What Aristotle and Plato have to say about Team Development? -Part 1

April 11, 2014 1 Comment

Dedicated to the SAPHIR team, my friends and colleagues at CMA CGM for highlighting what dedication, perseverance and passion can achieve, and for a reflective, joyful and productive three weeks spent with them at Head Office working towards the SAP implementation project as well as, a variety of other small side projects.

The below post was on my mind for a while but believe it “put itself together” following this great experience.

This post focuses on two basic principles that assist us to conceptualize Team Engagement (analyzed before here, here and here) starting from an interpretation of Ancient Philosophy that seems more contemporary than ever.

Read on if you also want to get some tips on how to go about to achieve this within your teams.

Plato and Aristotle

INTRODUCTION

So, what can Ancient Greek Philosophy can contribute to a discussion on better Team engagement?

What would Aristotle and Plato say about the management of modern teams?

Surprisingly, the advice that these thinkers may have suggested is very close to what our current thinking about team and individual development is.

The core of it could be crystallized in two terms: methexis (μέθεξις) and endelexeia (ενδελέχεια).

Let’s see on why it is important to consider those terms which enable us to better strategise towards getting optimal results from our teams.

 

Endelexeia

Endelexeia means to “have an end in itself / to have completeness”. In other words, to become who you really are.

Endelexeia is a concept that suggests that we need to know our team members’ behavioural style, i.e. weaknesses, strengths, dreams.

Only then, we can find the best ways to engage them i.e. position them in the right roles, support them and guide them towards meaningful work that will eventually promote and expand their ability to achieve optimum results for themselves and for the team i.e. work that will increase their Self-Esteem and enable them to even attain Self-Actualisation (as per the model by Abraham Maslow).

Nowadays, it is true that Work and Life have become intertwined. Technology has vastly contributed to the blurring of the dividing line between the two.

As we are creatures that seek meaning in all facets of Life, Work provides a great opportunity for this should we want to pursue it.

Moreover, we are getting closer and closer to Peter Drucker’s inspirational view that organizations are the means through which individuals can contribute towards the embetterment of society. Specifically, from his book The Effective Executive the below quotes are representative:

“The cohesion and strength of our society depend increasingly on the integration of the psychological and social needs of the knowledge worker with the goals of organization and of industrial society.

Effectiveness reveals itself as crucial to a man’s self-development; to organization development; and to the fulfillment and viability of modern society”

Job positions that satisfy mere processing needs are becoming automated and so, eventually we will be left with positions for which significant value-add will be required from each team member.

This means that creativity, lateral thinking, full engagement and the organizations’ focus on each team member contributing 100% of their capability will shift the attention towards understanding and promoting Endelexeia for each individual.

We already see this in recent literature e.g. the Rosenbluth and McFerrin Peters great book, The Customer Comes Second, supports the notion that should an organization supports and promotes the success of its own employees, then it also ensures that the Customer will be served and looked after.

It is thus important that work transforms itself to become meaningful enough and engaging enough so, each team member can be allowed to achieve optimal results.

Only then, the process of work becomes a win-win situation in which each individual can achieve Endelexeia.

A good start to the journey towards endelexeia is summarized below:

  1. Run a Behavioural Test with each team members and use it as a prompt to start a discussion.
  2. Run a Productive Culture Survey and use it as a prompt to see how you can improve it. 
  3. Start having One-on-One meetings with your team every week or bi-weekly so, you keep in touch with them. Use these meetings as a means to connect, reflect and continuously improve.
  4. Reward successes.
  5. Go through the presentation on 12 tips for successful team engagement (here)

 

In my next blog post I will discuss the second significant term, Methexis and some tips on how to achieve this.

 

Image courtesy of Image Editor / www.flickr.com

 

Filed under Continuous Improvement, Effective Communication, Philosophy, Team Development Series Tagged with , , ,

The 4 absolute basics to a contract deal (the 4Ps)

March 6, 2014

What are the absolute basics towards a steady foundation for a written deal?

Imagine that you have been working on a deal for weeks and during a meeting with the supplier (or customer) you reach a breakthrough agreement. Both parties are quite excited and shake hands. Is this enough?

Certain cultures consider this to be enough.

Irrespective of the integrity (character) of both parties though, it is always best to write things down as a Letter of Intent (LOI) or a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or Agreement (MOA).

But what do you actually need to take down as a minimum to make this deal valid, workable and to later avoid disputes.

Read on if you want to find out the 4 elements that are widely acknowledged as the absolute basics to a deal.

handshake

The 3 Ps

A deal is considered to be valid if it refers to three basic elements commonly known as the 3Ps. These are:

  1. Parties
  2. Price
  3. Product

It is quite obvious that if we do not have the parties that are covered, the price agreed (and what is included and excluded in the rates) and the product (an exact description of what the product/service is and any agreed variations) then, really, there is no deal. As without these elements there is inadequate clarity to any deal.

3Ps augmented – (the IRON TRIANGLE contribution)

I don’t believe that the above are enough though in the current environment as I have elaborated here based the concept of the Iron Triangle.

This concept reflects the importance of the balance between i) the Scope-Product, ii) the Price and iii) the Performance-Quality-KPI expectations when agreeing a deal.

What the Iron Triangle concept contends is that if these three elements are not in balance the deal is in high risk of failing.

As you can see, the Iron Triangle concept adds to the 3P concept one more element. The element of Performance-Quality-KPI as an absolute basic to any deal.

SUMMARY – the new model = The 4 Ps

So, in summary, combining the two models, the absolute basics to any deal are as follows:

1. Take down the deal in a written agreement (LOI, MOU,MOA etc)

2. Include the below in the written agreement:

  1. Parties
  2. Price
  3. Product
  4. Performance (Quality – KPIs)

What are the elements you use as the absolute basics in a written deal?

 

Image courtesy of anchor1203 / www.flickr.com]

This post was first published on the CILT Australia blog page

Filed under Contract Management, Effective Negotiation Tools series, Procurement, Sourcing Tagged with , , ,

10 Quotes for successful Procurement and Contract Management

February 27, 2014

Isaac Newton famously said “If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants”.

Procurement and Contract Management (P&CM) may not be as complicated as universal Physics but they equally can benefit from the wisdom of great thinkers.

A well crafted quote, very much like good storytelling, can elucidate fuzzy concepts.

There are many great quotes that seem to crystalise what best P&CM practices look like, however, some of them keep on coming up during our conversations.

Below is a selection of the ones I think are the most valuable in illuminating what good Procurement and Contract Management is.

1. “All models are wrong but some of them are useful” – George Box (Statistician)

I love this quote. There are times you hear about certain models or fads been promoted as panacea to everything. George Box reminds us that there is not one solution for all problems but that we need to take into account the exact requirements and specifications in its case and then, consider the best model to use so we can reach the optimum solution. You can read more about this here.

2. “‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel”- Maya Angelou (Writer)

Emotional Intelligence is a key for successful P & CM as it is a key to successful negotiations (read more about negotiations here and here).

Because of the nature of our profession we sometimes find that P & CM professionals are task focused and/or mathematically inclined.

For those of us who fit this behavioural style, we just need to be aware and conscious of the limitations of our behavioural style and consciously pursue to fulfil the emotional aspect that is inherent to the P&CM interactions. Stakeholder Engagement and the building of Trust depends on it.

3. “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”- Albert Einstein

Creativity is a key component of successful P & CM. Our world is becoming more and more complex. The challenges our profession faces follow this trend. Unless we continuously challenge ourselves to think outside the box and to learn and embrace best practices, we face the possibility of been beaten by the competition.

Effectively, “You cannot solve today’s problems with yesterday’s thinking”.

4. “Opportunity arises for the prepared mind” -Louis Pasteur (chemist and microbiologist)

This quote goes hand in hand with Einstein’s quote above.

You should always keep an open mind so that you can identify opportunities as they arise. Do not presuppose that your solutions are the best. On the contrary, let your stakeholders express their ideas freely and assess them on merit.

Especially, for categories that are reliant on innovation, it is crucial to seek variant quotes and assess the responses with an open mind.

5. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – Lao Tzu (Philosopher)

Nowadays, considering the optimum modus operandi for an P & CM team, there is a great deal of change to be done in most organisations. This is evident by the amount of organisations that are reported to engage in Procurement transformations. I predict that, in the near future, Contract Management transformations will also gain momentum.

Moreover, even if P&CM teams do achieve to perfect their modus operandi based on today’s standards and best practices, there will always be future opportunities for improvement. So, the journey is bound to start again.

As such, when you embark on a transformation journey, to consider at the same time all aspects that need to be transformed will be overwhelming.

So, pick one, change it and then proceed to the next. Not before long the accumulated benefits become substantial.

6 “Failing to prepare is, generally speaking, preparing very well to do the wrong thing”- Sam Harris (Neuroscientist)

There are a variety of situations in our profession where this quote holds true.

Successful P&CM heavily depends on successful stakeholder engagement and effective project management.

Focusing on preparation e.g. of the strategies, the alternatives and evaluating the desired outcomes means that the final result will not be random but the best possible.

7. “The beginning of wisdom is to define” – Aristotle (Philosopher)

It is evident that a great deal of the issues relating to disputes in negotiations and contracts is due to misunderstandings e.g. what the scope is, what the quality standards are etc.

It is thus, absolutely necessary that the Contracts, SLAs, RFPs etc contain definitions or glossaries.

As an example, take the common used term – SLA (Service Level Agreement). For some, this means the whole contract, for others it means only the KPIs. There are also interpretations that attribute the term SLA, not to the KPIs but, to the “Statement of Work, Scope and Definitions”, and so on.

8. “What gets measured, gets managed” – Peter Drucker

Think of a contract without KPIs and a similar one with well defined, tracked and acted upon KPIs. It is quite apparent that the latter has the better chances of working well.

It feels that the amount of attention a Customer pays to define the expectations and manage the contracts resembles the amount of attention the Supplier will invest in return.

So, taking the time to agree on the measurements and then act upon them means that, the quality remains a focus and the contract will be more easily managed.

9. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” – Leonardo da Vinci

We have all come across contracts that are pestered with errors or are poorly written e.g. they contain long confusing sentences and overcomplicated verbose paragraphs.

Spending time on enhancing the clarity of the contract will ensure that there is no ambiguity for the Contract Manager to later follow up on.

Considering the amount of contracts and workload for P&CM nowadays means that it is essential to have contracts with simple style, form, ideally short in length, and with clear and lucid meanings. This will ensure that the contract will be understood, followed upon and eventually be a success.

Blaise Pascal made this point quite well. He, almost apologetically, wrote at the end of a very long letter.

‘Sorry for the length of my letter. If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter’. Blaise Pascal (paraphrasing from the original)

10. “One standard is worth a thousand committee meetings” – Dale Dauten

Nowadays, there are countless hours lost in meetings that reach no outcomes.

Forming a standard, e.g. a KPI or a process means that, there is clarity is what the benchmark is. Hence, people are focused and meetings have clear targets they need to arrive at. Having standards means that the ambiguity is removed and everyone is working towards the same well defined target.

These quotes are a selection from a wide variety of very useful thinking out there.

What are your favourite quotes that guide your behaviours at work?

This post first appeared on the The Source e-news (February 2014).

10 Inspirational Quotes for Successful Procurement and Contract Management

Filed under Contract Management, Procurement Tagged with , , ,

5 Approaches to a Negotiation – (Negotiations and everyday life)

February 22, 2014

The ability to negotiate effectively is one of the key skills to have in life.

Do you have a practical model to think about a negotiation? Something that will work at a fruit market as well as a high status negotiation table.

Read on if you want to find out about a model I have found extremely useful and easy to explain to my 9 year old, as well as, esteemed colleagues and can be used as an additional framework for any occasion.

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WHAT IS YOUR PREFERRED STYLE?

Before you read about this particular model check the below case study and choose your 2 preferred responses.

This will provide an indicator to your preferred negotiation style.

CASE STUDY

You hire a component for a particular gadget and the contract is up for renewal. Your supplier, who you have used for a while has good service quality but not excellent. Your company is expanding with the requirement for this component increasing by 30%, and therefore are looking for a reduction in the price. You would settle for no price increase; your boss would be satisfied if an increase was held to 2 per cent. Your supplier’s first offer, taking into account the increased volume, is at the same unit price as last year. How do you respond?

Potential Responses

  1. Accept the offer
  2. Explain you were looking for a 10% reduction, ask to be met halfway, i.e. a 5% reduction in the unit price
  3. Explain that you should also be looking elsewhere as a matter of company policy
  4. Stress the 30% increase in business you have to offer and the fact that the basic cost of the equipment has fallen, due to improvements in technology
  5. Suggest improved payment terms and a longer contract period in exchange for a better offer.
  6. Show appreciation for the offer that has been made and mention the ‘bad time’ users have given you over servicing

Now, spend a minute to consider your answers. Remember choose only two of the above six choices.

Ready. Well done! Let’s move on.

THE MODEL

Categorisation is essential for it is the way to frame and really understand how things work. In this model, the negotiation approaches are split in the below general categories (the #numbering corresponds to the above suggested responses):

  • Logic #4
  • Threat #3
  • Emotion #6
  • Compromise #2
  • Bargaining #5
  • and then there is Acceptance #1 but then this is not really a negotiation (if Acceptance is the first response).

So, which were your preferred responses?

Your choices are an indicator of what is your instinctive preferred style is.

What you choose to use at every negotiation should be quite different and should dependent on the context, the relationship, the required outcome etc.

Using one behavioural style at every negotiation despite the different power dynamics and the different preferred outcomes is not wise as this would not enhance the potential for maximising the value of the deal.

For example, as an extreme case, imagine you have decided upon a collaborative approach for R&D (mutual product development) with a supplier but your natural style is to Threaten (#3). Well, this is not an approach that builds bridges towards greater collaboration.

WAYS TO USE THE MODEL AND BE EFFECTIVE AT A NEGOTIATION

1. Know what you naturally prefer (in this CIPS white paper there is a test that more accurately measures your negotiation style)

2. Pay attention on what is the preferred method from the other side.

An easy way to do this is to identify key themes. Notice again the above 6 responses and compare them for key differences.

3. Get on your team people with natural talent at different negotiation style.

4. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare. Prepare on what style and arguments you should use. Prepare for what naturally you would expect from the other party. Prepare BATNA, WATNA etc

FURTHER USEFUL READING

Previous Blog posts about Negotiations:

  • Definition on what the term negotiation really means (here).
  • The first step towards an effective negotiation (here).
  • A useful guide to identify and avoid bad reasoning in a Logical argument (here).
    A checklist on prerequisites for an effective negotiation (here)

Great Books

  1. Clive Rich- The Yes Book
  2. Robert Cialdini – Influence
  3. Roger Fisher & William Ury – Getting to Yes

 

 

 

 

[Image courtesy of Andalousia / www.morguefile.com]

Filed under Effective Communication, Effective Negotiation Tools series Tagged with , , ,

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