CHAPTER 5

Construct Value-Based Guardrails

The chief enemy of creativity is “good” sense.

—PABLO PICASSO

Miss Lena Hartley, bless her heart, was wrong. And she really was trying to be helpful. But sure as rain, she was wrong.

When Nancy Marie Rainey of Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, gave a “yes” answer to my “Will you be my life partner?” question, it was one of the happiest days of my life. But getting married in the Deep South in the 1960s was not without challenges. In particular, it meant getting the blessing of the guardians of local civility and protocol—the Women’s Missionary Circle #4 of the First Baptist Church in my hometown.

The setting for this important rite was a shower for my bride-to-be sponsored by Circle #4. The fact that I was marrying an assertive, razor-sharp Arkansas girl imposed a special inspection requirement on these well-meaning ladies. Not only was she from out of town, but as far as they were concerned, she may not have really been from the South. Now to a Northerner, this may sound peculiar. Arkansas is not exactly New Jersey, but it isn’t Alabama-Mississippi-Georgia-Tennessee either! So, the shower lasted a little longer than normal.

Boys were not invited to showers. The women in the Circle always referred to the opposite gender as “boys,” no matter their age. The “boys” sat in their trucks and cars in the church parking lot waiting to drive home their wives, girlfriends, moms, or brides-to-be when the shower finally ended. And of course, shower-waiting had rituals as rich as shower-attending.

Grooms-to-be were allowed by the ladies of Circle #4 to come into the social room only at the very end of the shower to help load up all the loot! There was, however, an expectation that any male intruder give the appropriate “oo’s” and “ah’s” when cued with a “Come look at this!” It was also the opportunity for one of the senior ladies to pull the groom-to-be aside and render the verdict from their bride-to-be inspection. Having talked with some of the “ol’ boys” during the shower-waiting part, I had learned a bit about the ladies’ special scoring system.

The highest score you could get was “You don’t deserve her,” usually pronounced after a stern “Boy!” and a very long pause. That designation, however, was typically reserved for a member of the high school homecoming court whose family’s family’s family had helped charter the church. “Lovely” and “special” were the next best category. The barely passing grade was usually a collective pronouncement like “I know you two will be very happy.” Miss Lena was the chosen pronouncer.

I was passing by the choir rehearsal room on my way to the car with an armful of gifts when she almost timidly pulled me aside. The look on her face telegraphed her dilemma. This inspection was unique. My assertive, high-spirited, obviously very bright bride-to-be from out of town (and possibly out of the South) had defied their grading protocols.

“Be tolerant,” she said. I was confused! Was this a grade the ol’ boys had missed, a piece of advice, or a roundabout way of admitting, “We don’t know how to grade who you have chosen? So … go and be tolerant!”? Then she added, “You’ll do fine if you’re just tolerant.” Over the next fifty-plus years, I learned that Miss Lena was “in the right church but the wrong pew.”

Give Your Partnership Flexibility, Not Tolerance

McDonald’s is famous for its careful faithfulness to its offerings and practices. However, it was not corporate that originated the decision to offer breakfast, it was one of their customers—a franchisee named Herb Peterson. Franchisees are customers to corporate; the burger buyer is more of a consumer to corporate. In 1972, Peterson showed McDonald’s chairman Ray Kroc a breakfast sandwich idea he had created and tested. He had a local blacksmith create a ring to keep the egg and yolk contained while being cooked. Kroc loved the idea and asked Peterson for other breakfast ideas. Within twenty years, McDonald’s was making $5 billion a year on breakfast alone.

Let’s look closely at this customer imagination at play example. First, Herb was a man of imagination. He coined McDonald’s first national advertising slogan, “Where quality starts fresh every day.” Herb’s son described him this way: “When my dad was let loose in a kitchen, he was half creative genius and half mad scientist.”

But the real backstory is the willingness of Ray Kroc to “un-governor” the imagination capacity of franchisees (his customers) to contribute to the company’s venturing into new creations. McDonald’s was the first quick-service restaurant chain to offer breakfast, starting with Peterson’s Egg McMuffin. Kroc was famous for his innovation. One of his initial contacts after acquiring the first McDonald’s franchise in 1955 was his friend Walt Disney, whom he called about opening a restaurant in what would become Disneyland.¹ But consider what McDonald’s would have missed had Kroc rigidly responded to Herb’s breakfast sandwich idea with “Herb, you just don’t understand your franchise agreement.” Assume your customers have similar gifts waiting to be sourced and used.

All successful partnerships require give and flex; they expand to accommodate. Tolerance-based relationships are exercises in sufferance. There is a degree of rigidity about them. Such unyielding relationships have the volume turned up on every flaw and error. People in relationships based on tolerance are perpetually pained by partner imperfections but silently suffer without comment. There is a kind of resignation, as in “This unfortunate disruption just ‘comes with the territory.’” When the customer’s imagination is in the driver’s seat, the last thing needed to encourage a wide-open throttle is a passenger (a.k.a. provider) who is intent on backseat driving.

Thomas Edison’s famous assessment of his efforts to create an incandescent light is a classic example of give-and-flex elasticity. “Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won’t work.” At the core of his self-acceptance was an attitude of adventure and the assumption of goodness, not a blunder demanding chastisement through guilt, blame, criticism, or rejection. Partnerships with customers that nurture a spirit of innovation work just like that. There is an optimistic, vibrant other-acceptance that fosters a freedom to go forward. It is an interpersonal alliance that clothes hiccups in a coat of many colors, not black and white.

Jeff Toister, author of Getting Service Right, sends a newsletter to thousands of customer service professionals. The idea came from a client. Here is Jeff’s description of how it all happened.

Construct Value-Based Guardrails

Consider this scenario. You are the managing partner of a medical clinic. Several years ago, you created a board of patients comprising ten patients who meet monthly with you and your physician’s leadership group. The patients want to focus this month on how to reduce patient wait. It is a joint issue since there are actions patients can take to reduce wait time. Here is a framework to organize your crafting of value-based guardrails.

What is the top value you think must be honored to achieve your focus? What are four more? For example, you might pick “fairness to all.” Do you need more values?

If these five core values were converted into playground guidelines, how would they sound? A playground guideline might sound like “no hitting or backbiting.”

Pick an object that can represent your guardrail. For instance, for fairness to all, you might select a justice scale.

If you were describing each guardrail to an eight-year-old, how would it sound? Write a short one-paragraph script that incorporates all five.

What are three examples of what violations of this guardrail might look like in your partnerships?

Guardrails are value-based expectations that ensure borders with principles and protocols, with joint commitment. Agreements are the work expectations of the partnership. One reflects the code of conduct; one communicates the collaboration work promises. Guardrails guide the interpersonal relationship, whereas work agreements guide the productivity of the relationship. We will later explore crafting working agreements in Secret 4: Trust.

Manage Your Partnerships “By Hand”

Home repair of a faucet required a customer to purchase a ¾-inch copper fitting. At the store, a friendly sales associate helped the customer locate the copper fittings bin, but there was only one loose, unpackaged ¾-inch fitting left in the bottom of the bin. Somehow their inventory had not been replenished. On the front of the bin was the price: $1.99. The customer took the item to the checkout counter and was told, “It has no item number.” He related to the cashier that the item was the only one left lying loose in a bin with a price of $1.99 on the front. She flatly refused to proceed with the transaction unless she had the item number.

The customer suggested she call back to the plumbing department. Her call summoned the friendly sales associate to come to register 13. The sales associate related the customer’s same story—a $1.99 item without a package loose in the bin. She again stonewalled, heatedly sending him back for what she required.

“How about you just charge me $5,” pleaded the customer. “I am in a hurry and we are holding up other customers in your line.” Then all within earshot got to hear the sound of rigidity squared.

“This cash register will not let me ring up this fitting unless there is an item number.”

Co-creation partnerships should not be stymied by administrative rulemaking and mechanical procedures. Instead, they should be buttressed by guardrails crafted by hand (and by heart). Guardrails are core values, moral expectations on which you agree. What if you together identified the values you want to guide your partnership and converted them to more imaginative forms? Courtesy could become “play nice,” honesty could be “cherry tree,” and timeliness could be “stopwatch.” Remember, it is the process of together crafting values that exalts and solidifies their importance. Find ways to make them memorable, public, and practical.

Co-creation partnerships are the workshops of idea entrepreneurs. They cannot be streamlined, mechanized, or effectively served in a drive-by fashion. They are the handiwork of principled toil in pursuit of noble ends. When the players bring the best of who they are, not just the best of what they do, the winds of ingenuity blow in their favor.

Nurture through Elasticity, Not Endurance

Elasticity is about buoyancy, the opposite of rigidity. Elastic relationships have shock absorbers. They expand and unfold in their acceptance; little bumps in the rocky road of relationship are absorbed without a glare or the spotlight of attention. And elasticity releases the governor on the zeal to be experimental and exploratory. Elastic relationships encourage elbow room rather than close inspection. They seek ways to open rather than a means to close. Instead of nitpicking details, co-creation partnerships work to roll with normal imperfections. Pursue a can-do, “the answer is ‘yes,’ what’s your question?” type of optimism.

A large paint company in Santa Monica shipped an industrial customer many cases of mislabeled paint. The customer was a home construction company that built housing developments. When they discovered the error, lots of their painters were left standing around with nothing to do, and the inspector was due the afternoon of the next day. The customer called the paint company and got a customer service rep with a partnership attitude and a knack for inviting customer imagination. “We can run another paint run but it will take until tomorrow to complete it; we can check with another warehouse to see if they have the LDB324 you need but it will take several hours to get it to you, or perhaps you have another solution you could recommend.” The customer suggested, “Maybe you have a very similar color.” It proved to an ideal solution … discovered by the customer. And it came from a provider interested in a partnership with elasticity, not rigidity.

Back to the wedding shower. Miss Lena gave her awkward pronouncement of the Circle’s verdict her best shot. Dr. Nancy Marie Rainey Bell is still the high-spirited, restless racehorse she was over fifty years ago. Sharing a relationship with her has taught me that tolerance belongs only in relationships without spirit. Put tolerance in a vigorous relationship and you have a recipe for ironhanded conflicts and energy wasted on minutiae. Partnership elasticity, on the other hand, stretches the relationship so it can breathe, grow, and expand. It provides a playground for experimentation and flow. And partners who flow together, innovate together.

Construct Value-Based Guardrails: The Partnering Crib Notes

Take the sharp edges off conversations with your customer. Substitute being effective for being right. Agree on the values that guide your work, not the rules. Instead of “no interruptions during discussions,” try “be kind and courteous.” Replace typical meeting management rules with language more conducive to communicating that imagination is accepted and expected. Agendas become maps, parking lot becomes valet parking, and meeting notes become secret diaries. Invite outsiders to make appearances. What could a mime, a magician, an inventor, or an artist do for your gatherings? In the world of innovation, wacky wins; logical loses. In the world of co-creation partnerships, improvisation trumps organization. Make your gatherings feel like a jazz group extemporizing off of each other, not like a school glee club at contest. Make it like ad-libbing, not following a script. Discipline your collaboration with a porous hedge, not an iron-clad wall. Principle-centered boundaries can rein in without becoming the centerpiece; regulation-centered borders divert creative energy to limits and confines.

Co-creation partnerships are not undisciplined free- for-alls. Empowered ignorance is anarchy. The context of business already has a built-in innovation regulator. No one complains that a business solution is “just too darn logical.” But let it be a bit on the wild, untested side, and the subtle retardants come out of the woodwork. Methodical is predictable; imaginative is a surprise. Reasonable is a popular feature of good solutions; outrageous gets raised eyebrows. Remember the premise behind brainstorming: it is easier to tone down than to think up. Let your co-creation partnership run free in the wild meadow of originality; it will be fenced in the stable of practicality soon enough.