Tag Archives: teamwork

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Micro-Connections Enhance Energy, Enthusiasm

Years ago when I lived in West Texas and worked for Texas Instruments, I was surprised that frequently when I passed another car on one of the long stretches of highway, the driver would wave at me.  People in that part of America typically make eye contact and say hello to passersby on the street.  If you did this in most large cities, especially in the Northern parts of America or coasts where I presently live (i.e. Greenwich, Connecticut), people would think you were strange.

Small actions to connect with people around you are called “Micro-Connections.”   These actions boost enthusiasm and energy in the work environment. Environments where people are friendly—where they make eye contact and say hello in hallways and elevators even thought they personally know one another well—are healthier and more pleasant environments.  Another type of micro-connector is asking questions that are unrelated to work to learn more about an individual.  Unrelated questions help us learn other people’s stories.  Micro-Connections treat people as human beings rather than human doings.  As Atul Gwande wrote in his book Better, asking questions unrelated to work “make the machine feel less like a machine.”

Little things can make a big difference.  Start trying these Micro-Connections out and watch what happens.Over time you will be energized and you’ll build trust and esprit de corps in your organization.

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Employee Engagement, Connection in the Movie “Departures”

While looking for a video to watch a friend recommended Departures, a film by Yojiro Takita that won an Oscar for best foreign language film. I highly recommend it. The movie touches on issues of employee engagement, connection, identity and human value that I raise in my changethis.com Connection Culture Manifesto. There were moments that this film reminded me of the beautiful book Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer.

When you watch the film you’ll see a myriad of situations that relate to connection, including the protagonist Diago’s connection to his father, his wife, his employer, his former occupation and his new one, his clients, and his friends and acquaintances in the community.

Connection and the character values that support it resonate deeply with the Japanese, a topic that I will elaborate on in an upcoming blog post.

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Duke Men’s Basketball’s Secret Weapon: The “Women K”

Duke men’s basketball team lead by Coach K are in The Final Four again.   What’s their secret?  According to Coach K, it’s what might be called the “Women K”: his wife Mickie and their three adult daughters.  Read all about it in this fabulous article entitled “Follow Me” written by Michael Sokolove that appeared in the February 2006 edition of Play magazine, a supplement of The New York Times.  If you read the article and Coach K’s books you’ll see that he clearly describes what we refer to as a Connection Culture, including its three elements: vision, value and voice.

Most leaders are intentional about developing task excellence but they are not intentional about developing relationship excellence.  Not Coach K.  Here are just a few of the quotes that appear in the article that show Coach K strives to develop relationship excellence via connection:

“Almost everything in leadership comes back to relationships”

“When he recruits a player, Krzyzewski tells him, ‘We’re developing a relationship here, and if you are not interested, tell me sooner rather than later.’  That word — relationship — os one he uses frequently.  [He tells players] ‘If you come here, for however long, you’re going to unpack your suitcase.  We’re going to form a bond, and you’re going to be part of this family.”

“Game day is not a day for long, drawn-out speeches.  It is a time for interaction.”

“There’s an empathetic part of leadership, and this is what my wife and daughters have taught me.

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Post-Merger Traps Sabotage Performance

Over the course of my career I’ve had the good fortune to have been involved in several mergers. At first, I was fascinated by the process of identifying a compelling rationale for combining companies, negotiating the deal, planning the integration of people and systems and then executing the plan. The dizzying array of tasks that must be accomplished to complete a merger is challenging to say the least. In time, however, I learned that even greater challenges arose after the investment bankers and lawyers had packed up their briefcases and moved on to the next deal.

Building trust, cooperation and esprit de corps among the members of the newly combined organization is far and away the most underestimated challenge of mergers.  The failure to plan and address cultural differences is why most mergers fail to meet the expectations of the parties going in.   Unless leaders learn how to avoid the inevitable post-merger traps their efforts will be too late to repair the damage that has already been done.

Post-merger traps emerge when behaviors thwart the meeting of universal human needs for people to thrive, individually and collectively. These needs are respect, recognition, belonging, autonomy, personal growth and meaning. When these needs are not met in legitimate ways, people have a tendency to seek illegitimate ways to meet them.  As individuals focus more on self-interest, they lose sight of the organization’s interest.  In time, the downward performance spiral accelerates as individual performance declines, communication is stunted, decisions are made based on incorrect assumptions, financial performance suffers, and so on until survival is threatened.

The good news is that post-merger traps are largely predictable.  Here are a few to be on the lookout for and what leaders can do to avoid them.

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Is Your Corporate Identity Inspiring?

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Jason Pankau and I recently spoke at Vistakon, Johnson & Johnson’s Vision Care group. J&J has an inspiring identity that is expressed in its Credo. Our definition of an inspiring identity is that it exists when everyone in the organization is motivated by the mission, united by the values and proud of the reputation.

Take a look at the J&J Credo by clicking here. As you study the J&J Credo ask yourself if its mission and values are inspiring. After you study the J&J Credo, turn your attention to your organization’s mission and values and ask the following questions:

  • Are your mission and values clearly expressed and widely communicated?
  • Do you have a portfolio of stories that help people understand your organization’s mission and values?
  • Do people in your organization periodically take time to consider their decisions and practices in light of consistency with your organization’s values?
  • Does your organization’s reputation reflect it’s values?
  • Does your organization’s employer brand benefit from its inspiring identity?

J&J does a marvelous job on the Credo section of its website.  Take a look at it by clicking here.  In preparation for a book I’m writing, I’ll be interviewing Kathleen Fitzpatrick, J&J’s Director of Credo and Workplace Engagement, and posting portions of the interview on this blog.

Have you seen expressions of corporate identities (mission, values, supporting stories or practices) that have inspired you?   If so, please post them here or email me at mstallard [at] epluribuspartners [dot] com.

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Having Lost Connection to Work, Nick Sarillo Found Purpose in Pizza

Nick Sarillo lost the feeling of connection to his work when the home construction employer he worked for over 12 years shifted focus from quality and craftsmanship to speed and mediocrity. So Nick did what every self-respecting man of action does. He quit and started his own business where every employee would feel connected to his or her work. Today, Nick’s Pizza & Pub is the 4th busiest independent pizza company in America and it’s the cover story in this month’s Inc magazine. The story is entitled “Lessons from A Blue-Collar Millionaire,” written by Bo Burlingham, one of my favorite writers.

Nick’s Pizza & Pub is a prime example of a business that thrives because its leader is focused on achieving both task excellence and relationship excellence. Just read its purpose and values below:

Nick’s Pizza & Pub
“Pizza on Purpose”®

Our Purpose: “The Nicks Experience”
Our dedicated family provides this community an unforgettable place; to connect with your family and friends, to have fun and to feel at home!

Nick’s Pizza and Pub Values

  • We treat everyone with dignity and respect.
  • We are dedicated to the learning, teaching and ongoing development of each other.
  • We have fun while at work!
  • We provide a clean and safe environment for our guests and team.
  • We honor individual passions and creativity at work and at home.
  • We communicate openly, clearly and honestly.
  • We honor the relationships that connect our team, our guests and community.
  • We take pride in our commitment to provide a quality service and a quality product.
  • We celebrate and reward accomplishments and “A+” players.
  • We support balance between home and work.
  • Health: We are a profitable and fiscally responsible company.  We support the physical and emotional well-being of our guests and team members.
  • Our team works through support and cooperation.

I met Nick and his business partner Chris Adams at The Great Game of Business Conference and Nick attended a presentation Jason Pankau and I gave last Fall at Northwestern University’s Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement.

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Your Corporation: Corpus or Corpse?

The root word of corporation is “corpus,” a Latin word meaning body. Does your corporation act like a healthy body where members support one another and recognize that harm to one is damaging to all. If not, perhaps your corporation is diseased with members harming one another through incivility or indifference. If so, your corporation is on its way to becoming a corpse (and its culture may be killing individual members, too).

Most corporations today are diseased. Corporate Executive Board research shows that 90 percent of employees today are either not engaged and giving their best efforts or they are not aligned with organizational goals. In this article that appeared this week in Hearst Newspapers entitled “Extinguising Employee Burnout” I spoke with reporter Scott Gargan about leadership, employee engagement, productivity and how to combat the growing problem of employee burnout that is literally draining the life out of individuals and organizations.

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Boost Productivity, Innovation: New Program with Linkage

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Jason Pankau and I recently teamed up with Linkage to offer a course on our book, Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion. Creativity and Productivity.  The course includes video with supporting participant and facilitator guides.  Here is a backgrounder on the program entitled Fired Up Leadership to Boost Productivity and Innovation.