Our new company logo is a man getting sucked into a toilet.
Our revised mission statement is "Forage during daylight. Hide at Night."
Scott Adams is firmly embedded in America's office space.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Is it just me or was it better when they sugar-coated?
Our new company logo is a man getting sucked into a toilet.
Our revised mission statement is "Forage during daylight. Hide at Night."
Scott Adams is firmly embedded in America's office space.
Friday, May 27, 2011
The Dandelion Dilemma
Over the years there's one thing I've learned about dandelions. You can scour your yard, removing one after another. You can cover the same ground multiple times. You can go right to left, then left to right. You can cover it along the borders, diagonally, even on your hands and knees, but you will never find all the dandelions.
I have a weed puller. It has a wooden handle that fits in my hand. Protruding from the wooden handle is a metal rod with an end shaped like a viper's tongue. It's designed to be able to get under weeds and help remove them from your yard. Even with this weekend weapon, I've had no luck eradicating the weeds.
Just recently I spent over an hour methodically scouring my yard removing dandelions. I was proud of my work and confident they were all gone. (See I've really not learned anything at all.) Yesterday as I backed the car from the driveway, I noticed one incredibly large — stalk? — protruding from the ground. What the heck? How did a lawn that had been weed free just two days ago become host to this monster?
Today I went back and found four more dandelions to remove. I suspect they are not the last.
How could I have walked this yard like a Federal Marshall looking for an escaped convict and miss so blatantly obvious a violator?
I went to Google for answers. Dandelions are well adapted to a modern world of disturbed habitats — that would lawns. They are difficult to eliminate and grow under more adverse circumstances than competitors. If you don't remove it completely it will regenerate.
The familiar white, globular seed bulb spreads breaks up in the wind and spreads the seeds far and wide. They regenerate a lot. The taproot is deep and if you don't get it all, it just grows back.
Just Like Problem Employees
My dandelion dilemma reminded me of problem employees. Just when you think you've identified them and taken actions to remove them from their jobs, they or someone curiously like them pops back up again. How does this happen?
In my experience the answer is quite similar to how a dandelion thrives.
First, they survive in disturbed habitats; dysfunctional organizations with disrupted cultures. It's not hard to separate them from the high performers but they can find protection among everyone else. You've seen this in your own yard. At the base of one of your healthy bushes is a weed that's hard to reach. You don't want to harm the healthy plant, but you know you need to remove the weed. But that weed is part of a team.
Yet we know that teams rarely are that. More frequently a few high performers are driving team performance. Always attached, at the base of the high performers, is one of the organizational weeds.
I saw this in graduate school. Early on in our first year we worked together to understand each other's strengths; finance, marketing, writing. We had a member whose strength was coasting, and he did it quite effectively through two years. Since well over half the grades posted were group grades, we chose to ignore the problem. He firmly rooted himself inside an otherwise high performing team and has a graduate degree on his wall — for no apparent reason.
Oftentimes the dandelion employee has been in one place so long, and has rooted so deeply, they are nearly impossible to remove. People simply have gotten so used to dealing with the problem, they assume it will never go away and get into the habit of looking past it. As a result organization integrity continues to deteriorate.
The Tap Root is the Key
A dandelion drops a deep tap root into the earth. If you don't remove it — all of it — the dandelion grows back. Eventually it blossoms and the white seed bulb sprays its seeds across the landscape. It shouldn't be hard to see where I'm going with this. Dysfunctional cultures are so because of people embedded in the business who are constantly spraying their negativity, their unpredictability, their lack of character, their unprofessionalism across the organization. The very top people — your healthy plants — have learned to ignore all of it, because time and time again, when brought to the attention of senior leadership, nothing was done about it.
I've had the good fortune to walk into more than one environment where the seed bulbs have been at work for some time. I say good fortune, because there is nothing more fun to tackle than a yard full of dandelions. After all, it's going to look a lot better in the short run even before we get to the really deep roots. With each season comes a new opportunity to remove the dandelions that are causing the problem.
The organizational tap root buries itself in a dysfunctional culture — a disturbed habitat. Fix the culture, set appropriate expectations, celebrate good examples, honor top performers and suddenly the weeds stick out so much you can't miss them, and neither can anyone else. Suddenly the employees you want to retain start looking around and think, "Someone is finally doing something about the poor performers and I really like the look and feel of this new yard."
Your Allies are Critical
Every one of us has been critical of human resources at some time in our career. I can honestly say that I have had the good fortune to be aligned with some amazing human resource professionals. They weren't amazing because they agreed with everything I said or were aligned with every tap root that I wanted to dig up. To the contrary, they were often savagely opposed to my point of view. Yet, we were aligned in our confidence in each other's ultimate goal: build a healthy culture characterized by recognition and reward of behaviors that would best serve the organization's long term interests. And for the most part, we were looking at the same weeds in the disturbed habitat.
Unfortunately we live in a litigious world where whistle blowing has become a career path all its own and no one was ever terminated for a good reason — in their own mind. Yet to build the culture you need to succeed, taking the lawsuits is an absolute must. Settlements are an unavoidable fact of life, but I argue that dysfunctional employees do so much damage that the legal cost is a small price to pay.
Aligning your top leaders is equally important. They and their staffs are hiring new employees every week, and the opportunity for a weed to re-enter the carefully maintained yard is high. Every person in the organization from human resources to training to the administrative assistants must be aligned with the culture and be aware of what a dandelion looks and acts like. Everyone's goal has to be to eliminate the disturbed habitat and build a healthy organizational lawn.
In my career I can name many, many people who today are building sustainable cultures that will support healthy organizations. They still have a lot of work ahead to build those three levels of succession, but I'm confident they'll achieve the goal. Every year brings a new opportunity for dandelions to regain their position.
The search never ends.
I have a weed puller. It has a wooden handle that fits in my hand. Protruding from the wooden handle is a metal rod with an end shaped like a viper's tongue. It's designed to be able to get under weeds and help remove them from your yard. Even with this weekend weapon, I've had no luck eradicating the weeds.
Just recently I spent over an hour methodically scouring my yard removing dandelions. I was proud of my work and confident they were all gone. (See I've really not learned anything at all.) Yesterday as I backed the car from the driveway, I noticed one incredibly large — stalk? — protruding from the ground. What the heck? How did a lawn that had been weed free just two days ago become host to this monster?
Today I went back and found four more dandelions to remove. I suspect they are not the last.
How could I have walked this yard like a Federal Marshall looking for an escaped convict and miss so blatantly obvious a violator?
I went to Google for answers. Dandelions are well adapted to a modern world of disturbed habitats — that would lawns. They are difficult to eliminate and grow under more adverse circumstances than competitors. If you don't remove it completely it will regenerate.
The familiar white, globular seed bulb spreads breaks up in the wind and spreads the seeds far and wide. They regenerate a lot. The taproot is deep and if you don't get it all, it just grows back.
Just Like Problem Employees
My dandelion dilemma reminded me of problem employees. Just when you think you've identified them and taken actions to remove them from their jobs, they or someone curiously like them pops back up again. How does this happen?
In my experience the answer is quite similar to how a dandelion thrives.
First, they survive in disturbed habitats; dysfunctional organizations with disrupted cultures. It's not hard to separate them from the high performers but they can find protection among everyone else. You've seen this in your own yard. At the base of one of your healthy bushes is a weed that's hard to reach. You don't want to harm the healthy plant, but you know you need to remove the weed. But that weed is part of a team.
Yet we know that teams rarely are that. More frequently a few high performers are driving team performance. Always attached, at the base of the high performers, is one of the organizational weeds.
I saw this in graduate school. Early on in our first year we worked together to understand each other's strengths; finance, marketing, writing. We had a member whose strength was coasting, and he did it quite effectively through two years. Since well over half the grades posted were group grades, we chose to ignore the problem. He firmly rooted himself inside an otherwise high performing team and has a graduate degree on his wall — for no apparent reason.
Oftentimes the dandelion employee has been in one place so long, and has rooted so deeply, they are nearly impossible to remove. People simply have gotten so used to dealing with the problem, they assume it will never go away and get into the habit of looking past it. As a result organization integrity continues to deteriorate.
The Tap Root is the Key
A dandelion drops a deep tap root into the earth. If you don't remove it — all of it — the dandelion grows back. Eventually it blossoms and the white seed bulb sprays its seeds across the landscape. It shouldn't be hard to see where I'm going with this. Dysfunctional cultures are so because of people embedded in the business who are constantly spraying their negativity, their unpredictability, their lack of character, their unprofessionalism across the organization. The very top people — your healthy plants — have learned to ignore all of it, because time and time again, when brought to the attention of senior leadership, nothing was done about it.
I've had the good fortune to walk into more than one environment where the seed bulbs have been at work for some time. I say good fortune, because there is nothing more fun to tackle than a yard full of dandelions. After all, it's going to look a lot better in the short run even before we get to the really deep roots. With each season comes a new opportunity to remove the dandelions that are causing the problem.
The organizational tap root buries itself in a dysfunctional culture — a disturbed habitat. Fix the culture, set appropriate expectations, celebrate good examples, honor top performers and suddenly the weeds stick out so much you can't miss them, and neither can anyone else. Suddenly the employees you want to retain start looking around and think, "Someone is finally doing something about the poor performers and I really like the look and feel of this new yard."
Your Allies are Critical
Every one of us has been critical of human resources at some time in our career. I can honestly say that I have had the good fortune to be aligned with some amazing human resource professionals. They weren't amazing because they agreed with everything I said or were aligned with every tap root that I wanted to dig up. To the contrary, they were often savagely opposed to my point of view. Yet, we were aligned in our confidence in each other's ultimate goal: build a healthy culture characterized by recognition and reward of behaviors that would best serve the organization's long term interests. And for the most part, we were looking at the same weeds in the disturbed habitat.
Unfortunately we live in a litigious world where whistle blowing has become a career path all its own and no one was ever terminated for a good reason — in their own mind. Yet to build the culture you need to succeed, taking the lawsuits is an absolute must. Settlements are an unavoidable fact of life, but I argue that dysfunctional employees do so much damage that the legal cost is a small price to pay.
Aligning your top leaders is equally important. They and their staffs are hiring new employees every week, and the opportunity for a weed to re-enter the carefully maintained yard is high. Every person in the organization from human resources to training to the administrative assistants must be aligned with the culture and be aware of what a dandelion looks and acts like. Everyone's goal has to be to eliminate the disturbed habitat and build a healthy organizational lawn.
In my career I can name many, many people who today are building sustainable cultures that will support healthy organizations. They still have a lot of work ahead to build those three levels of succession, but I'm confident they'll achieve the goal. Every year brings a new opportunity for dandelions to regain their position.
The search never ends.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Insider Treating: The New Executive Presence
Recently the Harvard Business School faculty conducted research that concluded that CEOs interacting with insiders - employees - had a profound effect on productivity.
"For every 1 percent gain in time (that a CEO spent) with at least one insider, (that employee's) productivity advanced 1.23 percent."
When I read this all I could think was "really?" The Harvard Business School faculty really spent time researching something so blatantly obvious? Was it just so they could apply a number to so predictably apparent an outcome? What they should be researching is why so few CEOs or any other titled management do it in the first place. It being spending time with an "insider". (They refer to insider to differentiate from outsider, ie. customer)
I've led a number of organizations and leading by being out of the corner office is standard operating procedure. It's a leadership style I've expected from the people who report to me. I've never needed to index productivity to prove to myself that being among my employees is a better way to guide an organization than hanging out behind a desk and waiting for people to come to me.
There are as many ways both formal and informal to stay close to your employees.
Formal forums such as town hall meetings or all-employee events or Webinars (my least preferred route, because it's the least personal) allow the widespread dissemination of information with consistency - everybody hears the same thing at the same time - and offers a stage for not just the business leader but his or her staff as well. Held frequently - worst case every 6 to 8 weeks - these forums are helpful. Assumed here is that the information delivered is credible and timely and comes with at least a nod to "insider" information. In other words if the session is nothing more than aping what has already been delivered in another forum, then it's a waste of everyone's time.
In my experience the audience expects to be given news both good and bad. They expect to be able to test the content elsewhere and not find out that it's at odds with a different truth. I've encountered settings where financial information has been withheld out of fear that it would be disseminated outside the company. Employees need to know the score and the only way to know the score is to know how the business is performing. Holding back the information also demonstrates a profound lack of trust.
Entertainment counts. No matter how many communication sessions you hold and no matter what the forum and the location and the content, boring is just that. A good way to insure that your sessions are poorly attended is to batter your employees with copious amounts of copy in a PowerPoint format. During an all-employee session we conducted, we had a group of entertainers - seemingly employees sprinkled throughout the audience - break into a "flash mob-type" song about the business that started as an employee questioning the veracity of my comments while I was on the stage. It surprised the heck out of everyone and was a great way to kick off the meeting.
I've been amazed over and over again that organizations hold information close to the chest yet are surprised when employees don't understand how the company is performing. When I arrived to lead an organization in Canada, I discovered that daily sales were only disseminated to about 20 people. When I asked why, I was told that employees wouldn't know what to do with the information and it could possibly end up in competitors' hands.
After I'd picked myself off the floor and the shock wore off, we devised a plan to teach the employees how to read the report, reminded them that it was confidential and meant to help them better understand and run the business then disseminated it to everyone. It even hung on the bulletin board in a unionized plant. Employees need to know the score. It's part of the interaction between management and employees.
Informal interaction, even impromptu events, have an even more profound effect. I want to share a laundry list of actions I've taken that over the years have made a huge difference in employee performance and morale.
I was assigned to lead a large division and the announcement went out on a Wednesday. I was living in another city, not due to start until a couple weeks later but was in town. As I was leaving, I decided to show up the day of the announcement - unannounced. I drove to the building where the division was located and literally went door to door, cubicle to cubicle. I simply walked in, shook hands and introduced myself. One young man, slouched in his seat in front of his computer, nearly hit the ceiling when I asked him if he was comfortable then introduced myself. It took about three hours to work the whole place, but I saw everyone who was working that day. It was pretty powerful.
While leading a Canadian organization with a diverse business portfolio, I found myself responsible for operations like R&D, manufacturing and the commercial operations of three major businesses spread across the country. I visited the plants regularly. I occasionally showed up at the distribution center in blue jeans and a work shirt, climbed into a truck and delivered product all day. ( I often learned more walking in the back door of a hospital than in the front door.)
Two days a month the cafeteria became my office. My secretary up on the third floor could easily reach me. Employees knew I was there and I was pleasantly surprised at how much less courage it took for employees to approach me in that setting than it took in the office - and my assistant was friendly to everyone! By the way I rarely ate lunch in my office. When I was in town, I bought my lunch - standing in line like everyone else, then dropped in on a different table. It was fun for me, and most of the time, fun for them.
As I walked the building one day, it struck me that the mood wasn't what it should be, so with my HR director we figured a plan to liven the place up. We announced Circus Day. We gave each department $25 dollars to create a ride or booth. Each dollar collected by the Circus would go to charity. We blocked off the parking lot one afternoon, provided free lunch to the employees and had a circus. I don't remember how much money we collected, but the whole place cheered up immediately.
On another occasion in a different location, it was clear that the departments in the organization were not communicating well so - in the middle of winter - we held a golf tournament. The holes covered four floors of the building. Each department had to design a hole that helped non-department members better understand what they did and each team had to be made up of four people who didn't work together. Everyone got into the game, and we had a wonderful afternoon that pulled the organization closer together.
Throughout my career, its not been uncommon to find me sitting in a product manager's office finding out about the product, the customers and what was keeping them from greater success. (Yes, at first it is intimidating, but when they learn that you're not playing "Gotcha!" and that the conversations aren't carried on to their boss, they become trusting and in fact come looking for you.) The bigger adjustment comes from their manager. The chain of command is important when it comes to HR issues but not when it comes to moving business information.
The clerical assistants have always been an important part of my world. In a couple of locations I created an assistants council to help keep me informed about issues in the building that were getting in our way. It was my experience that they saw more than they were allowed to share and had good ideas that were going untested. By the way, manufacturing employees are watching your products being made every day and have many ideas to share. Your distribution center employees are equally insightful.
In every organization I've run we've held weekly and monthly small group employee meetings - breakfasts or lunches - where we can share information about the business, field questions, quell rumors. They are very helpful especially for the employees in manufacturing or distribution operations, ones who are sometimes far removed from the commercial operations.
While leading a nutrition business we made it an annual event to visit our manufacturing plants located in remote sites throughout the US. During those visits each business unit head gave the plant management an update on our businesses. On one visit we worked on a Boys and Girls Club Recreation Center, painting and improving the site then played kick-ball with the kids at the end of the day. That was well received by the plant employees.
It is critical for business leaders to stay close to employees but also to employees' families. I can name the husband our wife of every staff member and in many cases, their children. We held a lot of family-centered events throughout the year. Work happens at work and happens at home and happens on vacation. The better the family feels about the senior management of the organization the easier it is when those unfortunate business intrusions cut short planned family time.
Handwritten letters are indispensable. As soon as you're done reading this, go to a stationery store and have letterhead made. Then go to the post office and buy a few sheets of first class stamps. Keep both in your office, in your brief case and in your home. Every time you see or hear about an activity that you want to reinforce, sit down and hand write a note to the employee. Send it to their home address not the office. Attach a first class stamp, not postal indicia. Drop it in the mail box. Congratulations, you've just left an impression that will never fade.
Never fail to send out a note to an employee on their work anniversary or other important event when ist comes to your attention.
While in Canada we had a number of Canadians overseas on expatriate assignments. Each year I sent them an update on the business "back home," the progress we made and how much we were looking forward to them one day returning. One year, I took that another step and sent a letter to all former employees - who'd left in good standing - keeping them abreast of our success and reminding them they could return should they have an interest and we have a job open.
A few times a year I traveled to various remote cities in the country and held what I called a President's Forum. It was a day-long session and all local employees from all the business units - including sales people - came for a business presentation from me and occasionally some of my staff and then they were allowed to make their own presentation and request increment resources. Everyone felt more informed and engaged when the day was over. When we returned we always funded at least one request if only to show we were listening.
For the past many years I've written a Seussian version of The Night Before Christmas highlighting the year we'd just completed and calling out employees who worked on the various businesses and the contributions they'd made. It was a lot of work. Typically I started writing in October with many, many edited versions. I had a great time presenting it in my Wal-Mart purchased Santa costume.
Over the years I've heard numerous references to "executive presence". I've read articles about how executives are supposed to behave; the right way to address; how to present yourself in the community.
Few have referred to the uncertainty that's come from one downsizing episode after another, uncertainty that plagues workforces in nearly every industry. Because of that uncertainty and the likelihood it won't abate anytime soon, it is more critical than ever that executive presence be defined as executives present on all fronts in all locations with their employees. Compassion, empathy and transparency are more important than ever before.
There are many ways for business leaders to demonstrate their interest in their business but none more dramatic than staying close to and genuinely caring for the people who make the company go and the families they support. The productivity advancement is a lot more than 1.23 percent.
So get out of your executive chair, out of your executive office and into the offices of those employees in your organization. Schedule regular all-employee meetings and make sure the information is fresh and presented in a clever and creative fashion. Think up as many ways as you can to demonstrate you care what your employees think then follow through by actually executing your ideas. Write notes, recognize achievement, go into the cities and towns where your employees live.
Insider trading may be criminal but insider treating - with admiration, respect and interest - isn't.
"For every 1 percent gain in time (that a CEO spent) with at least one insider, (that employee's) productivity advanced 1.23 percent."
When I read this all I could think was "really?" The Harvard Business School faculty really spent time researching something so blatantly obvious? Was it just so they could apply a number to so predictably apparent an outcome? What they should be researching is why so few CEOs or any other titled management do it in the first place. It being spending time with an "insider". (They refer to insider to differentiate from outsider, ie. customer)
I've led a number of organizations and leading by being out of the corner office is standard operating procedure. It's a leadership style I've expected from the people who report to me. I've never needed to index productivity to prove to myself that being among my employees is a better way to guide an organization than hanging out behind a desk and waiting for people to come to me.
There are as many ways both formal and informal to stay close to your employees.
Formal forums such as town hall meetings or all-employee events or Webinars (my least preferred route, because it's the least personal) allow the widespread dissemination of information with consistency - everybody hears the same thing at the same time - and offers a stage for not just the business leader but his or her staff as well. Held frequently - worst case every 6 to 8 weeks - these forums are helpful. Assumed here is that the information delivered is credible and timely and comes with at least a nod to "insider" information. In other words if the session is nothing more than aping what has already been delivered in another forum, then it's a waste of everyone's time.
In my experience the audience expects to be given news both good and bad. They expect to be able to test the content elsewhere and not find out that it's at odds with a different truth. I've encountered settings where financial information has been withheld out of fear that it would be disseminated outside the company. Employees need to know the score and the only way to know the score is to know how the business is performing. Holding back the information also demonstrates a profound lack of trust.
Entertainment counts. No matter how many communication sessions you hold and no matter what the forum and the location and the content, boring is just that. A good way to insure that your sessions are poorly attended is to batter your employees with copious amounts of copy in a PowerPoint format. During an all-employee session we conducted, we had a group of entertainers - seemingly employees sprinkled throughout the audience - break into a "flash mob-type" song about the business that started as an employee questioning the veracity of my comments while I was on the stage. It surprised the heck out of everyone and was a great way to kick off the meeting.
I've been amazed over and over again that organizations hold information close to the chest yet are surprised when employees don't understand how the company is performing. When I arrived to lead an organization in Canada, I discovered that daily sales were only disseminated to about 20 people. When I asked why, I was told that employees wouldn't know what to do with the information and it could possibly end up in competitors' hands.
After I'd picked myself off the floor and the shock wore off, we devised a plan to teach the employees how to read the report, reminded them that it was confidential and meant to help them better understand and run the business then disseminated it to everyone. It even hung on the bulletin board in a unionized plant. Employees need to know the score. It's part of the interaction between management and employees.
Informal interaction, even impromptu events, have an even more profound effect. I want to share a laundry list of actions I've taken that over the years have made a huge difference in employee performance and morale.
I was assigned to lead a large division and the announcement went out on a Wednesday. I was living in another city, not due to start until a couple weeks later but was in town. As I was leaving, I decided to show up the day of the announcement - unannounced. I drove to the building where the division was located and literally went door to door, cubicle to cubicle. I simply walked in, shook hands and introduced myself. One young man, slouched in his seat in front of his computer, nearly hit the ceiling when I asked him if he was comfortable then introduced myself. It took about three hours to work the whole place, but I saw everyone who was working that day. It was pretty powerful.
While leading a Canadian organization with a diverse business portfolio, I found myself responsible for operations like R&D, manufacturing and the commercial operations of three major businesses spread across the country. I visited the plants regularly. I occasionally showed up at the distribution center in blue jeans and a work shirt, climbed into a truck and delivered product all day. ( I often learned more walking in the back door of a hospital than in the front door.)
Two days a month the cafeteria became my office. My secretary up on the third floor could easily reach me. Employees knew I was there and I was pleasantly surprised at how much less courage it took for employees to approach me in that setting than it took in the office - and my assistant was friendly to everyone! By the way I rarely ate lunch in my office. When I was in town, I bought my lunch - standing in line like everyone else, then dropped in on a different table. It was fun for me, and most of the time, fun for them.
As I walked the building one day, it struck me that the mood wasn't what it should be, so with my HR director we figured a plan to liven the place up. We announced Circus Day. We gave each department $25 dollars to create a ride or booth. Each dollar collected by the Circus would go to charity. We blocked off the parking lot one afternoon, provided free lunch to the employees and had a circus. I don't remember how much money we collected, but the whole place cheered up immediately.
On another occasion in a different location, it was clear that the departments in the organization were not communicating well so - in the middle of winter - we held a golf tournament. The holes covered four floors of the building. Each department had to design a hole that helped non-department members better understand what they did and each team had to be made up of four people who didn't work together. Everyone got into the game, and we had a wonderful afternoon that pulled the organization closer together.
Throughout my career, its not been uncommon to find me sitting in a product manager's office finding out about the product, the customers and what was keeping them from greater success. (Yes, at first it is intimidating, but when they learn that you're not playing "Gotcha!" and that the conversations aren't carried on to their boss, they become trusting and in fact come looking for you.) The bigger adjustment comes from their manager. The chain of command is important when it comes to HR issues but not when it comes to moving business information.
The clerical assistants have always been an important part of my world. In a couple of locations I created an assistants council to help keep me informed about issues in the building that were getting in our way. It was my experience that they saw more than they were allowed to share and had good ideas that were going untested. By the way, manufacturing employees are watching your products being made every day and have many ideas to share. Your distribution center employees are equally insightful.
In every organization I've run we've held weekly and monthly small group employee meetings - breakfasts or lunches - where we can share information about the business, field questions, quell rumors. They are very helpful especially for the employees in manufacturing or distribution operations, ones who are sometimes far removed from the commercial operations.
While leading a nutrition business we made it an annual event to visit our manufacturing plants located in remote sites throughout the US. During those visits each business unit head gave the plant management an update on our businesses. On one visit we worked on a Boys and Girls Club Recreation Center, painting and improving the site then played kick-ball with the kids at the end of the day. That was well received by the plant employees.
It is critical for business leaders to stay close to employees but also to employees' families. I can name the husband our wife of every staff member and in many cases, their children. We held a lot of family-centered events throughout the year. Work happens at work and happens at home and happens on vacation. The better the family feels about the senior management of the organization the easier it is when those unfortunate business intrusions cut short planned family time.
Handwritten letters are indispensable. As soon as you're done reading this, go to a stationery store and have letterhead made. Then go to the post office and buy a few sheets of first class stamps. Keep both in your office, in your brief case and in your home. Every time you see or hear about an activity that you want to reinforce, sit down and hand write a note to the employee. Send it to their home address not the office. Attach a first class stamp, not postal indicia. Drop it in the mail box. Congratulations, you've just left an impression that will never fade.
Never fail to send out a note to an employee on their work anniversary or other important event when ist comes to your attention.
While in Canada we had a number of Canadians overseas on expatriate assignments. Each year I sent them an update on the business "back home," the progress we made and how much we were looking forward to them one day returning. One year, I took that another step and sent a letter to all former employees - who'd left in good standing - keeping them abreast of our success and reminding them they could return should they have an interest and we have a job open.
A few times a year I traveled to various remote cities in the country and held what I called a President's Forum. It was a day-long session and all local employees from all the business units - including sales people - came for a business presentation from me and occasionally some of my staff and then they were allowed to make their own presentation and request increment resources. Everyone felt more informed and engaged when the day was over. When we returned we always funded at least one request if only to show we were listening.
For the past many years I've written a Seussian version of The Night Before Christmas highlighting the year we'd just completed and calling out employees who worked on the various businesses and the contributions they'd made. It was a lot of work. Typically I started writing in October with many, many edited versions. I had a great time presenting it in my Wal-Mart purchased Santa costume.
Over the years I've heard numerous references to "executive presence". I've read articles about how executives are supposed to behave; the right way to address; how to present yourself in the community.
Few have referred to the uncertainty that's come from one downsizing episode after another, uncertainty that plagues workforces in nearly every industry. Because of that uncertainty and the likelihood it won't abate anytime soon, it is more critical than ever that executive presence be defined as executives present on all fronts in all locations with their employees. Compassion, empathy and transparency are more important than ever before.
There are many ways for business leaders to demonstrate their interest in their business but none more dramatic than staying close to and genuinely caring for the people who make the company go and the families they support. The productivity advancement is a lot more than 1.23 percent.
So get out of your executive chair, out of your executive office and into the offices of those employees in your organization. Schedule regular all-employee meetings and make sure the information is fresh and presented in a clever and creative fashion. Think up as many ways as you can to demonstrate you care what your employees think then follow through by actually executing your ideas. Write notes, recognize achievement, go into the cities and towns where your employees live.
Insider trading may be criminal but insider treating - with admiration, respect and interest - isn't.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Turn Your Strategies Upside Down . . . . . And Shake Them
About eleven hours into yet another seemingly endless trip between Japan and Chicago, about the time I'd read everything I could find including the label in my shirt, I was down to the rock-bottom of reading material — the ads in the closing pages of the United Airlines magazine.
It was there that I saw the single-column, six-inch long ad with the headline, Fly the Legend. Below the headline was the picture of a MiG-21 flying at a 45 degree angle toward the left side of the page.
Beneath the MiG was copy that read: Find a new love in Moscow. Break the sound barrier in a MiG-21, feel the power of the MiG-29 or reach for the stars in the MiG-25. Your life will never be the same! Call today for a free color brochure. Our incredible Adventures start at $3850.
I was fascinated by this on a number of levels. Hadn't we built an entire modern air force around fighting these very planes? Weren't these the same planes that every enemy of ours around the globe was flying? What must the Russian Air Force be thinking? What do you get for the "starting price" of $3850?
Then it struck me. We'd spent decades and literally trillions of dollars preparing to fight a war with the Soviet Union. Central to those plans had to be air superiority and key to the execution of whatever strategy we chose would be engaging and eliminating all those MiGs. Decades. Trillions of dollars. The best and brightest military strategists the US could assemble.
All that and more to confront . . . . . . . . an amusement park ride.
Guess we never considered that Russia might need US dollars more than they needed a dog fight.
I've used this story over and over again to illustrate the need to look at our absolutes and turn them upside down. Every business has what it believes are absolute truths, those things that will not change, cannot change, couldn't possibly change.
I believe if you'd proposed the scenario that MiGs would be amusement park rides to the Pentagon planners who labored so diligently to build war plans for any eventuality, that proposal would have gotten you laughed out of the room, out of the Pentagon and off the active duty roster. Any eventuality couldn't include Flying the Legend, because it was inconceivable.
During your next strategic planning meeting, force your teams to challenge the "absolute truths" in their plans. Turn them upside down. Look at the impossible, the improbable and ask yourself what you would do if those scenarios became real.
In attempt to diversify its business in the face of pressure from healthcare professionals attacking it's "unhealthy" menus, McDonald's announced today that it purchased Johnson & Johnson. Oh yeah, it could happen.
It was there that I saw the single-column, six-inch long ad with the headline, Fly the Legend. Below the headline was the picture of a MiG-21 flying at a 45 degree angle toward the left side of the page.
Beneath the MiG was copy that read: Find a new love in Moscow. Break the sound barrier in a MiG-21, feel the power of the MiG-29 or reach for the stars in the MiG-25. Your life will never be the same! Call today for a free color brochure. Our incredible Adventures start at $3850.
I was fascinated by this on a number of levels. Hadn't we built an entire modern air force around fighting these very planes? Weren't these the same planes that every enemy of ours around the globe was flying? What must the Russian Air Force be thinking? What do you get for the "starting price" of $3850?
Then it struck me. We'd spent decades and literally trillions of dollars preparing to fight a war with the Soviet Union. Central to those plans had to be air superiority and key to the execution of whatever strategy we chose would be engaging and eliminating all those MiGs. Decades. Trillions of dollars. The best and brightest military strategists the US could assemble.
All that and more to confront . . . . . . . . an amusement park ride.
Guess we never considered that Russia might need US dollars more than they needed a dog fight.
I've used this story over and over again to illustrate the need to look at our absolutes and turn them upside down. Every business has what it believes are absolute truths, those things that will not change, cannot change, couldn't possibly change.
I believe if you'd proposed the scenario that MiGs would be amusement park rides to the Pentagon planners who labored so diligently to build war plans for any eventuality, that proposal would have gotten you laughed out of the room, out of the Pentagon and off the active duty roster. Any eventuality couldn't include Flying the Legend, because it was inconceivable.
During your next strategic planning meeting, force your teams to challenge the "absolute truths" in their plans. Turn them upside down. Look at the impossible, the improbable and ask yourself what you would do if those scenarios became real.
In attempt to diversify its business in the face of pressure from healthcare professionals attacking it's "unhealthy" menus, McDonald's announced today that it purchased Johnson & Johnson. Oh yeah, it could happen.
When an Empty Truck is a Competitive Advantage
Before 1983, physicians purchased their office supplies from the same suppliers who served hospitals and nursing homes. Physician customers were on those same routes but only saw the supplier once or twice a month. This required them to carry excessive inventory so they didn't run out of things like syringes, table paper and tongue depressors.
Seeing an opportunity, Patrick Kelly started a Florida company called Physician Sales & Service (PSS). It offered faster service; taking orders and delivering them the very next day. They were able to charge more for their products, because the service was so valuable to the doctors they served.
As PSS expanded in Florida and into the southeast U.S., they ran into competition who matched their service, offering next day delivery. PSS upped the service level, providing laptop computers to their sales people who could transmit orders in the morning to have on trucks that afternoon.
Same-day service was a big hit and the company continued to grow. Ultimately they set their sight on being the first national physicians' supply company. Just as they set that goal, competitor Taylor Medical announced it would be the first nationwide physicians' supply company. The race was on.
Taylor Medical was located in Beaumont, Texas. They didn't offer same-day service in the markets they served. In 1991, PSS opened a branch in Houston. They also placed a sales representative in Beaumont, seventy miles away.
One day Kelly met with the Beaumont truck driver and recounted this conversation:
"Todd's (Todd Modi, the sales person) out in Beaumont today," he said. "He might not call in an order, because he probably won't sell anything. But at 11 o'clock you are to drive this van to the city limits of Beaumont. Then you can turn around and drive back."
About twenty minutes later the driver's manager approached Kelly.
"Pat, the driver says you told him to drive to Beaumont."
"That's right," Kelly replied.
"But there's nothing to deliver. He thinks you're crazy."
Kelly then pulled the driver and manager together to teach them two lessons.
First, the sales person needed to see that van coming to Beaumont every day and understand it's his responsibility to fill it.
The second lesson was less obvious but the most important. The truck had to go every day, because PSS's competitive difference was same-day service. They could never offer less.
"Suppose we hadn't sent the truck? And suppose one day the only order in Beaumont was for a single package of thermometers? Any manager would ship the package overnight rather than put it in an empty truck. But right there, our competitive edge would evaporate. Suddenly, we'd be no different from Taylor or any other competitor."
It was some time before those trucks to Beaumont were filled up. As Kelly said, "We always say we've shipped a lot of air from our warehouses to doctors' offices."
Air doesn't pay the bills but service unavailable elsewhere ultimately does.
The Beaumont branch exceeded $5 million dollars annual sales, and PSS acquired Taylor Medical and became the first national physician's supply company.
In an era when FedEx and UPS and the Postal Service are competing to see how inexpensively they can deliver products; when cost improvement trumps value improvement and when quarter to quarter earnings can make the difference between success and failure, the PSS story can sound right out of Mother Goose. I believe, however, that in a world where commoditization of products and services is making it difficult for customers to justify loyalty, there is room for a strategy like PSS's. Find that difference that matters to the customer and defend it. When someone matches it, be prepared with the next difference.
Seeing an opportunity, Patrick Kelly started a Florida company called Physician Sales & Service (PSS). It offered faster service; taking orders and delivering them the very next day. They were able to charge more for their products, because the service was so valuable to the doctors they served.
As PSS expanded in Florida and into the southeast U.S., they ran into competition who matched their service, offering next day delivery. PSS upped the service level, providing laptop computers to their sales people who could transmit orders in the morning to have on trucks that afternoon.
Same-day service was a big hit and the company continued to grow. Ultimately they set their sight on being the first national physicians' supply company. Just as they set that goal, competitor Taylor Medical announced it would be the first nationwide physicians' supply company. The race was on.
Taylor Medical was located in Beaumont, Texas. They didn't offer same-day service in the markets they served. In 1991, PSS opened a branch in Houston. They also placed a sales representative in Beaumont, seventy miles away.
One day Kelly met with the Beaumont truck driver and recounted this conversation:
"Todd's (Todd Modi, the sales person) out in Beaumont today," he said. "He might not call in an order, because he probably won't sell anything. But at 11 o'clock you are to drive this van to the city limits of Beaumont. Then you can turn around and drive back."
About twenty minutes later the driver's manager approached Kelly.
"Pat, the driver says you told him to drive to Beaumont."
"That's right," Kelly replied.
"But there's nothing to deliver. He thinks you're crazy."
Kelly then pulled the driver and manager together to teach them two lessons.
First, the sales person needed to see that van coming to Beaumont every day and understand it's his responsibility to fill it.
The second lesson was less obvious but the most important. The truck had to go every day, because PSS's competitive difference was same-day service. They could never offer less.
"Suppose we hadn't sent the truck? And suppose one day the only order in Beaumont was for a single package of thermometers? Any manager would ship the package overnight rather than put it in an empty truck. But right there, our competitive edge would evaporate. Suddenly, we'd be no different from Taylor or any other competitor."
It was some time before those trucks to Beaumont were filled up. As Kelly said, "We always say we've shipped a lot of air from our warehouses to doctors' offices."
Air doesn't pay the bills but service unavailable elsewhere ultimately does.
The Beaumont branch exceeded $5 million dollars annual sales, and PSS acquired Taylor Medical and became the first national physician's supply company.
In an era when FedEx and UPS and the Postal Service are competing to see how inexpensively they can deliver products; when cost improvement trumps value improvement and when quarter to quarter earnings can make the difference between success and failure, the PSS story can sound right out of Mother Goose. I believe, however, that in a world where commoditization of products and services is making it difficult for customers to justify loyalty, there is room for a strategy like PSS's. Find that difference that matters to the customer and defend it. When someone matches it, be prepared with the next difference.
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