June 2007

A Lesson From Principal Pinter

Yesterday, our friend, elementary school principal David Pinter, (read the previous posts about him and his inspiring school here, here, and here) wrote to give this update:

Steve,

Wanted you to know that per implementation of your second book, The Radical Edge, and per the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) who grades our schools A, B, C, D, or F using an established scale score...our scale score rose again (when Many in the district have dropped) for the second year in a row and our "A" school rating got even stronger for the 2006-07 school year.

In addition, I found out today that I have been invited by the FLDOE to attend a state recognition luncheon on behalf of our phenomenal growth for the 2005-06 school year. This was the year of The Radical Leap implementation (it's starting to sound like a Chinese Calendar...year of the chicken, year of the dog, etc...it made me laugh) in which we made the highest gain in the district and were named a Top 100 school by the Governor and Commissioner of Education.

Both of these recognitions are also your recognitions. What you thought and then placed on paper has inspired many other adults and now over 1000 children in my school for the last two years. That "pyramid" thing really does work!

I need a third book by you before August 13th... :-)

A couple of months ago I asked David to document the steps they've gone through to implement the principles of Extreme Leadership at his school. He's a busy guy and tackling it as he has time. I'm happy to say that I've just received his first installment, and I hope you'll take the time to download and read it here. (If you don't yet know what an OS!M is, you may want to watch this video to understand David's reference.)

And for what it's worth, he gets an "A" from me, too.

Oh, and by the way, class--if, after reading the document, you have any questions for Principal Pinter, please raise your hand and speak up in the comment section below.

Posted by steve at 06.26.2007 | Comments (0)

An Old Kit-Kat Tale

I found this old article lurking in a cold, dank corner of my hard drive. My first published piece, An Airport Story ran in Tom Peters' old newsletter On Achieving Excellence, and in The San Jose Mercury News. And I have to admit that after all these years (about 12, I think), I still think it's pretty durn funny:

An Airport Story

I know airlines are service businesses with a responsibility to do whatever it takes to please us, the paying customers. But maybe we expect too much of them. After all, airports and airplanes do weird things to people. (This is because of a small vent near the terminal entrance that covertly sucks the brains out of your head.) Most of us would require years of therapy if we encountered a fraction of the resultant bizarre personalities flight attendants face daily. Take Judy--a seemingly normal traveler like you and me:

Not too long ago, Judy was rushing to catch a flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles. She hadn't eaten, and her blood sugar was in the tank. Dashing through the airport she zipped into a newsstand and bought a People magazine and a Kit-Kat candy bar.

Settling into a window seat, Judy dropped her magazine on the empty middle seat, nodded to the guy buckling himself into the aisle seat and prepared for takeoff.

After the plane reached its "comfortable cruising altitude," Judy unwrapped the Kit Kat, then put it back on the seat. But before she could dig in to it, the Guy on the Aisle reached down, broke off a piece and ate it. Judy was stunned. "That did not happen," she told herself.

Before Judy could gather her wits, The Guy grabbed the candy bar and polished it off. Now that was too much. Judy's incredulity turned to trembling, speechless rage. She gripped the armrests and boiled silently in her own bile all the way to LA.

They land, and The Guy gets off the plane, followed by Judy--still in shock. Walking through the terminal, she sees The Guy buying a muffin. Something snaps. She runs up to him, grabs his arm, takes a big bite out of his muffin and runs away.

She felt great! Vindicated! Empowered!

A few proud minutes later Judy gets into her car and puts her magazine down on the seat. Out falls her Kit Kat.

That candy bar on the flight had been The Guy's.

Now...imagine you are the airline customer relations agent hearing this story from The Guy's perspective: "I'm sittin' on the plane, and the woman next to me reaches over and unwraps my candy bar..."

Well, in the airline biz, this kind of thing happens every day.

It's the vent.

To maintain their sanity, airline folks sometimes resort to humor, especially during busy times like Christmas. But while many passengers appreciate a bit of stress-relieving humor, it's a dicey strategy. One airport encounter recently taught me a priceless lesson in the dangers of holiday jocularity.

The woman ahead of me in the ticket line was obviously distraught. When her turn came, she rushed forward, flung her ticket at the agent and gingerly placed a box on the counter.

"Oh! A Christmas present for me?" the agent joked, "It's so nice to be appreciated!" He picked up the box and started to walk away. The woman turned pale and screamed, "That's my husband in that box!"

The agent could have made the situation worse. He could have shaken the box vigorously and said, "How'd you get him in there? Is the rest of your family in the Samsonite? They're so well-behaved!" But unfortunately for those of us watching the show, he simply apologized and upgraded the woman to first class.

What a great scam, I thought. When it was my turn I said, "My wife is in this briefcase. Can I sit in first class?" This earned me a seat next to the lavatory.

So when you airline people feel a touch impatient with us, and when we passengers want to beat our crew senseless on landing, remember...we're all brainless here.

Posted by steve at 06.18.2007 | Comments (2)

Why Wait 'til '08 When You Can Vote Now?

Kevin Eikenberry has nominated this site as one of the galaxy's 10 best leadership blogs.

He's launched a contest to pick the top one, and, sure, it's--bottom line--a great way to bring attention to his forthcoming book, Remarkable Leadership, but I'm flattered nonetheless.

So, check out my fellow nominees, cast your vote and, who knows?

Maybe you'll even win a prize.

Can't say that for the presidential elections.

Posted by steve at 06.15.2007 | Comments (1)

It's Kinda Like This

Blog guru, Mike Sansone, is helping me make some changes to this site. For those of you who care about this sort of thing, we're moving platforms from Movable Type to TypePad--it's an easier program for a tech-moron like me, more spam-resistant, and I'll be better able to offer the multi-media experience I've always envisioned for stevefarber.com

At least that's the plan.

Mike is not only a genius at facilitating this brave new social media world, he's an incredibly patient teacher.

The following video is quite reminiscent of a typical Mike Sansone/Steve Farber interaction.

Guess who's who:

Posted by steve at 06.13.2007 | Comments (5)

And You Can Quote Me On That

In the comments on the aforementioned Tom Peters post, Sean offers this cryptic statement: "Steve F. - 'cept any praise of yours of Fiorina is perverse - she known as the "F word" @ HP & in free enterprise world."

Let me decipher.

On page 28 of The Radical Leap (type "Fiorina" in Amazon's "search inside this book" box) I quoted former Hewlett-Packard CEO, Carly Fiorina, from her MIT commencement address of June, 2000. You can read the full speech here, but here's the passage I cited:

“A leader’s greatest obligation is to make possible an environment where people’s minds and hearts can be inventive, brave, human and strong, where people can aspire to do useful and significant things, where people can aspire to change the world.”

At the time, Carly was riding high at HP, and, for the most part, Hewlett-Packardites liked and respected her. Now, not so much. That she's known as the "F word" (assuming that's true) pretty much captures the sentiment of most of the HP folks that I've talked to.

Her words, though. What about them? Does her fall from esteem make them any less true?

We're always careful to cite the source of a quote, not only because it's the ethical thing to do, but because it's supposed to lend credence to the message.

Kouzes and Posner said (the link to their site giving credibility to the following quote), "If you don't believe in the messenger, you won't believe the message." But I'm not so sure. For example, how many times have you heard some variation of this:

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

I've heard that quote attributed to Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Rita Mae Brown, and I've heard it recited more times than I can count as an inviolable and indisputable statement of truth. If Einstein said it, it must be true. Oh, not Einstein, but Franklin? Still true. Rita Mae Brown? Okay, not as good, but, yeah, still true.

But what if we discovered, after all this time, that the source of the quote was really Elmer Fudd? Would you put it in your next PowerPoint presentation? I bet you wouldn't--but why not? If the statement was true before, shouldn't it still be?

If the source's credibility falls, does it make the words any less true? And, conversely, does a rise in credibility inject the words with greater power, import and meaning?

Yes, it does.

And, no, it shouldn't.

Fiorina's words are true. Maybe her desire or ability--perceived or otherwise--to live up to them fell short of the promise, but it's still a powerful--and let me say it again--true message. And it's also true that I used to quote her in my speeches, but I don't anymore. The reality is that the controversy around her name has clouded the beauty of her words--particularly to those who used to work for her.

So here's where I land on it: To paraphrase the previous quote, "If you don't believe in the messenger, you won't believe that the messenger believes the message." It doesn't mean that you shouldn't--although that's probably what will happen.

So back to Sean's comment: I didn't--perversely or otherwise--praise Carly Fiorina; I praised her words.

I think there's a difference.

And you can quote me on that.

Posted by steve at 06.06.2007 | Comments (8)

And Speaking of Eerie...

Last night I had a dream about Tom Peters.

Tom and I go back to 1994 when I joined his company. I ended up becoming a Vice President and putting my heart and soul into the venture for six years. I loved every minute of it, and developed deep, significant, and life-long friendships with many of my colleagues.

And Tom, of course, became a major influence on my thinking about business and leadership. (As he has for many--if not most--of you, too). Oh, we had our ups and downs over those years. It wasn't always rosy, and we certainly didn't see eye to eye on everything.

That would have been boring.

I went out on my own in November of 2000, and Tom gave me great words of encouragement and support. He said I was "headed for the marquee," or some such thing. It meant a great deal to me, too, when, four years later, he wrote the cover endorsement for The Radical Leap.

I haven't seen or talked to Tom for quite a while--not since his Re-Imagine summit in Vermont a couple of years back--so it was really out of nowhere that suddenly, last night, I dreamed that Tom and I were conducting a client event together (something we've never done) and having a great time connecting, commiserating and bantering.

I woke up this morning thinking very nice thoughts about my old friend/colleague/mentor.

Then, just a few minutes ago, I went to his website and saw this.

There must be a lot of very smooth geese in the world today, because I think I've got all their bumps.

Posted by steve at 06.04.2007 | Comments (2)