10 takeaways from The Ministry of Common Sense by Martin Lindstrom
Martin Lindstrom
Saying that your goal is to “reunite companies and their employees with their own common sense, empathy, and humanity” seems like a pretty big task.
Martin Lindstrom, the author of The Ministry of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, & Corporate BS, sees himself as an organization change agent who “brings to light and [resolves] corporate blindness and miscommunication, terrible customer service, products that make no sense or don’t even work, packaging that sends us into a rage, and a general lack of intuitiveness both off-and online.”
There’s a lot of that out there. I once worked for a financial institution that had a dozen “marketing sectors” that encouraged people to apply for their favorite affinity credit card, be that a sports team, their alma mater, a favorite charity, a professional group, or a corporate brand through four or five different marketing channels. But that resulted in nearly 50 different production processes and hundreds of shortcuts that ultimately led to compliance issues so I was asked to consolidate all that sector marketing into a single Marketing Production Unit.
That idea didn’t exactly thrill the sector directors or their marketing teams because it meant they lost a bit of control. It did excite the people in customer-contact areas who were looking for a path to business development and it did excite those of us who saw a way to get everyone on the same sheet of music.
The second thing we did (after documenting the differences between what each sector was doing and updating our desktop procedures) was create something we called “30 in 30” to get everyone involved with identifying process improvements and communicating those changes to senior leadership. By the end of the 30 days, we actually were approaching 100 process changes – some very small and a few very big ones.
I was excited to see Lindstrom talk about his similar “90-Day Intervention” where the goal was to focus everyone on making a series of small changes that yield immediate positive results and involved .
In the bigger picture, he advocates for creation of the aforementioned Ministry of Common Sense and urges companies to attach an expiration date. If X number of issues aren’t detected or solved within a six-month time period, you promise to bag the whole idea. The timeline and numbers aren’t as important as the deadline.
As I’ve done with two books before this, here are 10 takeaways from Lindstrom’s book, mostly in his own words. View this as a trailer to a great movie. You can talk about the individual takeaways, but you should consider buying the book, which you can purchase here (Amazon affiliate link) or through your favorite independent bookstore.
When I ask the people in charge how many common-sense issues there are in their organizations, most say not many. The truth is that in large organizations, the number of common-sense issues is actually off the charts.
A swarm of KPIs was introduced to quantify everything a company did, which had the unfortunate effect of undermining and destabilizing cross-departmental problem-solving.
I define customer experience as being every single touchpoint that enables a product or service to be delivered to you and me, whether it’s online, in a store, or over the phone. Most companies are accountable to Wall Street and their shareholders, period. They overlook the people who actually buy and use their products and services, forgetting that customer-centric organizations not only create value but drive sustainable growth. In this clash of priorities, common sense dies.
With our phones creating a barrier between us and the world, we don’t notice things anymore.
Empathy is what distinguishes a consumer who is loyal for life from another who swears she’ll never go near your company again. Businesses that ignore empathy not only kill common sense, they also place future innovation at risk.
If you have a problem, who in the company would you go to? Lindstrom asks employees: Where do ideas in this company get killed? And who are the five people here who really make your life difficult? I also hear positive stuff too—for example, the names of the three employees who can make things happen or who add a fresh twist to any problem. (Whenever I share this information with CEOs, their response is usually, “My God, it took me a year to find that out.”)
KPIs today are symbolic of a rush and drive for “clarity” and “accountability” across organizations. Sure, KPIs provide both those things, but they can do so at the expense of cohesion and culture. The result? Narrow-minded paralysis, which in turn prompts the need for even more metrics, summaries, proxies, reports, and presentations.
It’s often harder to eliminate a nonsensical policy than it is to implement one. Lindstrom often asks if they can combine two ideas in a new way. Bringing together two very different ideas doesn’t always result in a groundbreaking idea, but it does make everyone think about their day-to-day operations in a different way. If nothing else, such an exercise stimulates creative thought.
If something doesn’t make sense, or goes against your own intuition, say something. The worst that can happen is that the person next to you will look up and say, “I was thinking the same thing.” And the next time that person is in a similar situation, maybe he will be the one who stands up, shakes his head, and says, simply, so that everyone around him can hear it, “Y’know, that makes absolutely no sense.”
What is the one word that sums up the company’s mission and clearly defines what its purpose is? For Volvo, it’s “safety.” For Google, it’s “search.” For Disney, it’s “magic.” So, what’s your company’s word? Is it “responsive”? Is it “cool”? Is it “human”? Come up with a word—and claim it. If you chose the word “human,” aspire to be human in every one of your encounters and touchpoints, allowing “human” to guide every decision and initiative your company makes. By choosing a single word (ideally one that has an edge), you are now obliged to “raise the bar,” to improve your work environment and customer interactions, while giving yourself a carte blanche mandate going forward to create a workplace where employees don’t have to check in for approval all the time.
Lindstrom starts the day with a team meeting – I called them “Daily Huddles” at MBNA. He invites them to gather in groups of three in a virtual breakout room. What are everybody’s key challenges from the day before? (Showing vulnerability has a remarkable impact on others—it makes people human.) This five-minute breakout is a powerful way to get people to reconnect and synchronize before the “real meeting” gets underway.
In my case, I asked three questions: (1) What did you accomplish yesterday (so we could celebrate successes); (2) What do you hope to accomplish today (focusing them on critical deliverables); and (3) What’s your biggest obstacle to accomplishing a major goal. This last one often spurred collaboration as other team members talked about experiencing similar challenges in the past and how they overcame them.
Lindstrom closes by saying “the most important thing to import into an organization is hope. Hope shows up in proof points. Hope wears down skepticism. This is a great book and a surprisingly fast read. Again, you can buy the book here (Amazon affiliate link) or through your favorite independent bookstore. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
So where are the areas in your company where you can restore (or have restored) common sense to your business practices?
