Procurement isn't just about the process it's about the people too

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Poor supplier performance

“What contributes to your own poor performance?” Was a question I asked delegates on a supplier management workshop this week. Interestingly ‘being lazy’, ‘incapable of doing it’, ‘not having the skills/expertise’ did not appear on the list. And yet .... They’re frequently the reasons we jump to when let down by others poor performance (including and especially our suppliers). During the discussion an appreciation of all the other reasons for poor performance of our suppliers put a hold on the blame and the judgement of them, and shifted the delegates thinking to what they could do to increase the likelihood of great performance from their suppliers. What do your suppliers need from you so they can deliver the expected performance?

You don’t get married to improve the sex

“You don’t get married to improve the sex” Was a quote from last week’s supplier management workshop when discussing segmenting suppliers. In other words we only want to apply Supplier Relationship Management tools and techniques to the suppliers who have proved they can meet their contractual obligations and performance. Not rush head long into marriage to discover we’re incompatible, and they’re also unreliable and not to be trusted.

Is it really strategic?

As author & speaker Caroline Myss would say “words have power” because, whilst often used unconsciously, the words we use can be the source of the problem or the hint of the solution. Over the years of facilitating procurement workshops it would seem for example that everyone wants to be working with a ‘strategic’ category or ‘strategic’ supplier. This mystical word conjures up something more important, of value & of higher status than those other seemingly lesser or lower categories or suppliers. It’s as if we lose connection with the detail of the model, the strategy, that suggests different priorities & activities for different segments of the categories we buy or suppliers we contract with. We want our category or supplier to have the prized nomenclature, without connecting it to the set of actions that accompany that segmentation, & differentiate it from other segments. We ignore THE strategy that ensures we maximise value for each unique segment; and use our time, & the time of our stakeholders, wisely. No one shoe fits all. Next time you suggest you’ve a coveted ‘strategic’ supplier or category on your hands think about what strategy you really need for dealing with them. hashtag#strategy hashtag#procurement hashtag#strategicsourcing hashtag#wordshavepower

Low-hanging fruit

“We’ve exhausted the low-hanging fruit, so what do we do now?” 

This is a challenge many procurement departments face. 

Before jumping in with a logical exploration of what to do next - because I suspect you’ve tried that already numerous times - let’s see what a metaphorical exploration can provide. 

That is, if low-hanging fruit is picked quickly, and only once, how do we get more harvest for our organisations? 

• get a ladder
• wait for the higher-hanging fruit to fall
• remove the overgrowth hiding the fruit
• look for the harder-to-reach fruit
• find ways to increase the yield
• reduce waste
• find uses for the wonky fruit
• ensure we compost the rotten fruit
• get more revenue for the fruit we do pick
• reduce the total cost of growing and harvesting
• expand the amount of fruit we grow (perhaps expanding to other orchards)
• change the variety we plant
• buy fruit from others
• elongate the harvesting season
• plan next year’s harvest better
• move to better soil, or less climate-affected areas
• use fruit from other areas
• diversify into growing other fruits or vegetables 

Any other ideas? 

Somewhere within the metaphorical exploration is a seed of an idea for delivering more value.

Photo by niklas_hamann on Unsplash

Procurement is full of perceived difference and separation

Procurement is full of perceived difference and separation.

• Procurement vs suppliers
• Procurement vs finance
• Procurement vs engineering
• Procurement vs operations
• Procurement vs marketing
• Procurement vs fm
• Procurement vs hr
• Procurement vs the mavericks
• Procurement the bad cop vs the good cop
• Us vs them

The post that inspired this list was one on inclusion and diversity from Helen Amery (I’d highly recommend reading it). Helen’s post started a thought process for me that was further fuelled by noticing other posts where there was a distinction being made between “us” and the “other”. It’s that distinction I often pick up in the language of procurement - a language with an “other” we have to battle with in order to win the day. These posts are inviting us to consider there is no separation we are all part of a whole and any outcome is only achieved by doing it together as an “us”. Notice what you notice today about your separation with others, and perhaps even try for yourself a little more “us”ness.

The mindsets of separation and unity will be explored on the forthcoming 5 day Procurement challenge starting on the 9th September. Join me and discover the obstacles hindering your progress.

I can feel the frustration

• I can feel the frustration.
• I can feel me digging in my heels.
• I can me whispering “over my dead body”.
• I can sense the dogged resistance to them getting their own way.
• I will not give up.
• They will not win.

I wonder if this ever how procurement stakeholders feel about us?

I wonder if this is ever how suppliers feel about us?

The content & details of the non work situation driving this behaviour in me is immaterial – even if I would love to gossip, moan & justify why I’m right & they’re wrong.

That’s going to get me nowhere.

If I step back, I can certainly see the behaviours that got us here:

• Changes imposed on another party with no consultation.
• An objection procedure that relies on emails/letters & no human contact.
• Facts & data ignored if it supports a different outcome or amended outcome.
• Ignoring other people's opinions because we've labeled them as NIMBYs 
• Key facts & data misrepresented or omitted at the final presentation.
• Only one party in attendance when approving the decision.

And

• Emails written when angry.
• Emails that stray from the facts & data.
• Emails that push the other party to defending their position.
• Not pushing hard enough for a face to face meeting.
• Not talking to another human being.

Which of the above behaviours may you need to step back from today?

There is another way, and among other things it involves: 

• Consultation 
• Communication 
• Compassion.

Join me for the 5 day Procurement Mindset Challenge on 9th September where alternate mindsets to the ones that led to the mutual frustration and impasse above will be explored.

5 day Procurement Mindset challenge

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle

In the procurement mindset 5 day challenge starting on 9^th September we’ll be looking at ways of making a supportive mindset a habit.

Not in my back yard!

Are you listening to the “Not In My Back Yard” Procurement stakeholders in your life, or judging them as moaning Minnies defending their own self interest against a greater good?

NIMBYs are a pain, right?

As I reflect on my continued disagreement with the local council it certainly feels like I'm being judged as a NIMBY.

As I woke early, still feeling very frustrated, I realised how I'm feeling might just be how our stakeholders feel when resisting one of our brilliant strategies.

It's a feeling that's arisen from behaviours that certainly turn up in the many stories of procurement gone wrong (I have a Pinterest board full of the horror stories if you're interested).

Behaviours that include:

X relying on written communication
X avoiding face-to-face communication
X decisions approved behind closed doors
X not providing full details of the reasons and benefits for the strategy
X not providing the facts and data to support the reasons and benefits
X not addressing stakeholder facts, data, and concerns

I wonder how much of the behaviour we've experienced from the council is because we've been judged as NIMBYs. As if we and our concerns are invalid and are, therefore, dismissed because we're negatively impacted.

How do you handle NIMBYs in your life?

The Word Collector

The reason I geek out about patterns in language is because our language is such a wonderful route to solving a problem, and I love solving problems so we can make progress rather than be in that frustrating no man's land of confusion and indecision.

I particularly love helping Procurement professionals find the solutions that are eluding them, to get back on the track they want to be on, rather than up a creek, in a rut, out on a limb, in deep water or going round in circles.

Caroline Myss talks about words having power, and for me that power comes in many guises:

• Power to impact our mindset (and therefore outcomes)
• Power to impact our behaviours (ditto)
• Power to hide the solution within the very words we’re using 

Which is why when coaching, training or consulting procurement teams I can often be heard saying “I notice you said the word xxx” and then we’re off to see how exploring their language may help them turn round and head for their intended destination and away from that dead end.

Next time you’re not getting the outcome you expect, look to the words you’re using - they may just be the difference that makes the difference.

What your team needs from you

When you’re being pulled in lots of different directions and everyone wants you to solve their problems, it can certainly be frustrating.

Especially when you’d like to be focussing on procurement’s relationship with senior leaders within your business and your team isn’t stepping up to support you as much as you’d like, even though you know they’re perfectly capable at doing this.

It’s particularly draining when you’re still racking your brains about how to get your team to take more responsibility and come to you with solutions not just problems.

It can certainly feel as if they or the world are out to get you.

The good news is your team isn’t out to get you, and you’re right about their capability at doing the job you need, they just need a little more self awareness.

More self awareness about:

🔎 The specific behaviours you’re seeing that are getting in the way of them achieving their objectives
🔎 How their mindset is impacting the outcomes they’re getting, and
🔎 How to develop their behavioural and mindset skills to bridge the gap between where they are now, and where you know they could be.

What can you do today to help to help your team increase their self awareness, or would you like me to help you do that?

My ideal client

Just to say, my ideal client is a procurement team I can get to know and spend a few days every month training, mentoring, and coaching individuals or small groups on ‘how’ they do what they do.
This will most likely include developing the team’s stakeholder engagement, communication, influencing, and creative thinking skills.
Other topics covered might also include mindset, confidence, values and beliefs, and other topics that increase individuals’ self awareness, which are the building blocks to having an affective and adaptable approach to ‘how’ things get done.
I’ve been a passionate procurement professional for over 30 years, and for 20 of those years I’ve been a NLP and soft skills coach and trainer, and geek on new and innovative tools for personal development and transformation.
If you’re interested in me supporting your procurement team to fully embrace their potential, do get in touch.
With capacity to only provide this to a small number of organisations it’s not something everyone will be able to get access to.

Forget digitising procurement, I want more humanity

Digitisation is coming to Procurement.

We’re embracing 4.0.

It will deliver huge benefits and transform how we work.

Really?

If we talk to our suppliers or to our internal stakeholders they’re telling us there’s one thing missing.

Our humanity.

It feels like we’re running before we can walk with many of us still struggling to get to 2.0.

Of course there are some trail blazers getting the mix right and delivering real value, but there’s plenty of examples that suggest there are Procurement peeps stuck at 1.99.

Someone on a category management workshop once said “oh, I didn’t know I could do that” when I simply suggested they use a wider range of their behavioural skills with a stakeholder i.e. be human; not a computer running a stereotypical programme from the 80s.

On another workshop we had a heated debate about whether there was room for kindness in procurement. Ok, it was me that got heated when I was told their KPIs wouldn’t let them be kind.

Which is why I don’t apologise for bringing the following qualities others have used to describe me into the soft skills procurement development I do:

Heart-led, intuitive, insightful, real, creative, trustworthy, unconventional, and passionate.

Because these are the qualities I want to see more of in Procurement.

What do Procurement people tweet about when they get together?

The inaugural #procurementhour took place last night and as the invite didn’t get to all our procurement professionals in time I wanted to encourage you to join next Thursday evening at 2000 BST.

If you’re not familiar with a #twitterhour it’s much like following a person on Twitter but you follow a hashtag for a specific hour instead and everyone uses it during the discussions and peeps exchange ideas, ask and answer questions and generally have a chin wag over a drink of your choice about a topic you’re passionate about. Which means there will be one for where you live, for hobbies, passions and professions etc #cumbriahour #LDchat #BBCQT and now #procurementhour

This hour was facilitated by @deltaprocure @kershaw_MCIPS and whilst many future #twitterhours may involve more questions, and focusing on specific topics, it was q3 that got the party going.

Q3 if you could change one thing about procurement (processes, legal, governance, culture, other) to make delivery better what would it be.

What would you have said? And how would you have provided solutions to facilitate that change?

With so many tangents from this question I suspect this is only my interpretation of the key topics: 

• Culture – to make embracing change easier
• Stakeholder engagement – engaging them and doing so earlier because we understand the process but they understand what they want “we’re in this together” 
• Mindset – to stepping outside our comfort zones
• Process – ensuring it’s fit for purpose not a hurdle for innovation
• Performance measurement – what would Unilever or Steve jobs do and would it really be so reliant on compliance?

Tweets that had me going “hell yes” included

@MCulleyMCIPS procurement isn’t boring, it’s there to change the way goods/services/works are purchased to deliver better things, it’s not all about saving money.

@noursidawi leadership is the difference – and we lead, and are led, at all levels.

#ProcurementHour reminded me we’re not alone, and need to work together to be the change we want to see.

Hope you’ll join the conversation next week to help do that.

Alison Smith @purchasingcoach

What do Chelsea and Procurement have in common?

It's that time of year again when Chelsea Flower Show reminds me of the origins of a process that I've used with clients for over 20 years.

Despite the image above, I'm not talking about gardening clients but procurement clients.

In the late 90s we were struggling to get the managers at the bank that I worked for interested in supplier management. My love of gardening provided a means of getting them a little more interested - in that questions about when they last pruned back their suppliers, or allowed one time in the greenhouse, or what tools were they using to develop their suppliers piqued their interest.

Since then I've shared many a post looking at the analogies between gardening and procurement such as

• Garden full of suppliers

• Benefiting from the fruits of our labours

• Sowing the seeds for cost reduction in your business

• How to have a flourishing procurement garden

• Low hanging fruit

• Would you win best in show? or Would your team win gold at Chelsea?

• Are you business tools just for show? 

• How will your stakeholder's grow?

• Anyone can buy - the difference between the tools in the buying, purchasing and procurement potting sheds

• Or see any of this LYL playlist of vlogs on the subject

Since it's early origins the metaphor got bigger and I wasn't just using gardens as a metaphor for supplier management but nature became a metaphor for our lives and Landscaping Your Life (LYL) was born.

For over 20 years I've had a foot in two camps - purchasing and wider personal development. Whilst often delivering both to clients I've kept my social media separate. That double life has confused clients, and me, which has led to the decision to move my blogging to my personal development blog - Landscaping Your Life.

This week to celebrate this merger I'm going back to my gardening roots. I do hope you'll join me for vlogs, blogs, posts and insights as I visit different landscapes and explore many aspects of landscaping your life, and specifically:

• Mon 20th: Landscaping your potential
• Tues 21st: Landscaping your time
• Wed 22nd: Buzzing with life
• Thurs 23rd: Landscaping your relationships
• Fri 24th: Taking a landscaping your life journey
• Sat 25th: Landscaping your success

I certainly think its time that I allow the Landscaping Your Life seed to germinate, and plant it out into the garden for all to benefit from its insight. 

Alison Smith
Head Gardener
Landscaping Your Life - making life more beautiful