4 ways to find the communicators among us

The other day, I was reading a blog post from noted communicator Shel Holtz and he was talking about how company information used to be exchanged during smoke breaks – it probably still is to some extent. Some of us remember how people would gather around the doorways outside and chat for however long it took to get that nicotine fix. Often, what was communicated was invaluable information from one department to another – they were sharing with each other what was going on in the company from one departmental perspective to another.

I remember those days. The relaxed conversation was like going out for a drink with people from work – it breaks down barriers, and people let their hair down (those with hair). And you’re likely to get an unvarnished viewpoint.

It was the next step after smoking in the workplace ended. Can you believe we ever did that? We’d sit at our desks smoking cigarettes! Just the idea of that is outrageous now. Anyway, I digress.

Here’s the point: There’s a lot of information being exchanged throughout most companies that is useful and important. We need to share that information on a broader scale so that people can get a better idea of what’s going on outside their area of expertise. It not only opens up lines of communication, it gives everyone a better understanding of how what they do relates and contributes to the whole organization.

It got me thinking about you can apply those to your workplace. So I thought of four easy ways to increase inter-departmental and cross-location communication throughout the company:

1. Start a blog on your intranet: With so many talented folks out there - creative thinkers and excellent writers - you should have plenty of stuff to share. Tell us a story. Really.
2. Write a departmental update: Every department has meetings. Volunteer to be your department's scribe (let everyone take a turn at it if they want), and then let the rest of your colleagues know what's going on.
3. Shoot a video: With the proliferation of video cameras - god bless the Flip - anyone can shoot video. Many (most?) of you have smart phones that probably shoot great video. See something interesting? Know something interesting that's going to happen? Shoot it and share it.
4. Do an interview: Is there something you heard that was interesting and you want to know more? Follow up with that person, and do a little Q&A. Chances are if you find it interesting, some of your co-workers will too. Write it up or shoot a video.

The truth is that there’s interesting stuff going on throughout the company that others don’t hear about – some of it work related, some of it not. Share your interesting stories, ideas, and anecdotes. In addition to your co-workers getting educated or entertained, you’ll have a chance to do your thing too.

Shel ended his post with this: “Is your company’s culture encouraging staff to share their stories so you can turn them into sharable content? How?”

The answer to that first part should be, “Yes,” and now you have a few ways to answer the second part.

Three reasons the Millennials may be right

Did you know that it costs 1.8 cents to make a penny, and 9.2 cents to make a nickel? That’s right. Apparently the rising costs of these not-so-precious metals make their production a money-losing proposition. That’s ridiculous!

I got that little tidbit from Spirit magazine’s October 2011 issue. Spirit is the magazine of Southwest Airlines that gets tucked into the seatback pockets on the plane – right next to Sky Mall, the magazine with all those cool toys. (I’ve learned to stick to Spirit so I can avoid the peril of ever speaking words that sound like, “I’d like to order the Ginsu knife please.”)

I like to think that an organization’s investment in its people and the people’s investment in the organization is more give and take than the penny or nickel ratios mentioned above. Those ratios are too lopsided for the symbiotic relationship necessary for an organization AND its people to grow.

I read an article the other day (if you follow me on Twitter @cruze24, you might have seen it) that talked about how Millennials are turning corporate culture on its head. This has been coming for a while, but I think the pace of change is going to accelerate because more and more Millennials are joining the workforce every day.

The big three for the Millennials are:

1. Work is Personal – You know the old saying, “Do what you love and you’ll never work another day in your life.” Find something you want to do and that you’re good at, and do that.
2. Work is Life – You’ve probably heard me say that work-life balance is becoming a thing of the past. It’s the 21^st century. We have our work tools with us all the time; let us work when we want to. That’s work-life integration.
3. Open Culture – Keeping your opinions to yourself sucks when you feel you have something to contribute – have the freedom to say it! An author I read a lot (W.E.B. Grffin) trumpets an old military SOP that general officers solicit the opinions of subordinates before they offer their own so that they get honest feedback. That’s a good idea.

The workplace the Millennials anticipate is a real break from the traditional workplace of the past; the one we’re all really trying to break free from. After all, who wants someone constantly looking over their shoulder? How about the concept of face time is quality time? Antiquated. The real measure of quality time is productivity. What are you accomplishing? Not, “what time did you come in?” And, “what time did you leave?”

Another real break is one you’ve probably heard me trumpet (ad nauseam?): Open Culture. Yep, Millennials want to have the freedom to express themselves without fear of reprisals. Duh! We all want that, don’t we? Haven’t we always? Well there’s no time like the present – go Millennials! (and take the rest of us with you!)

The Millennials are getting a bad rap in some circles as the entitlement generation, but it’s starting to sound more and more like sour grapes. They’re just demanding the things we all wish we’d had all along.

As it turns out, we may have as much to learn from the Millennials as they do from us. They’re willing to invest in the organization that’s willing to invest in them, but it can’t be a 2-1 ratio like the pennies and nickels.

What’s your two cents?

A Man FOR the People

There are a lot of corporate CEOs who have high name recognition, and some probably even conjure definite images in our minds.

Nowadays when you think of Rupert Murdoch, it’s likely that there are some negative things that you associate with him. His empire has been rocked by the scandalous tactics that appear to have been commonplace under his watch.

How about Warren Buffett? You might think about his philanthropy, but thinking about his wealth is certainly top of mind too. Maybe the same holds true if you hear the name Bill Gates. Both of those guys do an incredible amount of giving of their wealth.

What about Mark Zuckerberg? If you saw The Social Network you might have some thoughts, but most everyone knows he’s the Facebook guy. He’s also the guy that gave Newark public schools $100 million. Wow!

A lot of business professionals know the name Jack Welch. He’s the legendary CEO of General Electric renowned not only for growing one of the world’s biggest company during his 20+ years as the head of that company, but also for developing leaders.

Now think about Steve Jobs. It’s quite different what comes to mind, isn’t it? Of course we all know he was the guy that ran Apple, but the outpouring of emotion with the announcement of his death was just incredible. We probably all assume he had a certain amount of wealth, and that he likely did some very generous philanthropic work as well.

But in watching and reading all the coverage the past couple of days, what really seems to resonate most is that he changed people’s lives. He changed their lives! There were innumerable accounts of shrines set up all around the world, people posting emotional comments online, and all kinds of creative things with apples, Apple logos, and plays on their signature names like iSad. What a remarkable thing to elicit that kind of reaction from people with whom you’ve never had personal contact.

Many leaders would give their eye teeth to have their employees feel a fraction of that connection with their companies, and I’d bet employees would love to feel that way about their companies. People want the opportunity to get excited about stuff, and work shouldn’t be an exception.

The truth is that he really touched all our lives whether we bought his Apple products or not, watched his Pixar movies or not. The innovations that Steve Jobs led spurred on the innovations of his competitors. We all benefitted.

I didn’t know Steve Jobs, and I’m not an Apple junkie, but greatness this big can be seen from very far away.

In his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford, Steve Jobs said that he asked himself this question every morning: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?” Find that thing you want to do, and give ‘em hell.

What kind of an impact are you having?

We went to see Moneyball last weekend. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it highly. Whether you’re a baseball fan or not (and if you know anything about me, you know I’m a HUGE baseball fan), it’s just an excellent movie. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill are great together, and the story is nice and tight all the way through.

Pitt plays Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s GM who uses data to find players to fill out his roster when it becomes apparent he won’t get the payroll dollars to compete with the big boys. Jonah Hill plays Peter Brand, Beane’s fictional assistant GM based loosely on Paul DePodesta who was with Beane during the time around which the movie is based.

The movie is based on the 2003 book by Michael Lewis of the true story of the Oakland A’s. The premise is that Beane and Brand, with a pauper’s budget in the baseball world, build a team based on the concept of Sabermetrics which analyzes baseball players based on data. This, as you can imagine, is a REAL problem for the old boy network who has been evaluating talent based on gut instinct and gas pain successfully for years. They don’t need no damn numbers, they got eyes for god’s sake!

There were a couple of things that really stuck out for me in a general business sense though: 1.) How tough it is to challenge the status quo, and 2.) Affecting culture change within an organization is BIG work.

Challenging the status quo inevitably involves stepping on toes – sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly. (By the way, knowingly is always better). Like the baseball scouts, people get used to doing things a certain way, and having their success being measured in certain a way. When something or someone comes along to challenge “the way we do it around here,” people are likely to put up a fight – figuratively, hopefully. When our work, and our work product, have been measured in certain ways for an extended period of time, it can be tough to see that there might be a better way of doing things.

As for changing a culture, that’s one of the toughest tasks in any organization whether they’re wildly successful or teetering on collapse. You could make the argument that if an organization is wildly successful you should leave the culture alone. But I’m here to tell you that success happens sometimes in spite of leadership rather than because of it. Likewise, circumstances sometimes overwhelm companies with strong cultures. Either way, culture change is tough, but it can transform an organization.

If Billy Beane hasn’t done anything else, he’s managed to keep his small-market A’s relevant for a fraction of the payroll of other clubs, and he’s made others in the game reconsider the real value each player.

Make it your business to understand your company’s goals. If they’re trying to change the status quo, understand why and get on board.

Culture & engagement aren't soft, they're actually pretty hard

Employee engagement. Corporate culture. Those two terms – hot buzz terms in human resources, and business and finance journals alike – oftentimes make “serious” executives roll their eyes. Those so-called serious executives say they’re “soft” terms that are all touchy-feely and don’t really contribute to bottom line results.

These are the same guys that look at scientific research, polling and case studies, and if it doesn’t agree with their anecdotal opinions, long-held beliefs, and of course their wealth of experience, they discount it. The truth of the matter is that there are tremendous gaps – in all areas of business – between “what science knows and what business does” (I ripped that off from Daniel Pink. Check this out: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html).

There’s a certain amount of arrogance that needs to be set aside – on both sides – because, as with most things, the best solution probably lies somewhere between what science knows and what the serious executive does. The truth is that even if you really do know everything, chances are you don’t remember it all, so keep an open mind – there are other smart people out there with valuable insights that won’t always agree with our long-held opinions.

In an interview with Sean Silverthorne, Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus James Heskett talks about the issue of culture and his new book, The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance. Heskett says that, "organization culture is not a soft concept. Its impact on profit can be measured and quantified."

I’d also contend that unless a company deals in something that no other company deals in – something unique in the marketplace – the only real sustainable competitive advantage any company can have is it’s employees. A company with a strong corporate culture that recognizes the value of employees, and encourages innovation and input gets more from those employees – engagement.

Yep, they go hand in hand. Engaged employees are the ones that go the extra mile because they want to, not because they think it’ll get them brownie points. They actually care about their companies, because their companies have demonstrated it’s a reciprocal relationship.

Here’s another unsettling fact: Up to 75% of mergers and acquisitions fail. You know what the number one reason the leaders of those companies cite as the reason for that failure? You guessed it, the lack of attention to culture.

Research is pretty clear on the bottom line return of engagement too. Companies with engaged employees show a 22% improvement in net profit. 22%! That’s huge! You know what else they get? Less turnover and absenteeism – more huge savings for the company.

Here’s the kicker though: It IS a reciprocal relationship, and employees have to do their part too. Employees who sit and wait for the culture to come to them are going to miss the boat. It’s an active relationship that requires effort from both sides.

Remembering the Golden Rule

My youngest son, a friend of his and I drove down to Atlanta on Saturday to see the Braves take on the Mets in their last home stand of the season. We’ve been to a bunch of games at both Turner Field and the old Fulton County Stadium over the years, but it’s always tricky navigating downtown Atlanta.

We were in bumper-to-bumper traffic and trying to get into the left-hand lane. I motioned to the driver of a van beside/behind us and he waved us over. After sitting there, not making any progress getting through the intersection, this guy in the van pulls out from behind us and over to the passenger side and motions for us to roll the window down. He says if we’ll follow him through the intersection instead of trying to turn left, he’ll get us to the stadium. After 10 minutes of twisting and turning, sure enough he had us at a parking lot about a block from the stadium. We pulled alongside him and thanked him profusely, and he smiled and waved, and said, “No problem, enjoy the game.”

How about that? This guy had nothing to gain but the gratitude of some out-of-towners visiting his city. I was so happy that my son and his friend, who are both 14, were there to witness this man’s unsolicited graciousness. What a great example to follow.

I sometimes wonder how we lose sight of the value of the Golden Rule. It really is so much easier to be nice. You don’t have to think of clever things to say, or keep a running tally of who’s worthy and who’s not. And it makes your days more pleasant all the way around.

Have you ever looked back on a really good day? Wouldn’t it be great if all days could be like that? We had a great day on Saturday – the Braves won on a an RBI single by Chipper Jones in the bottom of the eighth – and it all started with that guy who went out of his way just to be nice.

If the Lions can do it, anyone can

I have an old Fox Trot cartoon strip I clipped from the newspaper about 20 years ago, where the guy is talking to his wife and says, “Can you feel it? The changing of the seasons … one season gradually coming to an end, another moving in to take its place” His wife says, “It’s summer, fall doesn’t start for another month.” He looks at her confused and says, “Summer? Fall? I’m talking baseball, football!”

I love this time of year. The MLB season always gets more interesting at this point with the pennant races heating up (of course it looks like my Red Sox are cooling down at just the wrong time!). The NFL season is getting cranked up with all the optimism only a new season can bring (all those “wait ‘til next year” guys are still blind).

Everyone starts out even supposedly, but some things are as certain as death and taxes: The Patriots will be one of the best teams in the league (Brady for 517 yards on Monday night, followed by 423 more on Sunday!), Rex Ryan will shoot his mouth off AND BACK IT UP – which is great(!), and the Lions will be pathetic. Right? Right? Well, not necessarily. Detroit’s off to a 2-0 start after dismantling the Chiefs 48-3 on Sunday.

Now in his third season as head coach of the Lions, Jim Schwartz has not only turned over the roster in his short time there, he’s doing something nobody else has been able to do in my lifetime (and that’s a while): Schwartz is changing the culture in Detroit. These guys look, talk and act like they expect to win. Whoa! The Lions expect to win? That’s cool. Changing a culture can be very hard to do, but Schwartz is doing it. He’s got the fans (who knew the Lions had fans?) believing and he’s even got the so-called experts believing.

It can be just as hard to change the culture of a company. If you’ve ever worked for an organization that’s experienced some kind of turmoil – restructuring/reorganization, merger/acquisition, or explosive growth – you know how those things can impact the culture, sometimes for good, sometimes for evil (you may know these guys too). Regardless of the circumstances, it can be very hard for employees to embrace a new culture (imagine how hard it would be if the organization also had fans that wanted to tell you how to do it better). It can be a difficult transition.

One thing that’s pretty consistent about the culture conversation is that two companies oftentimes make their way into the discussion: Southwest Airlines and Google. A lot of us use SWA when we travel and understand how they are different. Their flight attendants and pilots joke with passengers – that’s relaxing to a traveler. And their founder, Herb Kelleher was devoted to culture maintenance. In fact, in the September 2011 issue of Southwest’s Spirit Magazine, current Chairman, President, and CEO Gary Kelly talks about the importance of culture as they integrate with recently acquired AirTran.

Likewise most everyone who uses a computer uses Google – they’ve become a verb for god’s sake. (Whoever you are, if your name becomes part of the modern vernacular as both noun and verb, you HAVE arrived.) Google has amenities onsite for employees that are unbelievable – go to the website and snoop around a little, it’s really quite something. They have everything from on-site daycare and massages, to decompression chambers and an assortment of cafés throughout the complex – it’s ridiculous.

I’m always a bit dismayed though when I hear leaders and even frontline employees say, “yeah but we could never do that here.” Yes, you can. Maybe not to the extent Google does it (you’d need their incredible resources), and maybe not with the flair Southwest does it (some workplaces just aren’t conducive to that style), but you can create a culture that others look at and go “Wow, I’d love to work there.” It starts with the leadership, but the whole organization has to drink the Kool Aid in order for it to become interwoven into the fabric of the company.

In order to do this, a company needs to get its head out of the 19^th & 20^th century business model, and get with the 21^st century program. The workforce isn’t the same as it used to be, and technology has changed the game. Many workers no longer need the workplace to have access to the tools required to do their jobs. Autonomy is the name of the game, and real motivation can come from their ability to manage their own time and make a meaningful contribution to the organization’s success.

The truth is that if expectations are clear and the parameters are understood, everyone will be surprised at what employees are willing to give. Autonomy is a powerful motivator and people will rise to the expectations of the organization if that’s the culture that’s established.

It doesn’t happen overnight, and resistance along the way is to be expected – it can be a tough transition – but if Jim Schwartz can change the culture at a perennial loser like the Lions, it can be done anywhere.

The only real, sustainable competitive advantage any company has is its employees. Get involved, make a contribution and help make your organization a front-runner by being part of a culture that makes it a great place to work.