Listening Effectively

Almost everyone sincerely believes that he or she listens effectively. Consequently, very few people think they need to develop their listening skills. But, in fact, listening effectively is something that very few of us do. It's not because listening effectively is so difficult. Most of us have just never developed the habits that would make us effective listeners.Research has found that by listening effectively, you will get more information from the people you manage, you will increase others' trust in you, you will reduce conflict, you will better understand how to motivate others, and you will inspire a higher level of commitment in the people you manage.

You Probably Don't Listen as Effectively as You Think You Do .... and You Probably Don't Know It A study of over 8,000 people employed in businesses, hospitals, universities, the military and government agencies found that virtually all of the respondents believed that they communicate as effectively or more effectively than their co-workers.¹ (Could everyone be above average?) However, research shows that the average person listens at only about 25% efficiency. While most people agree that listening effectively is a very important skill, most people don't feel a strong need to improve their own skill level.

Why Effective Listening Matters

To a large degree, effective leadership is effective listening. A study of managers and employees of a large hospital system found that listening explained 40% of the variance in leadership.⁴ That's a big correlation by social science standards (like r = .63). Effective listening is a way of showing concern for subordinates, and that fosters cohesive bonds, commitment, and trust. Effective listening tends to reduce the frequency of interpersonal conflict

and increases the likelihood that when conflicts emerge they will be resolved with a "win-win" solution. In addition, if you listen to the people you manage, you will learn "what makes them tick." When you know what makes them tick, you will be more effective at motivating them. You can encourage them when they need encouraging, and you will know what kinds of things they value as rewards for a job well done (e.g., public praise, autonomy, challenge, etc.).

What Effective Listening Is

Effective listening is actively absorbing the information given to you by a speaker, showing that you are listening and interested, and providing feedback to the speaker so that he or she knows the message was received. Delivering verbal communication, like writing a newsletter, involves trying to choose the right words and nonverbal cues to convey a message that will be interpreted in the way that you intend. Effective listeners show speakers that they have been heard and understood

How the Most Skilled Communicators Respond When Listening

The most skilled communicators match their responses to the situation. In discussions with the people you manage, it helps to differentiate the coaching situations from the counseling situations. Coaching

is providing advice and information or setting standards to help your employees to improve their skills and their performance. Counselling

is helping subordinates recognize and address problems involving their emotions, attitudes, motivation, or personalities.

The most common mismatch of response types to situations is the tendency a lot of us have--myself included--to give advice or deflect in a situation where counseling is appropriate. When you are counseling, "reflecting" and "probing" are usually more appropriate responses than "advising" or "deflecting."

 

Reflecting. As mentioned above, when we listen we should show the other party that what they are saying to us is being heard. Since we can think at about four times the speed that speakers can speak, our brains have a lot of capacity that can be used to process the meaning of what's being said. Reflecting is paraphrasing back to the speaker what they said. A lot of us have difficulty with this skill. Reflecting without sounding phony or like a parrot takes creativity and lots of practice. Reflecting can take other forms than paraphrasing back to someone what was just said. For instance, a listener can summarize what he or she heard and also take the conversation a step further by asking a question for clarification or elaboration.

 

We often notice when we reflect during a conversation that the meaning we have ascribed to what we've heard was not really what the speaker intended to convey. When speakers hear us reflect, they get a chance to correct any misunderstanding that we have. That proves that this technique does truly clarify communication. For most of us, it takes a lot of practice before we become natural and effective at reflecting. Our first few efforts may sound forced, phony, patronizing, or as one of my MBA students put it, "moronic." However, that doesn't mean we should give up learning how to reflect. Over time, we can all learn to do it naturally and effectively.

 

Probing. In addition to reflecting, the most skilled communicators' responses in counseling situations involve a lot of probing. Probing means asking for additional information. Not all questions you might ask will be effective. Avoid questions that challenge what has been said because that will put the speaker on the defensive (e.g., "How could you have thought that?"). In addition, a question that changes the subject before the current subject is resolved isn't effective communication. Effective probing is nonjudgmental and flows from what was previously said. Good probing questions ask for elaboration, clarification, and repetition (if, for instance, an important question you asked wasn't answered).

 

Deflecting. Deflecting responses shift the discussion to another topic. When we deflect from what we've been told, rather than acknowledging it, we can unintentionally communicate that we haven't listened and that we aren't interested. Deflecting shows that we're preoccupied with another topic.

 

Many of us deflect unwittingly by sharing our personal experiences when we should be focusing on the other party. Think about this from the speaker's perspective: When you share a concern with someone and they respond by telling you about themselves, do you feel like they are interested in listening to you? The responder gives you the impression that they aren't even listening, and that they just want to talk about themselves. Sometimes we mention our own experiences as a way of saying that we can relate to the speaker's experiences. Our intention is to say, "You're not alone." But, when we tell our stories we risk sending a message that we aren't listening and don't care. Don't be a topper--the kind of person who can tell a story to top any story that they're told. We all know a topper, don't we? In a small way, toppers are trying to communicate that they are superior. That's not supportive!

 

This is not to say that sharing your experiences is never helpful. On the contrary, mentors often help their protégés by relating their own experiences as a way to reassure their protégés that their concerns are normal and that their problems are solvable. But, in counseling situations, be careful to use deflecting only at appropriate times. Speakers may not know that you have heard and understood what they have said if you deflect by moving on to another topic or shifting the focus to yourself or your own experiences. The best listeners keep deflecting to a minimum.

 

Advising. Did you know that you can offend some people by giving them advice after they've told you about one of their concerns? In fact, Deborah Tannen's research has found that this problem is particularly common between men and women in the workplace.⁵ Women often discuss their problems and concerns with men just as a means of developing interpersonal bonds. It's a way of making conversation that goes a little deeper than small talk (because it's personally revealing), and it can help foster a mutually supportive relationship. When men respond by giving advice, they may believe they are being helpful to their female counterparts. But, when no advice is solicited, providing it is actually a little presumptuous. When you tell someone how they should solve their problems you assume a position of superiority, not mutuality. Of course, being supportive often involves giving advice. My point is that we should (a) recognize that sometimes people share their problems with us just because they want us to listen, and (b) advising people who tell us about their problems can sometimes be taken as condescending or belittling. Sometimes it's better to just reflect.

Typical Objections to These Effective Listening Techniques

As I teach these principles to managers on and off campus, I hear a lot of objections to using them. Here are three common objections:

Reflecting slows down the conversation and wastes time. Yes, your time is a valuable resource, and you do want to invest it carefully. Reflecting takes time, but it can save time too. Many times reflecting does more than show the other party that they are being heard; it also serves as a check for accurate understanding and provides an opportunity for clarification. Reflecting takes time, but so does correcting errors due to miscommunication.

Reflecting sounds phony/patronizing/moronic. Skilled listeners know that tactfully showing that you have heard what someone has said by reflecting it back to them requires creativity, and they've had to practice creative paraphrasing and reflecting to become good at it. Yes, the process of learning how to use reflecting can be awkward for people who are inexperienced with it. However, be very careful not to avoid practicing and learning a skill just because you're concerned that you will not immediately be proficient. It's better to develop communication skills over time, despite the possible awkward stage, than to completely avoid developing those skills due to a fear of the initial awkwardness.

I don't have time to be the confidante of all my direct reports. Yes, there is a time management

issue. It might seem that the best way to use your time is to hear the problems, give advice, and move on. That may or may not be good time management. Think carefully about the consequences of showing your staff that spending time listening to them is not important enough to be a high priority for you. Managers who make listening a high priority develop strong relationships, employee commitment and a support network for themselves.

Practicing This Management Skill

Fortunately for those of us who want to develop our listening skills, we get lots of opportunities. To develop your listening skills, plan to use the response type that you think you need to emphasize (e.g., reflecting) and plan to avoid using the response types that you want to de-emphasize (e.g., advising). Then, after you have a conversation, evaluate how effective you were at giving good responses as a listener. Identify what went well and where the opportunities for improvement are. Think about what that challenges to being an effective listener were and how you can deal with those challenges more effectively next time.

Monday mornings are a perfect time to practice your effective listening. Just start a conversation with a co-worker or employee by saying, "How was your weekend?" From there, just probe and reflect. In ten minutes, you can actually get to know the other person a little better and show that you're interested in them.

Kids seem to be willing to let us practice our effective listening. Seems like if you ask kids questions, reflect their answers back to them and probe a little further, they really open up. It's like you're their new best friend because you've shown an interest in them. They'll forgive us if we sound a little patronizing--they're used to it. Making a tape recording of a conversation, if you can find a willing partner, can also help you evaluate your performance. With a tape of a conversation, you can examine each response you give in detail, without relying on your memory.

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Basics of Production Inventory Management

Production inventory management differs from general
warehouse management because it involves the
determination of how quickly to produce a particular
product. The factors involved in many cases are
similar, though there are some variances in making the
final decision as to how quickly manufacturing should
push items through the production line.

Available Materials

Of course, the first concern in production inventory
management is on the front end of the process. If you
don't have the materials required for production, then
you can't move forward in providing the products to
others. You must make certain that you have all the
supplies you need, from raw materials to factory
workers, to complete the production process.

Supply and Demand

You must determine the current demand for the product
on the market. Good production inventory management
occurs when you produce just enough material to
satisfy customers' needs without overextending the
production line and manufacturing too many of any
given product. You don't want an incredible amount of
backstock lying around, as this detracts from your net
profit. On the other hand, you don't want to be in
short supply when a large order comes in, so having a
little extra on hand is a great idea, and making sure
you are prepared to make a production run for such
orders is vital.

Quality Control

Never simply assume that everything manufactured will
be flawless. An important consideration in production
inventory management is to allow room for error. In
other words, calculate a sufficient amount of product
to assume that, even with flaws that get past quality
control efforts, there is sufficient stock of the
product required.

Cost Analysis

In many instances, even the best production inventory
management strategies fail in the long run due to the
cost of the production process being overlooked as a
factor. It is important to maintain a cost effective
production process, and this includes making sure that
your inventory is not an overwhelming factor. This
comes back to not overproducing any items that come
off the assembly lines. Doing so is a waste of time
and materials, costing you excess money to create.
Obviously, conservation of the materials, time, and
energy consumed in manufacturing unnecessary goods is
essential to maintaining a cost effective production
inventory management strategy.

Be proactive in keeping close watch on all occurrences
in your production or manufacturing facility to make
sure that there is no waste, and you are guaranteed to
achieve a greater standard of success and profitability.

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Goal Setting

Strategies for a Balanced Life

by  Dinae M. Eade

 

Caught up in the hectic daily activities of clinical practice and administration, health care practitioners can easily lose sight of long-term goals … easily forget what they set out to accomplish for themselves and for their loved ones. Yet proven strategies exist to help busy professionals achieve happy, healthy, productive, and well-balanced lives. To help you regain some perspective, an expert in life planning and personal productivity presents the following tips.

"To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life," wrote Robert Louis Stevenson in Familiar Studies of Men and Books1. Simple as that goal may sound, most people get so caught up in the day-to-day activities of living that they never come even close to realizing their full potential or their lifelong dreams.

Physician assistants and nurse practitioners, like other health care providers, are particularly vulnerable to this "activities-of-daily-living" trap. Starting with The Oath of Hippocrates ("With purity and holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art.... Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick....") and ending with the rigors of daily practice, health care demands personalities willing to place the needs of others ahead of self. Does this leave the practitioner with no time to pursue personal goals and dreams? Sometimes. But there are ways to assure personal growth and fulfillment, which ultimately improve a provider's ability to care for others.

GOAL PLANNING: WHY BOTHER?

Goal planning challenges the individual to give life a preplanned direction by employing specific exercises and strategies. Through goal planning, a person can take the shapeless life "direction" that most professionals have fermenting in the back of their minds - that fatalistic voice that says "work hard, do your best, and let whatever happens happen" - and learn to control many of the key events that ultimately give form to a person's life.

The first step in goal planning is to ascertain the control you do have over your life. Try this exercise: First, on a clean sheet of paper, list the past five years vertically along the left side (1994,1993,1992,1991, and 1990).. Next to each year, list the most important event that occurred in your life during that year. Now examine that list and estimate the percentage of control or influence that you had over those events.

After using this exercise with numerous groups, I've observed that most people exert a significant influence over at least 80% of the most notable developments in their lives. Too few, however, take the time to reflect on their influence, allowing themselves to drift into believing that external forces really chart the course. Seeing how much control you personally exert over your life helps you to realize that you really are in charge, and that you can chart a course to success.

How does someone actually plan for success in advance, rather than letting things happen and hoping for the best? Skeptics still balk; even though, in retrospect, they acknowledge some influence over events, they do not concede an ability to plan these events in advance. To some degree, their argument is true: Goal setting is not a crystal ball, nor does it carry with it any guarantees. But goal setting definitely improves your odds for a successful outcome.

Many companies use "Management By Objectives" (MBOs) to motivate their work staff to higher levels of achievement. This is a simple method of translating an organization's business objectives down to each individual's specific contribution. For instance, if the goal for your entire office is to see 500 patients each week, your individual objective might be to see 125 of those patients personally.

In one review of studies on MBOs2, 66 out of 68 studied (97%) attributed positive results to their use. In fact, in 28 studies using objective measurements, productivity was shown to increase by 44%. The studies also showed that when commitment on the part of the management is high, results are even better. When goals are personal and individual, rather than corporate or vague, they are more readily adopted.

TARGETING YOUR GOALS

To get the most out of each aspect of your life, start by creating a life plan from which to set specific goals. This way you'll know where you want to end up. Setting goals "programs" our minds: The goals we set direct our mental focus. Subconsciously, the mind works continuously to satisfy the expressed need.

Notice that, here again, I said "life plan," not "career plan." Goal setting has application far beyond one's career. In fact, those people who set only business-related goals decrease their odds of having a well-balanced, happy life: Those who direct their subconscious to solve only business problems risk creating lives that focus on careers and neglect all other areas.

MEASURE YOUR LIFEBALANCE

Use The Wheel of Life to measure your overall degree of life satisfaction and to identify areas that might benefit from goal-setting. On a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 is low and 10 is high), ask yourself how satisfied you are with your: financial situation and career; social and cultural situations; spirituality and ethics; family and home; mental and educational levels; and physical well-being and health. Consider your answers carefully, taking into account the following issues:

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A Market-Driven Approach to Retaining Talent

Traditional strategies for employee retention are unsuited to a world where talent runs free. It's time for some fresh thinking.

 

by  Peter Chappeli

If you're like most executives today, you're a poacher. You regularly look outside your organization to find talented individuals to fill key posts. And when you spot attractive candidates, you do what it takes to lure them away from their current employers. You offer big signing bonuses, you buy out stock options, and you provide rich compensation packages of your own. All the while, you know that other companies are busily rifling through your own organization, hoping to poach your best talent.

The open competition for other companies' people, once a rarity in business, is now an accepted fact. Executives know that fast-moving markets require fast-moving organizations that are continually refreshed with new talent, and they've become adept at outside hiring. (See the sidebar "Strategic Poaching.") But if they're comfortable bringing talent in, they remain distinctly uncomfortable about seeing talent leave. To poach is fine; to be poached is not. One reason for the discomfort is emotional. Executives tend to judge themselves on their ability to instill loyalty in their people, and the departure of a talented employee can feel like a personal affront. Another reason is rational. In a time of tight labor markets, talent can be very hard—and very expensive—to replace. When a good employee walks, the business takes a hit.

 

In trying to stop people from jumping ship, many companies have fallen back on traditional retention programs. I recently attended a talk by a senior manager from DuPont who was telling of a corporate initiative to "re-engage" with employees. By designing and promoting new, long-term career paths and investing heavily in employee development, the company hoped to win back the loyalty of its workforce. When a member of the audience asked him if he really thought the company could stop the outflow of talent, the speaker replied, in a moment of unexpected candor, that he did not—the competition was simply too intense. But, he went on, the company's executives saw no alternative. They had to make the effort.

The speaker was right about one thing. It is futile to hope that by tinkering with compensation programs, career paths, training efforts, and the like, a company can insulate itself from today's freewheeling labor market. That doesn't mean, however, that companies should just go through the motions. There is an alternative: a market-driven retention strategy that begins with the assumption that long-term, across-the-board employee loyalty is neither possible nor desirable. The focus shifts from broad retention programs to highly targeted efforts aimed at particular employees or groups of employees. Moving to a market-driven strategy is not easy. It requires executives to take a hard-headed, analytical approach to what has long been viewed as a "soft" side of business—the management of people. But it is necessary. The clock can't be turned back.

Rethinking Retention

To adopt the new strategy, you first have to accept the new reality: the market, not your company, will ultimately determine the movement of your employees. Yes, you can make your organization as pleasant and rewarding a place to work in as possible—you can fix problems that may push people toward the exits. But you can't counter the pull of the market; you can't shield your people from attractive opportunities and aggressive recruiters. The old goal of HR management—to minimize overall employee turnover—needs to be replaced by a new goal: to influence who leaves and when. If managing employee retention in the past was akin to tending a dam that keeps a reservoir in place, today it is more like managing a river. The object is not to prevent water from flowing out but to control its direction and its speed.

Prudential is one company that has begun to adopt this market-driven perspective. Its "Building Management Capability" program, which integrates recruiting, retention, and training efforts, is geared toward an increasingly mobile workforce. "Gone is the notion that employees are going to stay with one company for life," says Kurt Metzger, a human resources executive at the company. The Prudential program is anchored by a sophisticated planning model that projects talent requirements and attrition rates. The model enables business-unit managers to develop highly targeted retention programs and create cost-effective contingency plans for filling potential gaps in skills. The model also provides a mechanism for constantly measuring the impact of human resources decisions, a capability crucial to managing people in this rapidly shifting labor market.

Prudential has begun doing what most companies avoid: making a truly honest assessment of how long the organization would like employees to stay on board. Such an analysis inevitably reveals that different groups of employees warrant very different retention efforts. There will always be some people a company will want to keep indefinitely—an engineering genius, an inspiring business head, a creative product designer, or a frontline worker deeply respected by customers. Another set of people will be important to retain for shorter, well-defined periods—employees with specific skills that are currently in short supply, for instance, or members of a team creating a new product or installing a new information system. And finally there will be people for whom investments in retention don't make sense—employees in easy-to-fill jobs that require little training or employees whose skills aren't in demand in the market.

Once you know which employees you need to retain and for how long, you can use a number of mechanisms to encourage them to stay. The key is to resist the temptation to use the mechanisms across the board. Tailor your programs to your retention requirements for various employees and to the level of demand for them in the marketplace. Let's look at some of the mechanisms and their strengths and shortcomings.

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Monday Motivation - Don’t Be Afraid To Fail

 by Jeremy Enke

I have written on this topic before, however I feel it is very important so I will publish another post on this. Everyone knows that in order to be successful long term, you are going to have to take some risks and experience some failures along the way.

Every entrepreneur or millionaire I know can probably count on one hand the ultimate successes that got them to where they're at. Yet each could probably fill a book with the stories on their failures. When I look back over the past 10 years of my professional life, I have to shake my head at some of the decisions I've made. I have failed at so many projects, sites, and ventures it is almost comical. The good news however is that the ones that worked out have put me exactly where I want to be in life.

I have a great home, a career that I always dreamed of, and most importantly a great family at the age of 31. The times I have failed or lost a ton of money in various endeavors sucks, I am not going to lie about that. The thing is though that I was able to put these failures behind me and keep moving forward to achieve my goals.

What I see far to often happen when people fail is that they give up. People get discouraged and just go back to their comfort zones. One of the other most important attributes you see in successful people is perseverance. It's not that "failure is not an option" for these people, it's that they NEVER GIVE UP when faced with failure.

So no matter what mistakes you have made, or what failures you have encountered, there are 3 things you need to do:

1. Accept the failure

2. Learn from the failure

3. Stay Positive and move on with your life's goals.

The beauty about being an entrepreneur is that you get as many chances as you want to try new things in your path to success. The unfortunate thing however is when you look at the big picture, in life you only get one chance to "make it happen". So stop procrastinating or feeling sorry for yourself about past failures. Right now is the time to get out of your comfort zone and take some risks. And always remember, there truly are a million ways to make a million dollars, you only have to find one. Make it a great week!

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An Introduction To Compressors

Compressors are machines that compress air or gas. Compression is achieved through the reduction of the volume that the gas (or air) occupies. As a side effect of the minimization of volume, the temperature of air or gas increases.

The higher the compression ratio, the higher the temperature tends to rise. However, compressor manufacturers do take this into consideration. The problem is resolved by compressing on a per-stage basis and simultaneously cooling the gas.

There are many compressor types. Different compressor types achieve different compression ratios. Moreover, the horsepower that different compressors can achieve varies from 1 to 2 HP (Horsepower) , up to a few thousand HP. Some compressors require oil in order to operate while others do not.

The most important compressor designs are listed below.

Reciprocating compressors are equipped with a crankshaft, which drives the pistons. They are commonly found in versions that produce 5 to 30 HP. However, larger ones used for industrial purposes can produce up to 1,000 HP.

Centrifugal compressors are used for heavy industrial purposes. Centrifugal compressors produce from ~100 HP up to a few thousand HP. They are usually stationary, and one of their applications is small gas turbine engines.

Rotary screw compressors are compressors aimed at commercial use. Their horsepower varies from 5 to 500 HP, and they are usually employed as superchargers in automobile engines.

Diagonal/Mixed- flow compressors are similar to centrifugal compressors except for some technical characteristics.

Axial-flow compressors are mostly used in large gas-turbine engines.

Scroll compressors are not as efficient as rotary screw compressors. They can be found as superchargers in automotives.

Along with the uses listed above, compressors are used in fields such as jet engines, refrigeration, medicine manufacturing, SCUBA diving, turbochargers, submarines, and air conditioning.

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Are You An Innovator?

Innovation has once again become a hot topic in the executive suite. That's because of a growing recognition that operational effectiveness alone can't deliver the results today's shareholders demand. A 2005 survey by the Boston Consulting Group, for example, found that 90% of executives believed that their company's growth and success requires true innovation.

Unfortunately, my research suggests that is easier said than done.

The problem isn't bad management, as I explained in The Innovator's Dilemma. In fact, many companies get into trouble precisely because they follow the principles of good management. They listen to their best customers, innovate to meet those customers' needs, charge higher prices, report record profits and miss a transformational change innocently incubating at the fringes of their respective markets.

My subsequent research, summarized in The Innovator's Solution and Seeing What's Next, and field work with my consulting company, Innosight, has convinced me that companies can address key elements of this dilemma. The first step to recovery is almost always admitting that there might be a problem. Therefore, I suggest that any executive who is seeking to assess their company's innovation capabilities ask the following three questions:

1. Do I have a balanced portfolio with different types of growth strategies?

Most investors know the value of balancing their financial portfolios across different classes of assets, like stocks and bonds. But it is amazing how many companies forget this principle when building their "innovation portfolios."

When many companies actually sift through such portfolios, they discover that the overwhelming majority of their efforts focus on what we call "sustaining" improvements. These are better products that a company hopes to sell for higher prices to current customers. Think about Procter & Gamble creating a version of its Tide laundry detergent with a new scent.

If existing products or services are not yet good enough, sustaining approaches typically promise attractive returns. Sustaining strategies are the bread and butter of most established firms. A balanced portfolio, however, augments those strategies with different approaches to branch away from the core business.

My research suggests the best way to succeed in these new markets is to take a "disruptive" approach. Proctor and Gamble, for example, has created the "clean small spills" market with its Swiffer brand, and the home-based teeth whitening market with WhiteStrips. Generally, disruptive innovations are simple, onvenient, affordable solutions that make it easy for individuals to "do it themselves." Remember, the goal is to create a portfolio that balances core-sustaining investments with those intended to create new growth businesses.

2. Have I allocated resources to achieve a balanced innovation portfolio?

Just saying you have a balanced portfolio isn't sufficient. You need to allocate resources appropriately to create different types of innovation. Executives often think it's strategy that determines how they should allocate resources.. But it's the other way around: It's how a company allocates resources that should determine strategy.

To innovate, a company must master the resource allocation process. Doing that requires investment in multiple strategies. Companies that simply pour all their resources into a single pot often find that they are investing in the status quo. While close-to-the-core, sustaining initiatives are less risky, they also provide lower returns. What's worse, such initiatives may actually crowd out the development of truly innovative products and services that could provide greater returns in the long run.

 

There's good news for cost-conscious companies just starting their innovation journey. Early on, the biggest investment that companies need to make is time, not dollars. Don't spend too much on a new venture too soon, otherwise you risk locking into a failed strategy before you really know the right approach. The best advice is to "invest a little to learn a lot."

 

3. Do I have a distinct screening and shaping process for different types of opportunities?

Processes, by their very nature, are designed to be inflexible. A process that is good at doing one thing is almost always bad at doing something else. Many companies have adopted stage-gate processes that impose rigorous discipline on their innovation efforts. New proposals must meet certain financial metrics--such as net present value or return on investment--before they're given the green light. This effectively streamlines the development and commercialization of sustaining innovations.

Financial metrics are ill-suited, however, for disruptive projects that charter unknown territory. Instead, companies should develop a checklist of qualitative measures to which a new product should conform.

Start by looking at previous innovation efforts and assess what worked and what failed. Successful disruptive solutions, for example, might be simpler, do-it-at-home versions of a previously complex product. Often they have low overhead costs and high asset utilization, which allows companies to offer low prices or serve small markets. And in many cases, the pattern you identify can point the way to high-potential opportunities more reliably than financial metrics.

By asking these three questions above, executives can begin to get a sense as to whether or not their organizations are properly positioned for growth. Taking action against identified weaknesses can help companies create capabilities that make the pursuit of growth more predicable and repeatable.

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