Ed Batista

On Memorial Day

To Corporal Fife, standing tensely in the midst of the silent company headquarters, the lack of cheering only heightened his previous impression of its all being like a business.  A regular business venture, not war at all.  The idea was horrifying to Fife.  It was weird and wacky and somehow insane.  It was even immoral.  It was as though a clerical, mathematical equation had been worked out, as a calculated risk: Here were two large, expensive ships and, say, twenty-five large aircraft had been sent out after them.  These had been given protection as long as possible by smaller aircraft, which were less expensive than they, and then sent on alone on the theory that all or part of twenty-five large aircraft was worth all or part of two large ships.  The defending fighters, working on the same principle, strove to keep the price as high as possible, their ultimate hope being to get all twenty-five large aircraft without paying all or any of either ship.  And that there were men in these expensive machines which were contending with each other, was unimportant--except for the fact that they were needed to manipulate the machines.  The very idea itself, and what it implied, struck a cold blade of terror into Fife's essentially defenseless vitals, a terror both of unimportance, his unimportance, and powerlessness, his powerlessness.  He had no control or sayso in any of it.  Not even where it concerned himself, who was also a part of it.  It was terrifying.  He did not mind dying in a war, a real war--at least, he didn't think he did--but he did not want to die in a regulated business venture.

-- James Jones, The Thin Red Line

Olompali State Park and Mt. Burdell Open Space Preserve, Marin County

Olompali State Park doesn't seem to get much press, and maybe that's why it's so peaceful.  Right off 101 between Novato and Petaluma (accessible only from 101 South--make a U-turn at San Antonio Road if you're coming up from SF), it's a perfect place for a moderate day hike--about six miles in a semi-loop up and back to the top of Mt. Burdell, almost 1,300 feet of elevation change.  From the summit there's a view of southern Sonoma that reminds me of a Wayne Thiebaud painting.  (The painting above, by Bill Pfeffer, is of the trees surrounding a number of 19th century buildings near the park entrance.)

The park's southwest corner, near the summit, borders on  the Mount Burdell Open Space Preserve, which looks to be about three times the size of the State Park and has a rich network of trails and fire roads.  Yesterday a friend and I hiked up the Mt. Burdell trail in Olompali and walked a little ways down a fire road in the Open Space Preserve, thinking it might re-enter the park at some point--unfortunately it dead-ends in private property owned by the Buck Center for the Aging.  Luckily we backtracked briefly and ran into a pair of serious (i.e. GPS-equipped) hikers who showed us a little-used but still extant trail that re-connects with the Mt. Burdell trail.  Signage instructs you not to take it, but we didn't want to backtrack all the way, and while I can see why they wouldn't want bikers or horses on it, I can't see how hikers could cause any harm.  So we took it.

Note that the official (but apparently outdated) State Park map (PDF) only shows the now-banned trail and not the Mt. Burdell trail, while the far superior Open Space Preserve map (PDF) does just the opposite and includes both the park and the preserve.  (Marin Open Space District maps kick ass.)  Thanks to Jane Huber's Bay Area Hiker for the map links and to Bill Pfeffer for the unauthorized use of his beautiful painting--go see more.  And thanks to John for the great conversation (and yes, that was the moderate hike.)

tags: olompali state park mount burdell open space preserve mt burdell marin open space district

Frank Robinson Is Nails

A beautiful example of how a man can show his strength, show his emotions, do the right thing and take care of his people all at the same time:
Last night Washington Nationals manager Frank Robinson pulled catcher Matthew LeCroy in the middle of the seventh inning after the Houston Astros had stolen seven bases and the third-stringer had committed his second error by throwing into the outfield.

The Nats survived LeCroy's performance and pulled out an 8-5 win, but according to an AP report from Joseph White at the postgame press conference, "Tears of sadness streamed down both of...Robinson's cheeks, and his voice quivered," and he had this to say:

I feel for [LeCroy.]  And I hope the fans understand.  And I just appreciate him hanging in there as long as he did... It's not LeCroy's fault.  We know his shortcoming.  They took advantage of them today... I wasn't trying to embarrass him in any way.

If you're not a baseball fan, let me provide some context: LeCroy was killing his team with a disastrous defensive performance, and he had to come out of the game.  But it's unheard of for a manager to pull a catcher in the middle of the inning--it's the ultimate humiliation and a potentially explosive situation.

A little more context: Frank Robinson is a hardass.  (The cheerful quote, "Close only counts in horseshoes and grenades" is widely attributed to him.)  You might expect him to yank LeCroy with heartless disgust, crushing LeCroy's confidence and polarizing the team.

But Robinson stepped up to the plate (sorry) and somehow found a safe path through this minefield.  He did what he had to do, pulling LeCroy and preserving the victory the rest of his team had fought for.  But he made it clear to LeCroy and the world what a difficult decision that was, and how much respect and compassion he had for LeCroy.  He delivered a heavy blow with the lightest of touches.  Fearless, man.  Frank Robinson is nails.

(Thanks to Deadspin for the photo.  No thanks for missing the point.)

tags: frank robinson matthew lecroy washington nationals leadership

Update on Pfeffer and Sutton's "Hard Facts"

Bob Sutton, co-author with Jeffrey Pfeffer of Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management, has just put out a Change This manifesto on Management Advice: Which 90% Is Crap?, and an excerpt bears particular relevance to Hard Facts' perspective on leadership:

It turns out that facing the hard facts is something that human beings are remarkably bad at doing. We "shoot the messengers" who bring us bad news; we seek, remember, and act on bad evidence that supports our dearly held beliefs; we avoid, forget, and fail to act on evidence that clashes with our ingrained if flawed ideologies. The best leaders have the courage to act on what they know right now and the humility to change their actions when they encounter new evidence. That is why, although Hard Facts contains much research and many nuances, the main idea is that the best leaders and companies have "the attitude of wisdom": They have the courage to act on what they know right now and the humility to change their actions when they encounter
new evidence. They also know how to argue as if they are right, and listen as if they are wrong—so they can develop and think about their ideas without becoming narrow-minded slaves to bad or incomplete ideas. As former Intel CEO, Andy Grove, put it, "I think it is very important for you to do two things: act on your temporary conviction as if it was a real conviction; and when you realize that you are wrong, correct course very quickly." Amen.

My emphasis, and if that isn't good advice for life in general, I don't know what is.

tags: jeffrey pfeffer robert sutton bob sutton andy grove hard facts change this leadership

Malcolm Gladwell on Physical Presence and Leadership

In the May 22nd New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell has an article that could be seen as a profile of "Dog Whisperer" Cesar Millan or as a exploration of Millan's methods and why they work.  But the real topic was the importance of physical presence in leadership, and I came away with an increased appreciation for the ways in which our physical "phrasing"--our "combinations of gesture and posture"--affect how we are perceived by others.  (As Gladwell notes, "the great communicators are those who match their phrasing with their communicative intentions.")

We're trained to think of communication as an inborn skill, but I've learned (the hard way) that I can be a much more effective communicator by being more mindful of everything from the words I choose to my tone of voice to my facial expressions.  Why couldn't I also be more mindful of my physical presence?  Gladwell writes elsewhere, "Movement analysts say that we all have a kind of phrasing baseline—a personal style that is fairly unconscious and unchangeable. But, as with all personal traits, we can definitely learn to improve our performance at the margins."

Gladwell's perspective is rooted in Laban Movement Analysis, devised by Rudolf Laban in the early 20th century and extended by Irmgard Bartenieff and Warren Lamb.  Laban classes are offered as a form of alternative movement therapy and his work is apparently still a big influence in contemporary dance, but I'd also love to see these principles applied simply to help people feel more comfortable in their bodies, to be more mindful of their "phrasing," and to be more effective communicators.  If anyone knows of any classes like that in or around San Francisco, let me know.

Extended quotes from the Gladwell article and a separate Q&A with Ben Greenman after the jump.

tags: malcolm gladwell cesar millan rudolf laban laban movement analysis phrasing new yorker

Extra Golden: Ok-Oyot System

My brother Matt just turned my on to Extra Golden's Ok-Oyot System, an amazing hybrid of Kenyan benga music and Washington D.C. alt-post-whatever-rock.  Alex Minoff and Ian Eagleson of Golden hooked up with Kenyans Otieno Jagwasi and Onyango Wuod Omari as a result of Ian's doctoral research into Kenyan music, and they recorded this album shortly before Otieno passed away last year.  It's really beautiful, sort of spacey and funky at the same time.  You can listen to all the tracks on Thrill Jockey's site, where you can also download them for $10, saving $3 off the price of a CD.

tags: extra golden golden ok-oyot system thrill jockey kenyan music

Carly Fiorina, Take Two

Alan Murray has a piece in today's Wall Street Journal that looks back at the H-P/Compaq merger that was Carly Fiorina's crowning achievement as well as her undoing.  Although Fiorina was booted because of a widespread perception that the merger had failed and was going to drag H-P down, over the past few years H-P has been substantially outperforming its competitors.  So if Fiorina saved H-P, why couldn't she save herself?  According to Murray,

...H-P's board never completely lost faith in the merger... They just lost faith in Carly.  She created a matrix-management structure they couldn't understand and muddled lines of reporting that made it difficult to hold anyone responsible.  She concentrated too much power in her own office, and then took to the road making speeches and wasn't there when decisions needed to be made.  Perhaps most importantly, she was disdainful of the board's efforts to change her ways.

I still think that brand misalignment between the dynamic Fiorina and the stodgy H-P (magnified by a healthy dose of old-fashioned sexism) caused many of her problems.  But Murray paints a picture (one that's consistent with other media reports) of an inflexible manager who had to do things her way and who failed to see that she was turning potential allies into antagonists.

Fiorina's a fascinating case study to me, because she exemplifies a set of questions I ask myself all the time.  How do you exert leadership without alienating others?  How do you get others to invest in your mutual success?  How do you build support for large-scale change, rather than simply mandating it?  In hindsight, Fiorina clearly had the right answer for H-P, but she never found the right answers to these questions, if she even asked them in the first place.

tags: carly fiorina h-p hp compaq alan murray

Jon Stewart, 2004 Commencement

The other day Amy and I were talking about law school commencement addresses and how they should be much more realistic about the demands of the profession and the challenges those fresh-faced JDs will confront.  She heard one recently that basically said, "Pursue justice!" which is great advice, but utterly insufficient.  In Amy's words, the message should be, "You're going to have to struggle to do the right thing, the hours will be long, your personal life will suffer, and you have to decide whether all of that is worth it."

Today she came across Jon Stewart's 2004 commencement address to the College of William & Mary, his alma mater, and even though it's two years old, it's a helluva lot better than most of the speeches that'll be made around the country over the next few weeks.  It's hilarious and not that long, so you'd probably enjoy reading the whole thing, but here's what really grabbed me:

When I left William and Mary I was shell-shocked. Because when you’re in college it’s very clear what you have to do to succeed. And I imagine here everybody knows exactly the number of credits they needed to graduate, where they had to buckle down, which introductory psychology class would pad out the schedule. You knew what you had to do to get to this college and to graduate from it. But the unfortunate, yet truly exciting thing about your life, is that there is no core curriculum. The entire place is an elective. The paths are infinite and the results uncertain. And it can be maddening to those that go here, especially here, because your strength has always been achievement. So if there’s any real advice I can give you it’s this.

College is something you complete. Life is something you experience. So don’t worry about your grade, or the results or success. Success is defined in myriad ways, and you will find it, and people will no longer be grading you, but it will come from your own internal sense of decency which I imagine, after going through the program here, is quite strong…although I’m sure downloading illegal files…but, nah, that’s a different story.

Love what you do. Get good at it. Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age. And let the chips fall where they may.

I was always a good student--or at least a conscientious one--and I certainly identify with 1) feeling stunned after graduation because there was no clear path to follow and no ready-made metrics to define success or failure, and 2) feeling that I've continued to define life as a sequential series of assignments to be completed--or even a series of contests to win--rather than as an endless array of overlapping experiences to be had.

But I'm working on it, all the time (with a lot of help), and I think I can find better ways to channel my conscientiousness, and my competitiveness, and create more space to allow myself to just be, to experience life more fully, to love what I do and get good at it.  Thanks, Jon.  (Damn, for someone who doesn't even watch "The Daily Show," I've been thinking about Jon Stewart a lot lately.)

tags: jon stewart william & mary commencement address

Copyright Criminals

Copyright Criminals is a work-in-progress documentary by Benjamin Franzen and Kembrew McLeod on the inadequacy of copyright laws with regard to sampling.  (A 10-minute Quicktime version is currently available.)  I came across it while exploring the Creative Commons and ccMixter sites, thinking about the potential connections between their efforts to help people share their creative content with the world and the potential for attention services to direct relevant content to people when they need it.  Great stuff and well worth a few minutes if you're interested in music, the law, IP, and/or the constant evolution of pop culture.

tag: copyright criminals

Front Page News: The WSJ on Coaching

The Wall Street Journal's Phred Dvorak has a front-page article today (subscription-only) on executive coaching, focusing on the experiences of managers at the Kitchell Corporation, a Phoenix construction and real estate firm with annual revenues of $725 million.  A few highlights:

• "More than 100 of Kitchell's 700 employees have attended a coaching class," according to Dvorak.

• "Each of Kitchell's top 22 executives has an outside coach, hired at about $300 an hour for sessions every two to four weeks."

• CEO William Schubert plays an active role in the coaching process for his senior staff.  For example, he met with William Judge, the company's controller, and Judge's coach to discuss the results of his 360 review.  Judge had received "low marks in accessibility and listening skills."  Schubert asked him, "What are you going to do about it?  Are you going to take it to heart?"  Judge recalls, "It was one of those [talks] when you shift around in your seat a bit."

• Kitchell currently spends $200,000 on coaching annually, and Schubert says, "Half a million wouldn't be too much."

• In 2001 Schubert and his colleagues became concerned that the firm's high rate of growth coupled with a large number of pending retirements would result in a management shortage, and they turned to coaching as a means of reducing turnover and sustaining the company's culture.  Since that time, Kitchell's annual turnover has declined from 27% to 19%.  Turnover among "younger staffers who are being coached by senior employees" is just 4%.

And a few thoughts in response:

• Kitchell has clearly built an organizational culture that respects and values coaching, and it starts with CEO Schubert.  I can't imagine how a coaching program could succeed without such a commitment, but Kitchell's prominent support for coaching as a company seems instrumental in their ability to employ the practice to maximum effect.

• If we assume that the company's top 22 executives meet with their $300-an-hour coaches every three weeks, then they're consuming just over half of Kitchell's $200,000 coaching budget.  Lacking comparable figures from other companies, I'm making an educated guess here, but given that coaching is typically described as a service for leaders and high-potential staff, the fact that Kitchell spends nearly half of their coaching budget on people other than the top 22 executives seems significant.

• I was a little frustrated when I saw the article's headline: "Construction Firm Rebuilds Managers to Make them Softer."  The business press uses such "soft" terminology frequently when describing coaching--"soft skills," "the softer side," etc.--and I think it's an unfortunate choice of words.  It suggests that the issues coaching seeks to address are less important and/or easy to tackle.  But is it accurate to say that interpersonal skills, conflict management, and motivating people are unimportant tasks?  Or that if you're weak in those areas, it's easy to remedy the problem?  Of course not.  I don't expect this to change--"soft skills" is a useful and readily understood piece of linguistic shorthand--but I think it's worth noting that the language we use shapes our perceptions.
  

• CEO Schubert says coaching is "touchy feely" and "helps you to be more open with each other," a skill he clearly values.  I thought that was interesting because the most meaningful course I took at Stanford Business School was known formally as Interpersonal Dynamics and colloquially as "Touchy Feely."  The course uses the T-group method developed by Kurt Lewin and the National Training Laboratory to help students understand how they function in group settings and how they're perceived by others, and its practical effect on prospective MBAs was...to help us be more open with each other.  We practiced delivering direct and candid but respectful feedback, an essential skill for any manager, and Schubert's comments reinforce the importance of that course in the curriculum.  I'm under the (possibly mistaken) impression that the Stanford faculty and administration may not value Touchy Feely as much as the students and alumni do, and I hope someone at the school sees this article.

tags: coaching executive coaching kitchell phred dvorak william schubert william judge