Alan Weiss’s Monday Morning Memo® – 5/15/2023
I was introduced to my wife’s friend’s husband at dinner one night. Despite my attempts to avoid it, he wanted to know what I did and when I briefly explained, he asked if I could give him some advice. I said, “Sure, after my next martini.”
“You haven’t finished your first,” he observed.
“Trust me, I’m having a second.”
After patiently waiting he told me that he had discovered a huge problem in responding to client requests (he owned an accounting firm). The request required three people to handle and approve, and sometimes one of them was away or otherwise occupied. So, he created “deputies” empowered to act in such absences.
“What do you think?” he said.
“I think that you should empower the first person to respond and eliminate the other two and their involvement. Have you considered that, or is this just the way the system has always been?”
“It is,” he admitted, and said that he would try to find out why they were requiring the involvement of the other two people.
This isn’t unusual. It’s a phenomenon I’ve coined as “optimizing sub-optimal systems.” It’s when you keep pouring oil into the engine instead of fixing or replacing the engine (or the car). It’s when you place a shim under a table leg instead of fixing it and wind up spilling the red wine on your best friend’s wife’s white skirt. It’s when they ask you to shout and keep repeating yourself because the tinny speakers at Dunkin’ Donuts’s drive thru are so awful.
When you have a problem, don’t automatically try to restore past performance and repair the system. Improve the system and create better performance.
Otherwise, we’d all still be oiling and greasing garage door mechanisms so they’d be easier to lift when we got out of the car.
Some very poor countries run great vaccination systems, and some richer ones run terrible programs. —Bill Gates
Companies spend millions of dollars on firewalls, encryption, and secure access devices and it’s money wasted because none of these measures address the weakest link in the security chain: the people who use, administer, operate and account for computer systems that contain protected information. —Kevin Mitnick
Knowing reality means constructing systems of transformations that correspond, more or less adequately, to reality. —Jean Piaget
Developmental Stuff
The Role of Strategy in Contemporary Society: There is still time to join this Zoom session with my compliments if you feel justified in providing a five-star review of my book, Sentient Strategy, on Amazon. The session is May 18 at 9 eastern and recorded for distribtion. If you’ve already done this please make sure you send me the review and your email address to be included, since Amazon doesn’t inclue email addresses in reviews.
Master Master Class II: This sold-out event in March was so popular that I’m running another in October in Newport. I accept 16 people in person (you may also attend remotely on our large screen) and we have 6 seats remaining! I’m creating new material, exercises, and challenges. Past “grads” get a discount. One person said, “I’ve known you for nearly 20 years, and this is the best thing you’ve ever done!” (Maybe I just wasn’t that good before!) Register here: https://alanweiss.com/
NEW! Alan’s Advisory Suite: Nine options for groups or individuals to receive “real time” coaching to build their practices and lives on a continuing basis. The strongest, best people in business, entertainment, sports, the media—all use coaches. https://alanweiss.
Alan Weiss’s Coaching Confidential Newsletter™: Sign up to receive my unique, monthly, highly targeted newsletter which contains inventive coaching methodology, case studies, and strange experiences in the coaching trade! I’ve coached thousands of business executives and entrepreneurs globally: https://alanweiss.
Million Dollar Consulting® for the World: I’ve provided 14 modules with videos from me, from your colleagues globally, slides, and text. They include everything from launch to self-esteem, proposals to fees, closing business to creating a brand. No upsells! It’s only $115. What do you think about a 10,000:1 ROI? We have over 500 people from 47 countries. https://
NEW: Million Dollar Consulting® for the World ADVANCED: The new program contains over 60 videos and has 15 modules focusing on what to do in the buyer’s office, overcoming crises, financial planning, and much, much more. https://alanweiss.com/
Sentient Strategy Certification: My new book on the topic (above) has been released, so this is an ideal time to market Sentient Strategy. Write me to apply, join over 70 people certified in six countries. One-time fee of $12,000, includes 90 days of my support, free admission to all future certifications, and admission to a private web board with other Sentient facilitators. alan@
Vancouver Day: I’ll be providing a full day in Vancouver for as little as $300 (US) including lunch on September 9: How to Dramatically Increase Revenues while Radically Reducing Labor. I’ll be returning from an Alaskan cruise and need the money to pay for it! This is a rare appearance in Western Canada. https://alanweiss.com/
