Have you ever wondered about the upper limits of what employees could contribute to the success of an organization given the right conditions?  I was reminded recently of what people are eager and able to do from a wonderful story on CBS Sunday Morning.  Lots of companies spout bromides and platitudes about how “open” they are to people talking initiative and trying out new ideas.  But in the end, employees are generally defined by their titles and job descriptions, and they’re rewarded mainly for meeting prescribed expectations.

Depending on the organizational culture, the response to the things people do outside of those constraints varies widely from appreciation to aggravation and a range of reactions in between.   Rarely are employees encouraged and supported in making a routine habit of thinking and working every day beyond the boundaries of what they were hired to do.  In most workplaces, job one is job done.

In that kind of climate, organizations lose out in two ways.  First, it diminishes the potential value that employees can add to the company’s performance and results.  Pretty simple.  Second, it stifles the inherent drive and desire in every human being to grow, to contribute in meaningful ways and to have a measure of control over their lives.  In short, it cuts the heart out of employee engagement.

Here are two vivid examples that make the point – one bad, one good.

Bound by What’s Billable

I was talking to a manager in a professional services firm recently about the value of getting employees tuned in, turned on and eager to go the extra mile – my definition of employee engagement.  She said they do good work and management is always open to improvement suggestions, but she admitted that people don’t exert much effort beyond what they’re expected to do.

I asked her about their policy on billable hours.  “Naturally, they have to be 100% billable, just like everyone else in our business,” she replied.  So I asked her when do people have the time to think about fresh ideas and explore ways to improve how they do their work. “Oh, they have to do that on their own time,” she said. It didn’t take her long to see the blatant disconnect between the “say” and the “do.”

Supporting the Urge to Excel

On the flipside is the inspiring and heartwarming story from another organization that was featured in a recent episode of CBS SundayMorning.  This short 2:42 story focuses on Charles Clark, a high school custodian in Euless, Texas.  He clearly is going the extra mile above and beyond his job description, making a difference in the lives of students in ways that typically would be totally unexpected.  While his special contributions are noteworthy, an understated pivotal point of the story is how the school’s administration endorses and supports that kind of initiative.

You see, the truth is almost every human being wants to make meaningful contributions – it’s part of our nature.  Employees are eager and able to do astonishing things far beyond their titles and duties. Another part of human instinct, though, is caution.  If we step outside the boundaries of expectations and we get chastised for wandering too far, most people shut down in a hurry.  So, yeah, let’s be sure to recognize employees for their special efforts, but let’s also herald the leaders who foster the kind of culture where exceptional contributions from all employees can flourish.

If you’re looking for a proven tool to help make continuous improvement part of the everyday work routine for all employees, take a look at our ImaginAction System.  Give us a call at 314-664-6497, and we’ll tell you more about it.

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Last year, I posted an Inside Out column (An engagement miracle.) with a link to a video clip about the Westjet Christmas “miracle” that got more than 64 million YouTube views worldwide. I got such a wonderful response from the readers of this column that I decided to post it again this year – and it comes with a bonus! For this holiday season, Westjet decided to repeat their generosity, but with a twist. Instead of gifting passengers on their flights, they chose to reach out to a poor community in the Dominican Republic, which is one of the countries they serve. Here’s the link to this year’s heartwarming event.

Here is a copy of last year’s post:

An engagement “miracle.”

T’was the night before Christmas. That timeless phrase tells true believers they are about to hear one of the most beloved holiday poems of all time.  It first appeared in a Troy, New York newspaper in 1823.  Recently, it took on fresh new meaning with a Christmas “miracle” that was performed by employees of the Canadian airline WestJet for passengers on two of their flights.

• Aligning marketing communications with employee engagement
• Creating great organizations where people love to work, and customers love doing business

I read an eye-opening article recently about a well-intentioned, but misguided head of a large company. He had a distorted view of what matters most when it comes to putting people first. It was written for the St. Louis Business Journal by Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller. Bob’s company is widely regarded as a corporate pace-setter in the policies and practices that underlie its “culture of care and compassion.”

Who Are the “Right” People?
The company chieftain had heard Bob talk about his personal passion, Truly Human Leadership. Later, the guy sought Bob out to talk about his speech. At one point in the conversation, Bob asked the guy what he felt good about in his life. He replied that he was especially proud of the minority athletic scholarship program he underwrites. While admirable, Bob challenged the man by asking how many people the program supports each year. The guy said about six to eight. Then Bob asked him how many employees he had in his company. Turns out there are about a hundred thousand.

You can see where this story is going. Bob asked him one more pointed question. “What you’re telling me is that you feel good about helping six or eight people outside your company, but the hundred thousand people who work for you every day, whose life and joy depend on the way they’re treated, they’re simply a means to achieve your wealth?”

Reaching In Before Reaching Out
After three hours of conversation, the guy conceded the point. The article goes on to explain that business leaders like him would do well to focus more heavily on their “most important social responsibility” – the people inside the company. Bob put it this way in his article. “As leaders, the greatest act of charity is to care for our people. Corporate social responsibility begins inside the walls of our organizations.”

Barry-Wehmiller puts its money where its mouth is with an array of policies, practices and programs that tell employees unequivocally they come first above all else. The not so surprising upshot of that business imperative can be seen in research they’ve done with their employees. The data show that their caring culture has produced a “heightened sense of altruism, or philanthropy” among 70-plus percent of the workforce.

If Customers Are Your Priority…Then Put Employees First
I’ve written for years in this column, in articles and books about “The Engagement Imperative.” Simply put, it’s based on the principle that there is an inherent connection between “people-first” systems, policies and practices and the way employees relate to customers. As Bob’s article illustrates, it’s also apparent that “care and compassion” inside the organization naturally leads to an elevated sense of social responsibility outside the organization.

One of the best business books ever written on that subject is “The Customer Comes Second.” Its colorful subtitle captures the book’s main premise – “Put Your People First, and Watch ‘Em Kick Butt.” The author is Hal Rosenbluth, CEO of Rosenbluth International, one of the world’s most successful travel companies.

I often cite a passage from his book that gets to the heart of his philosophy for business success: “Only when people know what it feels like to be first in someone else’s eyes can they sincerely share that feeling with others. We’re not saying choose your people over your customers. We’re saying focus on your people first because of your customers. That way, everybody wins.”

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I’ve been a baseball nut ever since I was a kid. So it’s great living in the hometown of the St. Louis Cardinals, the second winningest team in baseball history. They make the playoffs virtually every year, and their presence permeates life in the region from April to October. Every game draws a virtual sell-out crowd that energizes the home team and makes most opponents green with envy.

Lots of factors have contributed to the team’s phenomenal success over the years, and you can get a lot of arguments about what’s most important. Recently, I came across a great video clip that highlights one of those factors, and it applies to businesses as well as baseball teams.

Be Obsessed with Getting Better
It’s captured in an entertaining 11-minute video clip featuring Dr. Jason Selk, who was hired in 2006 as a mental fitness coach for the Cardinals.

Selk weaves an engaging tale of his first day on the job when then manager Tony LaRussa told him sternly that he had 10 minutes to talk with the team. Somewhat shaken but remaining undaunted, he managed to step up to the proverbial plate and turn those 10 minutes into a 6-year career.

During the few fateful minutes when he was “trying out for the team,” Selk was struck by what he saw as a key to their success. What he observed is true for every successful company striving to create an organization where people love to work and customers love doing business. He calls it an obsession for improvement – a passion to learn every minute, to soak in everything you can and make adjustments every step along the way every day all the time.

Minor Improvements – Major Impact
Teams like that – whether it’s baseball or business – know that success isn’t about the big things, the home runs. It’s more about “small-ball,” the base hits and all the little things that add up to success over time. Sure, home runs are exciting, and they sometimes win a game. But the teams that win a 162-game season rarely hit the most home runs.

Here are some revealing stats to prove the point. There are 30 teams in major league baseball. In 2013, the Cardinals were 27th on that list in home runs – and they missed winning the World Series against Boston by one game. This year, the Cardinals made it to the National League Championship series, and they finished 29th in home runs.

Base Hits Beat Homeruns Over Time
That same basic philosophy is at the heart of our ImaginAction System – a tool for getting employees deeply engaged in systematic continuous improvement. Traditional suggestion programs promote the notion that “bigger is better” – the home run syndrome. And guess what? That kind of approach encourages employees to pass right by all the “base hits” that add up to winning in the long run.

The ImaginAction System starts with the timeless principle that “it’s the little things that count.” It’s designed to focus on the constant day-to-day opportunities for improvement that everyone can identify and employees have control over. And guess what? When the system fosters lots of little improvements, it also generates more big ones.

That’s just one of the distinctive features of the ImaginAction System, and the results are compelling. The system typically generates 3-5 times the number of implemented improvements over the traditional suggestion program. It also increases the annual participation rate from the typical 10%-15% of employees to more than 60%.

Regardless of what approach you use, don’t let your organization get caught in the “home run trap.” Always remember, the key to winning in the long run is systematic small-ball woven throughout day-to-day operations rooted in an obsession for continuous improvement.

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Want to learn more about a systemic approach to creating an “obsession for improvement?” Check out our free webinar. Then give us a call and we’ll show you how to get employees tuned in, turned on and eager to go above and beyond.

Do you ever wonder how you know for sure when you’re hitting the mark with employee engagement? Sure, you can look at things like employee survey scores, KPIs and lots of other metrics – and that’s important. But aside from the numbers, how can you tell when you’re getting to the very heart of employee engagement?

When you strip everything else away, the over-the-top, extra-mile performance that most organizations crave from their employees is rooted in people’s emotions. It comes from the heart more than the head, and when you’re talking about the heart of engagement, the level of trust and loyalty in an organization are pretty compelling indicators. But how do you measure those vital qualities?

You can get some sense of it from engagement surveys, but few things make the point more powerfully than a recent event where employees stood up for a beleaguered leader that they love and respect.

A few weeks ago, CBS Sunday Morning ran a story on the CEO of Market Basket, who found himself on the outside looking in following a family tussle for the reins to the company’s leadership. The way employees responded sounds almost like something out of a business fairy tale. But it really happened, and the lessons from that story – along with others like Whole Foods and Radio Flyer captured in this enlightening 8-minute clip – offer a shining example of what the heart of employee engagement looks like … without needing to check on a single number.

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I read a great bumper sticker the other day that makes a potent point about the importance of transparency. “Politicians should dress like race car drivers. That way, we’d know who their corporate sponsors are.” Frankly, few people expect politicians to tell the unvarnished truth – Americans would have a collective coronary if they did. But there still may be hope for the business world to be more real, largely because the stakes are high enough to make it worth their while to be more authentic and transparent.

• Problems are solved faster
• Decisions are made sooner
• Work is done quicker
• Costs are controlled better
• Relationships are more real
• Performance levels are higher
• Teams are easier to build and sustain
• Employees are less skeptical and cynical

The classic slippery slope
One of my pet peeves when it comes to evasive communication is the traditional announcement that thousands of employees are being let go, discretely buried in a massive missive detailing a new direction that will “optimize corporate performance.” A recent internal announcement by one of America’s best known companies is a case in point.

The announcement included oodles and gobs about how smart the company is, but there’s an old adage that “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Buried three-fourths of the way into the 1,000-word tome is the notice that 12,500 people will be let go over the next year as part of this strategic business move. The subsequent “caring” comment consisted of one sentence: “These decisions are difficult for the team, and we plan to support departing team members with severance benefits.”

Seriously? That’s it? I’d love to hear the justification for that clipped consolation comment beyond the desire to downplay the impact on people and head off the critics. Part of me likes to think that the guy who wrote it didn’t even bother to consult a communication professional who understands how to strike the right balance between context and compassion. The hopeful side of me wants to believe that other types of communication took place with employees to answer the big questions on their minds, like “Am I going to keep my job?”… “What’s going to happen to me?”… “Where will I go?” – and other similar “WIIFM”s. Somehow, I doubt it.

Put Your Transparency to the Test
So what does transparency look like?

• Stop trying to sound like a boardroom brainiac. Talk straight and talk first about the things that matter most to employees and customers, not financial analysts.

• Open the books to employees. Show them the critical numbers that are relevant to business outcomes, and help them understand how their day-to-day work impacts those numbers.

• Replace one-way information distribution with interactive conversations that foster an open dialogue.

• Challenge your policies about what information you’re willing to make available to employees so it’s as close as possible to what one Baldrige Award winning company decided on – “no secrets.”

• Use the “friends and family test” when you’re communicating with employees. Ask yourself if your spouse, your kids, your parents, your grandparents, or your friends and neighbors would understand – and believe – what you’re saying.

• Kill the jargon, and remember the quote by the renowned business consultant, Warren Bennis, who said, “The use of buzzwords anesthetizes you to the truth.” If your communication doesn’t sound like the kind of conversation you’d have with someone across the table, it’s probably littered with blah-blah corp-speak.

In the end, transparency comes down to a question of credibility. So next time you’re deciding how open to be with key stakeholders, ask yourself this question: Would you rather have people think of management as a race car driver or a politician?

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Many years ago, someone dissuaded me from the time-worn notion that “absence makes the heart grow fonder.”  Instead, the person implored, “Absence is to the heart what wind is to fire. A little bit will fan the flame even brighter.  Too much will put it out.”

Following that wisdom, I occasionally like to revisit my definition for employee engagement which is really about the heart. It’s an emotional connection that gets employees tuned in, turned on and eager to go the extra mile.  That’s actually a simplified variation of the definition that The Conference Board coined in 2006, which included the now omnipresent term, “discretionary effort.”

Recently, a number of pundits have been challenging that definition along with others that have emerged over time.  They’re calling for a more relevant meaning that everyone can align around – and ironically offering yet another definition to the burgeoning engagement lexicon.

Not surprisingly, we’re also seeing an increasing array of methods that supposedly are the “real” keys to getting employees to go that extra mile.  Many times when I ask people what kind of engagement efforts they’re using, I get a litany of rewards and recognition activities focusing on perks, parties and novel employee benefits. Nothing wrong with that, but it misses the point about the necessity for systemic, day-to-day systems and processes that get to proven extra effort drivers for most employees.

Setting aside the debate about how to define engagement and all the tools and techniques for creating it, here’s an elemental truth about human beings in the workplace.  Extra effort makes a difference, and people simply won’t go the proverbial “extra mile” unless they feel some kind of “emotional connection.”  End of story. It’s about the heart. They’ll show up to work – most of them will most of the time.  They’ll do what’s expected of them – most of them will most of the time.  And they’ll pick up their check at the end of the pay period – all of them will all of the time.

But going the extra mile? More money can get you some of it – but there’s a limit to how far it will go and how long it will work. If you really want to blast off with your team, you need to tap into the deep inner core of imagination and free will of people in the workplace. Those innate traits differentiate human beings most significantly from all other living creatures on the planet – and they are the forces that propel people to towering heights of achievement. I delve into that idea extensively in my book, Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement.

In an article published in the June issue of PRSA Tactics, I talk about some of the keys to making the emotional connection that generates extra effort – along with a bit of interesting history behind the “engagement movement” going back to the early 1980s.

I invite you to take a short trip down engagement lane … and let me know if your heart grows a bit fonder for the power and potential of people in the workplace.

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You just never know when and where you’re going to run into business insight and inspiration.  If you’re lucky – or maybe just tuned in to signs from the universe – it can be anywhere and anyplace.  Even at a film for kids like The Lego Movie.

It wasn’t that big of a leap, actually.  The film’s antagonist is Lord Business, and he’s definitely not the kind of enlightened leader that employee engagement proponents look to as a role model – at least not at the beginning.  He’s basically your kick-butt drill sergeant with a mean streak a mile wide.  His singular obsession is world domination where everyone follows instructions and does exactly what they’re told to do.

The film’s hero is a construction worker named Emmet.  He is mistakenly identified by the downtrodden as “The Special” – the person destined to save the world from the evil Lord Business and his wicked weapon, the dreaded “Kragle,” which immobilizes any effort at divergence.  The “prophecy” proclaimed at the beginning of the movie sets up the adventure like this:

One day a talented lass or fellow,
A Special one with face of yellow,
Will make the Piece of Resistance found,
From its hiding refuge underground.
With a noble army at the helm,
This Master Builder will thwart the Kragle and save the realm,
And be the greatest, most interesting,
Most important person of all times.
All this is true, because it rhymes.

Well, as such movies go, the hero faces countless hurdles and comical misadventures along the way (it is, after all, a cartoon).  In the end, of course, he prevails. But not how you’d expect.  At the climactic confrontation between Emmet and Lord Business, Emmet melts the villain’s cold, hard heart and turns him into a pussy cat with the following verse:

You don’t have to be the bad guy.
You are the most talented, most interesting
and most extraordinary person in the universe.
And you are capable of amazing things.
Because YOU are The Special. And so am I.
And so is everyone.
The prophecy is made up, but it’s also true.
It’s about all of us.  Right now, it’s about you.
And you … still … can change everything.

And he does – beginning with himself.  Suddenly the Kragle-fied characters are released from their bondage, and imagination and free will reign supreme.  If you’ve read my book, “Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement,” you know why that’s so important.  Those special qualities that exist in ALL of us are what differentiate humans most from all other living creatures on the planet – and they give us the power and the purpose to do truly amazing things.

Want to learn more about the importance of those wondrous qualities?
Then …

Read my book, and you shall see
Why human beings must be free
To let imagination thrive
If they want to feel alive!

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