Stop Disrupting Your Flow!

I've got a confession to make before I begin this week's article: I almost failed my one and only required science class in college.

I tell you that because in a second I'm going to sound like a complete science nerd and I feel the need to represent myself accurately.

Have you ever seen a water fountain that shoots streams of water that are so smooth and round that they look like glass rods? Or turned on a hose full blast with no nozzle on the end? You know how water comes out nice and strong and smooth? You can even point the hose into the air and create a smooth arc of water. That's called Laminar Flow.

Laminar Flow occurs when the velocity and pressure at each point in the water remain constant, and there is no disruption of the flow (that's the science nerd part I was talking about). In other words, all of the molecules are moving in the same direction at the same time without bumping into each other a whole lot.

Ah, it's our ideal team scenario, isn't it? Everyone moving the same direction at the same time, and everybody pretty much stays out of everyone else's way.

What happens to a hose when you stick your thumb over the end of the hose? That Laminar Flow stops and water sprays all over the place. The opposite of Laminar Flow is turbulence, a concept we're much more familiar with.

Turbulence in our hose is caused when something disrupts the flow, like our finger. Turbulence on our teams is caused when something or someONE disrupts the flow. You know who disrupts the flow the most on my team? ME! I stick my finger into the flow way more than I should. 

I've got smart people who will do their thing if I just stay out of their way and let them do it. My job is to point the hose. I'm supposed to be the one who sets the direction of the company and turns on the water. So why do I keep sticking my thumb over the end of the hose?

Here's how I did it this morning. We had a staff meeting where I sprayed out about fifty new ideas. I completely disrupted the flow and sidetracked us in this case in about fifty different directions. So much for all moving in the same direction at the same time. 

As a leader, I need to sometimes just keep my mouth shut and keep the hose steady.

But what happens when someone else on the team interrupts the flow? This can happen when someone's personal agenda interferes with the team's agenda, or when a personality just doesn't fit, or when an individual's core values or character differ from the organization's. 

If you really want to restore flow, you're going to have to get that finger out of the water! You've usually got two choices. You should always first try to "adjust the nozzle" to bring that person back in line through coaching or counseling. If that person won't budge, you'll have to metaphorically cut off the finger that's causing the spray.

Why is Laminar Flow important to your organization? Picture what happens when you've got the hose turned on and a good, smooth, steady stream of water is pouring out. It's a powerful force, isn't it? You can clean up a lot of dirt in a hurry. You can move debris. You can even bore a hole in something when you focus the hose long enough in a single area.

Do a couple of things this week:

1. Look for the finger in your flow. Is it you? Is it a team member? Is it a customer, or a vendor?

2. Identify how you can remove or repair the disruption and restore your flow.

3. Imagine the progress you'll make when your team is turned on and achieving Laminar Flow!

4. Make sure your hose is pointed in the right direction! Remember, Laminar Flow can clean off a driveway or destroy a flower bed. Full-force focus needs to be pointed in a productive direction or you could cause more harm than good.

Nice Touch!

We've started retailing a very cool book from Compendium called the Five Book. I'll tell you more about the book another time, but I just had to tell you what happened with our initial order because it was surprising and cool.

When our order arrived, I opened the box to find all the books I ordered...plus one extra. There was a nicely designed note attached to the extra book that read:


"A Gift For You. We are all dealing with a slow economy right now, but we're finding ways to help our retailers weather this storm. For starters, we've added this extra product to your order absolutely FREE. Go ahead and sell it; keep the extra profit with our compliments. At times like this, we figure every little bit helps, so you can expect similar support from us every time you place an order with Compendium this year. Thanks for all you do. We're with you all the way."


I call this "elevation." It's the idea of simply taking one little step to elevate your customer's experience. It wasn't the biggest, most amazing gesture ever. It was a simple, elegant elevation - something I didn't expect but that I thought was really, really cool. And it only cost them a few bucks to make that massive impression. Simply put, it was a nice touch.


Compendium is a company that gets it. Nice to know there are still some out there! I hope you're one of them, too.

sparkspace is hosting Leadercast on May 7th

We invite you to experience an event that will inspire you to be the one to make a difference — at work, at home and in your community. It all starts with leadership training. 

sparkspace will be hosting the Chick-fil-A Leadercast on May 7th from 8am-4pm. Tickets are $99pp or $89pp for groups of 3 or more.

Get more info and register online at http://www.sparkspace.com/leadercast.html

You will learn:


- The keys to connecting with others
- How to set yourself apart from the competition and influence others
- New ideas for creative problem solving
- Best practices for leading in challenging circumstances
- How to create strong team cultures
- How to avoid, detect and reverse decline


This is a LIVE telecast from Atlanta with a phenomenal lineup of leadership experts. They'll be live in Atlanta, we'll be watching via a high-quality telecast at sparkspace! Come hear a full day of ideas and insight from:

John Maxwell

THE leadership expert & author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

Jim Collins

Author of Good to Great

Steve Uzzell

Award-winning photographer (formerly of National Geographic)

Tony Dungy

Retired head coach for the Indianapolis Colts

Mark Sanborn

Best-selling author of The Fred Factor

Connie Podesta

Expert in the psychology of human behavior and leadership development

Jim Goodnight

CEO of SAS Institute, Inc.

Ed Bastian

President of Delta Airlines

Ben Carson

Neurosurgeon at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Chip Heath

Author of Made to Stick, Columnist for Fast Company, and Stanford Professor

We hope to see you on May 7th!

Is Your Job a TGIF or a GIFT?

How do you look at work right now? Are you in TGIF mode? You know, living for the weekend so you don't have to work or think for a day or two? 

Every Friday, I see hundreds of TGIF proclamations on Facebook and Twitter, not to mention the ones I actually hear people utter in person. Sometimes these expressions begin to appear much earlier in the week. Comments like "I can't believe it's only Tuesday" or "Only 4 more days 'til the weekend" are surprisingly common.

It's a totally understandable attitude. Work sucks sometimes, no doubt about it. It would be great if work was all butterflies and rainbows, but we've all had our share of cloudy, rainy weeks (and we all know butterflies can't fly in the rain...or is that bees? I can't remember).

But what if - entertain me for a moment - what if we can actually CHOOSE our attitude like some of those butterfly and rainbow people believe?

What IF you viewed work right now as a GIFT instead of a TGIF? Call it selective dyslexia if you'd like. Intentionally rearrange the letters. Intentionally rearrange your attitude.

If you have a job right now, it really is a gift. Ok, maybe it's not the gift you would choose, but it's a gift nonetheless. I hate to sound like a mom trying to get you to eat your vegetables, but look around. There are so many people who either don't have a job or don't have a job that's nearly as fantastic as the one you have. Don't believe me? Watch Dirty Jobs or Undercover Boss sometime on TV. You'll change your mind.  

I'd like to challenge you to do something. A simple behavioral change for one month. Even if you can do it for a week I'd be happy.

I challenge you to look at your job as a gift.

If you have a hard time with that, make a list of everything you can think of that's good about your job. Maybe your list will be a mile long, or it might contain a single item like "I've got the only chair in the office that's not broken." 

Maybe your list simply says "I have a job." That's a good start.

When you shift from a TGIF attitude to a GIFT attitude, so many things about your job will change for the better, including the quality of your work and your relationships with your bosses, co-workers, and others.

And if you want to take it to an extreme, take a moment this week to thank your boss(es) for the gift of your job.

Wouldn't it be neat if the meaning of TGIF changed from "Thank God the weekend is almost here" to "Thank God I have another day to work this week!" And that's my final butterfly and rainbow thought for today.  :)

Do You Have "Killer Whales" In Your Organization?

On Wednesday, February 24th, 2010, Sea World trainer Dawn Brancheau was dragged into the water and killed by one of the Orcas she worked with every day.

Sad for sure. A total surprise? Hardly.

Even Columbus' own Jack Hanna was quoted by CNN saying, "What happened is something that happens; it happens in our line of work. They are dangerous animals; they're wild animals." 

"Killer whales." Despite their seemingly playful flips, tricks, and "personality," these are dangerous and deadly wild animals. One look at their teeth should give you a clue. That's not a "Nice to see you" smile. It's more like a gigantic white neon sign that warns you to "keep your distance or I'll eat you...and your little dog, too."

I'm not here to defend animal rights or the capitalistic rights of Sea World. I am here, however, to defend logic and common sense.

What baffles me is that Tillikum, the whale that did the killing, is a 3-time offender. Dawn was the third human "accidentally" killed by this creature.

What baffles me even more is that we are so horrified by an amusement park tragedy, yet we fail to see (or fail to act) on the "killer whales" that swim through our own organizations.

Does your organization have any "killer whales"?

I'm talking about those people who just seem to create damage everywhere they go. Maybe it's through a chronically negative attitude, or gossip, or laziness, or spreading "victim mentality." Killer whales in companies have also been known to be brown-nosers, ladder climbers, big talkers, and otherwise selfishly ambitious snakes (oops, sorry, we were talking about whales, not snakes, weren't we?).

I recently worked with a company that has a killer whale that will literally go from office to office complaining about the latest injustice handed down from "the man." He'll close the door and act like he's talking in confidence to each person, but within minutes he's on to the next office, creating a destructive wake behind him.

Sea World should probably release Tillikum. Just like your organization should probably release its killer whales.

Sea World is reluctant to release whales into the wild because after living in captivity, their street fighting skills are pretty rusty. Many don't survive too long. Even that whale from the Free Willy movie was dead within 18 months after being released. Kind of a bummer for him since they can live to be 35.

And we can't ignore the fact that these beasts cost cost about $2 million. That's a lot of money to toss back into the ocean.

We keep our killer whales for some of the same reasons, though, don't we? Sometimes we honestly feel it's better to keep them than to release them into the corporate ocean. We pretend that we're being good human beings by giving them another chance. Then another. Then another. Then another.

Or we feel like we need them. If we let them go, it will be hard to replace them. Maybe they're big revenue generators for our company. Maybe we've invested a lot of time and money training them and we don't want that to go to waste.

My favorite excuse (meaning the one I've used the most myself) for keeping a killer whale: "I just don't have time to deal with it right now."

But that killer whale is, well, killing your company. Maybe not all in one bite, but certainly one bite at a time. That's probably worse because by the time you feel the damage they've caused, it's pretty significant.

Here's the good news. When you release a killer whale, you organization changes immediately. The wave of relief is felt instantly by everyone. Positivity starts flowing back in. The stress and tension the killer whale was causing quickly dissolves. And all those things you were worried about (replacing them, training someone new, losing revenue, etc.) really don't seem quite as horrible as they did when the killer whale was swimming around.

Are there killer whales that can be rehabilitated? Probably. Setting clear behavioral expectations and providing solid coaching can work wonders on some. This isn't a process that should take years, though. A few months, tops. You usually know pretty quickly if someone is willing and able to change.

That said, you and I both know that sometimes those killer whales have just got to go. Sooner than later. Much, much sooner than later. Honestly, if you have one of those people, it should be on the top of your to-do list. In fact, it should BE your to-do list. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Take care of it. 

One final thought. I hope you noticed that I never used the word "terminate." I don't think Tillikum should be destroyed. I think he should be given a fighting chance, but outside the walls of Sea World. I don't think you should destroy your killer whales, either. They should get a fighting chance, too, but outside your walls. Treat them with respect, help them make the transition, and wish them well. They'll survive and, more importantly, so will you.