My wife and I took our daughter on a college visit yesterday. It was quite an experience. At this point, I am both excited for her and wondering how I got so old so fast. However, that is not the topic of our time together. What struck a nerve for me during our trip was how we teach our youth and then what we do with them when they get to work. The two seem like they could not be further apart.
We send out kids (and some of us went ourselves) to college. College is a Petri dish of learning and collaboration. Students are asked to focus on learning in an environment where the pursuit of knowledge is the only key. They discuss and collaborate and work together. Students help each other out without asking and are taken care of (for the most part) by professors (managers) that really care about them doing well. There are no ulterior motives. Well, maybe there are but it at least seems a little more altruistic.
Then these kids graduate and have go to work. We then undo a lot of what we just did with them. We put them in cubes and teach them about competition and being sneaky. We say that we shouldn’t share with other teams and use them to get ahead. We say “they are too idealistic” and beat the creativity out of them. Of course they have to get work done and produce results, but couldn’t that be a little more like college or vice versa?
I am curious about how we expect people to succeed when business and school are so dissimilar. What is the purpose of how we teach kids if we are not preparing them for the world of work? Why does the world of work seem so very bleak when you are looking at it from the beautiful halls of higher learning? How do we work to make these two worlds less foreign? Is that something we should even do?
The beauty of college is that you are immersed in it. It is your life for that all too short period when you can focus entirely on getting educated. It is the first time that you are pursuing what you love to do and learning more about it all the time. What if work were like that though? What would it take?
On the organization side, of course there would have to be a focus on learning, growing, taking risks. There would have to be a healthy skeptism of the status quo while respecting, even being passionate, about the history. It would mean that the bottom line would have to be king, but the pursuit of growth of person and team, would have to be queen. Somehow, companies would have to allow for the sense of wonder and accountability. Making sure that people were held to a high standard so to not water down talent. In that vein, there would have to be a very rigorous selection process. At least, there would have to be more than interviews and a resume review to determine fit. It would have to be cultural as well. Of course, there would have to be passion and a sense that the organization was interested in the people working for them. Requiring there to be a lot of honesty.
On the individual’s side, there would have to be a readjustment from “where my money at” to “where is my passion” or “where can I make a difference” when choosing a job. People would have to look at how they fit in the organization, not just if they can make it work. I know that when times are tough, you take what you can. Just know that you should always have the fit idea in mind. Individuals would have to be accountable. That is, they would be responsible for their actions, meeting goals and managing their own careers.
(Just as an aside, as a former manager, nothing would make me more mad then when I would ask an employee what are your goals, aspirations, ideals, whatever (fill in the blank) and they would say “I don’t know” or “I don’t have one”. Well, that just isn’t true. It may not be doing the job they are doing. It may not even be work, but there is always something.)
Individuals would have to be responsible to ensure they are looking to grow and help the company grow if the company is investing in them.
It requires not only a shift in the current work philosophy, both organizationally and individually, but a movement to doing what is best for the more than just right now and more than just for you. Of course profit and personal success are important, but they are short lived. The long view takes more than accolades and next quarter’s profit. It takes hard work, trust and community/relationship building.
I think that is what college made apparent to me. You can see it on the faces of the students that love college. They are collaborating, helping, pursuing personal success and passionate about the institution they attend (usually).
The questions we should all be asking ourselves, whether individual or organization, are
– What is the world I want to leave behind?
– What stories do I want people to tell about me/us?
– How can I impact the world/community/area?
Wouldn’t that make us all a little more passionate about work? Couldn't that make companies even more successful?
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Telling the truth
What is the problem with telling people that they are not doing a good job or they may not be the right kind of person to do a job? Why are we SO careful about being honest?
I was raised to be kind, polite and tactful. Therefore, I choose my words wisely and work very hard to make sure that the meaning of what I say is understood. But does that preclude us from being honest?
Think about the world of work these days. How many times have you seen someone that you KNOW can’t do a job being rewarded or coached or coddled? What is the benefit of that? Nothing! What are we teaching them? That it’s okay or even acceptable to not do what you are hired to do WELL. It feels like we workplaces have become a haven for “blow-softeners” or “excusoids”.
It is as if we have made work in organizations the last bastion of mediocrity. There has been talk for many years regarding pay for performance or accountability in the workplace (said with a deep radio voice). There are even companies that to a fairly good job of implementing these types of structures within their organizations. For the most part, organizations to a sorry job of:
· Having people do what they say they’re going to do well
or
· Doing what they’re paid to do well.
There really no easy answers to the issue of accountability or doing what you say you’re going to do. We are human and therefore prone to not fulfilling on things. But if we hold ourselves up a little bit of scrutiny, we will find organizations that do not do a very good job of telling the truth when it come to doing a job, good or bad.
It is actually easy to set up structures to recognize people that do a good job. However, if we are not actively concentrating on making an example of those people that do a great job and providing them with the opportunities and rewards we are going to accept mediocrity.
Just like losing weight, there is only one sure fire way to make that happen. You have to eat better and exercise more. All of the different ways that you do it are paths to the same place. If we want to get better performance out of our organizations we have to do a better job of telling the truth.
That means when someone isn’t pulling their weight we have to tell them. When someone isn’t right for the job we have to help them find a new one. When someone doesn’t do what they say they’re going to do we have to hold them accountable. When someone breaks a rule there has to be consequences. When someone mistreats a fellow employee they have to be dealt with accordingly, regardless of position within the organization. Although there has to be a process, it must be OK to move people out of the organization that aren’t working out in their role. It is really just that simple. If we don’t, then people will see that they can work the system. They will see that it’s OK to just get by. Great companies don’t just get by.
There are huge benefits to having a culture in which people are held to account. A culture that rewards success, risk and action in their employees will generally be successful. Companies that don’t will eventually find themselves with their doors shuttered.
Just like in breaking any bad habit, the first step is to admit that there’s a problem. Look in your organization. Can you see more people that can’t or aren’t pulling their weight (doing what they said or should be doing)? That is a big problem.
Now before you start firing people willy nilly for coming in late, you have to establish systems and structures that ensure your people are clear about:
· What is expected of them
· What success looks like
· How performance will be rated
· What will happen if they don’t follow the rules
· That it’s OK to take risks
· That they will be rewarded for doing a great job
You must also train your managers on how to administer the systems. They must be examples of the structure and this style of work. You must hold them accountable as well for their behaviors and actions.
Only then can we stop coddling people and start telling the truth. Bad performance is bad performance. People want to do a great job, but only if they know what it takes to win and the reward is worth it. One of the keys to organizational health is honesty. Honesty promotes trust. Trust promotes creativity and communication. Creativity and communication create growth.
Honesty is vital to all of our organization’s success.
I was raised to be kind, polite and tactful. Therefore, I choose my words wisely and work very hard to make sure that the meaning of what I say is understood. But does that preclude us from being honest?
Think about the world of work these days. How many times have you seen someone that you KNOW can’t do a job being rewarded or coached or coddled? What is the benefit of that? Nothing! What are we teaching them? That it’s okay or even acceptable to not do what you are hired to do WELL. It feels like we workplaces have become a haven for “blow-softeners” or “excusoids”.
It is as if we have made work in organizations the last bastion of mediocrity. There has been talk for many years regarding pay for performance or accountability in the workplace (said with a deep radio voice). There are even companies that to a fairly good job of implementing these types of structures within their organizations. For the most part, organizations to a sorry job of:
· Having people do what they say they’re going to do well
or
· Doing what they’re paid to do well.
There really no easy answers to the issue of accountability or doing what you say you’re going to do. We are human and therefore prone to not fulfilling on things. But if we hold ourselves up a little bit of scrutiny, we will find organizations that do not do a very good job of telling the truth when it come to doing a job, good or bad.
It is actually easy to set up structures to recognize people that do a good job. However, if we are not actively concentrating on making an example of those people that do a great job and providing them with the opportunities and rewards we are going to accept mediocrity.
Just like losing weight, there is only one sure fire way to make that happen. You have to eat better and exercise more. All of the different ways that you do it are paths to the same place. If we want to get better performance out of our organizations we have to do a better job of telling the truth.
That means when someone isn’t pulling their weight we have to tell them. When someone isn’t right for the job we have to help them find a new one. When someone doesn’t do what they say they’re going to do we have to hold them accountable. When someone breaks a rule there has to be consequences. When someone mistreats a fellow employee they have to be dealt with accordingly, regardless of position within the organization. Although there has to be a process, it must be OK to move people out of the organization that aren’t working out in their role. It is really just that simple. If we don’t, then people will see that they can work the system. They will see that it’s OK to just get by. Great companies don’t just get by.
There are huge benefits to having a culture in which people are held to account. A culture that rewards success, risk and action in their employees will generally be successful. Companies that don’t will eventually find themselves with their doors shuttered.
Just like in breaking any bad habit, the first step is to admit that there’s a problem. Look in your organization. Can you see more people that can’t or aren’t pulling their weight (doing what they said or should be doing)? That is a big problem.
Now before you start firing people willy nilly for coming in late, you have to establish systems and structures that ensure your people are clear about:
· What is expected of them
· What success looks like
· How performance will be rated
· What will happen if they don’t follow the rules
· That it’s OK to take risks
· That they will be rewarded for doing a great job
You must also train your managers on how to administer the systems. They must be examples of the structure and this style of work. You must hold them accountable as well for their behaviors and actions.
Only then can we stop coddling people and start telling the truth. Bad performance is bad performance. People want to do a great job, but only if they know what it takes to win and the reward is worth it. One of the keys to organizational health is honesty. Honesty promotes trust. Trust promotes creativity and communication. Creativity and communication create growth.
Honesty is vital to all of our organization’s success.
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