good relationship with a supervisor or manager enjoy their job more and stay at the company longer. What's that worth in a season where a record-high number of people are quitting their jobs? 

Validation 

May it be said that one of the distinguishing qualities of your life and work is that you are trustworthy in all things.  

Strategist.com

© Bredholt &  Co. 

Quiet Generosity

"You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you."

— John Bunyan

In 2020, a year in which a global pandemic caused the world to stand still, financial giving to charitable organizations in the U.S. reached a record $421.44 billion. Those contributions came from individuals, bequests, foundations, and corporations.

This information, reported by Giving USA, shows that total contributions for various causes grew 5.1%, measured in current dollars.

Laura MacDonald, chair of the Giving USA Foundation, says, "2020 represents the highest year of charitable giving on record."  This generous response is attributed to a robust year-end stock market, Covid-19, and racial justice concerns.  

The donors

Here's a look at giving by source--

+Giving by individuals totaled an estimated $324.10 billion, rising 2.2% in 2020.

+Giving by foundations increased 17.0% to an estimated $88.55 billion, reaching its highest-ever dollar amount.

+Giving by bequest was an estimated $41.91 billion and grew 10.3% from 2019. This is a category that fluctuates from year to year. 

-Giving by corporations is estimated to have declined by 6.1% in 2020 to $16.88 billion.

The recipients

Who were the top beneficiaries?

+Giving to religion grew slightly by 1.0% between 2019 and 2020, with an estimated $131.08 billion in contributions. However, adjusted for inflation, giving to religion was flat in 2020.

(C) WDHN.COM

+Giving to education is estimated to have increased by 9.0% to $71.34 billion. Education giving includes contributions to K-12, higher education, and libraries. This category benefited from a robust year-end stock market.

(C) College of Charleston

+Giving to human services increased by an estimated 9.7% in 2020 totaling $65.14 billion.

(C) ISTOCK

+Giving to foundations is estimated to have increased by 2.0% to $58.17 billion.

(C) Foundation Group

An uneven picture

There are other aspects to this nearly half-trillion-dollar story.

Ms. MacDonald, the Foundation chair, adds that while the totals are record-setting, individual households and specific charities may look different, with many facing hardships.

"In some ways, 2020 is a story of uneven impact and recovery. However, many wealthier households were more insulated from the effects of Covid-19 and the ensuing economic shock, and they have had a greater capacity to give charitably than households and communities that were disproportionately affected and struggled financially," said Amir Pasic, Ph.D., Dean of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

Motivations for giving

The Lilly research briefly highlights why people gave. Donors responded to urgent needs in a pandemic ravaged 2020. Individuals increased their support for charitable organizations through mutual aid efforts and person-to-person giving. 

"Nonprofit leaders and fundraising professionals helped themselves by showing innovation in fundraising methods and donor outreach in raising financial support under difficult circumstances," Lilly notes. 

For most, pre-existing relationships provided a support base, while making new connections was harder to pull off.  

A spirit of generosity

The Giving USA report for 2020 focuses on financial giving. However, other ways people can give don't require wealth, such as donating to local food banks and volunteering time to feed the homeless.  

The University of Notre Dame's Science of Generosity initiative provides an insightful look at the concept itself. In its roots, generosity meant "of noble birth." However, over time that meaning began to change. Generosity evolved from family heritage to a nobility of spirit that would be found in people everywhere. It no longer depended on family history but on whether a person possessed a spirit of generosity.   

"Generosity, properly understood, could call any given person to a higher standard," the Science study concludes.

An up-to-date definition of "generosity" refers to giving good things to others freely and abundantly.

The Notre Dame research offers plenty to think about--

• Generosity is a learned character trait that involves attitude and action.
• Generosity is not a random idea or haphazard behavior but a mature form, a basic, personal, moral orientation to life.
• Generosity also involves giving to others, not simply anything in abundance but giving things that are good for others.
• What generosity gives may vary--money, possessions, time, attention, encouragement, emotional availability, and more.
• Thus generosity, like all virtues, is in people's genuine enlightened self-interest to learn and practice.

Gratitude makes a difference

There may be times when for good reasons, lead gifts in a financial campaign come with naming privileges. Or major donors give publicly, encouraging others to do the same. What's notable in a culture of self-gratification is that the vast majority of the $421 billion charitable dollars in 2020 were given unobtrusively. Those donors are grateful for what they have and willingly share with others.

And who gives might be surprising.

Sociologists Christian Smith, Michael Emerson, and Patricia Zell Herzog looked carefully at giving and broadened the social character of those who give generously. They found a reservoir of value in giving time, emotions, and energy through volunteer work.  

"Volunteering is, in fact, a consistent bright spot among researchers," they wrote. "People who do it tend to do it often and support thousands of institutions, nonprofits, and other groups that would not exist without this free work." 

In a 2000-person Internet survey conducted in 2010, the authors found that some 60% of the people surveyed who live below the poverty line gave something versus 32% of those above the bar.

Developing cheerful givers

Looking for teachable moments? Here are four from "American Generosity:  Who Gives and Why:"

1. Seasonal giving helps build a habit in busy lives. 

2. The amount of time, energy, and money people give goes up if it's routine.

3. A huge predictor of giving is exposure to generosity as a child.  

4. Most people who participate in giving as kids, especially as volunteers, continue that habit as an adult.  

What else do we need to know? 

The writer, D. L. Hope, suggests that giving is best carried out by not mingling motives.

"If you want to call attention to your good deed, then it isn't a good deed; it's a self-serving one."

(C) 123RF

From Notre Dame's study on the science of generosity to 2020's record results, there's much to be said about the practice of cheerfully giving good things to others freely, abundantly--and quietly. 

Strategist.com

© Bredholt & Co.

Conducting an After-Action Review

 "A fool despises counsel but a wise man takes it to heart."

--Confucius 

During a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting in Washington, DC, on 28 September 2021, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was asked if the Pentagon would review the planning and implementation of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan on 30 August 2021.  

Secretary Austin replied that there would indeed be an 'AAR' or After Action Review of that operation. "Soup to nuts," he later added.

What's an After-Action Review?

An AAR is a formal and informal assessment conducted during or after a project that allows employees and leaders to discover (learn) what happened and why. (Standard definition)

Here are actions that might justify a scaled-to-fit AAR:*

-A telephone call with a client.

-An internal meeting.

-A sales call to a client.

-Introduction of a new product line.

-Training programs.

-A change in hiring procedures.

-The launch of a corporate-wide initiative.

-Assessing one's career.

This approach focuses on the tasks and goals to discover the "why" of outcomes. Think of an AAR as a professional discussion with emotion--to the extent possible--kept outside the room.  

(C) University of Cambridge

There are four basic questions to ask--

1. What was supposed to happen?

2. What actually happened?

3. Why was there a difference?

4. What can we learn from this?

What an AAR is not

To know what something is, it's helpful to know what it's not.  

An After Action Review is not ...

o A lecture

o A discussion of minor events

o A gripe session

o Intend to embarrass anyone

o To judge success or failure

Are AARs for everyone?

Reading about this topic over the years, I've often wondered why more organizations don't take advantage of this tool. Businesses, nonprofits, and higher education should consider using this process. 

However, not without caution.

Peter Senge, director of the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT and author of the best-selling book, "The Fifth Discipline," has this to say about AARs:

"The Army's After Action Review is arguably one of the most successful organizational learning methods. Yet, almost every corporate effort to graft this truly innovative practice into their culture has failed because, again and again, people reduce the living practice of AARs to a sterile technique."

What professor Senge observes about AARs, that they often absent fertility, could be said about other tools businesses embrace, such as best practices, change management, SWOT analysis, mind mapping, brainstorming, and organizational restructuring.

Why things happen

The most important discovery is why things happened the way they did. And an AAR has the potential for real-time learning--not just after the fact. 

(C) Real KM

An insightful understanding of an AAR comes from an article, "Learning in the Thick of It," published in the July-August 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review. 

Here's what the authors say about making real-time reviews pay off:

o It's not just the learning but how the knowledge is used. 

o The goal is to identify practices to spread and mistakes not to repeat.

o Education is not just about what to do but how to think.

o To be valid, AAR findings must find their way post-haste into the execution of strategy.

Getting started

Three things to keep in mind:

1. For large-scale assessments, an experienced facilitator to run a formal process is always a plus. On the other hand, smaller-scale, informal reviews are more conversational and don't require a trained moderator. Just someone with good communication skills.

2. Come back to the original tasks and goals of the event--and begin asking the basic set of questions suggested above.

3. The more engaged employees, the more recall and lessons learned.

 

* Ideas drawn from the book, "Conversational Leadership." 

Strateigst.com

© Bredholt & Co.

  

 

Climbing Mount Denali

"Better we raise our skill than lower the climb."

--Royal Robbins

At 20,310 feet (6,190 meters), Mount Denali is the highest peak in North America. Translated as "The Great One," the former Mount McKinley (name changed in 2015 by the U.S. Department of the Interior) is the centerpiece of the six million acres of Denali National Park located 240 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska.  

Mount Denali Alaska
(C) USA Today

Denali, which is the common expression, is the third tallest of the "Seven Summits" (the tallest peak on each continent), after Mount Everest (29,032 feet) in Asia and Mount Aconcagua (22,838) in South America. The first verifiable ascent to Denali's South Peak was achieved on 7 June 1913 by climbers Hudson Stuck, Harry Karstens, Walter Harper, and Robert Tatum.

The National Park Service says the average trip expedition to the top and back is 17 to 21 days.

New summits to climb

During a recent "tundra wilderness tour" of Denali National Park, our guide stopped the bus and pointed in a northwest direction to the Alaskan Range, where Denali resides in all its grandeur.   

Did we see Denali that day?  

 

Unfortunately, not. We failed to qualify for the 30 percent club, the percentage that glimpses the tallest mountain in North America.     

However, in this phase of the pandemic, other challenging summits are in clear view needing to be scaled.  

Here are four:

1. How we address Covid-19 (and variants). The virus appears to be moving from a pandemic or global outbreak to an endemic or constantly maintained virus. Everything else on this list is significantly affected by how we understand and respond to the coronavirus in terms of science, government policy, and personal decisions related to vaccinations.

Covid-19
(C) Food and Drug Administration

What's the goal? Is it to control the virus (influenza) or eradicate it (smallpox)? And who decides? The answers to those questions will likely define what becomes typical.  

2. How we work. The September return-to-office timetable for professional, managerial, and technical personnel has been set back by a surge in the Delta variant. This situation should only increase our appreciation for others whose work, such as medical personnel, has required on-site duty from the pandemic's beginning.  

Work-from-home (WFH) and hybrid schedules get the most attention. And employees in some fields like tech seem to have the upper hand with flexibility as a prize possession.  

The other side looks like this: Projects take longer. Training is tougher. Hiring and integrating employees is more complicated. Younger professionals can't sit next to experienced colleagues and learn the trade.  

When it comes to promotions, out of sight is probably out of mind.  

Whatever corporate culture exists is built on preexisting relationships. At some point, those interactions exhaust themselves, and new ones are required to keep shared beliefs and values alive.  

If you've been in business for any length of time, you know the future happens face-to-face--assuming employers can find people to work. Larger companies are doing okay, while smaller businesses struggle to meet employment goals. That's especially true for the dining and lodging industries. 

3. How we educate our children and youth. In the U.S., government-run schools, which continue in enrollment decline, are the leading instruction providers for around 90 percent of the country's 56 million K-12 students.  

A joint Stanford/New York Times study of 70,000 schools in 33 states showed that those offering remote-only learning at the beginning of 2020-2021 experienced a 3.7 percent decline. Those with in-person schooling went down 2.6 percent.

A McKinsey study shows that the impact of the pandemic on K–12 student learning was significant, leaving students, on average, five months behind in mathematics and four months behind in reading by the end of the school year. The pandemic widened pre-Covid opportunity and achievement gaps, hitting historically disadvantaged students hardest. 

In math, students in majority Black schools ended the year with six months of unfinished learning, and students in low-income schools with seven. In addition, high schoolers have become more likely to drop out of school, and high school seniors, especially those from low-income families, are less likely to go on to postsecondary education. 

And the crisis had an impact on not just academics but also the broader health and well-being of students, with more than 35 percent of parents very or highly concerned about their children's mental health.

4. How we live. The Wall Street Journal identified the following in the U.S.:  Mobility is increasing. Individuals and families are looking for more space to improve working conditions at home. Younger people are leaving the cities earlier than usual. Some older households speeding up retirement. Suburbs the winners with large cities reducing decades-long growth trends.

A Zillow report shows the median existing-home price for all housing types in June 2021 was $363,300, up 23.4 percent from June 2020. Affordable housing and starter homes are in short supply. 

Other inclines

Travel--

All Delta flight segments--Detroit-Salt Lake City-Anchorage and back through Minneapolis/St. Paul--full. The Marriott in downtown Anchorage--full. The Denali resorts--full. The Wilderness Express trains were crowded. 

Domestic leisure travel is holding its own, although bookings for fall are beginning to slow due to the variant. On the other hand, business travel, where the profits are, is not recovering at the same pace and may not for some time.      

Most countries are open to travelers from the United States. But as Covid-19 cases continue to surge, some places like the European Union are looking at resuming restrictions like pre-arrival testing, quarantines, and travel bans, according to a report in The New York Times.

Gatherings--  

Everything from concerts to conventions to churches. There was momentum this past year to return to auditoriums, hotels, and houses of worship. But those gains may slow if people feel unsafe indoors in crowded conditions.  

To show up, some performers require audiences to mask up. 

Motivations for climbing

Those who traverse Mount Denali have different motivations but one similarity. All must first know what kind of mountain climber they are. 

Scaling the coronavirus requires knowing who we are to collectively reach the top to conquer something that has, for now, seemingly conquered us.  

 

Strategist.com

© Bredholt & Co.

Managing Oneself--First

 "Self-control is strength; right thought is mastery, and calmness is power.

--James Allen

Peter Drucker, the famed management consultant and author reviewed his life and profession in August each year. Why not December? Most likely, he found the end of the year to be too busy and too late. A crowded holiday season doesn't lend itself to contemplation.    

So consider making the dog days of summer (in my hemisphere) a time for intentional reflection and renewal as we look at managing ourselves--first. 

Crises are revealing

Looking back over the past 18 months, what have you learned about yourself? What have the different types of crises, social and economic, revealed about you? And how are you transitioning from crisis mode to focusing on the future? 

Perhaps now is the moment to look deeper into your life and habits to see what should stay the same, be strengthened, or be removed.

Holding sway

One way to improve your personal and professional life is to consider desired outcomes for yourself and the organization. Then determine where to allocate hours, days, and weeks to achieve those ends.  

Positive influence over the behavior of others comes from knowing where time should be spent, its purpose, and with whom. That's the first step in managing yourself. 

Here are questions for you and others to think about:  

-Internally, where does leadership have the most influence? The least influence? 

-In which area are you spending most of your time now? With what result?

-How do self-knowledge, self-awareness, and self-discipline contribute to being different? 

Observations on human behavior

1. It's difficult, if not impossible, to manage or influence others without the ability to control yourself. Proverbial wisdom says that a person without self-control is like a house with its doors and windows knocked out.

2.  By temperament or wiring, a few have a head start with a disposition toward making themselves work. They behave in a particular way without anyone telling them what to do. These individuals are more settled and mature at an earlier stage.  

3. In developing the right behaviors, some need more time than others. Or the good experiences. Interpreting those moments is often a delayed process. Again, a trusted friend or mentor can play a pivotal role in helping us get where we need to be. 

But rewiring our brains is also a possibility. But, again, a lot has to do with how you think of yourself and less about the circumstances into which you were born.

4. Knowing who you are, what you believe, and what you stand for is essential for moral leadership.

5. Time is the most critical non-renewable resource we have. Where to spend it?

Too much time on the most minor controllable areas and insufficient time on the more controllable places hinder organizational performance. And those misplaced priorities give permission for associates to do the same.    

If your time allocation is out of balance, how to reset the leadership clock? 

What gets your attention

The world entangles the mind. Technology scatters the mind. Pandemics and politics confuse the mind.   

What are you thinking? (C)

Leaders tend to be confronted by too many distractions. Employees and customers are in the same predicament. Digital is a culprit, but not the only one.

On average, our minds wander almost 50% of the time. That includes thinking about things not going on directly around us, contemplating events that happened in the past, might occur in the future or never happen at all. This analysis comes from Ness Labs.  

There's good to be gained from intentional mind-wandering. Your brain needs that type of exercise, according to the research. However, wandering too much and too far comes with an emotional cost, their report concludes.

Shifting gears, how do you get your brain to concentrate on what matters?

To improve focus, Ness Labs recommend the following--

• Manage your distractions. Put the phone away--although you may work better with background noise or music.
• Monitor your mind. To wherever you drift, learn to return to the task at hand. It's not about never losing your focus--which would be unrealistic--but about monitoring your attention.
• Strengthen your brain's circuitry. Focus on your breath. The reality of losing focus and bringing your focus back to breathing improves concentration.  

An August refresh

Here's a closing thought from philosopher Tom Morris--

If grit keeps you going, and resilience picks you up, self-renewal helps you stay energized.  And it's ironically easiest when you're working for something greater than self. 

Strategist.com

© Bredholt & Co.

 

Dysfunctional Teams Are Still Around

"Sometimes problems don't require a solution to solve them; instead they require maturity to outgrow them."

--Dr. Steve Maraboli

In 2006 at a conference in New York, hearing best-selling author, Patrick Lencioni reminded me of a professor filled with inexhaustible things to say but wisely limiting his thoughts to a far-reaching few. Those who follow Mr. Lencioni know that he teaches using--fables.  

Trained as a writer, the former Bain & Co. consultant discovered that telling a story effectively provides relational insights to clients. The central theme: "Organizational health is the single greatest competitive advantage in any business," says Mr. Lencioni.     

New season-old habits 

Covid-19 may have pushed unhealthy behaviors aside, making way for survival. However, inconsistent and detrimental practices are never far away. 

Coming out of a global pandemic and a return to work transition may be an excellent time to revisit the main points in "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team," a book of fables that sold over three million copies.*

Brand 1123RF (C)

Think about each dysfunction in the context of a year's long physical separation; working from home; millennials as the majority of the workforce; and a significantly changed office environment for those who return.

Here are the five dysfunctions: 

1. Absence of trust—unwilling to be vulnerable within the group.  

2. Fear of conflict—seeking artificial harmony over constructive passionate debate.

3. Lack of commitment—feigning buy-in for group decisions creates ambiguity throughout the organization.

4. Avoidance of accountability—ducking the responsibility to call peers and superiors on counterproductive behavior that sets low standards.

5. Inattention to results—focusing on personal success, status, and ego before team success.

Consider the following

-What, if any, of these dysfunctions existed in your enterprise before the lockdown? How were they being addressed?  

-Is there any abnormal functioning within your leadership teams currently? What are they?

-How does interpersonal behavior affect the execution of corporate strategy?   

-As the economy resumes and safety improves, is face-to-face a better way to deal with these problems? 

Exhausting but necessary

Building cooperation throughout a company, especially at the top, is a never-ending task. An effort like this requires time and emotional energy. 

Holding any group mutually accountable (including leadership) is even more complex when self-importance supersedes organizational purpose. 

This difficult undertaking may explain, at least in part, why for nearly 20 years, "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" remains a best-selling book.

* The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick Lencioni, 2002 (Jossey-Bass).

Strategist.com

© Bredholt & Co.

Books of Summer

(C) McGraw-Hill Executive Library 

Here is a list of recommended business reads from Inc. Magazine.  The titles are drawn from 2020--we will wait to see what makes the list in 2021:

1. Always Day One: How the Tech Titans Plan to Stay on Top Forever, 

by Alex Kantrowitz

2. Billion-Dollar Brand Club: How Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, and Other Disruptors Are Remaking What We Buy, by Lawrence Ingrassia

3. Experimentation Works: The Surprising Power of Business Experiments, 

by Stefan H. Thomke

4. Intentional Integrity: How Smart Companies Can Lead an Ethical Revolution, by Robert Chesnut

5. Lead From the Future: How to Turn Visionary Thinking Into Breakthrough Growth, by Mark W. Johnson and Josh Suskewicz

6. No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram, by Sarah Frier

7. No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention, by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer

8. When More Is Not Better: Overcoming America's Obsession with Economic Efficiency, by Roger L. Martin

9. Whistleblower: My Journey to Silicon Valley and Fight for Justice at Uber, 

by Susan Fowler

10. A World Without Work: Technology, Automation, and How We Should Respond, by Daniel Susskind

Strategist.com

©  Bredholt & Co.

Navigating the Suez Canal

 "Ships are safe in the harbor, but that's not what ships are for."

-John A. Shedd

Ever Given, an ultra-large Golden class container ship became stuck in the Suez Canal on 23 March 2021 at 05:30 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).   The boat, operated by Evergreen Marine, was en route from Malaysia to the Netherlands when it ran aground after winds allegedly blew the ship off course. Egyptian authorities, who own and operate the canal, are investigating.

Ever Given container ship, stuck in the Suez Canal.
(C) University of Miami

The Ever Given, a ship as long as the Empire State Building is tall, completely blocked the canal for six days. After being freed and refloated on 29 March, the Ever Given made way for a backlog of over 400 ships to pass through the canal.  

However, with a seizure of the Ever Given by Egyptian authorities and a pending $1 billion fine, the ship isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Time is money

Where is the Suez Canal?

The canal cuts through Egypt, linking the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Red Sea in the south. It's one of the world's best-known and most important waterways. Last year, nearly 19,000 vessels passed through the canal carrying 1.2 billion tons of cargo. Around 13% of maritime trade passes through the Suez Canal, including a large proportion of the world's oil. (Suez Canal Authority; The Wall Street Journal)

The Suez Canal.  

An alternate route goes around the Cape of Good Hope off Africa's southern coast. But that course adds two weeks to the same trip from Asia to Europe.  

Major sailing routes. (C) Researchgate

The backstory

The size of ships is growing faster than ports can expand. In addition, ships' size is directly related to consumer demand. With household spending on the rise, logistics problems will likely worsen.

For the U.S., a certain percentage of Peloton bikes, large-screen televisions, and hot tubs are now being shipped by air to avoid a backlog in the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California. The LA port is North America's busiest, while China is home to seven of the world's 10 largest container ports. (American Enterprise Institute) 

A National Retail Federation survey conducted in March before the Suez Canal blockage found that 98% of respondents said they had been impacted by port or other shipping-related delays. More than half said congestion added at least three weeks to their supply chains.

The Ever Given was carrying 20,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent) containers filled with goods of nearly every kind. 

The incident

How did the ship get stuck in the first place?

The Suez Canal Authority said high wind speeds were a factor in causing the accident. The Authority is also looking into human error and technical malfunction to see if they played a role.

"You can't steer straight if the wind is blowing sideways," said  Robert Flannery, an active pilot from New York familiar with this waterway.   

From the accident report, the Ever Given was moving north up the canal toward the Mediterranean Sea when caught in a seasonal dust storm known as the khamsin, where wind speeds can reach 40 knots or 46 mph. Its bow then veered into the right side of the channel, becoming embedded in the canal wall--and wedging the vessel across the entire width of the channel.

Convergence 

When stuck in a bad situation, you'll not likely get out on your own. So it was with the Ever Given cargo ship in the Suez Canal. So let's think about what could be helpful in your next crisis:

1. Are you on the right side of the problem? Tugboats stationed north of Ever Given made it almost impossible to free the ship until reinforcements from elsewhere arrived at the south to pull on its stern.

2. Scaling up means more extensive and complex problems. Twice, the thick cables with which the main tugboat pulled the container ship snapped under the tension, the first time the crew had seen such a rupture. Do you want to grow your business? Then be prepared for unfamiliar circumstances and obstacles of size. Without previous experience, management solutions often result from trial and error.  

3. While asking for help, remember that experts do not guarantee a fix. Workers had dredged more than a million cubic feet of sand and silt beneath the 1,300-foot-long vessel. And then the tugs took advantage of an unusually high tide to move the tanker back and forth. But instead of slipping free and gliding to the center of the canal, the Ever Given remained stuck, waiting for the next high tide.   

4. Have hope--but hold the public optimism. The Canal Authority began letting ships in from the north after engineers calculated the Ever Given would be pulled free. Unfortunately, this decision just added to the problem creating an even greater traffic jam.  

5.  One last push. The ship's owner hired Smit Salvage from the Netherlands. A backup plan called for unloading containers to lighten the load was put in place but added weeks to the rescue mission, something the Canal Authority wanted to avoid at all costs. So instead, they chose to go for one last push hoping to extract just enough sand and debris for the Ever Given to slide free. 

Supermoon.  (C) The Guardian

6. An assist from E.T.   Sometimes, we get a break from a third-party source to help us out of a jam. In this instance, the rescue team received an extra-terrestrial gift--a supermoon. That type of moon materializes when the full moon coincides with the moon's closest approach to Earth in its orbit. Scientists say supermoons make the moon appear a little brighter and more intimate than normal, although the difference is hard to spot with the naked eye. (space.com) 

There are only four supermoons scheduled in 2021. But, amazingly, the first one came at just the right time on 28 March and pushed the tide higher.      

7. Ship ahoy. The Alp Guard tugboat arrived with a pulling power of 285 metric tons, providing a significant boost. Then, fighting high winds and strong currents, the tide began to ebb and the Ever Given began to finally stir.  

On 29 March at 3:05 p.m. local time, the ship was free.  

Additional sources include CNBC; USA Today; Wikipedia; BBC; Popular Mechanics; and the Maritime Executive.

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