The In-Person Experience

I love Bruce Tempkin’s post today commenting on his in-person concert experience with his daughter.  He relates this experience to his passion – creating the customer experience. http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/the-power-of-in-person-experiences/

It reminded me of my daughter making plans to visit her uncle in Pittsburg to see one of her favorite alternative bands that was performing in a tiny renovated church in Milltown outside the city.  She learned about the band from online downloads.  She followed them online.  But for all the onlining…what was really important was hearing them in person and sharing the fun with all the other fans packed into a tiny hall that had once housed church-goers.

I think fears of onlining neglect the human spirit that needs and seeks the in-person experience.  As Bruce points out the shared experience “makes people feel more connected.”   And this connection is both physical and emotional.

Consider this comparison:  You receive an email from your cousin that your 90 year old aunt died from overheating because the nursing facility did not attend to the air conditioning unit.  You and your cousin correspond over a few emails.  You feel badly and do your best to convey your feelings.  He responds with appreciation.  Yes, you are connected.

But what if, instead of responding with an email, you hop in your car to visit your cousin.  You knock on the door, greet him with a hug, and spend time talking with each other.  The in-person connection is so much more powerful.  The grief is shared directly. The bond between you renews and grows stronger.

Granted, you might feel more comfortable emailing your cousin about the dying and death.   The email does connect both of you — in a cerebral way.  Intellectually, he knows you care and may believe you can understand his grief.  He has no way of knowing if you can feel his grief.

Nearly 20 years has passed since my friend Pat was diagnosed with cancer.  Even though I was near broke at the time, I hopped on a plane, rented a car, and sat at the bottom of her front steps waiting for her to come home from work. To hug her, see the kids, meet the grandkid – to talk about nothing vital – just to talk and eat together was a momentous in-person experience for both of us.  It gave her courage to come east as she was recuperating to see family.  She fought for five years and left us just before Christmas.

For me, that experience crystalized the importance of being there.  I am sad she is gone, but I can still hear clearly her laugh, her Nebraska accent and feel the warmth of  her friendship.

Consider all the people you care about and have not seen or spoken to …. get on the phone or get in your car or take the next plane out — make the connection.  In-person!  Renew and contact, it may be just what your spirit needs.

Oh those First Impressions!

BUSINESS IMPRESSIONS

When you attend a training conference, or go to a Chamber of Commerce meeting, or join a business discussion group  – you expect your colleagues to act and look “businesslike” and professional. The conference attendees may be from all over the country; the Chamber may include familiar faces; the discussion group may be close peers.

You want to create a positive, professional impression. You may want to make contact with experienced professionals in your field; you may want to promote new business; you may want to further increase a business friendship. You extend your hand and introduce yourself to those you don’t know. You smile and greet those you know. You may exchange a story with someone you know very well.

You read people – react to their nonverbal cues.  You assess people: their appearance, their diction, their conversations.  Your first impressions.  And, in turn, you are read and assessed by others. (Did you know you have 11 seconds to make a good first impression!)

WRITING IMPRESSIONS     When your customer, client, peer, or manager receives your email or letter, they expect  that you will provide clear, concise communication.  Your opening line is your business handshake.

The words you select covey a tone – serious, friendly, concerned, as well as pompous or stuffy. The appearance and organization of your document add or subtract to your professional image.  In the time it takes for someone to read your opening line and scan the email, letter, document, your professional image has been assessed!

What kind of first impression do you make?   Serious or pompous? Competent or Incompetent?  Smart or Smart-alecky?  Unctuous or Friendly?

Tapping Employee Entrepreneurial Spirit

When we think of entrepreneurs we think of energy, drive, risk-taking. We think Success! Consider the current high school and college graduates. They believe that they can start their own businesses at any time. Many of my college students, inspired by internet success, constantly tinker with ideas.  They dream of riches and fame!

Yet, studies show that entrepreneurs have no age limits. In other words, entrepreneur-ing does not require youthful vigor.

A recent news story highlighted examples of retirement-age entrepreneurs. One woman created a booming business in recycling mannequins. What had started as a funky purchase – she used several mannequins to spunk up in her garden – aroused her curiosity. Where do used or old mannequins go? Her curiosity led her to purchase used mannequins. Her creativity led her to restore and resell mannequins to small businesses. Her interest led her to seek online marketing help. Her delight in working with retail businesses led her to exclaim “Why not?” She expanded the business to include a large warehouse with thousands of mannequins. She’s doing very well, thank you!

If entrepreneurship knows no age – why not tap employees’ ES? That is, their Entrepreneurial Spirit.

We know that engaged employees are more likely to enjoy their jobs. In his blog, Customer Experience Matters, Bruce Tempkin reports that engaged employees are “more committed to helping their companies succeed.” By tapping into employees’ ES you can create more successful and satisfied employees. Exponentially, increasing company success and customer happiness.

Let’s parse our mannequin entrepreneur’s story. Here are the five elements that fed her entrepreneurial fever: Interest—curiosity—discovery—creativity—delight. Can you inspire these five elements in your employees to free their ES at work? Let’s have a go at it!

INTEREST    Are your employees naturally interested in your business, in your customers?   No? THEN: Feed them information on products, services, customers, potential customers, competition. Educate them and let employees educate you.   Have fun!

With knowledge comes interest!

CURIOSITY Do your employees ask questions about your business, about your customers?  No?  THEN: Create opportunities or processes that encourage questions. Prompt their thinking with “What if…” questions and scenarios. Let them create their own “What if..” scenarios. Encourage them to research. Encourage them to compare.

No progress without questions.

DISCOVERY Do your employees share what they know about your business, your customers?  No?  THEN:  Always follow up on what employees have learned. Discuss and debate to increase perspectives, options, ideas.

AHA moments motivate!

CREATIVITY Do employees offer ideas, suggestions, programs for improvement?  No?  THEN: Collect ideas, challenge trite thinking, seek input. Encourage employees to work together on solutions. Don’t let ideas die and deflate employee enthusiasm. Have employees test ideas and solutions.

There is always more than one right answer!

DELIGHT Do your employees like your business, your customers, their jobs? How do they show their delight?  No?  THEN:  Celebrate success – whether large or small. Give private handshakes as well as company applause. Acknowledge contributions. Thank employee effort. Use social gatherings to create stronger relations. Involve everyone.

Never too many celebrations!

To tap employee ES you have to create an environment that nurtures interest and curiosity, that encourages and rewards creativity, and that shares small and large victories.

Start tapping!

We live in a world of two truths: isolation and connection

DIGITAL  ISOLATION

“The other day I passed a young woman who was texting and crying, bending intently over her phone as strangers brushed past her on the sidewalk….My normal first impulse – and, I think, most people, even in Boston–would be to make some sort of compassionate gesture, even if it’s just to ask, “Are you okay?”  But this time any such instinct was overridden by technology.”

So described Carlo Rotella, Director of American Studies as Boston College. in his essay, A good cry in digital isolation.   (www.newspaperdirect.com)

I often observe people walking with phone glued to their ear, apparently oblivious to all around them.  And you have observed – mothers pushing strollers, commuters wobbling in traffic, riders on the T, teens on the beach – all ears attached to their cell phones, apparently blind and deaf to their surroundings.  Would you dare  to ask them for directions?  Would you confidently comment on the beauty of the day?  Would you point out that their child is dribbling ice cream all over his shirt?

Like Rotella , probably not.

The electronic devices seem to suck attention and sensitivity.  And further, create an invisible bubble around the person.  Glassy-eyed students intently mesmerized by laptop screens.  Ear buds and ipods silencing external sounds of bird song and car horns.

Rotella ends his essay with a question unanswered – what kind of people is this equipment teaching us to be.

HUMAN  CONNECTION

The other day I watched in horror as a bomb exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon and another bomb exploded two blocks away, seemingly louder and stronger than the first.  While people screamed in the confusion, many ran toward the blast where they knew the injured lay needing help.  It was not a matter of are you okay?  It was how can I help?  Untrained bystanders made tourniquets, staunched bleeding wounds, offered comfort until first responders and medicos arrived.

Cell phones clogged the waves and were shut down.

Without technology.  City residents offered stranded runners shelter, blankets, directions.  People helped each other find their loved ones in the chaos.  Off duty doctors and nurses rushed to the scene to help.  And, spectators made their way to hospitals to give blood.

Technology has not overtaken humanity, yet.  Technology can isolate us.  Technology can connect us.  It is still our choice.

Business Decisions are Rooted in Values

You may not agree with the Fortune editors’ selections on The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time (Title of their 2012 book ) but you will certainly find the proverbial food for thought.  What struck me, as I read the stories, were the values that drove the greatest business decisions.

Valuing  Customers    Zappos –  Decision to offer free shipping and free returns was not based on running the numbers.  At the time of the decision, Zappos had not made any profit.  The brainstorming executives concentrated on what really would please the online shoe-shopping customers.  From that single, from-the-gut decision grew Zappos’ customer service is everyone’s business. The results were a customer smash hit and growth for Zappos.

Valuing Ethics   Johnson and Johnson – Decision for a total recall of Tylenol after capsule-tampering had poisoned and killed 7 people in Chicago.  At the time of the decision there had never been a total product recall; even the US government was against the decision.  James Burke, CEO then, believed in the founding ethics: “We believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses, and patients, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services.”  In other words, do no harm.  Cost was not a factor; loss of reputation did not enter into the discussion.  It was simply the right thing to do.  The result surprised everyone – innovations in safety and packaging, establishment of customer trust and renewed confidence in the product.

Valuing Leadership    General Electric – Decision to establish center for leadership training and innovation and remake management education in Crotonville.  At the time of decision GE was in the throes of re-making itself by shedding its old businesses.  Jack Welch, the new CEO, needed strong, creative leadership at all levels to remake the monolith that GE had become.  The result was the transformation of GE managers into innovative leaders and the transformation of GE itself.

And, the GE story hit home for me – as I grew up in Pittsfield, MA – that GE town where Jack Welch got his start in Plastics.  For those who grew up in GE towns – there was always a GE aura that hovered over the town – in our case, it hovered over the whole county.  (Old GE strategy: build plants in locations with no  manufacturing competition and own the towns/counties/people as top employer. GE generally paid managers 3 times the going rate!)  Originally, GE’s Crotonville produced the old line manufacturing management you expected from US companies.  The new Crotonville recreated GE ideas about managers and leadership.

As a brand new manager at Berkshire Life Insurance company, I was inoculated with those ideas – our executives were influenced by changes occurring within GE and challenged us.  Berkshire Life sent us to conferences where Noel Tichy, guru to Crotonville, spoke.  I worked with GE executives on the Board of Directors at the YMCA where I could hear the excitement from managers now on Jack’s team.  They bought into the need for innovation – for re-creation.

Today, it seems to me that we are very much in the business world where success is not about the numbers.  Success lies in the values where customers are served according to what they need and what they value.  Success follows when you guide your business and your people with ethics that profits cannot negate.  Success requires that you continually invite ideas for innovation and transformation.

Leading by example is not a motto, it’s hard work.  Leadership decisions require both risk and faith.

Collaborating – The Ben & Jerry’s Way

Who but Ben & Jerry’s — that hippie ice cream maker in Northern Vermont — would bus sixteen customers to their manufacturing plant to show these customers how they fixed their complaints.  BUT, that was not enough.  The plant managers and staff further checked with these customers to see if the solutions really solved the problems.  And like a Willie Wonka tour the customers got to walk the plant, see production first hand, and drop in a pound or two of cookie dough in a blender.

Long term employee Lisa Wernhoff said it was the “odd kind of thing Ben and Jerry would do.”

Odd?   Probably. Many companies would not venture to invite customers, especially complainers to their plants.  Yet, from the day they opened in a re-furbished gas station, Ben & Jerry listened and responded to their customers — on product issues and social issues.  The Collaborative Culture they established continues…

 What does it take to Create a Collaborative Culture?

Attitude – not just toward customers, but toward customer feedback.  Think about it — that bus of dissatisfied customers walked into the plant that made the ice cream and talked to the managers and employees that made the mistakes.  “Over-roasting the peanuts!”  “Ucky cookie dough.”   To meet customers face to face requires:

Openness – to ideas and opinions that may differ or challenge.  Think about it — here is a company that experiments & creates flavors based on suggestions from customers.   Inherent in the culture is an openness to what customers have to say.  To keep that openness requires:

Focus – on what it takes to satisfy and keep customers.  Think about it — the founding customer philosophy still permeates the company.  Three words from their mission statements reflect that ongoing focus:  Fantastic – Sustainable – Innovative.  To keep focus managers, supervisors, employees and customers continue to:

Collaborate – on product missteps and innovations, on continued growth and challenges, on feedback and pushback.  Perhaps the “&” in the company name symbolizes best the ongoing nature of the company &  its customers.

What is also evident:   a collaborative culture, sustained over time, must establish and live its core values.

Want to create a more collaborative environment?

Don’t look at the mission statement on your wall — check your policies and practices.  Do they support or defeat collaboration?

Don’t ignore the importance of ongoing training — check the content and inclusiveness of participants.  Does content forward collaborative skills and innovation? Do all levels participate?

Don’t assume yesterday’s systems meet today’s needs — check communication flow within and without.  Do ideas and suggestions move freely?  What new methods or systems are used?  What are response times?

Don’t let your 3 year strategic plan mesmerize you — check innovations within and without your industry.  What ideas can you adapt to create more collaboration?  How can you respond to changing demands and meet your mission?

No easy answers.  No packages off the shelf.  Lest you forget – Humor Helps.  Just check the Ben & Jerry’s web site http://www.benjerry.com/.  Better yet take a tour!

Performance Appraisal: Same Old Mistakes – No Development, No Honesty.

Sad, but True Story
There was once a bright graduate from Syracuse University who managed to find a 4 month internship in the down economy.  The internship in her field gave her base experience and introduced her to the level of professionalism and creativity that she had expected in her field. Though the internship was extended for 2 more months, she decided to take that full time job with a Name Company in her field in the midwest.

Imagine her disappointment to discover that her job required none of her education, none of her intern experience.  She was slotted to routine tasks.  At her annual review her supervisor was pleased with her performance.  Why?  Because she required no supervision and could perform her work independently.

Six months later, the SU grad took her degree and experience to New York where, after several months, she landed a job in a Small Company that was impressed with her Name Company experience.   Really?

At the annual review, her supervisor explained that he was disappointed with her performance.  He had assumed that she had acquired more experience and skills from the Name Company.  Panicked, she asked what she should do for she had no idea that she was not operating at the expected professional level.  He told not to worry that she could learn as she went along.

The following month, she was laid off.

After all the ink spilled and appraisal training, why are managers and supervisors making the same old mistakes?

It appears that the Name Company supervisor was glad to hand off routine work to ease her own responsibilities and get a job done.  Why not just hire a Hand? Hand =the nineteenth century name for employee.  Hands ran all those weaving machines and were easily replaced.  Motivation was never an issue.  There was always another hungry immigrant Hand to replace a sluffer.

The 21st century supervisor cannot waste employee skills and talents by ignoring the employees’ need for direction and motivation.  I think this is even more true of new job entrants.   And this is no surprise, given the complexity of the new job world they find themselves in!   Today’s jobs are filled with more discretionary tasks, challenging both thinking and experience.  Sure there are routine parts to any job – but failing to use talent and skills is robbing both the company and the employee.

I asked my daughter why her friend did not speak up and talk to her supervisor about the job.  The answer: she had lost her confidence.  At her internship she had managers who involved her in the projects, her Name Company supervisor simply assigned work.  They had no relationship.  Unfortunately, she carried her lost confidence to her New York job.

And, the Small Company manager waited until the annual review to give negative evaluations.  Worse, he lied and hid behind a layoff.    The 21st century manager cannot expect employees to meet performance needs by withholding feedback and training.    Worse, he can be responsible for poisoning their future aspirations.  While managers expect certain levels of performance, employees expect honesty and direction.     The workplace is more fluid in terms of organization structure and collaborative relationships.  New employees come with talents and expectations — most often leadership expectations.

In his Forbes blog, Glenn Llopis gives great advice for managers working with these new professionals:       Never marginalize your young professionals just because you have not taken the time to work with them to truly understand how they operate. Challenge them to perform unconventional tasks and you will quickly begin to recognize their performance capabilities, skills-sets and know-how.
(Found at:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2012/03/12/5-ways-young-professionals-want-to-be-led/2/)

Likewise, it is equally true that young professionals need to speak up and ask for feedback.  Make appointments – it they have to! – and talk about the job, their goals, their ideas.  Friending your supervisor on Facebook won’t cut it!  Face to face — time to really talk — establish rapport and relationship.  Old fashioined?  Naw – real world!

Collaboration – Skills or Software?

Recently, I was scouring for written words on collaboration skills – aside from the unreadable psyche studies little focused on those skills.  Instead, I found articles on collaboration software.  If my experience teaching college students on how to work together using a wiki is any indicator — students first need  direction and guidance in the fundamentals.  And, I have found this just as true in the workplace, when I train employees and managers.

How do you convince students, employees, managers, now honed to work independently on their computers, to collaborate?

First – Give them a Reason to Collaborate!
Experience shows that collaboration not only works for solving problems, implementing changes and confronting the complex issues, collaboration produces better results. 

Better  than: the individual acting alone with his computer searches or mulling her ideas without other input.  Better than the group dominated by a single point of view or torn apart by opposing goals.

While there are individual geniuses that change the world with their ideas and inventions, most of us are confronted with more mundane problems and issues.  Often our solutions will affect groups — their thinking, their reactions, and their feelings.

Second – Describe Consequences of Collaboration Failure.         Consider this typical problem:   You must make a system change to improve your service for your customers.  Any change creates a ripple effect for managers, employees and customers.  Who hasn’t sat on the other end of a system change and asked:  “Who’s the jerk that thought this was a good idea?”

For example, I recall the anguish of a very large system conversion at the bank.  The story details helped students and trainees understand the cost and problems of  collaboration failures.  “Bank tellers could not tell customers exactly how much money was in their accounts at any given time for a six week period! The teller line became a battle line where customers screamed at them on a daily basis.”  None of my students or training participants wanted to join that firing line.

Third – Show Benefits of Collaboration.
Collaborations  start with freely sharing perspectives, viewpoints and ideas.  Key word here is freely.  Effective collaborators do not start with censuring or critiquing  others.  They start with a willingness to see the problem, issue, or challenge from a new, or a different, or unusual perspective.

Humor helps.  My experience — teams and groups that have a few good belly laughs at the beginning of their collaborations: develop longer, more creative lists of ideas;  come to solution consensus more quickly and more positively; and accept/appreciate more varied viewpoints.

Short term benefits? Collaboration ensures that someone thoroughly reviews all potential technical problems, that someone one checks on service impact (step by step), that someone one creates and verifies quality of new rules,  that someone plans and minimizes disruption to all and that every someone has a say and is committed to the changes.

Long term benefits? Collaboration takes time – initially!   However, after individuals and teams have honed their collaboration skills, time is less of an issue.  Why?  Collaborators get how to work together – get how to share ideas – get how to build on each other’s points of view – get the importance of commitment.

Fourth —  Identify Skills needed to Collaborate    In my earlier example, that  chastened  bank conversion team met and dissected the failure they had experienced.  They realized that they needed to work together differently in the future – and drew up ways to initiate action, make decisions and communicate more effectively.

They identified specific collaboration skills:
Ability to listen effectively and completely, even when:  you have a better idea, or you think the suggestion is a lousy idea, or you dislike the person, or you have another meeting…

Ability to make connections between ideas, even when the ideas: seem unrelated, or cause disagreement, or lead to more complex issues, or make everyone laugh…

Ability to draw out constructive thoughts and opinions from others who: rarely offer comments, or veer too often from topic, or lack confidence, or have trouble articulating, or don’t want to participate, or disagree for the sake of disagreement.

Ability to summarize key points that: build a complete picture of issues, or acknowledge all participants’ ideas, or point to gaps in group thinking, or lead to basis for consensus.

Ability to change your mind when you recognize better ideas and solutions that may: differ from your own, or add new perspectives, or alter your long held opinions, or made no sense in the beginning but have that something extra…

So before you go hunting for the right Collaboration Software, make sure that your Collaborators have honed the right interaction skills !!!!

Business Writing – Escape from Academia

As my Business Writing class draws to a close,  I again reflect on the complaints I hear from business colleagues:  “They graduate from college and can’t write!”

Ten to twelve years ago, I would have agreed.  Today, this is simply not true.   Students today read and write more than their peers 10 years back . They may not fully appreciate that fact!  Consider a recent University of Southern California study of its student population — students spend 38% of their time on non-academic writing, that is, on social media!

True!  What I find is that students are no longer afraid to write.  That they freely admit that they are on line – reading and writing – texting – all the time.  Yes, the writing tends to be very “I” focused – given the content.  But,  social media is not the culprit for “why college graduates cannot write for business.” The real culprit? Academia!

Yes!  Last year I discovered this when I revived a dormant Business Writing offering. I introduced the standards of contemporary writing.  Students were shocked to discover that business writing did not require long, long sentences  with scads of qualifying clauses, or nicely expressed, but over-padded paragraphs. (“This is what my professors want.”)  It took time to get them to toss Academic writing standards.  It took time to get them to feel okay about shorter sentences. And forever, to get to the point, guys!

The Point?  What surprised me is that students often fell into the artificial voice trap.  You know if it’s business – sound important and keep your distance.  I was appalled to see those stuffy phrases pop up in their drafts.  (Thanking you in advance  or,  I am writing this letter per your request,  and so on…)    If students were comfortable with their social media voices, why the difficulty in creating a contemporary voice?  Why the audience, of course!

Yes! Easy for students to see their friends and family on social media.  It took them longer to recognize that the Internet and social media had changed business readers.   Those readers, like themselves, wanted plain language, quick delivery and polite respect.  Once, students could see their audience, they could create their business voices.  Their I-focus presented a bigger challenge.

Why Challenge?  After all, academia required evidence before I-statements in essays and research.   In fact, many professors disallow the I-statements altogether.   Students reasoned if contemporary writing is close to our speaking voices, then I must be okay.  After all, social media focused on what I was doing, what I thought about, what I cared about.   What was missing?  The empathy factor!

Yes!  I had to help my students imagine the readers.  Imagine what it was like IF your  had received the letter or email, and that you were:  the upset customer who needed money from your 401K because your house burnt down…the exhausted manager who had 57 emails to read…the honest supplier who had trusted an outsource company…the  frantic client who needed to deliver bad news to the boss…the eager applicant who was the second, but not final, choice.  The key question: How would you react to the letter, email or memo? 

The Point?  When students read their letters and emails as if they were the receivers, they got the message.  “I was too strong.”  “It sounds rude!”  “I’m not sure what I am supposed to do.”    Read and critiquing each other also helped them understand the necessity of the empathy factor.

So, if hiring college students as interns or employee  I recommend that you:

Check to see if they have had contemporary business writing.  Find out what they learned.  Get a sample and compare to your company standards.

Make sure that your company standards are contemporary! That is: Average sentence length 25-30 words.  No unnecessary phrases or cliches.  Active voice usage.  Polite reader-focused.

Use empathy factor to enable reader to absorb and understand meaning and tone of message.  Results in supporting relationship, getting job done, and ensuring outcomes.

Collaboration – Does it need a Framework?

Do diverse collaborations have elements in common?  Are frameworks needed for success? I think so. Here are two stories – one inside an institution, the other outside client-consultant.  See if you agree.

The Insiders
Dr. Harris Berman, dean of Tufts School of Medicine states that today it takes a team of people to take care of patients.  How right he is. My sisters and I witnessed hospital teams in action at the Pittsburg hospital where my brother was being treated for pneumonia, that followed close on his chemo treatments for cancer.

At first, we were concerned because the doctor heading the CCU team changed weekly.  How could they possibly coordinate care with a weekly leadership change!  We discovered that  each leading doctor and his team knew precisely what occurred the preceding week, regularly consulted with each other and each specialty. The floor nursing staff had complete data at their finger tips, for each team notated patient status.

Further, the teams paid attention to viewpoints.  They respected the specialist who wanted one more test (one rarely given) to isolate the cause of pneumonia. Sure enough that nasty bug was hiding deep in the lung.  The specialist laughed when he told my brother “You have really big lung.  I was glad I insisted on that test.   I just had a feeling we’d find something there.”

Framework?
Yes, a great computer system collecting data is super to keep everyone on the same page.  Yet,  what we observed and found far more important was:  the relationships the teams cultivated, the understandings they showed for each other, and the respect they had for differing viewpoints. Plus, the continual live communication.  No one is left out.

The Outsiders
Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health (PIH), was searching for an architect firm to build a hospital in Rwanda.  He didn’t just want a plot plan and blueprints, he wanted a partner.  What he found in Mass Design, a firm founded by a young team of architects from Harvard, was an unusual commitment to PIH’s ideals and goals.

Mass Design leader, Michael Murphy and his team not only went to Rwanda to examine the site, they observed the medical plight of the Rwandans, they interviewed people on site, they took courses in disease control.  They wanted to ensure that they understood the medical challenges (diseases and treatments)  the cultural beliefs (Rwandan people, their families) the environment (physical and emotional) the resources (materials and workers).

The results of this unusual collaboration – a state of the art hospital that fits Rwanda, yet, looks nothing like any urban US hospital.  Spillovers from the project – increase in skilled workers in the building trades, increase in local medical professionals, and increase in healthier population.

Framework?
No great computer system here.  What drove this collaboration were complex goals that went beyond building a building.  PIH defined the desired outcomes based on their philosophy and values. MASS Design embraced the values, which prompted their research. They were willing to strike out beyond conventional standards. They were open to learning and testing their ideas.  They continually consulted with PIH, checking that their ideas matched the complex goals.

What the two stories illustrate is that successful collaboration doesn’t just happen willy nilly.  In both cases what framed the collaborators included:

Compelling Goals  (Keep patients alive and well – Create medical facility and system)  Shared values increase importance  to each team member.

Continual Communication     (Formal pattern and computer system – informal, ongoing consultations)  Complexity needed to achieve goals prompts constant communication

Personal Willingness       ( Accept other perspectives & implement– Move outside learned comfort zone & experiment)  Curiosity and openness  increases personal growth and learning.