Archive for the ‘Doing Stuff Better’ Category

W. Edwards Deming: The management guru women wanted and men wanted to be...

Today’s quote– about quality– comes from Harold S. Dodge as delivered by management guru W. Edwards Deming (also a statistician, college professor, author, lecturer, and consultant).

‘Quality’ isn’t the sexiest of concepts, as concepts go. Still, the idea of quality is inextricable from the idea of excellence. And, of course, the phrase ‘striving for excellence’ is just a fancy pants way of saying ‘we aim to stare our competition directly in the eye, except that the competition will be lying on the ground and we’ll be standing over them.’

Hey, when you put it that way, I think I could get behind this ‘quality’ thing.

Dodge’s / Deming’s quote reminds me of the work of Phil Crosby and his ‘quality is free’ and ‘do it right the first time’ concepts. Mr. Crosby was an author, management theorist, and quality management guru whom I had the pleasure of meeting several times. Which is to say, he attended the same church I did when I was growing up and I later dated his daughter for a time. Which is to say, now I’m not saying anything useful whatsoever, just doing some ham-handed name-dropping. [Shakes head] Not efficient at all…

“As Harold S. Dodge said many years ago, ‘You cannot inspect quality into a product.’ The quality is there or it isn’t by the time it’s inspected.”

- W. Edwards Deming
Out Of The Crisis (1982)

- Matthew Porter

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Matthew Maxim #11:

Hate Failure, But Never Fear It

I know, I know… a blog / website is supposed to tout how awesome its author is, but I’m here to tell you plainly: I have failed.

Many times in my life I’ve attempted something, only to have it Hindenburg on me. I’ll spare you the entire list, but it runs the gamut, from professional (an attempt to syndicate a TV series) to personal (pick pretty much any home improvement project I’ve undertaken).

I give you this backstory to let you know where I’m coming from. I don’t speak to you from on high as some kind of guru. The above phrase was born from both the pain of making mistakes and the even greater pain of not risking making mistakes.

I think we can agree that when you fear something, you give it power, right? And we can agree that when we attempt anything, we want to win, not lose. We don’t want to lose money, time, and we especially don’t want to lose face. And here we start to get at the underlying quandary — to potentially win, we must risk failing, and to risk failure is to risk looking foolish. And thus the stage is set for Fear’s big entrance.

I’ve been on both sides of the ‘hate failure / fear failure’ equation and there’s a world of difference between the two.

When we fear failure, we hesitate, second-guess ourselves, play a circular game of ‘what if’ while never really accomplishing anything. When we fear failure, we become tourists in our own lives. When we fear failure– set phasers for ‘irony’– we end up failing by default.

However…

When we hate failure, we work harder, longer, smarter. We take– not wild– but calculated risks. If we win, great. If we lose, we make sure to also learn. We stand back up, determine what should have been done differently, then plan accordingly.

Please hear me clearly; this maxim is not some glib yearbook entry. Failing sucks. It hurts. It’s not something you just immediately get over. But fear of failure is so much more insidious.

Fear doesn’t hurt, it numbs.

Fear won’t lead to anyone disagreeing or getting mad with you, because fear will make you invisible.

Fearing failure will ensure you don’t leave behind any evidence that you were ever here.

Years ago, I saw visited Epcot and saw a U2 tribute band perform. At one point in the show, the Fake Bono invited a little girl– probably 12 years-old– onstage to dance around with him. Immediately, she started dancing her little girl dance. It wasn’t a showy look-at-me thing. She just started dancing as if there was no one else around. At that age, she should have been at least somewhat self-conscious; she wasn’t and it was absolutely amazing to behold.

How many hours, days, years have I wasted fearing failure instead of hating failure?

How many opportunities have I not capitalized on because I was concerned about what people might think if I swung and missed?

How many times have I been worrying when I should have been dancing?



- Matthew Porter

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If you haven’t heard of them, ChaCha and KGB are online answer services. You type or text a question and, moments later, your answer arrives (free for the former, 99 cents a throw for the latter).

Apparently these services are for folks who have either never heard of Wikipedia or suffer from the rare-yet-crippling affliction known as ‘Google-phobia.’

Nevertheless, putting my skepticism aside, I decided to road test ChaCha and KGB. Who knows… if the services really can deliver, maybe I could use them to handle my day-to-day decisions, similar to the way Esquire Magazine’s A.J. Jacobs outsourced his life.

ChaCha promises ‘real people answering your questions!’ And you know a brand means business when they throw an exclamation point into their tagline.

While it was tempting to take a comedic approach (‘what number am I thinking of?’), I decided I’d rather push the service’s capabilities by asking a question with an answer that is both indisputable and unGoogle-able (well, at least it was unGoogle-able until this article posted):

“What is the 35th word in Chapter 1 of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell To Arms?”

(answer: ‘pebbles’)

ChaCha’s answer? Four Google ads plus a video commercial for Folger’s Coffee. So either ChaCha answered my question with completely meta Mr. Miyagi-esque riddle or we experienced a ChaCha fail.

(answer: ‘ChaCha fail’)

So, on to KGB…

KGB is an automated answering service that promises I’ll ‘get answers, not links.’ So to test its answer-finding prowess, I decided to toss it a softball:

“How can God be good if He allows suffering?”

Wait, did I say ‘softball’? I meant to say ‘I’m paying ninety-nine cents, so I want my money’s worth.’

I entered my question online, then promptly got a text acknowledging my query. To proceed, it stated, I needed to text back ‘YES.’ I complied and moments later I got another message: ‘Thanks and sit tight. kgb is researching your answer and will send it shortly.’

No more than a minute later, I get the following answer to my query:

“God is fair, but life sometimes isn’t. God is good, but people often do bad things. God is perfect, but we make mistakes that sometimes cost us dearly.”

Wow. Just… wow. I’m not going to say they already had that answer in their back pocket, but they already had that answer in their back pocket. And what’s more, it’s not bad. Doctrinally, it holds up. Plus, the English Lit part of my brain (and granted, that’s a tiny section) digs the couplet structure of the answer.

Advantage: KGB.

Oh, and just to be completely scientific, I sent my Hemingway question to KGB. Less than fifteen minutes later, I got this response:

“Pebbles” is the 35th word in Chapter 1 of Hemingway’s “A Farewell To Arms.” “Swiftly” is #50.”

Bottomline on the ChaCha vs. KGB question: you get what you pay for. ChaCha proved to be an unamusing waste of time while KGB delivered (then overdelivered) on theological and literary hardballs.

My findings– which I fully expect to be published in some kind of scholarly journal– proved KGB is top dog. But exactly how good is it? Think you can give it a challenge? Hit ‘reply’ now and leave your toughest yet find-out-able (man, I am just making up words all over the place here) question. I’ll pick the best one, send it to KGB, and bring back the results.

- Matthew Porter

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A few weeks ago, I shared with you a maxim I’ve found to be true, useful, and readily applicable:

“I will take ‘no’ for answer; I won’t take ‘no answer’ for an answer.”

In that post, I cited a prospective Client who showed interest in hiring me as a creative consultant, but then went off the grid:

“(I had) a conversation with a successful business owner back in December. This CEO was interested in possibly hiring me as a creative consultant to help form and lead an in-house marketing team. I’ve consistently followed up with him this year and yet, no returned call.”

“Re: the CEO who needs creative help… still no response. I have a strong feeling his answer will eventually be a ‘no’ or ‘not right now.’ But what if it isn’t? What if he’s been too busy? What if– like a lot of people I eventually get in touch with– he says ‘thank you so much for your persistence. I’ve just been swamped lately’ ? What if I stop following up and in so doing– to use a metaphor from success guru Zig Ziglar– I stop pumping the handle just a few seconds before the water would have started flowing?”

Well, guess what? He called back.

In all, I’ve probably made at least thirty follow up calls, sometimes leaving a message with a secretary, sometimes leaving a voicemail. That’s why when I realized who was calling, I braced myself for something along the lines of ‘STOP CALLING ME!’

But instead of getting an earful, I got an offer.

So, how many follow-ups until you get a ‘yes’ (or at least an answer)? How many pumps until the water flows?

Maybe just one more.

- Matthew Porter

PS: I promised JK and everybody else an article this week on How To Become A Freelance Writer. However, I’m going to do even better: a comprehensive multi-part series I’ll publish throughout next week here at Hey Porter!. Don’t miss it!

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The cover of the 'Ten' album has always said 'we're in this together' to me...

Last week I asked you a question: ‘how can I help you?‘ And you answered.

A few responses…

JK wrote:
- “I am trying to figure out how to make a living at writing. Kind of tired of the whole tech thing. Perhaps you could help point me in the right direction?”

Anonymous wrote:
- “What you could do for me is hold positive thoughts for strength for myself and my family, and the health of my family.”

AP wrote:
- “…since you asked, I would like to increase my income within the career of software implementations or training. I am currently working in the banking software arena.”

So, let me first briefly address each of the above…

JK, you wrote that you’re trying to figure out how to make a living at writing. You and me both. I don’t think that writing professionally for twelve years necessarily makes me an expert on this. However, I’ll be happy to put together some suggestions which I’ll post here later this week.

Anonymous, I know you went into a lot of detail in your e-mail about the physical and emotional trials your family is going through and it breaks my heart. I will be happy to pray for you and your family and ask others to do likewise. If there is something specific you need, please let me know and I’ll do whatever I can to help.

AP, I will be posting on my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to see if I can find someone with needs relating to your area of expertise. If you would, give me a shout back with specifics on what you do so I can dial in my pitch.

This bleak economy has created an interesting phenomenon for me; prior to this, I can’t think of anything that everyone agreed on. Even when the weather is terrible, there’s some oddball (me) who says they like it. But now– whether you’re a Mac or PC, a Yankees fan or Red Sox fan– we can all commiserate about the current financial climate. Every single person, to varying degrees, is affected. That’s really something significant, when you think about it.

But we can do more than just commiserate. We can come together. We can create community where there wasn’t community before. We can ‘do unto others’ the things we’d like somebody to do for us. This isn’t some ‘kumbayah’ BS I’m shoveling here. The sunshine-y ‘everything is good all the time’ thing… not my bag. I’m a realist and I am telling you for certain that community is vital to survive and prosper and there’s no better time to make it happen than right now.

The requests above are a great start, but it’s just a start, so give me a shout right now and let me know how I can help you. Worst case scenario, I can’t do anything and you’re out thirty seconds. Best case scenario, well… you tell me.

- Matthew Porter

PS: Thanks, by the way, for all the kind words and encouragement you guys e-mailed. I didn’t include those quotes above because I am incredibly modest. Like, you can’t even believe how modest I am. It’s really just amazing

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You ain't heavy -- you're my brother. Or sister.

Last year, I made an unusual request to three people who are very important to me, my go-to Director of Photography, an editor / producer, and an author / motivational speaker. People whom I work and collaborate with but, more importantly, are also dear friends.

The question was as simple as it was out-of-the-blue: what are your goals for this year?

When I asked them this, I let them know the intent behind the question; by knowing their goals, I could view emerging opportunities not just in terms of my own goals, but also through the lens of their wants and needs. By knowing their dreams and goals, something that otherwise might not register on my radar would instead stand out.

So here we are, more than a year later. My DP has now gone on to shoot several feature films and dozens of music videos. My editor / producer friend has now moved to L.A. to pursue a great new job. And my author / motivational speaker friend has written a new book and has exponentially increased his number of speaking engagements. Is this just some wild coincidence? Actually, uh… yeah. Their successes are in no way linked to my efforts to help them. But please, don’t let the whole ‘correlation doesn’t equal causation’ thing get in the way of you thinking that I’m an awesome guy with the Midas touch.

While not validated by some glowing success story, I maintain that there’s value in what I proposed. And I should say, my idea is not anything especially new. In the realm of business, you could say this is part of ‘networking.’ In a social / spiritual context, this would be part of ‘being in community.’

Which brings us to now. I now want to amp up and expand the focus of this social experiment by asking you this question: how can I help you?

Seriously. I want to know. What if what you need is something I can provide? Or what if I can put you in touch with someone who can help you? This is too simple to just blow off. If you need a kidney, I’ll tell you now, that’s a longshot. Need help moving? A little less of a longshot.

Bottomline– borrowing from the world of sales– don’t be afraid to ‘go for the ask.’ What will shake out? Don’t know. That’s what makes it an experiment. But I’m excited to find out.

You can hit me up here, but also feel free to post your request in the replies. Looking forward to hearing from you.

- Matthew Porter

PS: See you here next week for Great Quote Monday!

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What does this guy have to do with this article? Surprisingly little.

“I will take ‘no’ for answer; I won’t take ‘no answer’ for an answer.”

What is life but a series of questions (including this one)?

Some are big…

- Will you marry me?
- What is the meaning of life?
- Can I have one of your kidneys?

…while others are less consequential:

- Can I borrow your stapler?
- What’s today’s date?
- What was the name of that other guy in Wham?

Regardless of their relative levels of importance, every question needs an answer. And when it comes to business, a lot of the ‘big questions’ terminate in a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’

As a writer / director and creative consultant, sales is half the game. As such, hearing ‘no’ or ‘not now’ — while an undesired response — is all part of the process. To make it in sales (and we’re all salesfolk on one level or another, agreed?), ‘no’ must be an acceptable answer. You don’t have to like it– you shouldn’t like it– but you must be able to roll with it and move on.

But what about when there’s no response? Do you assume the answer is ‘no’ and move on? Or do you keep pushing?

Two quick real-life scenarios:

One, a production company a producing partner and I pitched. The producers we spoke with were very enthusiastic about the project and promised to get back to us ‘soon.’ But a day went by, then two days, then a week, then two weeks… no promised response.

Two, a conversation with a successful business owner back in December. This CEO was interested in possibly hiring me as a creative consultant to help form and lead an in-house marketing team. I’ve consistently followed up with him this year and yet, no returned call.

Now, ‘the rest of the story…’

We followed up with the production company and– long story short– the deal is going through. Big win all the way around.

Re: the CEO who needs creative help… still no response. I have a strong feeling his answer will eventually be a ‘no’ or ‘not right now.’ But what if it isn’t? What if he’s been too busy? What if– like a lot of people I eventually get in touch with– he says ‘thank you so much for your persistence. I’ve just been swamped lately’ ? What if I stop following up and in so doing– to use a metaphor from success guru Zig Ziglar– I stop pumping the handle just a few seconds before the water would have started flowing?

Now, an important note: does the person you’re querying owe you an answer? No. Absolutely not. Following through on a question assuming someone owes you an answer doesn’t make you persistent; it makes you a stalker (sidebar to Jodie Foster: did you get the hair clippings I mailed you? They’re a symbol that we’re meant to be together. CALL ME!!!)

Therefore, the CEO I’m currently following up with in no way owes me anything at all, including an answer. Period. Conversely, I owe him nothing as well, including the obligation to assume his silence is his ‘no.’ And again, ‘what if?’ What if, like the production company, the CEO’s silence isn’t a ‘no’ but a ‘yes-in-progress’?

So, to sum up: before you write off an opportunity because you’re not getting an answer, first ask yourself if losing a potential ‘yes’ is a risk you’re willing to take.

And finally– and I can’t stress this enough– Andrew Ridgeley. Andrew Ridgeley was the other singer in Wham.

- Matthew Porter

PS: Find this article useful? Please consider giving us a plug on Facebook, Twitter, or any of the fancy social networking sites below…

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Great is the value of knowing what can't be taught, grasshopper.

What I don’t know can be learned. What I do know can’t be taught.

Okay, so at first blush, this phrase might seem like a rejected fortune cookie fortune or a line spoken by David Carradine on Kung Fu. But roll it around a little; this is a statement I’ve found to be completely true and relevant.

First, what do I not know? Well, a lot actually: how to do an oil change, any kind of advanced math, the fundamentals of basketball… For the sake of time, I’ll stop there. But you know the common denominator to all these things? I can learn them. If I chose to, I could set aside the necessary time, seek out sources of knowledge, study, and ramp up on these subjects. Heck, I could even become an expert if I wanted to. What’s to stop me?

Conversely, what do I know? Beyond just knowledge acquired over time, I know how to operate honestly. I know I must deliver on my commitments. I know that my reputation can take a lifetime to build and a split second to destroy. The common denominator here? You can’t teach those things. Not to an adult. Those are features installed at the factory. You roll off the line at eighteen or so and man, if it’s not there then, it likely never will be. If you’ve ever led a group of any kind or had employees, you know how true that is.

That’s why I think this maxim is so important and really, a corollary to Alvin Toffler’s great quote about ‘the illiterate of the 21st century.’

When you’re trying to assemble a winning team, look for folks who ‘know what can’t be taught.’

- Matthew Porter

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"My writing used to be a 98 lb. weakling, but now, thanks to Matthew..."

Unlike graphic design or accounting, writing is something each of us must do every day, whether it’s a big-time proposal or just an e-mail reply.

I am comfortable saying that I don’t know everything about writing. However, in my twelve years as a professional writer, I’ve found three easy-to-apply techniques that will dramatically and immediately improve your writing.

Read– takes two minutes, I timed it– and try these techniques. I promise they will positively impact on your writing.

1. Use Active (Not Passive) Voice

When you use words like is, am, was, were, and are (all forms of ‘to be’), you’re using passive voice. These words make your sentences weak and flabby and take the punch out what you’re saying.

Compare these two sentences:

Sentence 1
We are going to be launching…

Sentence 2
We will launch…

Doesn’t that second sentence sound more purposeful and direct?

It’s impossible to avoid passive voice completely. However, next time you spot it in your writing, try using a strong verb instead and give your thoughts a more forceful, powerful edge.

2. Make Your Writing Concise

Shakespeare was right: brevity is the soul of wit.

You can further strengthen your writing by condensing your sentences.

Compare these two sentences:

Sentence 1
We have the ability to research…

Sentence 2
We can research…

Note that both phrases use active voice, but doesn’t the second sentence sound leaner and more to-the-point? Make your writing as concise as possible and turn your thoughts from watered-down coffee into concentrated high-octane espresso.

3. Re-read Your Work (Out Loud)

You’re already taking the extra minute to run spell-check, and that’s good, but it’s not always enough to catch every goof. Even scanning the page doesn’t always ferret out all the problems because our eyes tend to race ahead.

But taking the time to read your work out loud will force you to slow down a little, perhaps enough to catch those hard-to-spot errors.

And by the way, if you happened to spot the error I’ve left in this article, leave a comment. I’m buying lunch for the first person who nails it.

Happy writing…

- Matthew Porter

PS: Sometimes bad grammar can be good, even classic. When is this appropriate? Check back this Friday and find out.

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Warning: Objects In Blog May Be Larger Than They Appear

So, here we are, just shy of the first week into 2010. By now, the X-wing fighters of New Year’s Resolutions have hopelessly smashed against the Death Star force field of Reality.

But not you. Because you don’t have resolutions; you have goals.

You are actively losing your big ‘but.’

So am I.

Unsolicited Moment of Transparency™:

At any given time, I have a LOT of projects in process. The current list includes:

- Preproduction on two music videos I’m directing (more details soon)
- Developing a feature film I scripted
- Completing two book proposals
- Shopping a reality TV concept
- Post production on a short film / charity benefit / viral campaign

I don’t list all this to be cool; having a lot of irons in the fire is just the nature of the industry. I mention this because it’s really easy for me to bounce from one project to another, moving quick as a hummingbird on meth, but not getting projects wrapped quickly enough, for my liking anyway.

The word in our pop culture lexicon for this approach is ‘multitasking.’ Hence, my big ‘but’ when it comes to achieving my goals is being too busy. My strategy for losing this big ‘but’: monotasking. Begin a task, see it through to the end, move on to the next one.

Obviously, a big part of monotasking is being able to quickly prioritize tasks. I’m not perfect at this, but I’m trying. My wife always says I have an undiagnosed case of ADH– hey, when did they cancel that ‘Cavemen’ TV show? ‘Cause it was on, right? And then the WGA writers strike happened and then, like, I never heard about it again after that. So weird…

In conclusion, as we hurtle headlong toward the heart of January, rapidly approaching the threshold between Talking About Doing Things and Actually Doing Things, we know that:

1. Accomplishing goals requires identifying and strategically overcoming obstacles — losing our big ‘buts’.
2. My big ‘but’ is being busy, which I will conquer through monotasking.
3. It doesn’t matter when Cavemen was canceled, as long as it never, ever, ever comes back.

- Matthew Porter

PS: Hey, swing by Hey Porter! again this Friday. We’ll be launching a new recurring comedy feature, a little something to make you laugh as you head into your weekend. See you then.

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