You Doing?

I recently had the joy of attending my niece's Little Mermaid birthday party. She turned three. I only get to see her a couple of times a year, so I notice her growth and development fairly clearly. This time, I noticed she asks two questions consistently: You doing? and Why?

You doing? is short for "What are you doing?" That's her introduction filled with curiosity and is quickly followed up with more curiosity: Why?

You doing? I'm eating. Why? Because I'm hungry.

You doing? I'm playing soccer. Why? Because it's fun.

You doing? I'm talking to your mother. Why? Because I haven't seen her in a while, and I want to hear what she's been doing.

And of course, sometimes those are followed up with additional "why's." Her pattern is such a simple, elegant approach to management. Managers should check in with their teams regularly to learn what they are doing and why, not from a controlling perspective, but from pure curiosity. Then they can offer feedback or challenges, but understanding should come first.

Put Me In Coach!

My daughters' soccer team needed to field ten players but only had six. Thankfully, we knew ahead of time about the short-handed situation and contacted a team playing the game before us. They jumped at the offer to sub in during a second game for more playing time, and we were able to gather jerseys from the team members who couldn't make it.

In addition to our six, we had seven from the volunteer team, and three from another team. Demand of kids wanting to play far out numbered supply of positions to play. During the transitions between quarters, kids would swarm around our coach, also a substitute for this game, and beg to be put in. He played the role of air traffic controller coordinating who would go where and when.

It's not uncommon to see kids on our team asking to sit a quarter out. My youngest daughter being one of those kids. She likes soccer, but gets nervous and winded during games and prefers the safety of the sidelines.

She was sitting out during the third quarter and said to me, "All these new kids love to play. They make me want to play more." I encouraged her to tell the coach she wanted back in for the fourth quarter. Pushing past her natural introversion, she assertively approached the coach and told him she wanted to go in as a defender. He put her in.

This was a new behavior to see in my daughter, and the change in her environment made it happen. Seed some enthusiasm in your team to get others excited.

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Put me in Coach!

Amazon Experiments with Last Mile

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is testing it's own local delivery network in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.

It's a project they've been working on for years, but recently gained some urgency because delays in some Christmas shipping.

This type of vertical integration reminds of Carnegie Steel, the car makers trying to take over dealerships, and breweries owning distributors. But it also reminds me of productive testing like Tesco's Homeplus virtual stores in South Korea. It's an interesting initiative to watch.