I am back from a trip to England.

I spent a week with my son Bryan, daughter-in-law, Frances, and my devilish grandson, David. During that time I stayed at the on-base ‘hotel’ at RAF – Fairford. (Always comforting to have an assault rifle pointed at you through the car as you fumble for your ID to go ‘home’…)

While there I visited Stonehenge, Avebury, Salisbury, Warwick Castle, and the Windsor Castle. One day Bryan and I left Fran and David at home to go to the famous baths in Bath (maybe Dallas should be renamed ‘Hot’). These warm springs go back to the early Roman days BC. It is now a 4 story modern facility with saunas, cold and warm pools, restaurant, etc. A wonderful day. Needless to say, I slept the entire way back to the base. Worn out by out that water.

The family is doing well…flourishing in England, proud to be serving our country in the armed services.

After visiting the Windsor castle, they kicked me out of the car at the Slough train station. I caught the train to London Paddington, and from there took the underground to the Covent Garden station. I was staying in London for the week to work with a client.

While making my way to Covent Garden, I heard the 3 Magical Words (not knowing at the moment that would hear these words at least a thousand times before I departed London a week later):

M I N D T H E G A P

These words permeate every aspect of the London Underground system. On video inside the subway car, constant audio reminders – both in the cars and while waiting at the station. Mind the gap. Mind the gap. Mind the gap. It never ends…

So, what does Mind The Gap mean?

It means to not fall in the gap between the subway car and the station platform. Apparently, this is a problem…(I don’t see how because the ‘gap’ is about 4 inches wide…). I mentioned this to my main contact at the client’s office…he busted out laughing telling me that his mother had fallen in the gap when he was a young boy. So, of course, I laughed too – then realized that I was laughing at my client’s mother falling into the ‘Tube’. He told me that he thinks the whole never-ending mantra was developed because of her….Too funny.

I had a free weekend in London so I went to see the sites: Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, Royal Albert Hall, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, London Eye, Hyde Park, St. James Park, Winston Churchill Museum, Parliament…and a bunch of pubs. I went to all of these places via The Tube. Standing for long periods of time smashed like a human sardine with the pleasant, insistent message of Mind The Gap, Mind The Gap, Mind The Gap floating through the subway car…got me to thinking.

I really should mind the gap…in my life and in my business.

Like the gap between my intentions and my execution. The gap between my thoughts and my actions. The gap between what I want to do and what I should do. The gap between what is comfortable and what is new and awkward.

And the gap between what my company offers and what our customers want.

I have this sign up in my office now…To remind me of my most wonderful trip to England, and to, well, Mind The Gap…every day and every way.

Headline: Britney Spears’ Mother’s Publisher Delays Release of Her Advice Book, ‘Motherhood,’ In Light of Britney’s 16 Year Old Sister’s Revelation She is Pregnant

No, in case you missed this, it is a real news item. Incredibly, Britney’s mother did have a book of parenting advice and stories from raising Britney coming out, and it was not a joke book. It was intended to be taken seriously, and presumably would be and eventually will be by a media that has become a bunch of ‘professionals’ barely able to read teleprompters and in perpetual drool over celebrity. The fact that this is news at all speaks volumes about the sad state of affairs. But what’s REALLY comical, yet also instructive from this three-way train wreck is the mother’s statement expressing puzzlement at her 16 year old’s pregnancy because, quote (honest)

“she always came home before curfew.”

Laugh. But are you similarly guilty of such ‘insight’ in the operation of your business (department, organization, club, etc.)? Particularly with regard to the software that runs the operation of your business…

I recently completed a quick strike effort at talking to some of my customers with regard to the pain associated with their daily jobs. One of the issues that was discussed quite a bit was the notion of stepping back and looking at what you have from a system perspective – particularly when you have just completed a major implementation effort. I noted last month how Phil Jackson at Price Edwards and Company did just that. Finished the implementation – took a breather and then invested in an effort to see where the holes were.

We have a wide and large client base in the real estate industry. Very few of you are doing this. Stepping back and taking a look. Not saying all of you, but most of you are not doing this.

As part of that review you should be looking at some of the peripheral, non-ERP solutions as well. Chris Stopps at Yes! Communities has done just that…except she hasn’t done her review after the fact, she has done it before. Yes! Is a brand new outfit and Chris in her role as CFO has determined out of the box that she wanted to outsource as much as she could. So along these lines she has outsourced one aspect of her accounting operation to one software company and simultaneously outsourced another accounting function to their bank. Both outsourcing service providers ‘pitch’ and ‘catch’ transactions to their core property management system. Kent Barner at Behringer Harvard has taken a similar approach with regard to outsourcing.

Many of Lupine’s clients, after going through the rigors of a major implementation, think they are done dealing with software vendors. They take the big breath and say something to the effect of “I am SO glad we are done with that”. This is a mistake.

I recommend that you maintain an ongoing dialogue with the software community. This will pain you to hear this – you should always be on the lookout for your next solution. The re-implementation timeframes continue to get tighter and tighter as your competition gains competitive advantages through software solutions, and as the software packages add new functionality. You just think you are done. Rich Danhauer, IT Director of Pinnacle Realty is a very big practitioner of this as is Doug Prichard at Kennedy Associates Real Estate Counsel. (Both in Seattle – hmm..) They see having a continuing dialogue and review of real estate software products as part and parcel of their job.

I see a lot of software hopping going on in my client community. Sometimes, just sometimes, it is because of functional advantages of one product over another. The real reason, and the reason most people don’t want to talk about, is that the software vendors for the most part do a terrible job of ‘touching’ their customers. Of keeping in contact with them on a frequent, recurring basis. Of adding value through a newsletter, by providing weekly tips on best use or insider strategies on getting more use out of the software. Or by informing their customer base that a new upgrade has come out and is available.

To my software company readers: And the most ridiculous part of all this is that the marketing ‘touch’ can be handled, to an extent, by software! High ticket expenditures require high ticket marketing strategies. I talk with lots of software salespeople. It is not unusual for a software company to have a person or team in charge of ‘troubled’ accounts. This person is responsible for going around and talking to customers who have grumbled or threatened to leave. I have never made this comment out loud before – but they are missing the point. This team should be abolished and the monies allocated to a customer retention program that starts at the point of sale and provides so much value to their customer base that they can’t imagine leaving – even if there are problems with the product.

Sorry Mrs. Spears, you really can get pregnant and still make curfew.

When I started working, my response to any directive was: YES SIR.

On CNBC the other night I saw yet another ‘instruction’ for business owners on the need to provide the ‘new employee’ with (I swear to God), breakfast cereal in the morning and free buffet lunch, a game room, afternoon naps, daily grades and praise sessions, and “meaningful emotional connection” to every “request.”

I’m not big on turning the workplace into kindergarten…and the first person to skateboard through my office would be shot on sight.   I do not believe this is the right path. This seems to me something being packaged up and sold via media and fad-gurus-of-the-moment like other liberal, fantastical ideas. The workplace is not called the amusement park or the sports bar or the gymnasium or the playroom for a reason. Further, I don’t see this stuff going on in most successful businesses – it seems province of California-weird public companies awash in Wall Street investors’ capital, and such companies have a funny way of rising to ridiculous over-valuations than dissolving and imploding.

You have to go to great extremes to surround yourself with productive people – employees, vendors and associates – who do not require back rubs, peppermint candies and coddling as if you were their nanny. Hard-driving, high-flying, in-a-hurry entrepreneurs need to find and surround themselves with particularly thick-skinned people who are “about” getting the job done. I rather doubt Donald Trump needs to give George Ross free manicures and Pop-Tarts, applause, and “emotional connection sessions” with every negotiating project put in George’s hands. And I rather doubt George is dispensing such new-age niceties to his subordinates either. Yet they do seem to be running very successful businesses and minting money.

Of course, the first person you must hold ruthlessly accountable for self-directed, self-motivated, consistent high performance behavior is: you. If you need a boss (or nanny), you can’t be a leader.

Here’s a simple thing that remains a mystery to many throughout their lives: achievers are all about achievement. Non-achievers put a long laundry list of other things before achievement. A dog needs a belly rub. An achiever does not.