Newsletter 33 - 18 October 2005

The 5 Whys, and "Steal These Ideas" This is the newsletter for www.mindtools.com. You have received this newsletter because you have subscribed to our double opt-in newsletter. This newsletter is published by James Manktelow of Mind Tools Ltd, 2nd Floor, 145-157 St John Street, London, EC1V 4PY, United Kingdom. To contact us, please email us from this page.

Contents: The 5 Whys Profit From Life's Losses Mind Tools Store Steal These Ideas A Final Note

In this issue, we look at the 5 Whys problem-solving technique and show you how this extremely simple tool can help to quickly get to the root cause of many problems.

We also look at an enlightening article from a successful CEO that shows how some small changes in attitude can yield big results and even propelled him to new, albeit different, heights of success and happiness.

And we include a review on a book chock full of marketing secrets, called "Steal Your Ideas," by Steve Cone.

Cone has spent nearly thirty years working with leading companies such as Citigroup, American Express and Apple and in this witty new book, shares some of his valuable ideas on marketing, including what he knows works, and what does not. Truly, it’s a tale of the good, the bad and the ugly in the world of advertising. Just as importantly, it’s a solid, informative read that just happens to be entertaining, as well.

I’m also pleased to announce that we’ve just started a major expansion of the Mind Tools site, with more than 300 new career and management skills scheduled for roll out over the next two years. What this means is that there will be new career skills on the site every few days, making a weekly visit to the Mind Tools site essential if you’re to keep your career skills up-to-date and to keep growing as an individual. We’ll keep you posted on our progress here and welcome your thoughts and suggestions as we provide you with new tools on a regular basis (in fact, many of these new tools have been requested by Mind Tools readers).

As always, we hope we have included information that you and your colleagues find useful. Feel free to print this newsletter out and share it with others or send it via email or fax to office mates and fellow team members, for our goal remains to provide tools and resources that will help professionals in every arena carve out true success.

Best wishes, and enjoy this issue!

James & Kellie

New on Mind Tools:
The 5 Whys - Getting quickly to the root of a problem
by Kellie Fowler

Why Use the Tool?
The 5 Whys is a simple problem-solving technique that helps users to get to the root of the problem quickly. Made popular in the 1970s by the Toyota Production System, the 5 Whys strategy involves looking at any problem and asking: “Why?” and “What caused this problem?”

Very often, the answer to the first “why” will prompt another “why” and the answer to the second “why” will prompt another and so on; hence the name the 5 Whys strategy.

Benefits of the 5 Whys include:

• It helps to quickly determine the root cause of a problem


• It is easy to learn and apply

How to use the tool:
When looking to solve a problem, start at the end result and work backward (toward the root cause), continually asking: “Why?” This will need to be repeated over and over until the root cause of the problem becomes apparent.

Tip: The 5 Whys technique is a simple technique that can help you quickly get to the root of a problem. But that is all it is, and the more complex things get, the more likely it is to lead you down only one of many possible trails. if it doesn't quickly give you an answer that's obviously right, then you may need more sophisticated technique problem solving techniques like those found in our problem solving section.

Example:
Following is an example of the 5 Whys analysis as an effective problem-solving technique:

1. Why is our client, Hinson Corp, unhappy? Because we did not complete our delivery by the agreed date.



2. Why were we unable to meet the agreed-upon schedule for delivery? The job took much longer than we thought it would.
   
   
3. Why did it take so much longer? Because we underestimated the complexity of the job.


4. Why did we underestimate the complexity of the job? Because we made a quick estimate of the time needed to complete it, and did not list the individual stages needed to complete the project. Only when we looked at the steps and broke these down further did the real complexity of the job become apparent.
   
   
5. Why didn't we do this? Because we were short on time because we were running behind on other projects. We clearly need to review our time estimation and specification procedures.

Key Points:

The 5 Whys strategy is an easy and often-effective tool for uncovering the root of a problem. Because it is so elementary in nature, it can be adapted quickly and applied to most any problem. Bear in mind, however, that if it doesn’t prompt an intuitive answer, other problem-solving techniques may need to be applied.

Guest Article :
Profit From Life's Losses
by John Chappelear, Author of “The Daily Six”

Ever notice everyone’s on a low fat diet after the heart attack?

Everyone has time for their kids after the divorce?

Everyone’s a financial genius after a bankruptcy?

As managers, supervisors and executives, we’re trained to judge our success on the size of our departments, budgets, sales, profits, bank accounts and the deals we make. When I had my own $50 million-a-year business, that’s what I thought, too. Being a successful CEO, I figured if I just worked hard enough, I’d wind up on top. Failure is something that happens to the other guys.

That’s when it happened to me. I lost everything. Everything I thought was important.

Money, power, prestige. Gone. My position as CEO? Gone, too.

Although I didn’t know it then, I had been given a gift, a “Gift of Desperation” that changed me, and my outlook for the better. In the end, it made me a more successful person, too.

We can all recognize a “Gift of Desperation”. It’s the “a-ha” that comes at the darkest of times. Speak with anyone who has had a life-changing experience, and they’ll tell you how much it has led them to appreciate each and every day. They have a higher sense of awareness and focus on living each day with joy.

Still need convincing? Look how people in the US pulled together after 9-11-01. People actually started talking, connecting--and not just friends and family, but strangers on the news or at the corner store. I had clients all over the country remarking something like this: “I never really appreciated just how important (blank) was, until now,” they’d say. The way that (blank) got filled in varied from person to person, and organization to organization, but suddenly I could tell they had begun to notice that there was more to life than profits and possessions. The horror of that experience became a gift to many who chose to see the lessons.

When I received my “Gift of Desperation” I began to notice, FINALLY, something was missing in my life. It wasn’t success that was missing. It was significance.

Most CEOs have the same symptoms I did: We have a gorgeous house, but are hardly around to enjoy it. We eat at private lunch clubs, but we’re still hungry inside. Our expensive watches can’t keep our time from slipping away.

We have kids, but we may never really appreciate them. I didn’t, either--until involuntary unemployment kept me home instead of frantic and at the office. “Pick me up, Daddy!” my three-year-old son kept saying. “It’s good for you.” Now how did he know that? But you know what, he was right.

Here I had been rushing, rushing, rushing--because I needed everything to be perfect. And then I would finally get back to my family and friends. I just needed to get all my ducks in a row. People, have you ever tried to get a duck in a row? I finally realized that I had to stop waiting for my life to get perfect to be happy.

Over time, the life I could never quite find seemed to fall right into my lap. In business, so often we’re taught to CYA. Well, I started my own version: Change Your Attitude.

Today I work with people and organizations that are trying to change their attitude and behavior. Many of them, facing their own periods of desperation, are wondering if they will ever recover. They will with a change of focus.

I’ve discovered that we can all change our lives dramatically for the better--and we can do it before the gift of desperation. It takes a new sense of focus, and it also takes acting on a few new thoughts:

• Start each day with an awareness that you are here for a purpose other than to satisfy demands to add stuff to your life. I do this with a few morning minutes of meditation and prayer. Other people read a book or take a walk. After a while, you’ll find your own path to peace and self-awareness.
• Make serving others a primary focus. Help someone in your office be more successful. Hold the door for someone. Start a mentoring program, be a big brother or sister, or call a local volunteering program.
• Slow down. I was always so busy pushing for the next big break that sometimes I ran right past it. So take a few minutes to take a deep breath, step back and enjoy life a bit, and you’ll be surprised how many opportunities personally and professionally just show up.
• Start now. You don’t have to remake your whole life overnight. Small changes when practiced consistently will create dramatic results. Remember, you’re choosing to act--before a "Gift of Desperation" is forced on you. Keep at it and soon you will look back and be amazed how far you’ve come, and so will your co-workers and loved ones. And while I may believe in deathbed conversions, acting ahead of time is a whole lot more satisfying.

There’s nothing magical about these actions. The results, however, from even small consistent actions can be phenomenal, because not only will you feel better about yourself, but often your professional life will take off, too.

One Christmas, a group of businesses in Alexandria, Va., got together and repaid money stolen from a Salvation Army. The cost per business was about $500, but the value to the community they served was a hundred times that amount. Managers and employees got out of their offices they began to see each other in a new light. They donated time and distributed toys. These actions began to create a lot of goodwill and press in the community. In the long run, I noticed how much their good works changed the companies involved. Morale went right through the roof. Productivity and profits went up as well. I know from experience this wasn’t a coincidence.

The action taken, willingness to help, and focus on service connected these companies, their employees, and the community in a way that far outweighed the financial costs.

In fact, smart companies are increasingly using corporate giving as a marketing tool. According to a study published in Business Week, two-thirds of consumers would switch to a product or retailer that supported a cause they believed in. Likewise, employees of companies that promote good causes are likely to feel a strong sense of loyalty to their employer.

It’s no secret that high-profile corporate ethics scandals have rocked the market and hurt companies large and small. In hard times, it’s only natural to turn first to reducing charitable contributions and employee benefits--and the newspapers are full of depressing stories of tragedy, cutbacks and givebacks.

Instead of following the crowd, think of the positive public attention you can get by increasing your community involvement and awareness. Downward economies don’t last forever, but the public’s memory of a good corporate citizen often does. Sometimes it doesn’t even take money, just the willingness to show up and help.

Positively motivated people will deliver to the bottom line faster than new technology and a slick mission statement, and nothing will motive people faster than feeling the company they work for sees them and their community as significant.

Change your own focus, and it’s likely you’ll also change the way your business works.

John Chappelear is an: author, motivational speaker, executive coach, and trainer. He is the founder of Changing the Focus, LLC, http://www.changingthefocus.com and author of “The Daily Six – Six Simple Steps to Find the Perfect Balance Between Prosperity and Purpose”. The book will be available after Nov. 3 at Amazon.com.

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The Mind Tools Store:

• Design Your Life E-Class: This e-class helps you think through what you want to do with your life, and helps you set the powerful, compelling goals you need to achieve your ambitions. More >>
  
  
• Mind Tools Relaxation MP3s: Download 15-minutes of intense relaxation in MP3 format with our relaxation MP3s. Put stress behind you, and face the rest of your day with renewed energy and enthusiasm. More >>
  
  
• The Mind Tools E-book: All of the articles on the Mind Tools website in one convenient, easily-downloadable, easily-printable PDF file. We have excluded advertising to enhance clarity and have formatted sections to be easy to read, print and use. More >>
  
  
• How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You: Learn the 48 simple but essential skills you need to become an excellent leader in your corporation. More >>
  
  
• Make Time for Success!: Make Time for Success teaches the 39 essential time management and personal productivity techniques that help you bring your workload under control and maximize your effectiveness, so that you can make the most of the opportunities open to you. More >>

Review:
"Steal These Ideas"
by Steve Cone
Reviewed by Kellie Fowler

When it comes to branding, marketing, public relations and promotions, almost anything goes. For today’s increasing competitive marketplace makes playing it safe a real danger, which explains why standing out in a sea of look-alikes has become a real must.

And that’s where “Steal These Ideas,” by Steve Cone comes in. By providing proven winning strategies for achieving marketing and promotion success, “Steal These Ideas” cuts through the clutter that blurs public relations and paints a clear picture of what works and what does not.

For instance, the book opens with perhaps what is some of the best marketing industry insider information, which is that a successful campaign MUST have three ingredients. These include:

1) Excitement
2) News
3) A compelling call to action

Basic, common sense information, yet this is often overlooked, causing businesses to waste time, resources and money and even to lose interested, would-be clients.

Cone also dives head-first into the deep advertising pool, detailing the importance of doing it and how to get the most bang for your advertising buck (think big ideas).

He supports his already strong cases with real business examples, drawing on marketing trials and tribulations of Rolling Stone Magazine, Pan Am, American Express Travelers Checks, Mean Joe Greene (for Coca-Cola) and other well-known businesses, looking at direct mail, television advertising, customer reward plans and more. The bottom line with each example cited is this: Create excitement (through uniqueness, the unexpected, uncommon tactics, etc.) and lead the consumer to action.

Cove also takes a long hard look at branding and provides insightful information, including the fact that the very best branding can be summed up in a few words (i.e. IBM: technology giant; Apple: innovative personal computers: NIKE: sports equipment; etc.) and is successfully marketed through unique selling promotions. The good news for readers of this book is that Cove then walks them step-by-step through creating their own unique selling proposition.

I like his common sense approach of “you have to be able to see it to read it,” when it comes to advertising. Of course, he expertly discusses some of the technical points of print advertising (for instance, using a particular type to help reader’s eyes connect to the words on the page), which most marketing gurus erroneously assume everyone knows.

In fact, what sets this book apart from other like books is Cone’s attention to detail and his successful weaving of the industry’s most elementary tidbits with some of its most guarded secrets, creating a rich tapestry of information that can be applied to any business, be it within the Fortune 500 arena where he has made his name, or beyond. For “Steal These Ideas” is as much for the Rolex of companies as it is for the successful entrepreneur who is looking to get a leg up on the competition and separate their business from that growing sea of look-alikes.

“Steal These Ideas" even demystifies advertising on the Web and, what’s more, tells how to get the most from marketing dollars, including information on print media, TV and radio placement, global media planning and placement and more.

Two chapters I am particularly fond of include Chapter 8, entitled “Think Globally, Act Locally…to a Point” and Chapter 13, entitled “The Art of Building Effective Loyalty Programs.”

In truth, there isn’t a chapter in this book I don’t like and after reading it twice and passing in on to a fellow colleague who also boasts a strong marketing background, I am more confident than ever that this book is sure to soon be considered the go-to source for marketing, advertising, public relations and promotions. And, rest assured that it is packed with ideas you are going to want to steal!

Steve Cone is managing director and head of advertising and brand management at Citigroup Global Wealth Management. Along with five other executives, he coordinates worldwide brand management for all of Citigroup’s businesses in more than 100 countries, encompassing more than 200 million customers. “Steal These Ideas” is available at www.amazon.com.

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A Final Note From James

We hope you enjoy this edition of the Mind Tools newsletter and will take the time to let us know what you would like to see included in future editions. We are excited about the many additional resources we are adding to our arsenal of tools and are always eager to learn more about you and your team’s specific needs. So, don’t be shy. We want to hear from you.

In the next Mind Tools newsletter, you can look forward to learning more about Adams’ Equity Theory, which stresses the importance of striking a balance between an employee inputs (hard work, skill level, tolerance, enthusiasm, etc.) and an employee’s outputs (salary, benefits, intangibles such as recognition, etc.), in an effort to ensure a strong and productive relationship is achieved with the employee.

And, we will also take an inside look at some other new products the Mind Tools team is currently hard at work on.

Best wishes, and until next time!

James & Kellie

James Manktelow & Kellie Fowler

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