Skip Prichard | Leadership Insights

An Exciting Leadership Challenge

Skip Prichard — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:13:32 +0000

This last year, I have had the privilege of exploring many opportunities and consulting with different organizations. I’ve enjoyed the chance to study various teams and learn from a variety of leaders. At the same time, I most enjoy operational roles where I’m responsible for driving results.

In June, I will be joining OCLC as President-elect and I will be named President & CEO on July 1. Based in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC is a nonprofit computer library service and research organization. Its goals include furthering access to the world’s information and reducing library costs.

During major career changes, I make a list of what I am looking for and then evaluate various opportunities against these criteria. Here are a few I’d like to share with you in case it helps you on your own journey:

Supportive. If you are joining a company, it is important to know whether you will have support or whether you will be fighting internally. Most of us have experienced teams where everyone is more concerned about survival than about helping each other. Specifically on my list is a “supportive board of directors.” I met with the trustees numerous times throughout the process and this is one of the most engaged, thoughtful and supportive boards I have ever seen.

Engaging. Really what this one is about is that I don’t like to be bored. For me, I enjoy industries in transition or undergoing change. Libraries have been at the cutting edge of technology for years and face challenges due to budget constraints. I’m excited to help in any way possible and know that the variety of technological and economic changes will provide new challenges.

Stable. I’ve enjoyed working in many different environments. Working in a stable business is important to me. My predecessor at OCLC, Jay Jordan, has done an excellent job working with the members to expand into new areas around the globe. Note: It’s possible to be both stable and in the middle of rapid change at the same time.

Respected. I’ve worked with libraries my entire career. OCLC is one of the most respected names anywhere, and this is because the member libraries help to make it what it is. The combination of fully engaged member libraries with talented OCLC employees around the world makes for a dynamic, well-respected organization.Read the rest of this post...

Working for Good

Skip Prichard — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:12:53 +0000

Jeff Klein is the CEO of Working For Good and trustee and executive team member of Conscious Capitalism Inc., an organization cofounded by John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods. He’s written two thoughtful books Working for Good: Making a Difference While Making a Living and It’s Just Good Business: The Emergence of Conscious Capitalism & The Practice of Working For Good.

What is “Working for Good” ?

Working for Good is the name of my book and business. It is a brand. And it is an approach to work, business and life that orients around service, sustainability, learning, growth and development.

What are the benefits of creating an environment where you can truly “work for good”?

Purpose is among the highest motivations for human beings. If your work is infused with purpose, then you are inspired and energized to bring all that you have and all that you can to the work.

Love and care similarly bring out the best and most in people. If you care about and for the people you work with and if they care about and for you, your connection to them is deep, and you are motivated to serve and support each other.

When people are aligned and alighted in purpose, supporting and serving each other — and others who they come in contact with (including customers and other stakeholders of the business) — the business is alive. It attracts attention and fosters relationships built on trust and loyalty, which leads to resilience and sustainability.

This is very good for business!

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“If your work is infused with purpose, then you are energized to bring all that you have to the work.” -Jeff Klein

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How is a business like a garden?

The most essential skill of a gardener is that of attention. “Tending” a garden begins with attention. When you pay attention to the garden, you see what is going on and recognize where care and intervention are required.Read the rest of this post...

5 Customer Service Lessons from the Department of Motor Vehicles

Skip Prichard — Wed, 08 May 2013 09:02:11 +0000

You can learn from every situation. Whether it was an incredible service experience that makes you a raving fan or whether it is one where you’re left shaking your head.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to celebrate a milestone with my daughter. It was time for her to obtain her driver’s permit. She had finished a weeklong driver’s education course, passed the written test, obtained all of the paperwork, and we had dutifully filled out the forms.

Everything was ready.

Now it was time for us to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), get her picture taken, and obtain the permit. I knew it would take time. That’s the nature of the DMV. I figured an hour to an hour and a half max.

Instead, we quickly realized that getting the permit was going to be about as difficult as Frodo making it safely to Mordor.

All of us have had the same shared, miserable experience at the DMV. In every state I’ve lived in, it’s the same. We just forget, don’t we? We finally get what we need, and then we hope that we never have to go back.

Our experience was even worse than what I recalled from before. Nearly five hours later, we finally emerged with the permit. All of the waiting for just five minutes at the counter.

We were exhausted, but we also were laughing. That’s what we do when we are beyond frustrated. Jim Rohn used to say, “Learn to turn frustration into fascination.” When I’m terribly frustrated, I try to heed his advice.

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Learn to turn frustration into fascination. -Jim Rohn

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Here’s what I jotted down in my notes during that first hour:

I’m fascinated:

That this operation is so inefficient.
That no one has redone this entire system.
That we blindly put up with it because we feel powerless.
That leaders haven’t emerged to fix it.
That they aren’t listening to suggestions for change.

After two hours, I was no longer fascinated. That’s when I go to my second step. I look for customer service or leadership lessons. That worked for the next hour.

What business lessons can we learn from the DMV?

From my notes:

Set expectations.

At the DMV, they don’t give an estimated time until you will be served. Failing to set expectations leads to disappointment.

Lesson: Whether running a business or serving on a team, it’s important to set expectations—and then keep them.Read the rest of this post...

Finding the Next Steve Jobs

Skip Prichard — Sat, 04 May 2013 09:00:32 +0000

Photo courtesy of istockphoto/TABoomer
Nolan Bushnell founded groundbreaking companies such as Atari and Chuck E. Cheese. In his first book, Finding the Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Hire, Retain and Nurture Creative Talent, he outlines a plan for helping companies bring more creativity into their organization and make it their competitive advantage. (Nolan hired Steve Jobs in 1972, two years after founding Atari.) The book is a must read for all creatives and especially anyone who aspires to manage creatives.

My good friend, best-selling author and speaker Tim Sanders of Net Minds, is his publisher. Tim graciously agreed to interview Nolan and talk about creativity, leadership, libraries and even publishing. Here is the conversation between Tim and Nolan:

I know it’s your strong belief that leaders at companies need to foster a creative culture. If you were going to give leaders one piece of advice on how to think differently about a creative culture, what would that piece of advice be?

I would encourage them to say yes to at least one crazy idea a year.

Give me an example of some of the crazy ideas you heard when you were in Atari.

Among the many that were pitched to me, one that stands out was this notion of making pretty pictures when music happened. It seemed ridiculous at the time. The product ultimately turned into Midi.

Midi, of course, is the standard that still exists to this day for connecting music devices to each other and synchronizing them.

I think we built 20,000 of them, and I think we sold six at full-price. (Laughs). But it did become a force within the industry, for sure.

Let me ask you about leadership because you’ve led several companies. Do you think of leadership in a military way, a coaching way, or an improv comedy way?Read the rest of this post...

7 Facts of Business Success

Skip Prichard — Wed, 01 May 2013 03:03:14 +0000

Photo by melanie_hughes on flickr.

After over forty years of owning businesses, Bill McBean shares the success factors that propelled his ventures to new heights. Whether turning around underperforming auto dealerships or forming new investing and administrative services companies, Bill has seen what works and what doesn’t. He recently wrote The Facts of Business Life, and I had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his formula for business success.

Why do most businesses not achieve the level of success that they should?

It’s usually a combination of reasons versus one specific reason. These reasons are, in no particular order: 1) an opportunity with little potential for gross profit and net profit; 2) a lack of knowledge of the important elements, or basic fundamentals which create success; 3) a lack of leadership knowledge of how to move a business “from here to there”; 4) a lack of knowledge of how to compete; 5) a lack of overall business knowledge (not to be confused with industry knowledge).

This is not a comprehensive list, but in my opinion from what I have seen they make up the vast majority of business failure or lack of success — and it’s rarely just one of these reasons. Instead it is a combination that can kill or seriously hinder the success of a business.

Your book outlines seven “facts” that successful business owners understand and utilize. We don’t have time to go into all of them, but how did you develop and choose these seven?

Fact 1: If you don’t lead, no one will follow.  Fact 2: If you don’t control it, you don’t own it.  Fact 3: Protecting your company’s assets should be your first priority. Fact 4: Planning is about preparing for the future, not predicting it.  Fact 5: If you don’t market your business, you won’t have one.  Fact 6: The marketplace is a war zone. Every company has competitors, and if it doesn’t and it’s successful, it soon will.  Fact 7: You don’t just have to know the business you’re in; you have to know business.

It probably wouldn’t surprise you if I told you these ‘facts’ chose me rather than me choosing them. By this I mean in all my years of business ownership these 7 facts were the ones which cost me the most money — either in not optimizing an opportunity or by not paying enough attention to a particular fact that ended up taking a big bite out of my wallet.Read the rest of this post...

Are You Living or Existing?

Skip Prichard — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 08:37:19 +0000

Photo by ’James Wheeler on flickr.
I met Kimanzi Constable somewhere between the blogging and Twitter worlds and heard his story. He was stuck in a dead-end job, unhappy, and going through life in a way that was existing, but not thriving. He decided to do something about it and began to change his life. As he describes it, he decided to “stop settling, stop making excuses.”

As he began to change his life, he self-published two ebooks, which sold over 80,000 copies. A short time later, a publisher called and he ended up with a book deal. He quit his job, becoming a speaker and a coach. His first published book is Are You Living or Existing? 9 Steps to Change Your Life.

9 Steps to Changing Your Life

Identify Your Dreams

Get Fit

Get Rid of the Negative

Fix Your Money

Nail Down Your Plans

Make the First Moves

Tie Up Loose Ends

Make Radical Changes

Pay it Forward

Why did you write this book?

I wrote this book because for twelve years I had settled and made so many excuses to not live the life I truly wanted to lead. After many struggles and victories and tears I realized a lot of truths that I thought could really help people who were and are in the same position I was in. I wanted to show everyone that anyone can live the life of his or her dreams with the proper plan. I’m living proof; this book is my game plan on paper.

What’s the difference between living and existing?

The difference is realization, attitude and action. You start by realizing that time is one resource we’ll never get back, so we can’t afford to waste it doing things that won’t better our life. Then have the right attitude towards everything you do, viewing opportunities as a blessing and not another task on your to do list. Action means not wasting your life away watching the latest prime time shows. It means getting out and creating amazing experiences. At the end of your life you won’t remember all of the stuff you got or shows you watched. You’ll remember incredible experiences and times you impacted the lives of others.

Describe the moment when you had enough and decided to go for your dreams.Read the rest of this post...

4 Cornerstones to Create Distinction

Skip Prichard — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:40:21 +0000

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In an increasingly competitive marketplace, how can you make your business stand out?

When you’re competing for the job or the promotion, how do you not only differentiate yourself from others but distinguish yourself as the best candidate?

What do you do when you’ve already taken your business from good to great, but great doesn’t cut it?

Creating Distinction

Scott McKain is a global expert in the art of distinction. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, Scott helps companies rise above mediocrity and sameness to achieve record growth. His own career is also distinctive. He’s one of my favorite professional speakers. He is both a member of the Speaker’s Roundtable and the Speakers Hall of Fame. He’s a bestselling author and also a personal friend.

Whether in the boardroom or on the platform, Scott is passionate about helping businesses and individuals create distinction. His latest award-winning book is called Create Distinction. I love what the subtitle adds: What to Do When Great Isn’t Good Enough to Grow Your Business.

Do you ever feel that way? That your business is great, but in the world we are in, great just isn’t good enough? What do you do?

Scott McKain offers what he calls “The Four Cornerstones of Distinction”:

Clarity

Creativity

Communication

Customer-Experience Focus

CLARITY

The first cornerstone of distinction is clarity. This requires you to define who you are, what you’re about, and, just as importantly, who you are not.

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Clarity means you are precise about who you are—and just as exact about who you are not! Scott McKain

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The Surprising Predictive Power of Analytics

Skip Prichard — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:01:11 +0000

You have been predicted.

Companies, government, universities, law enforcement. All are using computers to predict what you will do.

Will you click on the link in the email?

When will you die?

Will you pay your credit card bill on time?

Are you pregnant?

Dr. Eric Siegel recently released Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie or Die. It’s a fascinating book that has surprisingly broad ramifications for all of us. Eric is a former Columbia University professor, the founder of Predictive Analytics World and Executive Editor of the Predictive Analytics Times.

Let’s start with the definition. What is predictive analytics?

It’s technology that gives organizations the power not only to predict the future, but to influence it. The shortest definition of predictive analytics is my book’s subtitle, the power to predict who will click, buy, lie, or die. Predictive analytics is the technology that learns from data to make predictions about what each individual will do–from thriving and donating to stealing and crashing your car. By doing so, organizations boost the success of marketing, auditing, law-enforcing, medically treating, educating, and even running a political campaign for president.

Why should the average person care about predictive analytics?

Prediction is the key to driving improved decisions, guiding millions of per-person actions. For healthcare, this saves lives. For law enforcement, it fights crime. For business, it decreases risk, lowers cost, improves customer service, and decreases unwanted postal mail and spam. It was a contributing factor to the reelection of the U.S. president.

Let’s jump to politics then. How did President Obama’s campaign gain an edge by using persuasion modeling?

The Obama campaign’s analytics team applied persuasion modeling (aka uplift modeling) in the same way it can be applied to marketing: drive per-person (voter/customer) campaign decisions by way of per-person predictions. If an individual is predicted to be persuadable, then make campaign contact (e.g., a knock on the door). By utilizing resources (campaign volunteers) more effectively in this way, the campaign enacted the new science of mass persuasion. They proved this won them more votes, within swing states and elsewhere.

Everyone is talking about “big data” but data on its own isn’t interesting or useful. You explain how data can show incredibly interesting insights including the fact that if you retire early, your life expectancy drops. Tell me more about that and what else we’ve learned from it.

Beyond the great hype around so much data, the real question is what to do with it. Answer: use data to predict human behavior.

The whole point of data is to learn from it to predict. Talking about how much data there is misses this point. What is the value, the function, the purpose? The one thing that makes the biggest difference to improve how organizations operate is to predict.Read the rest of this post...

9 C’s of Lincoln’s Leadership

Skip Prichard — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 08:46:02 +0000

Photo by netdance on flickr.
When it was in the theatres, I watched the extraordinary movie Lincoln. Rarely do I watch a movie a second time, but I’m such an admirer of President Lincoln that I couldn’t wait for its video release. My family watched it last weekend. To me, the acting is so perfect that I feel like I am truly watching Lincoln himself.

There are thousands of articles and books about Lincoln. As I watched the movie, I noted some of his attributes for achieving his goals. The movie was primarily focused on Lincoln’s goal to pass the Thirteenth Amendment. Throughout the fight in the House of Representatives, Lincoln was:

1. Committed. He was willing to risk his reputation to do what was right.

2. Clever. How he won votes in the House of Representatives is part of the story that intrigues me.

3. Calm. In the midst of incomprehensible stress, Abraham Lincoln was calm. He would tell a story, a joke, or quietly sit by himself.

4. Compromising. He didn’t compromise his values, but he understood the political necessities and how to negotiate in order to achieve the best possible outcome.Read the rest of this post...

Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing

Skip Prichard — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 02:12:09 +0000

Photo Courtesy of istockphoto/Henrik5000
Close your eyes and imagine the future. What’s transportation like? How about food preparation? Communication? How about shopping?

Science fiction writers have long allowed us glimpses of possible future worlds. From Star Trek to Minority Report, we are fascinated by the potential of technology.

WAIT UNTIL YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS

One technology that has been around for decades but is only now starting to emerge in the public eye is the world of 3D printing. Science fiction fans, technologists and futurists may grasp this concept faster than most. And though I’m a student of futurists like Dan Burrus, and a frequent attendee of the Consumer Electronic Show, the reality of 3D printing is something my mind struggles to truly grasp.

Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman, leading experts on 3D printing, have written a new book Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing. It’s all about “the promise and peril of a machine that can make (almost) anything.”

I recently had the opportunity to ask the authors about this new world and where we are headed.

3D PRINTING TODAY

This technology is already in use today. Give us a few examples of where it’s in use, but we may not even think about it.

Yes, 3D printed products do indeed lurk amongst us in our daily lives. Many people don’t realize that 3D printing technology is not new; in fact, 3D printing has been in use in engineering and manufacturing environments as a prototyping tool for decades. If you look around your office or your car, almost every product — your chair, stapler, eyeglass frame and car mirror — probably started their life as a 3D-printed prototype. What’s new is that in the past few years, an increasing number of everyday actual products — not just prototypes used in the product design process — are made using 3D printing.

The medical field has been one of the first industries to embrace 3D printed products. Most hearing aids these days are 3D printed so they fit exactly the shape of your inner ear. Invisalign™ orthodontic braces are 3D printed, which makes sense since a personal and customized fit is critical when it comes to dental work. Many dentists are 3D printing crowns. On the cutting edge, surgeons are experimenting with 3D printed titanium hip and jaw implants designed using medical scans. If you pair a 3D printer with an optical scanner or a medical image, you can make custom prosthetics more quickly and accurately.

In general, the more a product benefits from being customized or personalized, the more likely it will be made via 3D printing. Right now, 3D printing is too slow and too costly for mass production.Read the rest of this post...