Business Evolutionist

One Simple Step...

I'm not sure if anyone ever uses it, but I want to hear the story of how this came in to existence. I sure hope that it was through observation; some engineer watching people try to load stuff on the roof of an SUV... hanging off the back corner of the bumper trying to tie something down.

What to ask... more importantly, when.

There is an interesting article in the April issue of Inc. magazine; 'Goodbye and good luck'. The article discusses an emerging fascination with exit interviews - "someone's leaving, lets find out why..."

First of all, why wait for someone to leave to find out what employees are thinking? Next, if you have a turnover problem and you’re considering spending money on an exit interview program, don’t you think that there is a larger problem to solve first?

To the first point, this is something I've written about in the past on several occasions. One of my favorites was the mailman post:

One of the things I talk about in the book is getting to know you're employees - treat them like the individuals that they are. Don't know what made me think of this, but I'd bet that the mailman knows more about an employee than their manager. Think about it, in a given week/month my mailman sees the following magazines come to my door:

• Business 2.0
• Wired
• Hockey Digest
• Four Four Two (soccer)
• Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc....

I think he has a pretty good idea about my interests.

Want to get to know someone? Find out what magazines they subcribe to...

Why not talk WITH your employees regularly? How about a monthly or quarterly 1 on 1 where you ask them some of the questions contained in these exit interviews.

The article contains several great questions, some not so great. One example, the first question, is:

If the CEO left unexpectedly today and you were put in charge, what are the first things you would change?

Now, I'm not naive here - some percentage of the employees wouldn't have a clue how to lead a large organization or chart its course. However, most employees have two things in common - one, they all want to be heard... that is just human nature. Second, I'd bet most employees have some ideas about how to improve some aspect of the business.

To the second point, if you have a turnover problem, perhaps you haven't created a culture where employees feel connected to something worthwhile. If it is just a job, and people aren't deriving anything other than financial compensation, you will have people who are going to seek greener grass. Two organizations that I like are Google and Will Vinton studios. Everyone is familiar with the 80/20 philosphy at Google, where employees get to work on there own stuff one day a week. At Will Vinton studios they have a program called The Walkabout (good article at Fast Company)

To attract the very best artists, and then to give them plenty of reasons to stay, Vinton has instituted programs and policies that are designed to show his support for the artists he hires. The Walkabout, for example, is a program that allows employees to take a 13-week paid hiatus, or Walkabout, that gives them the time and the freedom to work on their own projects. Every year, the program results in two or three short films, as well as many other personal projects. The logic behind Vinton's decision to implement the program is unassailable: The best people will find a way to produce their own films, whether he wants them to or not. So why not make it harder for them to leave his company by encouraging them to produce projects of their own on his premises?

What do you think - are exit interviews worthwhile?

A Whole New Mind

I just finished reading A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink. Overall it was a pretty good book. The setup wasn't anything unexpected since I read the wired article all those months ago.

The basic premise is that three factors will change which skills are considered valuable in the coming years: Abundance, Asia, and Automation.

• Abundance - we don't "need" anything, purchases are now based primarily on "wants".
• Asia - there will always be someone, somewhere who can do your job just as well, but cheaper, somewhere else in the world.
• Automation - most of the rote, analytical, work that can be performed by computers, will be... and computers are only going to get smarter.

What this leads us towards is a world where people who have more Right-Brain skills - creators, empathizers, pattern-recognizers and meaning makers, these people, the artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers - will reap the societal rewards.

Mr. Pink suggests that there are six senses/skills that you need to thrive in the coming conceptual age: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning.

He devotes a chapter to each of these six senses and closes the chapter with a portfolio of tools, ideas, and tips for you to improve that sense.

Here are just a couple of the tips/tools/ideas that I flagged:

• Design - read design magazines. Some of the suggestions include Dwell, HOW, etc.
• Story - get One Story, 18 times a year they send you a little book with exactly one story in it.
• Symphony - (the ability to put all the pieces together) - Learn to draw. I'm going to do this and I'll share the results as I progress.
• Empathy - voluteer, it is a great way to sharpen your empathic skills.
• Play - join a laughter club
• Meaning - visit a labyrinth

There are tons of other ideas he gives to improve these six senses. Overall I think the book was really good.

Two great service experiences...

I had two great retail service experiences last weekend - well, three to be exact.

The first came Saturday morning at Best Buy, the lady who checked me out was just one of the funniest, nicest cashiers I've dealt with in my life. She was smiling, laughing and cracking jokes. It was quite apparent that she was a "people-person".

The second was Sunday at Borders. First, one of the employees went to check on a magazine for me that they sell but wasn't on the stand. It was super cool that she offered to do that. Second was the cashier - much like the one from Best Buy on Saturday, she was smiling and laughing and having a great time.

I'm sure it isn't "work" for these ladies - it's their innate need to help people, to fit in. My guess is that you could take any of the three of them and switch the stores they were working in and it would have been the same experiences for me.

I'm not one of those people who condemns the service sector - it can be a tough and crappy job for very low wages and most organizations don't exactly give employees a reason to care about customers.

I generally get good service wherever I go and I think it is because of the way I treat people. I also think that the negative perception that most people have about the service sector is one of expectations - most of the people who "serve" you in the course of a day are pleasant enough. They might not be entertaining or jovial, they just do their job. It's the reason that exceptional or bad service stand out, because most service is just average. As humans we have expectations about the way we should be treated and some people fail to meet those expectations.

Most employees are probably told to care about customers, to "go the extra mile". However, I doubt most organizations understand how to liberate their employees’ inherent need to fit in, to be part of a community.

Interestingly enough, when I got home on Sunday I caught a show on CSPAN featuring James Carville. Someone asked a question about something and his reply was fantastic:

... you can look at it one of two ways, you can be an appleist: you know there are obviously a couple of bad apples in the barrel, we just remove the bad apples and everything will be fine. Or, you're a barrelist: is there something wrong with the barrel we're putting the apples in?

I'm a barrelist. I believe that deep-down every human being is good and wants to do a good job. Sure, there are some people that shouldn't be working in customer-facing jobs - however, that is a problem with the barrel (organization), they should figure out who those people are before they put them in front of their customers.

So, which are you? An appleist or a barrelist?

Fun Little Music Meme - II

Here are my answers to the Music Meme post

• Your Age: 38
• Occupation: Business Analyst
• Where do you live: Hershey, PA
• MP3 Player: 4g iPod
• Total songs on your player: 5,944 (I just cleaned it up)
• What's playing now: Mind, Body & Soul - Joss Stone
• Favorite Artist: Ooh, that's a tough one. It really depends on what day of the week it is. Maybe Oasis or Muse or Ours... man, that is a tough question...
• First album added to your player: It was either Adam Bomb or Alicia Keys, it's been so long.
• Latest album added to your player: Children - Mission UK
• Guilty Pleasure: Kelly Clarkson.... I love that song 'Since U Been Gone'.

Fun Little Music Meme

A couple of issues of Playlist Magazine featured a section called "Local Scene". The basic idea was to find out what was on the average persons MP3 player. I thought it would be fun to spin this out as a post, so here goes.

Feel free to answer in the comments or post the response on your own blog.

Your Age:
Occupation:
Where do you live:
MP3 Player: (iPod, Rio, etc)
Total songs on your player:
What's playing now:
Favorite Artist:
First album added to your player:
Latest album added to your player:
Guilty Pleasure:

I'll post my answers in the next day or so.