Category Archives: Connection Culture

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“Interpersonal Connectedness” One Factor in Metric to Replace GDP

There is a movement to replace GDP as a statistical measure of national success and well-being.  In “The Rise and Fall of GDP,” that appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Jon Gertner describes this effort.  Gertner writes about the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) developing a “key national indicators” system that will be available online. (Last year I spoke at the GAO’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. about The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage.) The article goes on to say that “interpersonal connectedness” is one of the components being considered.

Including connection as a component in a measure of national success would be wise.  What’s measured is what gets done.  David Brooks, also of The New York Times, effectively supports my view.  He argued in “The Limits of Policy,” that it would be wise for government leaders to “try to use policy to strengthen relationships.”

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What Are “Sustainable Values”?

In my last post, I wrote about “sustainable values,” i.e. the beliefs and behaviors that produce an inspiring identity, human value and knowledge flow in groups that help people thrive individually and collectively. In other words, when a group embraces and behaves in ways that are consistent with sustainable values, it leads to sustainable superior performance.

In our work, we recommend that leaders of organizations promote the universal character values celebrated by religious thinkers and moral philosophers throughout history. Cultures that have these values exhibit superior strategic alignment, employee engagement, productivity, innovation and overall performance.  Researchers that are part of the American Psychological Association’s positive psychology research effort identified these values as helping people flourish and a body of large body research is developing in support of that view. Here’s a list of the values and their definitions:

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Tom Friedman, Dov Seidman: Need For “Sustainable Values”

Check out Tom Friedman’s column in today’s New York Times at this link. Friedman cites Dov Siedman’s belief that in an interconnected world we need “sustainable values” more than ever. I couldn’t agree more.  In past posts I’ve written about Dov, his book entitled How and LRN, the company he founded to promote principled leadership.  

In our work at E Pluribus Partners, we promote universal character values and virtue as essential for people to thrive, individually and collectively.  Our “Character > Connection > Thrive Model” (see below) lays out the rationale.  In a nutshell, individuals who believe and behave in ways that are consistent with Universal Character Values (also known as character strengths), create “Connection Cultures” that meet universal human needs to thrive.   You can learn more about Connection Cultures, Universal Character Strengths and Virtues by reading this free manifesto published by changethis.com entitled The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage.

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Webinar: Jobs, Catmull, Lafley Have the “Connection Edge”

Jason Pankau and I are presenting a 60 minute webinar for Communitelligence about the “Connection Edge” that leaders such as Steve Jobs, Ed Catmull and A.G. Lafley employ to boost strategic alignment and employee engagement.  The webinar will be held on June 9 at 2:00 PM Eastern.  You can sign up at this link.

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Has SAS’s Jim Goodnight Cracked the Code On Corporate Culture?

On Friday, I was granted a private interview with Dr. Jim Goodnight, co-founder and CEO of SAS.  We met in Atlanta during the Chick-fil-A Leadercast where 50,000 individuals participated live or via simulcast from locations around the world.

Goodnight, who has a Ph.D in statistics, founded SAS more than 30 years ago with colleagues from North Carolina State University.  Today, SAS is on a roll having achieved an enviable long-term record of revenue and profit growth. The firm was named number 1 on Fortune’s “Best Places to Work” list for 2010.  Harvard Business School named Goodnight as one of the “20th Century’s Great American Business Leaders.”  He was also recently named one of “America’s 25 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs” by Inc magazine.

During the Leadercast program and prior to my meeting with Goodnight, author Jim Collins interviewed him on stage. Collins has written about the Level 5 leaders who experienced a catalyst in their lives —  death of a loved one, near death experience, religious conversion — that developed humility in their character and made them better leaders.  Collins seemed to be looking for something similar in Goodnight  to explain SAS’s benevolent corporate culture where the average work week is 35 hours and the bucolic SAS campus has nearly every employee perk imaginable.  Despite Collins’ attempts to draw out Goodnight, he hit a dead end. Typical of Goodnight, he answered several of Collins’ questions with a “yes” or “no.”   When Collins asked Goodnight why most SAS employees were given offices rather than the standard cubicles that the typical software company employee has, Goodnight replied tongue in cheek that if an employee were watching porn from the privacy of his office it would not be the problem that it would be if he were in a cubicle out in the open.  The audience responded with tentative laughter.  They weren’t quite sure what to make of Goodnight.

Like Collins, I have known and written about many great leaders who experienced adversity that made them better leaders. Goodnight is a different breed, a leader who by all accounts has not gone through a Level 5-type transformation and yet has at least in some respects cracked the code on corporate culture.  For every job opening, SAS receives 100 or more resumes. Over a business cycle, SAS’s employee turnover in the low single digits is a fraction of the software industry’s that at times reaches into the mid-20 percent plus range.

My interview with Goodnight and some additional research led me to believe that Jim Goodnight is among the most important role models for leaders to emulate today.  This week I’m working on an article that explains why.  If you have thoughts about Jim Goodnight or SAS’s corporate culture that you would like to share, please post them here or email me at mstallard [at] epluribuspartners [dot] com.

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What Steve Jobs, Ed Catmull and A.G. Lafley have in common

Jobs, Catmull and Lafley connect with employees of their respective organizations, although they do so in distinctly unique ways. This is the topic of a webinar Jason Pankau and I will be doing for Communitelligence. You can learn more about it at this link. This topic is relevant today because Corporate Executive Board research shows that 90 percent of employees are either not engaged and giving their best efforts or they are not aligned with their organization’s goals. Research by both The Conference Board and the Corporate Executive Board shows that the solution to this problem to develop the emotional and rational connections that employee have with their organization’s mission and values, supervisor, colleagues and day-to-day work tasks. In the webinar, Michael and Jason show how great leaders do this.

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John Maxwell on Connection

I’m in Atlanta to write about the Chick-fil-A leadercast. Presently I’m listening to John Maxwell who recently wrote Everyone Communicates, Few Connect. Here are a few of John’s comments about connection:

– Leadership is influence.
– Connecting is the ability to identify with and relate to people that it increases our influence with them.
– Connecting is all about others, not about us.
– Connecting is intentional, it is all about other, and it requires hard work and energy to connect.
– As soon as you get married, you have a power outage.
– Who do you need to spend energy on connecting with?
– Connectors find common ground…connection is based on similarities, not differences.
– When you connect it takes you to a higher plain of communication.
– Connections happen when you open up your life rather than keeping people at a distance.

As always, John connected with the audience. His warmth, humor, humility and wisdom are truly exceptional.

I’m thrilled to see John write and speak about the importance of connection. John is an fellow author whose books have been published by Thomas Nelson, the publisher who published our book on Connection Cultures entitled Fired Up or Burned Out: How to reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity and Productivity.

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Leaders Shape Stories

Mark Sanborn just said people should slow down, reflect and be shapers of stories.  How true! It made me think of a scene in the movie Apollo 13 when Mission Director Gene Kranz changed the story of the Apollo 13 mission failure from being about a potential disaster to being one of NASA’s greatest moments by bringing the astronauts safely home despite the odds against them.  For those who don’t know, NASA performed heroically and saved the three astronauts lives.

Last week I spoke to a leader at NASA’s Johnson Space Center who told me that Gene Kranz’s famous line “failure is not an option” that he stated in the movie still influences NASA’s culture today.  On June 17, Jason Pankau and I will be speaking to leaders at the NASA Johnson Space Center where Gene Kranz uttered those famous words that reshaped NASA’s story.  We feel a sense of awe and humilty to have an opportunity to speak at NASA.  We hope to inspire NASA’s leaders about how important it is to create a Connection Culture so that they will thrive, individually and collectively.

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Your Leaders, Hubris or Humility?

At the Chick-fil-A Leadercast, Jim Collins just pointed out that great leaders in his research had the character strength of humility and those who fall could be described as having hubris. Collins is right.  The Greek historian Heroditus who is referred to as the “father of history” warned his fellow Athenians of developing hubris in his great work The Persian Wars. Heroditus described how king Darius the Great of Persia showed hubris in attacking the small Greek City-State of Athens.  Although the Athenians were overwhelmingly outnumbered,  they routed the Persians. And years later when Darius’ son Xerxes tried to avenge his father’s humiliation, the Athenian’s defeated the Persians again.

Collins also pointed out that so often a crucible in life — cancer, economic depression, emotional depression, death of a loved one, etc. — shape people’s character so that hubris is replaced by humility.  Collins wife’s battles with breast cancer helped him understand this.  I know from my own experience how fear of losing the love of your life from something that’s out of your control develops a sense of humility.  My wife Katie’s battles with breast and advanced ovarian cancer taught me this (I wrote about the experience in essay for Amazon Shorts entitled “Alone No Longer” that is widely circulated in healthcare communities.)

There are some great books that touch on how struggles in life affect the character of leaders.  One of my favorites is Lincoln’s Melancholy by my friend Joshua Wolf Shenk.  I also highly recommend the enthralling and inspiring Bonhoeffer: Pastor,  Martyr, Prophet, Spy — A Righteous Gentile Versus the Third Reich by Eric Metaxas.

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Writing From the Chick-fil-A Leadercast

Today I’m writing about connection and community from the Chick-fil-A Leadercast in Atlanta.  It’s nice to see a conference sponsor that has a reputation for virtuous leadership and values!

This morning I learned Chick-fil-A is an organization that is motivated to build community.  Every organization needs an inspiring identity that motivates its members.  Vision, mission, values and reputation are the elements of an inspiring identity story.  Building community and connection motivated people at Starbucks.  CEO Howard Schultz adopted this mission when on a business trip to Milan, Italy he observed that espresso bars were public spaces that brought people together (note: I’m presently writing an article about connection with Howard Behar, former president of Starbucks North America and Starbucks International).

For many people, building community and connections is extremely motivating, something I wrote about for changethis.com in The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage.  I’m glad to see Chick-fil-A is motivated to help build community.  It’s a mission to be proud of.