ALS Consulting

Letting Go of “The Wrong People”

by ALS Consulting
February 14, 2012September 2, 2024

When engaging with a new or prospective client, one of the first things I ask for is a verbal assessment of what’s stopping his/her business from performing at the level to which he/she is committed. What’s in the way? Or to phrase it in its most casual and common form, “What’s the problem?” At some point in the conversation that follows, we come across some longstanding, persistent complaints.

When that person is in a leadership or management position, it is extremely common for one of the complaints to be about the lack of performance of those that they manage or lead (the same tendency shows up with the front-liners, but in reverse: they complain about lack of effective management or leadership). What frequently follows is how they know that what there is to do is to find the “right people”, and once that finally happens, their business will work as it’s supposed to.

In fact, I’ve recently been working with an upper-level manager of a medium-sized contracting services company who had just this issue. As it turns out however, getting the “right people” wasn’t the issue at all.

Relationship Transformation- From Cops to Clients

by ALS Consulting
January 17, 2012

(LU PHILLIPS is an expert in Global Business Development. Among his recent accomplishments is leading his firm’s relationship with Boeing from the initial project to “2010 Supplier of the Year”. The focus of his work with ALS is causing breakthroughs in sales performance through a shift to a model he calls “The Total Client Value Proposition”. Lu resides near Seattle.)

I flew into St. Louis Tuesday night for my big customer meeting Wednesday morning. The day started great: breakfast in the hotel, friendly staff, and the front desk printed me MapQuest directions to my meeting. Unsure of my route, I left around 30 minutes early, which should have had me in the lobby about 10-15 minutes ahead of schedule. So far, so good.

Following my printed directions, I took a right at an intersection off the main road. Instead of getting more industrial to match my expectations of the client’s location, it became very rural remarkably quickly. The two-lane road had nearly no traffic, wooded landscape everywhere, potholes and sections of graveled roadway. Ok, I was lost. I drove a little further to find a good place to turn around, a wide intersection–perfect!

Keeping Commitments Alive

by ALS Consulting
January 17, 2012September 2, 2024

Have you ever made a New Year’s Resolution? Did you this year? How’s that going?

Personally, I tend not to make them at all, at least in the common interpretation. See, once upon a time I did, though I’d usually cave on them or forget about them. Over time, I stopped making them altogether- I mean, what’s the point of setting myself up for that inevitable disappointment, right? Now, I make commitments; in the weeks surrounding the holidays, I take a conscious approach to my work and my life to discover, and create, what would make a real difference for me and others in the coming year.

But really that’s the easy part. Sure, I can commit to something- to take some action, or produce some result- all it takes is for me to open my mouth and say I’m going to do it.

But have you noticed how quickly new commitments seem to disappear, to actually vanish from your awareness? That is what I’d like to discuss: What does it take to have a commitment persist over time?

Networking 101 Lesson 1

by ALS Consulting
January 17, 2012

(This article is the first in a series of posts, co-written by Douglas Hoffman and long time ALS Client and friend, Lyle Katz. Lyle is a very successful mortgage banker and an expert in the fine art of generating opportunity. Lyle’s experience forms the basis of this series. At the end of each article, there will be an assignment for the next four weeks.)

Let’s start at the beginning with a definition for networking. This is not the usual definition, nor is it “correct” or “definitive.” It is simply the one that we will use for this conversation:

Networking is the deliberate building of a community for sharing information and services among business people. Ultimately, networking is about helping others.

In our experience, many people miss the opportunity allowed by professional and social gatherings.

Creating a Blank Canvas: A Christmas Story

by ALS Consulting
December 20, 2011September 2, 2024

“So this is Christmas… and what have you done?” –John Lennon

Here we are in the holiday season, approaching the end of one calendar year and the dawn of a new one. However, just because something is ending, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it’s truly complete. Surely you’ve experienced something being finished, maybe a project or a certain relationship, about which there still remains something unresolved for you. I know I have.

I’m inviting you to look with me and see if that’s the case with this year- and if it is, to clean the slate and give yourself the opportunity to create 2012 from a blank canvas.

Vision, Mission and Values

by ALS Consulting
December 20, 2011March 6, 2025

I have, over the past dozen or so years, spent many hours reading the Mission, Purpose, Vision, and Values Statements of organizations I have encountered. It seems that somewhere along the line, as a community, we have gotten confused about what these statements are, what they offer, and how they can serve the organization over time. I have seen companies write mission statements as if they were writing marketing slogans. Others take their values, inscribe them in stone and place them in their lobby for all to see, never to be considered again. The values of Integrity, Communication, Respect, Excellence, were engraved in marble and stood in the lobby of Enron, perhaps the most glaring public example of the failure of a value statement to influence the behavior of people and of a company as a whole.

I figured that, as we begin the year, it is as good a time as any to have this conversation. What I will say here is not the only way to look at this. However, looking at the creation of these statements in this way, works. Using this model, an organization’s leadership can be clear about who they are, what they are setting out to accomplish, and how they will accomplish it.

Creative Communication: Learning to Listen, Part 3

by ALS Consulting
November 15, 2011September 2, 2024

So far in this series, we’ve confronted the degree to which the way we listen to (and interact with) people is shaped and limited by certain developed filters, and explored some of the most common types of filters. Now, I’d like to take a look at what this all makes available, and how we can “upgrade” our ability to listen.

When we are unaware of our own filters, the constraints on our ability to listen are invisible to us and we are left mistaking “our world” for “the” world. In this condition, we are likely to be ineffective in our actions, not to mention completely confused about the actual source of the problem. So our efforts to change are inevitably unproductive, and sometimes counterproductive, as they are cultivated from symptoms instead of the root cause.

So what does it take to free ourselves up from all this?

The first part is simply to notice it as it’s happening; simple awareness is the access point. See, what we don’t distinguish, what stays hidden in the background, runs us. When we see these self-imposed limits in action, when we see them for what they are, their grip is loosened and we are freed up and able to interact with life naturally and effectively.

Challenging Times

by ALS Consulting
November 15, 2011March 6, 2025

Would we all agree that it is easy to label the economic and social environment in which we exist “Challenging Times”?

As I witness the level of distress that so many people are feeling these days, I find myself torn between participating in the upset, and not. I find that it serves me not at all to participate in and perpetuate the idea that the circumstances we face limit opportunity.

Clearly, it could be said that opportunity is not what it once was or where it once was. And that alone is for many, evidence that opportunity is either limited or missing entirely. I do not concur. I will add that this evidence, taken as proof, prevents us from seeing alternative approaches that may yield new and interesting projects, goals, solutions, achievements and successes.

Consider the concept of infinity. I think back to elementary school mathematics where we learned first of the concept of infinity. The set “whole numbers” included the numbers: 0, 1, 2, 3 and so on forever and the set, “natural numbers” as we were taught in Mrs. Ueda’s 3rd grade class included the numbers: 1, 2, 3, and so on, forever. When we were asked, “which set has more numbers?”, it gave me great joy to recognize that the answer was neither. They are both infinite. And infinite has no limits even if it starts in a different place. So the set, “whole numbers over 5000”, still has the same number of elements as “whole numbers”: it is infinite.

Creative Communication: Learning to Listen, Part 2

by ALS Consulting
October 18, 2011September 2, 2024

In our last segment, we began to notice the “filters” that constrain our ability to really listen in a conversation. If you took it on, you had a chance to see the degree to which we don’t actually listen, but rather receive, process and distort information through an already-always-there filter of assumptions, beliefs, concerns, frame of reference and overall worldview.

This phenomenon has a very real impact on our ability to communicate and act appropriately and effectively in the situations we find ourselves in, whether they be in business, social situations or anywhere else. The basic idea here is that you can’t act appropriately if what you’re dealing with is not the actual circumstances at hand, but instead some distorted version of your circumstances. If you’re missing something that is happening, or adding something that isn’t, you will be left ineffective- AND upset, frustrated and confused about the source of the problem. So let’s explore some types of these filters further.

Leadership and Management

by ALS Consulting
October 18, 2011March 6, 2025

Over the past four weeks, I have been preparing for an October 14 presentation at the United Nations. The audience list was created by a Member of the UN Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the host was the Inter-Agency Standing Committee. The attendee list included some of the most notable Non Government Organizations as well as leadership from UN organizations UNICEF, UNESCO, UN Women and many more.

As I prepared for this, I had as an operating premise the idea that these organizations face unique challenges unlike the corporations with whom I most often work. I have since come to the conclusion that I was probably wrong. Organizations seem to face the same challenge set no matter what their type of commitment.

As I see it, there are four primary factors in the success of organizations: