Dot Connector

[Reposted from Unconventional Thinking, the blog of Mark Stevens]

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

- Albert Einstein

Throughout his life, my Dad taught me that I truly could be whatever I decided to be. His confidence in me gave me the strength to believe in my ideas, challenge conventional thinking, and take risks.

Below are 6 techniques I’ve used to successfully challenge conventional thinking in my life.

1. Identify and ignore “noise” in your life.
Noise is the unnecessary stuff that distracts your attention and limits your effectiveness: naysayers, gossip, opinions of news media, fear, etc. If you are determined to challenge conventional thinking, you have to train yourself to ignore noise.

I work for Quicken Loans, one of the nation’s largest direct mortgage lenders, in arguably the most challenging time for the financial industry in 20 years. If I listened to all the noise about how bad the mortgage crisis is, I would become paralyzed by negativity and fear. Instead of focusing on the constraints around me, I consciously look for opportunities. Don’t let yourself become a product of your environment; let your environment become a product of you!

2. Don’t recreate the wheel.
I’ve seen companies launch huge new initiatives without ever stopping to ask themselves: “has someone done this already?” Be curious! Instead of blindly jumping into a project, take a step back and think “someone must have run into this situation before, what did they do?”

We recently decided to focus on a particular marketing strategy at Quicken Loans. Instead of starting from scratch, we flew several key people to another, non-competitive company to discuss our plan. Because that company had already executed this strategy really well, the day we spent with them saved us months of trial-and-error.

3. Take a stand.
A couple of years ago, I was leading a project that a senior executive didn’t agree with. He didn’t think the project could make an impact on the business. I believed that it would. We compromised, and he gave me 90 days to prove it. I did, and the executive was proud of the accomplishment.

It can be hard to challenge consensus. But if you truly believe in what you are doing, you can’t be afraid to voice an opinion or do things that others don’t understand. Remember: the thinking that got you where you are will seldom get you where you want to go.

4. Get excited when people tell you “no.”
So many people let others dictate what they can and cannot do. Before they know it, they have lost the ability to be effective. When people tell me “no, we can’t do that,” I immediately think “how can we?”

Every day, I have conversations about ideas that are too hard to do, solutions that are too complicated, and costs that are too expensive. If you attack these situations by creatively brainstorming alternatives, you can inevitably find ways to turn these “no’s” into “yes’s.”

5. Keep it simple like Forrest Gump.
“When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. When I had to go… you know… I went.” Forrest kept life simple. Do you?

At Quicken Loans, we have a “no big projects” rule. Why? Big projects usually mean lots of over-complicated ideas that simply aren’t needed to solve the problem at hand. You can have big visions but still execute them in small chunks. Doing this encourages constant improvement, and helps prevent marketing projects that are out of sync with current business needs.

6. Be effective, not busy.
My team completed over 1,100 internet marketing projects last year alone. While that’s an impressive accomplishment, I’m most proud of the impact those projects made. Every single thing we do has a legitimate business reason, or we don’t do it. And every morning we meet to discuss the thing we can do that day to be the most effective.

Every person on my team has (literally) hundreds of things on their to-do list. Our concern is not getting them all done. Instead, we ask ourselves, are we working on the right things, right now? Once we focus on being effective, instead of being busy, we automatically get into
a mental mode of challenging conventional wisdom.

Try one of these techniques, and you can take an ordinary day and make it great! Try them all, and you will hone your ability to challenge conventional thinking.

(Source: Steve Snodgrass)

Asking for help is one of the most critical steps to effectively get things done, innovating in your projects, and advancing your career.

But, why is asking for help so hard?

1. We are taught to be self-reliant. Self-reliance is a great skill to have, but not at the expense of collaborating and reaching out to others around you to learn from them.
2. We have horrible experiences with group projects in college/business school. The first group projects we have, while still in college, are rarely stellar. Usually, it’s a group of people without a common goal, understanding, or approach, working to complete a project they are most likely not interested in.
3. We are proud. Many people are very hesitant to ask for help, because they see it as a sign of weakness. Others have a strong sense of pride that prevents them from showing others that they don’t know the answer, or have the solution.

Asking for help is actually a great way to grow stronger relationships within your work environment. Consider that…

1. Most people are flattered when someone asks them for help. By asking for help from someone, you are acknowledging their expertise and/or knowledge in a particular area. Most people will go out of their way to help you once you have done this.
2. Changes you didn’t know were possible can happen. Let’s say you’re stuck on a project, and just can’t see a solution. Often, asking for help from a team leader, manager, etc. can lead to resources, tools, and solutions you didn’t even know were possible. Frequently, project tasks, and even entire projects, can be re-prioritized when you ask for help. You will learn dramatically from these situations.
3. Usually, people are more likely to reach out to you when they need help. By asking for help, you open up a line of communication with other people where they are more likely to ask you for help in return. Again, you never know just where this can take you.

So, the next time you need to, go ahead and ask for help! You’ll probably be surprised with the results.  Remember: asking for help is a strength, not a weakness.

(Source: Joi)

Effortlessly working with our peers is one of the things that is so hard for many to attain, yet so easy to take for granted. In this post, I’ll discuss my top 5 characteristics for effective relationships at work.

My top 5 characteristics for effective relationships:

1. Proactive and “connecting-the-dots” communication is commonplace. Do you let your peers know proactively about project developments that may impact them? Do you look our for ideas for your peers when reading the sunday paper or watching TV with your family? Do you “see” new ideas and things they might think are valuable? It’s amazing what you can find when you focus on helping your peers. And it’s even more amazing at what will come back to you when you help them out. Just showing that you’re looking our for the interests of those around you is a powerful technique to more effective relationships!
2. Trust (at a personal level) in each other. Trust is way more than sitting in meetings/calls and talking in cubes. Trust is about having faith in those around you, and cultivating relationships with them at every opportunity, especially through breakfasts, lunches, dinners, etc. with them. The single best thing you can do to improve a relationship with someone is to take them out for a meal and ask “what can I do to help you?” and then do it!
3. Collective responsibility. If you have trust in each other, you can share responsibility when times (inevitably) get tough. When a problem occurs, do you jump in together and solve it, and THEN figure out why it happened? That is the true test of the effectiveness of your work relationships.
4. A focus on process. Everyone likes to be successful. But jointly coming up with repeatable ways to have your peers and project teams succeed is an even better goal. If you show others you care about them, especially through creating processes that support them, you will earn their trust. If you involved them in this process, you get new perspectives, new approaches, and even better ways to collaborate!
5. Pride and caring in what you do. The most effective work relationships are also build on a foundation of shared pride in the work being completed. If you’re not proud of it, why do it? Put your “collective stamp” on everything you do together, and your relationships will grow!

In future posts, we’ll cover other aspects to having effective work relationships, which is key to enjoying what you do, and having fun doing it!