Jason Pankau and I will be leading a one day workshop about Fired Up Leadership in Pittsburg, PA on March 16 for the Institute for Management Studies (IMS). You can find out more about the program here.
I’m also honored to be recognized as an expert on employee engagement featured on IMS’s Athenaonline.com e-learning platform. Just to give you a feel for Athenaonline.com, here are a few SmartBytes I filmed for them:
Here are resources I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in getting up to speed and understanding employee engagement as well as staying plugged-in to the emerging employee engagement marketplace of ideas. I will continue to add to this post as I consider new resources and I encourage you to add resources you highly recommend to the comments section below.
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
– Attributed to Edmund Burke
In honor of the Reverend, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I’m posting an article I wrote that was published in The Economic Times in India and in the American Management Association’s Moving Ahead. The article in part describes the time before a concert in Arizona when U2 received a letter that stated Bono, the band’s lead singer, would be killed if the band played the song Pride, which honors the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The FBI told U2 it believed the threat was not a hoax.
Although I don’t know for certain, I suspect that Bono reflected on Dr. King’s choice to speak out in the face of death threats. Dr. King had the courage of his convictions and was willing to risk death to push back the evils of prejudice. Now, Bono had to decide if he too was willing to speak out against evil and risk death because of it.
Andrés Tapia has a compelling vision. Tapia believes demographic changes and the complex set of problems facing humankind will force the integration of knowledge from the silos that much knowledge resides in today. As an example, Tapia points to the field of behavioral economics that integrates knowledge from the fields of psychology and economics. As part of this trend, Tapia argues that the physical and social separation of people based on their differences will also move toward integration. He describes this vision as Diversity 2.0.
Linkage, the global organizational development company, just released a new e-learning program entitled “Fired Up Leadership.” The program features Jason Pankau and me in a 90 minute video format that concludes a Q&A with Linkage Senior Vice President Rich Rosier.
I hope Google is considering what I presented at it’s Mountain View, California headquarters last summer as it decides how to respond to the Chinese government’s apparent hacking of Google’s servers to access information on Chinese human rights protestors. If evidence becomes clear that the Chinese government is responsible for the attack, Google’s response will have an significant effect on the firm’s reputation, consumer brand, employer brand and employee engagement. This is a test of Google’s corporate character and whether or not it will live up to its aspiration “don’t be evil” and its belief in supporting a free marketplace of ideas. Human rights abuses and censorship in China are no secret. To be indifferent to China’s actions in this instance, however, is to provide silent assent. What company or leader would want such a legacy?
The Chinese Government-Google showdown reminds me of a line from Elie Wiesel’s profound speech entitled “The Perils of Indifference.” In it, Wiesel states:
“Why did some of America’s largest corporations continue to do business with Hitler’s Germany until 1942? It has been suggested, and it was documented, that the Wehrmacht could not have conducted its invasion of France without oil obtained from American sources. How is one to explain their indifference?”
It would be wise for Google’s leaders to read Wiesel’s speech and consider how history will eventually record their decision. Some decisions reflect inflection points for a firm and for history itself. As historian David McCullough reminds us in the preface to his book Brave Companions,
“…while there are indeed great, often unfathomable forces in history before which even the most exceptional of individuals seem insignificant, the wonder is how often events turn upon a single personality, or the quality we call character.”
This can be said for corporate character too.
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Note: Above is a video of a presentation I gave on leadership, employee engagement, productivity and innovation at Google’s corporate headquarters, the Googleplex, last summer. On this rare occasion, I presented alone. Normally I present with my colleague Jason Pankau because better together. As Jason says, “Mike’s the serious one, I’m the fun one.”
Recent research from the Corporate Advisory Board shows that 90 percent of employees are not engaged or their behavior is not aligned with organizational goals. Certainly, the recession and layoffs have contributed to this state of malaise in the workplace. It’s not the only cause, however. Jealousies, personal rivalries, silo behavior, and incivility have also harmed the spirits of people at work. The primary culprit, I believe, is indifference.
The Indifferent Workplace is one where people are so busy attending to tasks that they largely ignore one another. The predominant attitude in the Indifferent Workplace is that work is work and my real life is outside of work. Never shall the two meet. To adopt this mindset is to compartmentalize one’s life. Humanity is relegated to life outside of work. Work is all task. The problem is that life goes on at work too. We spend much of our waking hours at work. Recent neuroscience research shows that the environment we live in affects us down to the gene transcription level. For good or ill, we pass these changes on to our progeny. If our work environment doesn’t have meaning and healthy social interaction where we get to know the people we work with as human beings, rather than always interacting with them as human doings, it has a negative effect on our physical and mental health as well as our performance.
This year, I want you to join me in pushing back the forces of indifference at work. When you pass people in a hallway or see them in an elevator, make eye contact and say hello. Purchase a notebook and write down the names of the people you most frequently come in contact with at work. Periodically ask each person to go to lunch or meet you for coffee. Learn where they were born and grew up, what their interests are outside of work, who they admire and what movies, music and television shows they like and why? Also learn how you can help them. Write what you learn about them in your notebook and it will help you remember. If they are facing a difficult time in life, reach out to help or encourage them in some way. Send them a note or do something to delight them. One of my favorites is a gift card to Starbucks or something fun like a package of Ben and Jerry’s ice creams ordered through www.icecreamsource.com (they arrive in a box with dry ice).
As human beings the busyness of life can make us drift toward indifference. For that reason, we must be intentional about valuing people and fighting the creeping forces of indifference. Left unopposed, indifference breeds dehumanization, incivility and violence. Finally, I encourage you to read or listen to Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel’s speech “The Perils of Indifference.” It provides insight about indifference from one who has witnessed it at its extreme, felt it’s sting and thoughtfully reflected on its nature and dangers.
Peter Drucker was an excellent example of an integrative thinker. It’s why his ideas were typically decades ahead of the crowd. Although his work focused on leadership and organizations, the breakthrough insights he developed were frequently integrated from other domains including history, psychology and sociology. During Drucker’s life many in the academy criticized his approach. Rotman and Roger Martin, however, embraced Drucker. And Drucker recognized the importance of the thinking that was being developed at Rotman and said so in this presentation.
So often, management decisions are based on the myopic thinking of a few like-minded individuals in positions of power and influence rather than drawn from the thinking of individuals with diverse perspectives, experiences and thinking styles. The developing fields of integrative thinking and design thinking will hopefully broaden the managerial mindset and result in better thinking and decision making.
[In the spirit of full disclosure, I’ve spoken at Rotman and at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Management, which is also referenced in the article. The Connection Culture I write and speak about draws upon aspects of design thinking and integrative thinking.]
While growing up did you have role models in your life who had a profoundly positive effect on you? Perhaps it was a teacher who believed in you and pushed you to strive, a parent of one of your friends who consistently provided encouragement or a coach who modeled great leadership, teaching you to work hard and play fair. I’m fortunate to have had positive role models and mentors in my life who brought out the best in me and I’ve tried to play that role for younger people in my community.
I was reminded about positive role models recently while watching a remarkable television program called Friday Night Lights. I really want to encourage you to check out this award-winning and critically-acclaimed drama. This show is gritty and real. I don’t want to give away the story but suffice it to say the writing, acting and production of this show are extraordinary, a far cry from many of the vacuous programs on today. You can rent the first three seasons at your local video store and the fourth season will be broadcast soon on NBC (if you have DirecTV, you can watch the fourth season now on Wednesdays at 9:00 PM Eastern).
While I’m not an avid football fan (and you don’t have to be to enjoy this show), I love this drama for its inspiration, entertainment and the values it promotes. The primary examples of great role models on display are in the characters of coach Eric Taylor and his wife Tami. Eric is the high school football coach in a football-crazy West Texas town that, incidentally, is based on Odessa, Texas, where I worked for Texas instruments in my first job after college. Tami is a guidance counselor who becomes the high school’s principal in later episodes. Eric and Tami are both leaders who inspire the kids to achieve excellence in their academic and athletic endeavors, and in their relationships and personal character. The show’s adult and teenage characters face the types of heart-wrenching trials and temptations that we all face in life, whether it’s the sickness or death of a loved one, a friend who needs us during a busy and demanding time in our life, or the lure of doing something we know is wrong for the sake of status or financial gain.
The above video clip includes images from Friday Night Lights set to Coldplay’s song “Fix You.” The images coupled with the song’s music and lyrics capture the spirit of Friday Night Lights. I hope you’ll check it out. You’ll be glad you did.
