Government_Leadership-6

=**Scoreboard**=
 * Resolved: To Keep Score in the Game of Life**

You either hate losing bad enough to change, or you hate changing bad enough to lose. Very few people do the check and adjust part of the PDCA process. Check is the most difficult part to apply correctly - this step is the scoreboard of life. Many resist the check step because of our defense mechanisms that protect our fragile ego. Most people would rather delude themselves and be happy than confront themselves and exert the effort to improve. An ostrich can put its head in the sand to avoid seeing the lion, but sadly that doesn't change the lion's dinner plans. When gaps are identified, it's time to make the adjustments in order to advance. It's important to find a defeat in every victory (to improve) and a victory in every defeat (for morale). Defeats keep one humble and victories keep one hopeful. Most people value comfort over change. Leaders are different - they value results more. After adjusting, it's time to go back to step 1 and make plans based on the adjustments. When truth is revealed, the person can either deny it, protecting his ego and sacrificing excellence, or embrace it, protecting excellence and sacrificing the ego.

__The Emperor's New Clothes__: This was a short story written by Hans Christian Anderson in 1837 and shows an example of one choosing ego over excellence. In the story, the emperor cared more about his clothes than anything else. He changed suits every hour flaunting his wealth and prestige. One day, two people pretending to be weavers told the emperor they could weave the best clothes, which were invisible to any simpleton or anyone unworthy of his office. The emperor paid big bucks to have these clothes made. The false weavers pretended to go to work. The emperor sent one of his loyal ministers to see what was taking so long. This official didn't see even a thread and feared that he must be a simpleton. Not wanting to appear unworthy, the minister reported back to the emperor that he was a genius for hiring such talented weavers. After more delays, the emperor sent another official, who of course saw nothing, but fearing the emperor's wrath, reported in a manner similar to the first. Finally, the day came for the emperor to preview the weavers' work. He saw nothing of course, but feared being considered unfit for the kingdom, so he said he loved the colors and pattern. He removed his clothes and the two con men acted as if they were putting the new clothes on him. The court officials, not daring speak the truth, praised the new clothes. The people all gathered to see and they all complimented the new clothes, no one wanting to be considered a simpleton. Then, on the streets, a child shouted "The emperor has no clothes on!" The father of the boy reprimanded him. The emperor secretly agreed with the boy, but paraded and displayed his "new clothes."

__Confronting Reality__: "The Emperor's New Clothes" explains why so many people fail in the game of life. Many, like the crowd, won't confront reality. The check step in PDCA is often the stopping point for people. Individuals must choose between ego and excellence. Regretfully, most take the easier route escaping the pain of losing through self-delusion (like the emperor). It's important for us not to settle for anything less than our personal best. People will either get going to win or get quitting to whine when the going gets tough. James Bond Stockdale was a highly decorated officer in the Navy and a POW in Vietnam who refused to lose faith - he was down, but not out.

__Developing the Scoreboard__: Great companies continually refine the path to greatness with the brutal facts of reality. Bill Gates said the best way to put distance between you and the crowd is to do an outstanding job with information. Negative information should be confronted head-on looking for areas that can be improved. Only with an updated scoreboard can a person tell if the strategies he/she is employing are moving him/her toward or away from the objective. Leaders address negative information quickly. Non-leaders fall quietly into self-delusion. Life's scoreboard plays the same role as a sport's scoreboard. Non-leaders pass the buck and point fingers in an attempt to blame others and excuse themselves.

__Methods of Self-Delusion__: The blame game and passing the buck is one method of how people become self-deluded. Real leaders refuse to pass the buck, because doing so will temporarily release the tension created by the pain of losing, but it's this tension that generates the motivation to change. We should work on better skills rather than better excuses. One can make a million dollars or a million excuses, but not both.

Winning isn't worth it is another self-delusion method. Some just aren't willing to put in the necessary work for success while others feel they're not good enough. In pursuing happiness, people make two crucial errors. One is thinking that happiness can be achieved in mediocrity. Two is the belief that material wealth can equal happiness. Both of these are ways people choose self over others.

Vicarious victories also lead to self-delusion. Hiding in the stands and feeling the winning by others' scoreboards are an example. Many sports fans have higher expectations of those playing than they have on themselves. What if all fans who expected the coach to lead their teams to excellence led their families with a similar level of expectation? Fans feel the thrill of victory or defeat vicariously and unfortunately more than in their own lives. This isn't just the case in sports, but life in general.

__PDCA__: It's important to be patient with the PDCA process when implementing it. Remember, most people over estimate the amount of change one can achieve in one year, while underestimating the changes that occur in ten years. Be consistent with PDCA.

In 1966, an unknown merchant from Arkansas had enrolled in IBM school for retailers and he was about to change the face of shopping in America. In Poughkeepsie, NY the first president of the National Mass Retailing Institute trade association was one of the speakers. He remembered meeting Walton who had every article and speech the man made. He saw that Walton was very thorough. Walton had a handful of stores doing about $10 million a year. He took the IBM course to learn how to use a computer to keep inventory. He understood that to keep growing, he had to learn to use the computer. To grow, Walton would have to manage new stores. Even where he couldn't be physically, he had to know what all his stores had and what was sold.
 * Sam Walton - Tracking the Scoreboard:**

Walton learned to keep score and became one of the best utilizers of data and information. This is why he was able to open so many stores making so much profit without being there. In 1966, Walton was years away from the start of the computer age, but was already learning. It would have been impossible to grow like he did without the computer. Once he had a scoreboard in place, he was able to bring his lessons that he learned to the masses in several ways. One was Saturday morning meetings with the goal of sharing ideas, confronting brutal reality, and making adjustments where necessary. No one understood more than Walton that you have no right to expect what you are not willing to inspect. He was equally good at checking on the people he motivated.

He was expanding so quickly and added so many stores that he needed more leaders. Thanks to his scoreboard, he could identify who was in over their heads and who were good store leaders. He took people without experience and got skills. Ferold Arend, a former president of operations at Wal-Mart, said "Sam would take people with hardly any retail experience, give them six months with us, and if he thought they showed any real potential to merchandise a store and manage people, he'd give them a chance. He'd make them an assistant manager...In my opinion, most of them weren't anywhere near ready to run stores, but Sam proved me wrong there. He finally convinced me. If you take someone who lacks experience and the know-how, but has the real desire and willingness to work his tail off to get the job done, he'll make up for what he lacks. And that proved to be true nine times out of ten. It was one way we were able to grow so fast.

His delegation of responsibility and inspecting the scoreboard led to success. He developed a culture at Wal-Mart where high achievers could win. His equation was low prices + good quality + friendly service = high value and satisfied customers. At each Saturday morning meetings, each participant of the game gathered to see the scoreboard. The goal of leaders at each level was to produce results that were recognized at the Saturday morning meetings. Walton couldn't stand the thought of losing and he drove change when the scoreboard showed a weakness.

This highly competitive game led to profits and if unsatisfied, customers would go elsewhere. When a competitor started to make ground, it showed at the Saturday morning meetings, which led to adjustments - PDCA. Walton was willing to change to stay ahead of the competition. No other organization did this. Walton was willing to let the data speak directly to the management team. Walton was more interested in results than ego. He was always looking for ways to improve and wasn't afraid to be wrong. Once he would see that he was wrong (if he was), he would shake it off and move a different direction. Customer satisfaction was his goal - not ego, salary, or power.

In 1984, Walton agreed to wear a grass skirt and do the hula dance on Wall Street if the company achieved 8% pretax profits. This energized the whole company and they achieved this goal and he did the dance. Walton definitely needed local leaders. Those that accomplished objectives moved up and those who didn't learned lessons. Walton built Wal-Mart into such a success because he used a scoreboard to show the data of successes and failures.

__Thinking Questions__: 1. What does it mean to have a scoreboard for your life? Is this difficult? Why or why not? 2. What are some areas in which we can keep score or track in our lives? Give some examples of how you could do that. 3. We live in a sports obsessed culture. It's not always comfortable to keep score in our own lives, and we tend to convince ourselves things are just fine. Why do we love to keep score in sports and hide from the score in our own lives and with our children? 4. The PDCA process is PLAN, DO, CHECK, and ADJUST. We've now covered all four parts of the process. Which area can you put the most effort in personally to intentionally improve your personal scoreboard? 5. The pitfalls of excellence are blame, justification, and finger pointing. What can you do to guard yourself from falling into these traps? 6. What will you take away from this lesson and begin applying into your own life?

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