Tag Archives: Innovation

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The Indifferent Workplace

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.

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Knowledge Traps Sabotage Performance

A recent New York Times article entitled “For American Workers in China, a Culture Clash” described how American and Chinese cultural differences impact the workplace.  Cultural misunderstandings can be one form of Knowledge Trap that impedes the flow of knowledge in an organization.  Other Knowledge Traps include leaders/decision-makers who don’t seek diverse points of view, personal rivalries, departmental silos and isolationist organizations.  When decision-makers don’t have access to the best knowledge, there is an increased probability that they will make suboptimal decisions.  In addition, Knowledge Traps have a negative impact on the marketplace of ideas that fuels innovation.

To improve decision-making and innovation, leaders need to be intentional about removing Knowledge Traps. One of the best ways to do this is to educate people so they can be on guard against Knowledge Traps and understand how to avoid them.   Rewarding people who contribute to Knowledge Flow and the marketplace of ideas with compensation and promotions also sends the right message.

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Nations Need Inspiring Identities Too

I’ve written about the need for organizations to have inspiring identities as one means to unite, engage and align members. Identity is the narrative that describes mission, values and reputation. An identity become inspiring when it connects with the personal identities of the organization’s members.  Nick, the door man at the 53rd Street location of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in NYC is fired up, in part, because of MSKCC’s inspiring identity. Nick believes in MSKCC’s mission to provide “The Best Cancer Care, Anywhere,” he embraces MSKCC’s values of caring about people and being the best in providing cancer treatment (i.e. the value of excellence), and he is proud of MSKCC’s reputation as one of the leading cancer centers in the world.

Nations need inspiring identities too. America has benefitted from its identity as the “land of the free and home of the brave,” with values of liberty, equality of opportunity and justice for all. According to historian Gordon Wood, by the early 1800’s, America’s reputation had been transformed from being viewed as on the fringe of the civilized world to being at the vanguard. An inspiring identity contributed to America’s success.

One region in today’s world that needs to find an inspiring identity is Central Asia.  

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Culture, Not Who Pays, Is Real Problem in Healthcare

The New York Times columnist David Brooks just came out with his Sidney Awards for the best magazine essays in 2009.  I always read them because Brooks is among the very best writers/thinkers in journalism today.  One of the award winners is “The Cost Conundrum” by Atul Gwande, the surgeon, author and MacArthur genius award recipient.  Brooks describes Gwande’s essay as the most influential essay written this year.  I highly recommend that you take the time to read it.

What I found especially interesting in Gwande’s essay is that he concludes that culture — or more specifically, the values of doctors — is at the heart of America’s heathcare cost crisis rather than who pays the costs.  Gwande takes us to McAllen, Texas where in 2006, Medicare spent nearly $15,000 per enrollee, twice the national average, but achieved no better than average quality of care.  Like a good investigative reporter he roots out the truth by conducting qualitative interviews and looking into quantitative data.  He discovers that the average doctor in McAllen orders more procedures than the average doctor in America.  Upon further investigation he learns that in towns like McAllen it’s a handful of doctors who drive up the cost per patient by ordering unnecessary procedures. He explains how these doctors benefit financially from ordering unnecessary procedures. The financial benefits come in the form kickbacks to admit patients to hospitals and revenue to partnerships of physicians who own diagnostic equipment such as MRI and CT-scans.  He sums it up this way:

“When you look across the spectrum from Grand Junction to McAllen–and the almost threefold difference in the cost of care–you come to realize that we are witnessing a battle for the soul of American medicine.  Somewhere in the United States at this moment, a patient with chest pain, or a tumor, or a cough is seeing a doctor.  And the damning question we have to ask is whether the doctor is set up to meet the needs of the patient, first and foremost, or to maximize revenue.”

In some ways, this is a matter of identity.

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Connection Preserves Brain Power

Evidence continues to mount that social connections help us survive and thrive from the time we are infants to the twilight years of our lives.  This excerpt from an article I recently discovered that appeared in The New York Times earlier this year suggests that it may be the degree of cognitive function used during social interactions that strengthens and preserves cognitive ability:

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‘Tis the Season

This morning I was a guest on Jim Blasingame’s nationally syndicated radio show “The Small Business Advocate.” You can hear the interview by clicking on the “listen now” button above. On Jim’s program, we talked about how a company interacts with its customers is becoming more important to competitive differentiation. I believe the past century was about achieving task excellence but the century ahead will be about developing relationship excellence in organizations, including strong relationships with and among an organization’s customers (more on that later).

At the heart of relationships is “the force of connection.” If ever there is a time to connect with people, it is now during the holiday season. I say this for my own benefit too. I’m an achieve-aholic who compulsively lists things I must do and who derives pleasure from crossing items off my list. Attending to the tasks in my life — writing articles, speaking, blogging, teaching workshops, making calls, meeting with people, reading articles and books, checking my email and iPhone (now with 100,000+ apps), etc., etc., etc. — develops an addictive rhythm.

Tomorrow afternoon when my daughter Sarah arrives home after completing her first semester in college at TCU, I want to break free of the rhythm of tasks and spend time with her, my daughter Elizabeth and Katie, my wife. My hope is that I can be present with them and not be seduced by the allure of thinking about my next article, speech, blog post, etc.

Katie talks about “making memories.” That should be the priority of this season. Being together. Doing memorable things together. Connecting with those we love.

That said, I want to wish you happy holidays. May the time you have this holiday season be well spent.

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Michael Lee Stallard speaks, teaches and writes about leadership, employee engagement, productivity and innovation at leading organizations including Google, GE, NASA, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. Most recently, Michael and his colleague Jason Pankau filmed a 90-minute program for Linkage that will be released in January of 2010. Michael wrote the guest editorial for Talent Management magazine’s January 2010 edition and last month his article on how the force of connection boosts productivity and innovation was featured as the lead article in the UK’s Developing HR Strategy Journal. Google just posted on YouTube a talk Michael gave at Google earlier this year. Click on these links to learn more about Michael and Jason in the media and their speaking engagements.

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What’s Your Work “Experience of a Lifetime”?

IMG_0449This is the mother ship, or at least that’s what I’ve always called the world headquarters of Morgan Stanley located in New York City’s Times Square. It was here that a significant moment in Wall Street history occurred on June 30, 2005. John Mack had been reinstated as Chairman and CEO by the firm’s board. On that day, when Mack and his wife Christy appeared at a meeting with hundreds of Morgan Stanley employees, they gave him a standing ovation. They knew this was an inflection point in the storied firm’s history. The man standing before them embodied their collective hopes that the firm would return to its former self by restoring a culture that was its greatest asset and the primary source of its competitive advantage.

Mack’s departure in early 2001 had come about as a result of Morgan Stanley’s merger with Dean Witter in 1997. Phil Purcell, Dean Witter’s CEO, became CEO of the combined firm and eventually pushed Mack out. Morgan Stanley’s reputation and culture suffered as a result of Purcell’s leadership style. I experienced the culture change first-hand. The book Blue Blood and Mutiny: The Fight for the Soul of Morgan Stanley describes this period in great detail and Joe Nocera of The New York Times wrote an excellent article about it entitled “In Business, Tough Bosses Are the Ones Who Finish Last.” Thanks to the vocal opposition to Purcell put up by former and current employees of Morgan Stanley, he was thrown out.

My introduction to Morgan Stanley came in 1996 when it purchased Van Kampen Investments where I worked reporting to the firm’s president and heading business and product development. As part of the team to integrate Van Kampen into Morgan Stanley, I commuted weekly to New York for a period of time. I was also part of a joint project to assess business opportunities in Japan. In 1998, I accepted  an offer to become chief marketing officer for Morgan Stanley’s Private Wealth Management Group. I was slightly apprehensive about moving to New York and joining this firm whose employees were known for their blue blood pedigrees. After all, I had grown up in the industrial town of Rockford, Illinois; my grandfathers had worked for a coal mine in the Appalachians; and I was the first in my family to go to college. I was intolerant of any hint of favoritism based on privilege rather than merit. I would soon learn that my concerns were unfounded.

Morgan Stanley was born as a result of the Great Depression. In 1934, the federal government forced the separation of investment banking and commercial banking pursuant to the Glass-Steagall Act and J.P. Morgan became two separate firms: J.P. Morgan and Company retained the commercial bank business and Morgan Stanley was created for the investment banking business. Both firms kept the values that J.P. Morgan himself summarized as doing first class business in a first class way.

From all I could see, this accurately described Morgan Stanley’s cultural DNA. The firm prized its reputation as first class. People at Morgan Stanley worked hard, were for the most part honest, and were typically engaged in philanthropic endeavors to help make the world a better place. Those who didn’t share the firm’s values weren’t considered to be “one of us” and they were thrown out if they lied, cheated or stole, or respectfully guided out if they didn’t live up to the firm’s standards of excellence. For me, Morgan Stanley’s values reflected my own and I was thrilled to be there and work alongside such outstanding colleagues.

The values that Morgan Stanley’s culture embodied included excellence in its every endeavor; open and, for the most part, civil debate on issues; and meritocracy in pay and promotions. It was a partnership culture in the very best sense and it had remained that way even after it converted from a legal partnership to become a publicly owned corporation in 1986. The energy and enthusiasm at Morgan Stanley was off the charts. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. My boss, John Straus, the head of Private Wealth Management, gave me the autonomy I needed to lead my department and get the job done. His door was always open when I needed his guidance or help navigating the politics that is part of every large firm. No one worked harder than John. My colleagues and I were inspired by his passion to create something great. I challenged the people I was responsible for leading to help Private Wealth Management reach its first billion dollar revenue year in history, a goal that we achieved  two and a half years later. It was one the best experiences in my professional life. Working at Morgan Stanley during those years was for me an experience of a lifetime.

Over time, as Phil Purcell and his loyalists exerted their control, that highly engaging environment soured. Former Morgan Stanley employees left in droves. John Straus left and, some months later, I did too. The experience was so eye-opening and disappointing to me that it was one of the catalysts for me to write the book Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity and Productivity.

I’ve given a lot of thought to what made Morgan Stanley so successful. I know it was the firm’s people and culture. People were fired up because they worked in a Connection Culture. Another way to describe Morgan Stanley’s culture is that it was, as I wrote earlier, a partnership culture. David Sirota describes a partnership culture in his excellent book that I highly recommend entitled The Enthusiastic Employee and in this interview he did with Knowledge@Wharton.

How about you? Have you been a part of a Connection Culture or Partnership Culture where you felt connected to the firm’s mission, values, reputation, your colleagues and your day-to-day work? If so, what fired you up about it? I would like to hear about your work “experience of a lifetime.” Just post it in the comment section below.

(Note: on January 1st, 2010 James Gorman will succeed the retiring John Mack as Morgan Stanley’s CEO. John Mack will continue to be the firm’s chairman. To John Mack, I would like to say thank you for your leadership. And to James Gorman, congratulations and best wishes. Lead Morgan Stanley in a way that reflects the mindset of its founder who said  “…at all times the idea of doing only first-class business, and that in a first class way, has been before our minds.”  MLS)

Michael Lee Stallard speaks, teaches and writes about leadership, employee engagement, productivity and innovation at leading organizations including Google, GE, NASA, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia.  Most recently, Michael and his colleague Jason Pankau filmed a 90-minute program for Linkage’s Thought Leaders Series that will be released in January of 2010.  Michael wrote the guest editorial for Talent Management magazine’s January 2010 edition and last month his article on how the force of connection boosts productivity and innovation was featured as the lead article in the UK’s Developing HR Strategy Journal. Click on these links to learn more about Michael and Jason in the media and their speaking engagements.

 

 

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Leading with the Power of Community

Do you ever wonder how past leaders could have missed what seems so obvious in hindsight? Sadly, most leaders live in an environment that makes them vulnerable to managerial failure.  The problem lies in a little-recognized reality of leadership: isolation.

Leading can be lonely.  Typically leaders have few, if any, high-trust relationships at work.  Because leaders have the power to make or break the careers of those around them, people are afraid to be honest with them and challenge their thinking.  Likewise, too often leaders are reluctant to let their guard down out of fear of losing the respect of their colleagues.

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HR: Order Takers or Game Changers?

The best HR leaders are game changers.  They develop conviction about what constitutes a high-performance work culture. They are a force that helps develop the values and processes necessary to make a high-performance work culture come to life.  The departments they run are NOT staffed with the type of order-takers Keith Hammonds described in his wildly popular Fast Company article entitled “Why We Hate HR.”

I recently wrote an article that describes a game changing strategy HR leaders should consider in light of today’s widespread employee disengagement.  The article was just published as the lead article in the UK’s Developing HR Strategy journal.  It’s entitled, “The Force of Connection: Boost Employee Engagement, Productivity and Innovation.”  You can download it at this link.