Author: Bill Freedman

Creating (Healthy) Workplace Conflict

By Bill Freedman

A recent study by Psychometrics Canada of 350 human resources professionals confirms that workplace conflict is ubiquitous. The study reports that the “most common causes of conflict are warring egos and personality clashes (86%), poor leadership (73%), lack of honesty (67%), stress (64%), and clashing values (59%).”

Violations of norms of civility and respect are negative forms of conflict that beg for immediate corrective action. The report suggests that leaders should quickly address toxic behavior by increasing supervision of problem personnel, providing additional clarity about expectations and modeling appropriate behavior. These findings are obvious but not always given sufficient management attention.

Healthy Workplace Conflicts Contributes to Improved Outcomes

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Even more interesting was that 87% of survey respondents believe that conflict can lead to positive outcomes such as

  • Better understanding of others
  • Better solutions to problems
  • Improved working relationships
  • Higher performance in teams
  • Increased motivation
  • Major innovations

I can’t agree more. When there is clear evidence to multiple people in the organization that things are off course or sub-optimal, conflict is a powerful tool to focus collective attention on the root cause and inspire improvements. The key is to focus on the evidence and potential solutions, not the personalities or behaviors.

While it’s easy to talk about the benefits of conflict, leading teams to embrace conflict, generate positive outcomes and avoid personal attacks is extremely difficult. The report concludes with several useful techniques for managing conflict such as understanding the situation in detail before acting and remaining positive amidst problems.

Thanks to the team at Psychometrics Canada for it’s insightful research on the beneficial aspects of conflict.

Volatility is the New Equilibrium

By Bill Freedman

Cognitive and biological science has demonstrated that our animal instincts replace human reasoning in the face of mortal threats. When individual survival is at stake, Charles Darwin trumps Adam Smith.

Instincts are powerful. They are put into practice without training or thought. But they aren’t always “right.” Those of us who’ve lived a little know that some threats are real while others are illusions of our imperfect ability to perceive the world around us. A noise in the dark will awaken a deep sleeper, even if it’s from the wind knocking over a trashcan rather than a lion preparing to pounce.

I started with a biology lesson because I believe that collectively, our imperfect instincts have distracted us from reality when it comes to the current economic crisis. Let me explain why.

The past twenty years of improving American prosperity have conditioned us that there is a single economic reality: consistent and predictable quarter-over-quarter growth. In the past year this perception has been challenged by sharp declines in prices for stocks, homes and labor. We’ve weathered other declines in financial markets, specifically in 1987 and 2001. The difference is that the current decline is broader-based and steeper than those other declines. No question about it, these changes are frightening.

With regard to the economy, I believe its time to turn decision-making back to human reasoning. The sense of mortal threat needs to be eliminated before reason can take over. Have you noticed:

  • The sun has come up every day
  • Your family still loves you
  • Police patrol our streets and teachers teach our children
  • Innovators are still looking for the next big idea
  • Entrepreneurs are still looking for the next opportunity
  • Lions didn’t pounce in my neighborhood last night

Volatility: It’s Not that Bad

The main lesson I’m learning from the crisis is that volatility is greater today then my comfort level allows. Yes, housing prices have fallen and markets are disorderly. Some individuals are facing “gambler’s ruin” which will severely impact their lives.

On the positive side, social services are available to soften the economic blow for many (though not all). I’m making the choice to accept the higher levels of volatility. Asset values will rise sometime in the future as certainly as the sun will rise tomorrow. Price volatility will remain high for some time and I need to deal with that.

Volatility is the new equilibrium. Purple is the new black. Democrat is the new Republican. Green energy is the new biotech. I’m ready to tackle volatility with my intellect and humanity.

Are you?

Open Source Products I Use for Fun and Profit

By Bill Freedman

I’ve devoted several years of my career to creating sustainable businesses around open source technology.

I’m not an open source zealot by any means. Rather, I’m an optimistic capitalist that believes there is money to be made from transforming the way enterprise software is conceived, developed, marketed, deployed, supported and enhanced. I have deep personal connections to the large and growing set of stakeholders that see value in the transparency, innovation, longevity and support systems emerging around open source solutions. Understanding that proprietary software vendors can’t match these advantages, I see an opportunity to transform the economics of enterprise software, create happy customers and make a buck for myself and others.

Open source is a great idea, but the fabulous products distributed via open source licenses are the real heroes. Below is a list of open source software that I actively use and directly support.

Product Description
7-zip I use this Open source Windows utility for manipulating archives everyday. Does what it says on the tin.
Filezilla Multi-platform ftp client that I use virtually every day.
Audacity An excellent Windows application for recording and editing sounds. I use it to edit podcasts.
LAME The best MP3 encoder I’ve found is free, compatible with every audio application I’ve used and improves with each new release.
Crimson Editor Small, fast, usable and feature rich text editor. While this product is no longer in active development, I continue to be a fan.
Java I’m not a programmer, but the number of Java-based applications I use is a testament to Sun’s powerful technology. Kudos to Sun for releasing Java with an open source license as a way to maximize profits from their investment.
XAMPP XAMPP saves me countless hours by providing a simply to install and administer web development environment that includes (among other things) Apache HTTP Server, multiple versions of PHP, MySQL and more.
Apache HTTP Server The first open source product I used way back in 1995 and the application that ushered open source software into enterprise data centers.
MySQL The world’s most popular open source database may not be the most feature rich, but it has more than enough power for my phpBB forum and WordPress blog. Easy to administer, small footprint, reliable.
PHP The server side scripting language and core component of XAMPP powers many of my recently deployed Web sites and Web applications. Zend Technologies employs the original developers and remains the catalyst for the language.
WordPress The power of community organization from the team at Automattic elevated Matt Mullenweg’s interesting code into a beacon of web usability and the promise of a plug-in architecture.
phpBB Easy to deploy and administer, phpBB defined the open source forum software category. It how has more competition than ever but continues to innovate.
Gallery My latest open source find, I use gallery to manage Internet photo albums. Perhaps a tad behind flickr and other photo sharing sites, but it gives me more control over privacy and intellectual property.
SquirrelMail I use and like SquirrelMail because its reliable and lightweight. Sadly its not a leader in innovation.
Postfix Even with sendmail available as open source and bundled in virtually every Linux distro, Postfix has become my favorite mail transfer agent thanks to rock solid reliability and ease of administration.

As part of the open source tradition of contributing back to the communities that make effective products, I’m sharing my endorsement along with links to the drivers of these products and communities. I wish all of the commercial interests, developers and customers driving these products a long and prosperous run.

Leave a comment with details about other great open source products.

Learning from Tech Companies that Grew in Q4 2008

By Bill Freedman

Despite all the gloomy economic news, there are a handful of companies that grew revenue in Q4 2008. Consumers and businesses are spending money, albeit a little more selectively. Below are a few notable tech companies that got more of their fair share of revenue in Q4 2008 (the third quarter in our ongoing worldwide economic recession):

Company
Q4 2008 Growth
Chart
Sybase
3%
SY
9%
Callidus Software
10%
Shoretel
16%
25%

First off, I want to congratulate these companies for their strategies, operating plans and teamwork that resulted in positive outcomes despite uncertain conditions. In addition to revenue growth, many of these companies created new products and avoided mass layoffs in the past period.

Here are a few statements from the corporate executives (emphasis is mine):

Sybase chairman, CEO, and president John Chen: Sybase’s success “…is the result of judiciously investing in our Unwired Enterprise strategy, together with our ongoing efforts to streamline operations and prudently manage company assets. …I am optimistic in our continued ability to execute well.”

Informatica chairman and CEO Sohaib Abbasi: “Our results…demonstrate the operational discipline of the Informatica team to navigate the economic turmoil. We are well prepared to pursue our strategy and continue to focus on operating income in the quarters to come.”

Callidus Software president and CEO Leslie Stretch: “We entered 2008 with just over 20% of total revenues being of a recurring nature, and we exited the year with almost 40% of total revenues coming from the recurring category. I am also proud of the effort we made to streamline the business and bring operating expenses in line with our profitability goals.”

ShoreTel chief executive officer John W. Combs: “ShoreTel continues to build momentum with strong sequential international revenue growth and continued focus on developing innovative solutions that help our customers cut costs without compromising performance.”

VMWare president and chief executive officer Paul Maritz: “We are making solid progress on our three key initiatives to build on our virtualization leadership in the datacenter, the cloud and on the desktop. We are executing on our product roadmap, strengthening our ecosystem of partners, and bolstering our management team – both globally and operationally. VMware is well-prepared for the opportunities and challenges ahead.”

What can we learn from these businesses? A lot. No, I don’t expect these companies to disclose details of any draconian tactics they employed to hit their numbers. But all of the executives are signaling the sources of future success. Some of those signals include my favorite themes: strategic focus, execution excellence and optimism.

The Imperfect Practice of Influence

By Bill Freedman

The inner workings of our minds is fun to think about but difficult to understand.

I have deep interest in neurology, neuropsychology and behavioral science research. Many interesting studies are in current circulation…my personal favorite at the moment is The Behavioralist Meets the Market: Measuring Social Preferences and Reputation Effects in Actual Transactions–more on that at a different time.

In the absence of compelling and all-encompassing theories of the mind, the imperfect practice of influence is delegated to artists, politicians, salesmen and li’l ole me. Here are a few things I’ve learned from my own research:

  1. Facts matter. Unless you are a philosophy undergraduate pondering the meaning of life, facts are extremely persuasive. The sun rises in the east. A one way bus ride costs $1.50. No argument.
  2. Know your audience. Different people in different circumstances respond to different stimuli. No single technique works in all cases. For an audience of one, aim squarely at the individual’s core need. For an audience of many, plan on using multiple strategies to connect with a variety of segments.
  3. Be realistic about outcomes. Influencing perceptions and behavior is hard…just ask the quirky wannabes trying out for “American Idol.”  But successfully changing perceptions through influence is achievable…just ask Barak Obama.
  4. Practice humility. Factual arguments don’t persuade 100% of the time. Baseball batters are heroes if they can hit a ball three out of ten times. Influencing others is even more elusive than hitting a baseball.

I maintain my sanity by celebrating every interaction and cherishing each win. Today is another good day!

What New York Taught Me About Experience

By Bill Freedman

The recent “Miracle on the Hudson” reminds me that in many situations, there is no substitute for experience.

All of the individuals involved in saving lives on Thursday were skilled and experienced professionals. Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger is reported to be a 40 year veteran of the air. While I suspect most of the dispatchers, police, fire, port workers, ferry operators, and health providers, can’t match the Captain for years on the job, their training, experience and retraining resulted in a prompt and coordinated response to the accident. Kudos to all of the first responders for a job well done!

So much that I’ve heard about the accident to date focuses on the decision-making and heroism of Captain Sullenberger. For example, he made multiple split-second calculations and decisions about where and how to land the plane. His agile mind knew that that the chances for survival in a water landing were improved if the landing gear were closed and the wings remained attached to the fuselage after water impact. His commitment to passenger safety included taking proactive steps to ensure that everyone got out before he exited the plane.

Could a rookie pilot have gotten all this right? I don’t know. It is, however, refreshing to see a veteran perform as expected–and get the appropriate credit for his experience.

While I’m not tasked with public safety or life and death decisions, Captain Sullenberger made me reflect on some of my own decisions, especially those where experience was weighed against other criteria such as desire for something new, youthful charm or perceived cost savings from selecting a junior contributor.

All I can say is experience is on a strong uptick…