President's Plan to make College More Affordable

The White House issued a news release today entitled: "Fact Sheet on the President's Plan to Make College More Affordable:  A Better Bargain for the Middle Class."

I encourage you to take the time to read this. 

Regardless of your politics, the issue of rising college costs and low graduation rates coupled with high debt should be a major concern for us all.  President Obama's proposal addresses some of these concerns and exhibits innovative leadership in an area which is complicated and caught in a quagmire of bureacracy . . . depending, of course, on what these proposals will actually look like once implemented.

Some of the highlights from my perspective:

Paying for Performance

• If the new college rating is actually balanced and takes into account the demographic of today's college student (which IPEDS does not) then this would be great benefit to students.  I'm not as hopeful that the DOE can pull off a balanced and fair metric.
• Tying state and federal funds to performance should be interesting to say the least as gauging performance has always been a challenge for academia.  I can see this being resisted by many four year public universities some of whose faculty have not had to face the challenge of relevance for their entire career.
• I truly like the part about holding students and colleges receiving student aid responsible for making progress toward a degree.  Honestly this is the way the funding should have been setup in the beginning and most of the real problem (which is focused on blaming some schools for abuse) is because the system wasn't setup correctly in the first place.  This has the potential to fix it, although there will be a lot of individuals who have been "playing" the system who will be disappointed that they will actually have to make progress on a degree to keep getting the funding.  Who knows, they might even graduate.

Promoting Innovation and Competition

• I think this area is a little scarier.  According to the news release there will be some money available to community colleges and "approved" universities to explore innovation.  This, in concept is a good thing, however, I can see some pot-holes in the road ahead as the implementation of almost all innovation in higher education finds significant barriers in faculty acceptance and administration budgeting.  Also a consideration is the small school who is comfortable doing things as they've always done them now being confronted with the challenge to change and change radically.  This will, I believe, catch many unaware and could result in some serious competition leading to closing schools (maybe a good thing??? I don't know, we'll see).

Ensuring that Student Debt Remains Affordable

• I applaud the initiatives in this area as I know many personally who are carrying significant debt and I think this will help.

Altogether, I am hopeful that these initiatives will make a difference, but I can also see some difficult days ahead as colleges and universities try to get a handle on what this new future will look like once the dust has settled.

Create Distinction - Book Review

Create Distinction: What to do When "Great" Isn't Good Enough to Grow you Business by Scott McKain

I'm not sure where I heard about this book but had put it on my Amazon wish list  (I use this all the time to keep track of books I might eventually want to read) and have finally gotten around to reading it.  The book is well written and interesting.  The focus, as you can gather from the title, is about creating distinction for your business, whatever business, with the intent that the business would thrive.  I picked several useful ideas from the book which I plan on incorporating in various projects I'm working on.

"...having a passion for what you do does not mean you will have a successful business."  (p22)  I really liked having this quote early in the book because we hear so much about the importance of passion (yes, it IS important) but we often overlook the other parts and pieces needed to make a business SUCCESSFUL.  This is followed up with "...we tend to pursue new customers with more enthusiasm than we prize existing ones." (p27) and "...few companies or professionals have a retention strategy, a precise program that outlines specific steps for retaining our current customers, for growing and expanding the business we are obtaining from them." (p27)  Wow, this really got me hooked because I see this almost every day.  It seems that a LOT more effort, time and money go into securing new customers while current customers seem to disappear and we don't know why.  According to McKain, creating distinction is, at least, part of the answer.

At the end of each chapter he provides an Executive Summary which is very helpful for reviewing the material or possibly even pre-viewing the material.  In this first two chapters he talks about the Three Destroyers of Differentiation:

1. Copycat Competition and Incremental Advancement.  
2. Change that Creates Tougher Competition
3. Familiarity Breeds Complacency

This was interesting and certainly seems to make sense. Next he expands upon the Three Levels of Differentiation and their application in creating distinction for any business.  McKain states that businesses can differentiate themselves in only three ways:  You can create distinction by product differentiation in which you have a product which no one else has, or you can differentiate by price, either by being the highest or the lowest, but this is a sharp sword which can destroy as easily as it can bring success.  Finally you can differentiate on the basis of service.  "If you cannot impact the design of your products, and if you cannot choose or control the price, then your primary point of differentiation must become service." (p65)  However, before you say, "That's us, we provide great service," read this:  "what will not differentiate you in today's world: product quality (because there is little real difference in the quality of most products), customer service (because everyone has learned how to provide competent customer service - well, almost everyone) . . .."(p.65)

The point is that unless there is something truly distinctive about your service, customers will find that distinction somewhere else.  McKain calls this the "Ebert Effect" after the film critic Roger Ebert.  Here is his definition of the Ebert Effect:  when customers - from their perspective - are inundated with indistinguishable choices, they tend to perceive a product, service, approach, or experience with a specific point of differentiation to be superior." (p.77)  And that differentiation must be at a point that matters to the customer. 

Most of the rest of the book is devoted to expanding on "The Four Cornerstones of Distinction."

1. Clarity
2. Creativity
3. Communication
4. Customer-Experience Focus

I think this is a good book for the leadership team to read together and discuss, perhaps even to work on together at an offsite location for a few days.  The bottom line to all this is that all the talk about distinction ultimately has to move from planning to action.  Execution and resolve to commit, as I've stated in other posts, seem to be the sticking point upon which this hangs.

The WHY is more important than the WHAT

Someone referred this to me a few months ago and I've watched it, made notes one, placed stickers on my monitor to remind me of the importance of these concepts and re-watched it.  I think this is important.



It speaks back to what I've discussed in other places - passion.  Do you have it or not, and if not can you get it or should you try to find it somewhere else?

2013 Global Leadership Summit, Day 2

The first presentation this morning was Joseph Grenny.  Dr. Grenny co-authored two of my favorite books:  Influencer and Crucial Conversations.  He began with a definition:  Leadership is intentional influence, a definition which I definitely agree with.  He then began to define six sources of influence which when combined enable change to occur.  It was a powerful presentation and this is a subject anyone who is truly interested in leadership should study.

The next speaker was Vijay Govindarajan, who was interviewed by Jim Mellado, President of the Willow Creek Association.  His premise:  Strategy is about leadership in the future.  He used a model which breaks strategic thinking into 3 "boxes."  First is managing the present, Second is to figure out what to selectively forget, and Third is to create the future.  Both the second and third boxes are truly strategic thinking which prepares us to enter the future.  This was an interesting presentation and I'll likely buy one of his books to dive deeper into this.  It sounds a little like the sigmoid curve material I've posted on, specifically the transition pieces associated with the introduction of a new inflection point. 

Dr Brene Brown make the next presentation.  I wasn't sure what to expect from the description but came away impressed with how she clearly related leadership with relationship.  The word which kept going through my mind as she spoke was becoming truly self-differentiated and from there being able to fully enter into productive and fulfilling relationships.  Her premise is that you can't truly lead or love others until you are able to do so with yourself.

Oscar Muriu spoke next and shared five leadership truths.  This was challenging and focused specifically upon the importance of developing the leaders who are coming after us if we would have any hope of real accomplishment. 

There were two more speakers on the schedule which I really wanted to hear but had to leave due to a schedule conflict.

Will I attend again next year? YES, if at all possible.  Did I get receive at least the value of the registration?  YES!  Should you make every effort to attend either the live Global Leadership Summit in Barrington, IL or one of the simulcasts across the country?  YES

2013 Global Leadership Summit, Day 1

I arrived at the simulcast location for this year's WCA Global Leadership Summit in Rapid City, SD.  Fountain Springs Community Church was hosting the event and did an excellent job with everything.  Today's sessions included:

• Bill Hybels - He set the stage with a profound message of moving from vision casting to execution.  This from a man with 38 years as the pastor of Willow Creek and with a legacy of literally world changing impact on the church, he is still setting the pace and calling for virtues to move from the ethereal to the forefront . . . and he is practicing that with an emphasis upon ministry and caring for WC along with serious financial commitment.  He is also wise enough to begin to engage in succession planning so that they church can continue to move forward even after he steps down.
• Colin Powell - Leaders, according to General Powell, who get the work done are those who create a sense of purpose and then create the environment where success is possible.  According to him successful leaders infect their people; successful people are force multipliers.  He is a powerful speaker and communicator. 
• Patrick Lencioni - This was perhaps my favorite presentation so far, although, in this crowd there are no bad presentations.  He spoke from his new book "Three Signs of a Miserable Job."  His style of delivery was exactly like I like it.  He talked fast and with some signs of being HDD.  The three signs are Anonymity, Irrelevance, and Immeasurement.  As he went through these points I could see in my mind's eye different individuals who had made me feel one or more of these things in the past . . . and I could see where I might have been guilty of not providing enough in one or more of these areas to those I have managed.  Definitely insightful and will have to get the book.
• Liz Wiseman - I wasn't sure what to think about her presentation but the further she went the more I began to understand the premise.  Namely, that managers/leaders fall into four camps:  true diminishers, accidental diminishers, accidental multipliers, and true multipliers.  Here again, as she explained each group I could see several people I have worked with in each of these camps and understand the impact they had upon me, and began to reflect on the impact I have had on those I have lead/managed.  Another book to buy!  I'd like to give this one to some people but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't "get it."
• Chris Brown - Chris delivered a powerful message about succession planning, about developing the leaders within your organization, and empowerment.  This was more of a sermon but powerfully delivered in a style that was interesting and challenging.
• Bob Goff - He is an ALWAYS on kind of guy!
• Michael Jr. also did some stand up comedy and was very entertaining.

I'm not sure why there weren't more at the Rapid City site except perhaps that most in this region don't recognize the benefit these kind of experiences can have on professional development and/or they are unsure of the impact of a simulcast, which I found worked well.

I do know I listened to these speakers with a profound sense of awe, guilt and inspiration.  Awe because I saw and learned new things which I didn't know and to see these leaders who have persevered and are still leading is impressive.  Guilt because I'm not leading as well as I thought and may have actually been having a negative impact. Inspiration because I can go forth and do better . . . and will.