in the first phase of the Design For Death Contest. You may have a non-positive reaction but take some time. These designs come from some of the world’s top designers. Many of them are fresh new insights into where our world is going.  Personally, I think more than a few have commercial potential.

For some of you this next video will be kinda creepy. Pay close attention to how she presents. This gives a whole new dimension to “Green Burial.”

Some of you may tempted to dismiss this as not commercially viable. Maybe, maybe not. I intend to be buried but a lot of what she says makes sense to me. More to the point the judges were so impressed they made a special category for her over and above all the other categories.

Design For Death from Objectifs Films on Vimeo.

My takeaways as a judge

This was a career highlight for me because it showed me how incestuous our industries thinking is. I had never really taken “green burial” seriously until I saw the entries. I think I speak for many of the judges when I say I was “blown away” by some of the ideas. As I said earlier, I intend to be buried but the winner of the first prize is extremely attractive both in concept and aesthetics. I could see myself doing “green” in this way.

My greatest take away is the realization that when WE talk about thinking outside the box, we are really amateurs compared to how the public thinks. We are so much more conservative than our customers.

I can hardly wait for the next phase. If we embrace just some of these new ideas our future is exciting.

Just as I was preparing my next followup article on how to make yourself unnecessary Linked-In published this blog post.  Since I couldn’t improve on it I will just share it.

If you are serious about empowering your staff to be more responsible and accountable you should print it out and post it where you will see it every day.  As you read it here are some things you should think about:

•  Are you acting more like a manager or a leader?
• What behaviors would cause your staff to take more responsibility?
• What behaviors discourage initiative?
• What behaviors create distrust and fear?
• What behaviors establish mutual respect?

The Difference Between Leaders and Managers

It’s time to face the music as a manager: You don’t always have all of the right answers. Your “it’s my way or the highway” approach to management isn’t going to encourage anyone to help you in your problem solving endeavors.

Managers and leaders are often referred to synonymously, but only leaders allow their employees to solve problems with their own insight. The truth of the matter is this: Every leader may not be a manager, but every manager should be a leader. It’s easy to see that leadership and management aren’t the same thing, but a manager who lacks effective leadership traits will drive a business into the ground faster than you can count to 10.  Read More…

The key to overcoming the “Being Necessary” complex is to recognize the difference between management and leadership. It is the overmanagement that creates all the physical and emotional stress in this profession. More to the point the current trends in misapplying management data is turning professionals into shop foremen.

Let’s be clear: contrary to popular opinion leadership is not about the “embattled lone hero”.  Nor is it about some charismatic, mystical vision. Leadership is a set of skills that enable an individual or a SMALL group of individuals to set a direction and thereby align and inspire their people to accomplish a vision. But we get ahead of ourselves.

Management and leadership are complementary skill sets.  In large companies these responsibilities can be borne by different people and different job titles. In small businesses like ours owners and managers must wear both hats. The key is to know which is which and when to be a manager / leader and when to be a leader / manager.

Managing is about coping with daily operational needs. Without it organizations would become chaotic. It brings order and consistency while producing quality and profitability.

Leading is about coping with the future. It is about change brought about by such things as demographic changes, financial changes, market changes and customer changes.  In simpler times leadership could take a back seat to managing because our business environment was stable. It changed maybe once in a generation. Today our environment is in a constant state of change. In DeathCare this coping with change responsibility often is left to default. As a result, firms begin to decline and lose direction and relevancy. Leadership is all about setting a direction. Its most valid implicit operating assumption is that doing what was done yesterday better is no longer a guarantee of success.

Our current operating environment is not stable. It is dynamic and changing. So, where it used to be appropriate for our manager’s hat to be bigger, today requires a level of leadership clarity and direction that was not necessary in former years. Becoming unnecessary requires a vision and a direction that then suggests a variety of actions. A plan, so to speak.

Managing achieves its plans by organizing and staffing and creating an organizational structure. Leadership achieves its plans by aligning people. Without alignment around a shared vision well-meaning people simply trip over each other…a phenomena I have observed often in even the best firms. To achieve alignment requires strong communication skills as well as clarity of purpose and direction. Leadership in the context of today’s workers cannot be achieved alone.

Management’s primary tools are controlling and problem solving. Managers direct activities and monitor results and identify deviations. They rely on reports, meetings and mechanisms of reward and punishment.

Leadership tools for achieving a vision are entirely reliant on motivating and inspiring people to move in the right direction. They do this by connecting often untapped human needs, values and emotions. In times of significant change those with strengths in management will often misapply or overuse their management tools in a misdirected effort to control change. This is too often counterproductive, producing in the short term at the sacrifice of the future.

Peter Drucker once observed: “you cannot manage change, you can only be ahead of it.” Which is precisely the role of the leader.

Scripture says: “Without a vision the people perish”. Setting a direction is fundamental to leadership. Sometimes the future is so unclear that the only direction to be set is “We can’t stay the way we are.” A leader will begin at this stage and rather than relying on the deductive reasoning of a manager will begin to look more broadly and inductively identify gaps and then seek solutions. For instance: A leader will ask why more people are selecting cremation (a gap).  He will challenge his / her own paradigms and more closely examine those sacred cows. Eventually a leader will choose a direction and begin to move in that direction. He will include more of his people in the process both to test his / her own assumptions and to begin to inspire and motivate them.

AS I SEE IT:

I see two options emerging. Both will require leadership.

Both options require a realistic assessment of the owner’s capabilities and desires. I always start these conversations with new clients with the question: “What is your vision for yourself.” As small independent businesses the owner’s vision for him or herself is the vision. But it often takes people off guard. Once, however, they can answer the question the conversation quickly accelerates. It is here that we can make a choice between Option A or Option B.

Option A is a decision to take yourself and your family into what I call “Safe Harbor.”  Safe harbor involves the current leader deciding to withdraw. Although it can involve selling the business it doesn’t have to. It can also involve succession to a new leader.  For parents it can mean it is time to let son or daughter take over. Or perhaps a key employee is more suited for the task.

Option B involves stepping up to the plate as a leader.  With my clients this involves a discussion about what it will take in all its goriness. This is especially true in a turnaround situation.

At the risk of repeating myself, either option requires setting a direction and, for a period at least, being more a leader than a manager.

“Al, this is Bob. Guess where I am?.” Bob Neiman is a successful internet entrepreneur who flies his own plane and dominates a narrow niche in the construction industry. Bob and his wife Amy have been friends of ours for many years now. Amy is one of 2 known survivors of a rare, normally terminal, blood cancer. We had been part of a prayer team that met weekly to pray specifically for her during that time. Bob has seen plenty of adversity in his life but his faith has brought him many, many blessings as well. Those of us who know him know he is a classic “doer” and can often be expected to do the unexpected. But this call was new.

“I don’t know Bob, where are you?” I replied.

“Amy and I are sitting on the balcony of a condo in Miami, Florida enjoying the sea breeze and the view. We are going to be here for three months. I just wanted to call because we have you to thank for it.”

“Well, thanks Bob, why is that?”

“Do you remember that conversation you and I had about my business years ago?”

Years ago was actually 12 years ago and, for some reason, I did remember…vaguely.

“Sort of, but refresh my memory.” was my response.

“I asked you how I could increase the value of my business and you told me I needed to make myself unnecessary. Now I am. So, Amy and I can enjoy 3 months in Miami and I don’t even have to call in.”

Saturday morning, January 12, 2013. My phone rings. “Al, this is Bob, guess where I am?” “I don’t know Bob. Where are you?”  ”Amy and I are in Miami again for three months. I just Wanted to call and thank you…”

The conversation Bob and I had some dozen years ago was a simple one but apparently a turning point for him. His business was doing well, he was having fun and making good money but he didn’t feel like he was growing the value of the business. He asked me to have coffee with him to discuss it and I did. The question was simple: “How do I grow the value of my business?” My answer was equally simple.

Owning a business can serve many purposes. Too many to list here. But a few will help us focus.  Obviously it provides a living (hopefully). Sometimes it provides a lifestyle. Often it can provide a life purpose.

But too often it can provide a self-definition. That is when people stop owning the business and the business begins owning them. What I told Bob was that if his purpose was to build value then he needed to make himself unnecessary. He needed to move beyond being a manager to being a leader. A business that is actually a person is intrinsically less valuable than a business that is self sustaining.

We all know the egos of too many funeral home owners are deeply entwined in their business. After all their family name is on the sign. In fact, in some states their name is required to be on the sign. But “being” the business and leading the business are two polar opposites.

In my opinion, when Bob first approached me he represented the best example of a good strong manager and he was already showing signs of becoming a good leader. In terms of employees and revenue his business is small. Probably the equivalent of a 300 to 400 call funeral home (albeit far more lucrative). He made a simple decision. Simple but emotionally (for the vast majority of people) very hard. He decided he needed to develop people to be able to assume his responsibilities as manager so he had time to lead. This kinda sheds true light on the common excuse that you don’t have time to work ON your business because you are too busy working IN your business.

Bob checked his ego at the door. I really don’t know how much turnover he has had. Not much. I do know that he began deliberately grooming someone to assume those daily responsibilities and they became a team.

What does this mean for Funeral Service?

Any particular day: My phone rings:

“Alan, I am tired. I’m 58, 60, 65 (Whatever. Bob just turned 70 and is going strong) and I really want to slow down. I don’t want to stop totally because I really love what I do but I would like to have a lot more time off.”

Me: “So what’s keeping you from doing that?”

Them: “Well, there really isn’t anyone to pick up the slack and deal with all the day to day issues. Every time I leave they call me and I have to call in all the time. And then if it’s someone I know I feel like I have to be here.”

Me: “What about your son, daughter, key man?” (usually in their mid ’30′s with 12 to 15 years experience)

Them: “Well, they just aren’t ready yet.”

Me: “What are you doing to get them ready?”

Them: after long pause “Well, no one did anything to get me ready.”

Me: “That’s not an answer. That’s not even a bad answer.”

It took time and a plan for Amy and Bob to be able to enjoy 3 consecutive months in Miami, now interspersed with flights to the UP of Michigan to visit their first grandchild.

The bible says: “Train up a child…” The problem is that, since my client caller was never trained, he / she doesn’t really know how to start with the next generation but they intuitively know that the business is significantly more complex than it was 30 and 40 years ago. Consequently, this generational transition is far riskier. Compound this with the unsaid reality that their ego is still deeply intertwined with the business and they feel trapped.

Next week:

Tune in next Monday when I will talk about a way you can quickly ramp up your transition plans.

Over the years I have seen patterns that I now realize are clear indicators that trouble is ahead. Here are 4:

1. Preoccupied Leader- Some years ago a casket company Exec asked me what I thought most funeral home owners wanted.  Without thinking and to my utter surprise I said, “Based on their behavior I think most funeral home owners want to not be there.”  After I got over my shock I realized that answer had come from my subconscious and it was true.  Whether from boredom or frustration too many owners spend a lot of time away from their business.  Fortunately or unfortunately in a small business it is the owner that has the primary responsibility of being a hands-on leader. In order to lead you have to be there.  While it sounds simple it is a common problem in most organizations. Too many owners like to brag that they have forgotten where the prep room is and don’t know how to fill out the paperwork any more.   Yes, you have to work on the business.  But mostly I see owners escaping the business under the guise of working on the business.  You can tell because there are always lots of ideas and never any execution.

2. Lack of Clear Expectations - The owners of the under-performing funeral homes are absurdly unclear with their employees about what is expected, in everything from how they should greet customers to what they wear to what their specific job responsibilities are. I have never been able to reconcile the claim by owners that their market differentiator is “service” with the knowledge that almost none of them train or monitor the practices of staff.  These owners are reluctant to place specific demands on their people, often in the spirit of giving them freedom. But like any business plagued by a lack of clarity, what they get is an organization without a culture, plenty of employees who don’t belong, and, worst of all, inconsistencies around what customers experience. Basically, people show up and apply their own definition of what is right in a given circumstance in a self-defined effort to provide good service.

3. Lack of Focus - Typically, funeral homes do too much or too little. Most often, if it’s a new initiative they don’t finish what they start. They never get to the “Goldilocks level” where it is Just Right. Employees don’t understand what is expected and struggle to sell what the business has to offer. Interestingly, if you challenge them you quickly learn they aren’t sure what that is. Or, worse, they are pretty sure it’s just one more thing to line the owner’s pockets.

The drive to be all things to “all people means we are nothing to everyone.” No one takes risks because the fear of losing one customer overrides the opportunity to gain five.

4. Lack of Attention to the Right Detail – During the 70′s I worked for a firm that had service contracts with big city school systems.  Part of my job was to call on school principals.  It got so I could tell what kind of principal I was calling on within 5 feet of the front door.  The same thing is true of funeral homes.  Sometimes you can tell before you drive in the driveway.  Paint peeling, failing to have a greeter at the door, taking too long to answer the phone, a dirty prep room are all signs things are going from bad to worse because someone is asleep at the switch. “Funeral service is in the details” is a saying I haven’t heard in too long. We all have anecdotal stories.

My worst was attending a visitation on the night a local funeral home had two too many. I stood in line while the guests tried to sort out which way to go in the crowded foyer while being watched by the morbidly obese employee in his shirtsleeves eating a foot long subway sandwich behind the office glass window sipping on his “Big Gulp”. The epiphany for me at that moment was that some owners don’t care and can’t be helped.

We all get comfortable in our work environments. I recently told a couple of clients that they should get a video camera and video their building inside and out and then watch it. You will see things on video that you don’t see when you walk in every day. Sometimes it’s just good to have a brutally honest friend or consultant who isn’t afraid to tell you the truth about what they see. More importantly, we all need to be reminded that keeping things simple and focusing on the basics is the best place to start a turnaround and sustain a healthy organization. If you own the business maybe it’s time for you to pay attention. ]]> http://funeralhomeconsulting.org/best-practices/4-early-signs-you-may-be-losing-control-of-your-business/feed/ 6 http://funeralhomeconsulting.org/best-practices/our-future/alan-creedy-and-the-arrangers-academy-announce-joint-initiative-aimed-at-revitalizing-funeral-service/ http://funeralhomeconsulting.org/best-practices/our-future/alan-creedy-and-the-arrangers-academy-announce-joint-initiative-aimed-at-revitalizing-funeral-service/#comments Tue, 09 Apr 2013 20:33:40 +0000 Alan Creedy http://funeralhomeconsulting.org/?p=4912 [Read More...]]]> Alan Creedy and The Arrangers Academy announced today that they have launched The 2020 Project, a joint initiative focused on reversing the declines that have negatively impacted the funeral industry for decades.

Arrangers Academy CEO, Karl Jennings says, “Profitability in Funeral Service has declined for more than 25 consecutive years.  In spite of some valiant efforts to hold on to the past, Funeral Service is currently in a race to the bottom.”

Creedy, who recently published an online “Funeral Cliff Calculator” (http://2020-project.com/doing-nothing-is-too-expensive/) to illustrate the crisis facing the industry, stated, “With trends continuing to spiral downward, it is simply a matter of applying the math to determine when the nexus point for profits reaches zero and heads into the negative.”

The 2020 Project, named for one projection of when many firms in the funeral industry will hit zero profitability, is designed to provide real, practical solutions to funeral industry professionals who have battled rejection and loss of perceived value in the collective eyes of society.  2020 Project partners are offering cutting edge arrangement training, funeral home assessments, leadership training and coaching, and a comprehensive new funeral home business model that is designed to connect to today’s families and the customers of the future.

Creedy says, “We are enthusiastic about the future. In spite of the trials we all face we believe that transformation is possible and we believe both the personality and character traits of those called to this profession, given the right tools and training, are the right ones to meet this challenge.”

According to Jennings, “The time for letting go of the past has passed; only those living in a time warp can continue funeral service of the 1950’s.  The good news is that the vast majority of us are still in a position to create the future.  Our collective energies must be shifted to creating a future instead of continuing to try to manage the decline by trimming margins, creaming the top of the market, expanding market share by acquisition, leveraging generational equity or exhausting economies of scale.”

If you are attending ICCFA visit us in booth 138

Check us out at http://www.2020project.info

Alan Creedy has been a leader, industry expert, funeral home consultant, author and speaker in the DeathCare Industries for more than 32 years.  He publishes two weekly newsletters titled “The Creedy Commentary” and “The Creedy Roundup” which strive to help practitioners think for themselves as they face an increasingly complex customer and business environment.

Karl Jennings is CEO of the Arrangers Academy and Borek Jennings Funeral Homes. A first generation funeral home owner with 30 years of experience, Jennings and his partner, Todd Borek, have developed a new model for funeral homes that has been described as both “revolutionary” and “industry changing.”  The new model is taught at the Arrangers Academy in Hamburg, Michigan, has been used with resounding success at the four Borek Jennings locations in southern Michigan as well as at a growing number of funeral homes across the U.S. and recently in Canada.

For more information about the 2020 Project, please visit http://www.2020project.info.

Have a wonderful Easter

Not long ago I spoke of Alpha Dogs and observed that one way to recognize them is their obsession with fighting lost wars. In a very recent Wall Street Journal article was this headline

A Casket Cartel and the Louisiana Way of Death

We have enough strings to push up hill without this kind of publicity:

“It didn’t take a divine revelation to recognize that funeral directors were using the law, the government licensing entity they controlled, and their political clout to monopolize the lucrative casket market…In ruling for the monks this week, however, the Fifth Circuit held that the Constitution prohibits laws that amount to “naked transfers of wealth” to industry cartels.” Quoted from the article

This has to fall in the category of “what are you thinking?” Can’t you come up with something less politically popular to fight about?

Of course, as with Pennsylvania, we should expect this to go all the way to the Supreme Court.

Thank you guys for making it harder for the rest of us to earn respect.

Archimedes once said, “Give me a lever long enough and I will move the world”

For the last 30 years we have been pushing harder and harder on one and only one lever with diminishing results and it’s time we stopped.

Many of you, dear readers, know that I have been a bible student most of my adult life.  The parallel between our behavior and this one lever has always struck me as akin to idol worship.  30 years ago it was amusing.  Today it is tragic.

Having said that and before I continue let me be clear: I am NOT pointing a finger of blame.  In the context of the times the behavior is fully understandable.  Further, both sides to the resulting co-dependent relationship are equally complicit AND should now forge a new and different relationship because they still need each other. (emphasis on different)

Historically, until 1984 and the passage of the infamous FTC rule, society pretty much dictated what you did when someone you loved died.  As a result, customers only had two decisions to make: 1. which funeral home; and 2. what merchandise. Everything was SIMPLE.  Then everything changed.  Not just because of the FTC. That was only a facilitative event. Because society lost its ability to cause conformity. Seemingly people could make alternative choices (including nothing at all) with no apparent ill effects.  We began to experience our now increasing decline in relevancy.

Because customers only had one decision to make once they had selected a funeral home there was only one financial lever available with which to impact revenue.  This:

Of course you can also increase volume.  But that can take years because the public continues to stubbornly refuse to die at our convenience.

From this single lever grew a “co-dependent” relationship that is also understandable. Tacitly, manufacturers agreed to make practitioners their sole source of distribution and practitioners developed an over reliance (dependence) on the manufacturer for strategic direction. That was great when their challenges and goals were aligned.  Unfortunately, that is no longer true. So, for 30 years now we have responded to a market turning away from traditional burial by pushing harder and harder on the one lever.  This may be what has caused the cremation rate to spike by 250% in 2008.  Who knows?

This is where the idol parallel strikes me.  Families today don’t know what they want or need!  To meet this challenge requires people skills.  Skills like listening, guiding, teaching, relationship and trust building.  To paraphrase god, “your idols cannot speak, they cannot listen, they cannot guide.”  In fact, if they have any influence at all it is mostly negative.

Should the casket companies close up and go home?  Should we stop selling caskets? Emphatically NO! But the question is begged:

“How is pushing so hard on that lever working for you?”

Instead a new alliance should be formed.  Caskets need to take their rightful place as merchandise we sell…not “what we are.” We need, as a profession, to realize that we offer something valuable to society.  For all of history mankind has demonstrated consistent needs when dealing with loss.  Our current society is ignoring those needs but that doesn’t make them any less real.  Replacing our real value to society with a piece of furniture only encourages that irrelevance.  I think that for those who want burial we can do both.  For those who want cremation we have a moral obligation to help them understand their needs. That means that instead of investing in a new selection room you need to invest in training.

I know both the funeral director side and the vendor side. The casket obsession has impaired the ability to adapt on both sides. U.S. vendors are severely hampered by their inability to become efficient both in distribution and in manufacturing by simple things that wouldn’t exist outside a co-dependent relationship.  For instance, they have all realized that they would be dramatically better off by limiting the number of SKU’s they carry.  At a recent supplier sales meeting I assured them there was not a funeral director in the country that wouldn’t support a reduction if it would hold down wholesale costs “AS LONG AS THEY CONTINUED TO SUPPLY THEIR FAVORITES.”

We are both (vendors and practitioners) in the same boat.  It’s sinking. We should talk.

But maybe I am wrong. Maybe a box can replace a caring ear, an experienced word of wisdom.

No doubt those directly involved following this latest trauma are still affected (afflicted seems a better word).  The public would agree but in their minds they are thinking of the parents coworkers, friends and then first responders.  Nothing is likely to be said for the funeral directors who cared for the bodies. Not that it needs to be. Except…perhaps…by us.

Some thirty years ago I sat with a friend from Indiana still suffering from nightmares incurred from aiding on a D-Mort team cleaning up after a commercial airline crash.  Another friend still has flashbacks about having to remove the charred bodies of a family killed in a home fire while others refused to help.  Still another friend who suppressed his own needs while ministering to the needs of the surviving family of his two best friends murdered in their beds.  (Yes, I used that non-secular word “minister”.  I can really think of no better) Others who aided in the Columbine disaster and 9/11 who still carry emotional wounds. Our own “Walking Wounded.” I imagine that one cannot serve in this profession a lifetime without scars. But somehow they are to be borne secretly.

I don’t think that’s healthy. I have always had a deep respect for people like Alan Wolfelt and John Canine who devote their careers to helping the deeply grieved. Maybe this is something the Funeral Service Foundation should consider researching and NFDA should consider providing support resources for.  I don’t know.

Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?  What do you think?