Let history be your guide...

·      Businesses large and small have a culture and history.

·      Those are to be respected, understood, and respected.

·      But they shouldn’t stand in the way of progress.

·      They should support progress when appropriate.

 

I love learning about companies that have a rich history – it adds so much to their values and culture. I was fortunate to work for my family’s business and then to join Wynn’s companies – they both had individuals and a storied past that led to continued growth and success. The key to that success was taking what was good about the past and building upon it. Sometimes that growth meant striking out in bold and new directions – those were exciting, challenging, and ultimately fulfilling, but always done with an eye toward staying true to their origins. I think people like working for companies like that – Disney is certainly an excellent example, and there are countless others. A value system that informs and drives culture can be found in nearly every company and effective leaders use those to build morale, loyalty, performance excellence, and satisfaction (employee and customer). Look for these kinds of things where you work and include them in the storylines of your business and work. It will make it more personable and tangible for your team and permeate everything you do. And inspire you to be better. Let the past help guide you into the future today.

 

Robert Allen “Bob” Iger (born 1951): American media executive who is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company.

Be a subject-matter expert...

·      You should know what you want.

·          But must understand what you want.

·              And then must communicate what you want.

·                  And take responsibility for getting what you want.

 

One of the newest (and right now the most talked about) innovations is Artificial Intelligence – AI for short. People are predicting that this has the potential to impact much of we do – some good, some not so good. So, it wasn’t surprising when McDonalds hired IBM to help find and implement uses for AI in the fast-food giant’s business. They used it to interpret customer orders at the drive thru window and transmit that information to the kitchen. Sounds simple and straight-forward, but it was a bust. Nearly 90% of the AI-led orders needed human intervention. If you’re going to be innovative, you must understand everything about what it is you’re trying to do and why. Asking someone else to interpret and make recommendations for your business is never as good as understanding and doing that yourself. Educate yourself about the innovations you’re interested in, get advice if needed, but take control of and responsibility for implementing new ideas to make sure they meet your needs, culture, and expectations. Letting others get between you and your business (employees and customers) is a sure-fire way to create confusion. Take charge. Get engaged. And make sure your intentions are well-understood today.

 

Henry Miller (1891 – 1980): American novelist (Tropic of Cancer, Black Spring, Tropic of Capricorn, and the trilogy The Rosy Crucifixion), short story writer, and essayist.

Keep going until you get it right...

·      Think about all the ideas you’ve had.

·      How many were good?

·      How many weren’t?

·      Think about it!

 

Most of us have lots of ideas, and rarely go much farther with them than that. Mostly because getting from the idea to something tangible and useful is very difficult, a task nearly impossible for most people. But every now and then, one sticks around long enough to be vetted and formulated. The vetting process should include other people – mostly to see if someone else thinks it’s worth following. If you really believe in it, then shop it around to get the benefit of a broad range of thinking. And don’t be afraid to let go of the ones that fail to gain any traction. There’s no shame in finding little or no support for your ideas – most probably shouldn’t make it. But the ones with merit need to be nurtured and ultimately developed. My paperless HR environment idea took more than 13 years to get fully discussed, amended, and developed – but I was willing to keep at it.  And in the end, it was worth it. If you have an idea – one that doesn’t die quickly, commit to finding out what you need to defend it, educate yourself to be able to nurture and support it, and collaborate with others who can support you. You’ll learn quickly that the way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas and throw the bad ones away. Because the good ones are worth your time and effort today.

 

Linus Pauling (1901 – 1994): American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer, peace activist, author, and educator. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962.

Brainstorm with the best of them today...

brainstorming

/ˈbrānˌstôrmiNG/

noun

1.     group discussion to produce ideas or solve problems.

"brainstorming can generate some wonderful ideas"

 

·      The best inventions usually come out of a group process.

·      Don’t think you have to dream up things yourself.

 

I don’t know about you, but some of the best things I came up with during my active career were made immeasurably better by collaborating with others. One thought leads to other’s reactions that lead to refined ideas that then have a chance of getting done. Or not. Sounds simple, but it’s not. Because you must slow down to collaborate – communicating, listening, discussing, reflecting, adapting, and adopting are deliberative and take time. All that precedes the planning process to produce and implement an idea – another giant opportunity for collaboration with all the same process elements. That’s usually how innovation happens. Even the biggest visionaries – Edison, Disney, Jobs, Musk – they don’t do this alone. I’m not diminishing the importance of vision – just saying that it’s a lot of people between someone’s vision and its realization. In the gaming business (where I played), it was Jay Sarno, Kirk Kirkorian, Benny Binion, and Steve Wynn – and I can say from personal experience that my front row seat was connected to countless others. Think of it this way: when a better way is needed, it takes a team to find it. If you’re in one of those seats, buckle your seatbelt and start looking and brainstorming. That’s how innovation will happen today.

 

Thomas Alva Edison (1847 – 1931): American inventor (the phonograph, motion pictures, the electric light bulb) and businessman (General Electric). He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory.

Teach your peeps to have good habits...

·      Companies want their employees to be great.

·      That usually requires training, practice and support.

 

As a recruiter, I often had discussions with our hiring managers about the knowledge, skill levels, and length of time in the job they wanted applicants to have – interestingly, length of time is the least important factor in that list. Knowledge comes from training, so I tell them to ask about the kinds of training they’ve had in the past; without training they may have poor skills and habits borne of unsupervised trial and error. Skill levels are gained through practice and coaching, so I tell them to ask how much time they were given to develop their skills and the environment in which they practiced; if there was no coaching included then again, their skills and habits might be mostly self-learned, again through trial and error. And length of time can be irrelevant – if they came up through a system of supervised training and practice, and had coaches and mentors to help guide them, then their skills will be good. And, not for nothing, sometimes a lengthy tenure may also lead to habits that may be hard to break. Excellent skills are gained by training and habituation (which is a fancy term for learning by doing). In this case, I’m suggesting that be gained by supervised training, practice, and coaching). Make sure your employees are given adequate time and support to learn about being as good as they can be today.

 

Aristotle (384–322 BC): Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, and the arts.

Don't be afraid to peer through the looking glass...

·      I believe optimism is the attitude to look for when hiring someone.

·      Optimists generally believe that anything is possible.

 

Anyone who tries to do something new or extraordinary usually believes that anything is possible; if they didn’t, they wouldn’t even try. Everyone working on the Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Beau Rivage, Wynn Las Vegas, and Wynn Macau projects felt that way. We felt like Alice peering through the looking glass – wondrous opportunities awaited us and all we had to do was believe. Volcanos, pirate ships, dancing waters, and more challenged our creativity, ingenuity, and drive. Out there on the bleeding edge of creativity can be scary – nobody’s tried it before, it’s unproven, and failure isn’t an option. So, you work harder, more collaboratively, smarter, and with purpose as you step through your own unknown version of that looking glass. You must have thick skin because doubt is all around – it’s easy to doubt yourself; that’s when you must believe that what you’re doing is possible.  To help others believe too. But if like a carpenter, you figuratively measure everything twice before cutting, your patience and diligence will pay off. And remind yourself every night that the only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible. Repeat that over and over today.

 

Charles Kingsleigh is a character created for Tim Burton's film, Alice in Wonderland. He is Alice's beloved father. Charles is played by the New Zealand actor Marton Csokas.

Look inward if you want to leap forward...

im·prove·ment

/imˈpro͞ovmənt/

1.

o the action of improving or being improved.

"there's still room for improvement"

o a thing that makes something better or is better than something else.

"home improvements"

 

I often tell people that writing these messages is like a daily ritual in self-reflection and redemption, thinking about being better today than I was yesterday. No matter how hard we work at these things, there is always room for improvement. Organized religion, business academies, and the self-help industry combine to convince us to strive to be better. But you don’t need all that – just look in the mirror and be honest with yourself. The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. Reading stuff that’s readily available, thinking through new concepts, learning new techniques, being a little healthier, listening more and saying less, being curious and open, and adapting and adjusting along the way. If you stop, you’ll either get run over by the forces of change or get stuck in a place that you ultimately won’t like. So, you’ve got to keep going and growing if you want to keep up or excel. You’ll never be any more than you are unless you try. And the greatest obstacle to that is your natural resistance to change – look that beast in the eye and declare yourself alive and kicking today.

 

Helmut Schmidt (1918 – 2015): German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982.