(From 12/14/04) – Target the Target -- I was discussing these new business regulations with an acquaintance today. His group was “out of compliance” because they didn’t sign and date the workpapers they created. You could do everything right but not sign in the right place, or use your initials instead of your full name, or forget to cross a “t” or dot an “i.” For that, you are now out of compliance. What is happening with these new requirements is that we are taking honest people and trying to create some rule for them to break. There is a problem with this whole thing – you can’t catch the people that are doing the right thing. It’s impossible! There’s nothing to catch! So, in order to catch the crooks, we put controls on the honest people. There can’t be any doubt that there will be more corporate governance scandals, because dishonest people don’t play by the rules. That goes along with their dishonesty. Why is this important? Because we waste resources fixing the thing that isn’t the problem. You’ll see that if a company has 100 people and two of them are consistently late, they will put everybody on the time clock. This wastes 98 people’s time and punishes them (and really annoys them) for doing the right thing in the first place. So the next time that one of your employees (or children) is misbehaving, target that person (the target!) instead of everybody. Watch how much time and effort you will save, and note what happens when only the abusers are singled out for their abuse.

(From 12/14/04) - Too Close for Comfort -- I was doing the simple job of making dinner reservations for a business meeting. It was much more difficult than it should have been (I was checking the internet, reviewing menus, etc.). Then an attendee from another state called and suggested a restaurant. The place he suggested has good food and ambience, everybody likes it, and is very close. The closeness of the venue had somehow excluded it from being one of my options. Sometimes the solutions (and people) that are close to you get ignored. When faced with a problem, take a good hard look at the people and resources closest to you for a solution. They may have even solved the same problem for you before.

(From 12/13/04) – Zero-Based Activities -- Looking out at the trees in Southern California today, you notice that many of them shed all of their leaves in the winter -- not half, not 70%, all of the leaves. In the spring the trees are ready for new leaves and the limbs become full again. A big drain on our personal and business productivity is doing things that don’t matter (or things that used to matter, but don’t matter so much now). We often try to prune activities from our lives, but we rarely cut out everything and start over. If I eliminate all of the business reports that I create and receive now, which ones would I keep if I had to start all over? If I didn’t have any hobbies, which ones would I start? Would it be the same ones or different ones? We only have so much time to do things. Try this zero-based budgeting on your activities and you’ll see that you not only have more time to accomplish things, but you’ll spend that time on the things that are really important.

(From 12/12/04) – History Lesson -- I was talking to a man after church this morning and we started discussing genealogy and how when you dig into your history, you find some interesting things – both good and bad – about your past. So why don’t companies, in their hiring or orientation processes, give a thorough review of their company’s history – both good and bad? Not only would this provide a good perspective for a new person, it would also transmit a company’s values – the company’s soul. A company that doesn’t know how it achieved its success is going to have a hard time maintaining it. Would your employees be able to pass a company history test?

(From 12/11/04) Profit Tithing -- I was at a church meeting today and the uncomfortable subject of tithing came up. One person asked if tithing was net of all his expenses – like taxes, and 401K contribution, and house and car and credit car payments. The pastor’s response was that tithing was 10% off the top. It’s a pre-tax deal. This got me thinking about how companies have bonus plans, but they always seem to be net/net/net plans. Net of taxes, net of the profit target, and of course, net of the executive bonuses! What would happen if a company pledged 10% of its profits to its employees? The company makes $1 million, and $100K goes back to the workers – right off the top. I think I know what would happen. You would have employees so focused on profits that you would probably dwarf the payout in additional income. This one is probably too scary for most companies, but imagine if you told a prospective employee that you don’t have a profit sharing plan, you have a profit tithing plan instead!