Barnes&Conti: Spring Newsletter

Barnes & Conti Newsletter: October 2002

Thinking Strategically in Days Ahead

Here in the Bay Area, the foggy days of summer have given over to the clear, crisp days of autumn. For many of us who were programmed early to think in terms of the academic year, autumn is when we begin thinking seriously—perhaps even strategically—about business, career, and the upcoming new year.

Strategic thinking has become a topic of great interest in recent years. I was beginning to think, however, that it was falling into the same category as the weather—something that everyone talks about but nobody actually does anything about. One day when a customer asked if we had anything on the subject, I answered—truthfully but spontaneously—that we were thinking about doing something on the topic. I will cheerfully acknowledge that there was nothing strategic about that response, but it propelled me into doing the research and development that has resulted in our new program, Strategic Thinking: Leadership Practices for Innovative Organizations. It has been a fascinating journey.

We have now presented the program successfully four times to organizations in four very different industries—health care, manufacturing, finance, and government. As different as the participants’ challenges were, the tools were universally appreciated and applicable.

We are very excited about this new program. It seems to be a subject of great interest in these days and times where “uncommon wisdom” is so greatly needed. Strategic thinking means thinking backward from a desired result to the actions needed to get there. Strategic thinking is a continuous process rather than an event—applying it means that you continue moving toward your vision, modifying your tactics as circumstances change. It encompasses critical thinking, systems thinking, and creative thinking. In this issue, we’re including an article on “Errors in Thinking” from that program. I can say that I’ve personally road-tested just about every one of those errors at some point in my life!

In this newsletter, we’re introducing a new occasional feature which we call “In the Media.” From time to time, I am interviewed for articles in business and trade publications that might be of interest to our readers—and once in a while, we see an article that we want to share with you—we particularly liked the BusinessWeek article on Procter & Gamble!

—Kim

In this Issue:

“Errors in Thinking” by B. Kim Barnes
What’s New at Barnes & Conti
- Intelligent Risk-Taking in Mexico
In the Media
- HR Magazine
- Business Week
Recipe: Mexican Roasted Red Bell Pepper Soup
Just for Fun: Alice in DIGITALand (excerpt)
Art of the Month: Red Tree by Piet Mondrian (Mondrian is best known for his geometric compositions in primary colors: red, blue, yellow, black, and white. He was the artist who sprang to mind when we thought of strategic thinking).

Errors in Thinking

B. Kim Barnes, Barnes & Conti President and CEO

Errors in logic and reasoning have been studied for millennia by philosophers, mathematicians, psychologists, and educators. One well-known philosopher, John Locke, (1342-1704) identified three types of thinking errors:

Accepting beliefs from others rather than thinking for one’s self.
Allowing emotions and personal needs to dominate one’s reasoning.
Exposing one’s self to a single viewpoint.

At this writing, the U.S. economy is dealing with the result of a good deal of erroneous thinking on the part of senior business leaders, resulting in scandals, arrests, and business failures and a temporary (one can hope) loss of faith in the soundness of American business practices.

Certain types of errors in thinking occur frequently in business decision-making. They are not different from the fallacies you studied in your college logic class, but they can be extremely costly to your business and your career. Some aspects of organizational culture can support the types of errors identified so succinctly by Locke. These cultural values and norms can be very positive, but if leaders are not careful in interpreting them, they may work against strategic and critical thinking.

A bias toward alignment and teamwork can lead to “groupthink” and avoidance of necessary and healthy conflict of ideas and principles.
A focus on business results, especially short-term results, can lead to practices that optimize near-term gains but lead to unanticipated long-term problems or losses.
An emphasis on strong leadership or a culture that is overly focused on specialist knowledge (devaluing the broader knowledge of leaders who are generalists) can lead to a narrow focus on one person’s ideas, goals, and points of view.

To view the complete article, click here

What’s New at Barnes & Conti?

Intelligent Risk-Taking in Mexico

This past summer, Kim Barnes spent a couple of weeks in Mexico, training our Mexican partners at Competecia Organizacional to deliver our Intelligent Risk-Taking program. Our indefatigable colleagues not only did a great job of translating risk-taking to Latin culture, but will be translating the entire program into Spanish sometime in the very near future.

Watch our next newsletter for an article on intelligent risk-taking by Competencia Organizacional consultant Marilu Aguilar.

In the Media

Negotiation in HR Magazine

Kim Barnes was interviewed for an article on negotiation in this past August’s HR magazine. The article is entitled “Know When to Hold ‘Em’” and is available online at http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/0802/default.asp?page=0802agn-staffing.htm#df

“Make sure you are clear on the difference between negotiation and debate,” says negotiation expert Kim Barnes, president and CEO of Barnes & Conti Associates Inc., an organizational development firm in Berkeley, Calif.

Barnes stresses that in negotiations based on salary, or anything else, it is important to minimize arguments on the merits of a proposal and to maximize offers of exchange to meet needs. “You can’t win a negotiation any more than you can win a marriage,” adds Barnes. “Negotiation is not about ’winning.’ It’s about finding points of mutual agreement. It’s like building a house that you both are going to live in.”

(HR Magazaine Online, August 2002, article by David Fiedler “Society for Human Resource Management”)

Risk-Taking and Innovation at Procter & Gamble:
Business Week, August 12, 2002

One of Barnes & Conti’s recent partnerships has been with Procter & Gamble. We developed our program, “Creating a Culture for Risk and Innovation” to help them change their organizational culture to better support intelligent risk-taking.

Although we can hardly take credit for Procter & Gamble’s recent successes, it was nonetheless gratifying to read an article in this past August’s Business Week magazine about one of Procter & Gamble’s most successful product launches to date, the SpinBrush. Below is a brief excerpt from the article:

“SpinBrush marks a dramatic departure for the 165-year-old company. For once, P&G didn’t insist on controlling every step, from product development to pricing. Instead, it harnessed its greatest strength—the ability to market and distribute products—to the innovation and risk-taking ability of a tiny startup that wasn’t constrained by the culture inside P&G’s Cincinnati headquarters.”

We found the article to be interesting and instructive.

Public Programs 2003

Our entire roster of 2003 public programs is available for online registration at the link below. For the first time ever, we are offering Strategic Thinking and From Conflict to Consensus as public programs. We will also be offering Exercising Influence, Intelligent Risk-Taking, Constructive Negotiation, and COACH for Peak Performance. Upcoming programs are listed below.

Exercising Influence
December 3-4, 2002, Milpitas, CA
January 22-23, 2003, San Francisco, CA

Constructive Negotiation
January 29-30, 2003, Milpitas, CA

Strategic Thinking
February 19, 2003

To register for one of our public programs, click here
or go to: www.barnesconti.com/ppsched.php

Recipe: Red Pepper Crema Soup with Almonds

Ingredients:

8 large sweet red peppers or one jar of roasted peppers
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion, chopped
3 tablespoons butter, divided
2 (14-1/2 ounce) cans ready-to-serve chicken broth
2 cups dry white wine
1 bay leaf (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups whipping cream or light cream
sliced almonds
queso fresca, feta, or other fresh cheese

Directions:

Place peppers on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet. Broil 5-1/2 inches from heat (with electric oven door partially opened) about 5 minutes on each side or until peppers look blistered. Alternatively, drain a large jar of roasted peppers, cut some into julienned strips, and proceed to step 3.
Place roasted peppers in a heavy duty zip-top plastic bag immediately; seal and let stand 10 minutes. Peel peppers; remove and discard stem and seeds. Slice one-half pepper into fine strips. Set all aside.
Cook minced garlic and chopped onion in 1 tablespoon butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat until crisp-tender.
Add chicken broth and next 4 ingredients. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.
Pour broth mixture through a large wire-mesh strainer into a large container, reserving solids. Remove and discard bay leaf. Set broth mixture aside.
Position knife blade in food processor bowl; add reserved solids and roasted peppers, reserving strips. Process 30 seconds or until mixture is smooth, stopping once to scrape down sides; set pepper puree aside.
Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in Dutch oven over low heat; add flour, stirring until smooth. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add broth mixture; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly (about 3 minutes).
Stir in pepper puree. Gradually stir in whipping cream. Cook over low heat until thoroughly heated.
Place sliced almonds and small chunks of cheese in soup bowls along with reserved pepper strips.
Pour soup into bowls.

YIELD: 8 cups

Editor’s Note: You can substitue vegetable stock for chicken stock. Also, if you want to make a “lower fat version, you can increase the stock by about 1 cup, increase the flour to 3 1/2 tablespoons, add 1 tablspoon of olive oil to the butter in step #7, and reduce the cream to just over 1/2 cup (or as much as you dare.

Just for Fun: Strategic Thinking? NOT!

From “Alice in DIGITALand”

“What are you an engineer or something?” asked the Seven of Spades.

“No, I’m Alice. Who are you?”

“Marketing.” they replied in perfect fifty-two part harmony.

“And what is that?” asked Alice...

The queen cleared her throat, adjusted her tie a second time and stared directly at Alice. “We provide the strategic thinking necessary to grow the business.”

“Oh,” said Alice, “you figure out what products to build!”

“Heavens, no!” exclaimed the Queen, “That’s too tactical. We feel it’s our job to develop the vision for the long term.”

“You develop things,” began Alice, “so you build the products?”

“No! No!” shouted the Queen. “You still do not understand. We take the pulse of the key market leaders demand curve.”

“I see now.” said Alice, “You sell the products.”

The queen was furious and repeated her original greeting. “Off with her head! Off With her head”

“WAIT!” demanded Alice. “I believe I understand. You are all responsible for driving the solution opportunities for the key client supply perceptions through strategic vision management!” Alice wondered if she should add something about the claws catching, and frumious bandersnatches and thought that she’d best leave it at that before she became ill.

“Yes,” screamed the cards, “That’s exactly right!”

(author unknown)

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