ESTP - The Doer and Entrepreneur

Today I did one of those tests that bumped into me on Facebook. And this is the result: 

As an ESTP, your primary mode of living is focused externally, where you take things in via your five senses in a literal, concrete fashion. Your secondary mode is internal, where you deal with things rationally and logically.

ESTPs are outgoing, straight-shooting types. Enthusiastic and excitable, ESTPs are "doers" who live in the world of action. Blunt, straight-forward risk-takers, they are willing to plunge right into things and get their hands dirty. They live in the here-and-now, and place little importance on introspection or theory. The look at the facts of a situation, quickly decide what should be done, execute the action, and move on to the next thing.

ESTPs have an uncanny ability to perceive people's attitudes and motivations. They pick up on little cues which go completely unnoticed by most other types, such as facial expressions and stance. They're typically a couple of steps ahead of the person they're interacting with. ESTPs use this ability to get what they want out of a situation. Rules and laws are seen as guidelines for behavior, rather than mandates. If the ESTP has decided that something needs to be done, then their "do it and get on with it" attitude takes precedence over the rules. However, the ESTP tends to have their own strong belief in what's right and what's wrong, and will doggedly stick to their principles. The Rules of the Establishment may hold little value to the ESTP, but their own integrity mandates that they will not under any circumstances do something which they feel to be wrong.

ESTPs have a strong flair for drama and style. They're fast-moving, fast-talking people who have an appreciation for the finer things in life. They may be gamblers or spendthrifts. They're usually very good at story telling and improvising. They typically makes things up as they go along, rather than following a plan. They love to have fun, and are fun people to be around. They can sometimes be hurtful to others without being aware of it, as they generally do not know and may not care about the effect their words have on others. It's not that they don't care about people, it's that their decision-making process does not involve taking people's feelings into account. They make decisions based on facts and logic.

ESTP's least developed area is their intuitive side. They are impatient with theory, and see little use for it in their quest to "get things done". An ESTP will occasionally have strong intuitions which are often way off-base, but sometimes very lucid and positive. The ESTP does not trust their instincts, and is suspicious of other people's intuition as well.

The ESTP often has trouble in school, especially higher education which moves into realms where theory is more important. The ESTP gets bored with classes in which they feel they gain no useful material which can be used to get things done. The ESTP may be brilliantly intelligent, but school will be a difficult chore for them.

The ESTP needs to keep moving, and so does well in careers where he or she is not restricted or confined. ESTPs make extremely good salespersons. They will become stifled and unhappy dealing with routine chores. ESTPs have a natural abundance of energy and enthusiasm, which makes them natural entrepreneurs. They get very excited about things, and have the ability to motivate others to excitement and action. The can sell anyone on any idea. They are action-oriented, and make decisions quickly. All-in-all, they have extraordinary talents for getting things started. They are not usually so good at following through, and might leave those tasks to others. Mastering the art of following through is something which ESTPs should pay special attention to.

ESTPs are practical, observant, fun-loving, spontaneous risk-takers with an excellent ability to quickly improvise an innovative solution to a problem. They're enthusiastic and fun to be with, and are great motivators. If an ESTP recognizes their real talents and operates within those realms, they can accomplish truly exciting things.

St Aidan, a very saintly leader and entrepreneur!

"Oh Master, make me chaste, but not yet!"
St. Augustine

Recently, I went to my annual pilgrimage; this year to the Island of Iona, one of Scotland's Hebrides' islands. It's a very important religious location in Britain since it is one of the birth places of Celtic-Irish Christianity. It is a form of Christianity that came to England from the north via Ireland and Scotland and more or less died out after the arrival of the Roman form entering via Kent and the English south. St Augustine, the one who wants to have a postponed chastity, is partly responsible for this dominance of Romanism on the British Isles as his religious believes were centre-stage during the famous Synod of Whitby (664 AD). Anyway, that's just some background knowledge. 

Let's get back to my pilgrimage to Iona. Below is a photo which I took upon arrival by ferry. The famous abbey is on the right. The island is pretty small, only a few hundred people live there, if that many at all. 

This pilgrimage was pretty standard in the way it was put together. The theme was Iona and its saints; namely St Columba and to a lesser degree St Aidan. In the addresses by the local vicar we heard about St Mary on day 1, St Columba on day 2 and finally St Aidan on day 3. 

We all know about St Mary, mother of Jesus; and whatever the priest said was okay but didn't rock my boat overly much. Maybe because I am a Lutheran at heart and never really warmed up to her. 

And good old St Columba, well, he was an Irish nobleman and either had to escape from Ireland or went voluntarily after some lost battle, if I remember well. Once he arrived on Iona he built a predecessor of this abbey we can see today and founded the monastery.

The story of St Columba was a bit like the one of Mary. No, he wasn't any related to Jesus, but his life story didn't butter my muffin overly much. I think he has probably chosen the most beautiful spot on God's Earth (and I am saying this because I have not felt any raindrop during my stay and it was still late summer). It was good to be on his island and see where he lived and built his monastery. It's a divine and truly sacred place and I felt uplifted throughout my stay. 

On day 3 we listened to the story of St Aidan. He was a brethren on Iona and also deeply rooted in Celtic christianity. 

One day, he sat in an assembly of the monastery and got told about King Oswald of Northumbria (or maybe the king was on Iona himself, I don't remember). Oswald was a deeply Christian king and needed help in Christianising his heathen people. All monks were a bit "shy" to agree and come over and help, but Aiden, one of the youngest brethren, stood up and told them all off declaring publicly he will do it. And he set out and walked all the way to Northumbria determined to baptise them all. He did. He managed. He founded Lindisfarne, a major British mystical pilgrimage site, situated on an island (only at high tide though) between Edinburgh and Newcastle, at the English east coast. 

(Rowan Lewgalon painted this image of St Aidan. A tad different to the usual saint pictures)

And that's the story of St Aidan, the short blog version of it anyway. Please feel free to wikipedia him. 

At the end of the pilgrimage we should give feedback as to what got stuck in our minds from our time on Iona or affected us emotionally the most; and funny enough, apart from the beauty of nature, with me it was the story of St Aidan. The sheer fact that he stood up in front of his peers and said in a very Obama-style manner "Yes, I can do it!" and then did it by throwing himself into the unknown of the 7th century and was successful, got me extremely motivated. He did it because he firmly believed in something, he possessed conviction that it would be the right thing to do. These are such leadership qualities that earn my fullest and deepest respect. Chapeau! 

I think for me this means a couple of things in terms of to dos: 
1. I want to know more about St Aidan
2. I want to travel to Lindisfarne at some stage and see and feel the place
3. I want to use the story of St Aidan in my coaching sessions with my clients when I talk about mission, vision and conviction and about setting targets.

My trip to Iona was a full success. It is a most inspiring little island in the Atlantic Ocean and a very godly place. I can only recommend to anyone to visit once in one's life. On my other blog I wrote three entries about my trip to Iona - this one, that one, and that one and sorry, the pictures in "that one" entry are the same as on here. 

Triggering Epiphanies

Have you ever had those moments when you suddenly and completely out of the blue decided something which has had a long-lasting impact, which has changed your life? Those are "epiphany moments". One has to cherish them, as they don't come often in life, but once they are there, we need to grasp them and just go for whatever there is to do! Epiphanies should always result in actions. That's why coaches and consultants like me like them so much. 

There is always a way out!

I have had a few in my life, they tend to appear very sporadically, unexpectedly, some are stronger, some are weaker, and of course, the stronger the better. They can reach levels of excitement to an orgasmic scale.

I had one recently:

It happened on 30 June 2015: I got up, had a coffee, decided to go to the local gym and sign up for membership, went to my wardrobe, packed a bag, went down the hill to the new local health and leisure centre, signed up without having seen what the place looks like, and started to exercise. I did it as if I had been remote controlled. I walked down the hill like a zombie that has smelled fresh human flesh.

Me on day 1! 

I am still amazed about it, as for the last 15 years I avoided the gym and any kind of physical exhaustion like the plague. Suddenly this! Now, 4 weeks after, I am quite happy about it and I like going there. I don't overdo it, I don't think I ever will; looking like Arnold has never been on my to do list, but a little bit of exercise is actually quite nice. 

Some of those epiphanies can be triggered, some probably come completely out of the blue. It must be similar to dreams; many stem from activities and occurrences that took place in our active lives, others come from deep within our subconsciousness. 

Epiphany moments in a business context are rare. I can imagine entrepreneurs probably have them when coming up with an idea and then take action. The role of a coach is to pave the way for them to happen. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's like with dreams, you can't force anyone to dream something specific. 

Epiphany in Bulgaria, where on 6 January every year men throw themselves into ice-cold water to fetch a cross that has been thrown in by the local priest. My coaching method isn't that drastic...  ;-) 

I have an example where I managed to trigger such an epiphany moment: 

Imagine a factory, break time for the workers is at 11:00 and there is no canteen on site, just a vending machine with sandwiches, chocolates, and the like; and then there is this little van from a local bakery that drives from factory to factory selling warm food, no meals, just warm sandwiches and rolls. For our German speakers, they sold Leberkässemmeln, but I am refraining from explaining this in English. 

Anyway, whenever I walked around the shop floor I heard a siren at 10:15 and most workers left their work place and went to that van to buy their "Leberkässemmeln". Those were kept in aluminium foil to keep them warm in order to bridge over till 11:00. What happened though, in most cases, break started at 10:15 because people wanted to eat their rolls straight away. Production figures plummeted daily during that hour. 

I went to the plant manager and just enquired about that sandwich van and he proudly told me about managing to finally have the van stop at 3 different locations inside the factory so that his workers would not have to leave their work place too early in order to walk all the way to the main gate where the van used to stop in order to be able to buy their "well deserved rolls". 

One morning after sitting over the project goals, which was to raise output by a certain percentage and we were far from the target line, I said to him a little bit after 10:00, "I need a break, why don't we take a stroll to the coffee machine in the factory and I get us a coffee...?". We went and of course at 10:20 the factory was empty, as everyone was queuing up at the van outside. I said, "It must be break time, nobody is here anymore, the machines are all switched off..."

The sandwich van does not exist anymore and break time starts at 11:00 again. We discussed this issue with the workers' council and came up with a good solution. The plant manager told me after a while: "Roland, I was so embarrassed when you showed me what happened down there without rubbing it in. It was the moment when I knew we really needed to sort the business out and start pushing mountains". 

We did and managed the turnaround and hit the target line. Happy Epiphany! 

That's an epiphany gone wrong!

Feeding 5000 and walking on water with a full stomach

John 6:19 "They saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. But he said to them, 'It is I; do not be afraid'."  

Our boat on the Sea of Galilee, back in 2008 at our pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

My neighbour Sherine and I talked about my SALT story's moral from my last blog entry - look out for Sarahs and get rid of Lots and Terahs in your lives! And whilst we chatted along I said, "I'm wondering if the Bible could be used as management handbook", and Sherine suggested I should try and find out. And that's what I am doing, finding out about it. 

Last Sunday's Gospel reading was about 2 miracles - feeding the multitude and Jesus walking on water. Quite a challenge, to squeeze any management wisdom out of those 2 stories. Maybe I am getting an idea whilst thinking and writing about it...

Jesus and his disciples were at the Sea of Galilee; and after having performed quite a few miracles before, I think mainly healing stuff, he wasn't alone anymore, but followed by thousands of people. Jesus looked back and must have said something like: "Jesus Christ! How on earth shall we feed them?" His disciple Philip, probably shaking his head in disbelief, replied that even half a year's wages wouldn't feed them. They were basically in trouble. 

Disciple Andrew saw a little boy pass by who carried something like a picnic basket, and inside he spotted 5 barley loaves and 2 fish, probably a week's food supply for his family. Andrew told Jesus about the boy's basket. What is not known from the Gospel is how they managed to obtain the little boy's family's food. Did they kidnap the boy, threaten him to beat him up if he doesn't surrender, steal it from him and beat him up, mesmerize the poor sod, etc... All of this is not known. Also, what happened to the boy after he was "relieved" from carrying his nutritious burden? Did his mother get a hissy fit when he got home empty handed, did the father spank him for having to starve now? All of that is in a biblical grey zone. But then, what's more important, feeding a boy and his family for a week or giving 5000 fans a snack? 

The mosaic in the Church of the Multiplication in Tabgha where the miracle apparently happened. 

Back to Jesus: Once he heard about the picnic basket he probably thought, "okay, it's probably time for another miracle." They "obtained" the food and miraculously managed to feed Christ's 5000 strong fanclub. Hooray, done! Afterwards, Jesus told his disciples to "gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost" and they did and managed to fill further 12 baskets. The multitude saw this and said, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."

A little afterthought: I just hope the little boy got one of those twelve baskets, even though it would mean those were just leftovers. 

Jesus knew that after feeding the crowd they wanted to "take him by force to make him king" (of course, who else would miraculously feed them all the time?). It probably daunted him that feeding them wasn't such a good idea because he raised unnecessary expectations. The Bible now says, "he withdrew again to the mountains by himself". How he managed to get out of this situation, I have no idea. Maybe it was one of those "Scottie, beam me up" moments that he just disappeared or that he miraculously made them fall asleep so he could sneak out. This is unknown. 

What's known though is, in the evening after it got dark, the disciples climbed onto a boat trying to cross the lake back home to Capernaum. A storm came up and it got pretty scary whilst rowing on the lake. Jesus was still in the mountains and probably just wanted to enjoy some "me time" but him being who he was knew that his disciples were in danger: "Can't I just leave them alone for one evening without them getting into trouble?" he must have thought, and super powers as he possessed he transposed himself from wherever he was in the mountains right onto the lake on which he walked towards the boat. They were terrified, but he said to them: "It is I, do not be afraid". Of course he saved their lives, hopefully telling them off for being stupid. And yet another miracle was performed on that day. Story over.

Can I draw any wisdom out of this for a coaching session or management training? It's difficult. And whilst wondering and pondering, my thoughts are suddenly evolving around whether Jesus was a good manager himself and what would I have told him in a coaching session. 

Of course, for this, one would need to assume that Jesus was more of a human being without adding too much of the divinity factor. It's sometimes bad enough to coach humans, but coaching the divine, I have no idea how successful I or anyone else would be. 

In a coaching session I'd probably discuss his business of performing miracles whilst on his ministry on Earth. What kind of miracles he produces, how "fruitful" they are, why he is doing them and whether they fulfill their purpose. I'd probably categorise his miracles into "healing miracles" and "others". The first are probably easy to explain, the why and how, but the latter need a deeper insight into the matter and probably a one-by-one explanation. An Excel miracle list would be of help.

For his feeding the 5000 miracle I'd ask and discuss some of the following questions and matters:

- Why did you want to feed them? 
- Did you think they would starve if you hadn't done so?
- What consequences did you expect from feeding them? 
- What other consequences did you expect if you hadn't fed them?
- Why did you know they wanted to make you their king? 
- Why didn't you just go for it and become their king? 
- Why did you feed them after all? What are the pros and cons of your actions? 
- Did you explain to your disciples why you fed all those people? 
- And if, did they understand and learn from this? 
- How did you deal with the little boy? 
- Did you steal his food and how did it feel? 
- How did you justify your action towards the boy and his family? 

And similar questions about the walking on water: Why did you do that? Could you have prevented this situation by better communicating to your disciples not to use a boat at night? Was it necessary to walk on water or could you not just stop the winds from blowing, etc? 

Of course, I cannot answer any of those questions. I am neither a theologian, nor have I had a chat with Jesus about it; anything else would be a sheer assumption, and one thing I learned back in the days when I started my career as management consultant - "NEVER ASSUME!" It has been helpful advice throughout my life. 

In fact, the more I am thinking about it, this gospel reading is a great example of showing what management consulting and coaching is all about - dealing with the impossible and unthinkable. Clients often approach me with all sorts of problems I have no clue about, like feeding 5000 from one picnic basket, walking on water, can sheep have copper in their diet; most essential is, to ask the right questions and to listen what the client has to say, and then draw conclusions from it and take action with the client. 

PS: I am wondering how many of those sermons I am going to think about and publish under the header "The Bible a management handbook"...

Watch out for your SALT!

Genesis 12: The Lord had said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you" - A story from the Old Testament and its relevance for business consulting and corporate coaching. 

Last Sunday I went to the christening of my neighbour's boy, Naziih, at Lewisham's Tabernacle Church. The minister preached about the verse above, where Abram (later called Abraham) was called to leave the city of Ur in Chaldea and venture to Canaan, a trip from modern Iraq to Israel. 

Abraham got his family together, mainly and namely his father Terah (who sort of project managed the voyage), his half-sister Sarai (later called Sarah), who he married at a later stage (yes!), and his nephew Lot, son of his brother Haran. 

The preacher then mentioned their names in a particular order and formed the following word - SALT, an acronym for Sarah, Abraham, Lot and Terah. 

So far, so good, and off they went. Halfway through, project manager and father of all, Terah, got a little sick and tired of the trip and settled with his lot in Haran, a place that bore the same name as his son, Lot's father. 

Of course, God wasn't overly happy about it, to say the least, and after a while reinforced his command to Abraham, to finally make a move and drag his lazy "derrière" to Canaan. Abraham said something like "alright then, let's go!" and packed Sarah and Lot and left Terah behind where he died early aged. And that was it with his early retirement. 

Once arrived in Canaan, Abraham went to the one direction and became, in modern terms, a self-made multi-millionaire, and his nephew Lot to the other direction, where he, after moving around a little, finally settled in Sodom. Yes, Sodom, city of sin, which would nowadays be London's Vauxhall area. 

God looked down to Sodom and Gomorrah and wasn't pleased, not pleased at all. Maybe he was also a little embarrassed about his creation and decided to give them the 'fire and brimstone treatment' and eradicate them from Earth. Before doing so, and since he is a just god, he sent out some angelic investigators to maybe save them, Lot in particular. The undercover angels knocked on his door, told him to leave, and got a "yeah, right, whatever! And if I go, then not without my family" response back from him. Finally, after a long struggle, they managed to set Lot and his lot, consisting of 1 wife and 2 daughters, right outside the city gates and gave God the "all clear" for Sodom (and Gomorrah) to be righteously treated for their sinful behaviour. 

The last words the angels told Lot were that neither of them were allowed to look backwards during the time that God sorted Sodom out, otherwise they'd be up for a nasty surprise. Of course, Lot's wife did, as nosey people do, and as punishment she turned into a pillar of salt. Lot then said to himself: "Well, wife gone; I still have 2 daughters" and did what good old Sodomites did back then, he made them both pregnant, thus founding 2 major tribes - the Moabites and Ammonites. 

In far away Canaan, Abraham led a life as god-fearing person and God rewarded him with financial riches, a long life, and a healthy libido through which he got his sister Sarah pregnant, after God told him so! A lot of incest has taken place back then, it appears, be it divinely sanctioned or habitual. Sarah, also an old woman by then, and rather skeptical about this whole pregnancy adventure, loved Abraham nonetheless, and god-fearing as they were, they tried it. They were successful, she gave birth to Isaac, who then became the 'grandfather' of the 12 tribes of Israel... That's as far as the story goes.

During the sermon the preacher referred back to his acronym SALT and what it means to be a good Christian:

S for Sarah: Be like Sarah, loving and god-fearing. And look out for any other Sarah's in your life, those are the ones you want to have around yourself!

A for Abraham: Be like Abraham, follow God's commands and he will reward you with riches in Heaven and on Earth!

L for Lot: Don't be like Lot, stubborn and conventional. And don't surround yourself with any of those Lots. They will hinder you and slow you down from reaching your divinely set targets.

T for Terah: Don't be like Terah, lazy and deviant. And don't have anyone who is like Terah around yourself, as like with any of those Lots, they will prevent you from ever going down the direction set by God. 

The preacher said: "Go and surround yourselves with Sarahs and kick all those Lots and Terahs out of your lives so you can reach your divinely set destiny". 

Of course, I completely disagree with that, especially in a private and family setting. If we always discarded the ones that slow us down, we'd end up living in a heartless world and I think Jesus himself would be a bit embarrassed about us. 

BUT, and there is a big   B U T   in all of this; in a business setting I fully agree with the moral of this acronym: 

S: Surround yourself with Sarahs, followers you can trust and can build a team with. People who know you and don't always question whatever your decisions are. Those Sarahs are the team members you want, the peers you can rely on, and the subordinates who ensure your area or department moves forward to where the CEO (not God in this matter) wants you to be. 

A: Be like Abraham. Listen to what your targets are and go for them. The earlier you deliver results, the earlier will be your reward. Lead your team towards your targets and enjoy the outcome once you got there.

L and T: Don't be like them and avoid those in your team. In fact, get rid of them! Those traditionalists and lethargic team members slow you down, get you distracted, will prevent you and your 'Sarahs' from reaching your targets. Be ruthless when it comes to who surrounds you and when choosing your team!

Part of my job as Corporate Coach would be to look out for those Sarahs, Lots and Terahs, and also for potential junior-Abrahams in my clients' teams. Together we'd make action plans and form teams ensuring the targets of the company can and will be met. As coach I'd take my clients on a discovery tour enabling them to find SALT in their surroundings and taking action afterwards! 

In the end, it was a good sermon and got me thinking. It was an inspirational Sunday morning trip. For further reading, please take a look at my Travel Blog, where I added a few pictures of Naziih's christening and the party afterwards. Also, go on Wikipedia and search for 'Abraham' 'Terah', 'Lot' and 'Sodom and Gomorrah'. Those are quite interesting articles to read and give a bit more biblical background. 

Visit my website to find out more about Corporate Coaching! Thanks.

Being fully google-able!

I went on a blind date the other day. We said 'hello' and when I ordered drinks at the bar my date said "Ah yes, trying 4 new gins this year as part of your '45 list'." I looked somewhat bewildered and thought that someone really did some serious preparation for the evening. Apparently, I got googled with my first name, and my other blog, the travel blog, came up, in which one can read about those "45 things to do when turning 45". 

Back home I started to think about what happened. I was not quite sure if I should have been happy or not that I am "fully google-able" with just my first name plus one narrowing description. But then, what should I expect with my private travel blog having more than 500 entries and 100,000 hits? Digging further down in my thought process I realised that actually, I would have been ever so slightly happier if my other blog, this business blog, which I have been neglecting now for so many years, had come up. I parked that thought and life went on till yesterday. 

I met my friend Lorna, a very well established businesswoman with her own company, and we had a chat over a drink after a meeting. After the usual "how are you?" I told her about a coaching franchise that wants to sell me a course, etc, for which I should pay anything between GBP 21,000 to 61,000 upfront. We both agreed it's rubbish and our chat went on to self-marketing, web presence, and you name it, in order to do it all by oneself and not pay such horrendous amounts for a franchise where one doesn't know in advance whether it is good or bad. And there I was again - my neglected business blog, my not so important but successful travel blog, and my poor business web presence. 

Today, I am giving it another go and work on 'The Naked Consultant'; this blog. My target is to throw my name out and get some serious business web presence; and I want to do it by writing about 'coaching being the new consulting' with regular/weekly updates. 

PS: My date two weeks ago went really well. We are Facebook friends now. And let's see what the future has in store. 

My Personality Type: The Reliable Realist

I just undertook this personality test. I thought it might be well kept on my blog. One thing is absolutely wrong though; it says I would not like to delegate. But fact is, I am doing nothing else but delegate. This has to do with my job as coach. Coaching means delegating and (most importantly) following-up and giving feedback. Apart from that, I see myself more or less represented as Reliable Realist.


My Personality Type: The Reliable Realist


PS: I just looked at the personality type "Dynamic Thinker" and am convinced that's also me. And then, there are 14 other types. In the end, this is a little bit like astrology - all star signs fit somehow to one's personality. Anyway, I will still keep the test result up online for future references and so that I can retake it at some stage. But it's just a test based on 4 questions. 

OEE - Overall Equipment Effectiveness and the New Project.

It is about time I am updating this blog again, as I have been managing a project in Austria since April. Since it is an active project, I cannot say who the client is and what he produces. But they are producing something MTO (Make to Order) which is made of metal and which one can find in most buildings. 

I think I should write about a few features of the project in the next few entries - what I am doing here, what I am learning, etc...

The project is about raising efficiency levels in the factory and the good thing about it is, it is a coaching project where I am coaching everyone from key operators to the managing director in efficiency raising techniques. 

We are tasked to do mainly 3 things - implementing OEE, doing some core SMEDs, and installing a "Lean Corner" (daily review meetings, action plans, etc). 

OEE Definition in German

 This poster about the OEE definition is in German but it shows the 3 areas OEE is looking at - Availability (V for Verfügbarkeit), Performance (L for Leistungsgrad) and Quality (Q for Qualität). OEE itself is calculated as a multiplication of all the 3 of them. 

What does one do?

One of the things I ought to write down is an account of what I would typically do on a project. In the last few years I was busy with manufacturing and supply chain projects. When looking at those subjects below I would normally check first if these exist and if, if they are effective and efficient.

ORGANISATION:
The organisation is lean
Frontline supervision exists
Separation between Planning and Operations
Training plans for workers and management are in place
Flexibility charts exist, are up to date and used

PLANNING:
Independent Planning department
Planning tools installed based on production standards
Plans are fixed and adhered to
Production standard hours for each product or product group
Communication link between Planning and Production, Procurement and Sales
Reports to measure planning attainment
Procurement arranges JIT deliveries to meet production plan
Planning reviews and manages stock
Obsolete stock is managed (and prevented from existing), scrap and rework are dealt with
There are regular stock reports with action plans

MANUFACTURING:
The shift system is effective
The factory is clean and cleaning plans exist
Production standard hours are known and used
A production plan is agreed upon and followed regularly
KPIs and reports are sufficient and effectively used, also communicated
Daily Planning and Review Meetings with frontline supervision exist
Weekly Planning and Review Meetings among management exist
An agenda for both meetings is in place, also an Action Plan which is used religiously
There are tools for Active Supervision on the shop floor (such as short interval controls)
Machines are used and capacity is known
Scrap is dealt with and hopefully avoided
There are breakdown registers at each machine which would then go into the daily report
Link between Production, Maintenance, Planning, Logistics
Change over procedures are in place (SMED)

MAINTENANCE:
Plans for regular and preventative maintenance are in place and managed
Maintenance reaction time to breakdowns is quick
There are KPIs which show how much time was used for preventative and breakdown maintenance
Machines have a repair history and are assigned with work orders
There is an effective meeting structure in place within Maintenance and to other departments
Engineers are trained and cross-trained

QUALITY:
Quality procedures are in place
Quality is a strong department and independent
Quality processes are well embedded within the production processes
Sampling is done according to plan, tests are undertaken timely
Regular communication to Production and Planning, also to R&D
Quality is not only a topic for the Q department, but Production should feel the need for quality too
Effective internal review meetings are in place, with agenda and action plans

This was just me thinking out loud. There are of course many more subjects within a usual project. I can only think of "new article development" and "article deletion" which have both a tremendous effect on manufacturing and planning. And the list goes on and on. 

All in all, I know what's going on in any operations department, where to look at and what do to do fix problems and implement an ideal organisation and processes.

Working in a Utility Company in Saudi Arabia

I always wanted to visit Saudi Arabia. I don't know why, but it has been on my to do list for many, many years. This year in spring I got a phone call from a headhunter asking me whether I was interested in a 3 month project there and I said I was interested. 2 weeks later I was sitting on a plane heading towards Riyadh. 

The contracts are normally annual ones, but lucky me, it was much shorter, as that company needed an urgent replacement for someone and only for a few weeks. 

So, the adventure began. I can only recommend to anyone who goes there to ask for a place in a compound rather than accommodation outside. And the reason being is very simple - at weekends and after work it is just nice to see and chat with westerners from a similar cultural background. Also, in compounds women can walk around freely (outside they are more or less expelled from society). 

The work I did was in a PMO environment and I was a subject matter expert for PMO and Customer Relations Management where I was tasked with 2 themes: 

1) I managed 14 projects to manage the interface to customers and ensure their water supply for the drought period 2012
2) I developed a management system for the sales and marketing department of the Treated Sewage Effluents division. 

I am not allowed to mention the name of the company, but one can see it is a utility company, the biggest one of its kind. 

What did I learn and bring back as experience from my trip down there?

1) Speed in Saudi Arabia is different from the western world. In Europe we implement changes so much quicker than there. As consultant we are always trained on speed, but we need to skip that when working in Saudi.

2) Relationship to your clients is key. Arabs more like westerners like to get to know someone first before doing business with them. So, the western approach "Hello Mr Clients, let's do business" does not work. Talking is key and that includes lots of small talk. And I need to say, I rather like this approach. 

3) Saudi Arabia is all about who knows whom from the Royal Family - and that family is big, and I mean seriously big as succession to the throne does not go downstream in the family tree, but sidestream. So, the current king is the last son of the founder of modern Saudi Arabia. Anyway, in a business environment this means, if your client knows someone in the Royal Family, this is a key client to watch, as the whole organisation will evolve around him. 

4) There are laws out there to prevent Saudi companies from hiring foreigners directly. This is called "Saudiisation" and means that many positions are filled with staff (and we speak higher positions) who are not really able to do the work. Foreigners are still needed but hired through consultancy companies or other bypass organisations. 

5) Saudis are not overly fond of having tasks delegated to them. They in fact seem to expect the consultant to do it for them. For the whole change management experience, that's of course problematic when it comes to creating ownership, etc. And again, this adds to the speed of implementation; it just takes time! 

All in all, workwise it was a very good experience and I absolutely loved it. I also loved working for that utility company. Culturally, the country can be a bit of a challenge and it certainly helps to be a man!

Whoever is interested, I also have a travel blog and had one entry per day. That was sort of my hobby and gave me something to do during the time when there was absolutely nothing to do (like after work and especially at weekends). One has to scroll down to April/May/June 2012 in order to find the blog entries.    

Roland's Travel Blog

All the best and happy scrolling through my blog.

Corporate Coaching - a new Business Concept?

The word coaching is often heard as a way out when managers are faced with managerial problems; or, privately, when people need a catalyst to help them dealing with seemingly insurmountable problems in their lives, the so-called life-coaching. And I am aware that this is only a very rough categorisation of the term. The idea I am pursuing goes beyond that and I am trying to combine both, coaching and consulting; let me call it Corporate Coaching.

As Performance Improvement Consultant, and I have been doing this for more than 16 years, one goes into clients’ companies and improves what there is to improve in order to gain financial and non-financial benefits for those clients – we install KPIs, implement planning tools, we close communication gaps and train management, etc, etc; the list is endless. Every Consulting Company promises a knowledge transfer from consultancy to client so that the latter would not be left alone and helpless after the project. But of course that is sheer marketing on behalf of the consultancy, hence rather fictional. There are a few concepts and methods of how to attain this knowledge transfer, but they are far from being as sustainable as they are promised and supposed to be.

So what should one do in order to ensure that all newly implemented management tools will remain within the company in a sustainable manner? That is where Corporate Coaching comes into the equation. It is a concept similar to “Help them so they can help themselves”. A coach is hired, he undertakes an analysis of the operation, detects where and how immense the problems are, he suggests a project, and in this very project, managers and key staff of the company will function as consultants or project manager. The coach is there to do what the writing on the tin suggests – coach! He will train project managers and consultants, set up the project and its governance, and play a vital role in the background.

Doing it this way, all the gained knowledge will stay in the client's company. Also, all management tools will have been developed by their potential users, hence ownership is guaranteed from the beginning. The role of the coach is to challenge and question all those tools and elements of the management system and give advice and steer; the client will get the desired input from the outside.

Advantages: Such a project would be a lot cheaper than any other consulting project and the results absolutely sustainable and not any less beneficial. Also, all participating managers and key staff would be trained extremely well and intensively and could tick off major items on their personal development plan.

Disadvantages: Unfortunately, such a project could take longer and should only be undertaken within smaller to medium-sized companies or departments within big companies. Due to the length of the project the cost pressure should not be too high and human resources deployed by the clients’ companies would need some spare time to participate.

I have been doing this for a few years, even successfully, but those projects came into life more out of sheer co-incidence. What I’d like to do is to discover the market a little and see if my ideas are any feasible. 

Challenge 2012

Hello Readers,


I am pretty good in regularly updating my travel blog. Unfortunately, this is not so true for my professional one. But thinking about it, I am lacking a concept of what to do with the Naked Consultant blog. Initially, I wanted to use it to write down all my projects I worked on in the past, which I did, more or less well, and when that was over, I thought I could talk about my current projects and assignments. I was quickly faced with a dilemma - confidentiality versus regular communication. So I left it, confidentiality won, and I put the blog to rest for the unforeseen future. 


Things have changed now. My 2 year assignment with my client in Derbyshire is coming rapidly to an end and the question of what to do with my blog is emerging again. 


The last 2 years were good ones - not only because the projects I managed were successful (one day soon I will elaborate further of what we did there), but also because I learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses and where I should focus on in my career as freelancing management consultant. 


And that's already the crux - do I see myself as "management consultant"? I guess yes, as consulting is what I do and have always done, but the term alone is so widespread and general that in the end it does not help when building a career outside one of the bigger or smaller consulting companies on this planet. 


Based on what I am good at and what I have enjoyed the most over the years I want to see myself as "Corporate Coach". But more on that and the concept in my next blog entry... 

Nissan Research and Development

One of my last projects with Proudfoot was the one at Nissan R&D in the UK, but with further 2 locations in Spain.

The project was about raising personal efficiencies of R&D directors, and in a second follow-up project a similar approach was rolled down to the supervisors.

The core product was to eliminate non-value added time and add more creativity to the European R&D department.

We did that through coaching, implementing a new "efficient meeting format" and e-mail etiquette. Each meeting was to be fedback and coaching to the chairmen given. The new e-mail formats ensured unity in writing e-mail across the European sites.

In special vision workshops we introduced them to the idea of new creativity at the workplace.

Isle of Man

I have forgotten one project. The company was situated on the Isle of Man and produced kettle switches. It was an extremely peculiar project. The local director, a Welshman, had to sleep on a camping site as his company did not want to pay for a hotel; he also had to pay for his flights home every week or fortnight.

And what I have also learned, one ought to wave good-bye to the ferries leaving the island, otherwise it would bring back luck.

Our hotel, the poshest one in town, and an old Victorian one, was the draftiest place on earth with the worst service ever, and beds with mattrasses hanging through to the floor.

We were always scared on Friday afternoons that there was no storm, as otherwise Manx Airways would not leave the airport and we were caught on the island for the whole weekend. Scary thought.

The project as such was rather basic. It was a production project where we improved machine and labour efficiencies. I was responsible for the training and coaching.

One of the managers was a girl called Sue. She was from Liverpool. I had absolutely no clue whatever she said. I just sat there and happily smiled at her and nodded... ;-)

Selling Wine

This delicatessen project was quite a success, especially within Proudfoot, as we have completely rewritten and remodelled that selling skills manual they had. There was a very small project at the time, it was a vineyard in Germany, that also needed selling skills.

I was assigned to that project for a few weeks and implemented a similar programme there. This project was a very strange project, as it was more like a private coaching project for the son and heir of the vineyard rather than getting some selling skills across and the project manager was not overly happy about it.

I think the son was extremely strange and what he really needed was professional care rather than management coaching. Oh well, not for me to judge. I did my thing and on one day I got a call to move over to my biggest challenge so far - a company called Otto Bock.

Building Management

After that disastrous automotive supplier I was assigned to a project in east Germany, in Leipzig. It was for Deutsche Telekom's Building and Asset Management company. It was a very small project, and my assignment was only to help out the project manager with some training input he needed.

As far as I rememer the project was in the company's sales department. I drove around with the area managers and coached them in their selling and customer relations skills.

Apart from that I do not know a lot anymore. One thing is interesting though with writing this blog. The more I am thinking about my past as consultant it is absolutely amazing how many sales projects I have taken part at so far. And there are a few to come still. The really interesting thing is, that nowadays I "sell" myself as supply chain expert, but in fact, I could easily add "sales systems."

Salad Processing

One of my skills projects which I took part in as a trainer was the salad processing one. This company had 2 sites, one in Magdeburg and one in Stuttgart and they produced ready-made salads which one can buy in plastic bags in the supermarket or any of the fast-food chains.

After an analysis of their business processes it was clear that they wasted salad in the cleaning and "production" process. So, in a project we defined a cucumber as mascot, and developed posters where it was taught how to cut lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, etc. In the aftermath I find it amazing what kind of projects one can have.

So, basically, we trained them how to clean different kind of salads and lettuce. We measured the outcome, but I must admit, I have no idea anymore how successful the project was. I think it went well though.

I did mainly deliver the management training and coaching, especially in the east German site. Main problem in that site was the lack of any management skills and I had to train them from the very beginning. On the west German site the main problems was that nobody understood anyone because too many foreigners were working there speaking all sorts of languages. So, I gave training and coaching in German, English, and French. That was fun!

I got a video camera for Christmas and I used it mainly to record the role-plays when I trained confrontation skills. I loved it, so did they. It was a very powerful tool.

Skills Training

Before I describe the next project I ought to explain the other package, which I mentioned already, and which can be sold to clients, too - skills training.

As opposed to management training, which is for all management (as the name indicates), skills training is for operators and in general all concerned work force that does not manage.

Skills training has 2 main areas where it can be applied: either it is sales training, where sales staff is trained how to sell (more detail in a later entry), or it is some sort of throughput optimisation training, where operators are trained to improve the "yield" rate (explanation in the next blog entry).

Skills programmes can have the following features:
- A mascot can be created for the training programme and material. It makes it easier for employees to recognise the theme and remind them of the newly trained skills,
- Employees are not trained by consultants but by their own line management.
- In TTT seminars (Train-the-trainer) line management is being trained what and how to train the employees, coaching skills are also trained, as line management will act as coach afterwards,
- In TTE seminars (Train-the-employee) employees are being trained by line management,
- In CTC sessions (Coach-the-coach) feedback is being given to line management about their training and coaching sessions in which a consultant should be present (at least initially),
- In CTE sessions (Coach-the-employee) employees are coached by their line managers,
- Using the mascot, special training material must be developed by the consultancy company.

Hannover

After Austria I was sent to a project in Hanover. It was big, with about 5 or 6 consultants, 1 trainer (me), and a project manager. The company produces conveyor belts and they are the biggest ones worldwide to do so.

If I remember well, as this was 10 years ago, I had 8 workshop groups and 8 sessions per group. Each group consisted of about 8 people in average. This equals up to 64 workshops, 64 participants, and around 500 coaching sessions. The topics were the usual ones with very little input from the operations department.

I was on that project for several months. I must admit, I have forgotten further details. It was mainly a production project with the goal to raise efficiencies in the factory.

So what Austria?

Now what is the conclusion from my 2 Austrian projects, what did I learn and take away?

Most important for me was to learn that clients can be real "bastards" who try to make your life a misery. That was my reality check. Training is not just happy clappy show time stuff, but an area where they drop their frustration and one needs to deal with it effectively.

I also learned how to deal with the whole variety of clients. One trains 1 subject and the response can be amazingly widespread. I figured out that the ones who nod and say "yes" to everything can be the worst participants as they do not really apply anything they learned, whereas the ones I struggled with were my best trainees; once we came to an all-satisfying conclusion they finally did it and changed their behaviour.

I learned how stressful it can be to have 2 clients at the same time in 4 locations. In any 2 weeks period I had to give 11 workshops and 60 (!) coaching sessions, and that for about 4 months. And I won't mention the whole travel issue.

These projects were also intense due to the internal (as in consultancy) politics. I had to deal with a bully of a project manager who was also incompetent, the other project manager just blackmailed me back in Switzerland, so I was not the best friend of her, the consultants were not well trained and only freshers, and my support director had no days to visit me on my projects and coach me in how to do my job.

It was tough, but I do not regret it. Not in the aftermath anyway, as I learned so much. I can hardly describe how steep the learning curve is once you are on your own and the clients expect results and of course do not care about our internal hick-hack.

After I left those 2 projects I was sent to Germany to another one. But that's on tomorrow's blog.