The Simplest Thing That Works

TA-DA!!

Greatwebmeetings.com | Great web meetings.

So, I'm very excited to note that Wayne Turmel, my friend, fellow blogger , and business podcaster supreme has started his own company, and this is the link to his website. As a participant in many NOT-great web meetings, I think Wayne is on to something here: there's a niche to be filled, and he's the guy to fill it. Here's how the greatwebmeetings site describes what he's trying to do:

For the last 5 years Wayne has been focused on teaching people how to use web-based presentation tools to do more than present; to communicate and connect. His passion for the topic stems from his background, not as a technology buff (no geek is he!) but as someone committed to helping people get the best out of their people and themselves no matter the medium.

He's been asked to host a webinar in association with the folks at Dimdim on "guerilla managing remote teams." It's on June 26th at 11am ET and should be great...

Let's Swap Employees, Too

Link:
Ikea launches Furniture swap in Amsterdam > Inside Retailing > Articles page
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The first thing that attracted me to the article above - which is about a very inventive furniture-swapping scheme in the Ikea store in Amsterdam - is that I'm in Amsterdam for a couple of days, and I'm curious about the culture (I just spent two hours at a dinner with clients, picking Dutch people's brains for interesting factoids). So when I got back to my room and started surfing the net for articles to blog about, this caught my eye.

Basically, the Amsterdam Ikea store is having a day where customers can bring in furniture and swap it for furniture that other people bring in. I'm sure it will be fun; it's great publicity for Ikea; and - no doubt - also good business. As people are walking out of the store (freshly swapped), they'll also spot an Ikea lamp or rug that will be just the thing to make their new/old furniture look perfect.

But then I started to think about this relative to jobs. In the session I was leading today, with a group of European managers from Rockwell Automation, we ended up talking quite a bit about people who don't perform well simply because they're in the wrong job. It happens all too often, from my point of view, that when someone's not doing well, the manager just assumes the person's not capable or not motivated, overall...vs. just that they're not capable or motivated in that job.

As a result, I believe a great many people get fired who might have been extremely successful doing different jobs in the same organization.

So, I say we emulate Ikea: let's swap employees. For instance, let's say you're a manager in Sales, and you have Employee A who you think is smart and has good skills, but is a bad fit for the job she's currently doing; you think she might do well in Marketing. Your friend, the head of Marketing, has Employee B who is very unhappy in his current job, and who might be very well suited to doing Employee A's job. The two of you talk to your employees; both are enthusiastic; the jobs are at basically the same level; the company supports the move -- voila! employee swap.

I notice this happens fairly often in small companies, where things are informal, and where the leaders tend to want to keep people they think are good, and so find jobs that suit them. In larger companies, the processes and rules necessary to keep the enterprise moving forward often get in the way of this kind of common-sense changing out of employees.

HR people and line managers might want to work together to look for ways to make this "swapping" easier in their company. When you look at the costs - both psychic and financial - involved in turn-over, it makes perfect sense to try your best to find a better job fit for an under-performing employee, vs. letting him or her go. Especially if that person seems enthusiastic and positive, and like a good fit culturally...don't throw him/her away -- look for a swap.

We Might Want to Listen to Warren Buffett

Link: The Associated Press: For Buffett, Marmon Is 'Bet on America'.

Sometimes I get tired of talking about the deep connection between good management, a strong and positive culture, and good business results. So, I guess I'll let Warren Buffett speak for me instead. Here's an excerpt from an article about Buffett's recent purchase of a 60% stake in Marmon Holdings:

"It is very typical of his investment strategy," the University of Chicago's Kaplan said. "He buys businesses that he can understand, that are profitable and generating cash, and that is true of Marmon. He also looks for good management teams that he doesn't have to tinker with. He buys businesses that have staying power, puts in good management and lets them do their jobs."

Russo said a company's culture is key to Berkshire, and that Buffett may allow the Pritzker family to retain a stake in the company to provide a further incentive for future performance.

"The culture gives (Marmon) an advantage over all other sellers," Russo said. "Because if you buy a company with a bad culture, or bad management, it's not going to work."

Exactly.

The Fit Factor

Link: Do you play well with others? You're hired! - Your Career - MSNBC.com.

Nettie, my publicist, sent me this link, saying "Good article to blog on," and - as usual - she was right.

The point of the article is that some companies are starting to look beyond candidates' resumes to what sort of people they are - and, more specifically - how they'll integrate with the rest of the team and the company.

I think this is very wise. I can't tell you how many times over the years I've seen people fail at jobs because, while they may have had the the necessary technical skills, they either didn't have adequate social skills, or they weren't a "good fit for the culture" -- meaning their personal characteristics and qualities weren't a match for the "DNA" of the organization.

Here's an example. Let's say there's a company that makes lifesaving medical devices. No tolerance for error; very data and fact-driven; precise processes and systems. That's the kind of company they'd be and that's the kind of employee they'd need. What would happen if they hired a guy who had the necessary skills and experience, but who was loose, informal, creative - a "winging it" kind of person? He probably wouldn't last very long in the job, and when they let him go, they'd say, "He just wasn't a good fit for the culture."

And in the social skills realm: some people simply don't, as the article notes, "play well with others." I'm glad companies are starting to recognize how important this is. We call it being a "good company citizen," and count it as an essential employee responsibility. Here's how I talk about it in Growing Great Employees:

I believe every employee has the responsibility to learn and practice a certain level of interpersonal versatility; to be a good “citizen” of the larger group. So, what’s the key difference between a good citizen of a group and a poor one? I find that the most useful place to draw the line is at the issue of others’ rights. Employees who respect others’ rights are aware of where they stop and the other person starts; they don’t habitually do things that undermine, inconvenience, or intrude upon others.

In the article, they mention a number of companies that are starting to have more in-depth interview processes, to try to get more insight into these "beyond the resume" qualities. Seems like a good idea to me...

Happy Employees = Happy Customers = $

Link: Employee Surveys | Employee Satisfaction Surveys.

I love it when the data supports my pre-existing beliefs. Here's a white paper that shows how employee satisfaction is linked to customer satisfaction and business results.

It makes perfect sense to me - most people, if they're happy in their jobs and feel well-treated and appreciated by their employers, will tend to feel loyal toward and supportive of their company in return. They'll then be more likely to be attentive and skillful with customers, and to do good work on a daily basis.

Voila: better business results.

The article above makes a good case for this (even though, at its heart, this article is a promotional vehicle for the employee surveys of the company that published the white paper, Infosurv), as do many articles and papers published over the last decade.

Sears, in particular, has done a good job of sharing the impact of their focus on employee satisfaction as a business driver. But they're by no means the only company to have seen this correlation.

Why then, do so many companies still treat employees like - pardon my French - crap? In many organizations, employees are routinely kept out of the loop of critical information; not acknowledged or rewarded for good performance; forced to follow senseless and byzantine rules for the convenience of management; not provided with the skills or understanding they need to succeed.

I wonder, does that approach arise out of a clearly formulated belief, on the part of the powers that be, that empoyee satisfaction isn't important to the business? Or is it simply unexamined selfishness taken to the nth degree?

Perhaps eventually, we'll reach critical mass. Perhaps the positive results of treating employees like the valuable resource we say they are will become more compelling as competition - for customers, for innovative approaches, for quality employees - continues to build.

Meanwhile, I'm doing my best to spread the word.

Passion and Focus

Link: FX Networks.

I spent the day today with nearly the entire staff of FX. We conducted a process called "building the oral history"; where I helped them talk through their whole evolution as a network.

I've done this process for a number of companies over the years, and it's almost invariably fun, engaging, and valuable...especially for the newer members of the group. I'll talk more about it next time I post, because there's a lot in it about the power of storytelling and tribe that I want to share. But what I wanted to say today is simply how great this group of people is.

As I said to them -- it was so refreshing to see the power of passion and optimism, unconstrained by cynicism. As a group, they seem to genuinely enjoy their work and feel strongly about creating high-quality television: and it's working. They keep turning out these great shows: The Shield, Nip Tuck, Rescue Me, The Riches, Damages.

Wonderful to see the power of focus and clear intention. They were a joy to work with and to support.

Justified Crankiness

Link: TPN :: The Cranky Middle Manager Show .

Check this out - what a wonderful service this guy is doing: it's a blog with great podcasts (interviews and opinions) by Wayne Turmel. He says, "this is the podcast for middle managers - those too low on the food chain to claim omnipotence and too high on the food chain to claim ignorance."

As you know, in the words of Bill Clinton, I feel their pain. One of my rallying cries, and the point of my book, is that managers get way too little help to succeed. Wayne is funny, smart and irreverant (an example - he uses King Lear's problems with succession planning as an example of how people drive their bosses crazy...you have to listen to get it), and he's offering good and bracing insight for managers.

Party on, Wayne.

I Love This Website

Link: Brains on Fire is an Identity Company (Corporate Identity, Brand Identity, Corporate Communications, Branding, Creative Marketing).

I was wandering around a list of corporate blogs tonight, and found this. I'm now a big fan: I love the way the site looks, works, reads and feels. Most of all, I love that the medium is the message: that the whole site is exactly what they say they do for their customers.

Check out the "Individuals" page especially (I'd send you to it, but you can only link straight to the home page - one small glitch they might want to think about changing). I suppose the more cynical among you might consider this "people" page mere cutesyness, but I love the energy and unconventionality of it, and suspect that everyone on the page really enjoys being a part of offering themselves to the public in this format.

As you know, I'm all about making work better...and I have a feeling Brains on Fire a good place to work. I see a lot of the indicators that, in my experience, make a work environment positive and productive: a clear and compelling central goal; a high level of inclusion (check out the group blog); real pride in individual accomplishments (check out the "newsworthy" section); clear and simple structures that support the goals (the way the site is organized).

My day is made.

Team is Lovely

A quick note, sitting in the DFW Airport, waiting to fly back to New York. Had a wonderful day today with a team from TJX, one of our clients. The most enjoyable thing? They really seem to like and respect each other, which yielded a lot of learning, a lot of humor, a lot of honesty.

I love it when people work together in ways that support them all in becoming even better than they would be alone.

The Employee Factor

Link: The Employee Factor.

Judy McLeish, co-founder of McDaniel Partners, recently asked me to engage in an email conversation with her about the value of creating a good employee experience. You'll find the resulting interview at the link above. This is a topic dear to my heart, as I'm 100% convinced that the core of any great customer experience is engaged, trusted employees who are supported to succeed and acknowledged for those successes.

While you're over there, check out what else she has to say...she and her colleagues are doing good work in the world!