Thanks to everyone who has read this blog - I appreciate your interest. As you know, this blog was launched to support the publication of our book, The Wisdom of the Flying Pig. That task is complete and it's time to move on. I hope you'll join me - I'm posting now at: http://blog.jackhayhow.com/
The focus of the new blog will expand beyond leadership and management to all aspects of company building. How to Build a Kick-Butt Company might be a good way to describe the theme of the new blog. So please, come on over.
PS - This blog will remain in place, I just won't be posting new content.
I'm on my way back from SXSW in Austin - but this post is about my trip TO Austin via Southwest Airlines. It's a subtle but profound story about how people act when they REALLY care about customers.
In the frantic few moments before the plane was pushing back from the gate in Kansas City - or maybe it way already pushing back - I'm not sure, a woman sitting in the window seat asked the flight attendant (named Christel) for a glass of water. Christel quickly explained she couldn't serve anything until we got in the air. The woman who had asked for the water was clearly nervous about flying - not exactly a rarity.
Cut to 10,000 feet. The moment the flight attendants were allowed to get up, Christel bolted from her seat grabbed a glass of water and brought it to the woman sitting by the window. Christel said that she was really sorry (and I KNOW she really meant it) - but that she was subject to a $1,200.00 fine if she had served the water when she asked.
It might seem like a small thing, but it showed that Christel really cared. I'm not sure that kind of care would ever be evident on a legacy carrier. One of the reasons I'm always in awe of Southwest.
I just got off the phone with the head of HR for a big company - around 75,000 employees. He was adamant about what he wanted in regard to training design. Mostly he wanted to do it the way he had always done it. He seemed to take it as an article of faith that, if it worked in past, it will work now and it will work forever. His attitude reminded me of something I read a while ago - although I can't remember where, so I can't provide proper attribution. Anyway, here's the idea:
Your success proves that you are capable of solving problems that no longer exist.
Hello. The world has changed. People communicate differently (I have to admit, I'm still a little surprised when they swear on primetime TV); Companies are organized and managed differently (at least the best ones); What people expect (and can demand) from their employers has changed. Why in the world would a presumably intelligent person labor under the misconception that people will learn in the same way they did a couple of decades ago.
Today, you simply can't bludgeon people into learning. Well, maybe you can to some extent - but the ROI sucks. If you want people to learn - and I mean learn anything - you have to entice them, engage them and show them how what they're learning will help them get what they want. Doing anything else is just plain DUMB.
I'm done ranting - you'll now be returned to your regularly scheduled, positive and optimistic blog.
The last couple of nights I've been reading Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath - what an interesting, well-crafted book. It weaves profound insights around fascinating stories to produce real understanding. Hard to beat that. I found one of the thoughts particularly interesting and relevant to what our company does:
"There is value in sequencing information - not dumping a stack of information on someone at once but dropping a clue, then another clue, then another. This method of communication resembles flirting more than lecturing."
Our company is in the training business - we produce and sell self-study, interactive training programs. Over the last few years we've been using what we call the Discovery Method. Instead of the traditional adult learning approach (tell 'em what you're going to tell them; tell 'em; and tell 'em what you told 'em) we've observed that people are more engaged, they have more fun and they learn more if we let them figure it out for themselves. Or, as the Heath brothers suggested - dropping a clue, then another clue, etc.
People have a lot of choices today - one of their choices is whether they're going to learn what you want them to learn. A lot of times the old ways of teaching are pretty much worthless - the old ways don't lead to much learning. Time to change.
More posts on:
Made to Stick,
Chip Heath,
Dan Heath,
Learning Theory
The March issue of Inc. Magazine had a good feature in the Smart Questions column entitled "How to Help an Underacheiver". The column suggested six questions:
1. Your work performance has slipped. Is something wrong?
2. Can you describe your job to me?
3. Do you have what you need to do your job?
4. Are you adequately trained?
5. Is something at work preventing you from doing a good job?
6. When was the last time we had a performance review?
All good questions - and the Inc. column commented on them nicely. If you'd like to learn more about how to help an underacheiver, I'd suggest our free online course, Coaching for Performance.
I had a conversation with my friend Jim this morning. He was talking about a colleague in the law firm of Fulbright and Jaworski in Austin. Leon Jaworski of Watergate fame was the founder of that firm. I was reminded of the book written by Leon Jaworski's son, Joseph Jaworski, entitled Synchronicity. I pulled the book off the shelf and leafed through it. I was struck by this passage:
"... we begin to see that the future is not fixed, that we live in a world of possibilities. And yet all of us carry around a deep sense of resignation. We're resigned to believing we can't have any influence in the world, at least not on a scale that matters."
If this is true - and to at least some degree it FEELS true - it is antithethical to the responsibility of the leader. Perhaps the fundamental role of the leader is to rally the collective passion of the organization toward a better future. Great leaders envision a HUGELY better future. Great leaders seem to defeat this deep sense of resignation. It seems to me that leaders must acknowledge the reality of the resignation that lurks within AND be commited to dreaming. Or as Goethe said:
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
More posts on:
Joseph Jaworski,
Synchronicity
My phone rang a little while ago. Much to my surprise, it was a guy I had recently stopped doing business with. He wanted to know why I had stopped doing business with him.
"Service," I said.
"Whadda ya mean," he asked?
"When was the last time you called me?" I shot back.
"I'm not sure," he said.
"I am," I said. "It was 17 years ago."
I had been buying insurance from this guy for about 25 years. The last time I laid eyes on him was 19 years ago when I moved into a new home. And other than the annual Christmas card with the signature printed in red, I hadn't heard from him in 17 years. Over that time I wrote checks totaling well north of $100,000.
He didn't care about me, but based on the timing of his call, he sure did care about the checks I wrote. I'm left with less than a warm and fuzzy feeling.
What's your approach to compensation? Do you generally pay as little as possible to get and keep the people you want? If you do, you may be shooting yourself in the foot. According to 12 The Elements of Great Managing:
"While money itself does not buy engagement, it appears an employee's perception that the company is aggressively looking out for his financial interest leads to productive reciprocation."
Do your people feel you're agressively looking out for their financial interests? If not, I wonder what THAT costs?
Let me start by saying that I'm a regular reader of Kathy's blog, Creating Passionate Users. Most of what I read there is thougthful and insightful. But her post, Don't ask employees to be passionate about the company is just plain wrong and borderline ignorant (ignorant, as in "lacking knowledge, information or awareness). In her post she says:
People ask me, "How can I get our employees to be passionate about the company?" Wrong question. Passion for our employer, manager, current job? Irrelevant. Passion for our profession and the kind of work we do? Crucial.
Companies (at least the good ones), and the managers and leaders in those companies, play a pivotal role in the well-being of employees. First of all, companies make it possible for employees to do the work they're passionate about. Without those companies, many (probably most) of those people flat wouldn't be able to do the work they're passionate about.
Second, please remember the work of a single person seldom (if ever) "creates a passionate user". Passionate users emanate from the cummulative work of many people, from the work of the company. It's the end product of the company that changes the life of the user. Why is that important to the well-being of the employee? Because human beings yearn to be a part of something larger than themselves - that's one of the critical ways they find meaning. Sometimes there isn't much meaning in the laying of a single brick - but there is immense meaning in the building of the cathedral. Companies give employees an opportunity to be part of something larger than themselves - and that is worthy of passion!
Finally (although I COULD go on for days), companies and managers (again, the good ones) provide emotional support and physical resources employees need to learn and grow. And to feel cared about. Most human beings thrive on praise and recognition - managers provide that recognition and praise. Most human beings thrive when they have an opportunity to learn and grow - companies regularly provide those opportunities. Most human beings thrive through social contact - and that is the essence of a company.
Kathy is wrong. There is little that is more relevant than how passionate employees are about their company, their leaders and their managers. If some significant segment of a company's employees aren't passionate about the company, one of two circumstances exist: leadership is deficient or employees are blindly narcissistic.
Last night I finished my first read of 12 The Elements of Great Managing. This book is in the running for greatest management book of all time. I'll be keeping it close at hand.
The authors, Rodd Wagner and James Harter, are with the Gallup Organization, so they have access to the data from 10,000,000 workplace interviews. That's a lot of ammunition. But there are also great anecdotes and Aha! insights and plenty of references to the work of other experts.
Anyone serious about management should read this book.
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