Economics: Cheaper always has a price

I was driving through our neighborhood recently  with my son on the way back from soccer practice.  It was one of the first really warm days of Spring, so many of the local shopkeepers were busy outside their stores cleaning windows, sweeping sidewalks and putting out colourful chalkboard signs that promised great deals and upcoming sales.  It was one of these signs that caught my son’s eye, outside the local Pet store.  The sign’s proclamation was simple, if not devastating.  Printed in a bold black font,

“Going out of Business Sale”

Reading the sign took only a second, but I knew the impact would last far longer.  Ask most parents in our neighbourhood (any neighbourhood I suppose) and they will say the same thing. The local pet store is more than just a place to buy food for their cherished family member…. it’s a mini zoo, where they can spend an hour on a Sunday afternoon… a place that in their children’s eyes, is filled with wondrous creatures great and small.

As a proud Canadian business owner myself, I am always saddened to see a local business fail, but this particular closing was especially troubling.

My son knows all too well, the sacrifices a family endures when they own their own business…. the weekends spent working…. the late nights… the endless “give me second” references, signalling that he should come back to talk to me later.  These are all too familiar, but made worthwhile when we succeed, which thankfully my company has been able to do.  But I do not think until that very moment, he had realized that sometimes a business can fail, even one as wonderful and joyous as our local pet store.

Naturally he asked ‘why’?

“Could be any number of reasons,” I said. “But, most likely, it’s because they couldn’t compete with the bigger pet stores”.

“What do you mean, they couldn’t compete; because they are small?” “Does that mean your company will go out of business too?”

“No, we’re just fine. What I mean by ‘compete’, is that some companies (large companies) can buy the things they sell to customers much cheaper than smaller stores can, because they paid less to get them. So their customers are happy, because they save money when they shop there.”

“Yes,” he said jumping in… “but the people working in the small companies aren’t happy, because now they don’t have a job.”

“Yah,” I sighed. “That’s economics; cheaper, always has a price.”

Naturally this conversation, got me thinking about my business. Pathways is a learning technology company. We are by all accounts successful. Growing, employing Canadians. But we don’t sell widgets. We sell services that become products. eLearning, gaming, animations, simulations etc. Our cheaper options would come in the form of people. We could outsource. Many in our industry do. It’s easy. In most cases, no one has to be the any the wiser. We could pass the savings on to our customers. Then everybody wins, right?

I know that ‘cheaper always has a price’. I know that local talent must be fostered and supported for our customers to really enjoy what we’re selling. I also know that you can outsource yourself right out of a job. It all comes around eventually.

Before writing this entry, I asked one of my colleagues what he believed our competitive advantage was. He paused for a moment and said, “We care. All of us. We all care. We may not always be perfect, but we care about what we do – because we see the direct impact of our work on our clients. If you don’t know your customers, how can you care about them?

He was right.

Small business owners know how much each and every client matters. They have to, because their livelihoods depend upon each and every one of them. People often talk about small business being the life-blood of our economy, but the real measure of those words comes when we make choices to buy our pet food somewhere cheaper.

It’s Just A Matter Of Perspective…

I’ve had the great pleasure of speaking to many audiences about the ‘phenomenon’ of generational dynamics. This is the term used to describe the distinctive attributes of one generation vs. another and (largely) how they are challenged to understand each other – particularly in the workplace.

Many people have weighed in on this topic – but few – in my experience, have attempted to understand what drives the ‘contempt’ that is often spewed at the generation known affectionately as Millennials. Instead, terms like lazy and entitled are thrown around as though they apply unilaterally. Of course, in the greatest of ironies, the people most apt to ‘label’ these twenty and early thirty-somethings, are the ones that ‘created’ them.

Yes, workplace Boomers – Generation Y are your offspring.

The truth is, there are far more cross-generational similarities, than there are differences. Sadly, most discussion about generational dynamics is at best stereotyping, and at worst, ageism.

So is there merit to this ‘dynamic’ at all? In a word, yes.

Experiences. Specifically, those significant socio-economic, political, environmental and/or cultural experiences each of us are exposed to. These are the foundations of the phenomenon. Why? Because, it is a generation’s exposure to these key events during their formative years that become the flagpoles for their views of the world – and ultimately – the drivers behind their opinions on how things ‘should be’.

For example, I feel safe in arguing that an individual’s perspective on life would have been shaped by living through an event as significant as the Great Depression. This would not preclude other events in that person’s life from impacting their perspective – but certainly the Great Depression would be among them. Perhaps that individual would have been less likely to use credit, choosing instead to pay cash. Perhaps they would have been more likely to have savings (under their matress) rather than trusting a financial institution etc.

If you apply this same principle to Millennials, you can begin to piece together how this demographic would view the the world around them – personally and professionally. Moreover, it begins to explain why an entire generation is often branded as ‘entitled’.

Let me explain.

Depending on your age, you will remember that failing in school was a distinct possibility if you performed poorly. Receiving a zero for not handing in an assignment was understood. ‘Repeating a grade’ because of poor performance was the ultimate consequence. But for Millennials, these concepts are largely foreign. This have never been their reality.

So what?

Well, if you are not familiar with the concept of social advancement, it simply refers to the position most school boards (at least in North America) hold regarding failing children. Instead, of ‘holding students back’ or having them repeat a grade for a second time, children are moved with their peer group, irrespective of academic success. This is for the betterment of their social advancement. Ideas such as receiving a zero, or an ‘F’ grade are largely a thing of the past. In some cases, even the use of red pen to indicate errors has been banned. This is all to insulate (a potentially impacted) child’s self-esteem from damage and ultimately to secure their long-term academic success. Students receive feedback that is designed to be constructive, not critical. All with an aim to drive improvement, without negatively influencing self worth.

It doesn’t matter what your perspective is on this notion, merely that the impression on those individuals with these experiences is very real.

But why would grade school, or high school matter to someone that’s in the workplace and now 25 years old?

Remember, you do not measure sociological impact in days and weeks, you measure in decades. If you’ve never been allowed to fail (or more importantly) there has always been a second chance, how might you be impacted when you interact with someone that has? Perhaps a manager or client, for whom ‘getting it right the first time’ is the only option. This is the ‘dynamic’ in action. This is today’s workplace.

In the example I’ve sited, an employee that failed to ‘get it right the first time’ would most certainly receive feedback. Every generation understands that. However, for those of a certain age, this feedback would be received (or presumed to be received) as their boss is handing them a ‘pink slip’. But for Millennials, (remember the experiences shaping their perspective) feedback is a thoughtful way to help them improve, to create a better ’employee’ moving forward. Certainly not a forerunner to their termination. Which employee might seem ‘entitled’?

Here’s another example.

When I look back on my youth, I cannot remember a time when I ever questioned a teacher. Their word was law. They were not my equal and they were certainly not to be challenged. My grade school principal was approximately 9 feet tall and 900lbs (or so). He too was not interested in my self-esteem. He was quite content never to speak to me – unless he needed to. If, ‘he needed to’, I was in trouble.

Today, teachers and administrators alike, have taken on the roles of school liaison and ambassador. Typically, they stroll warmly through the hallways, waving and smiling at their students. They encourage collaboration and welcome (respectful) disagreement of their opinions and decisions. Certainly not the figures of intimidation I remember. But if respect is ‘earned’ (today’s understanding) and not given (yesterday’s understanding) how might these views collide in the workplace?

Remember, ‘entitlement’ is a perception. Typically its arrived at through the lens of someone that doesn’t believe another has earned the right to have what they’ve asked for. So who decides? That’s the real problem. If a boss that ‘cannot be questioned’, engages with an employee that ‘has always been allowed to voice their opinion’, we experience a generational divide.

Honest communication is the only real answer. It almost always is when attempting to drive positive change. Open exchanges aimed at understanding  – rather than awkward meeting room glances, private gossip or social media driven tirades.

A Millennial is no more entitled, than a traditionalist (having grown up in the wake of the Great Depression) is cheap. It’s just a matter of perspective.

 

 

 

When Managing Change, It’s People First

Change management is an organizational term used by many and executed by few.

By way of a definition, change management is the process of recognizing and supporting the human capital impact of change on a project, initiative or undertaking. However, more often than not, change management is wildly underrepresented on any given project plan. Truth be told, it usually amounts to a line item or two on a Gantt chart.

Project Milestone 1 – Send email informing employees of change
Project Milestone 2 – Launch ‘mandatory’ webinar for employees regarding change

Not surprisingly, this approach typically results in pushback, opposition and fear. The most vocal opponents to change are often labelled ‘squeaky wheels’ and dismissed as ‘always resisting change’. Perhaps those individuals are in need of some grease, but it would be naïve to assume their complaints or concerns are just noise, not worthy of consideration. Sadly, this is exactly what happens in most organizations.

Why?

It could be a resource issue, financial, human or both – or maybe it’s a belief that eventually everyone will have to change, so why bother making more work. I mean after all, if you’re changing office locations, employees have to move, right? If you’re putting in a new IT system employees have to use it, right?

Wrong.

Ignoring the need for change management will spell disaster, short, medium, or long term for your project. Moreover, failure to consider those ‘squeaky wheels’ is a recipe for employee resistance every step of the way.

Do you really want that?

Most projects fail, because process trumps people. The realities of organizational dynamics prove quite the opposite. People rather than processes should be the central focus of any successful project plan. Why?

People get in the way.

People that do not understand why become obstacles. People that are unaware of exactly what is changing (and why) make stuff up! It’s in our nature. In the absence of real information, we create fiction. I’ve heard many examples – but one – above all others – always comes up… Will I lose my job? What could be more human than that?

So what do you do now?

An effective methodology should be aimed at supporting those who will be most affected by the change, while maintaining planning alignment with those driving change. At the core of any effective methodology should be empowerment and transformation. Anchoring to this philosophy will help support the differing needs of individuals and create conditions and opportunities that enable impacted stakeholders to ‘buy-in’.

By using two-way communication and a people-centric learning approach, your plan will engender broad levels of participation and engagement with the change being sought after. Take the time to explain the ‘why’ and you’ll likely be surprised by what people will do to help you change.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z5kGvYRYKE

Presence In The Moments That Matter

A little while back, I experienced just how important ‘being in the moment’ was. My son, a soccer player, was asked to demonstrate a skill move in front of his team. He was very proud. I was there, as I (almost) always am.

I missed it.

Why?

I was on my phone, looking at an endless stream of people sounding off on Twitter about a subject so important I can’t remember it now to punctuate this story.

I was there. I was not present.

A client of mine once suggested that work/life balance was nothing more than a myth. She argued it was impossible to be in balance with all of the expectations that come from your job, your family and (if you’re lucky) your personal time.

When she first said it, I wasn’t sure if she was right; but she was. Work/life balance is a myth. It isn’t realistic to have equal parts life and work. Not anymore.

But presence, now that’s different.

For most of us, our workday begins the moment our eyes open. The first thing we look at in the morning is the screen of a handheld device. Put simply, work and life are attached to a smartphone capable of managing our days and facilitating communication with the office (at all hours). But let’s face it, work matters, work pays the bills and work is what makes it possible for us to do the things in life we love to do. So not being responsive to work issues could be career limiting. I get that. But once we get to those “things we love”, then what?

The rub (of course) is that many of us are challenged with making those things we claim to love into priorities that we are truly ‘present’ for. It seems we have collectively removed priority management from our repertoires and in its place inserted ‘multi-tasking’. This term implies we are now capable of dedicating 100% of our attention to more than one thing at a time. We can’t. We couldn’t 50 years ago and we can’t today. We haven’t gotten any smarter, so maybe we are all just afraid of missing something.

Like what?

Email spam, an emoticon-riddled text message, an ‘FYI’ work email, or maybe a status update from an elementary school ‘friend’ asking what they should have for dinner.

When you are always plugged in, you cannot be fully present in the moments that matter; without ‘unplugging’ you can never recharge and without recharging, you run out of (battery) life.

Do I believe we can reclaim work/life balance in a literal sense? No. Not if you are intent on getting 8 hours of sleep, coupled with 8 hours of ‘life’, together with 8 hours of work. Kids need shuttling; aged parents need assistance, ‘work’ (which never loses) always wants more…

So now what?

Through our own efforts or omissions, we have made everything important. Which means nothing is. We claim there isn’t enough time in the day, but then we reach for our phones and repeatedly refresh our email in the hopes of getting more. We religiously update our personal statuses on social media and scroll through our ‘friends’ news feeds, in a never-ending desire to showcase, or observe even the most benign moments in our lives. Being ‘social’ used to mean getting out and having fun. Now it means typing like you’re employed in a 1960’s secretary pool. We turned fun into work.

The result?

The creation of a false sense of urgency to everyone and everything, like Pavlovian dogs salivating, the moment our phones make a noise, we respond. While it’s easy to blame technology, the reality is most of us no longer understand (or care to understand) what a priority is.

That’s where it starts. We all know the things that really matter.

I do not wish to go back to a time of busy signals on telephones, snail mail and pink message notes left on desktops; but I do encourage more presence in the moment. Those moments that matter, not defined with selfies or videos, but with a few ‘old school’ stills captured in our memories.

A lesson I would be well served to remember.

mLearning Is Not The Future, It’s The Here and Now

An amazing transformation has occurred over the past few decades… we’ve lost our ability to wait, to be patient, to be bored.

We no longer remember what to do, when there’s nothing to do.

Why?

I blame the Internet. More specifically, I blame the technologies that reside in the palm of our hands. Super computers really. Smart phones and tablets that are so powerful, they are akin to dragging around an entire set of encyclopaedias everywhere you go.

If you’re reading this and wondering what an encyclopaedia is… use Wikipedia and work backwards.

Now, to be clear, this blog is not a thinly veiled diatribe on how I’m longing for the world that ‘used to be’. Quite the contrary; as a company we’ve embraced the world as it exists today. We are content in our realization that we will not return (at least not soon) to a time of patience. In fact, patience has been replaced by pace. Meaning speed above all else, in virtually everything we do.

We do not wait. We Google, we YouTube, some may Bing or Yahoo… but we do not wait.

So why should learning be any different?

It isn’t. Except that learners are most often bound by the inability of their organizations or institutions to produce content quickly. They are also stymied by their environment’s (corporate, academic or otherwise) ability to provide that information in microbursts. Just like the ‘Internet’ can.

Training must be mobile and fast. That’s where we come in.

We have recognized as a company that micro learning is not the future, it’s the ‘here and now’. Our technology solutions have created ways for our client partners to push real learning out to their organizations with pace. mVideo, mLearning, mGaming, mEverything…

As a speaker, I hope there will always be a place for classroom learning and facilitator driven discussion, but the world has changed and Pathways Training and eLearning has changed with it.

Learning happens in classrooms, meeting rooms and living rooms – so the more readily available the content, the more likely the learning is to occur…

You’re looking at your phone anyway.

Customer Service Is What Sets Us Apart

Members of my team and I recently sat through a client ‘pitch’ that was both enjoyable and noteworthy.

Like any business, we are often asked to recite our ‘Elevator Pitch’ – that 45 second (or so) explanation about our service offerings, our value-add and most importantly what sets us apart from the competition. This is ‘sales 101’ stuff… so why I am bringing it up?

A funny thing happened as we began walking through our core differentiators – I changed the talk track. I wanted the focus to be on the team.

Yes, that included the amazing skills they brought to the table (graphic design, 3D animation, programming, curriculum development, facilitation etc. etc. etc.) but this time, the message was about how they could parlay those incredible skillsets into a client experience that is unique, focused and unwavering.

I believe we are better at what we do than anyone else in the market; but shouldn’t I? It is my company after all. I am also experienced enough to know that my competitors will all claim the same thing – and so begins the stalemate.

 

Not so fast.

We believe as an organization that customer service trumps all. Our ability to showcase our amazing work products ‘gets us in the door’, but our capacity to service our clients lets them see just how important they are to us.

If you work with Pathways, you have to care about service, because our value proposition is wholly focused on the client. They are the reason for our work… never an interruption from it.  My team understands the difference.

Anyone joining our organization will understand the difference quickly too, because the expectations I place on our team are built on this foundation of customer service.

“Without them – there is no us,” is how I concluded my ‘elevator pitch’ on this day.

I don’t think it’s what the client expected to hear – and that was fine by them.

After all, you can’t fake service. At least not for long…

Good Politics and Customer Service

In my previous post I commented at length about the harsh realities of today’s organizational politics and the childish interactions that result… but I did say there was hope… or at least I hinted at as much.

Hope comes in the form of internal customer service and the good will it generates – that good will begets good politics.

Much is made – and rightfully so – about the need to effectively service our external clients. But what about our ‘internal’ customers, should they be held to less of a service standard than their (typically) paying counterparts?

When I’m asked to speak on this subject, invariably this question arises: “Should our commitment to internal service, match our commitment to external customer care?”

 The answer: OF COURSE!

Would you talk to your Mother like that?

Customer service requires constant attention to the end-user client. Constant action. Sometimes clients are demanding, too demanding. Sometimes they want too much, need too much, ask too many questions, are slow on the uptake, need help with everything, interrupt your ‘real work’ etc. etc.

But still, even with all of the effort that is required to keep them happy, everyone reading this knows, you never:

• Swear at a customer, or speak disparagingly
• Sigh after they make a request, or ask a question – no matter how annoying it may be
• Forget basic manners, such as: please and thank you
• Attend a planned meeting late, or forget about it altogether

These things are simply ‘no-no’s” in the world of customer service… Correct?

What if that customer is a colleague from Sales, Marketing, Operations, HR or Finance? Do these simple ‘rules’ still apply? If they do, you are well on your way to creating a team that has the internal support to effectively interact with an increasingly complex external customer… if those rules do not apply to your colleagues – why not?

It’s just math.

As far as I’m concerned, without a positive (internal) focus on any group that is tasked with delivering (external) customer excellence, the result will always be a ‘mixed bag’ of client service interactions. Any organization, department or team that fails to care for its internal customer, is counting exclusively on the intrinsic motivation of the individual contributor to drive results.

As a business owner… that is simply terrifying. The math I mean.

• Happy staff = Happy clients.
• Unhappy staff = Customer service pinned to a wish and a prayer.

There are no guarantees in life, but I’ll take my chances with a high functioning, engaged and recognized staff member interacting with my clients, over a disengaged and disgruntled employee that I hope will put the customer’s needs above their own.

It’s just good politics.

High School & Organizational Politics…

High School probably seems like an odd place to begin writing about leadership; truthfully, it is. It’s also an honest place, because social politics and its unwritten rules thwarted many from sitting at the “cool” table during those formative teenage years.

I attest, the impact of those rules move well beyond high school and right into the workplace.

This is a difficult thing to rationalize, because we tend to think that we leave childish social dogma behind us when we “progress” through life.

We don’t.

The rules of social success – or more specifically the politics of success – exist in country clubs, neighbourhoods, the PTA, sports teams and even in our own families.

As they say, politics is perception.

To be clear, the players from your high school memories might have changed, but the positions within that hierarchy are firmly entrenched. So the quarterback of the football team, or the beautiful head cheerleader may no longer occupy their roles atop the social pyramid, but that informally engineered roadmap to success remains.

Consider for a moment that handsome professional in your office, well spoken, well dressed and by (most everyone’s assessment) an average performer. So why does the leadership team seem to believe this person is a star? Why? Because he looks and behaves like they do, or at least like they think they do. He fits.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes stars – really are stars, but like all things political, too often it is based on criteria that cannot be measured through work product – just perception.

Perhaps the reason your colleague is perceived to be a greater star than his work might otherwise indicate, is a reflection of his adherence to some unwritten rules.

1. Well-groomed
2. Well-spoken
3. Engaging

Oh yeah… and being handsome doesn’t hurt either.

Perhaps you are thinking, “if this is how you get ahead, or fit with the leaders in a company, I don’t want any part of it…”

Just to be fair, these rules also apply to organizations that take great pride in being diverse and non-judgemental. The kind of place where people are supposed to rise because of their contributions to the greater good, not because of who they golf with, or (heaven-forbid), how they look.

Like I said before, the players might not be typical (no quarterback or cheerleader) but the game remains. Every organization has unwritten rules to follow, norms to adhere to and value judgements placed upon those inside. The only difference (perhaps) is that in your organization the former high school ‘nerd’ now makes the rules, instead of the ‘jock’. But anyway you slice it, it’s still a high school cafeteria.

So, is there such a thing as “good politics”? Yes. But that’s for another time.

Bad politics is the type most of us think about, the sort of interactions that are defined by deception, rumour, gossip, innuendo etc. Now consider your participation within your high school – ahem – I mean workplace…

Have you ever engaged in an ‘off-the-record’ chat with a colleague about another? Perhaps, remained in a gossip circle around the lunchroom, or boardroom table while speaking ill of a co-worker or two? When the mean stuff started, did you bring it abruptly to an end, or get up and leave? Perhaps you are thinking, yeah – but it’s okay, I only talk about the ditzy administrator on the second floor that dresses like a @!$@$…

Starting to sound familiar – starting to sound like high school? Maybe that “ditzy” gal is your organization’s cheerleader… but then I suppose she’s had it coming for a while, right?

See you soon…

This is where the real ‘bloggin’ begins…

I waited for 20 years before finally deciding write about leadership – leadership in the real world that is – not the fictional world too often written about in management textbooks and spoken about over PowerPoint presentations.

I suppose I needed to muster the courage to openly expel my opinions on a soapbox larger than my typical training workshop room, or conference centre hall – and with slightly more character space than my typical Tweets.

So here I am, writing about management and leadership after spending countless hours, days and years living under its rule and espousing its virtues as a manager of people and facilitator of courseware.

Leadership after all, requires conviction in ones values and beliefs, along with the strength of character to live up to them. Most importantly though, leadership (at least in the real world) requires presence; the sort of presence that inspires loyalty, commitment and action, the sort of presence that cannot be taught – but can be learned.

The blogs that I will post moving forward are the manifestation of my feelings, opinions, observations and anecdotal insights into the real world of management; the one that keeps people up at night angry, or if they are lucky, puts them to bed with a smile on their face.

See you soon!